Library Notes Week of February 9

Feb. 12, 2009 is the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. This would be a great time to read up on Lincoln’s life or explore other topics such as freedom, democracy and equality of opportunity. Lincoln inspired many people including poets like Walt Whitman and Carl Sandburg. If you are interested in Lincoln inspired poems check out http://www.abrahamlincoln200.org/ If you want to read his Gettysburg Address or find out more about his life we have books on him and remember we have the World Book on-line available through the homework page of our website http://www.lclib.lib.wa.us/. If you don’t have the password give us a call.

If you enjoy biographies, here are some of our newest ones.

Call Me Ted by Ted Turner. An innovative entrepreneur, outspoken nonconformist, and groundbreaking philanthropist, Ted Turner is truly a living legend, and now, for the first time, he reveals his personal story. From his difficult childhood to the successful launch of his media empire to the catastrophic AOL/Time Warner deal, Turner spares no details or feelings and takes the reader along on a wild and sometimes bumpy ride.

Amarcord: Marcella Remembers by Marciella Hazan. In an evocative memoir, she recounts her life from childhood to Florida Gulf Coast retirement. Hazan spent her earliest years on another coast, in Cesenatico, a village on the Adriatic; during WWII the family moved to a lake in the mountains between Venice and Milan. Fresh out of the university, she taught college math and science and met a young man who had returned to his Italian homeland after more than a decade in America. He loved food, and his worldliness and sophistication made a good match for the comparatively earthbound author.

Tears of the Desert by Halima Bashir.
Writing with BBC correspondent Lewis (Slave), Bashir, a physician and refugee living in London, offers a vivid personal portrait of life in the Darfur region of Sudan before the catastrophe. Doted on by her father, who bucked tradition to give his daughter an education, and feisty grandmother, who bequeathed a fierce independence, Bashir grew up in the vibrant culture of a close-knit Darfur village. She anticipated a bright future after medical school, but tensions between Sudan's Arab-dominated Islamist dictatorship and black African communities like her Zaghawa tribe finally exploded into conflict.

Library Notes for the week of February 2

Are you aware of all the things our Friends of the Library do for our Library? They raise money to help us purchase books, furniture, even equipment that we would otherwise be unable to buy with our budget. If you are around on the third Monday of the month stop in and visit their meeting. The meeting starts at 9 a.m. with a social time, 9:30 for the program followed by a brief business meeting. They meet at the Retirement Inn. We appreciate all the things our Friends of the Library do for us. The library cannot have enough Friends—consider joining them!

We have lots of new books. Why not check out one of these:

Rachel’s Secret by B J Hoff. When the wounded Irish American riverboat captain, Jeremiah Gant, bursts into the rural Amish setting of Riverhaven, he brings chaos and conflict to the community―especially for young widow, Rachel Brenneman. The unwelcome “outsider” needs a safe place to recuperate before continuing his secret role as an Underground Railroad conductor. Neither he nor Rachel is prepared for the forbidden love that threatens to endanger a man’s mission, a woman’s heart, and a way of life for an entire people.

Knit Two by Kate Jacobs. Drawn together by the sense of family the club has created, the knitters rely on one another as they struggle with new challenges: for Catherine, finding love after divorce; for Darwin, the hope for a family; for Lucie, being both a single mom and a caregiver for her elderly mother; and for seventy something Anita, a proposal of marriage from her sweetheart, Marty, that provokes the objections of her grown children.

Crossroads by Belva Plain. Plain's latest book focuses on two women—privileged but plain Gwen Wright and beautiful but poor Jewel Fairchild. Their lives occasionally intersect, and eventually Jewel marries a wealthy man and discovers that money can't buy happiness. Gwen, meanwhile, marries a poor but honest man—but she still finds herself drawn to Jewel's husband, and the foursome is soon tangled in a web of deceit.

Library Notes for the week of January 5

Last year we had a great time providing a reading program for adults. Why should the kids have all the fun with their Summer Reading Program? Thanks to our partners—Friends of the Library and Next Chapter Bookstore—we will be running the Winter Reading Program from January 15-March 31. Pick up a reading record the week of January 12. After you finish reading three books, bring it in for a free “literary latte” and a chance to win a book lover’s basket of great local products.

