Award-winning Classical Music CDs

Winner, Chamber Music Category

Gramophone magazine recently announced its 2012 Classical Music Awards, identifying the year's best recordings  in various categories according to its specialists/critics in those areas.  From 750 recordings first nominated based on the magazine's own reviews, a winner and two runners-up were identified in the following categories:  Baroque Vocal, Baroque Instrumental, Chamber, Choral, Concerto, Contemporary, Early Music, Historic, Instrumental, Opera, Orchestral, Recital, and Solo Vocal.

Winner, Concerto Category

The library already owns several of the award-winning recordings and is acquiring more of them.  You can find the list of the winning CDs that are in our collection at this link:  Gramophone's Winners in LFL's Collection.  Some of the winning CDs are pictured here with links to them in our catalog.  You can also look for selections from them in our Freegal Music download service.  

The following special award recipients were also announced as listed below with links that will connect you to their works in our collection:

                              

                             Winner, Contemporary Category

Artist of the Year:  Joseph Calleja, tenor

Lifetime Achievement:  Claudio Abbado, conductor

Piano Award:  Murray Perahia

Young Artist of the Year:  Benjamin Grosvenor

2nd Runner-up, Choral Category

Upcoming Adult Programs

Book Discussion:

Join Elise Barack Thursday November 1 at 7:15 p.m. for a discussion of Death and the Penguin by Ukrainian author, Andrei Kurkov. Originally published in 1996 in Russian, it was translated and published in English in 2001.  Kurkov was born in St. Petersburg and now lives in Kiev.

The novel follows the life of a young aspiring writer, Viktor, who lives in post-Soviet Kiev. He is hired to compose advance obituaries for Kiev VIPs. Their oddly timed deaths could be part of a mysterious campaign run by the thugs who run modern day Ukraine, Increasingly bewildered, he is also given a child, the daughter of a friend who must flee town.  Viktor's pet Misha, a king penguin obtained after the local Kiev zoo had to give away its animals, is the source of the title.

To find out more about Death and the Penguin listen to NPR’s Fresh Air story by Jim Powers   at  http://n.pr/I8dsMS.    You also can find The Observer ‘s book review at  http://bit.ly/RKCMs8 and a review at Barnes and Noble  http://bit.ly/qSCjWG .

Barbara Rinella:

On Monday November 5 at 3:30 pm Friends of Lake Forest Library present Barbara Rinella, Book Dramatist, in “Catherine the Great “based on the biography by Robert K Massie. The program will be held at the Gorton auditorium, 400 E. Illinois Road.  Doors open at 3:00 pm.

Barbara Rinella, a former teacher, defines herself as an “academic entertainer.” For many years she has been celebrating literature and learning through her programs on current books.  Previously in Lake Forest she has presented Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff and American Jennie: The Remarkable Life of Lady Randolph Churchill by Anne Sebba.  

This year come to Russia to meet the powerful Empress Catherine, the only woman in history given the surname "The Great." Barbara Rinella will also present a current list of her “favorite reads” at the end of the  program.

Spooky Stories for Children

On the Day I Died

Tighter

Autumn brings to mind gold and red-toned landscapes, Halloween, curling up with a mug of hot apple cider and a ghost story.  Although the horror genre seems to emphasize physical gruesomeness for adults, there are still plenty of old-fashioned, spine tingling stories for young people of ghosts, haunting and things that go bump in the night.  Classic tales such as Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow will give all ages the shivers, while some just make us laugh, such as the antics of the Poltergoose.  In the spirit of Halloween, we consulted the Ouija board, which has spelled five exceptional scary books.

Graveyard Book

G rave yard Book   Newbery Medal winning story of Bod (short for Nobody), a boy raised and protected by the spirits inhabiting a cemetery.

H ouse with a Clock in Its Walls  Suitably illustrated by Edward Gorey, Lewis goes to live with his magician uncle in a mansion that has a clock hidden in the walls which is ticking off the minutes until doomsday.

O n the Day I Died  Chicago teens from past eras tell their stories to the unlucky visitor in their graveyard. 

S omething Wicked This Way Comes  One of many classics by Ray Bradbury, recounting what happens when a carnival comes to town one night.

House with a Clock in Its Walls

Tighter  A modern version of Henry James’ Turn of the Screw, as a teen-aged summer nanny begins to fear the Rhode Island estate she works on may be haunted.

These books are suitable for older children, teens, and adults.  An extended list of scary stories for children can be found in our Staff Picks.  We’ve also created a list of not-so-scary ghost stories, mostly for younger children.

Do you have a favorite scary story?  Share it with us.

Something Wicked ThisWay Comes

MacArthur Fellows in Our Collection

The MacArthur Foundation recently announced this year's Fellows, chosen for "exceptional creativity and promise" in their fields according to the Foundation's web site.  Each Fellow receives $500,000 over the next five years, no strings attached (and a surprise phone call).  You can read about all the fellows at the Foundation's website; we show five of them here with links to their works in our collection.  Enjoy your brush with genius!  (All pictures are courtesy of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation - Creative Commons License.)

