New Graphic Novels at Kirtland!

The Kirtland Public library proudly introduces its new and expanded collection of graphic novels.  We have a wide selection of graphic novels that will appeal to children, young adults, and adults.  We have favorite superheroes, such as Batman, Spider Man, and Captain America as well as stories that will appeal to young adults and those interested in trying different comic styles, such as Manga.  If you are interested in reading something new or something familiar I’m sure we will have a graphic novel that will interest you.  The graphic novels described below are meant to give Kirtland library patrons a sense of the variety of graphic novels we have available.

George O’Connor. Olympians. (First Second: New York, 2010).    The acclaimed author, George O’Connor, in his series Olympians, uses ancient Greek mythology to re-tell the stories of the gods in this series of brightly illustrated graphic novels.  The library has Zeus, Ares, and Athena with more available!  Come and check out these entertaining books.  Readers of all ages will find the stories and artwork highly entertaining.

Matt Dembicki, ed. Trickster: Native AmericanTales: a Graphic Collection.  (Fulcrum Books: Golden, CO, 2010). Matt Dembicki, a comic book creator in his own right, assembled a group of Native American storytellers to create a book of trickster tales and legends from various native cultures.  The stories are visualized through the efforts of many talented artists and illustrators, who worked hand-in-hand with the storytellers to get it all just right. This book will provide an entertaining, beautifully presented view into one aspect of Native American culture and storytelling.  This is a must read for anybody interested in Native American stories or looking for something a little different.

Akira Himekawa. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons. (Perfect Square: San Francisco, CA, 2014).  This series of Manga graphic novels ties their stories into that of the popular videogame series from Nintendo.  The books are laid out in the traditional Manga format: the book is read from right to left and is started from what American readers would consider the back of the book.  One does not need to be familiar with the videogames or their plot to enjoy the story and artwork in these books.  If you are looking for something a little different this may be the place to begin.

David Hine and Fabrice Sapolsky. Spider-Man: Noir. (Marvel: New York, 2009).  This series takes familiar characters and re-imagines them in 1930s New York City.  Prior to be bitten by a spider Peter Parker, along with Aunt May, are socialist agitators trying to stir up the unemployed.  The arch-villain, the Goblin, is one of the most powerful gangsters in the city.  The drawings successfully capture the feel of earlier pulp and noir artwork.  If you are looking for a new twist to traditional superhero stories, this one will be just right.

Jordan Mechner, A.B. Sina, LeUyen Pham, and Alex Puvilland. Prince of Persia: The Graphic Novel. (First Second: New York, 2008).  While based on the popular video game series, this graphic novel is a story separate from the main storyline of the game. The graphic novel follows two separate, yet related, stories set several hundred years apart in the city of Marv.  Visually, the story set in Marv in the 9^th century, is told using bright pastel colors.  The other story, also set in Marv, however in the 13^th century, is visualized using darker hued colors.  As the two stories intertwine and co-mingle with each other the only way to sometimes to tell them apart is through their coloring.  If you are a fan of the 2010 movie The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, or perhaps if you remember the videogame, or are interested in well-written and beautifully illustrated stories this one will be right for you.

Victoria Jamieson. Roller Girl. (Dial Books for Young Readers: New York, 2015). This story follows Astrid as she explores a new sport, roller derby, and the changing dynamics of her friendship with Nicole, who prefers ballet to roller derby.  It sensitively handles the difficulties young people have in trying to find themselves and their way in the world.  After reading this book you will also have a good overview of the rules of roller derby by an actual roller derby racer.  This book is appropriate for children 9-12, and not just girls, but also boys.

These are just a few of the many selections available at the Kirtland Public Library! Stop by and see for yourself, and if you don’t see something you want the librarians are there to help you find it.

Meet Our New Librarians

The Kirtland Public Library is proud to welcome two new librarians to its staff.  Below we feature brief profiles of our new librarians to help you to get to know them.  When you’re in the library next please stop by and say “hi” to them and we’re sure they’ll be as thrilled to get to know you as you will them.

