If you’re looking for something-ahem- enlightening to read this summer, try this list from NPR: Summer Books 2012. If you ask me (and you often do), I recommend The Age of Miracles, Wife 22, The Language of Flowers, and The Destiny of the Republic: A tale of madness, medicine, and the murder of a President.

I’ll be coming back with some great galleys from Book Expo in a couple of weeks. I’m hoping to get the sequel to Justin Cronin’s The Passage, titled The Twelve, but there’s a long list of other titles I’m hoping to pick up. We give them away in the adult and teen summer reading drawings, and at the July Cafe Parlez book group meeting, and many are autographed by the author. And don’t forget to consult the Book Pages that the Friends sponsor. Copies are always at the desk, and they do great reviews.

Secondly, we received a $4,000 grant from A.D. Makepeace to help with finishing off the first part of our basement project: the meeting room. The small meeting room should be available by July 1 for private meetings and for use of the historical collection. From now until September 1, it will also be used to house and sort the book sale items as they come in. Only private groups can use this room, as it is not Handicapped Accessible. We will be raising money later in the year to fund a small elevator, which will make the room ADA compliant. Anyway, the small meeting room will have wi-fi and computer connections, and a small flat-screen TV, hooked up to a cable connection, thanks to Comcast. If you would like to use the room for a meeting, please contact me. It should be fully functional in the fall. Many, many thanks to AD Makepeace for their contribution.

Cafe Parlez meets NEXT Thursday, May 31, at 6:30 to discuss Room. June’s book is The Three Junes, winner of the National Book Award in 2002.

And finally for today, here is a long article on Memorial Day (aka Decoration Day) from Wikipedia: Memorial Day. I find cemeteries to be interesting places. Make an effort to drop by one this week and read some of the epitaphs. You can learn a lot about a town by looking at the cemeteries.

Coming up: the Trustees will be meeting on Saturday, 5/12, at 8:30 a.m., and welcoming our newest Trustees Jen Kulak and Mary Levenson. After that, the Junior Friends will be meeting and preparing bookmarks about the Summer Reading Program. These bookmarks will be distributed to all children at RMS along with other materials about “Dream Big – Read!”, this year’s summer program. Miss Lisa is putting together a pretty amazing summer for the kids, and don’t forget the teens and adults parts, too. Jen has assembled nice gift bags for the teen and adult winners. Sign-up starts when school ends.

Also coming up, the Nonfiction Book Group will discuss The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, by Amy Chua on Thursday, May 17. This is their last book for the summer. We will start again in September with A Night to Remember, by Walter Lord.

Lastly, Mother’s Day has me thinking of mothers in literature. Here is a short list of some of my favorites: Marmee (Little Women); Caroline Ingalls (Little House series); Marilla Cuthbert (Anne of Green Gables); the mother in Swallows and Amazons. Post a comment if you have any you’d like to suggest.

At this time of year, there are many awards given out by the genre specialty groups. Last week, we had the Edgar and Agatha Christie awards for mystery. In the coming weeks, there are the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for fantasy and science fiction. I mention these genres specifically because they are my favorites to read. Here is the list of nominees for Locus: Locus Award Finalists, and it seems to be a very strong field. I can highly recommend Stephen King’s 11/22/63. Even if you don’t like sci-fi, you’ll be drawn into this time travel adventure, where Jake tries to stop the assassination of JFK. I can’t say too much more, but I will say that, when I wasn’t reading this book, I was thinking about it. Will he succeed, and what would happen to the world if he does succeed? We are also big fans of Charlie Stross, China Mieville, George R.R. Martin, Terry Pratchett, and Cat Valente, who has two books nominated. All of the staff here liked The Night Circus, and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland…, and I particularly liked Ready Player One. I’m glad I’m not on the judging committee for this award!

A lot of the same titles can be found on the Hugo Award nominee list, plus some films and tv shows: Hugo Awards. The decision should be tough in the Film category, with Game of Thrones going up against Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, but Game of Thrones should win (sorry, Harry fans!). As for the tv episodes, it’s Doctor Who vs. Doctor Who.

