Started Early, Took My Dog is the 4^th and latest installment of Kate Atkinson’s wonderful crime drama series featuring private detective Jackson Brodie.  Jackson is a tough guy with a heart of marshmallow, a forty-something former police detective, now semi-retired private investigator who has seen as much tragedy in his personal life as he has in his professional life.  Almost universally misunderstood by women, Jackson’s relationships constantly haunt him.  And despite all the experience he has had with the dark side of human behavior, he still has a profound sense of decency and an almost compulsive urge to do the right thing – which usually leads him into all sorts of dangerous and complex situations.

This story is set in the English city of Leeds.  There are actually three stories that intersect, at various times, a characteristic of Kate Atkinson’s braided writing style, and part of her brilliance.  These stories revolve mostly around policemen and women who, with the best of intentions, break the law, and create a web of trouble that spans about thirty years.

In one of his impulsive moments of “doing the right thing”, Jackson steals an abused dog from his brutal owner.  How he manages to balance the needs of his new companion and his gritty and unpredictable life brings many humorous moments to the novel. 

Put this one on your reading list!
 

The Library values your opinions.  Your ideas and recommendations will help us decide how we can best serve you and our community in the future.  Our first step in planning for the future is to hear from you.  You can take a survey online by visiting our Web site or in person.  There will be other opportunities to participate in the planning process, such as a community dialogue in the Library or in your neighborhood.  On Saturday, October 8, you may participate in a group discussion in the Library Community Room from 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., or from 2-3:30 p.m.  Let's plan together!  For more information check our Web site.

Beginning today, Library cardholders can check out Kindle books from the Northern California Digital Library

When you check out a Kindle Book, click on "Get for Kindle" to open a new window (or tab) at Amazon. Log into your Amazon account and select which Kindle device or app your books should be delivered to. You can read Kindle books on PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads, and numerous other tablet devices.You will be able to use the Whispersync technology that synchronizes notes, highlights, and last page read on the Kindle device and free Kindle apps.

If you enjoy a good, homespun tale, don't miss an evening with Diane Ferlatte, at the Library on Tuesday, October 11, at 6:30 p.m.  Musical accompaniment by Erik Pearson. Tickets in advance only at the Library Help Desk.  Get one free with your valid MPL card.  Additional tickets are $15 each.  For ages 16-up.  Call for more information 831.646.3949.

When you visit he Library, you have an opportunity to enjoy the many beautiful paintings and  works of art on display throughout the building.  Now, you can view these pieces on the Web at http://www.monterey.org/library/AboutUs/ArtonDisplay.aspx  

The collection includes works by such renowned California artists as Abel Warshawsky (his "Paris Studio" featured here), Francis McComas, Ferdinand Burgdorf, Leo Politi and more. 

Enjoy!

In her memoir Bossypants, Tina Fey talks about growing up, her family, her childhood dream of being a comedian, teen awkwardness, insensitive adolescent boys, striving for impossible standards of beauty, being too skinny, being too fat, unrequited love, her honeymoon, Saturday Night Live and her SNL colleagues, her hit show Thirty Rock, being a TV producer (i.e., “a Bossypants”), about portraying Sarah Palin, being a working mom, and much more.  She does it with great candor and humor.  Be prepared to laugh.    

You may now view the Monterey Public Library's Annual Report for fiscal year 2010-2011.  Over 540,000 items were borrowed, 333,274 visits were made to the Library and Bookmobile, 9,007 people of all ages attended 207 cultural and information programs...and more!

Michael S. Hart passed away this week in Illinois. On July 4, 1971--40 years ago!--Hart typed the Declaration of Independence into a computer and sent it to other users on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign computer network. From that beginning, he created Project Gutenberg, which now has more than 36,000 ebooks available for free download to computers, ebook readers, and other portable devices. Many of these books are classics and all are public domain, or free of copyright restrictions, in the United States. A small selection of these titles is included in the Library catalog, and the entire collection is available on the Project Gutenberg Web site. Why make literature and ideas available to millions of people for free in a new format?  "Learning is its own reward," said Michael S. Hart, "Nothing I can say is better than that."

More information about ebooks and readers is available in the Library's Digital Books Show & Tell subject guide.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave is a contemporary story in which we meet Andrew and Sarah, a thirty-something couple of British journalists who are trying to save their shaky marriage for the sake of their 4 year old son by taking a free getaway vacation to a Nigerian beach resort.  Andrew and Sarah stray from the safety of the resort compound, and find themselves suddenly involved in that country’s violence.  They encounter two teenage sisters who, fleeing a blood bath in their village, burst from the brush and onto the beach.  Right behind them are guard dogs and men armed with machetes.  One of the girls is Little Bee. 

Two years later, Little Bee turns up at Andrew and Sarah’s home.  It turns out that she came to England as a stowaway and has spent the last two years in a detention center for undocumented immigrants.  She arrives at a very pivotal moment in Sarah’s life, and Sarah decides to help Little Bee get legal refugee status so she can stay in England.  The path is not simple.

There are a lot of twists and turns to this well crafted and well-written story. The author keenly observes human frailty, the shrewdness of desperate people, and the complex human problems of globalization. 

Lauren Pritchard won the Name the Sea Otter contest with her entry, "Kelp".  More than 80 kids entered excellent ideas making the choice a difficult one. Great name Lauren!  Stop in and say "hi" to Kelp next time you're in the library.

This novel – if it can even be called a novel - is more like a collection of stories, or better yet a kaleidoscope of characters.  Not all of the characters know one another, but have other characters in common, through friendship, romance, marriage, family, the music business, monkey business, or just chance.  The stories span a period of about 40 years, from the 1970s to about 2020, and take the reader back and forth in time.  There are thirteen chapters, each told from the point of view of a different protagonist.  As far as setting is concerned, we wander from the therapy couch, to punk clubs of San Francisco, to a plush Park Avenue office, to New York’s polluted East River, to an African safari, to the streets of Naples, to an airfield in a Banana Republic.  Some of the characters are very sleazy, some are very vulnerable, some a little off-kilter.  The author sometimes deals with her characters harshly, and at other times, sympathetically.  So, this book sounds like it might be a mess, right?  Wrong!  It is small miracle of craftsmanship, and it has a very uplifting conclusion.  A Visit from the Goon Squad  by Jennifer Egan.  Put this one on your reading list!