What happens when one of the most cherished children's authors of all time gets written about by one of the most creative book illustrators of all time? You get Some Writer! The Story of E.B. White. Caldecott winning artist Melissa Sweet, who creates unique scrap-booked worlds of kaleidoscopic color, depicts the creator of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little in a biography written for the young, but treasured by all.

E.B. White is known as a wordsmith like no other, using one choice phrase to paint whole, vivid pictures. His works are fantastical, blending the impossible with the ordinary so smoothly that we might easily believe he paints the real world while we are the ones dreaming. His characters may not aggrandize wealth or change the world, but they are rich in kindness, brave in friendship, and they transform homesteads and barns into places of hope and joy. Given the stamp of approval by White’s grand-daughter Martha White, Sweet reveals how White's three novels and numerous writings for the New Yorker came to be. She pays special attention to how the details of White's "real life" shaped the fictional worlds he spun. Especially with the numerous photographs, illustrations from the original books, letter excerpts, and draft excerpts that Sweet includes, reading this book feels like meeting a friend.

Melissa Sweet's illustrations are filled with details you can linger over, and images that have an atmospheric quality that let's you immerse yourself in White's world. Her words celebrate a man who had an appreciation for the miracles of nature, a reverence for life, and a passion to tell straight what bubbles out of ones heart, without trying to please the crowds.

Bruce Springsteen fans rejoice! Born to Run, the musician’s long-awaited autobiography, hits shelves on September 27, and you can place your hold on it in the catalog now! Bruce started quietly working on Born to Run in 2008 (not to be confused with the 1975 album of the same name) and has been laboring carefully over it ever since. He announced recently that the book will be accompanied by the release of a companion album, Chapter and Verse, featuring songs from throughout his career, from all the way back to when he played with one of his very first bands, Steel Mill, to performances from his albums of the aughts along with some of his greatest hits from the 1970s and 1980s.

Bruce has never held a job besides being a musician; his storied career began back in the 1960s when he was in high school. His first band, The Castiles, played venues around his hometown of Freehold, New Jersey (“I come from a boardwalk town where almost everything is tinged with a bit of fraud,” he writes), along the Jersey Shore, and in small New York City bars. Bruce remained singularly focused on music from then onward, playing in various bands for years before eventually gathering the exact right combination of friends and musicians to become The E Street Band. Despite his talent, which was obvious to anyone who saw him perform, Bruce’s fame did not come easily. His first two albums, Greetings From Asbury Park and The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, were released to critical acclaim but minor commercial success, and his first successful album, Born to Run, was almost two years in the making (Bruce had so much material for it that he and the band recorded hundreds of songs and debated for months over which ones to cut and which ones to keep on the record). It was really in the 1980s that Bruce was catapulted into superstardom, when he launched the Born in the USA album, tour and era in 1984 and traveled the world blasting the biggest noise imaginable. Bruce is known today for his epic three and four hour performances, something that he’s been doing since he was a teenager. Once, after playing for three and a half hours, he turned to saxophonist Clarence Clemons and asked him of the audience, “Are they still standing?!” They were, and Bruce and the E Street Band played for another hour and a half.

Bruce is lauded for his poetic lyrics that describe the trials, tribulations, heartbreaks, victories and experiences of average Americans. He’s not without his own troubles; he had a difficult childhood marred by family mental illness and he’s struggled with his share of the inheritance of that. His life and career are marked with intensely difficult, solitary periods spent traveling alone or holed up with his guitar somewhere in New Jersey or California. Fans can hope to learn more about the intricate workings of such a simultaneously brilliant and troubled mind in Born to Run: “Writing about yourself is funny business,” he says at the beginning of the book. “But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I've tried to do this.”

He’s become more political over the years, using his music to make statements about the state of our nation and encourage people to do what they can to make a difference, while still focusing on the heartland America that he identifies with so intimately. “One of the questions I’m asked over and over again by fans on the street is ‘How do you do it?’” Bruce says in the foreward to Born to Run. “ In the following pages I will try to shed a little light on how and, more important, why. The rock’n’roll survival kit [is] DNA, natural ability, study of craft, development of and devotion to an aesthetic philosophy, naked desire for . . . fame? . . . love? . . . admiration? . . . attention? . . . women? . . . and oh, yeah . . . a buck. Then . . . if you want to take it all the way out to the end of the night, a furious fire in the hole that just . . . don’t . . . quit . . . burning.”

