Over 25 million items are circulated through our network of libraries each year, and among those items there are both expected front-runners and a few interesting surprises every year. For your perusal, we've compiled lists of the top books checked out systemwide and in The Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island in 2016. These lists include books borrowed from our 92 locations in the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island, as well as from our growing e-book catalog (which currently offers nearly 320,000 books). 

Bestseller The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins took the top spot in 2016,  followed by the award-winning Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. You can also check out this interactive map to see which title was number one at each of our branches:

Below, find our Top 10 lists. Already read the top picks and looking for more? This year, we've also provided a few read-alikes for you for every top check out, courtesy of our Readers Services team, so you can keep on reading.

Top 10 Books Systemwide

1. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

More psychological suspense:

• The Good Girlby Mary Kubica
• The Silent Wife by A.S.A Harrison
• Before I Go To Sleepby S.J. Watson

2. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

More thoughtful books on society and culture:

• We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
• The South Side: A Portrait on Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore

3. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

More reflective books on life, sickness, and loss:

• About Alice by Calvin Trillin
• The Light of the Worldby Elizabeth Alexander
• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters In the End by Atul Gawande

4. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

More Southern gothic:

• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
• Nothing Gold Can Stay by Ron Rash
• The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor

5. Why Not Me?by Mindy Kaling

More self-deprecating humor:

• The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae
• The Bedwetterby Sarah Silverman
• Half Emptyby David Rakoff

6. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg

More books about dating:

• Love In the Time of Algorithms by Dan Slater
• How To Win at Feminism by Elizabeth Newell and Sarah Pappaloardo
• I Suck at Girlsby Justin Halpern

7. To Kill a Mockingbirdby Harper Lee

More good books you may have missed in high school:

• Belovedby Toni Morrison
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• The Catcher In the Rye by J.D. Salinger

8. The Goldfinchby Donna Tartt

More complex characters coming of age and coming to terms with their family:

• The Rise and Fall of Great Powers By Tom Rachman
• Rock, Paper, Scissors by Naja Marie Aidt
• Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson

9. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

More stylistic, character-driven novels set in WWII:

• Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
• The English Patientby Michael Ondaatje
• In the Wolf’s Mouthby Adam Foulds

10. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

More more books starring women and set during WWII:

• The Sea Garden by Deborah Lawrenson
• Citadel by Kate Mosse
• The Last Time I Saw Paris by Lynn Sheene

Top 10 Books in the Bronx

1. NYPD Red 4by James Patterson

More gritty mysteries:

• Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley
• Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane
• The Whites by Harry Brandt

2. TASC: Test Assessing Secondary Completion: Strategies, Practice, & Review

A good book as a reward!

• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
• The Underground Railroadby Colson Whitehead
• The Vegetarianby Han Kang

3. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

More Southern gothic:

• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
• Nothing Gold Can Stay by Ron Rash
• The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor

4. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

More psychological suspense:

• The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
• The Silent Wife by A.S.A Harrison
• Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson

5. Private Paris by James Patterson

More suspense set in Paris:

• Lock No. 1by Georges Simenon
• The World at Night by Alan Furst
• Ghosts of St. Michelby Jake Lamar

6. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

More thoughtful books on society and culture:

• We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
• The South Side: A Portrait on Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore

7. Killer Dolls by Nisa Santiago

More “street life,” drug dealers, secrets, and betrayals:

• Every Thug Needs a Lady by Wahida Clark
• Dutch II: Angel’s Revenge by Teri Woods
• Trife Life To Lavish by Deja King

8. Undercover by Danielle Steel

More romantic suspense:

• Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard
• Naked in Death by J.D. Robb
• The Witnessby Nora Roberts

9. Precious Giftsby Danielle Steel

More family secrets uncovered upon inheritance:

• The Nestby Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
• The Heiressby Sara Shepard
• The Turner House by Angela Flournoy

10. Vengeance: A Novelby Zane

More revenge and erotica:

• Baby Brotherby 50 Cent
• Unzippedby Noire
• A Clean Up Man by M.T. Pope

Top 10 Books in Manhattan

1. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

More thoughtful books on society and culture:

• We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
• The South Side: A Portrait on Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore

2. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

More psychological suspense:

• The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
• The Silent Wife by A.S.A Harrison
• Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson

3. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

More Southern gothic:

• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
• Nothing Gold Can Stay by Ron Rash
• The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor

4. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

More reflective books on life, sickness, and loss:

• About Alice by Calvin Trillin
• The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander
• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters In the End by Atul Gawande

5. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg

More books about dating:

• Love In the Time of Algorithms by Dan Slater
• How To Win at Feminism by Elizabeth Newell and Sarah Pappaloardo
• I Suck at Girls by Justin Halpern

6. The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

More books about simplifying one’s home and life:

• Mess: One Man’s Struggle To Clean Up His House and His Act by Barry Yourgrau
• Junk: Digging Through America’s Love Affair With Stuff by Alison Stewart
• Clearing Clutter: Physical, Mental, Spiritualby Alexandra Chauran

7. M Train by Patti Smith

More beautifully written thoughtful memoirs:

• The Argonauts by Maggie Smith
• The Liar’s Clubby Mary Karr
• Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson

8. NYPD Red 4 by James Patterson

More gritty mysteries:

• The Whites by Harry Brandt
• Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley
• Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane

9. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the Endby Atul Gawande

More reflections on life, sickness, and loss:

• When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
• About Alice by Calvin Trillin
• The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander

10. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

More memorable women in novels with strong sense of place:

• Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
• Fates & Furies by Lauren Groff
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Top 10 Books on Staten Island

1. NYPD Red 4 by James Patterson

More gritty mysteries:

• Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley
• Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane
• The Whites by Harry Brandt

2. Private Paris by James Patterson

More suspense set in Paris:

• Lock No. 1 by Georges Simenon
• The World at Night by Alan Furst
• Ghosts of St. Michel by Jake Lamar

3. Undercover by Danielle Steel

More romantic suspense:

• Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard
• Naked in Death by J.D. Robb
• The Witness by Nora Roberts

4. Precious Gifts by Danielle Steel

More family secrets uncovered upon inheritance:

• The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
• The Heiress by Sara Shepard
• The Turner House by Angela Flournoy

5. A Girl's Guide to Moving On by Debbie Macomber

More upbeat romance:

• Lost Dogs and Lonely Heartsby Lucy Dillon
• The One & Only by Emily Giffin
• Lost Lakeby Sarah Addison Allen

6. The Last Mile by David Baldacci

More intricately plotted suspense:

• The Farm by Tom Rob Smith
• In A Dark, Dark Woodby Ruth Ware
• Land of Shadowsby Rachel Howzell Hall

7. Murder Houseby James Patterson and David Ellis

More creepy houses:

• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
• Rooms by Lauren Oliver
• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

8. The Obsession by Nora Roberts

More suspense / romance blends:

• The Seventh Victim by Mary Burton
• Copper Beach by Jayne Ann Krentz
• The First Prophet by Kay Hooper

9. What We Findby Robyn Carr

More sweet stories about fathers and daughters:

• Two By Twoby Nicholas Sparks
• Fast Trackby Julie Garwood
• Father's Dayby Simon Van Booy

10. Bullseye by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

More suspense thrillers with international intrigue:

• The Gabriel Allon Novels by Daniel Silva
• Scot Harvath Thrillers by Brad Thor
• Jack Ryan, Jr. by Tom Clancy

New year, new books, new... you?

Listen, dear reader: It's time to get around to those books that you’ve always meant to read but never have.

With our 2017 reading calendars, you can focus your reading on something new and emerge at the end of 2017 a more well-rounded reader.

We've put together lists of 12 books on three different tracks:

Track 1: Modern American Classics

Track 2: YA Novels for Adults Too

Track 3: Genre Sampler Pack

Pick a track, and read one book per month. Simple. And you can chat with other readers working the calendars! Become our friend on Goodreads and join the group for your chosen track.

Track 1: Modern American Classics

“Hey, I’ve been meaning to read that book…”

This list aims to help you read more great books in 2017.

By “modern classic,” we mean a defining or definitive work of art, published in 1960 or later, that’s a brilliant accomplishment or a near-perfect example of a genre — a standout book that’s important or representative of a particular idea or school of thought. It doesn't have to be a bestseller, but the title and/or author is likely recognizable to most people who have an interest in books.

