2010-03-17

Losing Season by Jack Ridl (Todd Davis)

A book of poetry about high school basketball will remind you of what it was like to be a teenager in the big gymnasium.

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The author’s website
More about the NCAA Championships
A poem about basketball by B. H. Fairchild

2010-03-10

The Jazz Fiction Anthology by Sasha Feinstein and David Rife (Arthur Goldstein)

This book finds jazz at the heart of short stories that span from the 1920’s to the present.

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Listen to “Ko-Ko” with Charlie Parker on the alto saxophone.
Read Vincent Colapietro’s essay, “Bebop as Historical Actuality, Urban Aesthetic, & Critical Utterance.”
NPR collects their stories about jazz.

2010-03-03

Still Alice by Lisa Genova (BkMk030310_bazzoui.jpg)

In this heartbreaking novel, a brilliant Harvard professor learns she has early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

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The author’s website
Find out more about Alzheimer’s at the Alzheimer’s Association
An Alzheimer's Fact Sheet

2010-02-24

U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton (Vanessa McLaughlin)

In the most recent book in the alphabet mystery series, Grafton sends Kinsey Millhone looking for a kidnapper.

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Sue Grafton’s website
Time Magazine interviews Sue Grafton
The Washington Post reviews U is for Undertow

2010-02-17

Mr. Agreeable by Kirk Nesset (Marjorie Maddox)

Mr. Agreeable is a collection of flash fiction that is both funny and unsettling.

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The author’s website
More about the publisher, Mammoth Books

2010-02-10

The Patch Boys by Jay Parini (Sarah May Clarkson)

This coming-of-age story takes place in a Pennsylvania mining town in the 1920’s.

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Parini talks about a poetry class he taught to more than two dozen teenage vandals in 2008.
Read more about The Last Station, another book by Parini, which is now a major motion picture.
Browse this collection of photographs from the 1930’s that primarily shows the mining in Locust Summit, Pennsylvania.

2010-02-03

The Watsons go to Birmingham, 1963 by by Christopher Paul Curtis ()

This young adult fiction novel takes place at the height of the civil rights movement.

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The author’s website
An interview with the author

2010-01-27

Slamming Open the Door by Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno (BkMk012710_reddy.jpg)

Pennsylvania poet Kathleen Bonnano has written a shocking and moving collection of poems about the murder of her daughter.

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The author’s website
Terry Gross interviews the author on “Fresh Air”
More about the publisher, Alice James Books

2010-01-20

Rules by Cynthia Lord (BkMk012010_millard.jpg)

This Newbury-award winning novel for young adults captures the life of a family with an autistic child.

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The author’s website
A video interview with the author
A fact sheet on autism

2009-12-23

Fit for Table by Mike Robinson ()

Pennsylvania publisher Stackpole Books has a new offering for hunters--a book that tells you what to do with wild game.

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More about the author, chef Mike Robinson
Wild game recipes

2009-12-16

Pine Creek Villages by David Ira Kagan ()

The “Images of America” series offers concise histories of American towns in picture-postcard format. This installment features the logging towns that grew up along Pine Creek in the late 19th century.

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The History Channel reports on logging
The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum recounts the history of logging in the state
Learn more about Pine Creek

2009-12-09

Of the Wing by Georgia Anne Butler ()

This book, set in the Pennsylvania woods, is an action-packed adventure that also helps kids learn about birds.

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More about the book
Birds of Pennsylvania

2009-12-02

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins ()

Like the classic “1984,” this post-apocalyptic tale presents a world where leaders keep the populace pacified--but with television rather than drugs. In a warped version of the TV show “Survivors,” teens must compete to the death.

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The author’s website
School Library Journal reviews the book
An interview with the author about her latest book

2009-11-18

Gettysburg Gospel by Gabor Borit ()

President Abraham Lincoln’s best known speech may also be his most misunderstood. This book cuts through the myths.

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Read the text of the Gettysburg Address
Other books by this author
Actor Sam Waterston reads the Gettysburg Address

2009-11-11

World War II in Their Own Words by Brian Lockman ()

Thirity-three Pennsylvania veterans talk about their experiences during World War II in a book that’s a companion volume to a popular TV series on Pennsylvania Cable Network.

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World War II materials in the Library of Congress
More about the author, Brian Lockman
The Pennsylvania Miiitary Museum in Boalsburg recently acquired a significant WWII memento, the guns of the U.S.S. Pennsylvania.