Come in and check out our Happy Holidays book display featuring novels centered around the Holiday season.  From classics like A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens to Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich.

Happy Holidays from the staff at BPL !

Come celebrate hockey history with us during a film showing of “More Macs More” at 11am this Saturday on the 3rd floor of the library!

Join local author Aaron Bell, whose book and film tell the amazing story of the Belleville McFarlands’ 1959 World Cup victory in Prague. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet some of the members of the team who captured Canadian hearts and Belleville pride.

And the Winner is….

THE BISHOP’S MAN by Linden MacIntyre

From an award-winning writer and one of Canada’s foremost broadcast journalists, comes a deeply wise and moving novel that explores the guilty minds and spiritual evasions of Catholic priests.

Father Duncan MacAskill has spent most of his priesthood as the “Exorcist” — an enforcer employed by his bishop to discipline wayward priests and suppress potential scandal. He knows all the devious ways that lonely priests persuade themselves that their needs trump their vows, but he’s about to be sorely tested himself. While sequestered by his bishop in a small rural parish to avoid an impending public controversy, Duncan must confront the consequences of past cover-ups and the suppression of his own human needs. Pushed to the breaking point by loneliness, tragedy and sudden self-knowledge, Duncan discovers how hidden obsessions and guilty secrets either find their way to the light of understanding, or poison any chance we have for love and spiritual peace.

http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307357069

Next week is Ontario Public Library Week.  Join in our Contest and win a great prize!  Fill out a ballot (one per person – per day) telling us how you used your library today, and enter a chance to win one of MANY prizes, including gift certificates from Greenley’s Book Store. 

Contest runs from October 19^th – 24^th. 

Ballot boxes at Information Services, Reader’s Advisory and in the Gallery.  You can’t win, if you don’t fill out a ballot! 

Prizes will be drawn on Saturday October 24^th at 4 pm.

Tomorrow When the War Began By John Marsden

If you’re a person who likes action and adventure, this is the series for you (if you don’t mind some gruesome descriptions).

At the beginning of the story the main characters are out camping. But when they return, they find the town to be invaded by enemy forces. Their parents and everyone in the town are thrown in a prisoner of war camp. They risk their lives sabotaging the enemy and evading capture.

The reason John Marsden is such a good writer is because his writing is suspenseful, action packed and full of adventure. So if you like action read this series.

Written by a young BPL patron

Book Review for: Duchess of Death: The Unauthorized Biography of Agatha Christie by Richard Hack

Phoenix Books, 2009, 823.912 ChrH

 The popularity of Agatha Christie more than a century after her birth tells us of the quality of her work.  But can anyone capture the same intrigue we would expect from one of her novels when writing about her life?  We are told that this unauthorized biography draws from over 5000 unpublished letters, notes and documents: a rather enticing tidbit of information before we even begin to read!  Richard Hack then begins his biography with his account of the most mysterious chapter of Agatha Christie’s life: her 11 day disappearance in 1926.  If only the whole of the book was as interesting!  But of course, as most lives don’t offer us a plot worthy of an Agatha Christie mystery, we must settle with reading the extraordinary – but not often exciting – story of her life.  Written like a novel, it is easy to read and the facts (which are abundantly given) usually flow quite well. The end of the book rather drags out in the same way that most lives tend to do, and yet it emphasizes the way that Agatha Christie never stopped working, and that she never gave in to her age! 

In the end, Richard Hack offers us an interpretation of Agatha Christie’s life that is easy to accept and a pleasure to read.  There is a hint of the mystery and intrigue that one would hope to find in an Agatha Christie tale, and many explanations (interpretations) of the events in her life.  He ends by discussing her home in Devonshire called “Greenway House” which was restored and opened to the public in February 2009. 

“To visit Greenway is to step back in time…There in the hall is the leather chest from Baghdad, worn from daily use, as is much of the house in general…It takes very little imagination to hear her reading still, for this house contains more than history.” (Pp.236-237). 

One wonders if his visit to Greenway House was what got him started on his biography in the first place, and one cannot help but entertain the idea – whether in fantasy or not – in order to truly complete the experience of Agatha Christie’s life history – of one day visiting the beautiful estate oneself!

The winner of the Read one to Win one Contest is Kay Vowinckel!! Congratulations!

Swimsuit by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Bestselling Author James Patterson has done it again.  Swimsuit is another spine-tingling thriller that keeps the reader wondering what will happen next. 

Kim, a swimsuit supermodel, disappears while on a photo shoot in Hawaii.  Her parents travel there to find out what has happened to their daughter and meet LA Times reporter Ben Hawkins.  He has been sent to Hawaii to write an article about the murder but finds himself conducting an investigation of his own.  While there, Ben is contacted by the kidnapper himself and given an opportunity that he can’t refuse…or die if he does.

James Patterson’s latest Serial Killer is both a genius and a psychopath who is a mastermind of unspeakable horrors.

“A Darkness Forged in Fire” by new Canadian author, Chris Evans, is a cross between traditional epic fantasy and military fiction, with enough elements of either one to appeal to readers of both.

PLOT SUMMARY: In an unforgiving world of brutal conflict—where musket and cannon, bow and arrow, magic and diplomacy are all weapons in the Calahrian Empire—there’s no denying that Konowa Swiftdragon, former commander of the Empire’s Iron Elves, could be looked upon as anything but ordinary. He’s murdered a Viceroy, been court-martialed, seen his beloved regiment disbanded, and finally been banished to the one place he despises the most—the forest. Now all he wants is to be left alone . . . but for Konowa, nothing is ever that simple.

A falling Red Star in the east heralds the return of magic long vanished from the earth, sparking a frantic race within the Empire to reach it first. Now Konowa is recalled to duty and asked to reform the Iron Elves—only the soldiers he gets aren’t quite what he was expecting. And worse, their key adversary to obtain the Star is none other than the dreaded Shadow Monarch—a legendary elf-witch whose machinations for absolute domination spread deeper than Konowa could ever imagine

“A Darkness Forged in Fire” is a clash of two different worlds. On one side you have elves, dwarves, orcs, wizards, dragons, powerful magic and other classic fantasy trappings that recall Terry Brooks and J.R.R. Tolkien. On the other side you have muskets, cannons, howitzers, military tactics, and so on, taken right out of a Bernard Cornwell Napoleonic epic. Besides the setting and military aspects, other strengths include the descriptive prose, the short chapters and quick pacing, imaginative flora/fauna and amusing wholesome laughs.

It may disappoint in a number of areas, most notably the plot, underdeveloped subplot, and a surprise twist at the end that is not very surprising.  Overall though,

“A Darkness Forged in Fire” is a solid first effort—a book that readers of fantasy can enjoy and that the author should be proud of—and the start to a series that should only get better…

http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2008/07/darkness-forged-in-fire-by-chris-evans.html

Celebrate Canada Day with a good book by a Canadian Author!

Check out a book by a Canadian Author during the month of July. Once you’ve finished reading it, come to Reader’s Advisory, fill out a ballot for a chance to win a brand new copy of the latest book by Canadian Author Chris Evans:  “A Darkness Forged in Fire”