Oversized & Collectible

Who says the printed book is on its way out? Certainly not the German publishing house, Taschen. This month, they’re releasing one of their biggest efforts ever –– an enormous two-volume book by famed photographer Sebastiao Salgado called Genesis.

Genesis is a collection of black and white photographs taken by Mr. Salgado over a period of ten years as “an homage to planet earth and her stunning creatures.” Three versions of the book have been printed: a massive art edition, a collector’s edition and a coffee table edition. Just 500 copies of the art edition were printed, which weighs in at 130 pounds (book stand included), retails for $9,000, and stands nearly four feet tall. The collector’s edition is bound in leather with a cloth cover and retails for $2500; and the $70 coffee table edition, which has been translated into Italian, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese, is already on its third print run.

For more on this stunning, oversized, collectible book check out this Wall Street Journal article here. For an interesting video conversation with publisher Benedikt Taschen and photographer Sebastiao Salgado go here. And for Salgado’s fascinating TED talk on the silent drama of photography, go here.

We Couldn't Resist

We couldn't resist showing another small glimpse of the fantastic changes at the Central Library. Please stop by and take a wander, and check out all of the new spaces and services offered.  Looking forward to seeing you here!

Bigger and Better

Finally.  It’s here. The Central Library’s expansion is complete and we’re beyond thrilled. So what was all the work about? Big improvements including a children’s section that’s 30% larger, expanded reading and study areas, a soon-to-open café by tony caterer 24 Carrots, passport services, a state-of-the-art sound and video room, upstairs restrooms, extensive gardens connecting the new Civic Center and Park with the Library and a 450-space parking structure. Pretty exceptional, we think.

But don’t take our word for it. Check out this post by a Corona del Mar resident and Library fan, highlighting the top ten reasons to love the new project. We think she sums it up perfectly. Many thanks for the kind words, Rebecca!

{pictured above: the library's new back entrance (top), and the all-glass view overlooking the Civic Center Park.}  

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

We were hooked long before Michael Pollan wrote: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."  Perhaps seven of the wisest words ever.

Needless to say, we’re huge fans. And not just because he was a speaker at the Newport Beach Public Library. Or because we’ve read all of his award-winning, best-selling books. We’re huge fans because he simply makes so much sense.

In his latest offering, Cooked, Mr Pollan answers the question of why bother cooking? Because, he says, “relying upon corporations to process our food means we consume large quantities of fat, sugar, and salt. It disrupts an essential link to the natural world and weakens our relationships with family and friends. In fact,” he argues, “taking back control of cooking may be the single most important step anyone can take to help make the American food system healthier and more sustainable.” Pollan’s focus is on a return to home cooking, the sort that does not begin with an attempt to find the perforated opening of a plastic package, but rather real ingredients, the kind our grandparents used.

Check out all of Michael Pollan’s books at the Newport Beach Public Library. And for more articles and resources on real food, go to his brilliant website here.

The Big Picture

Just in case you’re not familiar with him, Barry Ritholtz is one of the very few strategists who saw the housing implosion and derivatives disaster far in advance. He issued warnings about the market collapse and recession in time for his clients and readers to seek safe harbor. That’s impressive enough on its own but there’s more.

He’s also an author, newspaper columnist, blogger, equities analyst, CEO of Fusion IQ, guest commentator on Bloomberg Television and former contributor to CNBC and TheStreet.com. He has been called one of the top economic journalists of our time. And he’s coming to the Newport Beach Public Library.

There are a limited number of seats remaining for his lectures on Friday May 10 and Saturday May 11; for tickets, go to nbplfoundation.org/events or call 949 548 2411. To read his blog, The Big Picture, (along with several million monthly followers), go here. And to check out his book, Bailout Nation: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy, check it out at the library here.

Making the World Better

This Monday, April 22 is Earth Day, a single day each year where any and all concerns about our gorgeous planet are highlighted and discussed. Needless to say, we wholeheartedly support this incredibly important conversation. But conversation alone isn’t enough. Action must follow, and follow through. A shining example of this is an organization dedicated to the oceans of the world, and two Newport Beach Public Library members are behind it. The organization is One World One Ocean and its founders are Barbara and Greg MacGillivray.

So what’s One World One Ocean all about? As the MacGillivray’s son, Shawn, says, “it’s a campaign. Your inspiration is our platform. The ocean is our candidate. Winning means restoring the ocean to a wild, healthy state. It also means helping sea life to thrive, from the tropical reefs to the Arctic sea ice. Our chief advisor, National Geographic explorer in residence and oceanographer Sylvia Earle, says what we do in the next ten years will set the ocean’s fate for the next 10,000 years. In other words, the stakes are huge, and there is no time to lose.”

To learn more about One World One Ocean, go here. To see the MacGillivray’s brilliant IMAX films on DVD or Blu Ray (To the Arctic, Everest, Arabia, Greece, The Living Sea, Coral Reef Adventure, and more), check them out at the library here. To read more about the MacGillivray's good work and fascinating adventures, check out a recent profile on them in Bookmark here.   And happy Earth Day!  Here’s to making a difference.

P.S. We couldn’t leave and not arm you with some important facts and figures from One World One Ocean.  So here you go.  What to do with all of this information? Read it. Pass it along. And get involved.

• 50 to 70% of our oxygen comes from the ocean. That’s more than all of the world’s rain forests combined.

• The ocean is the #1 source of protein for more than a billion people.

• The ocean regulates our climate, absorbs carbon dioxide, holds 97% of the earth’s water, and supports the greatest abundance of life on our planet.

• More than 60% of the world’s population lives on or near the coast. The ocean provides a livelihood, recreation, beauty, wonder, and untapped scientific discovery, leading to new medications, foods, and advanced technologies. Everyone, everywhere depends on a healthy sea.

