Hilary Mantel has been awarded England's highest literary honor for the second time! Mantel is now the first woman to receive the Man Booker Prize twice. She won in 2009 for her novel, Wolf Hall, and now with Bring Up the Bodies! Read about it here. 

Not to be outdone, Louise Penny also won her third literary prize in a row, the Anthony Award for Best Novel again with A Trick of the Light! Previously, she won in 2011 for Bury Your Dead and in 2010 for The Brutal Telling. Read about it here.

Other recent award announcements:

Catriona McPherson won the Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery Macavity Award with Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains! Read about it here.

Peter James won the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel with  Dead Man's Grip! Read about it here.

Michael Wiley won the Shamus Award for Best Hardcover P.I. Novel with A Bad Night's Sleep. See the rest of the winners here.   

Charles Cumming won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award with  A Foreign Country! Read about it here.

Did you know that some DVD's are released in two formats: Rental and Retail? Generally, rental versions are released first, but they do not have the bonus features that are included in the retail ones, such as commentaries, deleted scenes, languages, and closed captioning. Because they have different information, rental and retail DVD's appear as separate listings in the catalog. Also, the cover image of retail versions are often not available, but this doesn't mean it's not the same movie.  

For example, a search for Magic Mike comes up with two listings. So which one do you put a hold on?

First, check if Amherst owns a copy by looking at "Copies in Amherst." If it says "0 (of 1)," that means Amherst does own it, but it is checked out. If it says "0 (of 0)," then our library does not own a copy. It is best to place a hold on a DVD we own, because you will most likely get the item faster.  

To see exactly how many copies are available of a particular version, look at "Copies in All Libraries." Again, the first number indicates how many copies are checked in at all the libraries, and the second number is the total number owned by the consortium.  

Hint: Don't be deceived by the cover image!

For Magic Mike, the record without the photo, the retail version, is the one that the Amherst library owns and there are 6 more copies in the system. The one with the photo is the rental version, and only has 2 copies available, none of which belong to Amherst.  

  It's tempting to put your hold on the one with the cover image, but sometimes you have to scroll down the page to find the better option.

If you have any questions about placing holds, just ask. We're happy to help you get what you want as quickly as possible!

If you want to see if your holds are on the right record, here's a list of recent DVD's that have rental and retail copies:  

Magic Mike 

Rock of ages 

Dark Knight Rises 

Dark Shadows 

Prometheus 

Amherst Town Library