Books Blog : bestsellers

Harry Potter eBooks, downloadable audiobooks now available

professor.knowsitall@evpl — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:27:00 GMT

Harry Potter eBooks & downloadable audiobooks are now available in our OverDrive collection!

Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone: eBook | MP3 Audiobook
Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets: eBook | MP3 Audiobook
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban: eBook | MP3 Audiobook
Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire: eBook | MP3 Audiobook
Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix: eBook | MP3 Audiobook
Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince: eBook | MP3 Audiobook
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: eBook | MP3 Audiobook

Why did it take so long? The Harry Potter titles haven't been available in digital formats until now. They released to the general public on Tuesday, with availability to libraries starting yesterday.

Now that they're available in digital formats, will you be reading/re-reading these books?

For all you "Da Vinci Code" fans out there ...

myzticrhythmz@evpl — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:30:00 GMT

... Dan Brown's latest installment in the Robert Langdon series, The Lost Symbol, will hit your local library's shelves tomorrow.

Enjoy, and let us know what you think!

More MP3 audiobooks available for download

Meditatinglibrarian@evpl — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:11:00 GMT

The Library has added 89 new MP3 format audiobook titles to our OverDrive@ EVPL downloadable collection, many of them spiritual and new age titles from ChristianAudio, Zondervan, Sounds True, and Hay House publishers. We've also added several new titles from Books in Motion, Blackstone Audio, Tantor Media, Weston Woods, and the AudioBookshelf.

In addition to new MP3 format audiobooks, several new Windows Media Player audiobooks have been added, many of them recent Bestseller titles that are not available in the MP3 format, such as 3 Willows, Agincourt, The Associate, Beat the Reaper, Dark of Night, Mounting Fears, The Piano Teacher, and What I Did for Love. We've also added several new eBooks in the PDF format, including The House of Mirth (a book discussion title at the North Park Branch), The Breakthrough, Broken Open, Devil of the Highlands, Fireside, The Inheritance, and Wicked Game.

Check out the Library's http://evpl.lib.overdrive.com/ site to see all the media available for download to your computer or handheld device.

Outside my comfort zone - a fun place to be!

librarianinheels@evpl — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:20:00 GMT

I once saw the librarian Nancy Pearl speak at this library, and she advised 'reading outside of one's comfort zone'. I tried recently it with Beat the Reaper, a debut novel by Josh Bazell, and frankly, I liked it.

Ok. To start with - I am not a fast reader. That'll come into play at the end of this post.

Secondly, the best way to describe Beat the Reaper is this: it's one part House, one part Sopranos. If that appeals to you, read on.

And ok, so I've never been much for thrillers, or crime novels...but Beat the Reaper was pretty darn good. First of all, it met my first requirement for any book - it had me from page one. A mugging, a pigeon vs. rat smack-down, and the tables completely turned on the mugger in question...are all a part of the introduction of our protagonist, a former hit man in the witness protection program, now fulfilling his potential as a doctor. The next eight hours of his life - the scope of the novel - are critical to his survival.

What drew me into it Beat the Reaper was a fairly rich, quickly moving subplot...the backstory of the protagonist prior to his medical training, and the impact of the lives of others on his, rather than the impact his life had on others. It's darkly comic, especially in the abundant footnotes that explain (in sometimes almost hyper-colloquial detail) the circumstances of the plot. At other times, the footnotes are full of interesting little medical factoids that you may otherwise never have known - but which may someday come in handy at cocktail parties. The author, has a Bachelor's in writing from Brown University and an MD from Columbia University. He's now a medical resident at the University of California, San Francisco, and is working on his second novel. And he clearly has a rich imagination, in addition to, as my mother says, "knowing whereof he speaks" - at least in terms of the medical portion of this book. Almost chillingly, painfully, stunningly so, near the end of the book.

I finished this book in two days. Which is lightning speed for me!

