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What do Library Staffers Do When They Aren’t Working?—READ! Ever wonder what book is on your favorite library staff person's nightstand?  Here's your chance to find out as at recent staff meeting we had a gabfest about what we were reading at the moment.  Our resident music buff is immersing herself in books about bands, record labels, guitar players, and the requisite drug abuse that goes along with them.  One of her picks is Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 by Simon Reynolds.  This history covers the heyday of such bands as PiL, the Slits, the B-52s, Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle, Gang of Four and Devo. Are you a fan of The Amazing Race?  Then you have to read Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst.  It features characters who are contestants on a reality show very similar to the Race.  The staff member that read it said even non-race fans would enjoy it, as the main focus is on the couples and their relationships with on another.  The teams feature a mother/daughter who are sharing a secret, a pair of former child stars, and a married couple who were both formerly gay.  This same staff member also is a fan of Peter Robinson's mystery series featuring Detective Inspector Adam Banks.  She recently read the latest one, Piece of My Heart, in which a 1969 murder that occurred at a music festival is tied into a murder that happens in the present day. Let Me Finish by Roger Angell caught the attention of another one of our staffers.  She enjoyed this book of memories for its stories about growing up in New York during the 1920's and 30, and about the author's relatives (which include his stepfather E.B. White), and about his time as a writer/editor at The New Yorker.  This same staffer also enjoyed experiencing the exotic local of Istanbul, Turkey during the time of the Ottoman Empire in The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin.  The author's knowledge of this region and time period really come through in this mystery story, which features a sleuthing eunuch who uses his access to the royal court to help solve a case of murder and thievery. Have you heard the buzz about Al Gore's book and movie An Inconvenient Truth?  In the opinion of one of our staffers, it is a pleasing book to read because it has lots of photos and a great layout.  While it presents a lot of facts about the perils of global warming, it is not preachy.  And she found the movie and book to be very similar, so if you like one check out the other. One of our staff members is a big fan of Jack Lemmon, so she picked up Twist of Lemmon: A Tribute to My Father by his son Chris Lemmon.  She was pleased to find no sordid revelations, just plenty of anecdotes about family life and Jack's love of sports--such one about his perpetual quest to qualify for the Pro/Am Golf Tournament.  He tried out for 34 years but never made it. Biographies are popular among our staff, another staffer just finished reading In Search of Willie Morris by Larry L. King.  Morris is the author of My Dog Skip and was an editor at Harper's Magazine during the 1960's.  She is also reading The Same River Twice by Chris Offutt, a book that she was considering discarding from the collection but then decided it is just too good to weed.  In it a southerner from the Kentucky Appalachians recounts how he came to be in Iowa with a pregnant wife. P.C. Doherty (a.k.a. C.L. Grace) is, according to one of our staffers, a leading author of historical fiction.  She recently read The Cup of Ghosts, a medieval mystery set during the time of King Edward II and Isabella.  The sleuth is a servant to Isabella, and the tone of this story is really dark.  This same staffer has also recently sampled Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by award winning author Nathaniel Philbrick.  She said "it will change the way you think about the pilgrims" and that Philbrick did an excellent job of capturing the personalities of the historical figures. She also has just started a book by Ramsey Campbell who has been referred to as the British Stephen King.  She has only read the first chapter and had to put the book down for a while because it "totally creeped her out".  The book is Secret Story. http://www.tscpl.org/books/comments/what_do_library_staffers_do_when_they_arent_working_read/