For science fiction fans, Labor Day weekend will be a big weekend here in Atlanta.

Alien Encounters: Speculative and Imaginative Fiction by Writers of Color is at the Auburn Avenue Research Library. This seminar and film event runs from the evening of Thursday, September 2nd to Sunday, September 5th.

So to get yourself in the mood to blast off, travel through time, or ramp up your superpowers, check the library catalog. Some of the titles mentioned at Auburn Avenue library events may include:

-Black Atlantic Speculative Fictions: Octavia E. Butler, Jewelle Gomez, and Nalo Hopkinson by Ingrid Thaler
-Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora by Sheree R.Thomas
-Kindred by Octavia E.Butler
-The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson

If you want to read some of the Hugo Awards nominees and winners for 2010 as well, then you may find these:

-Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson
-Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow
-The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
-The Women of Nell Gwynne’s by Kage Baker

Don’t forget that from Sept 3rd -5th, Atlanta will host DragonCon, and its parade route will run near Auburn Avenue Research Library.

Nanu nanu.

The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System now has Overdrive ebooks and e-audiobooks for our patrons. Our Overdrive titles are available 24-7 anywhere in world.

For the audiobooks, almost all devices will work; for ebooks, Sony Reader, B&N Nook, and the Kobo will work. Kindle is not presently compatible but may be in the future.

Users Need a valid AFPL card; a pc, mac, or smartphone; and free software from the Overdrive Web site. Download to Mac or PC, then transfer to a portable device.The software records 1 part (1 hour) at a time to one CD due to digital rights. To burn a whole book, you will need about 8 CDs. Download time for an e-audiobook is 8-12 seconds per hour of audio.

Users can check out up to 7 books and have up to 7 holds at a time. Holds require an email address for notice. You have 4 days after the email notice goes out to “pick up”, with instructions on how to download.

If you don’t see what you want, please contact us to suggest titles at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

August 4th marks the 220th birthday of the U.S. Coast Guard. If you are curious about the history of the organization or some of its famous rescues, here are a few titles that are available in the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System:

Coming Back Alive: The True Story of the Most Harrowing Search and Rescue Mission Ever Attempted On Alaska’s High Seas by Spike Walker

Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History by Kalee Thompson

Rescue Warriors: The U.S. Coast Guard, America’s Forgotten Heroes by David Helvarg

For those interested in more information, here are some of our reference materials:

African American World War II Casualties And Decorations In The Navy, Coast Guard And Merchant Marine: A Comprehensive Record, Glenn A. Knoblock

Boats of the United States Coast Guard by the Coast Guard. Office of Boat Forces

Facsimile Of A Letter Book Of Colonel Sharp Delany, First Collector, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, August 7, 1789 To December 20, 1790 by Sharp Delany

In Katrina’s Wake: The National Guard on the Gulf Coast, 2005 by William B. Boehm

Long Passage to Korea: Black Sailors and the Integration Of The U.S. Navy by Bernard C. Nalty

You may find these and other material detailing the history and operations of the U.S. Coast Guard through the library catalog.

The 2010 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards shortlists were announced in Australia last week. The list contains the title of many authors whose works can be found here at the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System. Check our catalog to find the authors or titles that interest you.

Fiction shortlist:

- Summertime, J.M. Coetzee
- The Book of Emmett, Deborah Forster
- The Lakewoman, Alan Gould
- Dog Boy, Eva Hornung
- Ransom, David Malouf
- Lovesong, Alex Miller
- As the Earth Turns Silver, Alison Wong

Non-Fiction shortlist:

- The Water Dreamers: The Remarkable History of Our Dry Continent, Michael Cathcart
- Strange Places: A Memoir of Mental Illness, Will Elliott
- The Colony: A History of Early Sydney, Grace Karskens
- The Life and Death of Democracy, John Keane
- The Blue Plateau: A Landscape Memoir, Mark Tredinnick
- The Ghost at the Wedding, Shirley Walker

Young Adult Fiction shortlist:

- Stolen, Lucy Christopher
- The Winds of Heaven, Judith Clarke
- Confessions of a Liar, Thief and Failed Sex God, Bill Condon
- The Museum of Mary Child, Cassandra Golds
- Swerve, Phillip Gwynne
- Jarvis 24, David Metzenthen
- Beatle Meets Destiny, Gabrielle Williams