Here are our 12 picks, one for each month:

1.      The Color Purple by Alice Walker

2.      The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

3.      In Cold Blood by Truman Capoteby Truman Capote

4.      Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

5.      The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

6.      The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisernos

7.      Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

8.      The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

9.      Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

10.  The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

11.  The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

12.  Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Alternates: Beloved by Toni Morrison and Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Track 2: YA Novels for Adults Too

Maybe you’ve never read any fiction written for young adults (defined as ages 13-18), but you’ve heard about it and want to give it a shot.

Maybe you’ve read some of the more well-known YA books — Hunger Games, The Fault in Our Stars— but want to read more.

Or maybe you’ve read a ton of YA, but you’re looking for some exciting new books, plus a couple classics that reveal the underpinnings of the whole genre. (Note the alternates, in case you’ve already read some of the books on the list.)

Here are our 12 picks, one for each month:

1.      Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

2.      Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universeby Benjamin Saenz

3.      The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

4.      Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. by Judy Blume

5.      Gabi, a Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero

6.      Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

7.      Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina

8.      The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks

9.      Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

10.  When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds

11.  Graceling by Kristen Cashore

12.  The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

Alternates: Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Track 3: Genre Sampler Pack

Genres are subsets of fiction: romance, fantasy, thrillers, urban fiction.

They’re often looked down upon, for a variety of reasons — too popular (really!), predictable or clichéd (only if it's poorly written), or not “literary” enough (whatever that means).

We disagree, and we’re here to give you a taste: one book from 12 different genres, in alphabetical order. These picks aren’t necessarily THE representative in every category, but they’re decent examples of the kind of book in each one.

Here are our 12 picks, one for each month:

1.      Fantasy: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin

2.      Graphic novel: Saga by Brian K. Vaughn

3.      Horror: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

4.      Mystery: Dragonfish by Vu Tran

5.      Paranormal: Dead until Dark (the Sookie Stackhouse series) by Charlaine Harris

6.      Romance: Silk Is for Seduction by Loretta Chase

7.      Science fiction: The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

8.      Steampunk: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

9.      Thriller: Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

10.  Urban fiction: Moth to a Flame by Ashley Antionette

11.  Western: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

12.  Young adult: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

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Hey all! While the temperatures are heading below the freezing marker, and folks are still in the holiday spirit, it continues to be my job to get all of you excited for another exciting season of Major League Baseball! Today's lesson is an unusual yet fun one: we're going to discover books dealing with 19th century baseball.

It's been a long time since the olden days of the 19th century, and baseball has clearly evolved for the better since then. The rules are more concrete, the contracts are resolute (no players holding out or jumping to "rogue leagues"), and, overall, the game is also much better off financially these days. Back then, professional baseball now and again was holding on by the skin of its teeth, to the point where you'd wonder if it would be completely dissolved the following season. Back then it wasn't out of the ordinary to use one ball the entire game. Now once the ball touches the dirt it's immediately removed from the field of play. I personally find it a real hoot reading about the days when the game originated. NYPL has a great assortment of books on the subject; here are couple titles to point you in the right direction.

Base Ball Founders: The Clubs, Players and Cities of the Northeast that Established the Game by Peter Morris

This book is a great place to start! Morris' Base Ball Founders profiles the game's earliest origins on the northeastern coast. The book does a nice job splitting its chapters into separate regions, going from New York City (where it appropriately kicks off with the game's first organized ballclub, Alexander Cartwright's New York Knickerbockers), to Brooklyn, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and finishing up in Massachusetts. Morris does a great job detailing a lot of the well-known amateur ballclubs of the 19th century, in addition to the extremely minor teams that have largely been forgotten over the last century and change.  Certainly a must-read for citizens of the Northeast who are baseball fans. 

Fifty-Nine in '84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had by Edward Achorn

I am a pretty big fan of baseball records, especially the ones that are more or less impossible to break. When you take a peek at the list of Major League Baseball record holders, you'll find a decent mix of recent players, as well as players from yesteryear. The two records I believe will be the pair that'll never be broken deal with the same statistic: the pitcher's win.  Those would be Cy Young's 511 career wins, and Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn's single season win tally, 59 victories in his Providence Gray's pennant-winning 1884 season. The way baseball is structured nowadays puts a damper on how many wins a pitcher can pick up in both a single season, and during the course of a career. Pitching staffs ensure that starting pitchers will never in a million years start anywhere close to the amount of games Radbourn started that season, cementing his place in history. Check out Achorn's book, recapping every single game of the historic 1884 Providence Grays season, and read about every single one of Radbourn's 59 wins.

Long Before the Dodgers: Baseball in Brooklyn, 1855-1884 by James L. Terry

As stated earlier, Brooklyn has it's very own chapter in Peter Morris' Base Ball Founders book, and appropriately so. Up until 1898, Brooklyn was its own city. It of course has since been consolidated into today's "New York City" along with the other boroughs, but back then it was only right that the city of Brooklyn should field its own baseball teams. And that it did, way before Charles Byrne founded the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1883 (then known as the Brooklyn Grays of the Interstate Association). Some of the more major Brooklyn teams spotlighted in Terry's book are Eckford of Brooklyn (or Brooklyn Eckfords) and the Excelsior Base Ball Club of Brookyln. Amongst these old school Brooklyn ballplayers is Hall of Famer Candy Cummings, whose best known for being the brilliant inventor of the curveball! Give this book a look! 

A Game of Brawl: The Orioles, the Beaneaters, and the Battle for the 1897 Pennant by Bill Felber

As you guys know, I am a fan of books that focus on single seasons. I don't at all mind books that cover a wide range of years in baseball, but I feel when it comes to single season stories, the detail is greater, and the author doesn't gloss over things in order to get to the next period in time. Therefore it's only right that I'd be a fan of Bill Felber's book on the National League pennant race of 1897. The National League version of the Baltimore Orioles (NOT to be confused with the Orioles of today) were coming off three straight National League pennants, the last one being a runaway over the second place Cleveland Spiders. However 1897 was a different story. The Orioles found themselves in a September seesaw battle with the Boston Beaneaters (today's Atlanta Braves) with neither team running away with things, the National League flag completely up for grabs. Then there was the matter of the Temple Cup, which was played between the top two teams in the NL  for both bragging rights and a 30-inch high trophy (keep in mind this was the pre-modern World Series days). So who won what? Read it to find out!

The League That Lasted by Neil W. MacDonald

In my opinion, the first organized baseball league would probably be the National Association of Base Ball Players, originating in 1857, even though it was comprised entirely of amateur ballclubs. This league would cease relevance in 1870. After that came a second league, also, oddly enough, named the National Association of Base Ball Players, which was the first 'professional' league, but discontinued operating after the 1875 season.  As a result, 6 of the clubs from that league, in addition to 2 independent clubs, formed yet another league, this one known as the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs. Or in short, the National League. The league that lasted. The league we watch today along with its American League counterpart. But that league's story is one we'll save for another day. This book is a celebration of the NL. Neil W. MacDonald does a nice job talking about the National League's inaugural 1876 season and details further how the longstanding league came into existence. 

For more books on 19th century baseball, please visit our catalog. 

Spanish Speaking Resume Writing  workshop on Thursday,  December 29, 2016, 12:30 - 2:30 pm. at Flushing Workforce 1 Career Center, 138-60 Barclay Avenue, 2nd Floor, Flushing, NY 11355.  All interested jobseekers will learn to organize, revise and update resumes.

Basic Resume Writing  workshop on Wednesday, December 29, 2016, 1:30 - 3 pm at Brooklyn Workforce 1 Career Center, 250 Schermerhorn  Street,  Brooklyn, NY 11201. Participants will learn the purpose of a resume, chronological and combination resumes and select the appropriate type for their specific needs.

Job Postings at New York City Workforce 1.  

Apprenticeship Opportunities in New York City.

Brooklyn Community  Board 14: Available jobs

The New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCE&TC) is an association of 200 community-based organizations, educational institutions, and labor unions that annually provide job training and employment services to over 750,000 New Yorkers, including welfare recipients, unemployed workers, low-wage workers, at-risk youth, the formerly incarcerated, immigrants and the mentally and physically disabled. View NYCE&TC Job Listings.

Digital NYC is the official online hub of the New York City startup and technology ecosystem, bringing together every company, startup, investor, event, job, class, blog, video, workplace, accelerator, incubator, resource, and organization in the five boroughs. Search jobs by category on this site.

St. Nicks Alliance Workforce Development provides Free Job Training and Educational Programs in Environmental Response and Remediation Tec (ERRT). Commercial Driver's License, Pest Control Technician Training (PCT), Employment Search and Prep Training and Job Placement, Earn Benefits and Career Path Center. For information and assistance, please visit St. Nicks Alliance Workforce Development or call 718-302-2057 ext. 202.

