Annie and Duncan have been together for fifteen years.  Has it been a waste?  Both are starting to think so, and Duncan  starts questioning his marriage as soon as he starts questioning his obsession with Tucker Crowe, a reclusive musician who hasn’t written or performed in thirty years.  After a lost Crowe recording is released, Duncan gushes about it on his Crowe fansite, and Annie answers with a wittier, better received counter-argument.  The reclusive Crowe comes across Annie’s review and initiates an email correspodence that further complicate her feelings about her husband. 

If you’ve never read a Nick Hornby book, be aware that most of them follow a certain formula:  Man w/ pop culture obsession +woman that somewhat understands it but isn’t obsessed = resentment and relationship issues.  This formula works great for Hornby because he wrenches so much conflict and insight out of these seemingly trivial pop culture obsessions.

In the end, though, it’s always the human relationships that reign supreme over pop culture detritas  in a Hornby book, and Juliet, Naked is no different.  The dialogue between the characters is authentic, and his characters are flawed enough to make them believable (although the males always seem to be just a little more hubristic than the females).

Juliet, Naked should be a satisfying read for Hornby fans and first-time Hornby readers that enjoy exploring the psychological anatomy of romantic relationships.

                                                     -Dana Zakrzewski

We have a lot of great cookbooks to help you cook all kinds of Thanksgiving feasts!  Here are just a few of our newest selections:

EatingWell Comfort Foods Made Healthy: the Classic Makeover Cookbook by Jessie Price 

Memorable Recipes: to Share With Family and Friends by Renee Behnke

The Big Green Cookbook by Jackie Newgent

Cooking Know-How by Bruce Weinstein

The Illustrated Kitchen Bible edited by Victoria Blashford-Snell

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

 More

Denton Reads, in association with the Denton Public Library, will present a movie marathon Saturday, November 14^th at the North Branch Library, located at 3020 North Locust Street in Denton.  The selection of films is inspired by the novels of  Gregory Maguire, who will be the speaker at this year’s Denton Reads author program.  The titles and times are:

 10:00 am         The Little Match Girl   A short animation of Hans Christian Anderson’s classic tale.

 10:15 am         The Muppet Christmas Carol  A musical-comedy of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol, featuring the Muppets.

1:00 pm           Enchanted  An animated fairytale world collides with modern-day New York in this Disney story about a fairytale princess who is sent to our world by an evil queen.

4:00 pm           The Wizard of Oz  The well-loved musical fantasy tale about a Kansas girl named Dorothy who visits the magical Land of Oz.

Gregory Maguire is the author Wicked (1995); Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (1999); Lost (2001); Mirror, Mirror (2003); Son of a Witch (2005); and  A Lion Among Men (2008).  His most recent books, Making Mischief: a Maurice Sendak Appreciation and Matchless: a Christmas Story, were published this Fall.

Denton Reads is a collaboration of the Denton Public Library, the libraries of the University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University, and the libraries of the Denton Independent School District to support activities that encourage reading and intellectual curiosity.  Denton Reads is also partially funded by a grant from Humanities Texas.

For more information, contact Carmen Grant at 940-349-8778 or visit http://dentonreads.unt.edu/events.

Last week, the Texas Library Association announced the nominees for the 2010-2011 Texas Bluebonnet Award.  We don’t have them all yet, but we should by the January!

Home of the Brave  by Katherine Applegate

All Stations! Distress!: April 15, 1912: The Day the Titanic Sank by Don Brown

The Uglified Ducky: A Maynard Moose Tale by Willy Claflin

Surfer of the Century: The Life of Duke Kahanamoku by Ellie Crowe

14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy

Umbrella Summer by Lisa Graff

Pirates by David L. Harrison

That Book Woman by Heather Henson

Down Down Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea by Steve Jenkins

Dying to Meet You: 43 Cemetary Road, Book 1 by Kate Klise

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass

The Hinky Pink: An Old Tale by Megan McDonald

Squirrel’s World by Lisa Moser

Tap Dancing on the Roof: Sijo by Linda Sue Park

Mudshark by Gary Paulsen

Sparrow Girl by Sara Pennypacker

Jake Ransom and the Skull King’s Shadow by James Rollins

The Cabinet of Wonders by Marie Rutkoski

Calvin Coconut Trouble Magnet by Graham Salisbury

The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino

Yesterday at the North Branch, we had a truly disgusting program:  Halloween Grossology.  We played CSI: Grossology and used our sense of touch to guess what the different body parts in the bags were actually made of.  We also made fake blood and gave ourselves fake wounds.  I do believe we have some future Crime Scene Investigators and Hollywood makeup artists in our midsts!  Take a look at the pictures below at your own risk!  Some of the fake wounds are very realistic!

