According to the article in the New York Times Magazine yesterday, James Patterson is one of the most popular authors of all time. This very lengthy, but fascinating, portrait of a marketing-executive-turned-author, details the impact he has had on the Publishing industry. Patterson's latest title Worst Case is due to be published early February.

Author Erich Segal died last week (January 17) at the age of 72. He was teaching Greek and Roman literature at Yale University, when his collaboration with the Beatles in 1968 on their movie Yellow Submarine and the production of a screenplay he wrote about the doomed romance of a Radcliffe scholarship girl and a Harvard old-money boy entitled Love Story brought Segal fame. Released in 1970, "Love Story" was a huge box-office hit. "Love Story", when released in paperback, had the largest print order in publishing history at the time, with 4,325,000 copies. Reaction to the book was strong and surprisingly controversial.

AnnArbor.com's Sunday paper edition touts George Orwell's 1984 as "one novel that everyone should have under their [sic] literary belts." Orwell's grim prediction for the future is fully unveiled in the workings of the totalitarian state run by Big Brother. Often on the reading list of the public schools, this novel is one of those rare gems that is both entertaining and meaningful.

Mystery Writers of America announced the Nominees for the 2010 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction, and television published or produced in 2009. Best Novel Nominees are:

• The Missing by Tim Gautreaux (Random House - Alfred A.

Bestselling American crime novelist, Robert B. Parker, creator of the wisecracking Boston private eye Spenser, died on Monday, January 18 at the age of 77. Robert B Parker, the American crime novelist, who has died aged 77, helped revive and modernize the hard-boiled private eye genre through his Spenser series of novels. In 2002, he was named Grand Master at the Edgar awards by the Mystery Writers of America. More than four million copies of his books have been sold around the world.

The Schneider Family Book Award is a National Award which honors an author for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences. This year's winner is Marcelo And The Real World by Francisco Stark. This book is a poignant and fun story about Marcelo, a high-functioning autistic teenager, who works in the mail room of his father's law firm for the summer. This book is not only an award winner but a must read for all teen literature lovers!

Did you know that January 16 is Appreciate a Dragon Day?! It's a day where kids are encouraged to visit their local library to look for books about dragons. You can study what other cultures and societies believe about dragons, or just read a story about them. It sounds pretty fun, and there's no shortage of dragon books here! Dragonology is a pretty cool one to try, but there's plenty more to choose from, too! Happy reading!

Put these in your CD player and let the stories, ranging from sweeping epics to romantic suspense, carry you into the past.

• Autumn Lover by Elizabeth Lowell Set in the Western U.S. after the Civil War
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Time travel from 1945 to 1743 Scotland
• A Rogue of My Own by Johanna Lindsey Set in Queen Victoria's Court
• Simply Unforgettable by Mary Balogh A Regency romance
• Don't Look Back by Amanda Quick Romantic suspense in Regency London
• The Moon Looked Down by Dorothy Garlock Set in a small Illinois town during WWII

If you're a fan of espionage and combat, both here on earth and out in the galaxy, try these books.

• Blasphemy by Douglas Preston
• Matter by Ian Banks
• Sacred Stone by Clive Cussler
• The Six Directions of Space by Alastair Reynolds
• Sixty Days and Counting by Kim Stanley Robinson

Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association has announced that Scottish novelist Val McDermid is “the recipient of this year’s prestigious CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, which honours outstanding achievement in the field of crime writing." Ms. McDermid began writing in 1987 when Report for Murder was released and over the years has won numerous writing awards for her mystery stories.

After a 3 year hiatus, Yukiru Sugisaki has decided to revive her fan favorite manga D.N.Angel! Volume 12 and 13 have just come out. If you haven't read this, now's the perfect time. The story revolves around a middle school student who magically transforms into another person, the thief Dark, whenever he spots the girl he loves. If only she could love him back it would break the curse. Well, things are a lot more complicated than they seem...

As the snow falls, this mom has but one thought. Do I have enough books if tomorrow is declared a snow day? Not for the children, silly. For me. A snow day means no alarm clock and a morning in jammies for the kids and me, so I need to stock up on new romances. Perhaps Shades of midnight by Lara Adrian: set in frozen Alaska, it would make our little snow seem like nothing. Maybe Our little secret by Starr Ambrose, which has a bit of mystery. Or a Regency like The bargain bride by Barbara Metzger. And something for the kids, too.

Books, arts, and culture site The Millions wrote up a piece entitled Most Anticipated: The Great 2010 Book Preview, which features tons of great books to check out this year. We've already ordered many books on the list, so you can add your hold if so inclined:

Three Days Before the Shooting . . by Ralph Ellison - At his death in 1994, Ralph Ellison left behind roughly two thousand pages of his unfinished second novel, which he had spent nearly four decades writing. Long awaited, it was to have been the work Ellison intended to follow his masterpiece, Invisible Man...

The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris - In a radical departure from his satiric workplace comedy, Then We Came to the End (2007), Ferris turns in a dark and utterly compelling second novel on the insanity of modern life... [BookList Review]

Monsieur Pain by Roberto Bolaño - To drag fiction toward the unknown, [Bolaño] had to go there himself, and there invent a method with which to represent it. Since the unknown place was reality, the results are multi-dimensional. [The New York Review of Books]

Q: What are the Cybils?

A: The Cybils reward the children’s and young adult authors, as well as illustrators, whose books combine the highest literary merit and "kid appeal." And foster a sense of community among bloggers who write about children’s and YA literature, highlight reviewers and provide a forum for the similarly interested.

For the list of YA finalists and for more information about the Cybils, check out the website here. 

All Fiction, Children's and Youth— Buy Two Get One Free
Learn more about Secondhand Prose and the Friends of the Library.

Bag Sale

January 27, 28 and 30

Steve Hamilton, author of the Alex McKnight mysteries and graduate of Lakeland High School (MI) will discuss his latest book, The Lock Artist on Thursday, January 14 at 6:30PM at White Lake Township Library. For more information contact Denise E. Harris, Adult Services Librarian at (248) 698-4942.

Here are a few mysteries set at the new year:

The queene's Christmas by Karen Harper

Full cry by Rita Mae Brown

New Year's Eve murder : a Lucy Stone mystery by Leslie Meier

Cat on a hyacinth hunt by Carole Nelson Douglas

• The Covenant by Naomi Ragen
• White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
• On Beauty by Zadie Smith
• Crashing Through: A True Story of Risk, Adventure and the Man Who Dared To See by Robert Kurson
• Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Mind of an Extraordinary Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet

In October the UK's Guardian hosted a contest for young readers to turn Terry Pratchett's Nation into a dramatization. The winners have just been announced. I couldn't help thinking that more books should be made into movies by fans... especially because these homemade films are amazing. Take a look at the winners and get the low down on this unusual contest.

Rollie the penguin has one Christmas wish: to be able to fly, just like a reindeer! But penguins can't fly - even though they're birds. On Christmas Eve, Santa Claus asks Rollie to help him deliver toys to all the children. Even though Rollie can't fly, there's something else he can do that most other birds can't.  Find out what that is when a bag of toys drops from Santa's sleigh and it's up to Rollie to save the day!