Brooklyn Workforce Innovations helps jobless and working poor New Yorkers establish careers in sectors that offer good wages and opportunities for advancement. Currently, BWI offers free job training programs in four industries: commercial driving, telecommunications cable installation, TV and film production, and skilled woodworking.

CMP (formerly Chinatown Manpower Project) in lower Manhattan is now recruiting for a free training in Quickbooks, Basic Accounting, and Excel. This training is open to anyone who is receiving food stamps but no cash assistance. Class runs for eight weeks, followed by one-on-one meetings with a job developer. CMP also provides Free Home Health Aide Training for bilingual English/Cantonese speakers who are receiving food stamps but no cash assistance. Training runs Mondays through Fridays for six weeks and includes test prep and taking the HHA certification exam. Students learn about direct care techniques such as taking vital signs and assisting with personal hygiene and nutrition. For more information for the above two training programs, email: info@cmpny.org, call 212-571-1690, or visit. CMP also provides tuition-based healthcare and business trainings free to students who are entitled to ACCESS funding.

Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW) trains women and places them in careers in the skilled construction, utility, and maintenance trades. It helps women achieve economic independence and a secure future. For information call 212-627-6252 or register online.

Grace Institute provides tuition-free, practical job training in a supportive learning community for underserved New York area women of all ages and from many different backgrounds. For information call 212-832-7605.

Please note this page will be revised when more recruitment events for the week of December 25 become available.

​First things first: Let’s begin by remembering Carrie Fisher the way she wanted to be remembered.

In her 2008 memoir, she wrote about a conversation with director George Lucas on the Star Wars set:

George comes up to me the first day of filming and he takes one look at the dress and says, “You can’t wear a bra under that dress.”

So, I say, “Okay, I’ll bite. Why?”

And he says, “Because… there’s no underwear in space.”

…

What happens is you go to space and you become weightless. So far so good, right? But then your body expands??? But your bra doesn’t—so you get strangled by your own bra.

Now I think that this would make for a fantastic obit—so I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.

That quote alone proves Fisher’s books are well worth reading.

The one it comes from, Wishful Drinking, is a bold, honest, funny work of self-reflection that stands among important literary memoirs of addiction and mental illness. It also established Fisher as a vocal advocate for mental health, working to remove the stigma of diagnosis and treatment.

Her second memoir — Shockaholic, published in 2012 — offered another honest look into another stigmatized topic: electroshock therapy as treatment for depression and bipolar disorder.

In her most recent memoir, The Princess Diarist, Fisher republished sections of the journals she kept while working on the Star Wars set. The new book gave millions of fans a place to turn for some dishy fun as Fisher confirmed her romantic relationship with Harrison Ford and offered up some on-the-ground insights into the production. But even this book further established her writerly credibility; as one reviewer noted, even though she was only 19 when she penned these diaries, her “signature ironic humor and a sad honesty” were already in evidence.

Her four semi-autobiographical novels get less attention now, but their dry honesty earned Fisher a comparison to Dorothy Parker and Elaine May from John Scalzi in the Los Angeles Times. Scalzi praises her prowess as a Hollywood script doctor as well as a novelist; in his words, Fisher was ”witty but vulnerable, willing to push her readers to the edge of their comfort zone with the same lines that made them laugh.”

Much of Fisher’s work is available from the Library; check out the links below and see her full author catalog for ebooks, films, and more.

The Princess Diarist (2016)

Shockaholic(2012)

Wishful Drinking(2008)

The Best Awful (2003)

Delusions of Grandma (1994)

Surrender the Pink (1990)

Postcards from the Edge  (1987)

Our Digital Collections also hold some gorgeous portraits of Carrie Fisher by Kenn Dunn from the 1970s, around the time when she took on her iconic role as Princess Leia Organa.

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Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!

The Cooper Union Retraining Program for Immigrant Engineers at CAMBA assists highly skilled immigrant professionals who are underemployed or unemployed gain access to higher paying jobs through training and job placement assistance.  The program includes courses in information technology and chemical, mechanical, electrical and civil engineering.  Courses are scheduled around the needs of working professionals and offered evenings and weekends.

Since its inception in 1987, the Retraining  program for Immigrant Engineers has taught over 4,500 students and placed more than 60% of them in jobs.

The program offers introductory and advanced courses designed to bring participants' engineering, computer programming, and business skills up-to-date.  Courses include:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Green Building Guidelines & Environmental Safety
• Building Operation, Maintenance & Safety Regulation
• Heating, Ventilation, Air-Condition and Safety Regulation (HVAC)
• National Electrical Code (NEC) and Its Applications
• AISC Structural Steel Design
• ACI Structural Concrete Design
• Introduction to AutoCad for Engineers
• Advanced AutoCad and Revit
• Building Cost Estimating and Bridge, Highway, Railroad Engineering
• Linux (Unix) Administration
• Data Architecture Principles, Data Structure and SQL
• Java Programming
• Microsoft .Net and C#
• Software Quality Assurance – Manual and Automated Testing
• Android Software Development

Here is the current semester course schedule

Students can access CAMBA's Workforce Development Services, which include resume preparartion, mock interviews,  career advising, facilitated professional networking and job placement.  CAMBA pursues a sector-based approach to job development, with employer-partners who invest time, effort  and resources to integrate newly trained job seekers into  their workforce.

Eligibility:

The program welcomes all work-authorized immigrants, seeking retraining in the fields of engineering and information technology.  To be considered for the program, applicants must:

• Be work-authorized in the U.S.
• Have educational credentials and professional experience in  engineering, chemistry, information technology or a related field
• Demonstrate a financial need

For more information,  visit Retraining Program for Immigrant Engineers or call 718.226.0437 for more information and application instructions.

​'Tis the season for self-improvement, and we're thinking about the health and well-being of our favorite literary characters. So we asked our book experts at the New York Public Library:

What resolution do you wish a character in a book had made?

Here's what they said.

Miss Havisham, from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, should try some online dating! And maybe start shopping for a new wardrobe... —Rebecca Kluberdanz, Kingsbridge

Spider-Man should have resolved to make it to class on time. Instead, he dropped out of college because he missed too many classes fighting the Hobgoblin. —Benjamin Sapadin, Morris Park

Cutting back on the hotdogs might have done Ignatius J. Reilly some good! He could have done with a resolution to be a little less judgmental too — although without his strange opinions, A Confederacy of Dunces might not be so entertaining to read. —Nancy Aravecz, Jefferson Market

Arthur, the protagonist of NYC author Nick Comilla’s Candyass, might benefit from taking a little break from following his libido. —Michael Messina, Grand Concourse

I wish Anakin had resolved to be more patient in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Woodring Stover. —Joseph Pascullo, Grand Central

Hester Prynne, protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Lettershould have made a resolution to move out of town. —Susan Aufrichtig, Terence Cardinal Cooke-Cathedral

Matilda needs to invest in an e-reader so she doesn’t have to take all those books home — and for easy hiding from her parents. —Rachael Wettenstein, Grand Concourse

Anna Karenina, Emma Bovary, and Lily Bart could have resolved to join the ranks of women who were, even in their days, seeking out financial independence through work outside the home. They could have signed up for typewriting courses, learned nursing or medicine, or worked retail. They might not have ended up quite as dead quite as fast had they been working retail. —Anne Barreca, Battery Park City

Jay Gatsby (of The Great Gatsby fame) should resolve to move on, stop staring at that green light, and find love elsewhere. —Emily Merlino, Yorkville

Wallace Wallace should just accept it: Sometimes a little white lie will save you a LOT of trouble! But No More Dead Dogs would not have been so hilarious and wacky without his desire to always tell the truth! —Kate Fais, Bloomingdale

The unnamed priest from Grahame Greene’s 1940 magnum opus The Power and the Glory, who risks his life constantly to serve the spiritual needs of his flock, is constantly wracked with so much guilt and self-loathing that it just breaks the reader’s heart. Dude, cut yourself a little slack! —Isaiah Pittman, Inwood

Stop drinking, seek mental help, care a little more for others… there aren’t many resolutions thatWOULDN'T benefit the cretinous Fred Exley in A Fan’s Notes: A Fictional Memoir. —Seth Pompi, Ottendorfer

"Next year, I’m not volunteering for anything. MiddleEarth can go pound sand." -Frodo Baggins. —Joshua Soule, Spuyten Duyvil

I wish Willem and Jude from A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara would have vowed that, when they bought their country place, all houseguests must take a taxi from the train station. —Maura Muller, Volunteer Office

Archie Goodwin might suggest Nero Wolfe’s resolution be to go on a diet and get a bit more exercise, to which Nero will snort and ring Fritz for another beer. While one might wish Nero would get out a bit more, I think he’d really hurt Fritz’s feelings if he cut back on the food.  The first Nero Wolfe mystery by Rex Stout, published in 1934, is Fer De Lance.—Leslie Bernstein, Mott Haven

"Don’t ever write anything you don’t like yourself and if you do like it, don’t take anyone’s advice about changing it. They just don’t know." - Raymond Chandler intro to The Big Sleep.—Gregory Huchko, Yorkville

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Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!

