Back to School

It’s back to school time and parents everywhere are preparing for the big day with shopping - for school clothes, lunch boxes and supplies.  I would like to recommend some of our books to help you prepare for the big day.  TheParent Backpack by ML Nichols is for parents of students Kindergarten through Grade 5.  The sub-title says it all “How to Support Your Child’s Education, End Homework Meltdowns, and Build Parent-Teacher Connections.”   You can find many other titles at the library including books on homeschooling, books to help you prepare for tests, information on tutoring (such as A Parent's Guide to Tutors and Tutoring by James Mendelsohn) and books on bullying.  We have books for adult learners as well such as The Adult Student’s Guide to Survival & Success by Al Siebert and Mary Karr.  This book will help you find money for college, get family support, take classes from home and more.  And if you’re interested in just reading about education in America I recommend Back to School: Why EveryoneDeserves a Second Chance at Education by Mike Rose and for fun I’d Like toApologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High by Tony Danza.  These books are on display right now in the Adult Department and we have plenty more.  Ask us to show you where they’re located in the library and be sure to stop by and check out the new Parent-Teacher collection in the Youth Department.  SG

One plus one of things going wrong!

Jojo Moyes new book, One Plus One, is a sympathetic story of a young single mom whose luck has run out. She is a likeable character who has lots of heart.Her husband has done a vanishing act, her teenage stepson is being bullied, and her math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that she can't afford to pay for. That's Jess's life in a nutshell-until an unexpected knight in shining armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess's knight turns out to be  Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages, maybe ever.
A good read for all you folks who like romance. ML

Dreams--Lost and Found

Kate is a grown woman now. She’s a recent widow, the mother of eight year old Devin. After being in mourning for about a year she is pushed by circumstances to do something drastic to reclaim control of her life. She packs her daughter into the car and takes a road trip to Suley, Georgia—to Lost Lake. It was at this odd little resort, run by her great aunt Eby that she enjoyed a magical summer. But, Lost Lake is not completely like she remembers. The resort has aged and Eby is considering selling it. Kate and Devin meet a host of misfit characters and manage to uncover some old secrets that help them make sense of their current situation. Lost Lake by Sarah Allen is part drama, part fairy tale but basically moving. DB

Happy Families

These lines in Lisa Jewell's new book The House We Grew Up In, perfectly set the stage for this story.
“They lived in a honey-colored house that sat hard up against the pavement of a picture-postcard Cotswolds village and stretched out beyond into three-quarters of an acre of rambling half-kempt gardens. Their mother was a beautiful hippy called Lorelei with long tangled hair and sparkling green eyes who treated her children like precious gems. Their father was a sweet gangly man called Colin, who still looked like a teenager with floppy hair and owlish round-framed glasses. They all attended the village school, they ate home-cooked meals together every night, their extended family was warm and clever, there was money for parties and new paddling pools, but not quite enough for foreign travel, but it didn’t matter, because they lived in paradise.”
This is a story of a family, but not that perfect family. The people in that perfect family gradually changed, as secrets, tragedy and mental illness visited them. Told from multiple points of view, we see the family struggle, grow and change. A mesmerizing read! ML

A Tasty Treat

Culinary journalist and former editor of Gourmet magazine, Ruth Reichl brings her formidable experience to Delicious!, her first foray into fiction. Billie Breslin is a young staffer at a fictional, soon-to-be-shuttered food magazine where she discovers a cache of wartime letters between a young girl and renowned chef James Beard. Peppered with descriptive passages highlighting both the food and environs of New York City, this title is recommended for readers who enjoyed works such as "The School of Essential Ingredients" by Erica Bauermeister or "The Year of Pleasures" by Elizabeth Berg.  HM

Stuff You Love

Wise Craft: Turning Thrift Store Finds, Fabric Scraps, andNatural Objects into Stuff You Love by Blair Stocker.  The title says it all for this book that is chock full of ideas on how to take old things and turn them into something new for your home.   Old jeans can be made into woven placemats or striped shirts cut into strips to create a beautiful lightweight summer quilt.  Pine cones and seedpods can be used to create a “forest walk tabletop garden” and my favorite is all the things you can do with the pages of books or even with the books themselves.  Each craft project uses a few simple items to create seasonally themed designs.  Be sure to check out the winter “hottie rice pillow” (looks super soothing) and the Halloween themed “zombie barbies” (really creepy)!  SG

Some of Nature's best...

If you are a nature lover, you will be delighted with Animal Architecture by Ingo Arndtand and Dr. Jurgen Tautz. This book showcases various nests, dens, and shells that are home to different creatures. You will learn that mice use their tails to weave, wasp nests are made out of masticated wood, and termite hills have an internal temperature of 86 degrees.  The color photographs offer an amazing look at some of the most magnificent structures on earth. There is also a section that shows the great lengths that went into capturing these wonderful pictures. Enjoy!  DB  

Body Beautiful

Usually, when a Hollywood star writes a book, one thinks it might be a vanity project, lots of pictures of said star and maybe some borderline crazy "information." So I was cynical when I opened up Cameron Diaz's book The Body Book: the law of hunger, the science of strength, and other ways to love your amazing body. I was pleasantly surprised! The book is organized into three segments: Nutrition, Fitness, and Mind. In each segment there are several chapters packed with information, both historical and practical. There are even citations in the back of the book that tell where the information came from.  This is truly an all purpose book to learn about your body and keep it healthy.
ML

It's in the cards

Alanis McLachlan is flabbergasted when her mother, a crafty con-woman, leaves her an inheritance. She is even more surprised to find out it is a tiny shop in Berdache, Arizona called The White Magic Five and Dime. What has her mother been up to and who has she wronged? Alanis finds herself intrigued by the circumstances surrounding her mother’s death. She begins to learn to read tarot cards in an attempt to solve the mystery.  The cast of characters include a strange teenage girl, a handsome cop and a threatening bail bondsman. TheWhite Magic Five and Dime by Steve Hockensmith and Lisa Falco is amusing, fast-paced, and definitely entertaining. DB