• 90% of the big fish are gone. Tuna, swordfish, halibut, cod, and flounder populations have been devastated by overfishing.

• The average size of the remaining big fish has been cut in half or less in the last 50 years. The average weight of a swordfish caught today is 90 lbs., down from 266 lbs. in 1960.

• Discarded plastics have formed a toxic “plastic soup” that is gathering in five massive ocean gyres around the world. As the plastic breaks down, it is eaten by sea animals, causing illness and death. It eventually enters our diets, too.

• There are a reported 405 ocean “dead zones” — areas where there is little to no oxygen due to pollution. Dead zones are doubling every ten years.

• Our oceans account for 71% of the planet, but less than 2% of our oceans are protected.

{Above images from One World One Ocean. Celebrate Kelp Fest and Earth Day on April 20.  More about it here.}

Alexander McCall Smith at NBPL

Tears of the Giraffe.  Morality for Beautiful Girls.  The Kalahari Typing School for Men. You most likely know him as the genius behind the wonderfully-titled books of The Number One Ladies Detective Agency series. But did you know that Alexander McCall Smith has written more than 60 books? Aside from the Number One Ladies series, he is the author of the Isabel Dalhousie series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, the 44 Scotland Street series, numerous academic titles, short story collections, and a number of immensely popular children's books. And did you know that for many years he was a Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh and is now a Professor Emeritus at the University of Edinburgh? He was, and is.

That said, we’re beyond thrilled to welcome Mr. McCall Smith this weekend to the Newport Beach Public Library, as the sixty-fifth speaker of the acclaimed Witte Family Lectures, where he’ll speak to a sold-out crowd about his books, adventures and life.

{Please note: The lecture is sold out but the good news is that the Newport Beach Public Library has Alexander McCall Smith’s books, audio books and DVDs. To reserve them, go here. And for more about him, check out his website here -- truly a feast of gorgeous images, books and more.}

The Ebert Company, Ltd. Fine Film Criticism Since 1967

We ran across this 2009 Chicago Sun Times journal entry by Roger Ebert and thought it was a fitting way to celebrate the life of the talented Pulitzer Prize-winning critic. The entry begins with this quote by Erasmus: When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes. It goes on to tell of Mr. Ebert’s life-long love of books, and how he found it difficult to part with even one. More in his own words here.

{For a list of Roger Ebert's favorite movies -- most of which are available at the Newport Beach Public Library -- go here.}

The Intellectual Foodie

Adam Gopnik, New Yorker columnist and author of the best-selling book, Paris to the Moon, has done it again -- this time with a close look at our total and complete preoccupation with food. We decided to let the slew of glowing reviews for his latest book, The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food, speak for themselves. Be sure to catch Adam Gopnik at the Newport Beach Public Library, March 8 and 9. For reservations and information, go here, or call 949 548 2411. Looking forward to seeing you there!

“Adam Gopnik brilliantly weaves together the history, philosophy, and culture of food with his deep passion for cooking and the shared pleasures of the table.”
—Ina Garten

“At once sweeping and intimate . . .  Gopnik’s story is more ambitious than a history of restaurants—it’s about how we taste, dream, and argue about food. . . . The Table Comes First indulges gourmands everywhere. And it’s a refreshing defense of the nation responsible in so many ways for the way we eat now. In Gopnik’s distinctive style, it is encyclopedic yet personal and funny, and it drives at deeper truths.”
—Newsweek

“Captivating.”
—The New York Times

“Exuberant. . . . What flows through [The Table Comes First] is a deep fascination with gastronomy as a life force and with the way it’s awakened and flourished over the last couple of centuries. . . . Gopnik acts as reporter, historian, participant and philosopher as he leads us on a kind of walking tour of the food world.”
—Slate

“Unapologetically intelligent yet charmingly witty . . . [here is] history, nutrition, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology all rolled up into one delectable streusel of insight and illumination.”
—The Atlantic

“Gopnik is the nearest thing there is—in the English-speaking world, at any rate—to a philosopher of food. . . . These essays blend enormous erudition with great elegance of expression, and pack intellectual firepower too.”
—New Statesman

“I need to read anything that Adam Gopnik writes, and this book on food, eating and—it follows—life is a particular feast. His acuity, grace, sensitive intelligence (in short, his brilliance) are, as ever, dazzlingly displayed and yet with the lightest of touches.”
—Nigella Lawson

“Gopnik would surely be the world’s greatest dinner guest; he can make any subject fascinating, and always backs up his curiosity with unhurried research and an acute eye for the telling detail.”
—Chicago Tribune

“Compelling. . . . Gopnik gets elbow deep in heady theory, culinary history, and his own passions. . . . He is a champion at making connections, wild and free-ranging. Among the allusions are revelations.”
—The Boston Globe

“The perfect book for any intellectual foodie, a delicious book packed with so much to sink your teeth into.”
—Padma Lakshmi

  

digitally overloaded

No smartphone, no Facebook, no Twitter, no GPS -- for two entire weeks. Could you do it? Four Hermosa Beach twenty somethings were challenged to do just that: a digital detox, for two whole weeks.

Watch this Dateline NBC clip to see how it all went down. Included in the story is MIT professor, author and upcoming Newport Beach Public Library speaker, Sherry Turkle, providing her expertise and more than 30 years of research on our relationship with technology.  And join us on Friday, February 8 at 7 pm or Saturday, February 9 at 2 pm for an eye-opening discussion about our technology-overloaded world with Sherry Turkle. For tickets, visit our website at nbplfoundation.org, or call 949 548 2411. To see the Dateline NBC piece, go here for part one; and here for part two.

artist, author, library lover

Frequent contributor to The New Yorker, author, and artist, Maira Kalman is one of our all-time favorites. Her brightly colored illustrations bring any topic to life -- including two we especially love: Strunk and White's Elements of Style, and Michael Pollan's Food Rules. Who knew that punctuation and nutrition could be so wildly gorgeous?