Here are a few books from our new book shelf to get you started toward that free latte.

Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs. Chicago cartoonist Sarah Moon tackles life's real issues with a healthy dose of sharp wit in her syndicated comic strip Just Breathe. As Sarah's cartoon alter ego, Shirl, undergoes artificial insemination, her situation begins to mirror Sarah's own difficult attempts to conceive. However, Sarah's dreams of the future did not include her husband's infidelity: snag number two in Sarah's so-called perfect life.

Death Swatch by Laura Childs. Jekyl Hardy is hosting a Mardi Gras party in his French Quarter apartment, amid Zydeco rhythms and popping champagne corks. On a wild night like this, anything can happen. The guests—including scrapbook-store owner Carmela Bertrand—never imagine it will be murder. But as the evening progresses, Jekyl’s neighbor, float designer Archie Baudier, is found on the balcony choked to death with a barbed wire garrote. Buried up to her neck in strange clues, Carmela is sure of only one thing: whoever killed Archie is now following her.

The Red Scarf by Kate Furnivall. Davinsky Labor Camp, Siberia, 1933: Only two things in this wretched place keep Sofia from giving up hope: the prospect of freedom, and the stories told by her friend and fellow prisoner Anna, of a charmed childhood in Petrograd, and her fervent girlhood love for a passionate revolutionary named Vasily.

Library Notes week of December 29

What wild weather we have been having!! Many of you know I moved from Central Washington three years ago to avoid snowy weather. Seems it happens here once in awhile. It may have been confusing if you tried to get to the library during the snow. Our policy here is to close when the La Conner School District closes due to bad weather. With most of our staff from areas outside La Conner it helps cut down on travel when the roads are bad. We also don’t want you risking life and limb to return that book or video. Don’t worry if you are late, we totally understand.

When you get out you might want to check out one of these new books.

Night of Thunder by Stephen Hunter. Nikki Swagger is seriously injured when a hit man runs her car off the road in Tennessee hill country. Despite Swagger's fears that the legion of enemies he's made over the years are responsible for the attack, the former marine leaves Nikki vulnerable to another attempt on her life in the hospital where she's being treated—an attempt foiled only by chance in the nick of time.

The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters by Lorraine Lopez. Lopez's engaging novel chronicles how four sisters' lives are shaped by the early loss of their mother and their belief that they were granted magical abilities upon the death of an enigmatic loved one.

Tsar by Ted Bell. Alex Hawke fights the leaders of a new and invigorated Russia, where Vladimir Putin has been locked up in a lethal prison built over a massive radioactive waste site. Evil mastermind Count Ivan Korsakov (aka the Dark Rider) is determined to return Mother Russia to her rightful place in the world order by reacquiring her former colonies, after which he intends to conquer Europe and reign as the new tsar. The only thing standing in his way is Hawke, who is more than up to the task of thwarting those who try to take over the globe.

Library Notes week of November 24

As we approach Thanksgiving, you might consider the myth of the pumpkin pie: “Early American settlers of Plimoth Plantation (1620-1692), the first permanent European settlement in southern New England, might have made pumpkin pies (of sorts) by making stewed pumpkins or by filling a hollowed out shell with milk, honey and spices, and then baking it in hot ashes. An actual present-day pumpkin pie with crust is a myth, as ovens to bake pies were not available in the colony at that stage”. Taken from the website, Whats Cooking America. (http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/PieHistory/PumpkinPie.htm) Even if it wasn’t a pie then, I plan to enjoy my pumpkin as a pie this year.

Stop in and check out our new books. Maybe one of these will be just the thing to sit and enjoy after your Thanksgiving dinner.

