January192012
Lots of new novels, story collections and non-fiction are on the shelves at FML.
We don’t carry too many short story collections, but this month has brought two good ones, the much praised The Angel Esmeralda by Don Delillo, with a terrific title story, and William Trevor’s Selected Stories, a very generous selection of works by the renowned Irish writer.
Elizabeth George’s many fans will rejoice in a fat new novel, Believing the Lie, that a reader in my house is currently enjoying. Lynda La Plante, creator of the redoubtable Jane Tennison of PBS fame, offers Blind Fury, while another popular thriller writer, Robin Cook makes medicine problematic again with Death Benefit.
Martin Limon returns with another military mystery in Mr. Kill, Jeff Abbott is represented by Adrenaline. Expect a more subtle and subdued mystery from Karen Fossum’s Bad Intentions and nonstop mayhem but brilliant writing from Donald Rae Pollock’s The Devil All the Time.
As a chaser from all this derring-do, you might like Maeve Binchy’s latest, Minding Frankie.New to the non-fiction shelves are a couple of biographies, Roger Ebert, the popular film critic recounts his life in Life Itself, while Charles J. Shields presents And So It Goes Kurt Vonnegut: A Life.
Finally for the foodies in town, Extra Virginity: the Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil, by Tom Mueller.
November282011
The library has 2 ART Passes to the Wadsworth Atheneum. They may be borrowed if you are plpanning a visit.
9AM
We have lots of exciting new non-fiction this month, including three notable biographies. Keith Richard’s Life has been well received, as the famous rocker exhibits a surprising recall of his wild life.A different reading experience is promised by Bismark, a life of the German statesman by Jonathan Steinberg.
Hemingway continues to fascinate and award winning writer Paul Hendrickson offers Hemingway’s Boat: Everything he loved in Life and Lost, 1934-1961. Lighter fare is on tap with Elizabeth Bard’s Lunch in Paris, subtitled “A Love Story with Recipes” – where else but in France?
Finally in the non-fiction line we have Arguably from the argumentative and controversial Christopher Hitchens and, very appropriate for our part of the world, Ethan Allen, by Willard Sterne Randall.
Boxes of new fiction keep arriving, too. Mystery favorites Donna Leon ( Drawing Conclusions) and Iris Johansen ( Bonnie, the last of her trilogy) are on the shelves.
Stefan Merill Block has a new novel about family secrets out, Storm at the Door, while long time favorite Alice Hoffman has another book about magic in everyday life, The Dovekeepers. Finally, for action fans, we have Trackers, a new thriller by Deon Meyer set in South Africa, a popular fiction venue lately with Hampton readers.
October272011
Need a safe, fun place to take your children for Trick or Treating? The Fletcher Memorial Library will be giving treats so stop by on your candy rounds.
11AM
Cold, dark evenings are coming up and library visits are decreasing during the evening hours. The library has therefore decided to increase our daytime hours and cut our evenings back to one night a week during standard time.Starting with the end of daylight savings time on November 6th, our new winter hours will be: Monday 9-12, Tues 6-8, Wed 12-6, Thurs 9-12 and Saturday 10-4.
11AM
David Ignatius’s new novel Blood Money features a young CIA officer who has to find out who is killing off CIA agents in Pakistan. The hero of Peter Spiegelman’s Thick as Thieves is a former CIA agent who has gotten himself into a big time robbery caper.
Finally, in the truth is wilder than fiction category, we have David King’s Death in the City of Light, about the monstrous serial killer Dr. Marcel Petiot, who slaughtered would-be refugees from Nazi occupied Paris in 1944. Grimly fascinating.
11AM
Lots of good noir novels are in the library at the minute, with a variety of favorite tough guys taking on terrorists and killers. Lee Child has created a prequel to his popular Jack Reacher novels with The Affair, which relates the incident that led him to leave the military police and set out as a free lance. One local reader describes this as one of his best.
Popular Irish novelist Ken Bruen has another noir adventure starring Jack Taylor, Headstone. Our librarian recommends.
September102011
Lots of interesting new books have arrived at the library just in time for those shorter days and longer nights that encourage reading. Mystery fans will want The Troubled Man, what Henning Mankell has hinted may be the last of the Kurt Wallander novels, about the depressing Swedish investigator with the complicated family life. Also in the mystery vein, but quite unconventionally so, is Turn of Mind, featuring an Alzheimer’s patient who is also a ‘person of interest’ in the brutal murder/ mutilation of her neighbor and best friend. In a more literary vein, H.G. Adler’s Panorama, an early novel about his experiences in the Holocaust, has finally been translated into English. Early reviews have praised both its substance and its literary style and made comparisons to Irene Nemirovsky’s admirable Suite Francaise. Non-fiction has not been neglected, either. Erik Larson ( The Devil in the White City) is back with In the Garden of Beasts, a much praised book about US ambassador (and his not always diplomatic family) in Hitler’s Germany. Somewhat lighter reading is promised by Lenya, Don Spoto’s biography of Lotte Lenya, the great German singer, and Born Wild, by Tony Fitzgerald, who has long worked to protect East African wildlife. And for history buffs, Jane Boleyn by Julia Fox, about the ill-fated Anne Bolyen’s less famous sister, another lover of Henry VII.
June302011
The Fletcher Memorial Library depends on its kind and energetic volunteers.
Recently Matthew LaFontaine scaled the heights to clean the buildings gutters.
Penny Newberry donated a Kindle– come in soon for a test read.
And Dylan Ouellet and some of his friends from Parish Hill High School attacked the overgrown vines and poison ivy on the side lawn.
Thanks to their work, one can now see the professionally designed garden in memory of the late Eunice Fuller, long time librarian at FML and afine gardener herself.
May232011
Thanks to our friends in Hampton and the Quiet Corner, our spring Book & Bake Sale was a big success. We made a grand total of $1,055, including $250 from baked goods and $54 from a combination of card sales and donations.
We are grateful to all the volunteers who worked the sale and to the many people who contributed baked goods and, of course, books. Thank you to all.
Remember if you have unwanted books in good condition, the library is always happy to receive them. We will have our fall Book & Bake Sale in October and we will be accumulating stock for that event.
