how google really works

Few companies in history have been as successful and as admired as Google, the company that has transformed the Internet and become an indispensable part of our lives. How has Google done it? Veteran technology reporter Steven Levy was granted unprecedented access to the company, and in his revelatory book, In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works and Shapes Our Lives, he takes readers inside Google headquarters (the Googleplex) to show how Google really works.

Join us on Friday, March 2 as Levy provides a fascinating glimpse of Google and shares some of the most interesting bits of his book. He’ll draw on time he spent with Google’s top management, from legendary co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page on down, and will tell the inside story of the astonishing success, influence, ambition, embarrassing blunders, involvement in China and bitter feud with Apple -- of what is arguably the most important and forward-looking company in the world today.

About the event:
• Date: Friday, March 2
• Time: 6:00 pm, wine reception & music by DJ Justin
• 7:00 pm, lecture, Q&A
• 8:15 pm, book signing courtesy of Lido Village Books, dessert reception
• Tickets: $55 General Admission; $40 Library Foundation members
• Become a Library Foundation member and save $15.00 per ticket
• Become a Young Patrons member ($35) and receive two free tickets to the program. (You must  be in your 20s or 30s)
• Purchase: online here or by phone: 949.548.2411
• Held at the Newport Beach Central Library
• Info: events@nbplfoundation.org or 949.548.2411

book drum

We happened upon the most fascinating website recently. It’s called Book Drum, and the way they describe it is, “the perfect companion to the books we love, bringing them to life with immersive pictures, videos, maps and music.” 

Here’s how it works: you select a book and Book Drum provides a summary, along with detailed information (bookmarks, settings, glossary, author, reviews and maps). Each one of the categories provides a wealth of images and information that truly brings the book to life. 

Be sure to check out their interactive map -- the world’s first crowd-sourced literary map. So if you’re dying to know how close Bridget Jones lived to the original Mr. Darcy, where on the Long Island Sound Jay Gatsby called home, or perhaps where Robinson Crusoe came ashore, the answers are all there. 

Check out Book Drum here; receive daily Bookmarks, join their new book club, add a review or even contribute to the site.

the fantastic mr. dahl

If the name Roald Dahl doesn’t sound familiar, we’re certain you’re familiar with his work: like James and the Giant Peach, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Matilda, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, among many others.

Born in 1916, Roald Dahl was a British novelist and short story writer perhaps best known for his award-winning children’s books. Who doesn’t love Charlie Bucket? Or the bewitching Matilda? And the fantastic Mr. Fox; simply fantastic.

Last month, England’s Royal Mail released a series of gorgeous commemorative stamps (three shown above) honoring the talented Mr. Dahl. The bad news? The stamps won’t work in our mail system. The good news? The Newport Beach Public Library has all of Roald Dahl’s books, and most all on DVD and our newest addition to the children’s section: Blu-Ray discs. Check them out -- they’re clever and timeless classics that will never go out of style.

exceptional bookstores

Earlier this week, we Facebooked about a New York Times article that discussed the end of the brick and mortar bookstore. We decided to highlight the other side of that issue with some truly superb bookstores of the world. These spaces are so exceptional you might walk in and never want to leave. Check out the images above and the entire article here.

a step back in time

A romantic comedy about life-changing experiences, “Midnight in Paris” is quite simply, brilliant. The plot centers on a small group of Americans visiting the French capital, the vastly different ways in which they view the city and the illusions people have that a life different from their own would be much better. 

The film goes from present day to the 1920's Lost Generation and provides us with a glimpse of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso and more. 

The DVD is available at the Library. And if it puts you in the mood for Paris, Hemingway or Fitzgerald, stop by the fiction section on the second floor. A few of our favorites? A Moveable Feast, The Paris Wife, Paris to the Moon, The Flaneur, Paris in the Fifties, Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs, and The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

a river of conflict

On Thursday, January 26th at 7 pm, award-winning photographer Peter McBride will speak at the Library on the alarming and urgent issues of the Colorado River, the seventh largest river in the U.S. and one that supplies water to over 30 million people. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most diverted, silted, and heavily litigated rivers in the world. 

The farmers and residents of the rapidly growing western states rely on the river for irrigation, drinking water, and electricity. This demand has permanently altered the river's ecology. McBride’s book, The Colorado River: Flowing Through Conflict shows us the river's entirety –– from its headwaters in the Colorado Rockies to the dry riverbed that once reached the Sea of Cortez. 

Peter McBride has spent almost two decades studying the world with his camera and has traveled on assignment to more than sixty countries. He has made images for some of the world’s most prestigious publications including The National Geographic Society (National Geographic Magazine, Traveler, Adventure, Kids, TV, Expedition Council), The Smithsonian, The NewYorkTimes, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Esquire, Outside, Men's Journal and many other national and international publications. 