Making fake wounds is hard work!

Gee kid, maybe you should get that looked at.

ick

Sorry, not even your mom will kiss that mess to make it better!

You can always count on Mom!

Great job!!!!

Are there really brains in that bag? No, just spaghetti!

Thanks to all who came and participated in the first ever Smash Bros. Brawl Tournament at the North Branch of the Denton Public Library on Saturday, Oct. 24th.  We had hundreds of people pop in to check out the BRAWL madness, and nearly 100 people enter the tournament.  It was a long tournament, but we finally made it through to the end with the top 3 winners as promised.

All three winners received a trophy plaque from DFWgames and various prizes from the Denton Public Library, to include meal and play certificates donated by Gameworks at the Grapevine Mills Mall, Anime dvds donated by Funimation and various manga titles donated by A-Kon and Madness Comic and Games.

We will have another tournament in the future with players separated by skill level to allow recreational players to battle each other in one bracket, while the more professional gamers battle it out in another.

And now for the winners ( identified by their tournament player names):

In the #1 spot – Chuky

In the #2 spot – Red Neck

And in the #3 spot – Shamburger

I’m sure that Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s Dairy Queen is a great book to read, but the audiobook version has been so much fun to listen to so far, that I recommend giving it a listen before giving it a read.  Natalie Moore, a Minnesota native (with the accent to back it up), provides the voice for the story’s narrator and main character,  D.J. Schwenk, a teenage girl who must take care of her parent’s dairy farm while her father recovers from a leg injury.  After tending the farm for the summer and training her rival school’s quarterback, D.J. decides to try out for her high school’s football team without realizing how her family and closest friends will react. 

Tomboys and wallflowers alike will relate to D.J.’s insecurities when it comes to her family, friends and boys.  Murdock gives her teenage narrator an authentic voice and personality that should resonate with most teenage girls, even if they don’t understand what it’s like to wake up before dawn to milk the cows and clean the barn.

-Dana Zakrzewski

On Saturday, November 21, Denton Reads presents Gregory Maguire the notable author of Wicked. He will be visiting the City of Denton to talk about his work latest work Matchless, a haunting re-telling of the classic tale of the The Little Matchgirl. Maguire is a known advocate for literature, literacy and libraries.

This FREE event will be at 6:00PM the TWU MCL Auditorium. Seating is limited and tickets will be issued at the door. Advanced tickets can be reserved at the Denton Reads website .  After the talk Mr. Maguire will be available to sign copies of his books, which will be available for purchase at the event.

Prior to his visit, book discussions of  Wicked will be held at various locations throughout the city.  All are welcome.

Denton Public Library Book Clubs

• 11/03/09 ~ Emily Fowler Library ~ 7pm

• 11/07/09 ~ North Branch Library ~ 11am

TWU Book Club

• 11/11/09 ~ TWU Blagg-Huey Library, room 101 ~ 12pm

UNT Book Club

• 11/09/09 ~ UNT Willis Library, room 035 ~3pm

Banter Book Club

• 11/13/09 ~ Banter @ 219 Oak St., Denton ~ 6:30pm

Barnes & Noble Book Club

• 11/14/09 ~ Barnes & Noble , Golden Triangle Mall, Denton

To RSVP for book clubs (not required but preferred), e-mail Annie Downey at annie.downey@unt.edu.

Since Wicked was first published in 1995, millions of readers have discovered Gregory Maguire’s fantastically encyclopedic Oz, a world filled with characters both familiar and new, darkly conceived, and daringly re-imagined.

Denton Reads is an organization sponsored by the UNT and TWU libraries, the Denton Public Library and the Denton ISD. Denton Reads’ goal is to unite the City of Denton by hosting a lecture by a notable author and featuring discussions of a common text. More information about Denton Reads and its activities can be found at http://dentonreads.unt.edu.

This program was made possible in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

For more information, contact Stacey Irish-Keffer at 940-349-8718 or Stacey.Irish-Keffer@cityofdenton.com or Annita Owens at 940-898-3795 AOwens@mail.twu.edu.

The impoverished daughter of a famous London actress sets out collect a generous reward by tracking down the long lost heir to the Duke of Warrick.   But when the trail she follows ends abruptly, she desperately convinces a Scottish highwayman to impersonate the Duke so she  can still collect the money.  Strong characters and humorous situations make Some Like it Wicked a delicious take on the “lost heir” story.

~A Romance in the Stacks Review by Stacey

Want to know more about your favorite romance authors or just looking for something fun to read? Join Romance in the Stacks, the Denton Public Library’s Romance Book Club. For more information call 940-349-8796 or e-mail Kimberly.Wells@cityofdenton.com.