Chad Statler

Chad is originally from Pennsylvania and only came to the Cleveland area in 2011 after his wedding.  He earned his library degree from Kent State in December 2014.  Prior to coming to Kirtland Public Library, Chad worked as a Reference Assistant at the Northeast Ohio Medical University and he is also currently a Reference and Instruction Librarian at Lakeland Community College.  He currently lives in South Euclid with his wife, Amy, daughter, Evelyn, and their dog, Inky.

What made you want to become a librarian?

I’ve always loved books and enjoyed reading, and wanted to pass that enthusiasm onto other people.

What is your first memory of a library?

Going to the library during summers for story time.  It was always my favorite day of the week.

Who are your favorite authors?

Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Heinlein, Stephen King, R.A. Salvatore & Hunter S. Thompson, to name a few.

What are your favorite books?

The Shining by Stephen King, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

What book or books are you currently reading?

Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo: The Brink of Life and Death (a great series of graphic novels re-telling classic Japanese tales and Samurai stories with a Samurai rabbit as the main character), Mark Adams, Meet Me in Atlantis: My Quest to Find the 2,500 year-old Sunken City.

What’s on your iPod now?

Several podcasts from Infopeople, a podcast about comics, graphic novels, and YA books from some librarians in California; the New York Public Library podcasts with authors and assorted 80s and 90s heavy metal.

Describe yourself in one word.

Only one word?

Name your one guilty pleasure.

Ice cream, chocolate, and peanuts, especially when combined in any number of ways.

Sandra Ong

Sandra earned her master of library science degree from Kent State University in 2011. Prior to joining the staff at Kirtland Public Library she worked as a Reference Assistant at Madison Public Library and as a substitute at Medina County District Library. Sandra currently resides in North Royalton.

What made you want to become a librarian?

A love for reading and also I wanted to contribute to society by promoting life- long learning.

What is your first memory of a library?

I was a teenager and was in awe that the library would carry CD’s of my favorite artists.

Who are your favorite authors?

Lisa See, Terry McMillian, Kevin Kwan, Susan Mallery.

What book or books are you currently reading?

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan.

What’s on your iPod now?

Christian Contemporary music.

Describe yourself in one word.

Dedicated.

Name your one guilty pleasure.

Dark Chocolate

Oscar Winning Books

And the winner is....

Here are the books that made it to the Academy Awards in 2015...check them out!

Best Picture 

Winner:

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, a short story by Raymond Carver became Birdman or (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).


Other Nominees

Still Alice by Lisa Genova.  Julia Moore won the award for Best Actress
Traveling to Infinity, My Life With Stephen by Jane Hawking  -- became The Theory of Everything.  Eddie Redmayne won the award for Best Actor.
Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges became The Imitation Game
The writings of Stefan Zweig became The Grand Budapest Hotel
American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in the U.S. Military History by Chris Kyle & Scott McEwen became American Sniper

Books nominated other categories:

Foxcatcher: the True Story of My Brother's Murder, John du Pont's Madness & the Quest for Olympic Gold by Mark Schultz & David Thomas became Foxcatcher, starring Steven Carrell.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon

Cookbook Club Favorites

The Cookbook Club has been meeting at Kirtland Public Library since June, 2012. We meet the fourth Tuesday of the month at 6 pm, except for November and December. (For these months, we meet once in early December.)

So far we've cooked from 25 books and one blog!

Our top three favorite cookbooks so far:

We follow the Cleveland food blogger at http://thisgirlsgottaeat.com/ and were lucky enough to have her as a guest at one of our meetings! Check out this girl's delicious recipes today.  

We've sampled at least 150 dishes and shared many recipes, laughs, and tips. Of the dishes, our favorites have been twice baked potatoes, turkey sandwiches, tomato crostini, and chicken pot pie casserole.

Our favorite ingredients to cook with are chocolate, olive oil, vegetables, and pasta.

Here is a list of our favorite kitchen tools:

immersion blender

Vitamix blender

Kitchen Aid mixer

crockpot liners

good knives

cutting board

wooden spoon

See all of the cookbooks we've used at the Library's website: 

http://kirtland.lib.oh.us/content/cookbook-club-7

Want to start your own cookbook club? Grab some friends and a cookbook. The Library has cookbooks of all kinds!

