OCTOBER 4: Childhood fears

If you read Ramona the Brave as a kid, you may remember the part where Ramona freaks herself out by looking at a scary picture of a gorilla in a picture book.  That gorilla scares the shizz out of her, but Ramona looks at it anyway.

I related to this 100%.  My scary thrill?  The picture of Dirty Dan that accompanied the Shel Silverstein poem "The Dirtiest Man in the World."

I had that page memorized so I wouldn't flip to it accidently.


Do you remember what frightened you as a kid?  Does it still creep you out now?  Sometimes what scared us when we were little makes no sense to us when we grow up.  Other times...

















Image: Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends. New York : Harper and Row, [1974]

 

I mean, COME ON.

OCTOBER 4: Childhood fears

If you read Ramona the Brave as a kid, you may remember the part where Ramona freaks herself out by looking at a scary picture of a gorilla in a picture book.  That gorilla scares the shizz out of her, but Ramona looks at it anyway.

I related to this 100%.  My scary thrill?  The picture of Dirty Dan that accompanied the Shel Silverstein poem "The Dirtiest Man in the World."

I had that page memorized so I wouldn't flip to it accidently.


Do you remember what frightened you as a kid?  Does it still creep you out now?  Sometimes what scared us when we were little makes no sense to us when we grow up.  Other times...

















Image: Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends. New York : Harper and Row, [1974]

 

I mean, COME ON.

OCTOBER 3: Agatha Christie ---> Christopher Pike ---> This book I just read.

 

You guys. This is a thriller murder mystery situation based on the Agatha Christie book And then There were None.

A bunch of teens travel to an isolated island for a secret party. (BAD IDEA BAD IDEA NEVER DO THIS. SECRET PARTIES ON ISLANDS NEVER END WELL.) Anyway, one by one they start dying. And one by one their options for getting help are eliminated. You begin to think it might be one of them, but it CAN'T be one of them, but no one else is on the island, but someone else MUST be on the island. Or maybe it's a ghost.

 I have never read the original Agatha Christie novel but I DID read this amazing book called Weekend by Christopher Pike that has the same basic premise (except the killer contaminates the water supply, so the teens are getting murdered AND they are barfing and sweating and other terrible things.) Oh man.

OCTOBER 3: Agatha Christie ---> Christopher Pike ---> This book I just read.

 

You guys. This is a thriller murder mystery situation based on the Agatha Christie book And then There were None.

A bunch of teens travel to an isolated island for a secret party. (BAD IDEA BAD IDEA NEVER DO THIS. SECRET PARTIES ON ISLANDS NEVER END WELL.) Anyway, one by one they start dying. And one by one their options for getting help are eliminated. You begin to think it might be one of them, but it CAN'T be one of them, but no one else is on the island, but someone else MUST be on the island. Or maybe it's a ghost.

 I have never read the original Agatha Christie novel but I DID read this amazing book called Weekend by Christopher Pike that has the same basic premise (except the killer contaminates the water supply, so the teens are getting murdered AND they are barfing and sweating and other terrible things.) Oh man.

NaNoWriMo at Cambridge Public Library

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is right around the corner in November.  You can start prepping now with these programs right here at the Main Library.

*****

Lisa Borders discusses “Characterization”
Saturday, October 5, 2:00-2:30 * Community Room

Lisa Borders’ second novel, The Fifty-First State, will be published by Engine Books in October, 2013. Her first novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land, was chosen by Pat Conroy as the winner of River City Publishing’s Fred Bonnie Award, and received fiction honors the Massachusetts Book Awards. Lisa’s short stories have appeared in Kalliope, Washington Square, Black Warrior Review, Painted Bride Quarterly and other journals. She teaches at Grub Street, Boston.


Steve Yarbrough discusses “Putting Place on the Page”
Saturday, October 12, 2:00-2:30 * Community Room

Steve Yarbrough is the author of three story collections and six novels including The Oxygen Man, which received the Mississippi Author’s Award, the California Book Award, and an award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters, and Prisoners of War, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award. He is also the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work has been translated into Japanese, Dutch and Polish.


Margot Livesey discusses “Point of View and Plot”
Saturday, October 26, 2:00-2:30 * Community Room

Margot Livesey has taught in numerous writing programs, including the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and is the author of a collection of stories and seven novels. The House on Fortune Street won the L.L.Winship/PEN New England award, and her most recent novel, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, won the New England Independent Booksellers’ Award in fiction for 2012. She is a distinguished writer-in-residence at Emerson College in Boston.




PLUS

NaNoWriMo Write-Ins
November 4, 6, 12, 14, 18, 21, 26, 27 * 6:00-8:00pm * Community Room

Come write-in! In celebration of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) the Cambridge Public Library is offering a series of twice-weekly write-ins. Enjoy powerstrips, caffeine, and quiet writing space as you work towards your goal of completing a novel in a month. We supply the coffee, you supply the word count.

NaNoWriMo at Cambridge Public Library

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is right around the corner in November.  You can start prepping now with these programs right here at the Main Library.

