Labor Day is this weekend and a sure sign of autumn is New York Magazine's list of the 20 most anticipated fiction and non-fiction books for Fall 2010.

Amy, one of our intrepid librarians, alerted me to two great 'low-calorie' websites for all of us who would rather read about delicious food than indulge and pack on the extra lbs.

Fiction for Foodies & Culinary Fiction should satisfy your culinary cravings the non-fattening way.

Bon Appétit!

Don't miss our end-of-the-summer show with Flow Circus! This Tuesday, Aug. 17 at 2 pm. Pick up your summer reading certificate, final prizes and some special giveaways!

Leonard Lopate brings a diverse collection of great writers and talkers together for smart, unpredictable conversations every weekday on WNYC radio from Noon to 2 pm. Check out this list of summer fiction if you are looking for some interesting alternatives to the typical best sellers this summer.

If your idea of a great book is a pulse-quickening, fast-moving suspense thriller, have I got a list for you!

The NPR audience voted their Top 100 'Killer Thrillers' of all time and what quality choices they are ~ a terrific mix of classics and popular authors. As you might expect, Stephen King was the most popular author with 6 titles in the top 100, followed by Lee Child with 4, and with 3 each, Michael Crichton, Dennis Lehane and the late Steig Larsson.

The Top 10 are:

1. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
3. Kiss the Girls by James Patterson
4. The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
5. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
6. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
7. The Shining by Stephen King
8. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
9. The Hunt tor Red October by Tom Clancy
10. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

You can read the article, and see the entire list, here.

In Time's magazine (August 2nd) picks for the week as # 1

I just finished reading a fantastic book that is set to come out on Sept. 1. It is called Plain Kate and it is the debut novel by Erin Bow. With Russian fairytales as an inspiration (ever heard of a rusalka?) it tells the story of Katerina, a talented woodcarver and orphan (of course!) who sells her shadow. This book has been raved about by Arthur Levine, the guy who brought Harry Potter to America! Here's what he had to say (from Publishers' Weekly):

Arthur Levine of Scholastic set the bar fairly high when he began his remarks about Plain Kate by Erin Bow by saying that because he had a hand in bringing Brian Jacques, Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling to U.S. audiences, "I've been sent a lot of fantasy, some of it quite good. But it's very rare for a book to stand out for me the way Plain Kate did."
Levine said Bow's prose has the "lyrical strength and classic proportions" of master writers. "She is a truly original talent," Levine said, evidenced by a "breathless e-mail" he got from an associate at the most recent London Book Fair who said Printz Award winner Meg Rosoff had read Plain Kate and couldn't stop raving about it. Rosoff's blurb - "anything but plain, full of poetry, magic, sorrow and joy" - will be on the cover.

The book is going to be marketed as a young adult, but after reading it I feel it would certainly be appropriate for fifth grade and up. So put it on your list.

The radio show I listen to while getting ready for work in the morning, The Takeway on NPR, had an interesting segment asking listeners to weigh in with their opinions on the most and least successful adaptations of books into movies.

This summer, Eat, Pray, Love is coming to the big screen as is Charlie St. Cloud (novel title - The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud). Wonder how they will compare to the books? If tradition holds, not very well even with Julia Roberts & Zac Ephron as stars.

Personally, I loved both the books and movies of Lonesome Dove and The Silence of the the Lambs. What's your favorite?

If you read Savvy by Ingrid Law (off our fourth grade summer reading list), you'll be excited to hear that the author is coming out with a new book on August 24 called Scumble. It's not a sequel, but it features Mibs Beaumont's cousin, who has just turned 13 and learned about his savvy.