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All About Book Club Books: The Toni Morrison Book Club, The Bromance Book Club, The Book Club Cookbook and the Maximum Security Book Club

11 Mar

I love curling up at night with a good book before I fall asleep, but sometimes the best part of reading isn’t about just reading it yourself, but also about the great conversations they spark and the bonding that occurs over the shared experience.  A variety of fiction and nonfiction books have even used book clubs as a source of inspiration.

The Toni Morrison Book Club
by Juda Bennett
Toni Morrison Book Club
This is one of our newest additions to our collection here at HPL and if you are a fan of Toni Morrison, like me, you’ll be interested in checking it out.  This memoir looks at a group of friends who vary in race, sexual orientation, and country of origin, but all share bonds over Morrison’s work.  Controversies spring up, but the book club also becomes a powerful way to not only look at Morrison’s own works, but also the participant’s lives.

The Bromance Book Club
by Lyssa Kay Adams
Bromance Book Club
Looking for something a bit lighter?  Check out this fun ebook from eBCCLS or eLibraryNJ about a baseball player who turns to a romance book club when his own relationship starts to break apart.  Can he use the book groups latest read as a guide to saving his own marriage?

The Book Club Cookbook: Recipes and Food for Thought from Your Book Club’s Favorite Books and Authors
by Judy Gelman
Book Club Cook Book
If you are hosting a book club, you may be wondering what to serve your guests?  Look no further than The Book Club Cookbook available from BCCLS libraries.  It includes recipe and discussion ideas for 100 popular book club choices so you can sample a good book and a delicious dish!

The Maximum Security Book Club: Reading Literature in A Men’s Prison
by Mikita Brottman
maximum security book club
In this memoir Mikita Brottman, a scholar, recounts her experience of reading literature with prisoners in a maximum-security jail near Baltimore.  Discussing selections like Macbeth and Heart of Darkness not only gives the book club members new insights, but also changes Brottman’s own experiences of the literary works.  The Maximum Security Book Club provides a unique perspective on both literature and the experience of those incarcerated in our nation’s prisons.  It is available from Hoopla as an ebook and digital audiobook.

Book Club
Book Club
Looking for a fun movie to watch with your book club friends?  Check out the 2018, Book Club starring the stellar cast of Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgeon as four friends who decide to put aside their usual book club fare for the steamy Fifty Shades of Grey.

Looking for a book club?  Well you are in luck.  We have four unique genre book clubs at the Hoboken Library and we are reading some terrific books in the upcoming months.

Our Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Discussion Group picked The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri S. Tepper for March, which looks at a world where the gender divide has become so great that walls keep them apart; a thought provoking look at a disturbing dystopia.  Come and discuss it with us on Monday, March 23 at 6 PM.

On Tuesday, March 31 at 6:30 PM join us for the first meeting of the Hoboken Public Library’s Romance Book Club! We will be discussing Jennifer Robson’s The Gown.  Read more about the book in our Valentine’s Day blog post.

Our History Book Club will be back on April 6 at 6:30 PM, to read the Pulitzer Prize winning, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, which looks at the fascinating life of and world of a midwife in 18th Century Maine!  You can borrow the DVD American Experience adaptation or stream it from Kanopy.

On April 14 at 6:30 PM the Mystery Book Club will discuss Eight Perfect Murders by award winning author, Peter Swanson.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Head of Reference

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GETTING PAST THE MYTHS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING        

28 Aug

LANGUAGE LEARNING MYTH #1: I’m too old to learn a new language.

FALSE. There is a common assumption that children are better at learning languages than adults. They might be better at picking up pronunciation, but otherwise, adults have many advantages over kids. Adults already have pre-existing language knowledge. Adults understand how conjugation works, what an adjective does, etc. Meanwhile, children struggle with many aspects of language. For example, they have a hard time with irregular verbs (e.g., saying “runned” instead of “ran”). Additionally, babies take years before they can even utter a word. An adult? Well, you can learn how to say a few basic phrases in a day!

LANGUAGE LEARNING MYTH #2: I don’t have an innate talent for languages, so I can’t learn.

FALSE. Everyone is capable of learning a language. While it’s true that some people pick up on certain aspects of language more quickly, those same people can also peter out when they reach an intermediate level (trust me, I’ve been there before). Everyone has different strengths, but it is not talent that makes them fluent. It is regular practice and determination.

LANGUAGE LEARNING MYTH #3: I need to spend money on materials and on travel to learn a language.

FALSE. You can obtain a various amount of language learning resources from the library FOR FREE. In addition to language learning materials on our shelves, the library offers free access to software programs that normally would require payment, such as Rosetta Stone and Mango Languages. The Hoboken Public Library and Friends of the Library also provides free ESL practice every month, which will be starting a new series of classes in September. Language learners can also benefit from free access to video lessons on Universal Class and movies in several languages and language lessons from The Great Courses on Kanopy. If you’ve got your Hoboken Resident Library Card, you don’t even need to leave the house! And travel? Sure, immersion can be useful, but it doesn’t always work. There are a lot of factors that go into making full immersion a successful method, and as I’ve mentioned before, it is possible to become fluent without moving to a country (or locale) where a certain language is spoken. The most important thing is PRACTICE, and that practice must be applied to the four language skills: reading, writing, speaking, listening. If you consistently practice all of these skills, then you will achieve your goals.

Before you begin your language journey, make sure you have a goal in mind. This is of the utmost importance. “I want to be fluent” is not a good enough goal. It is vague and will not motivate you when you eventually reach a rough patch. What does fluent even truly mean? (We can save that conversation for another day…) What you want is a more specific goal, and remember, you can add another goal once you achieve the first. It is entirely fine to have short-term goals. Good examples of language learning goals are: “I want to be able to have small talk with my friend” or “I want to be able to read X book.”  These are specific and realistic goals that will help you keep focused and stay on track.

In my next post, I’ll provide you with a walkthrough of a software program you can have free access to through the library: Mango Languages. In the meantime, why don’t you check out the library’s many resources and choose a language to study?

Written by:
Samantha Evaristo
Hoboken Library Outreach Assistant

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