Lastly, being awarded in a couple of weeks will be the Nebulas, awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of American. The list of nominees is here:Nebula Award List. Again, some of the same titles can be seen (must read Embassytown, and Mechanique!), but I like that they include YA books as well. My to-be-read list grows larger each year at this time.

If you like mystery books, you know about the annual Edgar Awards. Here is this year’s list: Edgar Awards for 2012. I usually check this list for what Plumb owns and order those that we’ve missed. But feel free to place reserves.

I’ll be going to the Book Expo America again this year, and one of the highlights of BEA is meeting authors and getting their signatures on Advanced Reader Copies, or their new books. Here is the list of attending authors: Authors at BEA. Let me know who’s signature I should get. Sometimes the best experiences happen by accident, so who knows what I’ll come back with. BEA is in the first week of June.

When I first read Harry Potter, I remember feeling it was close in style and plot to Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones. We were great DWJ readers in my house, especially loving the Crestomanci series. If you’d like to investigate this popular fantasy author, check out this blog: Celebrate Diana Wynne Jones. I recommend starting with Witch Week, then maybe Howl’s Moving Castle. She also wrote a very wry adult fantasy that takes place at a science fiction conference (aka sci-fi con).

And finally, thanks to Bookshelves of Doom (if you’re not reading this blog, you should!) and Book Riot, here is a funny look at the unsung over siblings in children’s literature, such as Beezus, Mary Ingalls, etc.: “No Fair!” On Overlooked Eldest Siblings. Do you have any to add?

The May Book Page has just arrived. Anna Quindlen is on the cover. Inside is the usual stellar collection of interviews, reviews, and news. Oh, and a crossword puzzle on the back. Sharpen your pencils!

Here is a cute video about RIF: Book People Unite! Thanks to Bookshelves of Doom for the link. (If you’re an Etsy shopper, check out Bookshelves of Doom’s Etsy shop. She takes postage stamps and makes lovely pendants out of them. We received a nice Moomintroll one for a birthday present.)

Tonight at 6, the Junior Friends will have a pizza party, sponsored by the Plumb Law firm, as a thank you for their hard work at the Easter Egg hunt in early April. We are very proud of our Junior Friends. They’ve done several visits to Sippican Nursing Home to deliver holiday treats before Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Easter.

The Cafe Parlez book discussion group will meet this Thursday at 6;30 to discuss Mrs. Kimble. Copies of May’s book Room are available now.

That’s it for now. See you Friday!

I have always been interested in the Titanic, ever since reading Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember (also a good movie). If you’re interested in the same topic, I can recommend any of these books.

Coming up: Nonfiction Book Group will discuss Dave Cullen’s Columbine on Thursday, 4/19. Cafe Parlez will discuss Mrs. Kimble on 4/26. On Monday, May 7 at 6:30, John Teal, author of Life and Death of a Salt Marsh, will present a talk with Powerpoint presentation on “Old Rochester’s Wetlands, Salt and Fresh”. Also, we will start writing book reviews in the blog, and/or listing new books we can’t wait for you to read.

I think Joel Stein wrote this just to be controversial: Should Adults Be Reading Kids Books. If you follow his logic, readers of The Lord of the Rings series would not know how Bilbo got the ring, because they would not have read The Hobbit. And does this include all of LM Montgomery’s works, or just Anne of Green Gables? What do you think of his statement?

All of the Harry Potter books are now available through Overdrive: Harry Potter ebooks at your library, and we’ve got ‘em! You may have to wait, but the price is right.

This was an alarming article from Huffington Post: American High School Students Read at a 5th Grade Level, but really not that surprising for those of us in the library biz. We see it all too often: the size of the book matters more than the content. Reading is not valued in the family, so it becomes a chore for everyone concerned. Reading lists do not contain new titles, graphic novels, or popular books, thus reading becomes associated with work and tedium. Your opinions?

If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, here’s The Hunger Games performed by Beanie Babies: Beanie Baby Hunger Games. It’s pretty accurate to the story, so if you haven’t read it or seen the movie, be aware.

And finally, from Book Riot blog, how YA heroines would react in regular situations: What Would Insert-YA-Heroine-Here Do?. I like Katniss’ solution.