A Most Wanted Man by John LeCarre. When boxer Melik Oktay and his mother, both Turkish Muslims living in Hamburg, take in a street person calling himself Issa they set off a chain of events implicating intelligence agencies from three countries.
Heat Lightning by John Sandford. It’s a hot, humid summer night in Minnesota, and Flowers is in bed with one of his ex-wives when the phone rings. It’s Lucas Davenport. There’s a body in Stillwater—two shots to the head, found near a veteran’s memorial. And the victim has a lemon in his mouth. Exactly like the body they found last week.

Final Justice by Fern Michaels. The Sisterhood -- Myra, Annie, Alexis, Yoko, Nikki, and Isabelle -- have risked everything in the name of justice, including their own freedom. Their most recent mission promises to reward them with the ultimate prize -- a presidential pardon and a chance to leave their enforced exile. But as they've learned too many times before, life doesn't always turn out as planned.

Library Notes week of November 3

If you come in you will notice more changes. We are taking some of the paperbacks that are part of a series and placing them on the main shelves next to the rest of the books in the series. We have a new DVD spinner so the paperbacks have moved into the old metal spinner the DVDs and VHS tapes have occupied. We kept a small collection of VHS tapes which are on a bookshelf by the window. If you have trouble finding things, be sure to ask—we want you to find what you are looking for.

Check the new book shelves when you are in. Here are a few new titles you may find interesting.

Exit Music by Ian Rankin. It's late in the fall in Edinburgh and late in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he is simply trying to tie up some loose ends before his retirement, a new case lands on his desk: a dissident Russian poet has been murdered in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. Rebus discovers that an elite delegation of Russian businessmen is in town, looking to expand its interests. And as Rebus's investigation gains ground, someone brutally assaults a local gangster with whom he has a long history.

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. Sittenfeld tracks the life of bookish, naïve Alice Lindgren and the trajectory that lands her in the White House as first lady. Charlie Blackwell, her boyishly charming rake of a husband, whose background of Ivy League privilege, penchant for booze and partying, contempt for the news and habit of making flubs when speaking off the cuff, bears more than a passing resemblance to the current president.

Hot Mahogany by Stuart Woods. One night at Elaine’s, Stone Barrington meets Barton Cabot, older brother of his sometime ally, CIA boss Lance Cabot. Barton’s career in army intelligence is even more top secret than his brother’s, but he’s suffering from amnesia following a random act of violence. Amnesia is a dangerous thing in a man whose memory is chockfull of state secrets, so Lance hires Stone to watch Barton’s back.

Library Notes for the week of October 6

So many people have asked about beginning computer classes that we are running another series in November. These are designed for the very beginner with little or no experience with the computer. If you are interested call or stop by to sign up.

When you come in be sure to look at the new book shelf for these new titles.

A Spoonful of Poison by M.C. Beaton. When elderly Mrs. Andrews jumps to her death off the tower of Saint Odo the Severe during a church charity event in the Cotswolds village of Comfrey Magna, LSD-laced jam proves to be the cause. Agatha Raisin joins the local authorities in the investigation, which focuses on the six women who contributed jam to the church fete, including wealthy Sybilla Triast-Perkins. Agatha and Toni Gilmour, her young detective-in-training, soon find unmasking the lethal jam poisoner complicated by Sybilla's sudden suicide and a murder connected to the theft of the fete's proceeds.

Hounded to Death by Rita Mae Brown. Sister is busy showing her hounds in the hunting off-season. Then calamity strikes. At the Mid-America Hound Show in Kentucky, an unpopular master is shot dead with rat shot (aka bird shot). Back home in Virginia, a member of Sister's Jefferson Hunt Club disappears. When a veterinarian, despondent over her divorce, apparently commits suicide, Sister decides she can no longer leave matters to the police.

Blood Memory by Margaret Coel. After an attempt on her life, Catherine realizes she was far from a random target when Arapaho elder Norman Whitehorse informs her that she's one of us. Adopted as a child and still unsure of her identity and heritage, Catherine begins to understand the deep connection she feels to her latest story, about the 1864 Indian massacre at Sand Creek. Whitehorse and Cheyenne leaders call for the tribes' further compensation for Sand Creek, but when Catherine starts digging, she realizes that there's more to the land fight than meets the eye, and the trail leads all the way to Washington.