Spoiler Alert: Reading this post and following the embedded links might spoil the endings of these books.

Some stories come to definitive ends: a return home after years of voyaging; a long-awaited marriage (or several); a tragic death (or many). Others end in suspense, to be continued or completed in later volumes. Still others end in ambiguity, leaving the characters’ lives or futures shrouded in uncertainty. But some books end with a definitive beginning, concluding one narrative by placing a character at the start of another: a new journey or stage of life. As we approach the closing of one year and the opening of another, here are a few books whose ends (to paraphrase T. S. Eliot) contain their beginnings.
 

A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, ends with a startling combination of closure and crisis. Many of the concrete problems faced by the characters are overcome in one way or another by the conclusion of the play. A secret is revealed and forgiven; former lovers are reunited; a threat of blackmail is retracted. However, through the events that resolve these immediate plot tensions, a more fundamental one takes shape: Nora realizes that her entire marriage has been built on illusions, and that she has been “living with a stranger” for years. The final sound of the play, a slamming door, announces both a devastating exit from her old life and an uncertain entrance into her new one.

Often an author will use a marriage or an engagement to complete a story’s narrative arc. As Mark Twain wrote at the end of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, “When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop—that is, with a marriage.” William Faulkner’sAs I Lay Dying does end with a marriage, but it is not the typical sort that wraps up a story neatly. After a long trip involving various absurd, grotesque, and tragic obstacles, the Bundrens finally reach their destination and succeed in burying their deceased wife and mother, Addie. Any peace that the closing of this chapter of their lives may bring is marred when Mr. Bundren suddenly announces the opening of a new one. In the last line of the novel, he introduces his children to a woman they have never seen before: “‘Meet Mrs. Bundren,’ he says.”

The last chapter of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’sCrime and Punishment seems to bring the story to a tidy conclusion: after hundreds of pages of psychological torment, Raskolnikov finally confesses to the murders he has committed. The book’s epilogue, however, reveals that this confession is only the beginning of a much longer journey of redemption. In a Siberian prison, attended by the loyal Sonia, he must face the enduring effects of his terrible crimes. “That is the beginning of a new story, though; the story of a man’s gradual renewal and rebirth, of his gradual transition from one world to another…”

Ignatius Reilly, too, begins a “transition from one world to another” at the end of John Kennedy Toole's posthumous masterpiece, A Confederacy of Dunces. After causing much chaos and trauma through various failed idealistic quests, the buffoonish man faces the prospect of being thrown into a mental institution. Salvation arrives in the form of his estranged ex-girlfriend Myrna Minkoff, “a loud, offensive maiden from the Bronx.” Ignatius succeeds in convincing Myrna to drive him from New Orleans to New York—the very epicenter of the “materialistic worldview” against which he has been fruitlessly crusading for years. The book ends with the bizarre pair speeding north. “Now that Fortuna had saved him from one cycle, where would she spin him now?”

Chronologically, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins where The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ends: with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson generously bringing the homeless Huck into their care. Of course, this arrangement does not last long, and Huck spends most of the book traveling down the Mississippi with the escaped slave Jim. On the novel’s final page, when he is once more threatened with an end to his freedom, Huck plans instead to continue his life of roaming. “But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before.”

During the week, it can be tough to stay on top of everything. On Fridays, though, we suggest kicking back to catch up on all the delightful literary reading the internet has to offer. Don’t have the time to hunt for good reads? Never fear. We've rounded up the best bookish reading of the week for you.

We Read...

Winter coat style inspiration from the Digital Collections has us all fired up for the season, and there are new 1980s photos by Walter Silver too. We are all about these Kwanzaa traditions and stories.  Guess the top library checkouts of 2016. Our 2017 reading calendars will keep your book consumption on track this year. Carrie Fisher wasn't just Princess Leia. It's okay to have reading regrets. There's always the 2017 Read Harder Challenge. 

Stereogranimator Friday Feels:

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

TGIF:

No need to get up! Join our librarians from the home, office, playground — wherever you have internet access — for book recs on Twitter by following our handle @NYPLrecommends from 10 AM to 11 AM every Friday. Or, you can check NYPL Recommends any day of the week for more suggestions. ​

Book Santas here to help. We are recommending books for you or those hard to buy fors on your holiday lists. pic.twitter.com/pmWNI5bgpq

— NYPL Recommends (@NYPLRecommends) December 23, 2016

What did you read?

If you read something fantastic this week, share with our community of readers in the comment section below.

Last month we gathered for Open Book Night to discuss good winter reads. With dark, cold days now upon us, we chose titles that would keep us cozy on the couch with a cup of tea and plenty to think about. We hope you’ll find something you’d like to read on this list ,and suggest your own “winter reads” titles in the comments below.

Open Book Night at Mid-Manhattan Library meets on the second Friday of the month and you’re invited! This is a time for avid readers to get together and swap book recommendations. Our next Open Book Night meets on Friday, January 13 at 6 PM. We hope you’ll join us and share a favorite book that keeps you “Looking Forward, Looking Back.”

Melissa likes to settle down in winter with a good mystery, set in a snowy, cold place. Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg is her perfect winter read. Smilla's descriptions of different types of snow and her icy environs warm her to the core.  And, for a darker, grittier read she also recommendsStolkholm Noir.  It's a collection of short stories, perfect for reading while your soup is heating up.

Jessica recommended Swedish Folktales and Legends. These fantastic stories from a northern land are meant to amuse, teach lessons, spread news and gossip, and entertain through reading and oral storytelling. They were written in Sweden, but the themes carry across cultures around the world; the saved princess, the evil witch, and the vagabond traveler all make an appearance in the dark forests of these tales. She loved them for the sense of company they provide while reading, as she knows they’ve passed between generations evolving details and humor as they went.

To further the subject of the fantastic, Elizabeth mentioned Neil Gaiman’s forthcoming Norse Mythologyand the gods that strive for relevance in his American Gods.

Joan found A New York Christmas by Anne Perry the perfect book to enjoy on a cozy evening. A bride arrives in New York in 1904 in this story that she found to be a “well written and constructed mystery with an interesting background of New York Society.” Joan loved this story for its “picturesque writing of New York social life” at the turn of the last century.

Taking us even further back to the 19th century, Elizabeth said that the theme "winter reads" made her think of long Victorian novels. She recommends the sometimes long-winded but entertaining novels of Anthony Trollope, whose nuanced characters remain highly relatable today. Elizabeth also shared that the Trollope experience might be even better on audiobook, read by her favorite narrator, Simon Vance. The Barsetshire novels, a six-novel cycle set in and around a fictional cathedral city, or The Palisers cycle, six novels set in and around the British Parliament, would keep a reader going throughout a long, cold winter.

Another reader is also drawn to the Victorian in winter, recommending Charlotte Bronte’s beloved classic, Jane Eyre. She said, “This is a novel about a beleaguered girl who grows up to become a strong, hard-working, capable, and independent woman. She survives cruel relatives, near starvation and deadly disease to learn how to live according to her own principles.” Our reader found that reading changes when you read it at different parts of your life. She really related to Jane’s serenity and strong sense of self.

Lucy found that The Warren Buffett Way Workbook by Robert G. Hagstrom taught her “the principle of investing in the stock market. It answered a lot of questions about investment. It is a good book for people to learn the art of investment in stocks.” When you’re stuck inside because it’s cold and you’re dreaming up New Year’s resolutions, why not learn to invest in the stock market?

Puvi recommended Defying the Nazis: The Sharp’s War By Artemis Joukowsky. This book began as Joukowsky interviewed his grandparents on their experiences during WWII for a high school project and found that they went to Europe to help with the rescue and relief effort. The title intrigued Puvi because the actual events of these people’s lives were as dramatic and intense as a story of fiction. She told us, “What I took from this book is a question: By learning of the history of many European nations and the USA after WWII, can we regroup and avoid WWIII now?” Certainly something to occupy our thoughts through a long winter.

And, since it’s cold, why not stay inside and check out the PBS Documentary by Ken Burns about the story too!

