The Way Back Machine – Best Sellers 1960

The Way Back Machine is going way back today – further than we’ve been on this blog, anyway. We’re going to revisit the year 1960, so grab your fedora or gloves, and get buckled in (though bucking in was a foreign concept then). To get into the mood, remember that 1960 was the year when:

• John F. Kennedy, announced his candidacy for President of the U.S. (Jan) – and was elected later that year.
• Ben Hur won the Oscar for Best Picture (Apr).
• Sputnik 5, the first with live animals, was launched into space (Aug).

Or, get in the mood by reading a popular book – the following are all New York Times Best Sellers for the week of September 25, 1960.

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FICTION

1. Hawaii by James Michener

2. Advise and Consent by Allen Drury

3. The Leopard by Guiseppe di Lampedusa

4. The Chapman Report by Irving Wallace

5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

6. The Lovely Ambition by Mary Ellen Chase

7. Water of Life by Henry Morton Robinson

8. The Affair by C.P. Snow

9. The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis

10. Diamond Head by Peter Gilman

11. Before You Go by Jerome Weidman

12. The Sun Is My Shadow by Robert Wilder

13. The View from the Fortieth Floor by Theodore H. White

14. Away from Home by Rona Jaffe

15. Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt

16. Set This House on Fire by William Styron

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NONFICTION

1. Born Free by Joy Adamson

2. How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market by Nicolas Darvas

3. Enjoy, Enjoy! by Harry Golden

4. May This House Be Safe from Tigers by Alexander King

5. Folk Medicine by Deforest Clinton Jarvis

6. Felix Frankfurter Reminisces by Felix Frankfurter

7. The Good Years by Walter Lord

8. The Liberal Hour by John Kenneth Galbraith

9. The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater

10. I Kid You Not by Jack Paar

11. Taken at the Flood by John Gunther

12. Mr. Citizen by Harry S. Truman

13. Baseball Is a Funny Game by Joe Garagiola

14. The Night They Burned the Mountain by Thomas A. Dooley

15. Thomas Wolfe by Elizabeth Nowell

16. Daughters and Rebels by Jessica Mitford

Take Ten: “Fall”ing Leaves

We’ve been trying to hold on to summer, but Mother Nature is not-so-subtly trying to propel us into autumn. The chill in the air, the shorter days, the falling leaves – all of these should start to get us into the fall mood (though maybe the pumpkin-spice flavored foods that have seemed to proliferate like crazy this season will do it first).

We’ll help things along by offering a selection of books that have the word “fall” in the title. Maybe we can fake it till we make it this season…

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FICTION:

Adam’s Fall – Sandra Brown

• Physical therapist Lilah Mason meets her match when she takes Adam as a patient, and as he challenges her methods and her authority, she finds herself falling in love.

All Fall Down – Ally Carter

• After being hospitalized for insisting that her mother was murdered, not killed in an accidental fire, Grace goes to live with her grandfather for a fresh start, but when she sees her mothers murderer again, her past comes back to haunt her.

The Fall of Princes – Robert Goolrick

• What happens when you can get anything you want, and what does it really end up costing you? This is the story of the people working in the financial industry during the 1980s – a time interwoven with the reality of AIDS, cocaine and the changes going on in society.

Fall of Night – Maberry

• In the midst of a zombie plague launched by a mad scientist, policewoman Desdemona (“Dez”) Fox and journalist Billy Trout are trying to protect a school building full of uninfected people, and their associates are also in desperate situations — one at the White House and the other trapped by the zombie who started it all.

Hard Fall – Ridley Pearson

• On the trail of an international trigger man responsible for planting at least two bombs on planes, FBI agent Cameron Daggett comes face to face with frightening ghosts from his past.

How to Fall – Jane Casey

• When sixteen-year-old Jess Tennant’s mother takes her to spend the summer in the tiny English town where she grew up, people look at Jess as if they have seen a ghost due to her resemblance to her cousin Freya, who died shortly before Jess arrived and towhom Jess feels a strange connection.

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NONFICTION:

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – Edward Gibbon

• The classic that recounts the events that led to the fall of the Roman Empire, from the second century A.D. to the fifteenth century A.D.

The Fall Line: How American Ski Racers Conquered a Sport on the Edge – Nathaniel Vinton

• A journey into the world’s original extreme sport: downhill ski racing.

Perfect: The Rise and Fall of John Paciorek, Baseball’s Greatest One-Game Wonder – Steven K. Wagner

• On the final day of the 1963 major-league baseball season, Houston Colt .45s teen sensation John Paciorek–in his one and only big-league game–went three-for-three, notched three RBI and scored four times. Then, a back injury dropped him just as quickly back down to the minor leagues, where he soon departed from baseball forever.

They Are All My Family: A Daring Rescue in the Chaos of Saigon’s Fall – John P. Riordan

• Safe in Hong Kong, Riordan could not imagine leaving behind his employees and defied instructions from his superiors not to return to Saigon. But once he did make it back on the last commercial flight, his actions were daring and ingenious. Decades later, Riordan has located the Vietnamese and reconnected with them, sharing accounts of those frantic days and the derring-do it took to get them out to safety

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Annotations are from NoveList Plus, which offers readers information on authors, books, and series.

Let’s Talk About It!

Once again, this fall is Let’s Talk About It! season. The reading and discussion series, provided by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council, the Idaho Commission for Libraries, US Bank, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, will run every other Wednesday from September 16 through November 18 at 6:30 PM. Our theme this year is “American Classics” and the titles we’ll be looking at offer a look at works with significant cultural and personal impact. Join us, and our guest scholars, for some great conversations!

Pick up a set of the books and more information at the Reference Desk, or call 733-2964 ext. 200.

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Wednesday, September 16 – 6:30 PM

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Guest Scholar: Thomas Klein of ISU

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Wednesday, September 30 – 6:30 PM

Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain

Guest Scholar: Carlen Donovan of ISU

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Wednesday, October 14 – 6:30 PM

Final Harvest by Emily Dickinson

Guest Scholar: Susan Swetnam of ISU

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Wednesday, October 28 – 6:30 PM

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Guest Scholar: Clark Draney of CSI

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Wednesday, November 18 – 6:30 PM

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Guest Scholar: Dan Hunt of ISU

Great Online Resource: Chilton Manuals

The Idaho Commission for Libraries has begun a subscription to the online Chilton database for car repair, available free to all Idaho residents! If you’re looking for the same great repair diagrams you get from the print books, you’ll find them here – in addition to labor estimates, recall information, and maintenance interval suggestions. Start from the LiLI database page and then look for the green Chilton button under Featured Resources. Then, enter your zip code and city. It’s that easy! If only fixing your brakes was as simple…

Contact the Reference Desk – tfpl@twinfallspubliclibrary.org or 733-2964 ext. 200 – for more information.