Join one of our *NEW* Delicate Dialogues!

Enjoy constructive discussions about controversial issues in a friendly atmosphere? Join one of our Delicate Dialogues!

2nd Mondays ~ 7-8pm ~ Council Chambers ~ ADULTS AND TEENS WELCOME!

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS!

• Prior to the dialogue, read the brief Opposing Viewpoints piece that explores both sides of the chosen topic—copies provided at the library.


• Come to the dialogue prepared to discuss both sides of the issue using points from the reading, but you should also feel free to offer insights from your own experience/perspective, other information you have gathered from reading, TV, etc.


• Leave the dialogue with an enriched understanding of both sides of a “delicate” issue—and come back for more!

JAN. 12—TOPIC: Health Care

• “Universal Health Care Is Necessary to Increase Access to Quality Medicine,” by Barack Obama.


• “Universal Health Care Will Reduce the Quality of American Medicine,” by Adam P. Summers.

"We're not going to agree on every single issue, but what we have to do is to be able to create an atmosphere where we can disagree without being disagreeable and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans." ~ Barack Obama

Film and Book Club next week!

Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 7pm, Council Chambers

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

Thursday, Nov. 20, Noon, Council Chambers

Be there, or be square! :-)

New Staff Picks!

Check out what the DPL staff is reading, watching, and listening to!

Fiction
Naked in Death by J.D. Robb (PBK ROBB), Mother Road by Dorothy Garlock (FIC GARLOCK), The Problem with Murmur Lee by Connie May Fowler (FIC FOWLER), Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by M. C. Beaton (FIC BEATON), Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen (FIC ALLEN)
Nonfiction
The Land, Always the Land by Mel Ellis (508.775 ELL), Racing Odysseus by Roger H. Martin (378.111 MAR)
Children’s and Teens
The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron (J FIC PATRON; J CDBOOK PATRON), Al Capone Does My Shirts By Gennifer Choldenko (J FIC CHOLDENKO; J PLAYAWAY CHOLDENKO)
Movies
The Rage in Placid Lake (DVD RAGE IN PLACID), Miss Potter (DVD MISS POTTER)
Music
The Works by Jonatha Brooke (CD POP/ROCK BRO #1)

Come to the Delafield Reads Book-Talk Luncheon!

Celebrate the joy of reading at the Delafield Reads Book-Talk Luncheon!

Wednesday, November 12, 11:30am-1:30pm, at Mouso Hall on St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy campus.

Enjoy a FREE lunch while listening to the following local celebrities talk about important books in their lives:

Pat Deklotz
KMHS Superintendent

Glenda Dolphin
Delafield Public Library Staff

Char Hall
Library Board and Vice President of the Friends of the Delafield Public Library

Ron Miskelley
City of Delafield District 7 Alderman

Tim Schuenke
City of Delafield Administrator

Limited spots—
Register at the Library now!

New Staff Picks!

Check out what the library staff is reading, watching, or listening to!

Demon in My View by Amelia Atwater Rhodes (TEEN FIC ATW), Home to Harmony by Philip Gulley (FIC GULLEY), The Land Remembers: The Story of a Farm and Its People by Ben Logan (CDBOOK 921 LOGAN), Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
(FIC BECHDEL), Civil & Strange by Cláir Ní Aonghusa (FIC NI AONGHUSA), The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell (FIC O’FARRELL), Waiting for an Echo by Solas (CD FOLK SOL #1), The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (CDBOOK STEIN), The Underneath by Kathi Appelt (J FIC APPELT), ZAPPED: a Regan Reilly Mystery by Carol Higgins Clark (FIC CLARK), Ken Burns' Mark Twain, Original Soundtrack Recording (CD SDTK TWA #1)

Remembering the Vietnam War in Words and Images

Enrich your experience of visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Moving Wall (at the Delafield Fish Hatchery October 16-20) by participating in these Delafield Public Library programs:

COME TO BOOK DISCUSSIONS of The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien—First 30 registrants get FREE books from the library!

• Thursday, Oct. 16, 7pm, 2nd floor of Fish Hatchery - Discussion led my Mark Zirngibl, St. John's Northwestern Military Academy English teacher and Vietnam Veteran.


• Sunday, Oct. 19, 7pm, 2nd floor of Fish Hatchery - Discussion led by Timothy Thering, Vietnam-War history professor at UW-Waukesha.