Local Haunts of Kirtland

We recently had the Ghost Lady of Willoughby, Cathi Weber, come by to give a talk about some of the local haunts here in northeast Ohio, and it proved to be a very entertaining evening. She gave us a rundown of some of the various haunted locales that she has visited such as the historic Willoughby Coal Co. haunted by the Ghost of Don Norris, one of the business owners who was found bloodied and broken outside the coal company. She discussed the Fairport lighthouse and ghastly mummified cat who's ghost still scampers around its grounds, and the Lake County Historical Society, who's long time superintendent Mrs. White still tries to enforce the rules to would be ghost hunters who visit.

But surprisingly, out of all the local haunts that she discussed that evening, not one mention of any of the hauntings in the Kirtland area.  Seeing as Ohio is notorious for its haunted locales I did a little digging to see what haunts we were most known for, and there was certainly no shortage of them.

One of the first thing I dug up in my search was the Witch's Grave. Located on Hart Rd. in Kirtland Hills, the Witch's grave has an urban legend which says that if you stand before the grave and turn your back to it, it will encroach upon you. The lore is that the grave belongs to a witch who was punished for her crimes and buried off in solitude because they did not want her in their cemeteries. The reality is a bit less exciting, as it is the grave of a pair of settlers who traveled from Connecticut to here and were more than likely buried on the family plot. Still, local paranormal investigators have felt energies and experiences here.

Our next famous Kirtland haunt is one that is certainly popular with local teens. On Wisner Rd., off of Kirtland-Chardon Rd., you'll find a bridge on a private drive. This is one of the nation's many famous "Crybaby bridges". But special mention goes to this one because of the frequency of events people have reported here.

Supposedly, should you park on half of the bridge and roll your windows down, the sound of water from the passing river will start to be accompanied by sound of a child crying. This is a heavily wooded area so its host to all manner of sounds, but its very hard to deny the sheer number of cases who claim to have heard crying. I mention this one because it ties to one of Kirtland's most well know hauntings.

You knew this one was coming, but when people go to check out the Crybaby Bridge, they are looking for Melon Heads. There are various tellings of the legend, that in the 1800's a doctor by the name of Crowe (or Crow, Crowely, or Crowstein). The stories are mixed in the details, but they typically are based around the good doctor adopting a series of children who suffered from Hydrocephalus (taking water on the brain). Dr. Crowe would often conduct experiments on the children. Some say in an attempt to cure them, others say they were for.... darker reasons.

Supposedly after the death of Mrs. Crowe, the mother figure to the children, they became unruly and violent, and the ensuing scuffle resulted in a fire of the orphanage that saw the demise of Crowe. The children were assumed to be lost, but numerous sightings of them have been reported near the Crybaby Bridge and King Memorial Cemetery. Nearly everyone knows about the legend and there was even a film produced about it.

This is just a snippet of the various haunts I was able to dig up about our little area. There are a number of other haunted places and many many more around the state of Ohio. Many of them have been written about and are available through our very own library system. Everyone is encouraged to form their own opinions about hauntings,but the exploration of it all is what makes it fun and interesting. What local haunts do you know about?

What We're Reading Now!

Jamie: Bundori by Laura Joh Rowland

Bundori is the second novel in Laura Joh Rowland's historical mystery series featuring samurai detective Sano Ichiro. In feudal Japan, Sano is the shogun's sosakan-sama: Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People. In this book, he must find a serial killer who has been leaving clues in the form of an ancient war ritual: severed heads to nailed boards. The clues lead Sano to several suspects. The problem is, one suspect is the shogun's Chamberlain. The shogun himself has asked Sano to catch the murderer. Sano is torn between serving the shogun and serving justice. ​Sano's life is always in danger. Luckily, he has a loyal assistant helping him. A knowledgeable, scholarly elder, and deadly female ninja complete the cast. As Sano learns hidden secrets and narrows his list of suspects, suspense mounts.

This is only the second book about Sano but I enjoy reading about historical Japan and samurai culture and I love to see the character of Sano develop. His integrity and skills are admirable and I'm always cheering for him. Rowland's historical details are accurate and contribute to the story. The shogun of Sano's time is a real historical figure: Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. There are currently seventeen novels in the series, so there is still much to learn about Sano and historical Japan. (This series may not be for everyone due to graphic scenes and violence.)