We happened upon this Wall Street Journal article about her no frills workspace (no tech allowed) and her enormous love of books. Read on.

“The most inspiring objects are books. I have about 5,000 volumes in my home library. It's an unending source of visuals and ideas. I collect photography books, design books, art and fashion books. I started buying books when I was 18. When I was little we didn't buy them; we went to the library and read from A to Z—a wonderful, magical thing.

My workspace is defined by books, ephemera, quiet and light. I don't have a computer, telephone or a fax machine there. I have my cell phone, but no email, and three desks. One is a door on IKEA legs, one I bought from a designer 20 years ago. The third is a surgical table that I got from my brother-in-law, a surgical supply salesman.

The one book I cannot live without is my 1971 Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. It's a great pleasure to look at and completely indispensable.”

For more of the Maira Kalman article, go here. And her books? Check them out at the library, of course.

a cultural feast

If you follow Brain Pickings, you know what a cultural feast it is. If you don't, read on for a quick glimpse of a daily must read.

So what exactly is Brain Pickings? It’s a superbly curated blog on topics as wide ranging as art, design, music, technology, philosophy, religion, politics, philanthropy, neuroscience, psychology, sociology, anthropology, ecology and more. Or as The New York Times calls it, an “exhaustively assembled grab bag of scientific curiosities, forgotten photographs, snippets of old love letters and mash notes to creativity — imagine the high-mindedness of a TED talk mixed with the pop sensibility of P. T. Barnum.” And as Anne-Marie Slaughter, a Princeton professor and former State Department official says, “it’s like walking into the Museum of Modern Art and having somebody give you a customized, guided tour.”

Needless to say, we’re fans. Check out a recent New York Times article about it here. And follow Brain Pickings here.

{Above photos: top left of founder Maria Popova from The New York Times; all others, including Joan Didion (top right) and Jackie Kennedy at a book fair (bottom left) are from here}

unplugging: a digital detox

No cell phones, laptops, iPods or iPads. No technology of any sort. Just how hard would it be for you to disconnect -- even for a couple of days? That’s the topic of a recent Sunset Magazine article titled The Unplugged Home, about a San Francisco family living in a technology-free zone. The article provides details of the family’s unplugged life as well as various inspiring resources, including a book on the subject by MIT professor and upcoming Newport Beach Public Library speaker, Sherry Turkle. Turkle, author of Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other, has spent the last thirty years researching the psychology of people’s relationships with technology -- not just how technology changes what we do but how technology changes who we are. Referred to by many as the Margaret Mead of digital culture, she’s an expert on mobile technology, social networking, and sociable robotics and has provided commentary on the social and psychological effects of technology for CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, NPR, the BBC, The New York Times, Esquire Magazine and many, many more.

For more on the Sunset Magazine article, go here. And to reserve a seat at Sherry Turkle's upcoming library lectures (February 8 & 9), go here.  Unplug and join us, for what is sure to be an eye-opening look at the good, the bad and the ugly of our high-tech lives.

{above home photos from Sunset Magazine}

oscar in america

Legend has it that upon entering the United States, Oscar Wilde said, “I have nothing to declare except my genius.” Whether or not this actually happened is debatable. What’s not debatable, however, is Oscar Wilde’s superb wit.

Wilde’s 1882 tour of the U.S. is the subject of a new book by author Roy Morris Jr. titled Declaring His Genius: Oscar Wilde in North America. According to the Harvard University Press, during Oscar Wilde’s year-long stay in the U.S., he “covered 15,000 miles, delivered 140 lectures, and met everyone who was anyone. Dressed in satin knee britches and black silk stockings, the long-haired apostle of the British Aesthetic Movement alternately shocked, entertained, and enlightened a spellbound nation.” For more on the book, go here.

Note: coming soon to the Newport Beach Public Library.

best of the best

Of all the lists of must read books from 2012, one book stands above the rest. One fiction and one non fiction, that is. These two titles rose to the top of year-end best lists from The New Yorker, The New York Times, major critics and other publications, and was compiled by the The Daily Beast.  So what are they???

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel is the winner in the fiction category. It's the sequel to the Man Booker Prize-winning and New York Times bestseller, Wolf Hall, which focuses on the heart of Tudor history and the downfall of Anne Boleyn. From The New Yorker blog: Yesterday evening, Hilary Mantel won the Man Booker Prize for “Bring Up the Bodies,” a historical novel about Thomas Cromwell, a top advisor to Henry VIII. This was proof that the Booker juries judge books on their merits alone, because Mantel won the same prize for “Wolf Hall,” the first book in her Cromwell trilogy, in 2009. She is only the third writer and the first British writer to win the prize twice, and, because she is one of the finest writers of English sentences alive, she richly deserves it.

And the best in non fiction is Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Katherine Boo. Boo spent three years in the Annawadi slum, in the shadow of Mumbai’s International Airport. The book focuses on residents’ efforts to raise families, earn a living, and simply survive. From Booklist: While the distance between rich and poor is growing in the U.S., the gap between the haves and have-nots in India is staggering to behold. This first book by a New Yorker staff writer (and Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter for the Washington Post) jolts the reader’s consciousness with the opposing realities of poverty and wealth in a searing visit to the Annawaldi settlement, a flimflam slum that has recently sprung up in the western suburbs of the gigantic city of Mumbai, perched tentatively along the modern highway leading to the airport and almost within a stone’s throw of new, luxurious hotels.

