Fairy Tales for Adults

Who says fairy tales are just for kids? Try some of these fairy tales for adults:



Wicked, Son of a Witch, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Lost, Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire

Neverwhere, Stardust, Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

Dystopian Fiction

Dystopia: From Greek, “bad place.” This refers to a fictional land or society whose regimentation dehumanizes people for the sake of security and a small ruling elite. The plight of the characters in the drama or fiction taking place in a dystopia serves as a commentary on actual politics, cultural trends, and social mores. (From the Literary Reference Center database)

Try some of these classic and modern dystopian novels:

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Jennifer Government by Max Barry
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Children of Men by P.D. James
In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders

It's a Mystery @ Your Library

In case you haven't already heard, the Pasco County Library System just began it's first ever Adult Reading Program. The rules are simple: read books and get prizes! The theme is It's a Mystery @ Your Library, but you don't have to read only mysteries--any book (or audiobook) will do! To sign up click here. For more information about the program call 861-3040.

New York Times Notable Books

The New York Times has announced its list of Notable Books for 2007. The Pasco County Library System has the following titles from the list:

Fiction

The Abstinence Teacher (Tom Perrotta)
Bearing the Body (Ehud Havazelet)
Bridge of Sighs (Richard Russo)
Call Me By Your Name (Andre Aciman)
Exit Ghost (Philip Roth)
Falling Man (Don DeLillo)
A Free Life (Ha Jin)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling)
House of Meetings (Martin Amis)
In the Country of Men (Hisham Matar)
Knots (Nuruddin Farah)
Later, At the Bar: A Novel in Stories (Rebecca Barry)
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name (Vendela Vida)
The Ministry of Special Cases (Nathan Englander)
Mothers and Sons: Stories (Colm Toibin)
On Chesil Beach (Ian McEwan)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Mohsin Hamid)
Remainder (Tom McCarthy)
The Septembers of Shiraz (Dalia Sofer)
Then We Came to the End (Joshua Ferris)
Tree of Smoke (Denis Johnson)
The View from Castle Rock (Alice Munro)
What is the What (Dave Eggers)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union (Michael Chabon)

Nonfiction

American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic (Joseph J. Ellis)
Brother, I'm Dying (Edwidge Danticat)
Circling My Mother (Mary Gordon)
The Diana Chronicles (Tina Brown)
Edith Wharton (Hermione Lee)
How Doctors Think (Jerome Groopman)
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone (Rajiv Chandrasekaran)
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (Tim Weiner)
Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Ishmael Beah)
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (Jeffrey Toobin)
Ralph Ellison: A Biography (Arnold Rampersad)
Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography (David Michaelis)
Thomas Hardy (Claire Tomalin)
Too Close to the Sun: The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton (Sara Wheeler)

Christmas Stories

With Christmas just around the corner, here are a few titles to get you in the spirit:

Blue Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews

The Christmas Train by David Baldacci

Highland Christmas by M. C. Beaton

The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

Christmas, Present by Jacquelyn Mitchard


For more titles, ask at your local branch library!

National Book Award Winners

The winners of the National Book Awards were announced on Wednesday. The Pasco County Library System has the winners in the Fiction and Nonfiction categories:

• Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
• Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by
  Tim Weiner

To see a listing of all the National Book Award finalists and winners since the award's inception in 1950 click here.

National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month--a time to raise awareness about the adoption of children from foster care. You can learn more about adoption by visiting your local Pasco County library. Here are just a few titles in our collection that deal with adoption:

Adoption Fiction:

• Digging to America by Anne Tyler
• Reunion by Karen Kingsbury
• China Run by David Ball
• Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born by Jamie Lee Curtis
• Over Land and Sea: A Story of International Adoption by Steven L. Layne

Adoption Nonfiction:

• Cross-Cultural Adoption: How to Answer Questions from Family, Friends, and Community by Amy Coughlin and Caryn Abramowitz
• The Complete Adoption Book: Everything You Need to Know to Adopt a Child by Laura Beauvais-Godwin and Raymond Godwin
• The Adoption Resource Book by Lois Gilman

For more information on adoption visit the Child Welfare Information Gateway.