There’s something intimate and slightly thrilling about opening a book and finding a bookplate pasted inside the cover. These small prints give us a glimpse of the owner through an illustration of the owner’s name or identifying symbols.

Bookplates often include the words “Ex Libris,”a phrase that denotes “from the books,” but has come to mean “from the library of” and is also another name for the bookplate itself. Riding a wave of nostalgia, bookplates are currently highly collectible as stand-alone prints that are enjoyed quite apart from the books in which they were originally meant to live.

Lining the back walls of the Davidson Galleries is a quiet but fantastically rich exhibition of antique and contemporary bookplates that draw you into little worlds of identity, pleasure, or warning. Shayla Alarie, director of the gallery’s antique print department, and Cara Forrier, director of contemporary prints and drawings, have pulled together over 200 Ex Libris from private collections and their own inventory (about 100 are hanging on the walls, with the rest in portfolios that can be perused).

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By Adam Lashinsky

INSIDE APPLE reveals the secret systems, tactics and leadership strategies that allowed Steve Jobs and his company to churn out hit after hit and inspire a cult-like following for its products.

If Apple is Silicon Valley’s answer to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, then author Adam Lashinsky provides readers with a golden ticket to step inside. In this primer on leadership and innovation, the author will introduce readers to concepts like the “DRI” (Apple’s practice of assigning a Directly Responsible Individual to every task) and the Top 100 (an annual ritual in which 100 up-and-coming executives are tapped a la Skull & Bones for a secret retreat with company founder Steve Jobs).

Based on numerous interviews, the book offers exclusive new information about how Apple innovates, deals with its suppliers and is handling the transition into the Post Jobs Era. Lashinsky, a Senior Editor at Large for Fortune, knows the subject cold: In a 2008 cover story for the magazine entitled The Genius Behind Steve: Could Operations Whiz Tim Cook Run The Company Someday he predicted that Tim Cook, then an unknown, would eventually succeed Steve Jobs as CEO.

While Inside Apple is ostensibly a deep dive into one, unique company (and its ecosystem of suppliers, investors, employees and competitors), the lessons about Jobs, leadership, product design and marketing are universal. They should appeal to anyone hoping to bring some of that Apple magic to their own company, career, or creative endeavor.

Are you nostalgic over the 1980s – movies, music, TV and pop culture? If so, READY PLAYER ONE - a new novel that is winning loud acclaim may be the perfect book for you this fall.

At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.

A quest for the ultimate prize.

Are you ready?

Early Reviews:

“The science-fiction writer John Scalzi has aptly referred to READY PLAYER ONE as a “nerdgasm” [and] there can be no better one-word description of this ardent fantasy artifact about fantasy culture…But Mr. Cline is able to incorporate his favorite toys and games into a perfectly accessible narrative.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“Triggers memories and emotions embedded in the psyche of a generation…[Cline crafts] a fresh and imaginative world from our old toy box, and finds significance in there among the collectibles.  A-”—Entertainment Weekly

“Ridiculously fun and large-hearted, and you don’t have to remember the Reagan administration to love it…[Cline] takes a far-out premise and engages the reader instantly…You’ll wish you could make it go on and on.”—NPR.org

“A fun, funny and fabulously entertaining first novel…This novel’s large dose of 1980s trivia is a delight…[but] even readers who need Google to identify Commodore 64 or Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde, will enjoy this memorabilian feast.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer

“The grown-up’s ‘Harry Potter’…the mystery and fantasy in this novel weaves itself in the most delightful way, and the details that make up Mr. Cline’s world are simply astounding. READY PLAYER ONE has it all.”—Huffington Post

“Incredibly entertaining…Drawing on everything from “Back to the Future” to Roald Dahl to Neal Stephenson’s groundbreaking “Snow Crash,” Cline has made READY PLAYER ONE a geek fantasia, ’80s culture memoir and commentary on the future of online behavior all at once.”—Austin American-Statesman 

“READY PLAYER ONE is the ultimate lottery ticket.”—New York Daily News

“This non-gamer loved every page of READY PLAYER ONE.”—Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series

“A treasure for anyone already nostalgic for the late 20th century. . . But it’s also a great read for anyone who likes a good book.”—Wired.com

“A nerdgasm…imagine Dungeons and Dragons and an 80s video arcade made hot, sweet love, and their child was raised in Azeroth.”—John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author of Old Man’s War

“Completely fricking awesome…This book pleased every geeky bone in my geeky body.  I felt like it was written just for me.”—Patrick Rothfuss, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Wise Man’s Fear  

“An exuberantly realized, exciting, and sweet-natured cyber-quest. Cline’s imaginative and rollicking coming-of-age geek saga has a smash-hit vibe.”—Booklist, starred review

“This adrenaline shot of uncut geekdom, a quest through a virtual world, is loaded with enough 1980s nostalgia to please even the most devoted John Hughes fans… sweet, self-deprecating Wade, whose universe is an odd mix of the real past and the virtual present, is the perfect lovable/unlikely hero.”—Publishers Weekly, Pick of the Week

Steve Earle is an award-winning country music singer and songwriter, an actor who guest-starred on the HBO series The Wire, and now Earle is a novelist.

Earle’s first novel I’ll Never Get Out of this World Alive tells the sad story of Doc Ebersole, one of the last people to see Hank Williams, Sr. (the legendary country music singer) alive, and the doctor rumored to have given Hank the final morphine dose that killed him. It should be noted, Hank Williams Sr. sang and recorded a song titled I’ll Never Get Out of this World Alive.

