Books, Movies, and Music
The Thin Executioner by Darren Shan
The Thin Executioner is the story of 12-year-old Jebel’s journey from a spoiled, arrogant, closed minded child to someone much different.
We meet Jebel at a public execution which is normal for his town. The executioner is revered above all others, and Jebel happens to be the executioner’s son. Jebel has two brothers who are much larger and older than Jebel, and his father shows obvious favor to the older boys. Jebel’s society is a very harsh society with slaves and harsh punishments (execution) for even the slightest offense. At one of these executions, Jebel’s father stands up in front of the crowd and publicly humiliates Jebel without even realizing it.
Jebel vows to go on a quest to the great fire god so that he can be made invincible by him. To accomplish this he travels hundreds of miles on foot with no one but a slave taken to sacrifice to the god once he reaches his mountain.
Pedal faster!
Bikes have become a feature of the local urban experience. From watching professionals fly through downtown to a lazy pedal along the riverfront, there’s something to appeal to anyone who’d like to be more fit, more ‘green’ or just more entertained! For folks who haven’t been on a bike since they learned to drive, it’s possible to recapture the carefree feel of the wind under your helmet with the help of some good books.
The Ultimate Ride, by Chris Carmichael with Jim Rutberg and The Noncyclist’s Guide to the Century and Other Road Races: Get On Your Butt and Into Gear, by Dawn Dais, are both loaded with practical advice for making a return to riding, whether you’re a recreational rider or one with racing aspirations.
For slightly older beginners, Cycling Past 50, by Joe Friel has tips for avoiding or minimizing injury along with other info for the more seasoned rider.
For the dreamers among us, read Eat, Sleep, Ride: How I Braved Bears, Badlands, and Big Breakfasts in My Quest to Cycle the Tour Divide, Paul Howard’s saga of tackling the Tour Divide mountain bike race.
Your OTHER summer reading list...
Chances are, you've got a giant summer reading list coming at you this summer from your school. Once you done with that, why not sit back and get into a graphic novel?
Here are some stellar recommendations from Teen Librarian Justin Hoenke. You can trust him on these picks...back in the day, he was one of the people walking out of the library with a stack of graphic novels.
While you're at it, why not sign up for our Teen Summer Reading program? Every graphic novel you read gets you closer to a prize!
Got any suggestions? Let us know and we'll add it to the list.
It's history!
Everything old is new again.
For historians, this phrase is music to the ears; there’s always something new to learn about an old topic. In Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution, Nathaniel Philbrick reminds us all that the city of Boston has been home to a very resilient people for over 350 years. His analysis of events like the Boston Tea Party and the engagements at Lexington and Concord provide a fresh perspective into the actions of the colonials and their leaders, both military and political. The Battle of Bunker Hill itself became a Rubicon for the rebellious Americans, the true beginning of eight years of struggle and courage and death.
Ground Breaking Reads @ the Northgate Library
This year’s Summer Reading Program for adults is "Groundbreaking Reads.” This is a rather intriguing theme because of its broad meaning. It can imply anything from physical surfaces to emotional ones that take us into the dark unknown.
As the Northgate staff sat down to discuss ideas for this year’s Summer Reading Program, we thought it would be a cool idea to include adults by introducing a book club. We’ve had several patrons asks us about book groups in the Hixson area, and we thought this would be a nice opportunity to start a reading group.
The next step was deciding on books. “Groundbreaking Reads” after all is a broad theme. As the staff looked over the variety of concepts, we thought it would be fun to take it literally. What we found were books that literally explored underneath the earth’s surface, looked deep into a rabbit’s hole, or simply created a new genre of fiction with their influence on literature.