If you’re not yet a Bruce fan (how could you not be?!) or just want more Bruce in your life (how could you not?!), check out his great 2012 biography by Peter Carlin, Bruce, or listen to his albums on CD (try The River, Darkness on the Edge of Town, and of course, Born to Run) or on vinyl (the AADL has Greetings from Asbury Park, The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle, and Born in the USA all on LP record).

There’s no doubt in my mind that the Replacements are one of the most fascinating rock’n’roll bands of the 80s (maybe of the entire last century), first and foremost because—despite their talent—they never really got that famous. I myself am not a lifelong fan; but after being introduced to the ‘Mats earlier this summer, I haven’t stopped listening to them, and just had to read their recently published biography. Trouble Boys, by Bob Mehr, is an intricately researched book about the band that explores not only the roots of all the band members, but carries readers through their years together, breakup, and ultimate reunion in 2012.

The four original band members—guitarist and lead singer Paul Westerberg, guitarist Bob Stinson, bassist Tommy Stinson and drummer Chris Mars—are all Minnesota natives with troubled childhoods that haunted them throughout their careers. The band formed in Minneapolis in 1979 and began performing locally, gaining attention not only for their sound but because bassist Tommy was only 12 years old at the time. Alcoholism and mental health issues plagued the band, and Paul is quoted as once saying that “there isn’t a high school diploma or a drivers’ license among us,” but that didn’t stop them from rising up within the underground rock scene of the early 80s. One of the best things about the Replacements is the drastic dichotomy in the types of songs they wrote. Their second album, Hootenanny, opens with a song of the same name involving a seemingly drunken Westerberg yelling only “It’s a hootenanny” over and over, accompanied by vaguely coherent drums and guitar. On the same album though, is a deeply sensitive song called “Within Your Reach.” A fan favorite song is “Alex Chilton,” a tribute to the lead singer of Big Star, whom the Replacements were heavily influenced by and worked with at various points. The band inexplicably decided to name their first major-label album Tim, which was well-received but lead to a disastrous performance on Saturday Night Live, after which the Replacements were banned from ever playing the show again. Time marched on, Bob Stinson was fired dramatically, more albums were made (including the beautiful Pleased To Meet Me), the band broke up, and then the Replacements finally set out on a reunion tour in 2012 that concluded with their supposed “final show ever” in Portugal on 2015.

Trouble Boys tells this wild story and more of it in much greater, more vivid detail and draws on hundreds of interviews from the band members themselves, and others who knew them and worked with them over the past decades. Reading it, it’s hard not to have a soft spot for these, indeed, troubled boys from the Midwest who just wanted to play music and drink beer, but perhaps did both of those things a little too well.

Want to hear some of the Replacements’ music before reading? Try Let It Be, Tim or Pleased To Meet Me.

Dinner With Edward: a Story of an Unexpected Friendship

“There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk.” M.F.K Fisher

Isabel Vincent is a writer and a journalist for the New York Post who is approaching a divorce and single parenthood when an old friend asks her a favor. This friend’s 93 year-old father is newly widowed, lonely, and living in the same neighborhood as Isabel. He is an excellent and exacting cook and could use an occasional dinner companion. This is the genesis of Isabel Vincent's delightful book, Dinner With Edward. What comes out of these dinners is a profound connection between two people who are both in need of buoying.

Edward is a perfectionist in the kitchen, and a self-taught cook. He cultivated his craft to relieve his wife of her 52 years of providing meals. He learned to cook out of love and so his cooking is imbued with it. This book speaks strongly to the importance of a human connection, and one that can be facilitated by shared food and meals. Isabel and Edward’s relationship also exemplifies a loving, platonic attachment, something that is rarely found in the stories we read today.