Children’s Fiction shortlist:

- Cicada Summer, Kate Constable
- The Terrible Plop, Ursula Dubosarsky (illustrated by Andrew Joyner)
- Just Macbeth, Andy Griffiths (illustrated by Terry Denton)
- Mr Chicken Goes to Paris, Leigh Hobbs
- Running with the Horses, Alison Lester
- Star Jumps, Lorraine Marwood
- Mannie and the Long Brave Day, Martine Murray (illustrated by Sally Rippin)
- Tensy Farlow and the Home for Mislaid Children, Jen Storer
- Harry and Hopper, Margaret Wild (illustrated by Freya Blackwood)

If you celebrate the French holiday Bastille Day on July 14th, then stop by a branch of the Atlanta Fulton Public Library System and pick up something to read on one of your favorite topics. Here is a mixed bag of fiction and non-fiction by contemporary and classic authors:

-France by Susan Mckay
-The Fourteenth of July by Christopher. Prendergast
-Peaceful Resistance: Advancing Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms by Robert M Press
-Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
-Robespierre and the French Revolution in World History by Tom McGowan
-A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
-Ange Pitou, or, Taking the Bastile by Alexandre Dumas.
-The Fall of the Bastille by Nathaniel Harris

Check the library catalog for more titles.

It’s that time of year again. Summer reading programs are soon to be in full swing and parents and kids will be rushing into all branches of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System to find the books on their summer reading lists. It’s free and easy to join in the summer reading fun, so don’t miss out on this great opportunity!

Young children can sign up for the “Make a Splash” program at any branch, while teens should register for the “Make Waves @ Your Library” programs. After signing up, each person receives a reading log to keep track of books that are read during the summer. The library awards a certificate when young readers complete ten books and teens complete five books, and the readers’ names go into a drawing for prizes.

Parents and students will also be pleased to know that the summer reading lists for Fulton County schools are already available online. Simply visit this site for the 2010 Fulton County Summer Reading Selections, then select your grade level to view your book lists.

To see upcoming summer programs at all of the library system’s branches, visit the summer reading page of our website here.

We look forward to seeing you this summer!

Jerome David Salinger, most famously known for the high-school classic starring Holden Caufield, The Catcher in the Rye, has passed away in his New Hampshire home at the age of 91. Salinger retreated to this farm- house a few years after his most famous work was published, and stayed there for the next 50 years avoiding media and photographers, and staunchly denying screenwriters, actors and authors the rights to adapt the book. He rarely granted interviews, despite repeated requests, and hardly ever explained himself. However, in one of these rare interviews he was quoted as saying

“I refuse to publish. There’s a marvelous peace in not publishing. There’s a stillness. When you publish, the world thinks you owe something. If you don’t publish, they don’t know what you’re doing. You can keep it for yourself.”

J.D. Salinger’s other works that did make it to the publisher include, Nine Stories, a collection of short stories, the novella Franny and Zooey, and a short story that took up almost an entire New Yorker magazine in 1965.

You can check the AFPL catalog here for Salinger’s books. And you can click here for a list of his stories published in various magazines throughout his life time. I can’t say I’ve reviewed this particular site thoroughly, but it does list the story titles, dates, publications and page numbers. Unfortunately since these stories were published 60 to 70 years ago, they won’t be found in the AFPL databases. However, if you are a fan and a sleuth you may be able to find hard copy or microfilm versions in some libraries!

Thank you to NPR and the New York Times for links to articles on Salinger’s life and work.

Several days ago, the literary world lost two important authors. And although the stories each wrote were very different in style and character, the locations in and around Cambridge, MA featured prominently in both their works. Parker’s Spencer novels, named after the main character in this polific series of books, were said to have recreated the American detective novel, while Segal is most often recognized for his best-selling debut novel, Love Story.

AFPL owns many of the titles writen by both of these great authors, and I encourage you to check the catalog here for a few by each. You can find their works in all formats: print, audio CDs, downloadable e-books, and films of their novels on DVD. Below is a list of suggestions to get you started. You can also click here and here, to read or listen to two stories remembering the authors from National Public Radio. Enjoy!

Works by Robert B. Parker