Thanks to everyone who joined us for Open Book Night on December 9. We had a lovely time talking about books with you and appreciate your great recommendations! Readers who come to listen and hear recommendations for books they might enjoy are also most welcome at Open Book Night. Check out these other reading lists to see books recommended at past Open Book Nights. We hope to hear your reading recommendations at an Open Book Night soon or read them in the comments below.

Here in NYPL's Readers Services unit, we recommended hundreds upon hundreds of books this year -- via email, on our podcast, and through Twitter and Facebook Live.

Not all these books were published in 2016; in fact, most of them weren't. But these are the books that made it to the top of our recommendations lists.

We tailor each recommendation to each patron's personal preferences, but there are some books that come up over and over again... either because they're stellar examples of a genre, because they check so many boxes for qualities people are looking for, or because they're books we read and loved ourselves this year.

Below are our favorite recommendations of 2016. (And here's last year’s list, too.) Enjoy!

Gwen’s list:

For anyone looking for a fast-paced read, I couldn’t stop suggesting The Regional Office Is Under Attack!by Manuel Gonzales

For YA novels with LGBTQ+ protagonists, my own personal favorites were: The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner, Run by Kody Keplinger, and If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

For people looking for a super-quick read, the sci-fi/fantasy novella Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

For a thoughtful food memoir, Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton

For middle-grade readers, It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas and All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook by Leslie Connor

For people looking for popular fiction that would make them cry, Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst

For world-building science-fiction, Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

For readers who wanted to be seriously scared: Security by Gina Wohlsdorf

For great essays, Little Labors by Rivka Galchen

For lovers of historical fiction, Kindred by Octavia Butler and Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleve

Lynn’s list:

Sweetbitter! By Stephanie Dahler. Book equivalent of popcorn.

My favorite plot-driven read was from early in the year: Noah Hawley's Before the Fall

In nonfiction, the best thing I read (and keep recommending) is The Way to the Spring by Ben Ehrenreich​

In mystery, The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware, Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry, and recently Tana French's The Trespasser​

Memoirs & biographies: The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

The most important book I read that I recommended to anyone looking for literary fiction was Homegoingby Yaa Gyasi

For our historical fiction lovers, War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans & A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

For setting and dystopian fiction: Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan

I loved these short stories set in small places: When Watched by Leopoldine Core

In true crime, Truevine: Two Brothers a Kidnapping and a Mother's Quest by Beth Macy

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Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!

What are you reading?

2016 is officially over, and 2017 is here. I'm sure many of you share my wonderment at how momentous the past 12 months have been. Issues relating to global conflicts, the climate change debate, and the presidential election touched us all. For me, it highlighted how important it is to share ideas and information freely, and the library’s fundamental role in doing just that, broadly and available to all. One of the ways we can do that is to share what we're reading.

For some of us, reading more books is a New Year's resolution. For others, the recent presidential election inspired us to read about politics and history. And we know that some may want to celebrate the New Year by curling up with a romance novel or a new mystery. Personally, I've spent the first couple of days of 2017 reading A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book.

Whatever you're reading, we can all agree on one thing: the need to read.

Today we ask you to take one minute to show how important reading is to you. Post a photo or title of the book you're currently reading to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or other social media platforms—and include the hashtag #ReadersUnite in your posts.

Together we will show just how important reading is in 2017.

And if you need a new book, we've got you covered.

We're already hearing from people all over the world. Here are a few posts from fellow libraries and authors:

Chinese Book Discussion at Mid-Manhattan Library中文书籍讨论会 12/21/2016

十二月二十一号的读书会共有12 人参加。大家以轻松愉快的步伐一起在书林里漫步了一个多钟头。我们讨论了下列书籍：

Huxley, Aldous. 美丽的新世界。

此小说原文出版于1932，描写2050年代的社会结构，人为试管所生，政府将人类分为五等，工人变傻只知工作，不会抱怨。 此书与George Orwell 的“1984”皆为反乌托邦社会的名作。

角田光代。 树屋。

日文原著，中文翻译小说。一家数代如何在动荡不安的时代生存下来。此书令我想起了余华的”活着“。

木心講述; 陳丹青筆錄. 文學回憶錄 : 1989-1994。

此书为陈丹青80年代后期来纽约后参加读书会时的笔记，记录了木心对生死对文学的看法。

郑念。 Life and death in Shanghai. 上海生死劫。

作者早年留学英国，文革时被指控为资本主义间谍，入狱六年，女儿被活活打死。细数一个知识分子在文革中所遭受的非人待遇。传记。

Chiang, Ted. Stories of your life.

科幻小说。

孔知勇。熔炉。

小学生在校被师长性侵，年轻而富有正义感的美术老师控诉学校但遭败诉。最后以文学的手法成就了法律无法做到的事，校长终被判刑。小说。

Keller， Timothy。 King's cross.

此书介绍基督教思想。

梁启超。李鸿章传。

近代大学问家书写近代大外交家，比较其遭遇与世界名人之间的差别。

郑曦原编。 帝国的回忆 : 《纽约时报》晚清观察记, 1854-1911。

选译纽约时报上从1854-1911之间有关中国的文章。

莫言。蛙。

“....姑姑骑着那时还很罕见的自行车，背着药箱子，飞一般窜回来，....姑姑进门后，看到老婆娘田桂花正骑跨在艾莲身上，卖力地挤压艾莲高高隆起的腹部。这老婆子患有慢性气管炎，她咻咻地喘息声与产妇杀猪般的嚎叫声混杂在一起，制造出一种英勇悲壮的氛围。...”

此小说以轻松的笔调，诙谐的语言，沉重地述说一胎政策在乡间造成的混乱景象。

谢谢大家分享阅读的经验。下次读书讨论会的时间是在2017年一月十八号星期三6:30pm. 欢迎大家参加。询问电话：212-576-0075 张先生。

Special thanks goes to Hung-yun Chang at Mid-Manhattan Library for all his help with this blog post.

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Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas collects writings from linguists, music historians, cartographers, artists, and, of course, writers. At the New York Public Library, we recently were visited by five contributors and editors: Rebecca Solnit, a prolific essayist and author, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, a geographer and writer, Garnette Cadogan, a scholar of cultural change, Suketu Mehta, a Pulitzer-nominated journalist, and Luc Sante, a writer and critic. For this week's episode of the New York Public Library Podcast, we're proud to present these mapmakers discussing phone maps, libraries, and walking through cities.

Addressing the postulation that maps are no longer relevant, Solnit spoke of the limitations of cell phone navigation:

"Somebody said to me maps are obsolete, which I didn't accept. People get around with their phones a lot now, but Josh [Jelly-Shapiro] wrote a beautiful article for Harper's a while ago addressing this and we walked about this in the New Orleans atlas and elsewhere, that your phone will get you where you're going but it won't help you understand where you are. And there is kind of a post-geographical obedience to the machine, a sort of outsourcing of orientation to machines which often fail and mislead us. You know, I worry kind of about people not really knowing where they are, so I really wanted to think about what do maps do? How do they help us understand? We're long past the era where geography was something children had all through elementary and high school. We wanted to give a kind of series of festive and subversive geographies lessons."

Mehta remembered the importance of libraries to him in considering the geography of the city, the way that libraries act as gathering points:

"The library is amazing because you see all these immigrants studying for the civil service exams, and it's really incredibly well-used throughout the day. They have periodicals and books and it seems like a hundred different languages. So when the library hours are cut back because of budgetry shortfalls, it's the worst thing you could do to the city, to the lifeblood of the city. You want to see libraries that are used. Go beyond Manhattan and go to the boroughs any afternoon and you see how many people. Old people just hang out there because it's their only community space in many of these boroughs. As a kid, this is where I went every afternoon after school."

Cadogan made the case for walking as a medium for memory in the city. Walking, he said, was not just a way to arrive at destinations but also a way to see spaces with greater richness:

"One of the wonderful things about the city, a city is many things, but part of it is a collection of memories. And what better way to form these memories than walking? By walking is the way you transform a space into an actual place... Every block, which is a thing that Matt affirms, is wonderfully interesting because they're irreducibly complex, and what better way to know that than walking? New York allows you discover that by way of walking. What it also does, it allows you to see at once how accessible the city is, how much more warm, how much more friendly, how much more beguiling it is than people often think it is."

You can subscribe to the New York Public Library Podcast to hear more conversations with wonderful artists, writers, and intellectuals. Join the conversation today!

We've got a selection of engaging author talks coming up this month at Mid-Manhattan Library. Come listen to scholars and other experts discuss their recent nonfiction books on a variety of subjects, and ask them questions. Author talks take place at 6:30 PM on the 6th floor of the library unless otherwise noted. No reservations are required. Seating is first come, first served. You can also request a library copy of the authors' books from the catalog by using the links below.

