Kalamazoo College English professor Andrew Mozina is a short-story writer whose books include the collection The Women Were Leaving the Men, which was a finalist in the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. The collection’s title story received a special mention in the Pushcart Prize 2006 and was also listed as a distinguished story in The Best American Short Stories collection of 2005.  He has also published a critical work on Joseph Conrad, Joseph Conrad and the Art of Sacrifice.

Mozina will visit the Caledonia Township branch at 6:30PM on Tuesday, March 27, to read from and sign and sell copies of his book.

Mozina’s appearance is part of KDL’s Celebrate the Mitten author series, which includes more than a dozen published authors from around the state appearing at various branches through May, and an author showcase from 1:00 to 4:00 PM on Saturday, April 21 at the Kentwood branch.

Anna Geurink was sitting in a local coffeehouse, trying to come up with a topic for her senior graphic design portfolio project at Kendall College of Art & Design, when suddenly it came to her: the library.

The campaign she came up with so impressed area marketing and advertising gurus that Anna’s work earned the “Student Best in Show” award at this year’s West Michigan ADDYs, an annual competition of the American Advertising Federation.

Read more of Anna’s story here…

Looking for toe-tapping music to get you in the mood for spring?  Then check out KDL’s Freegal Music site! Download DRM-free MP3 files of hundreds of thousands of songs from Sony Music Entertainment. And while you’re there, check out the Top Ten KDL Freegal downloads!

Try Freegal today!

Attention auto-racing and Michigan author fans! Prepare to start your engines at 6:00 PM on Thursday, March 22 at the Tyrone Township branch and at 1:30 PM on Friday, March 23 at the Sand Lake/Nelson Township branch to meet author, retired park ranger, newspaper columnist and long-time race fan Rick Sigsby.

**Special guest at the March 22 event is Michigan sports Hall of Famer John Benson Sr.!**

In his fifth book, Living on the Edge: A History of Auto Racing in Michigan, Sigsby gives fans an inside look at the state’s rich history in the sport. The book includes more than 40 personal interviews – including two-time Indy 500 winner Gordon Johncock, NASCAR star Johnny Benson, Jr. and Herb Fishel, former GM Director of Racing – plus 30 profiles of legends from the past and present, and more than 100 photographs.

Sigsby’s appearances are part of KDL’s Celebrate the Mitten author series, which includes more than a dozen published authors from around the state appearing at various branches through May, and an author showcase from 1:00 to 4:00 PM on Saturday, April 21 at the Kentwood branch.

This week, Out of Sight, Out of Time, the fifth book in the Gallagher Girls series was released!  I have really enjoyed this series and I am looking forward to finding out what is happening with Cammie and her friends.

The first book in the series, I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have To Kill You, is actually a light, fun read. Readers find out that Cammie goes to a girls-only, private school that has a hidden purpose.  It is a training school for young spies.  Cammie’s parents were both spies and her mother is the headmistress of the school.  Cammie and her roommates have some special talents that they use to circumvent some of the school rules, and there is a bit of interaction with the boys-only school that is in the same area.

But the author, Ally Carter, has started to tie the books together into a more complex series.  Although each book does end that part of the story, they each lead Cammie to find out more information about a dangerous group that wants to turn her to their cause.  The slow reveal makes this a gripping mystery series as well.

In Naked in the Stream: Isle Royale Stories, a wilderness island in Lake Superior calls arborist and outdoors-lover Vic Foerster to cross the world’s largest Great Lake, land on the island’s rocky shore, hike its bony spine, fish its shoal-embedded coves and fall in love with it all, bugs included. 

Foerster will visit the Cascade Township branch at 6:30 PM on Thursday, March 22, to read from and sign and sell copies of his book.

Foerster’s appearance is part of KDL’s Celebrate the Mitten author series, which includes more than a dozen published authors from around the state appearing at various branches through May, and an author showcase from 1:00 to 4:00 PM April 21 at the Kentwood branch.

They say all great books share the same one-word but oh-so-powerful theme:  LOVE.  To me this is wonderfully illustrated in the unforgettable book by Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.  In the book, 13-year old Meg has traveled to the lost planet of Camazotz to rescue her little brother, Charles Wallace, who has been captured by the evil IT, the disembodied brain.  How would she ever save him?  “She knew! Love! That was what she had that IT did not have.”  Only her unconditional love for Charles Wallace was able to set him free. This moves me to tears every time!

If you want more, check out the power of love in these great new adult books, Heft by Liz Moore and The Talk-Funny Girl by Roland Merullo.  Moore’s endearing characters struggle with gross obesity (550+ pounds), pregnancy, alienation, addiction, and other problems. All are healed by the caring connections they have with each other, and you’ll hate to say good-bye to them at the end of the story.  Likewise, Marjorie from The Talk-Funny Girl will stay with me forever.  Her story is about hope and the amazing truth that wonderful and good people can emerge from horrible situations.

Expect to see a movie made of this — I have no doubt it will happen!

Ready for the reaping, tributes? To celebrate the release of the new movie, we are inviting teens grades 6-12 to play our version of the Hunger Games. Challenges include trivia, knot tying, archery, orienteering and more. Everyone will live to see the movie and participants will have fun testing their survival skills and maybe even winning a prize. We hope to see you there!

Schedule
Thursday, March 22, 3:30 PM – East Grand Rapids branch – Canceled due to heating/cooling issues at the EGR branch
Thursday, March 22, 3:30 PM – Kentwood branch
Thursday, March 29, 2:00 PM – Cascade Township branch

Tales from the Golden Age is a Romanian movie about the waning days of the Communist era in that country, a time that, according to some Communist leaders, was a “golden age” for its people.  The title, of course, is meant to be ironic, though in this case the irony is not a harsh irony that you might expect to see from a country known for its infamous orphanages and leader who was killed by his own people in 1989. In this case, the movie takes a mostly humorous approach to the ways people survived the everyday necessities and indignities of life under a repressive regime.

The film is a collection of “tales” — six in all — and some are longer than others, but all are enjoyable. Especially for an American, the details can be particularly interesting: the tiny, cramped apartment where a pig is secretly killed so the neighbors don’t find out; the teenagers pretending to be officials from some government department ”investigating” apartment air with old beer bottles; the fear ruling over a photographer and his co-worker as they work to manipulate a photo (in the pre-Photoshop days) so the government is not shown in a bad light. Certainly the most poignant story is the final one, about a lonely but married driver of a chicken truck who finds a way to secretly get eggs to a restauranter he has a crush on, knowing the whole time he is violating a government rule to get the eggs. Overall, a fascinating, funny and insightful look at the end of an era (and done by a variety of directors) that shouldn’t be missed by anyone who likes foreign films.

Calling all gamers!

Join us at 11:00 AM on Saturday, March 17 at the Plainfield Township branch for the next installment of KDL’s series of Wii gaming tournaments. This tournament will feature Super Smash Bros. Brawl, fresh snacks and cool prizes. Many will enter, only the best will be crowned champions. Get your gaming skills ready and join us for some intense Wii action. For teens grades 6 to 12. Registration is required and participation is limited.

Click here to register!