*****

Lisa Borders discusses “Characterization”
Saturday, October 5, 2:00-2:30 * Community Room

Lisa Borders’ second novel, The Fifty-First State, will be published by Engine Books in October, 2013. Her first novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land, was chosen by Pat Conroy as the winner of River City Publishing’s Fred Bonnie Award, and received fiction honors the Massachusetts Book Awards. Lisa’s short stories have appeared in Kalliope, Washington Square, Black Warrior Review, Painted Bride Quarterly and other journals. She teaches at Grub Street, Boston.


Steve Yarbrough discusses “Putting Place on the Page”
Saturday, October 12, 2:00-2:30 * Community Room

Steve Yarbrough is the author of three story collections and six novels including The Oxygen Man, which received the Mississippi Author’s Award, the California Book Award, and an award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters, and Prisoners of War, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award. He is also the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work has been translated into Japanese, Dutch and Polish.


Margot Livesey discusses “Point of View and Plot”
Saturday, October 26, 2:00-2:30 * Community Room

Margot Livesey has taught in numerous writing programs, including the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and is the author of a collection of stories and seven novels. The House on Fortune Street won the L.L.Winship/PEN New England award, and her most recent novel, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, won the New England Independent Booksellers’ Award in fiction for 2012. She is a distinguished writer-in-residence at Emerson College in Boston.




PLUS

NaNoWriMo Write-Ins
November 4, 6, 12, 14, 18, 21, 26, 27 * 6:00-8:00pm * Community Room

Come write-in! In celebration of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) the Cambridge Public Library is offering a series of twice-weekly write-ins. Enjoy powerstrips, caffeine, and quiet writing space as you work towards your goal of completing a novel in a month. We supply the coffee, you supply the word count.

Wednesday Tech Tips: Guess what?

You can use your smartphone as your library card!

Image: Giphy

If you would like to read more words about it, you can go to the CPL website, but in a nutshell, there are free apps that you can install on your smartphone that will allow you to use a high-res image of your library card to be scanned at the checkout desk.  Key Ring and Cardstar work with iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows devices.

Questions?  Don't be shy about finding a librarian to help you out!  'Cause when you've got your library card, you're happy, we're happy, everyone is very very happy.

Wednesday Tech Tips: Guess what?

You can use your smartphone as your library card!

Image: Giphy

If you would like to read more words about it, you can go to the CPL website, but in a nutshell, there are free apps that you can install on your smartphone that will allow you to use a high-res image of your library card to be scanned at the checkout desk.  Key Ring and Cardstar work with iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows devices.

Questions?  Don't be shy about finding a librarian to help you out!  'Cause when you've got your library card, you're happy, we're happy, everyone is very very happy.

OCTOBER 2: Bad things happen to nice (and not-so-nice kids)

Even though I love summertime best of all, October is one of my very favorite months.  Chilly enough for a sweater, but still sunny.  Cider donuts and apple picking.  And scary stories.  Lots and lots and LOTS of scary stories.

If you've got any scary book or movie suggestions, come talk to me!

While I was on vacation I finally got to enjoy Joe Hill's latest, NOS4A2.  Not since The Nightmare Before Christmas has there been such a mashup of gingerbready good times and bloody horror.  Since the incessant playing of Christmas carols gives me murderous thoughts anyway, I loved the sinister world of Christmasland, where all the children are happy.  Very, very happy.  Forever.

I also got an advance look at The Troop by Nick Cutter.  Five boy scouts and their scoutmaster are spending the weekend on a lonely island near Nova Scotia.  What should be a routine camping trip turns into a gruesome bid for survival when an very unexpected castaway shows up on the island.

Guys, this book was stomach-churningly gross*, and I mean that in the best possible way.  This one doesn't come out till February, but keep it on your radar.  Horror veterans Stephen King and Scott Smith have both vouched for it.








*Once you've read it, that description's gonna make you laugh.

OCTOBER 2: Bad things happen to nice (and not-so-nice kids)

Even though I love summertime best of all, October is one of my very favorite months.  Chilly enough for a sweater, but still sunny.  Cider donuts and apple picking.  And scary stories.  Lots and lots and LOTS of scary stories.

If you've got any scary book or movie suggestions, come talk to me!

While I was on vacation I finally got to enjoy Joe Hill's latest, NOS4A2.  Not since The Nightmare Before Christmas has there been such a mashup of gingerbready good times and bloody horror.  Since the incessant playing of Christmas carols gives me murderous thoughts anyway, I loved the sinister world of Christmasland, where all the children are happy.  Very, very happy.  Forever.

I also got an advance look at The Troop by Nick Cutter.  Five boy scouts and their scoutmaster are spending the weekend on a lonely island near Nova Scotia.  What should be a routine camping trip turns into a gruesome bid for survival when an very unexpected castaway shows up on the island.

Guys, this book was stomach-churningly gross*, and I mean that in the best possible way.  This one doesn't come out till February, but keep it on your radar.  Horror veterans Stephen King and Scott Smith have both vouched for it.








*Once you've read it, that description's gonna make you laugh.