2014 Edgar Allan Poe Award Winners

On May 1, 2014, the Mystery Writers of America announced the winners of the 2014 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction and nonfiction published in 2013.

On May 1, 2014, the Mystery Writers of America announced the winners of the 2014 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best works in mystery fiction and nonfiction which were published in 2013.

Winners include:

Best Novel
ordinary grace
Ordinary Grace
by William Kent Krueger

Nominees
Sandrine’s Case by Thomas H. Cook
The Humans by Matt Haig
How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny (CD book)
Standing in Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin
Until She Comes Home by Lori Roy

Best First Novel by an American Author
red sparrow
Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews (large print book)

Nominees
The Resurrectionist by Matthew Guinn
Ghostman by Roger Hobbs
Rage Against the Dying by Becky Masterman
Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreigh (eBook)

Best Paperback Original
wicked girls
The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood

Nominees
The Guilty One by Lisa Ballantyne (eBook)
Almost Criminal by E. R. Brown
Joe Victim by Paul Cleave
Joyland by Stephen King (CD book)
Brilliance by Marcus Sakey

Best Fact Crime
hour of peril
The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War by Daniel Stashower (audio download)

Nominees
Duel with the Devil: The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America’s First Sensational Murder Mystery by Paul Collins
Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal by Michael D’Antonio
The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness and Murder by Charles Graeber
The Secret Rescue: An Untold Story of American Nurses and the Medics Behind Nazi Lines by Cate Lineberry

Letter from the Director

Dear Residents,
On April 8, community members turned out to elect three new library trustees and approve the operating budget with a significant 3:1 margin of support. This vote of confidence means so much, both to the volunteers on our board of trustees, and to the employees who work daily to provide the very best resources and services.

Dear Residents,
On April 8, community members turned out to elect three new library trustees and approve the operating budget with a significant 3:1 margin of support. This vote of confidence means so much, both to the volunteers on our board of trustees, and to the employees who work daily to provide the very best resources and services.

The impact of technology on our lives is significant. From the single act of borrowing and reading a book or watching a movie, there are gadgets to make it convenient, but also complicated. Almost every day, a community member asks me for assistance with a digital device. Your librarians are constantly learning about these devices, and they are ready to offer personal instructions.

To date, we have over 1,000 members registered to borrow from our huge eBook collection. Please explore these vast holdings, which are available for 14-day loan periods, and download an eBook or audiobook to your device anytime, anywhere. They are ideal companions for your next business trip or vacation.

From our website or via our new mobile app, you can now request “on order” titles. We often order items months before their public release date, and now these titles can be easily found and requested.

With deepest gratitude, the board thanks Laurel Hollow resident Nancy Silver for her seven years as a trustee. Nancy’s architectural skills were a tremendous asset during construction and post-occupancy. Her knowledge and willingness to share her expertise really made a difference and has had a positive and permanent impact. With each farewell, there is a new opportunity to welcome new members, and this year, Helen Weinstein, Cold Spring Harbor; Tara Belfi, Laurel Hollow; and Aviva Franz, Laurel Hollow will join the board and begin 3-year terms.

Summerfest will be on June 26 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. New this year will be a petting zoo and assistance from the Cold Spring Harbor Lions Club. Club members will be selling water bottles and raffle tickets for a kayak. Each year, the CSH Lions Club donates a portion of the proceeds from their September Fishing Derby for children’s library events. We are grateful for their support.

We recently held several events that were very well-attended, but we realize that many members may miss an event. Here are the resource guides for two recent events you may have missed: Identity Theft Prevention (www.ag.ny.gov/consumer-frauds-bureau/identity-theft) and Start the Conversation (goo.gl/D6IZAG).

The May/June issue of the newsletter contains many programs for all ages. Please plan to attend the lecture by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory scientist Zachary Lippman on June 19 at 7:00 p.m. He will explain how he is increasing crop yields for tomatoes and the life-saving impact of his discoveries.

See you very soon!

2014 Pulitzer Prize Winners

On April 14, the Pulitzer Prize committee announced the winners and finalists for the 2014 Pulitzer Prizes.

On April 14, the Pulitzer Prize committee announced the winners and finalists for the 2014 Pulitzer Prizes.

Winners and nominees include:

Fiction
Winner: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (CD book, large print book)
Finalists: The Son by Philipp Meyer (audio download, eBook)
The Woman Who Lost Her Soul by Bob Shacochis

History
Winner: The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 by Alan Taylor
Finalists: A Dreadful Deceit: The Myth of Race from the Colonial Era to Obama’s America by Jacqueline Jones
Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser

Biography
Winner: Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall
Finalists: Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World by Leo Damrosch
Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life by Jonathan Sperber

Nonfiction
Winner: Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin (eBook)
Finalists: The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary J. Bass
The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War by Fred Kaplan

 

April 22 is Earth Day

To celebrate this year’s Earth Day – an annual event supporting environmental awareness and protection – on April 22, why not stop by library and borrow a book from our Environmental Center collection?