Both books are available at the Newport Beach Public Library.  

hollywood style

Indiana Jones in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Michael Jackson in “Thriller.” The classic college style of “Animal House.” You can picture each memorable look in your mind. But what do all of them have in common? The answer is Deborah Nadoolman Landis, the Academy Award-nominated costume designer. Landis is responsible for those fashionable looks -- and many, many more. And she’s coming to the Newport Beach Public Library.

Landis, a costume designer and historian, received an M.F.A. in Costume Design (1975) from UCLA and a PhD in the History of Design from the Royal College of Art, London. Her costume design collaboration with husband and filmmaker John Landis ranges from the horror/comedy Burke & Hare (2010) to the classic Animal House (1978) to Coming to America (1988; for which she was nominated for an Academy Award) and the groundbreaking music video Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1983). Landis has worked with directors as diverse as Steven Spielberg (including the iconic Indiana Jones for Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981), Louis Malle and Costa Gavras.

Deborah Landis is a past president of the Costume Designers Guild, a teacher, and author -- most recently of Dressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume Design. As part of the Library Live series, she’ll be at the Newport Beach Public Library on Thursday, March 21, 2013. Please join us for what promises to be a fascinating night of Hollywood style, movies and more. For tickets and information, visit our website here. And to read a recent feature story on her in the Los Angeles Times, go here.

(photo from here)

the ten best

We hate to miss a good book ... so we thought this list would prove useful.  It's the top ten best books of 2012, as selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.  Of course, are all available at the library.

FICTION

BRING UP THE BODIES
By Hilary Mantel.

Taking up where her previous novel, “Wolf Hall,” left off, Mantel makes the seemingly worn-out story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn newly fascinating and suspenseful. Seen from the perspective of Henry’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, the ruthless maneuverings of the court move swiftly to the inevitable executions. Both this novel and its predecessor were awarded the Man Booker Prize. Might the trilogy’s forthcoming conclusion, in which Cromwell will meet his demise, score Mantel a hat trick?

BUILDING STORIES
By Chris Ware.

Ware’s innovative graphic novel deepens and enriches the form by breaking it apart. Packaged in a large box like a board game, the project contains 14 “easily misplaced elements” — pamphlets, books, foldout pages — that together follow the residents of a Chicago triplex (and one anthropomorphized bee) through their ordinary lives. In doing so, it tackles universal themes including art, sex, family and existential loneliness in a way that’s simultaneously playful and profound.

A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING
By Dave Eggers.

In an empty city in Saudi Arabia, a ­middle-aged American businessman waits day after day to close the deal he hopes will redeem his forlorn life. Eggers, continuing the worldly outlook that informed his recent books “Zeitoun” and “What Is the What,” spins this spare story — a globalized “Death of a Salesman” — into a tightly controlled parable of America’s international standing and a riff on middle-class decline that approaches Beckett in its absurdist despair.

NW
By Zadie Smith.

Smith’s piercing new novel, her first in seven years, traces the friendship of two women who grew up in a housing project in northwest London, their lives disrupted by fateful choices and the brutal efficiency of chance. The narrative edges forward in fragments, uncovering truths about identity and money and sex with incandescent language that, for all of its formal experimentation, is intimate and searingly direct.

THE YELLOW BIRDS
By Kevin Powers.

A veteran of the Iraq war, Powers places that conflict at the center of his impressionistic first novel, about the connected but diverging fates of two young soldiers and the trouble one of them has readjusting to life at home. Reflecting the chaos of war, the fractured narrative jumps around in time and location, but Powers anchors it with crystalline prose and a driving mystery: How did the narrator’s friend die?

NONFICTION

BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS
Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity.
By Katherine Boo.

This National Book Award-winning study of life in Annawadi, a Mumbai slum, is marked by reporting so rigorous it recalls the muckrakers, and characters so rich they evoke Dickens. The slum dwellers have a skillful and empathetic chronicler in Boo, who depicts them in all their humanity and ruthless, resourceful glory.

FAR FROM THE TREE
Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity.
By Andrew Solomon.

For more than a decade, Solomon studied the challenges, risks and rewards of raising children with “horizontal identities,” traits that they don’t share with their parents. As he investigates how families have grown stronger or fallen apart while raising prodigies, dwarfs, schizophrenics, transgendered children or those conceived in rape, he complicates everything we thought we knew about love, sacrifice and success.

THE PASSAGE OF POWER
The Years of Lyndon Johnson.
By Robert A. Caro.

The fourth volume of Caro’s prodigious masterwork, which now exceeds 3,000 pages, explores, with the author’s signature combination of sweeping drama, psychological insight and painstaking research, Johnson’s humiliating years as vice president, when he was excluded from the inner circle of the Kennedy White House and stripped of power. We know what Johnson does not, that this purgatory is prelude to the event of a single horrific day, when an assassin’s bullet placed Johnson, and the nation he now had to lead, on a new course.

THE PATRIARCH
The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy.
By David Nasaw.

Nasaw took six years to complete this sprawling, arresting account of a banker-cum-speculator-cum-moviemaker-cum-ambassador-cum-dynastic founder. Joe Kennedy was involved in virtually all the history of his time, and his biographer persuasively makes the case that he was the most fascinating member of his large, famous and very formidable family.

WHY DOES THE WORLD EXIST?
An Existential Detective Story.
By Jim Holt.

For several centuries now, thinkers have wondered, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” In search of an answer, Holt takes the reader on a witty and erudite journey from London to Paris to Austin, Tex., as he listens to a varied cast of philosophers, scientists and even novelists offer solutions that are sometimes closely reasoned, sometimes almost mystical, often very strange, always entertaining and thought-provoking.

a very smart gift

This holiday season, give a friend or loved one the gift of a superb library.  You'd not only be giving an intelligent and meaningful gift, but also enabling the Newport Beach Public Library to continue providing exceptional services.  Gifts can be as little as $5, a kid's Booklet membership at $15, an adult membership, or any amount you choose.  To send a gift in someone's name, visit our website here.  

daily prose

What could be better than starting the day with a bit of poetry, prose, or literary history? That’s exactly what The Writer’s Almanac is all about. We’re big fans of the daily radio and on-line program hosted by Garrison Keillor.