SEE THE FILM, PLATOON, followed by discussion—FREE soda and popcorn courtesy of Milwaukee Street Traders!*

• Saturday, Oct. 18, 6:30pm, Milwaukee Street Traders - Discussion led by Mandy Swygart-Hobaugh, Library's Adult Services Librarian.

Call or drop by the library for details!

NEW Staff Picks!

Check out what the DPL staff is reading and watching!

Fiction
Kiss of Shadows by Laurel K Hamilton (FIC HAMILTON), The Lottery Winner by Mary Higgins Clark (FIC CLARK), Nowhere in Africa: An Autobiographical Novel by Stefanie Zweig (in WCFLS system), The Pathfinder by James Fenimore Cooper (FIC COOPER), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind (FIC SUSKIND, DVD PERFUME)

Nonfiction
I Feel Bad about My Neck by Nora Ephron (305.2442 EPH), Warm Springs: Traces of a Childhood at FDR’s Polio Haven by Susan Richards Shreve (362.196 SHR)

Children’s and Teens
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson (J FIC SANDERSON), Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo by Obert Skye (J FIC SKY), The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd (J FIC DOWD), Blood Red Horse by K.M Grant (TEEN FIC GRANT BK. 1)

August film/book club highlights...

Film club discussed the two biopics (Capote and Infamous) about Truman Capote's experience of researching and writing his "nonfiction novel" about a 1959 murder of a Kansas family, entitled In Cold Blood. We thought that both actors did a fabulous job of portraying Capote, and both films were very good. The overall feeling was that Capote was much more darker than Infamous, while we had varying opinions on which we liked better, which portrayed Capote as more emphathetic versus manipulative, and so on. If you haven't seen either, or read In Cold Blood, they are definitely worth the time - but be prepared for a disturbing but fascinating exploration of the minds of killers.

Book club finished off the summer by reading Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons - lighter fare but still poignant in its portrayals of the day-to-day tribulations, rebellions, and laughter of a group of Minnesotan housewives spanning the late 1960s through 1990s.

September's Film: Modern Times (Wednesday, September 17, at 7pm)

September's Book: Confederacy of Dunces (Thursday, September 18, Noon)

July film/book clubs discussion highlights...

The film club discussed the German film, Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), which we all found to be a very powerful movie, due both to the political aspects (a tale of a Staasi officer's secret surveillance of a writer and actor couple in 1984 East Germany) and the personal aspects (the officer's transformation from a cold automaton to a "human"). We highly recommend the film!

The book club discussed the Pulitzer-Prize winning nonfiction book, The Founding Brothers, by Joseph Ellis, which gives an accessible but in-depth look at the following key figures in the founding of the United States: Thomas Jefferson, John and Abigail Adams, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and Aaron Burr. We were all particularly surprised by the book's revealing that Jefferson was not exactly the perfect figure that has been mythologized throughout history, and we were impressed by John and Abigail Adams relationship and how much respect John had for Abigail's opinions - go Abby! Overall, the book does a good job of revealing just how precarious the U.S. was at its founding, and how this important group of men (and a woman) held it together.

August's book club: Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons, by Lorna Landvik, Thursday, August 21, Noon.

August's film club: Both Capote and Infamous, Wednesday, August 20, 7pm.

June film/book club discussions...

Our film and book clubs for June were thematically linked: we watched the biopic Kinsey, and read The Inner Circle (T.C. Boyle), an historical fiction tale of Alfred Kinsey's "inner circle" of sex researchers. Those who read the book and watched the film noticed the striking contrasts in how Kinsey was portrayed: the film depicting him as a man of science on a moral quest to rid America of its hangups surrounding sex, the book depicting him as a controlling, manipulative man dangerously trespassing the boundaries between objective science and personal sexual proclivities. Between the two perspective, we probably got a full picture of his triumphs and failures.

July Film Club (Wedneday, July 16, 7pm-8pm): Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), German with English subtitles.

July Book Club (Thursday, July 17, noon-1:00): Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis

June Staff Picks!

Check out what the DPL staff is reading and listening to!

Fiction

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell (FIC O’FARRELL)

Undead and Unwed by Mary Janice Davidson (PBK DAVIDSON BK. 1)

Something Rotten (Book 4 of Thursday Next series) by Jasper FForde

The Coquette by Hannah Webster Foster (813.2 FOS)

Dead Heat by Dick Francis (FIC FRANCIS)

CD Book

An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor (CDBOOK TAYLOR)

Nonfiction

Musicophilia by Oliver W. Sacks (781.11 SAC)

Music

Shine by Joni Mitchell (CD POP/ROCK MIT #1)

Children’s

Eleven, by Patricia Reilly Giff (J FIC GIFF)

When Dinosaurs Came With Everything, by Elise Broach (E BROACH)

May book and film club discussions...