Our January talks will be about fermented foods, Arab settlers in New York City, a physical look at the Internet, female gender expectations, the financial system, culinary during the Great Depression, medical data privacy, Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin, ADHD controversy, an Isabel Vincent memoir, Brooklyn Bridge Park transformation, New York and Los Angeles photography, New York City’s graffiti and street art, and a view of life from a dog’s perspective.

	Tuesday, January 3, 2017 The Fermented Man: A Year on the Front Lines of a Food Revolution with Derek Dellinger, a writer, brewer, and fermentation enthusiast based in the Hudson Valley. This illustrated lecture spotlights "the fermented man's" year spent on an unorthodox diet, revealing insights about the science of fermentation, as well as its cultural history, its culinary value, and its nutritional impact.
	Wednesday, January 4, 2017 The Syrian Colony on Washington Street with Linda K. Jacobs, a New York-based scholar and author of Strangers in the West: The Syrian Colony of New York City, 1880-1900. This illustrated lecture tells the never-before-told story of the first Arab immigrants to settle in New York City.
	CANCELED   Thursday, January 5, 2017   Networks of New York: An Illustrated Field Guide to Urban Internet Infrastructure with Ingrid Burrington, who writes about the Internet, politics, and art, and has been published in The Atlantic, The Nation, ProPublica, and San Francisco Art Quarterly. This illustrated lecture offers a guided tour of the physical Internet, as seen on, above, and below the city’s streets.
	Thursday, January 5, 2017   Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear . . . and Why with Sady Doyle, a writer and blogger whose work has appeared in The Guardian, Slate, The Atlantic, Rookie, and other publications. This talk dissects a centuries-old phenomenon, raising questions about gender expectations and the "female trainwreck."
	Monday, January 9, 2017   What They Do With Your Money: How the Financial System Fails Us and How to Fix It with Jon Lukomnik, executive director of the Investor Responsibility Research Center and Stephen Davis, Ph.D. a senior fellow at the Harvard Law School. This illustrated lecture explains a system that doesn’t appear to be working in the public interest and calls to reboot capitalism and preserve $85 trillion in retirement savings for their owners—not for use as the financial industry’s ATM. The industry is supposed to be a service industry and this talk shows how to realign it to make it serve the real economy.
	Tuesday, January 10, 2017   A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression with food historians Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe. This illustrated lecture provides an in-depth exploration of the greatest food crisis the nation has ever faced—the Great Depression—and how it transformed America’s culinary culture.
	Wednesday, January 11, 2017   Our Bodies, Our Data: How Companies Make Billions Selling Our Medical Records with Adam Tanner, writer-in-residence at Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science and the 2016–17 Snedden Chair in Journalism at the University of Alaska. This illustrated lecture explores how the hidden trade in our sensitive medical information became a multi-billion dollar business, but has done little to improve our health-care outcomes.
	Thursday, January 12, 2017   You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin with Rachel Corbett, executive editor of Modern Painters magazine. This illustrated lecture reveals one of the greatest stories of modern art and literature: Rodin and Rilke’s years together as master and disciple, their heartbreaking rift, and ultimately their moving reconciliation.
	Wednesday, January 18, 2017   ADHD Nation: Children, Doctors, Big Pharma, and the Making of an American Epidemic with Alan Schwarz, a Pulitzer Prize–nominated investigative reporter for "The New York Times." This illustrated lecture examines the roots and the rise of the widespread misdiagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)—and how its unchecked growth over half a century has made ADHD one of the most controversial conditions in medicine with serious effects on children, adults, and society.
	Monday, January 23, 2017   Dinner with Edward: A Story of an Unexpected Friendship with Isabel Vincent, an award-winning investigative reporter for "The New York Post" and author of four books. This illustrated lecture explores the author's memoir, a story about love, nourishment, and how dinner with a friend can, in the words of M. F. K. Fisher, “sustain us against the hungers of the world.”
	Wednesday, January 25, 2017   Brooklyn Bridge Park: A Dying Waterfront Transformed with Joanne Witty, a lawyer and environmentalist, who has served in both city and state government. This illustrated lecture spotlights one of the largest and most significant public projects to be built in New York in a generation, unravels the many obstacles faced during the development of the park, and suggests solutions that can be applied to important economic and planning issues around the world.
	Thursday, January 26, 2017   New York/Los Angeles, Photographs: 1967-2015 with Lloyd Ziff, photographer, art director and award-winning designer. This illustrated lecture features the exciting collection of new images of America's two most interesting cities taken over some 40 years, captured in black and white and color photography.
	Monday, January 30, 2017   (Un)sanctioned: The Art on New York Streets with Katherine “Luna Park” Lorimer, a Brooklyn-based graffiti and street art photographer, curator, and librarian. This illustrated lecture features a decade of NYC graffiti and street art, a time period which saw a seismic shift in the public perception and acceptance of the art-form.
	Tuesday, January 31, 2017   Being a Dog: Following the Dog Into a World of Smell with Alexandra Horowitz, author of the bestselling Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know and On Looking: A Walker’s Guide to the Art of Observation. This illustrated lecture explains how dogs perceive the world through their most spectacular organ—the nose—and how we humans can put our underused sense of smell to work in surprising ways.

Don’t miss the many interesting films, book discussions, andcomputer and technologyclasses on our program calendar. If you would like to sit back and listen to a good story, try out our Story Time for Grown-ups. The theme for this month is New Year, New Beginnings. If you enjoy talking about books with other readers, join us on Friday, January 13th for Open Book Night. The theme this month is Looking Forward, Looking Back.

All of our programs and classes are free, so why not come and check one out? Hope to see you soon at the library!

Check out Mid-Manhattan Library's January 2017 book-related programs:

• January book discussions
• January story time

The United States Patent and Trademark  Office (USPTO) is currently accepting applications for the Unpaid Externship - Office of the Chief Information Officer, Patent anad Trade Office.  This is a 10 -12 week summer program.  If you are selected to participate, will be expected to begin in early June 2017.  Applications will be accepted until Friday, January 20, 2017.

Basic Resume Writing  workshop on Thursday, December 5, 2016, 1:30 - 3 pm at Brooklyn Workforce 1 Career Center, 250 Schermerhorn  Street,  Brooklyn, NY 11201. Participants will learn the purpose of a resume, chronological and combination resumes and select the appropriate type for their specific needs.

Job Postings at New York City Workforce 1.  

Apprenticeship Opportunities in New York City.

Brooklyn Community  Board 14: Available jobs

The New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCE&TC) is an association of 200 community-based organizations, educational institutions, and labor unions that annually provide job training and employment services to over 750,000 New Yorkers, including welfare recipients, unemployed workers, low-wage workers, at-risk youth, the formerly incarcerated, immigrants and the mentally and physically disabled. View NYCE&TC Job Listings.

Digital NYC is the official online hub of the New York City startup and technology ecosystem, bringing together every company, startup, investor, event, job, class, blog, video, workplace, accelerator, incubator, resource, and organization in the five boroughs. Search jobs by category on this site.

St. Nicks Alliance Workforce Development provides Free Job Training and Educational Programs in Environmental Response and Remediation Tec (ERRT). Commercial Driver's License, Pest Control Technician Training (PCT), Employment Search and Prep Training and Job Placement, Earn Benefits and Career Path Center. For information and assistance, please visit St. Nicks Alliance Workforce Development or call 718-302-2057 ext. 202.

Brooklyn Workforce Innovations helps jobless and working poor New Yorkers establish careers in sectors that offer good wages and opportunities for advancement. Currently, BWI offers free job training programs in four industries: commercial driving, telecommunications cable installation, TV and film production, and skilled woodworking.

CMP (formerly Chinatown Manpower Project) in lower Manhattan is now recruiting for a free training in Quickbooks, Basic Accounting, and Excel. This training is open to anyone who is receiving food stamps but no cash assistance. Class runs for eight weeks, followed by one-on-one meetings with a job developer. CMP also provides Free Home Health Aide Training for bilingual English/Cantonese speakers who are receiving food stamps but no cash assistance. Training runs Mondays through Fridays for six weeks and includes test prep and taking the HHA certification exam. Students learn about direct care techniques such as taking vital signs and assisting with personal hygiene and nutrition. For more information for the above two training programs, email: info@cmpny.org, call 212-571-1690, or visit. CMP also provides tuition-based healthcare and business trainings free to students who are entitled to ACCESS funding.

Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW) trains women and places them in careers in the skilled construction, utility, and maintenance trades. It helps women achieve economic independence and a secure future. For information call 212-627-6252 or register online.