Each program is just five minutes long and includes vignettes about authors, historic events coinciding with the day of the program and poems read by Keillor himself. Available online or by podcast here; a list of local radio stations can be found here. And for books by Garrison Keillor, check them out at the Newport Beach Public Library.

from page to screen

We’re big fans of Yann Martel’s literary masterpiece, Life of Pi. As always, when an award-winning novel makes the leap from page to screen, we watch with great interest. It’s tricky business getting it right, and even more so when much of the movie takes place on a lifeboat -- complete with a boy and a Bengal tiger.

Reviews have praised director Ang Lee’s effort calling it a visual masterpiece and an Oscar contender. We’d love to know how you think the movie compares with the book. Please leave us your thoughts in the comment section below.

more of a good thing

We're pleased to announce the arrival of Axis360, a new eReader platform offered by the library, and made possible by a donation from the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation.

Axis360 joins Overdrive Audio and eBooks to help create an even bigger, even better e-Library. So from the comfort of your favorite, overstuffed reading chair, browse titles, click and download. Quick, simple and free. To find out more about how to use these two systems, check out the details here. And happy e-reading!

why?

Why should you become a member of the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation? To help us keep all of the outstanding programs and improvements happening at the library. Quite simply, we depend on your membership and support.

The reality is this: the foundation is a membership-driven organization. Our members allow us to give over $200,000 to the library each year to fund the many enhancements and materials that are beyond the scope of the city’s budget. Another $250,000 is raised and spent bringing you the stellar and very popular programs that have helped to put the Newport Beach Public Library on the map.

We do not receive big corporate grants or state funding. We began as a grassroots organization and still operate that way today. And now more than ever, additional funding is critical as library usage increases.

There are many levels of membership available -- from kids Booklet memberships at just $15 per year, to monthly donations of as little or as much as you choose, to everything in between. For more information or to join us, please click here.

Many thanks for your support and for helping us to make our library truly exceptional.

the beauty of the printed page

EBooks are here to stay, that’s a fact. But the good news for all of us who are fans of traditional books is how eBooks are upping the quality of the printed page.

There’s no denying that eBooks are lighter, cheaper and more accessible than printed books. Current Amazon figures show 114 e-titles sold for every 100 printed titles. So how does this news translate into a better printed book? Publishers are fighting back -- with beautifully made editions complete with heavy paper stocks, bookmark ribbons, book plates, artful typography, metallic foils, and stunning covers. As the article "Why eBooks Are Inspiring a New Age of Print" states (set to run in an upcoming issue of Huffington magazine), “it might be the moment where print, freed from its need to do everything, becomes even better at doing what it can do uniquely.”

The article goes on to say, “It may sound obvious, but books exist in a way that memory on a microchip does not. Enduring physical presence is no small thing in an age when information appears on a screen, then changes, evolves, and maybe even disappears.” We couldn’t agree more. For the complete article, go here.

the art of the short story

“Short stories, when done well, can be perfect narratives, captured in miniature. So when The Paris Review recently released their new book, Object Lessons: The Paris Review Presents the Art of the Short Story (Picador, $16), it instantly became one of our books of the year. It features authors including Dave Eggers, Amy Hempel, Jeffrey Eugenides and Jonathan Lethem introducing their favorite short stories, featuring tales by Raymond Carver, Jorge Luis Borges, Jane Bowles and James Salter. In other words, it's a literary treat.”

The above is from a recent Huffington Post article. To say they liked the latest book from The Paris Review is a massive understatement. We love great book reviews and can’t wait to get our hands on a copy of this book –– available at the Newport Beach Public Library now.

For the complete article, including an interview with the editor of The Paris Review, go here.

award winning

He’s the man responsible for the stunning glass cube Apple store in New York City and countless other international landmark buildings. Peter Bohlin is an award-winning architect, a founding principal of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, and the genius behind the soon-to-open Newport Beach Civic Center and Park.

The new civic center and park is set on 17 green acres and consists of a city hall, a 450 space parking garage, and a substantial addition to the existing library (we’re thrilled). Sustainability was central to the design strategy, with rhythmic, wave-shaped roofs providing shelter for the two-story city hall building, and generous overhangs providing sun shading for indoor occupants. Clerestories with operable windows, along with dimmable lighting, create even north-facing light. Under floor air and operable windows will provide views and clean, comfortable air. Together, these design strategies provide savings in mechanical and energy costs.

To learn more about this exciting project from Peter Bohlin himself, please join us on Monday, October 22 at 7 pm for a fascinating glimpse at what’s to come.

{This event (at the Central Library) is free and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis, limited by room capacity. Pictured above l-r: the Apple Store in New York City and the Grand Teton National Park Discovery and Visitor Center.}

movie night

We adore foreign films and are thrilled to have received a generous gift from Dr Charles and Suzanne Turner, enabling the library to offer more than a thousand foreign films on DVD and Blu Ray –– from almost every country in the world.  A few of our favorites are highlighted below.

After the Wedding – (Danish, 2006) - After twenty years of running an orphanage in India, a man reluctantly returns to his native Denmark at the request of a benefactor to take part in a wedding where family secrets are spilled.

