Have you ever wanted to learn a foreign language?  Whether you are travelling out of the country soon or just want  to communicate with your neighbors, our downloadable foreign language audiobooks include a wide selection of language learning programs.  Learn Hawaiian, Arabic, Italian, Spanish and many more languages at home, in your car, or on a plane.  Our foreign language study titles include beginner lessons through advanced as well as vocabulary builders. 

We also offer English language titles including Easy American Idioms, an audiobook designed to help familiarize non-English speakers with some of our more popular but extremely confusing phrases like "I'm counting on you" and "it slipped my mind."

Check them out on our "Media Downloads" page!  As always, if you can't find a title or a language that you are interested in, please send us a note!

To checkout our downloadable audiobooks, music and videos, click on “Media Downloads” from our main page.

Tags: Reviews, languages

Fans of Shelfari, a social networking site for booklovers, may be interested in the recent announcement that it is being acquired by Amazon.com. While terms of the deal were not revealed, the announcement on the company's blog did state that the team looks forward to growing its community and creating new tools. Amazon.com helped fund Shelfari and already owns a portion of the site, which allows members to stock virtual bookshelves and make friends with fellow bookworms. Interested in joining a social networking site that revolves around books? Check out Shelfari, LibraryThing, and GoodReads, as well as others we listed in Bookish Social Networking. And stay tuned for an upcoming round-up of sites, complete with features and highlights!

Ever wonder who owns the rights to works of deceased authors? In a recent case, a federal appeals court overturned a 2006 ruling that had awarded John Steinbeck’s son and granddaughter the rights to 10 of his earlier works. As the AP reports, the new ruling reversed the decision and returned the rights to Penguin Group Inc. (Steinbeck’s publisher) and the heirs of his widow, Elaine, who died in 2003.

Ready for a tale as long and layered as Steinbeck's East of Eden? In 2004, Steinbeck’s son and granddaughter informed Penguin they were terminating its rights from the contracts signed in the 1930s. According to the AP, they cited federal law that aims to prevent publishers from taking advantage of authors who sign copyright agreements early in their careers, before they have enough success to demand better terms. In turn, Penguin sued; a judge ruled that the son and granddaughter should be able to renegotiate a publishing contract Steinbeck signed in 1938.

However, in the most recent case, a judge overturned this ruling and returned the rights back to Penguin and Elaine’s heirs. In 1994, Steinbeck’s now-deceased third wife, Elaine, renegotiated his original contract with the publishing house, adding some earlier works. When Elaine died, she left her copyright interests to her children and grandchildren from a previous marriage, excluding Steinbeck’s two sons and their heirs. Per the 1994 agreement and the successful appeal, Penguin will now return to publishing the titles, which includes The Red Pony; Tortilla Flat; Of Mice and Men (both the novella and play); and The Grapes of Wrath.

Do you agree with the most recent ruling? Let us know who you think should hold the rights to works of deceased writers by leaving your opinion in the Feedback section.

Tags: Copyrights

 Ocean : The World’s Last Wilderness Revealed / American Museum of Natural History

I LOVE big, new, glossy, non-fiction books—the kind that are so big you’d most definitely knock someone out with if you whacked them with it (not recommended).  Books that you can lose yourself for hours reading up on interesting facts about a topic (recommended).  No one does this better than Dorling Kindersley (better known by their red logo of an open book with DK on the pages). 

The DK people ensured my eternal devotion when I was a kid in elementary school with their books on everything from Ancient Greece to Jungle Animals.  They have succeeded in keeping me as a lifetime fan with their “grown-up” books. 

My new favorite is Ocean.  Featuring page after page (512 to be exact) of beautiful (and sometimes scary) photos of giant clams, starfish, whales, sea lions, coral reefs, and everything in between, this book is engaging, fascinating, and with captions for every picture, informative.  It covers anything that anyone could possibly want to know about the ocean, from the evolution of the ocean, to costal landscapes, to whale migrations, to the relationship between oceans and climate. 

I want this book.  We have this book.  Come get this book.  Just make sure you have some time to pour over it.  You’ll be hooked on DK, too.  I promise. 

 Call Number: 551.46 Oc2d

Tags: Reviews

The New York Times recently published an article examining teens and the difference, if any, between reading printed books and online content. As writer Motoko Rich states, some point a finger of blame at the Internet in regards to declining and stagnated standardized reading scores. Rich succinctly profiles a few young adults and their reading habits, all the while bringing several interesting points to light. Below are a couple of bites for you to chew on. Agree? Disagree? Have an opinion not presented in the article? Share it with us by clicking on “Feedback”

• "Some Web evangelists say children should be evaluated for their proficiency on the Internet just as they are tested on their print reading comprehension. Starting next year, some countries will participate in new international assessments of digital literacy, but the United States, for now, will not."
• "Some traditionalists warn that digital reading is the intellectual equivalent of empty calories. Often, they argue, writers on the Internet employ a cryptic argot that vexes teachers and parents. Zigzagging through a cornucopia of words, pictures, video and sounds, they say, distracts more than strengthens readers. And many youths spend most of their time on the Internet playing games or sending instant messages, activities that involve minimal reading at best."