On the WWW at http://usingbooksforfree.blogspot.com/
Blog by Bob Hoff
Email address: hoff_bob2003@yahoo.com
Where is the library? 101 S. Halagueno
What is the phone number? 885-6776
What are the open hours? M - T, 10 am - 8 pm;
F, S, 10 am - 6 pm; Su 2 pm - 6 pm
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So who is Stephenie Morgan Meyer and what has she written? We have four of her novels in the library--Twilight (2005), New Moon (2006), and Eclipse (2007), all directed toward teen readers, and Host , her first vovel aimed at adults. She has also written Breaking Dawn due out in 2008 and Midnight Sun, another book in the series..
Based on these book titles, what do you think they are about? If you said "star gazing," you are wrong. These very popular books are about one of my least favorite subjects--vampires-- and more specifically a vampire lover. But if that sounds like your cup of...blo..er...tea, check them out at the our library.
Experts tell us that many readers nowadays enjoy reading about horror. Do you?
Stephenie Meyer on Amazon.com
"Teen Reading; Trends and Resources" at About.com Children's Books
Quotation from Twilight by Stephenie Meyer :
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"About three things I was absolutely positive:
First, Edward was a vampire;
Second, there was a part of him -- and I didn't know how dominant that part might be -- that thirsted for my blood;
And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him."
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Author Meyer has a new book out entitled The Host. It is located in the library at SCI-FIC MEY. Abstract from the library catalog card:
The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed. But Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given
Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves--Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.--From publisher description.
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A customer in the bookstore that I used to work at recommended 
the writer Jhumpa Lahari to me. I was intriqued to find out that her debut book of short stories--Interpreter of Maladies-- had won the the Pullitzer Prize in 1999. I don't know why I started with Namesake instead of Interpreter of Maladies: Stories or Unaccustomed Earth: Stories(her most recent book published in 2008), but I did (Our library has all three). Young Bengali immigrants Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli come to America in the 1960s in the 1960s, specifically to Massachusetts, my home state. The story of the family over the next three-plus decades reveal many interesting things about Bengali and American cultures as seen by each other and about the story of a young man searching for happiness and where that search takes him. WARNING: do not read the plot summery for The Namesake at Wikipedia, unless you like knowing about surprises ahead of time.
The ways that I can tell if I liked a book is how compelled I felt to finish it and if I do finish it. The Namesake met both of these criteria
J. Lahiri interviewed about her books
Jhumpa Lahiri at Wikipedia
Jhumpa Lahiri on Amazon.com
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What can you say about a British author who wrote a best-selling British book about a “zero tolerance approach to punctuation” and a New York Times #1 best seller about rudeness in the world today and why it might just be better to stay home and not go out.
What I believe that you can say about author Lynne Truss 
who wrote Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation! (2003) and Talk to the Hand #?*! The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Lock the Bloody Door (2005) is 
that she is an interesting writer who has selected two topics that if many of us practiced (using correct punctuation and not being rude to others), we could individually make the world a better place.
The subjects in these two books have powerful and dangerous side effects: when we punctuate incorrectly, we obscure the meaning of what we are trying to write to people, and when we are rude to other people, we not only become involved in unsavory incidents, but sometimes-dangerous violent and dangerous ones. In Talk to the Hand...Truss tells the story of a man on a bus in England who complained about a gang of young boys—and was set on fire by the thugs. In another case, a man told some people not to throw food at his girlfriend and they retaliated by stabbing him to death.
The minor rudeness incidents that she cites most of us probably will recognize: the two store clerks who continue to talk to each other, ignoring us, even after we approach the counter. The long unmarked lines that we wait in and when we get to the front are sent to another line, wasting our time. In addition, the cashier who gives us the wrong change and then cannot fix the problem because the register is locked and can only be opened by a supervisor who arrives only after an inordinate amount of time—and offers us no apology.
The people who go into our places of work—a library, a bookstore, any kind of store, and throw things (or let their kids throw things) around as if a battalion of people are standing by to clean up after them, as if they are nobility or royalty who may wreak havoc wherever they go.
Both least books are very worth reading. Both develop the same theme: that the world can only be a better place when each of us is considerate of other people around us and do our part in acting in the interest of the common good. Whether not littering or writing carefully or holding door open for other people, or not leaving public spaces as if FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) needs to improve it, everyone benefits by thinking about the needs of others, not just their own needs.
The book on punctuation is available for our public library, while the book on rudeness was borrowed for me from the Hobb's Public library through inter-library loan.
Both books: I recommend highly for content, excellent writing, and humor style.
Lynne Truss on Amazon.com
Lynne Truss on Wikipedia
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Note the new link to the right on the history of Eddy and Carlsbad, New Mexico, written by Professor Lynn I. Perrigo
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QUOTES to Note:
"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all." Abraham Lincoln
http://www.quoteworld.org/quotes/10270
The books we think we ought to read are poky, dull, and dry;
The books that we would like to read we are ashamed to buy;
The books that people talk about we never can recall;
And the books that people give us, oh, they’re the worst of all.
ATTRIBUTION: Carolyn Wells (1870–1942), U.S. author. On Books.
http://www.bartleby.com/66/67/63667.html
© Bob Hoff, 2008
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