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Blog Post

Books for the Birds!

by manz

This week at storytime Ms Amanda told stories all about birds, birds, birds! B is for bird!

We heard the story Home Tweet Home, where two little birds decide to leave the nest for greener pastures, and find that there’s no place like home. We met A Funny Little Bird who discovered what was special about himself, and we read the books Birds and A Mother for Choco.

There are so many great books featuring birds! Here are a few sweet ones to suit your fancy: Nest, Hooray for Today, Beautiful Birds, and Some Birds.

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Blog Post

Michigan Fiction: Marlena

by eapearce

For those of us who have spent all or most of our lives in Michigan, Julie Buntin’s striking descriptions of a desolate, gray northern winter will strike a chord. Buntin lives in New York now, but she spent her formative years in northern Michigan, and this is the setting for her first novel, Marlena. The narrator of the story, Cat, has just moved to tiny Silver Lake, far up the western coast of the mitten, with her recently- divorced mother and older brother. The family struggles to make ends meet; Cat’s mother cleans houses for the wealthy tourists and her brother works nights at a plastics factory. Cat is lonely and unhappy, until she meets her next door neighbor, 17-year-old blonde, beautiful Marlena. As their lives become increasingly intertwined, Cat dives deeper into the dark world of addiction and illegal activity. An older Cat narrates portions of the novel, looking back on her time in Silver Lake with Marlena, and struggles to make sense of the beauty and tragedy she experienced there.

Set in 2006, in the early days of the opioid epidemic, the book is a fascinating and devastating testament to how easy it is to lose control. Buntin clearly writes from a place of experience and awareness, which allow the story to rise above others of its kind. Marlena, Cat, and the others who do what they must to survive in a bleak world that seems to have no future are not characters easily forgotten.

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Blog Post

Pulitzer Prize Winners 2017

by lucroe

The esteemed Pulitzer Prizes have been awarded for 2017 and they should all be required reading. Here is the list:

Fiction: Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead: picking up numerous awards besides the Pulitzer, including the National Book Award & the Carnegie Medal. At the top of many best book of the year lists for 2016. Whitehead chronicles two runaway slave's trials as they attempt to allude their captors with allegories that resound into the present day.

General Nonfiction: Evicted by Matthew Desmond: additional honors include the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Carnegie Medal, & PEN award. Desmond followed 8 families in Milwaukee struggling with poverty.

History: Blood in the Water by Heather Ann Thompson: another that picked up numerous accolades and awards for telling the incredible story of the uprisings as well as the aftermath

Bio/Autobiography: The return by Hisham Matar: a deeply moving portrait of the author's continued hope of finding his father alive after his mysterious disappearance in Libya

Poetry: by Tyehimba Jess: Multiple award winning poet and Detroit native, Jess, deserves an even bigger following with this fascinating collection of poetry and narrative

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Blog Post

Storytimes: S is for Snake! Sssssss!

by eapearce

This week at storytimes at Traverwood and Westgate, Elizabeth told stories about snakes! Ssssssss! We heard Mama Hen’s Big Day, where Mama Hen has to find the perfect place to lay her beautiful egg, and The Gruffalo, where mouse plays a trick on all the forest creatures (including snake, of course!). We also read The Snake Who Said Shhh, by Jodie Parachini and heard the story of Samantha the snake who lost her silly snake siblings while babysitting and had to go search for them!

AADL storytimes are intended for ages 2-5 and are free and open to the public. For details about our storytimes at every location, visit the Jump page!

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Blog Post

Anything is Possible

by mansii

Returning to the heartbeat of the small town Midwest after a detour to New York City life, Elizabeth Strout revisits the characters of her successful narrative My Name is Lucy Barton in her emotionally barring new work: Anything is Possible. Through a network of short stories that hold their own yet weave into one another, this work explores how single moments hold lasting sway over our futures. An "invisible" school janitor's faith in a small girl propels her forward as a successful writer--now his good faith in people is being tested. When a child is shocked with the image of her mother's affair, it opens lifelong caverns of insecurity; now she has the opportunity to see past her pain in being a catalyst for good in the life of a new generation. Those who felt a kinship with Lucy Barton will find their understanding of this character enlarged and will feel the significance of each person that passes through the life of another, no matter how brief the stay. What do we run away from, and how do we arrange our escape? How often are we torn apart by the two-edged sword of love and hate, and yet how often do we hold the keys to small miracles in our own two hands? This long established, Pulitzer winning author richly explores what it is to be a soul in a world of souls.