Our book-club group really enjoyed The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, a "fable" written from a nine-year-old boy's perspective regarding his experience as the Commandant's son at "Out-With" (his mispronunciation of "Auschwitz") when he befriends Shmuel, a "boy in striped pajamas" on the other side of the fence. We all were struck with the tale, and discussed how it really brings a unique perspective to the horrors of the Holocaust, prompting us to ask ourselves: Can we judge that all the Nazis were innately evil, or were some victim (or opportunists) of circumstance? How much/little should you tell children to protect them from horrible realities? Final analysis: Great book for adults and teens!

Our film-club group discussed the movie The Graduate, which had its 40th birthday this year. We decided that it has definitely stood the test of time as a classic! We discussed a lot of trivia surrounding the movie (Did you know they considered casting Robert Redford instead of Dustin Hoffman - can you imagine?!), and compared it to the original book written by Charles Webb as well. Final analysis: A must-see film!

Upcoming book and film for June:

-Book Club (Thursday, June 19, noon): The Inner Circle by T.C. Boyle - a historical fiction tale of Dr. Alfred Kinsey's "inner circle" of sex researchers...not for the faint at heart. :-)

- Film Club (Wednesday, June 18, 7pm): Kinsey, a biopic starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney...noticing a theme here? :-)

DPL Staff Picks for April!

Check out what the staff has been reading!

Fiction
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen (FIC ALLEN)
Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn (PBK RAYBOURN)
Strange As This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake (FIC PANCAKE)
New-Slain Knight (The Haunted Ballad Series) by Deborah Grabien (FIC GRABIEN)
Catering to Nobody, by Diane Mott Davidson (PBK FIC DAV)
Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey (PBK SF LAC)

Nonfiction
Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy (305.42 LEV)
Hope’s Boy by Andrew Bridge (362.73309 BRI)
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah (966.404 BEA)

Children’s
The Black Book of Secrets by F.E. Higgins (J FIC HIGGINS)

April book/film club discussion and May's book & film

April's book (Don't Eat This Book by Morgan Spurlock) and film (Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock) discussions were well attended. Both the film and book were about Spurlock's experiment in eating only McDonald's food morning, noon, and night for a month to see how detrimental it would be to his health and well-being. All discussion attendees were mortified at the extreme effects his experiment had on his body in such a short time, and we were equally distressed to read statistic after statistic of the declining health of Americans, the questionable practices of the food industry in processing food, and so on. Some of us were left wondering, "What can I eat, anyway?" But, I am proud to report that we snacked on healthy fruits and vegetables during our discussions - with "light" veggie dip with zero trans fat. :-)

Next Book Club book/meeting: Thursday, May 15 - The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. Copies of the book are available at the library.

Next Film Club film/meeting: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. AND, we have copies of the original book by Charles Webb on hand as well, in case you want to compare the book to the film! Copies of the film and book will be available for checkout at the library two weeks prior to the discussion night.

March book & film club highlights...

Our film club discussion of Streetcar Named Desire was quite lively -- with our New Orleans-style blues in the background. :-) We all really wanted to hate Brando's Stanley, but there's just something about him... Several of us had read the play as well, so it was quite interesting to compare the original to the Hollywood portrayal: Williams' original play was much more controversial and to-the-point on issues that the Hollywood film glossed over or obscured in innuendo.

Book club discussion of Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott was also quite interesting - how couldn't it be, when the book was about a famous brothel and those fighting to close its doors in turn-of-the-century Chicago? :-) Quite timely, with the current Spitzer-prostitution ring scandal. The big question: what would you have done, had you been in the time/place that these Chicago girls and madams were in? Some interesting variations in response...

Check out the April book club and film club selections - hope you can join us!

NEW! Monthly Staff Picks!

Starting this March, the library will have monthly "staff picks" in a special display in the library - including brief reviews of the picks. Here are the picks for March, but check out the library display to see which staff member picked what and their review!

