Special Guest Reviewer: Sports Illustrated's Joe Posnanski

Joe Posnanski of Sports Illustrated is both a prolific writer and reader. He lives in Missouri and like many throughout this country, his area was recently pummeled with snow and he was snowed in. He asked his Twitter followers for book suggestions and was amazed at the number of good books that others recommended that he, too, had already read and liked. He shared those in a blog post. I have read some of them and thought I would make mention of those in the post I've read that are in the system.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (at Strasburg-Heisler Library). This is one of the two books I have on the Staff Picks shelf right now. Yes, its size is intimidating. We'll happily give you some extra weeks for it. It is well worth taking the time. As Posnanski writes, "It's a novel about two very different magicians and there's some occult in there and some great footnotes and, well, it's just a wonderful reading experience." I've seen it called a Harry Potter for adults but I don't think that remotely does this book justice. In both my and my teenage son's top ten of all-time.

The Brothers K by David James Duncan. Posnanski doesn't like this but it was recommended by so many people, he thinks he'll try it again. Another long book, about family and baseball. Any book by Duncan is great in my opinion.

Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen (at Strasburg-Heisler Library). This will probably go up as a staff pick of mine some day. Interesting true story about a serial killer at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.

David Sedaris. (Several at Strasburg-Heisler Library). I reviewed an audiobook of his. Really can't go wrong with any of his books or recordings.

Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold. Awesome, awesome, awesome book. In my top 25 of all-time. Gold's novel on Chaplin is on my to-read list. Also of note, Gold is married to Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones, among others.

If you don't believe me, Joe Posnanski, and his followers, check out the card catalog itself. Remember when the system was closed Wednesday of last week? Part of the computer upgrade that was done that day involved connecting the card catalog to Google Books and the Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com). You can go straight to reviews from the catalog listing if you scroll to the bottom of the page after you have picked a title. Check it out.

--Jon