Amelie – (French, 2001) At a tiny Parisian cafe, the adorable yet painfully shy Amelie accidentally discovers a gift for helping others. Soon Amelie is spending her days as a Cupid, guardian angel, and all-around do-gooder. But when she bumps into a handsome stranger, will she find the courage to become the star of her very own love story?
Bicycle Thieves – (Italian, 1948) In postwar, poverty-stricken Rome, a man and his son set to look for his stolen bicycle which is his only means of making a living.
Chungking Express – (Chinese, 1994) Two intertwined romantic tales take place inside the Chungking high-rise shopping center in downtown Hong Kong: a policeman falls in love with a snack bar waitress while a house detective gets involved with a female drug dealer.
CJ7 – (Chinese, 2008) The son of a poor construction worker finds a magical toy from outer space.
The Closet – (French, 2001) A man, on the verge of being fired, pretends to be gay.
Le Corbeau – (French, 1943) A mysterious writer of poison pen letters, known only as Le Corbeau, plagues a French provincial town, unwittingly exposing the collective suspicion and rancor seething beneath the community’s calm surface.
The Dinner Game – (French, 1998) Pierre and his snobbish friends have a standing date for dinner. Every week, they compete to see who can bring the biggest idiot to the party.
(500) Days of Summer – (English, 2009) An offbeat romantic comedy about a woman who doesn’t believe true love exists, and the young man who falls for her.
Ikuru – (Japanese, 1952) Discovering that he is in the terminal stages of cancer, a clerk spends his last months in search of the meaning to life.
Infernal Affairs – (Chinese, 2002) A story between a mole in the police department and an undercover cop. Their objectives are the same: to find out who is the mole, and who is the cop. The Departed was a remake of this movie.
The Lives of Others – (German, 2006) Set in East Berlin in 1984, a secret service agent assigned to monitor a playwright and his girlfriend begins to question his assignment and his loyalty to the government.
Rushmore – (English, 1998) A gifted, rebellious teenager finds himself in competition with a wealthy older man for a favorite teacher’s affections.
Tampopo – (Japanese, 1985) Young widow Tampopo attempts to start a small ramen noodle restaurant. She has little success until she meets Goro, a cowboy-hat-wearing truck driver who decides to helps her to make the perfect bowl of top ramen. A story that features various subplots and an eclectic group of supporting characters, all of whom have expressively passionate relationships with food.

half the sky

Three years ago, we were extremely fortunate to have New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Nicholas Kristof, at the Newport Beach Public Library. He spoke about his book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Kristof co-wrote the book with his wife, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sheryl WuDunn. The book is a passionate call to arms against our era’s most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women and girls in the developing world.

Each chapter highlights a different issue in a different part of the world. It’s essential reading.

This week, a superb documentary based on the best-selling book debuted on PBS. Like the book, it’s a must. If you missed the book or the documentary, check them out at the library. The book is available now (in addition, a limited number of signed copies are for sale by calling 949 718 3890), and the DVD will be available in early November.

the forgetting tree

On Thursday, November 8, bestselling author of The Lotus Eaters, Tatjana Soli, will be at the Newport Beach Public Library. Soli will speak about her latest book, The Forgetting Tree, a novel about a California ranching family, its complicated matriarch, and the enigmatic caretaker who may destroy them.

Described as “haunting, tough, triumphant, and profound,” The Forgetting Tree explores the intimate ties we have to one another, the deepest fears we keep to ourselves, and the calling of the land that ties every one of us together.

NPR calls The Forgetting Tree “a devastatingly awesome novel.” The New York Times calls it “superb" (review here).  And The Daily Beast recently named it a hot read (here). Please join us for what promises to be a thoroughly interesting and entertaining evening.

To reserve seats online, go here. For more information, please call 949 548 2411.

hello gorgeous

Please join us on Tuesday, October 23 at 7 pm as acclaimed Hollywood biographer William Mann talks about his new book, Hello Gorgeous, a chronicle of Barbra Streisand’s meteoric rise to fame. Mann brilliantly showcases the electrifying story of how Streisand broke all the showbiz rules to transform herself into the greatest superstar of her era.

The story begins in 1960 with Streisand as a seventeen year old kid from Brooklyn bursting with talent and ambition. A mere four years later she finds herself on Broadway, starring in Funny Girl and with three platinum albums to her name. The book takes readers behind the scenes into the shrewd marketing team who helped make her stardom possible, and provides an intimate portrait of her life, loves and extraordinary fame.

To reserve seats online, go here. For more information, please call 949 548 2411.

(Above: Barbra Streisand and author William Mann at right)

true stories, told live

The Guardian London calls it, “brilliant and quietly addictive.” And The Wall Street Journal says, "it’s New York’s hottest and hippest literary ticket.” What is it?   It's The Moth.

A highly acclaimed not-for-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling, The Moth was founded in New York in 1997 by poet and novelist George Dawes Green.

Since its launch, The Moth has presented thousands of stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. According to The Moth’s website, “Each show starts with a theme, and the storytellers explore it, often in unexpected ways. Since each story is true and every voice authentic, the shows dance between documentary and theater, creating a unique, intimate, and often enlightening experience for the audience.”

The idea of The Moth was born when Mr. Dawes Green was living in New York yet longing for the sultry summer evenings of his native Georgia, where he and his friends would gather on a friend’s porch to share stories. A hole in the porch’s screen allowed moths to gather near the light and the group adopted the name. According to the Moth, “audiences are drawn to the stories, like moths to a flame.”

The Moth Radio Hour is broadcast weekly on NPR (locally on KPCC and KCRW). Check out dates and times here.  

a visual feast

Join us on Pinterest for a visual feast of all things bibliophile. The above images come from our board titled perfect places to read. So even if you can’t escape to a hammock for an afternoon with a favorite book, you can can still admire from afar.

Follow all of our boards including beach reads, library love, to learn, to do, to capture, to remember, to inspire and many more.

{Click here to follow us!}

the ease of ebooks

What could be better than browsing the endless titles at the library and coming home with a great book or three? The answer: doing all the same but from the comfort of your favorite reading chair –– at home. 