Click for recommendations!

To celebrate this year’s Earth Day – an annual event supporting environmental awareness and protection – on April 22, why not stop by the library and borrow a book from our Environmental Center collection?

 

New titles include:

Frackers The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters by Gregory Zuckerman

Plant Conservation Plant Conservation: Why It Matters and How It Works by Timothy Walker

Earth Day The Genius of Earth Day: How a 1970 Teach-In Unexpectedly Made the First Green Generation by Adam Rome

Junkyard Planet Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade by Adam Minter

The Boom The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World by Russell Gold

explorer notebook An Explorer’s Notebook by Tim Flannery

Upcycle The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability – Designing for Abundance by William McDonough and Michael Braungart

Sixth Extinction The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

Full Body Burden Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats by Kristen Iversen

Poison Spring Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA by E.G. Vallianatos and McKay Jenkins

Most Anticipated Book-to-Movie Adaptations of 2014

Everyone loves to see a great story modified for and celebrated on the silver screen. In a recent article, Publishers Weekly listed some of the most anticipated book-to-movie adaptations of 2014.

Everyone loves to see a great story modified for and celebrated on the silver screen. In a recent article, Publishers Weekly listed some of the most anticipated book-to-movie adaptations of 2014.

 

These highly anticipated titles include:

 

bodyartist

The Body Artist by Don DeLillo

FarFrom

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (audio download)

gonegirl

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (audio download, CD book, eBook, large print book)

inherentvice

Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon

mostwantedman

A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carré (CD book)

serena

Serena by Ron Rash (audio download)

twofacesofjanuary

The Two Faces of January by Patricia Highsmith

unbroken

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (audio download, CD book, eBook, large print book)

Letter from the Director

Dear Residents,
Volatility, unpredictability, the weather, market forces, the impact of technology: through all of these moments, your library is a constant, reliable resource. Sure, we have adopted and adapted to technology when it serves your likes and needs. eBooks, online resources, a website, a mobile application, and 24/7 access to programs and resources are standard business practices today. But, so are friendliness, a comfortable chair by the fireplace on a cold day, and a plethora of good books, movies, and magazines to discover and enjoy.

Dear Residents,
Volatility, unpredictability, the weather, market forces, the impact of technology: through all of these moments, your library is a constant, reliable resource. Sure, we have adopted and adapted to technology when it serves your likes and needs. eBooks, online resources, a website, a mobile application, and 24/7 access to programs and resources are standard business practices today. But, so are friendliness, a comfortable chair by the fireplace on a cold day, and a plethora of good books, movies, and magazines to discover and enjoy.

On Tuesday, April 8, I ask that you take a few minutes to visit your library and participate in the Budget Vote & Trustee Election. Special events for all ages have been planned, underwritten once again by BNY Mellon Wealth Management. For children, there will be cupcake decorating, as well as Ellis Adler’s first visit as “The Funnyman.” For teens, the Cold Spring Harbor Junior/Senior High School Chamber Orchestra will perform in a special concert, while other students educate us about their scientific research. For adults, we have two special events: a Michael Fairchild presentation on the Battle of Gettysburg, and art historian Franklin Hill Perrell’s lecture on the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia.

The budget for fiscal year 2014-15 complies with Governor Cuomo’s tax cap, and will enable us to maintain the collection and services you demand and expect. How you use the library has evolved. Numerous groups schedule meetings on our website, and many of you log in to the catalog to request a book, or have downloaded the CSH mobile app from the App Store or Google Play for easy access to multiple resources from a phone or tablet. Hundreds took our survey last year, which asked how you use the library. I will study the results and apply this additional knowledge to my future decisions.

Fifteen years ago, I walked into the former Goosehill location of the library, and asked a trustee how we got there. Now, I know that each year is filled with opportunities to be welcomed and challenges to be conquered as we move forward. Planning was the key to our successful past and process is the key to our successful future.

See you very soon!

National Book Critics Circle 2013 Finalists

The National Book Critics Circle has announced its finalists for the best books of 2013.

The National Book Critics Circle has announced its finalists for the best books of 2013. The awards will be presented on March 13.

