Listen to This!

If you have the money for gas, we have the audio books to make that road trip enjoyable. These are just a few of the 35 new titles that arrived in June:

Up Till Now: [the autobiography] by William Shatner

Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber.

Resolution by Robert B. Parker.

The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich.

Phantom Prey by John Sandford.

Odd Hours by Dean Koontz.

Me of Little Faith by Lewis Black.

The Front by Patricia Cornwell.

Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich.

Executive Privilege by Phillip Margolin.

New Fees

A few changes will be coming to the Library with the start of the new fiscal year.

A non- resident card will be $150 per year; $80 half-year.
A senior non- resident card will be $100 per year; $55 half-year.
A student card will be $40.

Overdue fines are remaining $.25 a day but maximum fine you can accrue is increasing to $10.00 per item.
Overdue fines for DVDs will be $1.00 per day, up to the cost of the item.

Public printing will be $.15 per page.

Exam Proctoring will incur a $15 fee.

Meeting room charges (per use, not per hour)
Trustees Room: $10 for non-profits; $20 for profits.
Lecture Hall: $30 for non-profits; $60 for profits.

One Stung, Twice Shy?

James Frey became notorious when it was revealed his memoir, A Million Little Pieces, contained many fraudulent passages. The backlash was significant enough for his latest book Bright Shiny Morning to open with this disclaimer, “Nothing in this book should be considered accurate or reliable”. Does that really need to be stated when the book is marketed as fiction?

Jazz Age Summer

One summer I decided to read everything I could get my hands on by F. Scott Fitzgerald. As his lyrical stories percolated through my thoughts, I found myself longing for a Gin Rickey and Jazz tunes. Images of frivolous young flappers and intense young men danced through my head in those hot summer months. Some people expressed their feeling that Fitzgerald was much too depressing to read in massive quantities. I enjoyed the feeling of being immersed in another time. I can’t claim to have read all of F. Scott’s stories; maybe some other long, lazy summer I will attempt it.

Have you ever tried to read the entire body of an author's work? Did you enjoy it?

Cover Art

My vote for the most beautiful book jacket of the month goes to Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs. It is so appealing you have to pick it up to find out what the story will be about.

From the Publisher:

Shortly before turning the big 5-0, boisterous party planner and Cooking with Gusto!
personality Augusta "Gus" Simpson finds herself planning a birthday party she'd rather not—her own. She's getting tired of being the hostess, the mother hen, the woman who has to plan her own birthday party. What she needs is time on her own with enough distance to give her loved ones the ingredients to put together successful lives without her.

Assisted by a handsome up-and-coming chef, Oliver, Gus invites a select group to take an on-air cooking class. But instead of just preaching to the foodie masses, she will teach regular people how to make rich, sensuous meals—real people making real food. Gus decides to bring a vibrant cast of friends and family on the program: Sabrina, her fickle daughter; Troy, Sabrina's ex-husband; Anna, Gus's timid neighbor; and Carmen, Gus's pompous and beautiful competitor at the Cooking Channel. And when she begins to have more than collegial feelings for her sous-chef, Gus realizes that she might be able to rejuvenate not just her professional life, but her personal life as well. . . .

What's Cooking

Fans of Anthony Bourdain, rejoice! The bad boy of celebrity chefs has signed a deal to write three more books. The first book, Cooks, is a sequel to Kitchen Confidential. The second book is unexpectedly a crime novel, and the third book will relate his experiences living with his family in a Vietnamese village for a year. The bad news? Cooks isn’t due out until October 2009.

Books Beget Books

The Friends of the Library's booksale area, previously tucked into one tiny corner near the Adult Circulation Desk, was expanded greatly in late January. Like-new hardcovers and paperbacks are now selling briskly in their new spot near the public Internet computers for $1 to $3 apiece.
What's been especially interesting about alloting a bigger selling area for donated books is the correspondingly large increase in book donations from the public! Not only are the Friends selling more, they're getting a much larger supply of stock to display. Books for sale, it seems, beget more books for sale! We're very grateful for the public's donation of their unwanted books, videos, DVDs, tapes, etc. and we wanted you to know that the Friends' profits from the sale are being directed into new carpeting for the library! Along with a most generous gift of $10,000 from Dover resident E.J. Bleiler, the Friends have committed $5,000 (mostly from the sale of books) to this project as well.