Recently added bestsellers available for download

Meditatinglibrarian@evpl — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:56:00 GMT

We've recently added the following bestseller titles to our OverDrive collection:

WMA audiobook format - Brass Verdict, Christmas Grace, The Fire, Here's the Story, Mother Angelica's private & pithy lessons, Shadow Factory, Tried by War, Wallflower Christmas, Bones, Against Medical Advice, Cross Country, Dark Summer, Divine Justice, Gate House, Longest Trip Home, Rough Weather, Salvation in Death, Testimony (Shreve), American Lion, Buyology, Call Me Ted, Ender in Exile, Every Now and Then, Gold Coast, Good Woman, John Lennon, A Mercy, Swallowing Darkness, Ten Roads to Riches, Too Fat to Fish

Juvie WMA audiobook format- The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, Paper Towns, Inkdeath, Nation, Runaway Dolls

eBooks (PDF and MobiPocket formats) - Wicked, Who, Shadow Factory, Lion Among Men, The Fire, Christmas Grace, Bones, Longest Trip Home, Time of My Life, American Lion, Buyology, Cold Pursuit, Destiny Kills, Gears of War: Aspho Fields, Gold Coast, Graveyard Book, Nation, Rigged, Suite 606, Swallowing Darkness, Ultimate Weapon, World According to Bertie

There were no new MP3-format audiobooks available to purchase. This continues to be frustrating, especially now that OverDrive has released their OverDrive Media Console for Macs (see ProfessorKnows-It-All's blog post). Nora Rawlinson, who was a Library Journal editor editor-in-chief of Publishers Weekly for 12 years, recently posted about this issue in her EarlyWord blog:

Unfortunately, there are fewer titles available from OverDrive in Mac's MP3 format than there are in the Microsoft format (Windows Media Audio, or WMA), which is often difficult to explain to library customers.

In order to make titles available in MP3, publishers must be willing to offer titles without Digital Rights Management software (the software that puts limits on how the audio can be used). This is because Apple software can only read titles encrypted with Apple's DRM, available exclusively on titles downloaded through iTunes and Audible. Thus, OverDrive cannot encrypt DRM on titles in MP3 format the way they can titles in the Windows format.

Many publishers have been reluctant to give up DRM for fear of piracy (true, publishers don't seem overly worried that CD's can be ripped and downloaded, but that takes a bit more effort). Random House recently made their titles DRM-free, so they could be sold to iPod users through more vendors than Audible and iTunes. However, they specifically excluded libraries from this arrangement, because, they said in their press release, without DRM, there's no way to limit "borrowing privileges."

Until Apple makes its DRM software available to other vendors, or until all publishers make their titles available DRM free to libraries, you will have to continue to try to explain why iPod users can only download a limited number of titles.

Is it "Hot" in here, or is it just me?

myzticrhythmz@evpl — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:25:00 GMT

Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when gasoline prices rose from under eighty cents to the staggering price of $1.40 a gallon, the United States government implemented measures to reduce oil imports and improve energy efficiency.

Flash forward twenty-plus years. Larger vehicles are again the norm, gas prices top $4.00 a gallon, and development and consumption across the world are rampant. The environment is more at risk than ever. What to do?

Enter New York Times columnist and Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Thomas Friedman, and his latest book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution, and How It Can Renew America.

Hot, flat & crowded are concepts that are, individually, not new. "Hot" refers to global warming, an issue that has become increasingly, well, hot, recently, especially during the last election. "Flat" is an idea presented by Mr. Friedman in his previous bestseller, The World is Flat, and represents the level economic playing field and globalization. "Crowded" indicates humanity's continued growth & expansion, and its negative effects on biodiversity and the world's limited resources.

Friedman's solution to "hot" & "crowded" is to utilize the U.S. (& potentially global) markets. He suggests a competition, largely enforced by government regulation and taxing, to stimulate the U.S. to become more green than China. The goals here are two-fold: to reduce dependence on foreign oil, thereby depriving "petrodictators" and potential terrorists a livelihood; and to help preserve Earth's ecosystems and resources and, thereby, ourselves.

I listened to the abridged audio version of this book and would probably recommend reading Hot, Flat, and Crowded instead. With so many concepts and so much information, you'll want to take your time with it.

And let us know what you think!

"Jurassic Park" author Michael Crichton is dead at age 66

MediaPhile@evpl — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:08:00 GMT

Bestselling author, scriptwriter and director Michael Crichton is dead at age 66 after a "private battle with cancer."

Crichton used his scientific background, which included Harvard Medical School, to create believable thrillers where technology grows beyond man's ability to control it. His first big hit was the 1969 book and 1971 movie "Andromeda Strain," where an alien virus brought back from space threatens man's existence. (A new version of this was just released on DVD).