With eBooks at the Newport Beach Public Library, it's all possible. And simple. First, click on this link. Next, sign in using your name and library account number. And finally, choose your book. Your book will be instantly downloaded to your Kindle, Nook, iPad or computer and will remain there for the two week check-out period. Then, the book is automatically returned (it disappears). No late fees, no
driving.

Check out the more than 4,000 eBook titles here. And happy reading!

Note: How-to workshops on everything about our eBooks take place at the central library periodically. To attend, check out the events schedule here. And for help, please email any questions to: nbplref@city.newport-beach.ca.us

from freeways to flip flops

Imagine running away to a tropical island. Selling your home, cars, furniture, everything; and getting away from it all. That’s just what one Orange County family did, in a quest to live a simpler life, one with less stress and more meaning.

In 2004, Sonia Marsh and her husband, Duke decided to chuck it all and move to Belize hoping to reconnect their family. They uprooted their three sons— ages sixteen, thirteen and ten—and moved from their comfortable life in Orange County, California, to a hut built on stilts in Belize, Central America.

So why did they do it? Their life was out of balance. Duke worked long hours and spent far too much time on the 405, commuting back and forth to Los Angeles each day, with too little time for his family. And Sonia wanted her kids to experience life in a less affluent part of the world, a place without TV and endless gadgets.

Their story is the subject of a recently released book called From Freeways to Flip-flops: A Family’s Year of Gutsy Living on a Tropical Island. The book not only tells of their adventures and life-changing experiences but also provides inspiration to all those who think about making such a bold move but stop short of actually doing it.

Did we mention the book was written at the Newport Beach Public Library? It was. Author (and dedicated Newport Beach Public Library Foundation volunteer) Sonia Marsh wrote the entire manuscript at her favorite desk on the first floor, fueled by plenty of Peet’s Coffee.

The family is now back in Orange County, and along with them came a multitude of invaluable life lessons. For more on their story, check out Sonia Marsh’s website here, and a recent Orange County Register article here.

booked up

Pulitzer prize-winning author Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove and dozens more) has spent the last four decades not just writing but also book collecting. This week that chapter in his life came to a close when his vast collection -- containing more than 300,000 titles -- was auctioned off. The auction was in his hometown of Archer City Texas, a place that had become a destination book town because of Booked Up, his four-building literary mecca. Book lovers, collectors and sellers came from all over the country.

About 100,000 books will stay on the shelves of Booked Up, which will remain open. Mr. McMurtry is also keeping his personal library of 28,000 titles, which he says, “will get me through my remaining years."

For more about the big auction in the small Texas town, read about it in The New York Times here.

paris: a love story

In Paris: A Love Story, award-winning journalist and distinguished author Kati Marton narrates a candid and romantic story of love, loss, and life after loss.

Paris is at the heart of this deeply moving account -- with Marton finding herself in the city at varying stages of her life. Marton finds beauty and excitement in Paris, and now, after the sudden death of her husband, U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the city offers a chance for a fresh beginning. With intimate and nuanced portraits of Peter Jennings, the man to whom she was married for fifteen years and with whom she had two children, and Holbrooke, with whom she found enduring love, Marton paints a vivid account of an adventuresome life in the stream of history.

Kati Marton will be speaking at the Newport Beach Public Library on Monday, September 24 at 7 pm as part of our Library Live series. For reservations, go to our website (nbplfoundation.org) or call 949 548 2411.

For more on Kati Marton’s book or her fascinating life as an international reporter and author, check out the August issue of Vogue Magazine or The Daily Beast here.

an extraordinary maze of books

Talk about getting lost in a good book. The maze above and below was created using more than 250,000 books by two Brazilian artists, Marcos Saboya and Gualter Pupo. Complete with 13-foot tall walls, it was designed to stimulate the curiosity, knowledge, and creativity of all those who walk through it.  And the extraordinary maze has a literary inspiration: it's an exact replica of one of the fingerprints of famed Argentinian author and educator Jorge Luis Borges.

When the maze comes down on August 26th, the books will be given away to the public. If you happen to be in London (where this maze of all mazes is located), it's definitely worth a look. To read more about it, click here. And to watch how it was constructed, check out the fascinating time-lapse video below.

(photo above from here)

a treasure trove

The tagline of the National Geographic Society is “Inspiring people to care about the planet since 1888.” Impressive longevity -- especially for an organization that remains so relevant today.

We’re huge fans of the National Geographic magazine and are pleased to announce an archive database that’s now live on the Newport Beach Public Library website. The database contains each and every magazine article and image from 1888 through 1994 -- with more recent ones to come. It’s kind of like happening upon a collector’s superb library, with more than 100 years of National Geographic issues saved in perfect condition. Quite amazing, really. Check it out here for some exceptional reading.

books about books

What could be better for bibliophiles than books about books? We found eight great ones highlighted in a Daily Beast article.   Check them out here.

library love

Check out Flavorwire's list of the 25 most beautiful libraries in the world here. Simply gorgeous.

And stay tuned for the Newport Beach Public Library's improvements -- due to be finished at the end of the year. With world-renowned architects and landscape architects on the project, we think that when the dust settles, we're going to be fairly spectacular too.

Please note: With the new construction/additions, we have some exceptional and unique naming opportunities. If you're interested or would like to learn more, please contact Tracy Keys, Executive Director of the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation at 949 717 3890.

modern classics

According to the New York Times, “Teenagers are still reading the classics. They just don’t want them to look so, well, classic.”

Publishers have responded to this with modern covers in bold colors. They’ve avoided the old formula of women in frilly dresses with serious looks on their faces -- and replaced it with something more edgy and eye catching.  And why are publishers paying such close attention to this teen/young adult demographic? Because it’s the fastest growing category in publishing. The “Twilight” series and “Hunger Games” are solid proof.