Grace Institute provides tuition-free, practical job training in a supportive learning community for underserved New York area women of all ages and from many different backgrounds. For information call 212-832-7605.

Please note this page will be revised when more recruitment events for the week of January 1 become available.

Over 25 million items are circulated through our network of libraries each year, and among those items there are both expected front-runners and a few interesting surprises every year. For your perusal, we've compiled lists of the top books checked out systemwide and in The Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island in 2016. These lists include books borrowed from our 92 locations in the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island, as well as from our growing e-book catalog (which currently offers nearly 320,000 books). 

Bestseller The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins took the top spot in 2016,  followed by the award-winning Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. You can also check out this interactive map to see which title was number one at each of our branches:

Below, find our Top 10 lists. Already read the top picks and looking for more? This year, we've also provided a few read-alikes for you for every top check out, courtesy of our Readers Services team, so you can keep on reading.

Top 10 Books Systemwide

1. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

More psychological suspense:

• The Good Girlby Mary Kubica
• The Silent Wife by A.S.A Harrison
• Before I Go To Sleepby S.J. Watson

2. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

More thoughtful books on society and culture:

• We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
• The South Side: A Portrait on Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore

3. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

More reflective books on life, sickness, and loss:

• About Alice by Calvin Trillin
• The Light of the Worldby Elizabeth Alexander
• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters In the End by Atul Gawande

4. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

More Southern gothic:

• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
• Nothing Gold Can Stay by Ron Rash
• The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor

5. Why Not Me?by Mindy Kaling

More self-deprecating humor:

• The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae
• The Bedwetterby Sarah Silverman
• Half Emptyby David Rakoff

6. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg

More books about dating:

• Love In the Time of Algorithms by Dan Slater
• How To Win at Feminism by Elizabeth Newell and Sarah Pappaloardo
• I Suck at Girlsby Justin Halpern

7. To Kill a Mockingbirdby Harper Lee

More good books you may have missed in high school:

• Belovedby Toni Morrison
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• The Catcher In the Rye by J.D. Salinger

8. The Goldfinchby Donna Tartt

More complex characters coming of age and coming to terms with their family:

• The Rise and Fall of Great Powers By Tom Rachman
• Rock, Paper, Scissors by Naja Marie Aidt
• Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson

9. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

More stylistic, character-driven novels set in WWII:

• Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
• The English Patientby Michael Ondaatje
• In the Wolf’s Mouthby Adam Foulds

10. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

More more books starring women and set during WWII:

• The Sea Garden by Deborah Lawrenson
• Citadel by Kate Mosse
• The Last Time I Saw Paris by Lynn Sheene

Top 10 Books in the Bronx

1. NYPD Red 4by James Patterson

More gritty mysteries:

• Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley
• Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane
• The Whites by Harry Brandt

2. TASC: Test Assessing Secondary Completion: Strategies, Practice, & Review

A good book as a reward!

• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
• The Underground Railroadby Colson Whitehead
• The Vegetarianby Han Kang

3. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

More Southern gothic:

• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
• Nothing Gold Can Stay by Ron Rash
• The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor

4. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

More psychological suspense:

• The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
• The Silent Wife by A.S.A Harrison
• Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson

5. Private Paris by James Patterson

More suspense set in Paris:

• Lock No. 1by Georges Simenon
• The World at Night by Alan Furst
• Ghosts of St. Michelby Jake Lamar

6. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

More thoughtful books on society and culture:

• We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
• The South Side: A Portrait on Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore

7. Killer Dolls by Nisa Santiago

More “street life,” drug dealers, secrets, and betrayals:

• Every Thug Needs a Lady by Wahida Clark
• Dutch II: Angel’s Revenge by Teri Woods
• Trife Life To Lavish by Deja King

8. Undercover by Danielle Steel

More romantic suspense:

• Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard
• Naked in Death by J.D. Robb
• The Witnessby Nora Roberts

9. Precious Giftsby Danielle Steel

More family secrets uncovered upon inheritance:

• The Nestby Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
• The Heiressby Sara Shepard
• The Turner House by Angela Flournoy

10. Vengeance: A Novelby Zane

More revenge and erotica:

• Baby Brotherby 50 Cent
• Unzippedby Noire
• A Clean Up Man by M.T. Pope

Top 10 Books in Manhattan

1. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

More thoughtful books on society and culture:

• We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
• The South Side: A Portrait on Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore

2. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

More psychological suspense:

• The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
• The Silent Wife by A.S.A Harrison
• Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson

3. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

More Southern gothic:

• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
• Nothing Gold Can Stay by Ron Rash
• The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor

4. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

More reflective books on life, sickness, and loss:

• About Alice by Calvin Trillin
• The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander
• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters In the End by Atul Gawande

5. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg

More books about dating:

• Love In the Time of Algorithms by Dan Slater
• How To Win at Feminism by Elizabeth Newell and Sarah Pappaloardo
• I Suck at Girls by Justin Halpern

6. The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

More books about simplifying one’s home and life:

• Mess: One Man’s Struggle To Clean Up His House and His Act by Barry Yourgrau
• Junk: Digging Through America’s Love Affair With Stuff by Alison Stewart
• Clearing Clutter: Physical, Mental, Spiritualby Alexandra Chauran

7. M Train by Patti Smith

More beautifully written thoughtful memoirs:

• The Argonauts by Maggie Smith
• The Liar’s Clubby Mary Karr
• Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson

8. NYPD Red 4 by James Patterson

More gritty mysteries:

• The Whites by Harry Brandt
• Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley
• Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane

9. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the Endby Atul Gawande

More reflections on life, sickness, and loss:

• When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
• About Alice by Calvin Trillin
• The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander

10. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

More memorable women in novels with strong sense of place:

• Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
• Fates & Furies by Lauren Groff
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Top 10 Books on Staten Island

1. NYPD Red 4 by James Patterson

More gritty mysteries:

• Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley
• Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane
• The Whites by Harry Brandt

2. Private Paris by James Patterson

More suspense set in Paris:

• Lock No. 1 by Georges Simenon
• The World at Night by Alan Furst
• Ghosts of St. Michel by Jake Lamar

3. Undercover by Danielle Steel

More romantic suspense:

• Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard
• Naked in Death by J.D. Robb
• The Witness by Nora Roberts

4. Precious Gifts by Danielle Steel

More family secrets uncovered upon inheritance:

• The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
• The Heiress by Sara Shepard
• The Turner House by Angela Flournoy

5. A Girl's Guide to Moving On by Debbie Macomber

More upbeat romance:

• Lost Dogs and Lonely Heartsby Lucy Dillon
• The One & Only by Emily Giffin
• Lost Lakeby Sarah Addison Allen

6. The Last Mile by David Baldacci

More intricately plotted suspense:

• The Farm by Tom Rob Smith
• In A Dark, Dark Woodby Ruth Ware
• Land of Shadowsby Rachel Howzell Hall

7. Murder Houseby James Patterson and David Ellis

More creepy houses:

• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
• Rooms by Lauren Oliver
• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

8. The Obsession by Nora Roberts

More suspense / romance blends:

• The Seventh Victim by Mary Burton
• Copper Beach by Jayne Ann Krentz
• The First Prophet by Kay Hooper

9. What We Findby Robyn Carr

More sweet stories about fathers and daughters:

• Two By Twoby Nicholas Sparks
• Fast Trackby Julie Garwood
• Father's Dayby Simon Van Booy

10. Bullseye by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

More suspense thrillers with international intrigue:

• The Gabriel Allon Novels by Daniel Silva
• Scot Harvath Thrillers by Brad Thor
• Jack Ryan, Jr. by Tom Clancy

When Pelham Bay Library patron Patrick Mulligan came upon some comic books for sale, he bought them for his own children. But his wife pointed out that the books bore the NYPL imprint, so he knew he had to act. Like a good Samaritan, he took the shelf's worth of comic books and returned them to a grateful library staff.

Library Stories is a video series from The New York Public Library that shows what the Library means to our users, staff, donors, and communities through moving personal interviews.

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Out of the many reasons to watch the latest BBC production of Poldark, I am sucker for the pretty, pretty scenery. Sure Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson as Ross and Demelza Poldark are gorgeous and eminently watchable but for an Anglophile like myself it’s really all about the scenery-porn of Cornwall. The stormy seas, the rocky cliffs, the sunny beaches and tiny fishing villages and gothic manors with flower-filled gardens: Cornwall is a never-ending feast for the eyes. So until we can all watch all that gorgeous scenery again, here are 13 romance novels guaranteed to transport you to those dream-laden shores.

