And what a year it has been! While advocacy was a major theme for the Library this year (and that will continue in 2010!), we also managed to have a great big celebration of summer reading, open a new Allegheny branch, and spend more time in the news than ever before.
Of course, each member of the Eleventh Stack team has been sharing their thoughts, ideas and suggestions with you all year long. We thought we’d take this opportunity to bring you highlights from the Library trenches, where we’ve been discovering new books, DVDs, CDs, online resources, or simply learning something new each day. Come join us anytime!
Kaarin: Highlights for me this year were new “My Account” features, Reading History and Wish Lists. I can now keep track of everything I’ve borrowed and everything I want to borrow without having to keep separate lists! I was thrilled to discover new ways to find good books to read using librarything and goodreads. And finally, I thoroughly enjoyed two novels I can recommend, The Shack, by William P. Young, and The Help, by Kathryn Stockett.
Leigh Anne: Every December a book sneaks up on me, completely undermining my sedate recap of a literary year with its sheer brilliance. This year’s book is The Hunger Games, which wraps pointed questions about social and political justice in the guise of a well-written dystopian fantasy novel. The Hunger Games pits Katniss Everdeen against other teenagers from the various districts of Panem in a televised fight to the death that’s akin, plot-wise, to both Battle Royale and the Stephen King novellas The Long Walk and The Running Man. Get your hands on a copy, absorb the brilliance, and then get back in line, immediately for the sequel, Catching Fire. I promise that, at the very least, you’ll have had some second thoughts about the excesses and inequities of American culture.
Other highlights of the year include a new countywide subscription to Mango Languages and Pittsburgh’s return to the ranks of America’s most literate cities. The best thing that happens at the library all year, though, happens every day: I get the privilege of helping you with your information needs, always learning something from you in the bargain. It’s only going to get better and more interesting in 2010, dear readers, so fasten your seatbelts…
MA: The year for me has been exhilarating in the terms of literature. I’ve stumbled across books that have, as Leigh Anne once said, presented me with book serendipity. A few titles from the list:
Traveling with Pomegranates– a wonderful mother-daughter memoir detailing their growth and understanding with each other over a course of drastic change in both their lives.
The Time Traveler’s Wife: Niffenegger takes you through a world of almost science fiction proportions, but not overtly so. The book encompasses the beauty and the despair that love brings to the lives of two people. A true pleasure to read.
Bright Lights, Big Ass: A hilarious memoir (one of the many!) by Jen Lancaster, ex sorority girl extraordinaire! Written with a zest that not many authors can pull off, she takes you through her days so honestly that you can’t help but feel charmed by it.
Wes: This year I was extremely pleased with the success of our newly created Black Holes, Beakers, and Books science book club. The book club had some great discussions about science, and a few of them were joined by the authors of the books we were reading, including Ann Gibbons, Lee Gutkind, and Marvin Minsky. Stay tuned for even more from Black Holes in 2010!
Lisa: 2009 can be easily summed up for me with this one book, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. It’s been my go-to cooking guide, impressed many, and has greatly enhanced what’s for dinner!
Bonnie: My favorite reads of 2009:
First Blood by David Morrell: This was a big surprise—I had no idea Rambo was based on a book—and I was totally blown away by it. Literally!
Wishing you the best in 2010.
Eleventh Stack 