Library Notes week of March 9

Have you visited the library website lately? We have great things available to you. Homework help, automobile repair on-line. We also have a new page about the Library Book Club that meets here the 4th Wed. of the month. The page has a list of books they have read and discussed. Try out one of the titles you might not be familiar with.

Come by the Library and check out one of these new books.

The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan. Before there was Marley, there was a gleefully mischievous boy growing up in a devout Catholic home outside Detroit in the 1960s and '70s. Despite his loving parents' best efforts, John's attempts to meet their expectations failed spectacularly. Whether it was his disastrous first confession, the use of his hobby telescope to take in the bronzed Mrs. Selahowski sunbathing next door, the purloined swigs of sacramental wine, or, as he got older, the fumbled attempts to sneak contraband past his father and score with girls beneath his mother's vigilant radar.

Stronger After Stroke by Peter Levine. This book puts the power of recovery in the reader’s hands by providing easy instructions for reaching the highest possible level of healing. Written for stroke survivors, their caregivers, and their loved ones, the book presents a new approach that is startling in its simplicity: stroke survivors recover by using the same learning techniques that anyone uses to master anything. Basic concepts are covered, including repetition of task-specific movements, proper scheduling of practice, challenges at each stage of recovery, and setting goals and recognizing achievements.

American Rifle: a Biography by Alexander Rose. In this solid history, Rose explores the development of the rifle, such as how it evolved in American history to become an iconic symbol of freedom and how it developed as an effective military instrument as well as a private citizen's firearm. Drawing on numerous primary sources, from letters and journals of ordinary soldiers to the writings of inventors such as Samuel Colt, Rose traces the rise of the rifle from its original use as a hunting tool and a means of defense and protection to its eventual use as an offensive weapon in wars of conquest.

Library Notes Week of March 2

The Skagit Libraries are all participating in “Skagit County Reads One Book.” We are encouraging all adults to read Three Cups of Tea and for the kids we have Alex and the Amazing Lemonade Stand. There will be programs throughout the county centered around these two inspiring stories of how one person can make a difference. Multiple copies of both books will be distributed to libraries and schools throughout the county. Liz Scott will be at the Friends of the La Conner Library meeting, Monday, March 9, 9 a.m. at the Retirement Inn, 204 First Street, La Conner. Consider attending to hear the story of little Alex Scott.

Stop in to the library and see what is new. Here are a few of our latest arrivals.

Thai Die by Monica Ferris. Among the many souvenirs Betsy's friend Doris Valentine brings home from a Thailand vacation is a stone Buddha to be delivered to a St. Paul antiques dealer. When Doris discards the dirty cloth the Buddha was wrapped in, Betsy rescues the cloth, which turns out to be valuable silk more than 2,000 years old. Has Doris become an unwitting pawn in an international antiquities theft operation? After someone ransacks Doris's apartment and murders the antiques dealer, Sgt. Mike Malloy of the Excelsior police and civilian detective Betsy find themselves involved in a case more complicated than any needlework pattern she's ever attempted.

Cross Country by James Patterson. When the home of Alex Cross's oldest friend, Ellie Cox, is turned into the worst murder scene Alex has ever seen, the destruction leads him to believe that he's chasing a horrible new breed of killer. As Alex and his girlfriend, Brianna Stone, become entangled in the deadly Nigerian underworld of Washington D.C., what they discover is shocking: a stunningly organized gang of lethal teenagers headed by a powerful, diabolical man--the African warlord known as the Tiger. Just when the detectives think they're closing in on the elusive murderer, the Tiger disappears into thin air. Tracking him to Africa, Alex knows that he must follow. Alone.

The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith. Smith delivers yet another delightful installment to his Scotland Street series. This time out, he focuses mostly on the irrepressible Bertie Pollock, a precocious six-year-old whose mummy, Irene, forces him to play a saxophone, converse in Italian, do yoga and see Dr. Hugo Fairbairn, a psychotherapist who looks a lot like Bertie's baby brother, Ulysses. As Bertie struggles to accommodate his nutty mummy and new brother, another crisis explodes for artist Angus Lordie, whose beloved dog, Cyril, has been thrown in the pound for biting someone. Cyril is innocent, and Angus, with Bertie's assistance, sets out to rescue Cyril before he's put down.

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.