David Finkel, 

Journalist

In Our Library

Chris Thile, Mandolinist 

and Composer

In Our Library

Laura Poitras, Documentary 

Filmaker  

In Our Library

                                                                                           

Dinaw Mengestu, Writer
In Our Library 

                                                                  

Junot Diaz, Fiction Writer
In Our Library

Getting the Most of the Library's eBooks

Many of you may know about the library's eBooks service, Overdrive/MyMediaMall. If not, head on over and check it out. It works with most eBook readers like the Kindle, Nook, and iPad.

 Reading the eBook records:

1. Available copies are the number of copies available to checkout. If this is 0 you can Place a Hold instead. Library copies are the total number of copies owned.
2. This is the format of the eBook. Refer to the chart below to match your device to the format.
3. Click Add to Cart to begin the checkout process. If not available, this will say Place a Hold.
4.  The Advantage symbol means the Lake Forest Library has purchased a copy for its patrons.

Here are some more tips for making the most out of our service:

• When you search for an author, make sure to use her or his full name.
• Checking out eBooks is similar to checking out books at the library. If a copy is unavailable, click Place a Hold. Then you will get an email when it is ready for you.
• If you are looking for a book to read soon, try checking the "Only Available Copies" option. This will ensure that only available to check out books will be in your search results.

•  If you need to see what you have checked out, try My Account then My Bookshelf. You can also download checked out titles again.

Tell us about why you like eBooks in the comments!

Adult Book Discussion-The Art of Fielding

Join Judy Levin next Thursday, October 18 at 12:30 pm for a discussion of Chad Harbach’s popular first novel, The Art of Fielding.  We will meet in the Children’s Programming Room downstairs.

The Art of Fielding is the story of Henry Skrimshander, a baseball prodigy who is recruited by Mike Schwartz for fictional Westish College, a small school in upper Wisconsin. Or perhaps it is more accurate to describe the book as a portrait of small town college life.  In any case, Harbach beautifully depicts his  main characters while avoiding the clichés of most sports novels.  It can be described as a book about baseball for the sports enthusiast and critic alike.

Looking for more? Book reviews can be found at The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune.

Chad Harbach grew up in Racine, Wisconsin and was educated at Harvard and the University of Virginia. He is a co-founder and co-editor of n+1.  Harbach now lives in Charlottesville, VA although he remains an ardent Brewer’s fan.  He told Bloomberg News, “What fascinates me about baseball is that although it’s a team game, and a team becomes a kind of family, the players on the field are each very much alone. Your teammates depend on you and support you, but at the moments that count they can’t bail you out.” For an interview with the author, visit NPR's Talk of the Nation.

The Art of Fielding is available at the library  in print, large type, audiobook and eaudiobook formats.

Soups, Stews and Slow Cooking

 

Slow Cooker by Norman Kolpas is part of the FoodMadeFast series published by Williams-Sonoma.  From this title: WHITE BEAN SOUP:
4 cups white beans, 6 cups Chicken broth, salt, pepper, 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, olive oil for drizzling.
Puree 2 cups of the beans in a food processor until smooth.  In a saucepan over medium heat combine pureed beans, whole beans, thyme and broth. Simmer about 10 minutes, season to taste.  Ladle into bowls, drizzle with olive oil and enjoy.  641.5884 KOL 

The French Slow Cooker
Michele Scicolone 641.5944 SCI

The Slow Cooker Revolution  From America's Test Kitchen: One Test Kitchen,30 Slow Cookers, 200 Amazing Recipes 641.5884 SLO

Love Soup 160 All new vegetarian Recipes: Creamy Squash and Smoky Eggplant are just two of the many recipes in this book that use fresh, seasonal ingredients  Anna Thomas 641.813 THO

Slow Cooking: 100 recipes for the slow cooker, the oven and the stovetop by Antony Worall Thompson 641.58 THO Recipes for Stews, Curries, Braises, and Breads From the Middle East to Russia one pot dinners ready when you are.

Steampunk



Supernatural beings and dark forces
 inhabit 1870’s London.



Original steampunk

The Victorian world of bowler hats, corsets, and all things mechanical.  Not a piece of plastic in sight.  This is the world of steampunk, a term used to describe both a literary genre and a wider subculture of dress, art, music and entertainment.   Channeling 19th century works such as H.G. Wells’ Time Machine and Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, contemporary writers have created science fiction stories set in a time when steam power is the main power source. Often set in London, past or imagined  future, gallant gentlemen and heroines fight villains, corruption and deal with out of this world experiences.  As steampunk lit has evolved, the age range of its audience has fanned out.   There is an increasing amount of steampunk being written  for adults. Unfortunately, most library collections are small.   Some of the more widely available are The Difference Engine, The Somnambulist,  an anthology of short stories  and the graphic novel, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.   Steampunk for youth has fared better. 

Novel of the Clockwork Century

Airships reign over rockets

 Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Angel  was a young adult  Top Ten.   It  and Leviathan, an alternate history of WWI, are both nominated for the 2013 Abraham Lincoln Award . In the futuristic world of Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve, London has become a city on traction wheels, roving through Europe to obtain nourishment for its engines, both mechanical and human.  Cherie Priest focuses on a zombie world created by mechanized digging machines in the US Civil War era in her steampunk novels,  Boneshaker  and  Dreadnought.  Dirigible-like airships populate Kenneth Oppel’s Airborn series.  If you want more details on the wide range of steampunk-inspired design and novels, delve into The Steampunk Bible.  



Guides you through the gaslit world