This slim volume will fill you with descriptions of simple, yet precise meals, and tales of an unusual and unexpected bond that comes to the rescue of these two very different people. The meals are used as a framework to unfold the story of this deep friendship, reminding us that food can sustain us, and save us in many ways. As Isabel tells us, “That night, I sat down to write my own letter to Edward. I told him that I had never been incapacitated like this, and how I was suddenly feeling middle-aged and alone. I told him that he had saved my life and that he would be with me forever. The response was swift. Edward called me right after he read my letter. ‘You saved your own life,’ he said. ‘You think about this in time and you will come to see the truth of what I’m saying. You were giving as well as receiving.’ And then his voice caught, and he said he needed to go. ‘You touched an old man’s heart.’”

This book will touch your heart, and teach you the trick to mastering a perfect roast chicken.

Dinner With Edward will appeal to fans of The Intern, Julie and Julia, The End of Your Life Book Club and anything by Laurie Colwin.

Who doesn't need to be reminded to recognize the beauty of small moments? Two new books reflect upon ordinary living, re-defining significance.

Christie Purifoy gave up her career and a steady paycheck to buy an old brick farmhouse with a plot of ground, and pursue her dream of re-building it into a home. Structured as reflections divided into the four seasons, Roots and Sky traces Christie's journey toward homecoming: the tired days, the depressed months, the fists-at-the-sky tantrums, and the oh-so-thankful glimpses of what is “adding up to something astonishing.” Christie’s story is crafted by memoir, so it unfurls through her own dreams, and lessons learned, but she touches longings that we all share. She hears God's voice in chipped paint, snowflakes, and scratched bannisters, and listening in reminds us to open our ears too. Her life includes many things mine does not: children, a house, or a green thumb. But everything in her pages declare that the world is full of good gifts, and the weight of significance rests in peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches.

J Ellsworth Kalas, Former Professor and President of Asbury Theological Seminary, passed away last November. A prolific writer, Kalas left us with the fruit of a life he sought to live fully in one last book released in February, The Pleasure of God. This slim volume is divided into twenty-two chapters, each pondering one of the many ordinary tasks no person can avoid, tasks which, by necessity, make up the majority of our time. We cook a meal, shower, walk to the car and shop for groceries. And then we sleep. Would we be closer to God if we could avoid so many earth-bound pursuits and concentrate on weightier matters? Kalas argues “no." He shows how these ordinary activities can be the very space where God draws near.

If you have affection for Harper Lee's Scout Finch and her endearing, if imperfect, small town in the South, you will be delighted by G. Neri’s brand new book Tru and Nelle. Inspired by the real-life friendship of Harper Nelle Lee and Truman Capote, this precious chapter-book recounts the fictionalized adventures of this imaginative pair who forge their friendship from mutual quirkiness and love for books. Tru, a seven-year-old gentleman who wears pristine suits with pride, feels abandoned when he is sent by his parents to stay the summer in Monroeville, Alabama. Yet it is here that he finds a place to belong alongside little sized but big-hearted Nelle, who is more comfortable in overalls than a dress. With Sherlock Holmes as their hero, the two step out to unravel the mystery of a theft, and end up revealing both prejudice and courageous kindness in the hearts around them. A tale for those who have ever felt like the odd-one-out, this celebration of the healing joys of sincere friendship will bring smiles to anyone young or old who can’t get enough of To Kill A Mockingbird, enjoys historical tidbits, or even just craves a good mystery!

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of David Foster Wallace’s (1962-2008) magnum opus Infinite Jest, so it’s a great time to revisit the 1996 work.

At the time the book was published Rolling Stone Magazine sent reporter David Lipsky to follow Wallace on his book tour promoting the book.

The five-day interview didn’t get published in the magazine but became Lipsky's New York Times-bestselling book Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace in 2010. The book was recently adapted for screen which resulted in the film The End of the Tour.

The End of the Tour stars Jason Segel as Wallace and Jesse Eisenberg as Lipsky. Lipsky tags along on a road trip with Wallace and they have conversation after conversation on just about everything, with Lipsky getting it all on tape. It’s a striking look at how you view yourself, and then once you are well-known how others perceive you. It begs the question – does it really matter? I haven’t read Infinite Jest, but I’m super curious about the brain of David Foster Wallace, and found the movie provocative and thought provoking about what rests in the minds of those we label genius.