Fiction
Unleash the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon (PBK FIC KEN)
Southern Sisters by Anne George (PBK FIC GEO)
Hissy Fit by Mary Kay Andrews (FIC ANDREWS)
Nonfiction
Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small Town America by William Geist
One Drop: My Father’s Hidden Life by Bliss Broyard (813.54 BRO)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
What Shamu Taught Me About Love and Marriage: Life Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers by Amy Sutherland (158.2 SUT)
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Dr. Stephen Covey (158 COV)
Teen Fiction
Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt (TEEN FIC LEAVITT)
The Arrival by Shaun Tan (TEEN FIC TAN)
Music
Sweet Warrior by Richard Thompson (CD POP/ROCK THO #1)
Children’s
Zen Ties by Jon J. Muth (E MUTH)

chicklet to chick lit

This fascinating and imaginative series is for middle school and high school students. It is an unusual story of a boy's coming of age. Leven Thumps is an orphan teen from Oklahoma with a powerful talent: he can glimpse and change the future. In the fantastical world of Foo, he meets many incredible beings: Geth, a lithen and displaced king of Foo; Sabine, the evil usurper ruler of Foo; Winter, a teen girl who can freeze things and people; and Clover, Lev's companion and comic relief. Kids and adults alike will enjoy this creative tale of good and evil.
Book One is the Gateway to Foo - an introduction to all the twists, turns, puns, irony and allegory. Book Two, Whispered Secret, delves more deeply into the plot to destroy Foo and allows the reader in immerse themselves into the eccentricities of Foo and its citizens. Book Three, Eyes of the Want, bogs down a bit into too many plot twists and details, but still gives one a thrill. I eagerly await the release of Book Four, Wrath of Ezra.

Lightning Tree

Irish Fact and Fiction

PJ Curtis’ Lightning Tree takes readers through the history of Ireland; from just after the famine to the early 1950’s through the eyes of a woman who lived through those years. It’s fictional, but weaves factual, historical events along its way. This woman, Mariah, lived close to PJ Curtis’ childhood home in the Burren region of County Clare, Ireland. The stories this amazing woman told him when he was a youngster form the essence of this book. She was a healer, a pub manager, and life long resident of the Burren area. PJ Curtis’ father and grandfather were blacksmiths in Ireland. Mr. Curtis, however, became a professional broadcaster, and record producer, living in Nashville, Memphis and Phoenix winning many awards for his work. However he returned to the Burren and wrote this absorbing book about his old friend, Mariah. Reading this book will transport you not only back in time, but clearly right into Ireland!

February's book and film clubs...

Both our book (Red River by Lalita Tademy) and film club (In the Heat of the Night, starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger) selections this month were thematically linked with Black History Month, and our conversations were quite interesting. Red River addressed prejudice/inequalities experienced by blacks during post-Civil War Reconstruction through the 1930s in the deep South, and In the Heat of the Night exposed the continuing racial prejudices in the deep South during the 1960s. And, at both the book and film club meetings, we marveled at the fact that racial prejudice persists in subtle and not-so subtle forms today, but having a viable biracial Democratic Presidential candidate (Barack Obama) seems to illustrate "the times they are a-changin'," to quote Bob Dylan.

MARCH BOOK & FILM CLUB SELECTIONS:

Book club - Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle America's Soul by Karen Abbott - celebrating Women's History Month by reading about the "world's oldest profession." Join us on Sunday, March 16 at 1:00 or Thursday, March 20 at noon for discussion. Copies of the book are available at the library.

Film club - Streetcar Named Desire, starring Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando. Join us on Wednesday, March 19 at 7:00 to discuss this flick. Copies of the film will be available about a couple weeks before the discussion meeting. AND, there will be some copies of the play itself available, if you're curious to see the similarities/differences between Tennessee William's original play and the Hollywood film version....

chicklet to chick lit

As promised in my last entry, I did read Pride and Prescience, or A Truth Universally Acknowledged: a Mr & Mrs. Darcy Mystery by Carrie Bebris. Jane Austen, it is not. Yet, if you can't get enough of Elizabeth and Darcy from the original Pride & Prejudice, it does provide an evening's worth of entertainment. I must admit that it was fun to read during one of our frigid, snowy afternoons. There are two more available through the CAFE system: Suspense and Sensibility, or First Impressions Revisited and North by Northanger, or Shades of Pemberley.
Currently, I am reading Julia Spencer-Fleming's All Mortal Flesh. The twist in this mystery series is that the main character is a female Episcopal priest. She has several books out; All Mortal Flesh is her fifth. Her first book, In the Bleak Midwinter, won the St. Martin's Malice Domestic Award for 2001; she is also the winner of the Dilys, Barry, Agatha, Anthony and Macavity Awards.