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

Author Susanna Kearsley is a master at capturing the feeling  of the exact moment you hear the roar of the ocean waves crashing against the rocks and all of that stress you’ve been holding in just suddenly ebbs away. At some point, almost every one of her heroine's experiences it. Here, it’s Eva who goes to Cornwall to scatter the ashes of her movie star sister Katrina. Cornwall is where they spent childhood summer vacations and where they always felt truly at home. But, once there, Eva discovers a secret ability...to slip through time, back to the early 18th century and into the arms of Daniel, a handsome smuggler. Kearsley packs in plenty of surprises and romantic moments, as Eva struggles to decide where her real home lies.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

Years ago, on the eve of World War I, Cassandra’s grandmother Nell was found abandoned onboard a ship in Sydney Harbor with only a book of fairytales to give any indication of who she is and where she may have come from. Now, with an unexpected inheritance of a cliffside cottage and clues to her grandmother’s identity, Cassandra makes her way to the beautiful, windswept Cornish coast and mysterious Blackhurst manor once owned by the Montrachet family. There she’ll discover the secrets of Nell’s past and maybe the keys to her own future. Morton perfectly blends elements of gothic storytelling, mystery and of course, romance that will have you scrambling for more of her books. (P.S. They’re all good!) Another Cornwall set book by Morton is The Lake House. 

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

You can’t write about books set in Cornwall without including Daphne du Maurier. She is the Queen of the Cornwall-set novel. She writes novels built upon it’s perception of isolation and wildness as if when you cross into’s it's boundaries you are saying goodbye to civilization and the normal rules of society. In Rebecca, a naive young woman marries wealthy Maxim de Winter and after the honeymoon she is whisked off to his manor home, Manderley, on the Cornish coast. It’s home also occupied by his sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers and the specter of his first wife, the beautiful Rebecca. A masterpiece of gothic foreboding it doesn’t take much to conjure up a drive along the Cornish coast, wind in the hair and Manderley, rising up out of the dark.

The Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

 It should come as no surprise that du Maurier lived in Cornwall and was inspired to write Jamaica Inn by a stay at the real Jamaica Inn located on Bodmin Moor. A dark, moody period piece; just thinking about it sends shivers down my spine. It centers on Mary, an orphan who goes to live with her aunt and uncle who run a pub on Bodwin Moor. It’s filled with ruffians and wreckers, people who lure ships to shore to wreck them and steal their goods. Her aunt is cowed by her abusive husband and Mary has nowhere else to go. Trapped in a bad situation getting worse, it is her uncle’s brother Jem that provides her any solace. There’s a wildness to the author’s description of Cornwall as well as a cold desolation and stark beauty. It’s a great story, but it’s the setting that truly brings the novel to life.

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher

I should just fill this list with Rosamunde Pilcher books and be done with it. She is one of my all time favorite authors, writing a perfect blend of history and romance that feels authentic and not forced. Another Cornwall native, she brings the setting and scenery alive. Coming home from the hospital and getting on in years, Penelope Keeling recalls her unconventional life, bohemian childhood and wartime romance - all symbolized in her prized possession, a painting by her artist father, “The Shell Seekers”. Her grown children, knowing it’s worth a fortune, fight over who will inherit it but for Penelope it’s worth far more than just money. An unforgettable book of passion and heartbreak all against an incredible Cornwall backdrop.

Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher

One of my all-time favorite historical fiction novels (ever!), Pilcher combines many of my favorite elements: a boarding school orphan, an unconventional aristocratic family, eccentric characters, a young woman coming of age, plenty of romantic interests, a war torn home front, a house with a gravitational pull and gorgeous scenery. Interested yet? In 1935, Judith is left at a boarding school by her family as they go off to live in Singapore. She soon makes friends with Loveday Carey-Lewis, who sweeps her into a world of privilege and family. But their perfect life is soon interrupted by war and tragedy. A romantic coming of age and family saga at it’s finest. It was first time that I’d read about palm trees and tropical plants in Cornwall - gulf stream who knew?

  Mistress of Mellyn and Bride of Pendorric by Victoria Holt 

When I was growing up, the discovery of a new Victoria Holt novel would send me scurrying home from the library to read for the rest of the afternoon. Her Cornwall-set books aren’t rocket science. In many ways, they are simple rehashes of du Maurier and Brontë plots but boy, are they fun to read. Mistress ...has a young governess in the thrall of her handsome and mysterious employer and Bride... sees a young woman get swept off her feet and taken to her new, isolated, Cornwall mansion. Sound familiar? Just imagine all this on a rocky, wind-swept coastline under a stormy sky. These gothic novels won’t change the world but they certainly do help an afternoon melt away.           

 Little Beach Street Bakery  and Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan

Jenny Colgan is hands down my favorite British “chicklit” author. Her books are funny, often irreverent, full of heart with just the right amount of cozy. Add a pot of tea and a plate of scones and you’ve got yourself a weekend. Set on the fictional Cornish tidal island of Mount Polbearne, similar to St. Michael’s Mount, Polly is escaping a toxic relationship when she finds herself an attic apartment overlooking the Mt. Polbearne harbor and finds solace in baking bread. As she pounds and kneads her troubles away, she soon finds that her hobby is giving her a future in more ways than one. Polly's story continues in Summer… Colgan includes baking recipes for the adventurous. I’d never heard of St. Michael’s Mount before and it’s scenery blows me away. Don’t be surprised if you suddenly find yourself fantasizing about living on an isolated, tidal island with little phone or internet service and where there’s little else to do besides read and bake.

Inquiry into Love and Death by Simone St. James

Simone St. James writes these wonderful, shivery, historical, ghost story romances always with perfect gothic settings. Reader’s tip: never read them right before bed. Inquiry, might be my favorite one. Set in the 1920’s, Jilian is a hard working Oxford student. When her famous, ghost-hunting Uncle Toby accidentally dies she must go to a small, seaside village in Cornwall to pack up his belongings. After she arrives, odd, unsettling incidents begin to happen and terrifying noises keeping her up at night, making Jilian wonder what and who her Uncle had been studying. When handsome, Scotland Yard detective Drew Merriken shows up with his own inquiries, into sinister, local happenings Jilian begins to wonder if her Uncle’s death was no accident. Besides the aptly named “Blood Moon Bay” as a setting, what I love most is Jilian’s indomitableness. She's no damsel in distress and she knows a good distraction when she sees one.

Time to Remember (includes The Empty House& The Day of the Storm) by Rosamunde Pilcher

Back to Rosamunde Pilcher. There really is no substitute. She can describe a setting like no other and before you know it you’ll be booking a trip to St. Ives and Polperro. In both books, Pilcher takes us to seaside towns and rustic homes with large, country kitchens that have heavy pots hanging from the ceilings, windows that look out at the sea and gardens filled with wildflowers. Of course, there are also ruggedly handsome men who are just waiting to sweep heroines off their feet. The novels are short but sweet (almost too short). The Empty House is the story of a wealthy, young widow who takes her two children to Cornwall for a fresh start and it’s there that she runs into someone she used to know before she threw it all away. In Day of, just before her mother’s death Rebecca learns of a family she never knew she had. She heads off to Cornwall to find them: a famous painter grandfather, an aunt and a cousin - all living in a home (wonderfully) called Boscarva. She has no idea what she’ll find but she thinks it’ll be better than having no one at all. 

Coach Calipari started as a head coach at UMass, a place that did not attract elite talent. He was a supreme micromanager and a hothead. Players who were coached by him there remember having a tough time with him. Luckily, he learned from his mistakes and earned his way up the ladder. He eventually got hired at the University of Kentucky, where he could really grow and learn how to bring out the best in exceptional athletes.

John Calipari loves his players. He regularly invites them over to his house, and he nurtures them with tough love. The coach is demanding, and he constantly pushes them. Many are snatched away after only one year for a career by the National Basketball Association (NBA). He teaches his team to always strive for excellence and to be self-critical in order to improve. Most importantly, success is about the team, not individuals. 

Although Calipari never reached the zenith of athleticism himself, he knows well the importance of proper training, nutrition, and sports psychology. He plans workouts for the team that are far more grueling than actual games. Weighted basketballs are only one example. His key to success also lies with his unique insight into the psychology and well-being of each of his individual players. As far as he is concerned, they have lifetime scholarships to UK and are welcome to return to finish their education at any time.

Success Is the Only Option: the Art of Coaching Extreme Talent by John Calipari and Michael Sokolove, 2016

This is a brilliant book about bringing out the best in extremely gifted people. 

• Books about elite athletes
• Books about basketball
• John Calipari's website