To read more about the subject, check out the New York Times article here. To read more of the fantastic classics that are the subject of this post, check them out at the library.

wisdom from nora

We’re huge fans of Nora Ephron and thought we’d celebrate her wit and wisdom with some of her best quotes. For more on this exceptionally talented novelist, playwright, journalist, author, filmmaker, director, producer, and screenwriter, check out this Daily Beast article here. And for ALL of her books, check them out at the library.

“I always read the last page of a book first so that if I die before I finish I'll know how it turned out.”
—Billy Crystal to Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally

“I don't want to be someone that you're settling for. I don't want to be someone that anyone settles for. Marriage is hard enough without bringing such low expectations into it, isn't it?”
—Walter from Sleepless in Seattle

“The Wonderbra is not a step forward for women. Nothing that hurts that much is a step forward for women.”
—1996 Wellesley College commencement address

“The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self.
—Tom Hanks in You’ve Got Mail

"When your children are teenagers, it's important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you."

— I Feel Bad About My Neck

"Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim." 

— Wellesley commencement address, 1996

a curious case

NPR recently highlighted 13 great books on the horizon, one of which is The Neruda Case, by Chilean author Roberto Ampuero. According to NPR’s Michael Schaub, Ampuero is perhaps “the most famous mystery author you've (probably) never read.” He goes on to say, “that could change this summer, when The Neruda Case, his first novel to be published in English, hits the shelves.”

The Neruda Case features Ampuero's trademark detective, Cayetano Brulé, who takes on a mystery given to him by the dying poet Pablo Neruda. Brulé embarks on a mission to solve the puzzle, traveling from Chile to Cuba, Mexico and Germany –– but soon realizes Neruda hasn't told him everything he knows...

The Neruda Case is available at the Newport Beach Public Library, along with many other books about and by the famous poet.

bookstore wanderings

Needless to say we love libraries. And books. And travel. The above images were taken by Newport Beach Public Library Foundation’s Executive Director, Tracy Keys, on a recent wander through Paris, Vienna and Budapest. Bookstores and libraries are always on her travel agenda.

We’d love to see your best-loved global bookstores. Please send us your favorite images and we’ll use them in an upcoming post.

{Pictured clockwise above: the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, a window display in the Loos Haus in Vienna, a travel bookstore in Vienna, the interior of Shakespeare and Company in Paris, and the exterior of Shakespeare and Company.}

what your books say about you

What does a personal library say about its owner? What clues do the books that line the shelves provide about the person who bought them? 

In Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books, those questions are answered for a handful of famous authors. The book, written by Leah Price, author and Harvard English professor, is a never-before-seen look at the private libraries of 13 renowned authors. It contains photographs of their libraries along with a list of each of their top ten favorite books. It also features the answers to such questions as: When did you start buying books? How do you arrange them? How many of them have you read? Do you throw any out? Do you mark them up? Do you have an e-book reader? 

Stunning photographs of their libraries and close-ups of individual volumes –– first editions, worn textbooks, pristine hardcovers, and childhood favorites –– provide great visuals. Read more about the book at the Harvard Gazette here. 

{Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books is coming soon to the NBPL}

beach reads

With summer nearly upon us, we thought we'd share some of our favorite beach reads.  All great escapes and nothing too terribly heavy.  We'd LOVE to hear some of yours.  

For more beach reads, check out our beach read board on Pinterest here.  

(Too Much Money, Dominick Dunne; Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris; A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway; How to Travel Ingonito, Ludwig Bemelmans; Wonderful Town, David Remnick; Hotel Bemelmans, Ludwig Bemelmans; Living Well is the Best Revenge, Calvin Tomkins; Fifth Avenue 5 A.M., Sam Wasson; The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde; The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair, George Plimpton; Shiksa Goddess, Wendy Wasserstein; Philistines at the Hedgerow, Steven Gaines)

just for kids

Check out our latest creation -- just for kids.  It's called Kid News and it's anything and everything news-y for kids.  Stay tuned for weekly posts on things from chameleons to cartoons, blue moons to books.  We look forward to seeing you there!

{check out KID NEWS here}

join us on pinterest

If you love books (and we suspect you do), follow us on Pinterest and check out anything and everything bibliophile related. We have boards dedicated to THE perfect places to curl up with a book, our favorite covers, must reads, places to go/books to read before you go, and, and, and.

Looking forward to seeing you on Pinterest!   (click here to join us)

reading time for mom

We heard a story on the news the other day about what mothers really wanted for Mother’s Day. Topping the list was: 1) a nap, 2) a shower without a child knocking at the bathroom door, and 3) peace and quiet. Which got us thinking. Most moms can never find the time to sneak away and curl up with a good book, so we’re providing a perfect (and simple) gift idea: an afternoon of quiet reading for mom.

We’ve also compiled some great reading suggestions. The peace and quiet? Well, that’s up to you.

Wishing you a happy, relaxing and book-filled Mother’s Day!

{Mother’s Day Reading List -- all available at the Newport Beach Public Library: Chocolat by Joanne Harris; Best Friends, Occasional Enemies by Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella; Shiksa Goddess by Wendy Wasserstein; Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller; The Paris Wife by Paula McLain; About Alice by Calvin Trillin; I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson (a bit fluffy but who doesn't like David Cassidy?!); Bossypants by Tina Fey; The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein; The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton; Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year by Anne Lamott.}

fall in love with reading

We came across this fantastic graphic aimed at getting kids excited about reading. The image was created by Burning through Pages, an organization with a very singular goal: to inspire a love of reading in today's youth by recommending, donating, and discussing books. Brilliant, we think. Don’t you?

So stop by the children’s section of the library, or go online here to take advantage of the multitude of online resources available. And help your child fall in love with reading.