New Materials 4 U

We have a great web service called New Book Alerts for you to use when you’re curious about what’s new here at BPL.
But I hope you know you can always ask us for suggestions, too.  It’s like the difference between e-mail and snail mail: it’s good to know the personal touch is still alive in the world.

Here are just a few things we’ve acquired recently–not the big bestsellers you’ve already heard about, but more under-the-radar books you might miss–that might pique your curiosity.

If you enjoyed The Help, take a look at The Barbarian Nurseries, by Hector Tobar.  It’s the story of a well-to-do couple who rely on their Mexican maid to keep things running.  When they have a fight, a misunderstanding leaves their children in her care.  Her efforts to unite the kids with their grandfather in central L.A. becomes a big misadventure.

Whitney Otto found fame with her book How to Make an American Quilt.  She’s just put out an intriguing new novel: Eight Girls Taking Pictures.  It begins in 1917 and tells the stories of eight famous female photographers of that century: their art, their children, their loves.  Captivating historical fiction.

The Queen of Katwe, by Tim Crothers, is a true-life story of one girl from the slums of Uganda.  She’s hungry every day; she lives in a shack; she’s just learning to read and write at nine years old.  A coincidence leads to her learning chess, and by the time she’s fifteen, she’s the national champion of Uganda.  An incredible story.

Looking for a heartwarming DVD without vampires or car chases?  Try My Afternoons with Margueritte, a French film starring Gerard Depardieu.  He plays a simple, socially awkward French man who meets an older woman on a park bench.  They begin a friendship, and she reads books out loud to him.  To his surprise, he begins to like books!  When Margueritte’s life changes, he realizes how much she has changed his life.

Settle down this rainy weekend with something good to read.
–Mary Beth