The lecture is part of the Library Live Program and is free to the public. Seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, check our website at nbplfoundation.org.

eBooks are here to stay

EBooks may or may not be your thing. Some people (this author included) love the feel of a hardcover book in their hands. And when the concept of eBooks was first mentioned years ago, these same people balked at the idea, certain that hard-cover book lovers could never be swayed. But they could and they were (this author included). And then, along came the iPad and Kindle and Nook –– and the simplicity and immediacy of it all started to look appealing. Very appealing. The fact that you can read about a New York Times bestseller on your iPad and download that very book within seconds is bliss. And when you’re packing for a holiday on a remote island and reading is at the top of your agenda, six heavy books weighing down your luggage is not so appealing. But your light eReader is. 

So what do eBooks have to do with the library? Simple. The Newport Beach Public Library has thousands of books that you can check out and download to your eReader. It’s an easy process, but one that hands-on instruction can serve to make easier. If you’re interested in learning more, check the Library’s website for upcoming demonstrations, then grab your iPad, Kindle or Nook and join us. Looking forward to seeing you there.

the world's most expensive book

The world’s most expensive book is set for auction later this month and is expected to fetch $10 million. Ten million dollars?!  For a book?  Yes. 

“Birds of America” by John James Audubon, is an oversized, hand-colored set with life-sized engravings created between 1827 and 1838. Called a “masterpiece of illustration,” the four-book set measures over three feet high and is the product of Audubon’s travels through America's wilderness drawing the birds he loved. Bidding at the Christie’s auction opens on the 20th of January in New York. 

Its been said that picking up a volume of his work is a two-person job –– which sounds like a lot of work to us. If you’re interested in birds, and something a bit more reasonable, check out Audubon’s titles at the Newport Beach Public Library –– including “Birds of America,” “Capturing Nature: the Writings and Art of James Audubon” and “Birds of America in Song” (a sound recording).  Happy bird watching!

some of the best

As 2011 comes to a close, we decided to take a look back at some of the best books of the year. We started with the New York Times ten best of 2011 (a selection by their editors), and added a few of our own. The result is a short list of great reading. Check out the titles on the Library’s website search here and get comfortable in your favorite chair. Happy reading and happy 2012!

NY TIMES PICKS:

{FICTION}

THE ART OF FIELDING

By Chad Harbach

At a small college on the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan, the baseball team sees its fortunes rise and then rise some more with the arrival of a supremely gifted shortstop. Harbach’s expansive, allusive first novel combines the pleasures of an old-fashioned baseball story with a stately, self-reflective meditation on talent and the limits of ambition, played out on a field where every hesitation is amplified and every error judged by an exacting, bloodthirsty audience.

11/22/63

By Stephen King

Throughout his career, King has explored fresh ways to blend the ordinary and the supernatural. His new novel imagines a time portal in a Maine diner that lets an English teacher go back to 1958 in an effort to stop Lee Harvey Oswald and — rewardingly for readers — also allows King to reflect on questions of memory, fate and free will as he richly evokes midcentury America. The past guards its secrets, this novel reminds us, and the horror behind the quotidian is time itself.

SWAMPLANDIA!

By Karen Russell

An alligator theme park, a ghost lover, a Styx-like journey through an Everglades mangrove jungle: Russell’s first novel, about a girl’s bold effort to preserve her grieving family’s way of life, is suffused with humor and gothic whimsy. But the real wonders here are the author’s exuberantly inventive language and her vivid portrait of a heroine who is wise beyond her years.

TEN THOUSAND SAINTS

By Eleanor Henderson

Henderson’s fierce, elegiac novel, her first, follows a group of friends, lovers, parents and children through the straight-edge music scene and the early days of the AIDS epidemic. By delving deeply into the lives of her characters, tracing their long relationships not only to one another but also to various substances, Henderson catches something of the dark, apocalyptic quality of the ’80s.

THE TIGER’S WIFE

By Téa Obreht

As war returns to the Balkans, a young doctor inflects her grandfather’s folk tales with stories of her own coming of age, creating a vibrant collage of historical testimony that has neither date nor dateline. Obreht, who was born in Belgrade in 1985 but left at the age of 7, has recreated, with startling immediacy and presence, a conflict she herself did not experience.

{NONFICTION}

ARGUABLY

Essays.

By Christopher Hitchens

The book is almost 800 pages, contains more than 100 essays and addresses a ridiculously wide range of topics, including Afghanistan, Harry Potter, Thomas Jefferson, waterboarding, Henry VIII, Saul Bellow and the Ten Commandments, which Hitchens helpfully revises.