Exploring racial identity

I just finished reading One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life - A Story of Race and Family Secrets, by Bliss Broyard, which I found very interesting. Upon his death, Bliss learns that her father (Anatole Broyard, New York Times book critic and writer) had been "passing" as white. This book details her searching for her black ancestors and living relatives that she never knew, nicely contextualized in American racial politics from slavery to contemporary times. She really does a fine job of exploring personal ambiguity/conflicts of racial identity and the accompanying social attitudes attached to racial identity. Highly recommended...

Also, it seems to me that the book The Human Stain by Philip Roth had to be inspired by the public revelation of her father's secret. The similarities are just too convenient.

Celebrate Black History Month...Cinema Style!

On Wednesday, February 20, the library will screen the film, In the Heat of the Night, at 5:00pm, with FREE sub sandwiches and drinks! Then, we'll have our monthly film club discussion at 7:00pm, about In the Heat of the Night. If you can't make the screening, no problem: we'll have multiple copies available for viewing at home, and you can still make the discussion at 7:00pm!

Hope to see you at either the film screening, the discussion, or both!

America's Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee is having several events during February, and here are some other sites with information about Black History Month:

http://www.history.com/minisites/blackhistory/

http://www.biography.com/blackhistory/

chicklet to chick lit

From the "chicklet" (or should it be "chickette"?) corner, the Caldecott and Newbery Awards are out: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick won the Randolph Caldecott Medal. 2007 Honor Books include: Henry's Freedom Box: a True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine and illustrated by Kadir Nelson, First Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, The Wall: Growing up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis and Knuffle Bunny Too: a Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Williams. I really liked The Invention of Hugo Cabret; it is one of the most unique children's books I have ever read. But is it really a picture book? Should it actually have won the Caldecott? Or the Newbery? It doesn't fit easily into either, but I am glad it won a 2007 Medal.
The John Newbery Medal was awarded to Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz and illustrated by Robert Byrd. I didn't see this one as the winner; I preferred the 2007 Honor Book: Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis. Also receiving the Honor status are: The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt and Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson.

From the "chick lit" corner, I have started wading through the sea of Jane Austen related books that have flooded the market recently. I just finished Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer. She did a good job of sticking to the Austen style and language, as well as following the Pride and Prejudice timeline. Check it out. A patron directed me to a mystery series involving Mr. and Mrs. Darcy; I am just starting Pride and Prescience. I'll let you know how it is. Any other good Austen-like books that you've read lately?

At the film club discussion...

...had a great turnout - 8 people, our biggest group yet! We discussed Little Children, a film based on the Tom Perrotta novel of the same name. While some liked the movie, most found it "disturbing" and definitely not light film fare. However, we had a great discussion about sex offenders' rights v. parents/children's rights, grownups behaving like "little children" in their relationships, escaping unhappy marriages, Madame Bovary, and even an interesting tangent on Hummel figurines...all an all, a great discussion!

Next film club film and date: In the Heat of the Night (Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, 1967 Oscar for Best Picture), in honor of Black History Month; Wednesday, February 20, 7:00-8:00pm. Hope to see you there!

At the last book club discussions...

...we discussed The Abortionist's Daughter, by Elisabeth Hyde. Discussion synopsis: This book melded a murder mystery (abortion provider, Diana, murdered) with the issues surrounding abortion. In general, our group found the book did a decent job of exploring both sides of the issues surrounding abortion using typical scenarios, but that it did lean more toward the pro-choice side. None of us were surprised by who the murderer was in the end - we thought Hyde could have done a better job of developing multiple characters with motives to keep the suspense going. Final analysis: an okay book.

Next month's book: Red River, by Lalita Tademy. Dates: Sunday, February 17, 1:00-2:00 or Thursday, January 21, noon-1:00. Hope to see you there!

Join us at next week's book club discussions!

Heads Up: January's book club book is The Abortionist's Daughter, by Elisabeth Hyde. Pick your preferred discussion time: Thursday, January 17 and noon; or Sunday, January 20 and 1:00pm. Copies available at the library - hope to see you there!

Helping inform your vote!

Check out the website the library put together of some helpful links for informing your vote during the 2008 elections:

http://www.wcfls.lib.wi.us/delafield/elections.htm

Wisconsin Primaries are February 19!