We are extremely pleased to offer e-books from Wayne State University Press.

Library patrons can download these e-books (they are in PDF format) after logging in to our website. Enjoy titles such as Coney Detroit and, find out how Detroit became the coney hotdog capital of the world! Interested in Detroit music history, check out MC5: Sonically Speaking, A Revolution of Rock'n'Roll or Techno Rebels : The Renegades of Electronic Funk Or how about some Michigan history, specifically young women, try Great Girls in Michigan History or the automotive variety, Reuther Brothers : Walter, Roy, and Victor. Or how about a study on a tv show, like Doctor Who, Deadwood, or the Sopranos, to name a few.

There are more titles to choose from so check out the list here and start downloading today!

What can one say about such an influential icon as David Bowie that has not been said already? He was never one to be pigeon holed into one look or one style of music. From the '60s hippie days of Space Oddity with the hit “Major Tom” to the glam rock 70s of Ziggy Stardust, Bowie was forever changing and adding new personas. Following Ziggy were such blockbusters as Aladdin Sane (“Panic In Detroit” was on this one), Diamond Dogs with its soul/funk beats and the break out hit, “Rebel, Rebel”, then Young Americans with the popular song, “Fame”, co-written with John Lennon which became his first number one hit in the U.S.

In the late '70s he changed his persona again into the elegant Thin White Duke with the album Station to Station and another memorable tune, “Golden Years”. Ahead of his time in so many ways, he experimented with electronic, ambient, and world music alongside Brian Eno to create the experimental Berlin Trilogy of albums: Low, Heroes, and Lodger. Artists, like Philip Glass would be highly influenced by his work during this time.

With the '80s came the album Scary Monsters which some consider to be his last great album with hits such as “Ashes to Ashes” and “Fashion”. But then came the hit album, Let’s Dance, with Chic guitarist, Nile Rodgers, producing and the legendary Stevie Ray Vaughn on lead guitar. On this one album Bowie had several memorable songs including “China Girl” and “Modern Love”, and once again he led the way but this time in music videos especially for the title track. Next was Tonight with the hit, “Blue Jean” which garnered him a Grammy for best music video. Lesser albums like Never Let Me Down rounded out his '80s releases. He then had a short-lived rock quartet called Tin Machine at the start of the '90s. After they disbanded, he returned to solo work starting with Black Tie, White Noise but none of them quite lived up to the commercial success of previous albums. However his last album, Blackstar was just released, and has earned rave reviews. See music videos for the album here. If you are looking for a best of album check out Best of Bowie which includes the single “Under Pressure”.

Bowie was also a noted actor on stage as the Elephant Man and in some unique movie roles such as a vampire in the Hunger, an alien in the Man Who Fell To Earth, a prisoner of war in , king of the goblins in Jim Henson’s the Labyrinth, and portraying Andy Warhol in Basquiat. He produced albums as well like those for his good friend Iggy Pop (the Idiot), and was a well-respected post-modernist painter. This of course was a brief overview of his most notable works and to read more thoroughly about him there are plenty of websites and books to fill the gaps.

If you want to remember him on twitter type #bowieliveson or post a comment below. For me, the song "Blue Jean" still gets me dancing. You can watch the video to it here. He definitely has the cheekbones to pull off that makeup!
RIP Bowie

The 2016 Michigan Notable Book Award winners have been announced! These are books recognized by the Library of Michigan for "celebrating Michigan people, places, and events."

There are 20 books on the list, covering a wide variety of topics and aimed an an array of different audiences, including children's books, nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. This list covers the Michigan Notable titles available for borrowing through AADL, but wait, there's more! Back in October, AADL hosted David Maraniss for a discussion of his book, Once in a Great City: a Detroit story, which can be downloaded or viewed directly library's site.

This list will lead you to explorations of niche Michigan industries, celebrations of famous Michiganders, National Book Award-finalist storytelling, and mouth-watering recipes. So, congratulations to our new Notable authors, and next time you seek a pleasant, Michigan-inspired read, look about you.