THE BOY IN THE MOON

A Father’s Journey to Understand His Extraordinary Son
By Ian Brown
A feature writer at The Globe and Mail in Toronto, Brown combines a reporter’s curiosity with a novelist’s instinctive feel for the unknowable in this exquisite book, an account — at once tender, pained and unexpectedly funny — of his son, Walker, who was born with a rare genetic mutation that has deprived him of even the most rudimentary capacities.

MALCOLM X
A Life of Reinvention
By Manning Marable From petty criminal to drug user to prisoner to minister to separatist to humanist to martyr. Marable, who worked for more than a decade on the book and died earlier this year, offers a more complete and unvarnished portrait of Malcolm X than the one found in his autobiography. The story remains inspiring.

THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

By Daniel Kahneman

We overestimate the importance of whatever it is we’re thinking about. We misremember the past and misjudge what will make us happy. In this comprehensive presentation of a life’s work, the world’s most influential psychologist demonstrates that irrationality is in our bones, and we are not necessarily the worse for it.

A WORLD ON FIRE

Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War

By Amanda Foreman

Which side would Great Britain support during the Civil War? Foreman gives us an enormous cast of characters and a wealth of vivid description in her lavish examination of a second battle between North and South, the trans-Atlantic one waged for British hearts and minds.

AND A FEW OF OUR OWN:

THE MARRIAGE PLOT
by Jeffrey Eugenides
It’s the early 1980s — the country is in a deep recession, and life after college is harder than ever. In the cafés on College Hill, the wised-up kids are inhaling Derrida and listening to the Talking Heads. But Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English major, is writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot, purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the greatest English novels...

THE PARIS WIFE
by Paula McLain
A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley. Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

BOOMERANG: TRAVELS IN THE NEW THIRD WORLD
by Michael Lewis
The tsunami of cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2008 was more than a simple financial phenomenon: it was temptation, offering entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge. Icelanders wanted to stop fishing and become investment bankers. The Greeks wanted to turn their country into a pinata stuffed with cash and allow as many citizens as possible to take a whack at it. The Germans wanted to be even more German; the Irish wanted to stop being Irish.

A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD
by Jennifer Egan
Jennifer Egan's spellbinding interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other's pasts, the reader does, in intimate detail, along with the secret lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs, over many years, in locales as varied as New York, San Francisco, Naples, and Africa.

CUTTING FOR STONE
by Abraham Verghese
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother's death and their father's disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.

AN OBJECT OF BEAUTY
by Steve Martin
Lacey Yeager is young, captivating, and ambitious enough to take the NYC art world by storm. Groomed at Sotheby's and hungry to keep climbing the social and career ladders put before her, Lacey charms men and women, old and young, rich and even richer with her magnetic charisma and liveliness. Her ascension to the highest tiers of the city parallel the soaring heights--and, at times, the dark lows--of the art world and the country from the late 1990s through today.

a great escape

If you're a fan of the stellar BBC series, Downton Abbey, you'll be happy to know that season two will make its debut on January 8th.  If you're not familiar, here's the skinny: Downton Abbey is a period drama written by award-winning writer, Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park, Snobs), with a fantastic cast and superb scenery.  It's Emmy award winning and up for four Golden Globes -- and oh yes, it was named 2011's most critically acclaimed television series in Britain.  

The show chronicles the conflict of class, gender and politics in early 1900s England.  It's sophisticated, well-written, entertaining and completely addictive.  Check it out, either on your local PBS station, or from the Newport Beach Public Library (in the DVD section).  Also check out Julian Fellowes' other superb work, books including Gosford Park, Snobs, Past Imperfect and more.  

the spoken word

Did you know that even if you miss one of our stellar lectures, it's still not too late? Thanks to our podcasts, what you thought you had missed is really just a click or two away.  Like the recent discussion on "The Ultimate Stress-Relief Plan for Women" by respected physician and author, Dr. Stephanie McClellan, where she provided practical solutions for the prevention and reversal of stress-related health issues; or New York Times best-selling author, Lisa See, speaking about her latest book, "Dreams of Joy"; or baseball great Shawn Green, sharing ballpark wisdom for use on and off the field.  And many, many more.  Listen to intelligent discussions while walking, running, driving, or curled up in front of the fire.  Click here to find out more.  And happy listening!

our new look

It's here!  Our new website (we hope you like our new look as much as we do!) and Bibliophile blog -- a unique blend of books, more books, interesting speakers, stories and events.  Stay up-to-date on Library and Foundation happenings –– and all of the reasons that the Newport Beach Public Library remains a relevant, modern and vital part of our community. Follow our blog, with weekly posts that we'll strive to make worthy of all of our intelligent Bibliophile followers.  As always many thank for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you here.