Chris: Attack On Titan by Hajimie Isayama

I had a mystery lined up for my new post, but since this series is so hot right now and I'm apparently the sole anime/manga fan in Kirtland, I wanted to talk about this one.

Attack On Titan takes place in a Concentric city that is protected by three giant stone walls. For the past 100 years, these walls protected humans from monstrous humanoids called Titans. For youths such as protagonist Eren Yeager, his adopted sister Misaka, and their friend Armin, life within these walls are all they know and the peace from it. Until one day, a massive 50 meter tall skinless Titan appears above the wall and smashes a hole through it, allowing smaller yet incredibly deadly Titans to breach through. The ensuing chaos for escape is gruesome as the Titans begin to tear apart and devour humans. People are evacuated to the inner walls, but not without Eren losing his family in the most brutal of fashions. Swearing vengeance, Eren joins up with the Survey Corps to leave the walls and take the fight to the Titans.

When I tell another adult I watch anime or read manga, I will occasionally get a scoff, an eyeroll, or am told that cartoons are for kids. This series is decidedly not for kids, and I challenge readers to give it a try. It has drama, betrayal, mystery, gruesome combat, and for the most part moves at a fast pace. You could tear though 3 volumes of these graphic novels in less than an hour, so there is no reason not to give it a shot.


Maria: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has never left her tiny village. Recently let go from her waitressing job at the Butter Bun Cafe, she finds she needs a job fast because her parents rely on her paychecks. So when the job center recommends Lou try for a job as a caretaker for a quadriplegic, she reluctantly goes for the interview. Lou's interview takes her to the affluent side of town, to the Traynor family mansion. They are moneyed and infamous in Lou's small town, but she never knew about the troubles they've had at home . . . the eldest Traynor child, Will, was in an accident two years ago that has left him a quadriplegic. He has movement of his neck, but minimal control of his hands and fingers. Everything else is paralyzed, and he is confined to a chair and needs 24/7 care, especially after a suicide attempt that put the family on high-alert. Mrs. Traynor is adamant that she does not want a nurse-maid for her son. She just wants him to spend time with someone who will entertain him and be companionable. Louisa is chatty and quirky, dressing in colorful tights and sparkly gumboots. She's just the sort of positive influence Will needs in his life right now.

But Will Traynor is not the easiest person to get along with. He's bitter and depressed - constantly reminiscing about his life `before' and `after' the accident. He used to ski, bungee jump, rock climb and just generally travel the globe looking for the next adrenalin-rush. Now he is chair-bound and suicidal. But Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living. Lou has six months to prove her worth to the Traynors and make a difference in Will's life. And what originally starts as an easy paycheck and cozy new job turns into a mission of hope. . .

Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—although heartbreaking, this book had me laughing out loud in many parts of the book. Great character development, great writing…what more can you ask for?

Artists in Novels

Since the publication of Girl in Hyacinth Blue and Girl with a Pearl Earring, historical fiction about art and artists has remained popular. The following titles are just a few examples of novels featuring artists.

Sunflowers, by Sheramy Bundrick is about the relationship between Vincent Van Gogh and a prostitute named Rachel, who becomes his model and his love during the final two years of his life.

The Passion of Artemisia, by Susan Vreeland features lesser-known 17^th –century artist Artemisia Gentileschi, the first woman elected to the Accademia dell’Arte in Florence. Vreeland’s other novels are also about artists and their work, including Girl in Hyacinth Blue (Vermeer) and Luncheon of the Boating Party (Renoir).

I Am Madame X, by Gioia Diliberto is a fictional memoir of Virginie Gautreau, the model for John Singer Sargent’s painting, Portrait of Madame X, which is featured on the book cover.

American 19^th-century painter Mary Cassatt’s work is the subject of Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper, by Harriet Scott Chessman. Lydia, Mary’s older sister who was dying of Bright's Disease, was the model for a series of paintings reproduced in this novel.

The Anatomy Lesson by Nina Siegal imagines the background story of Rembrandt’s first masterpiece, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicholaes Tulp.

These titles and many more, including novels about Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci, are available in our fiction collection. Please ask a reference librarian for more recommendations.