A brilliant excavation of an obscure piece of music history, Steve Earle’s I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive is also a marvelous novel in its own right, a ballad of regret and redemption, and of the ways in which we remake ourselves and our world through the smallest of miracles.

In an early review of Earle’s novel, The Boston Globe wrote, “”Earle has always told a great story in song…Turns out he puts ‘em down on the page pretty well, too.”

Marcia Clark will forever be remembered as the lead prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson trial. However, she’s now receiving accolades for her first legal thriller – Guilt By Association.

Here are just a sampling of the early reviews of Clark’s first novel:

“You must read this book: it is wildly and complexly plotted, ebulliently witty and filled with riotous humor; it details the inner workings of the L.A. legal system with unprecedented accuracy and verve – and to top it off, it is a damn, damn, good thriller.” James Ellroy

“Marcia Clark’s debut novel showcases her experience and knowledge of the legal system. The pace, plot and dialogue are as sharp as they come in the genre. Her character of Rachel Knight bleeds real blood, sweat and tears on the page. Guilt by Association is a four-bagger for Clark and her many new fans will eagerly await her next step up to the plate.” David Baldacci

“Readers will want to see a lot more of Knight, who combines strength of character and compassion with all-too-human foibles.” Publishers Weekly

“There’s a new voice in L.A. crime fiction…. The debut novel from Marcia Clark (yes, that one) stars Rachel Knight, a sassy, workaholic deputy district attorney-remind you of anyone?-whose crack detective skills solve two violent cases…. the plot races along, and Clark adds just enough smart lawyer talk to keep us edified. It’s sure to satisfy Law & Order fans.” Los Angeles Magazine’s Wendy Witherspoon

Stieg Larsson – The Man Who Left Too Soon

If you read a lot, it has been impossible to miss Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy in bookstores – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. Most publishing industry pundits would never have believed that a trilogy of crime novels written by a Swedish journalist could dominate the American bestseller lists.

Sadly, as many know, Larsson never had a chance to enjoy his success. He died at the age of 50 before the first book was published.

For those curious about Larrson, the man behind the Millennium Trilogy, two recent books attempt to define the man.

The Man Who Left Too Soon: The Biography of Stieg Larsson by Barry Forshaw examines the Larsson that readers never had a chance to meet. According Forshaw’s biography, Larrson was a workaholic: a political activist, photographer, graphic designer, a respected journalist, and the editor of numerous science fiction magazines. Larrson wrote his now famous crime novels at night to relax.

Stieg Larsson – Our Days in Stockholm is a memoir written Kurdo Baksi – a close friend, writer, and colleague of Larsson.

From Publisher Weekly’s review:

For anyone who devoured the Millennium trilogy, this heartfelt memoir adds more to Larsson’s background. Baksi, who appears in the trilogy as himself, was a good friend and co-worker of Larsson’s for more than 10 years. So shattering was Larsson’s sudden death, it took Baksi “almost five years of mourning” before he could begin writing about Larsson. There is no doubting Larsson’s talent as a writer of thrilling and complex fiction. But Baksi’s intention in this informative piece is ensuring that a vital aspect of Larsson’s personality not be forgotten: “For most of us he was a tireless hero in the fight against racism–there was no battle for democracy and equality that he was unwilling to take part in.”

via To Be Read – Stieg Larsson – The Man Who Left Too Soon.

Monumental trilogy of the American civil-rights movement

If you’ve never read any of Taylor Branch’s three volume social history of the American civil-rights movement, now might be the time.

Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63, At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68, and Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 are award-winning, exhaustive histories of Martin Luther King Jr. and the momentous battle for civil rights for African-Americans.

The first book, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63, won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Reviews of Parting the Waters, include:

“Epic in scope, often startling in its judgments and revelations, this gripping narrative mingles biography and history as it moves from the founding in 1867 of the First Baptist Church in Alabama, where King’s movement took hold, to John Kennedy’s assassination.” Publishers Weekly

“A tour de force of research and synthesis, richer than any extant King biography or civil rights history, this will be the measure of all books to come.” Library Journal

via To Be Read – Monumental trilogy of the American civil-rights movement.

Self-Portrait With Turtles: A Memoir by David M. Carroll

Some people take years to figure out their passion. Luckily, David Carroll is not someone who took years to figure out his life’s calling. When he was eight years old, Carroll discovered turtles and his life’s passion – or obsession – began.

In Self-Portrait With Turtles: A Memoir, Carroll recounts his lifelong fascination and study of turtles. Regardless of your specific interest in turtles or nature, Carroll’s memoir is well-written and engaging.

In 2006, Carroll won a MacArthur “genius” award for his work as a writer, artist and naturalist.

Reviews of Self-Portrait With Turtles: A Memoir include:

Carroll has now been observing turtles for 50 years, and although he laments that their habitats are often lost to development, he continues to find them everywhere. In an especially touching final chapter, he tells of following one particular spotted turtle for 18 years and finally succeeding in observing her annual nesting ritual. Unlike his earlier book, The Year of the Turtle, this is not a natural history of turtles but rather a meditation on the author’s life as a naturalist and a paean to the intriguing creatures that lured him to that calling. Illus. by the author. — Publishers Weekly

In a wonderful blend of natural history, memoir, and drawings, the author leads us through his life and how it has been shaped by his love of nature and turtles. This beautifully illustrated memoir will be sought out by lovers of good nature writing. –Booklist

via To Be Read – Self-Portrait with Turtles: A Memoir.