The Way Back Machine – Best Sellers 1975

Get out your platform shoes and bell-bottoms, we’re going back to the seventies! (Actually, you might want to leave those items in the closet – the 1970s really weren’t a great time for sartorial elegance…)

If you were alive in 1975, you might remember Saturday Night Live‘s premiere episode (October), the three main Watergate perpetrators getting sentenced (February), or the death of Josephine Baker (April). Or, you might remember reading one of the bestsellers of this week in April:

 

FICTION:

The Moneychangers by Arthur Hailey

Centennial by James Michener

The Promise of Joy by Allen Drury

The Dreadful Lemon Sky by John D. MacDonald

Shardik by Richard Adams

A Month of Sundays by John Updike

The Massacre at Fall Creek by Jessamyn West

The Seven Per-Cent Solution edited by Nicholas Meyer

Spindrift by Phyllis A. Whitney

Black Sunday by Thomas Harris

~~~

NONFICTION:

The Bermuda Triangle by Charles Berlitz

There at “The New Yorker” by Brendan Gill

The Ascent of Man by J. Bronowski

Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi

Total Fitness by Laurence E. Morehouse and Leonard Gross

The Bankers by Martin Mayer

You Can Get There from Here by Shirley Maclaine

Conversations with Kennedy by Benjamin C. Bradlee

Strictly Speaking by Edwin Newman

Breach of Faith: The Fall of Richard Nixon by Theodore H. White

 

Social Networking for Book Nerds!

We know you’ve all heard of Facebook and Twitter, but did you know there are community sites for more specific groups? For those of you who are interested in reading, you might want to check out one of the social networking sites designed for book lovers. These sites are great places for you to get reviews from actual readers, connect with authors, and even enter drawings for advanced copies of books. As Librarians we also love that you can keep track of the books you read –  creating “shelves”, recommending titles to friends, and even checking your statistics to gauge your reading habits.

The three most popular book community sites are:

• Goodreads (free site – you will need an email account to sign up)
• LibraryThing (you can add up to 200 books for free; it’s $10/year or $25 for a lifetime account)
• Shelfari (free site – can connect to your amazon.com information)

There are other sites out there, so if none of these strike your fancy, do a Google search for book networking sites. (Check out what your friendly Reference Librarians are reading here.)

C is for Carpet

What could more appropriate right now than to do a list of books involving carpets? If you’ve been in the Library lately, you will undoubtedly have noticed the smell and the chaos (which for librarians is only slightly more organized than everyone else’s chaos!) of our new carpeting project.  Regardless, here are a few titles about the art of weaving, if you’re not already tired of the whole subject!

Annotations are courtesy of NoveList Plus.

FICTION:

Anahita’s Woven Riddle by Meghan Nuttall Sayres

• In Iran, more than 100 years ago, a young girl with three suitors gets permission from her father and a holy man to weave into her wedding rug a riddle to be solved by her future husband, which will ensure that he has wit to match hers.

The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

• After her father dies without leaving her with a dowry, a seventeenth-century Persian teen becomes a servant to her wealthy rug designer uncle in the court of Shah Abbas the Great, where her weaving talents prove both a blessing and curse.

The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach

• In an extinct world where carpet makers once dedicated entire lifetimes to weaving elaborately knotted carpets for their emperor, a group of strangers arrives to examine the history of the carpets and makes an astonishing discovery.

The Virgin’s Knot by Holly Payne

• Preparing dowries in the form of mystical healing rugs for young brides, celebrated virgin Turkish weaver Nurdane questions the limitations of her faith and culture when she is forced to choose between her craft and her chance for a loving life.

~~

NONFICTION:

The Root of Wild Madder: Chasing the History, Mystery, and Lore of the Persian Carpet by Brian Murphy

• An accessible history of Persian carpet making identifies elements of faith and symbolism that have inspired traditional weaves, explaining the carpet’s role in the Middle Eastern economy and culture.

Five for 5/5

It’s Cinco de Mayo – and other than the historical significance of the day, it’s also fun just to say 5/5 (of course, it was even more fun last year when 5 (day) + 5 (month) = 10 (year), but I digress…).

So in honor of the fives, here are five categories of five items each that include the number five in their titles. I’d ask for a high five, but that’s a little difficult to do online. (Starred entries are highly recommended.)

FICTION FIVE:

Fidelity: Five Stories – Wendell Berry

Five Days in Paris – Danielle Steel

Five Little Pigs – Agatha Christie*

Five Quarters of the Orange – Joanne Harris*

Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut

~~~

NONFICTION FIVE:

Chef on Fire: Five Techniques for Using Heat Like a Pro – Joseph Carey

Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History – Helene Stapinski

Five Points: The 19th Century New York City Neighborhood that Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World’s Most Notorious Slum – Tyler Anbinder*

I Promise: How Five Commitments Determine the Destiny of Your Marriage – Gary Smalley

Save Your Brain: The 5 Things You Must Do to Keep Your Mind Young and Sharp – Paul David Nussbaum*

~~~

CHILDREN’S FIVE:

Across Five Aprils – Irene Hunt*

Cowgirl Rosie and Her Five Baby Bison – Stephen Gulbis

The Five-Dog Night – Ellen Christelow

The Five Lost Aunts of Harriet Bean – Alexander McCall Smith*

The Telling Tales of the Tales: Five Stories – William J. Brooke

~~~

DVD FIVE:

(500) Days of Summer

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T*

Five Minutes of Heaven

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Nine to Five*

~~~

CD FIVE:

3 Years, 5 Months, and2 Days in the Life of… – Arrested Development

90125 – Yes

The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings – Louis Armstrong*

The Five Violin Concertos – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart*

Fresh Aire V – Mannheim Steamroller