Other scenarios faced by his characters included dinosaurs cloned from DNA ("Jurassic Park"), super-intelligent gorillas ("Congo"), sexual harrassment ("Disclosure"), genetic mutation ("Next"), intelligent predatory molecules ("Prey"), an alien spaceship on the ocean floor ("Sphere"), Japanese techno-dominance ("Rising Sun"), (fear of environmental calamity ("State of Fear"), time travel to 14th Century France ("Timeline"), and a super tornado ("Twister"). Most of his books have been made into blockbuster movies. He was also the creator and driving spirit behind the very successful medical series ER.

Anyone who reads or watches movies will miss this incredibly talented man who combined contemporary science with fiction, always asking what if.......

New Downloadable eAudiobooks and eBooks added to EVPL's OverDrive Collection

Meditatinglibrarian@evpl — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:07:00 GMT

Recently added to the EVPL OverDrive collection:

Windows Media Audiobooks - White Tiger, Snowball, Sense of Urgency, Secret Life of Bees, Passion Test, Lucky One, Letter to my daughter, Cedar Cove Christmas,

MP3 Audiobooks - Cold Sassy Tree, Confident public speaking, Elsie Dinsmore, Nailing the job interview, Passion Test, Scarlet letter,

eBooks (PDF & Mobi-Pocket) - Cedar Cove Christmas, Deadly Night, It Happened One Night, Letter to my Daughter, Mr Cavendish I presume, Rogue Hunter, Rustler, Snowball

If you're looking for something appropriate to play at your Halloween party, note that some Halloween music has also been added to the collection.

New Bestseller Titles added to OverDrive @ EVPL

Meditatinglibrarian@evpl — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:58:00 GMT

Remember to visit the OverDrive Digital Bookmobile at St. Joseph and the Lloyd when you go to the Fall Festival Friday, October 10^th! The Library has added a tremendous amount of new downloadable content with the addition of video, music, and MP3 audiobooks.

New titles are added every week or two. In the ebook and audiobook formats, these are often current bestseller titles. eBooks come in PDF format or Mobipocket (MOBI) format; downloadable audiobooks come in MP3 (but very few new bestsellers are available in this format) or Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. This week we added:

TITLE AUTHOR FORMAT(S)

A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity Bill O'Reilly PDF, MOBI

A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity Bill O'Reilly WMA

Darkfever and Faefever Karen Moning WMA

The Given Day Dennis Lehane PDF, MOBI

Hot Mahogany Stuart Woods WMA

Mother Warriors Jenny McCarthy WMA

One Fifth Avenue Candace Bushnell PDF, MOBI

One Fifth Avenue Candace Bushnell WMA

Pieces of My Heart Robert Wagner WMA

Sunset Karen Kingsbury WMA

Three Cups of Tea Greg Mortenson WMA

Tsar Ted Bell WMA

When the Soul Mends Cindy Woodsmall PDF, MOBI

We only purchased one copy of each of these, but we'll be watching the holds and purchasing additional copies as needed. So don't hesitate to place a hold if the title you want is not currently available!

Digital Bookmobile visits Fall Festival this Friday!

professor.knowsitall@evpl — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:10:00 GMT

As part of a nationwide tour, the Digital Bookmobile, a 74-foot state-of-the-art tractor-trailer, will be visiting the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival on Friday, October 10, 10:30am to 6:00pm. Visit the Bookmobile, at the northwest corner of the Lloyd & St. Joe, to find out more about the EVPL's recently-revamped OverDrive collection: featuring downloadable audiobooks, eBooks, video, and music!

OverDrive Media Specialists will be on-hand to lead visitors through the various rooms of the bus. You'll learn how to browse our collection of digital titles; download & play audiobooks, eBooks, & videos; and get hands-on time with compatible MP3 players. If you own an MP3 player, bring it; you'll receive personal instructions on transferring titles to it!

Full information can be viewed on the event page. See you Friday on the bookmobile!

More Information

Event Page: View all the details, including info about the different areas of the Bookmobile.
OverDrive @ EVPL: Our revamped OverDrive collection launched last week. In addition to the downloadable WMA audiobooks we previously offered, we now offer downloadable MP3 audiobooks, videos, & music!
DigitalBookmobile.com: OverDrive's official website of the Digital Bookmobile. Find out more about their nationwide tour and upcoming tour stops.