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Blog Post

New title from author Fredrik Backman

by potterbee

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman has remained a popular title in the Hot Books collection over many months. His newest title, Beartown is due for release in just a few more days!

People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.

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New thriller from the author of The Girl on the Train: Into the Water

by eapearce

British author Paula Hawkins, who wrote the 2015 mega-bestseller The Girl on the Train, has penned another psychological thriller sure to delight readers. Into the Water will hit the shelves on May 2. In the novel, a single mother is found dead at the bottom of a river that runs through an English town. Earlier in the same summer, the body of a young teenage girl was also found at the bottom of the same river. And these are not the only women who have met their fate in this way. The most recent deaths dredge up secrets long kept underwater.

A young girl, whose mother was found dead in the river, is left alone, friendless and in the care of her mysterious aunt in the wake of the summer tragedy. As she and her aunt navigate their own demons, Hawkins unspools a gripping story of how the past can insert itself into the present, and of how deceptive memories can be. We know from The Girl on the Train that Hawkins is a master of demonstrating how slippery the truth is, and fans will certainly not be disappointed to see her do it again in Into the Water.

Best of all, Paula Hawkins will be visiting Ann Arbor on May 17, courtesy of Nicola’s Books! Attend a book discussion of The Girl on the Train prior to her visit at AADL on May 8.

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Blog Post

Storytimes: H is for Heart

by eapearce

This week at storytimes at Traverwood and Westgate, Elizabeth told stories with hearts in them! We heard about The Love-Me Bird, who has to change her call to find a mate, and saw zoo animals made out of hearts in the book My Heart is Like a Zoo. We also heard the brightly colored rhyme The Shape of My Heart and the gentle classic story A Kiss for Little Bear. And we got some love letters in the mail in a special Valentine’s rhyme (even though it’s April!).

AADL storytimes are intended for ages 2-5 and take place at all of our locations and are free and open to the public. For a full list of our storytimes visit our JUMP page, specifically for parents and teachers.

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Public Event

Discuss "The Girl on the Train" Before Author Paula Hawkins Visits Ann Arbor!

Monday May 8, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Westgate Branch: West Side Room

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Blog Post

New Midwestern Fiction: Nickolas Butler's The Hearts of Men

by eapearce

As a Michigan native, I find it refreshing to read books set in the heartland rather than in the bustling worlds of the coasts, at least from time to time. Nickolas Butler’s first book, Shotgun Lovesongs, perfectly captured life in small-town Wisconsin and his book of short stories, Beneath the Bonfire, spanned the entire Midwest , depicting the unglamorous yet deeply moving lives of farmers, factory workers, bartenders, truck drivers, miners and their families. Both books strike an aching chord with anyone who has lived in the rural Midwest. In his newest novel, The Hearts of Men, Butler again sets readers down in rural Wisconsin, over a time period of over five decades. The book follows the lives of two men, Nelson and Jonathan, who first meet as boys at Boy Scout camp in the 1960s. Their lives take vastly different directions; Nelson fights in Vietnam and eventually becomes the director of the very same Boy Scout camp, while Jonathan becomes a successful businessman with an unhappy marriage. It’s clear that Butler writes from experience—he grew up in Wisconsin and still lives outside of Eau Claire with his family. Nelson and Jonathan seem like more than just characters, but men that he has known, or could know.

The Hearts of Men explores the influence that age-old American institutions like the Boy Scouts have on a person’s life, and deals with the moral and ethical quandaries that we all face over the course of a lifetime. The book reads quickly and smoothly, and is highly recommended by this reader for anyone from the Midwest looking for a novel about home.