The finalists are:

FICTION
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (eBook)
Someone by Alice McDermott (CD book)
The Infatuations by Javier Marías
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (CD book)

NONFICTION
Whitey Bulger: America’s Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice by Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink (CD book)
Thank You for Your Service by David Finkel
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer (audio download)
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright (eBook)

AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala (eBook)
The Book of My Lives by Aleksandar Hemon
The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti by Amy Wilentz

BIOGRAPHY
Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson
Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World by Leo Damrosch
Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven by John Eliot Gardiner
Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore by Linda Leavell
Birth Certificate: The Story of Danilo Kis by Mark Thompson

POETRY
Metaphysical Dog by Frank Bidart
Stay, Illusion by Lucie Brock-Broido
Blowout by Denise Duhamel
Elegy Owed by Bob Hicok
Milk and Filth by Carmen Gimenez Smith

CRITICISM
White Girls by Hilton Als
Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures and Innovations by Mary Beard
The Kraus Project: Essays by Karl Kraus translated and annotated by Jonathan Franzen with Paul Reitter and Daniel Kehlmann
Forty-One False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers by Janet Malcolm
Distant Reading by Franco Moretti

Letter from the Director

Dear Residents,
What’s next? My New Year’s resolutions include the usual: lose 10 pounds, exercise, eat healthier, spend time with family, learn a language, write handwritten letters, and, of course, make time to read more. The turning of the calendar from one year to the next gives us a moment to reflect, remember, and recognize our accomplishments and the resolutions left behind. We resolve to do better, begin our diet on Monday, and exercise in the morning.

Dear Residents,
What’s next? My New Year’s resolutions include the usual: lose 10 pounds, exercise, eat healthier, spend time with family, learn a language, write handwritten letters, and, of course, make time to read more. The turning of the calendar from one year to the next gives us a moment to reflect, remember, and recognize our accomplishments and the resolutions left behind. We resolve to do better, begin our diet on Monday, and exercise in the morning.

What’s next for you? Your library’s programs and resources can help you fulfill your resolutions. Take time to learn a language with our free online tutorial, Mango Languages, learn to paint at our workshops beginning next month, or learn how to be a better gardener at our “Grow More with Less” program on March 9 (visit our Events Calendar at www.cshlibrary.org, or see the next issue of the newsletter for details). Parents, we have created Book Bundles, a convenient way to pick up books on your child’s favorite topic, such as trucks, princesses, planets, or animals. Students, besides helping you with your homework, we can also offer guidance with the college admissions process.

We are delighted with the response to our first app, which is available for Apple and Android devices. From either the convenient new app or from our website, you can request titles, book a meeting room, or simply learn more about the many instructional services we offer every day.

To date, hundreds of residents have picked up the new library card with key tag. Stop by anytime; it takes just a few moments to get the new card. While you are here, let the librarians help you download free eBooks to your devices or suggest a few new items from the print, DVD, or CD collections.

If you are curious about tablets, we are thrilled to announce a grant from NYS has provided us with three Google Nexus tablets. You may borrow a tablet and discover firsthand the convenience of mobile technology.

As 2014 begins, we are filled with hopes and promises; let your library help you keep your promises.

Hope to see you soon,
Helen M. Crosson

New York Times Notable Books of 2013: Nonfiction

Notable nonfiction selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.

Notable nonfiction selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.

After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead by Alan S. Blinder (eBook)
The former Fed vice chairman says confidence would have returned faster with better government communication about policy.

The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives by Sasha Abramsky
This ambitious study, based on Abramsky’s travels around the country meeting the poor, both describes and prescribes.

The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: the Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675 by Bernard Bailyn
A noted Harvard historian looks at the chaotic decades between Jamestown and King Philip’s War.

The Billionaire’s Apprentice: The Rise of the Indian-American Elite and the Fall of the Galleon Hedge Fund by Anita Raghavan
Indian-Americans populate every aspect of this meticulously reported true-life business thriller.

The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary J. Bass
Bass reveals the sordid White House diplomacy that attended the birth of Bangladesh in 1971.

Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore
Ben Franklin’s sister bore 12 children and mostly led a life of hardship, but the two corresponded constantly.

The Boy Detective: A New York Childhood by Roger Rosenblatt
In his memoir, Rosenblatt recalls being a boy learning to see, and to live, in the city he scrutinizes.

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin (CD book, large print book)
Historical parallels in Goodwin’s latest time machine implicitly ask us to look at our own age.

The Cancer Chronicles: Unlocking Medicine’s Deepest Mystery by George Johnson
Johnson’s fascinating look at cancer reveals certain profound truths about life itself.

Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War by Max Hastings
This excellent chronicle of World War I’s first months by a British military historian dispels some popular myths.

Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser
A disquieting but riveting examination of nuclear risk.

Country Girl: A Memoir by Edna O’Brien
O’Brien reflects on a fraught and distinguished life, from the restraints of her Irish childhood to literary stardom.

Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House by Peter Baker
Baker’s treatment of the George W. Bush administration is haunted by the question of who was in charge.

Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1858-1877 by Brenda Wineapple
A masterly Civil War-era history, full of foiled schemes, misfired plans and less-than-happy ­endings.

Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang
Chang portrays Cixi as a proto-feminist and reformer in this authoritative account.

The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
Digressive essays, loosely about storytelling, reflect a difficult year in Solnit’s life.

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink (CD book)
The case of a surgeon suspected of euthanizing patients during the Katrina disaster.

Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prism of Belief by Lawrence Wright (eBook)
The author of “The Looming Tower” takes a calm and neutral stance toward Scientology, but makes clear it’s like no other church on earth.

The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 by Rick Atkinson (large print book)
The final volume of Atkinson’s monumental war trilogy shows that the road to Berlin was far from smooth.

The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince by Jane Ridley
He was vain, gluttonous, promiscuous and none too bright, but “Bertie” emerges as an appealing character in Ridley’s superb book.

A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett (CD book)
A searing memoir of a young woman’s brutal kidnapping in Somalia.

Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World by Leo Damrosch
A commanding biography by a Harvard professor.

Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death by Katy Butler
Butler’s study of the flaws in end-of-life care mixes personal narrative and tough reporting.

Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson
By contextualizing T. E. Lawrence, Anderson is able to address modern themes like oil, jihad and the Arab-Jewish conflict.

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg with Nell Scovell (audio download, CD book, eBook)
The lesson conveyed loud and clear by the Facebook executive is that women should step forward and not doubt their ability to combine work and family.

Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker
Cases of troubled young Internet prostitutes murdered on Long Island add up to a nuanced look at prostitution today.

Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures by Mary Ruefle
The poet muses knowingly and merrily on language, writing and speaking sentences that last lifetimes.

Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson by Jeff Guinn
Guinn’s tour de force examines Manson’s rise and fall, the 1960s music industry and the decade’s bizarre ambience.

Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall
Fuller’s extensive intellectual accomplishments are set in contrast with her romantic disappointments.

Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward
A raw, beautiful elegy for Ward’s brother and four male friends, who died young in Mississippi between 2000 and 2004.

Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance by Carla Kaplan
A remarkable look at the white women who sought a place in the Harlem Renaissance.

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor (audio download, CD book, eBook, large print book)
Mostly skirting her legal views, the Supreme Court justice’s memoir reveals much about her family, school and years at Princeton.

My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by Ari Shavit (CD book)
Shavit, a columnist for Haaretz, expresses both solidarity with and criticism of his countrymen in this important and powerful book.

Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure by Artemis Cooper
The British wayfarer and travel writer is the subject of Cooper’s affectionate, informed biography.

The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code by Margalit Fox
Focusing on an unheralded but heroic Brooklyn classics professor, Fox turns the decipherment of Linear B into a detective story.

The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking by Brendan I. Koerner (eBook)
Refusing to make ’60s avatars of the unlikely couple behind a 1972 skyjacking, Koerner finds a deeper truth about the nature of extremism.

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark
A Cambridge professor offers a thoroughly comprehensible account of the polarization of a continent, without fixing guilt on one leader or nation.

The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way by Amanda Ripley
A look at countries that are outeducating us — Finland, South Korea, Poland — through the eyes of American high school students abroad.

Thank You for Your Service by David Finkel
Finkel tracks soldiers struggling to navigate postwar life, especially the psychologically wounded.

The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream by Thomas Dyja (eBook)
This robust cultural history weaves together the stories of the artists, styles and ideas that developed in Chicago before and after World War II.

This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral– Plus Plenty of Valet Parking!– in America’s Gilded Capital by Mark Leibovich
An entertaining and deeply troubling view of Washington.

Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941 by Lynne Olson
The savage political dispute between Roosevelt and the isolationist movement, presented in spellbinding detail.

To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism by Evgeny Morozov
Digital-age transparency may threaten the spirit of democracy, Morozov warns.

To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care by Cris Beam
Beam’s wrenching study is a triumph of narrative reporting and storytelling.

Unthinkable: Iran, the Bomb, and the American Strategy by Kenneth M. Pollack
The Mideast expert makes the case for living with a nuclear Iran and trying to contain it.

 The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer (audio download)
With a nod to John Dos Passos, Packer offers a gripping narrative survey of today’s hard times; the 2013 National Book Award winner for nonfiction.

The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 by Margaret MacMillan
Why did the peace fail, a Canadian historian asks, and she offers superb portraits of the men who took Europe to war in the summer of 1914.

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala (eBook)
Deraniyagala’s unforgettable account of her struggle to carry on living after her husband, sons and parents were killed in the 2004 tsunami isn’t only as unsparing as they come, but also defiantly imbued with light.

Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America by Jon Mooallem (eBook)
Mooallem explores the haphazard nature of our efforts to protect endangered ­species.

Year Zero: A History of 1945 by Ian Buruma
This lively history shows how the Good War turned out badly for many people and splendidly for others less deserving.