Back on December 5, 2006, I blogged about a company called GotBooks who was making money by offering free pick-up of your unwanted books. I cautioned against it and urged you to donate your items to the library instead. On May 17, Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam wrote about GotBooks as well, clearly identifying the company as a profit-maker not a charity.

Thank you all for your continued donations and your purchases. I guess it really is true that one man's junk is another's treasure! Stealing from the "swords into ploughshares" analogy, let's keep turning "Books into Broadloom"!

Sincerely Yours

In all the years I’ve worked at the library, I’ve seen probably hundreds of self help books. Like the ever-present dieting/nutritional books, there are many that seem to me to offer some good advice and techniques. There are some I found rather strange or even objectionable (The Total Woman by Marabel Morgan being the most memorable title). Recently I took a look at The Church of 80% Sincerity by David Roche and I was positively tickled with it!

There is, of course, no real church involved here. When Mr. Roche began to talk about his facial disfigurement as a speaker/performer, he began to stop pretending he was normal. But being raised a Roman Catholic in the 50’s, he felt he “needed an institution with rules to tell me how to behave and dogma to tell me what to believe.” So he made it up – the church of choice for recovering perfectionists.

The principle, as explained by “the beloved founder” of the church, is that 80% Sincerity is “as good as it gets (Especially in an election year). You can be 80 percent sincere 100 percent of the time, or 100 percent sincere 80 percent of the time.”

This book is funny… This book is short… I won’t call this book inspiring…because that would imply that the author wants you to go out and do something different/better/whatever. He doesn’t.

JM

If I had the time...

Brand-new non-fiction I'd read...if I had the time:

Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You by Sam Gosling.
How we use our personal, home and work spaces to project, or protect, our identities through "psychological footprints" and "behavioral residue" found in our cars, our tattoos, our living rooms, our MP3 playlists, our blogs (!) and even in the books we read! Your possessions and their ambiance say a lot about you...find out what!

The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes---and Why by Amanda Ripley.
Examines how humans function under duress and identifies common traits among survivors of shipwrecks, fires, tsunamis and other natural disasters. Your "stage of emotional response"---denial, delay, risk, fear, panic, paralysis, or heroism---denotes how you'll fare. The author also gives several tips on how to boost your own odds. Be ready!

Second Banana Books

We have noticed a trend lately of secondary characters so intriguing that they deserve a book of their own. The book that started our discussion was John Sandford’s Dark of the Moon which showcases Virgil Flowers. Frankly, I had gotten a little tired of Sandford’s main character, Lucas Davenport, who has gotten a little too full of himself. It’s nice to see Sandford take a risk with a different character and the result is a tightly plotted action packed mystery with interesting characters. I hope we will be reading a lot more of Virgil Flowers.

Another author who shares characters between some novels is Mary Kay Andrews. I can’t get enough of her quirky and funny southern women so it’s a delight to see them popping up in books sometimes as a main character, or a supporting character. Who could resist names like BeBe Loudermilk and Weezie Foley?

In an interesting twist on this idea, two authors have teamed up together and have their series characters working together. Philip R. Craig’s J.W. Jackson and William Tappley’s Brady Coyne costar in three novels, the last being Third Strike.

Do you have a favorite author who has done this? Tell us about it!

Free Summer Movie Series

The Dover Public Library will be hosting a Monday Afternoon Movie Series beginning this Mon., June 9 at 3:00. The movies are all suitable for families, and are either rated G or PG. We hope you take advantage of this free entertainment, and feel free to BYOP (bring your own popcorn). Call the library at 603-516-6050 to find out what movies are scheduled. Hope to see you there!

Game On @ Your Library

This year's grand prize for the Dover Public Library's Teen Summer Reading Program is a wii game console. We (no pun intended) are very excited about this and hope it draws in lots of local teens to the library. Of course, before the planning for the program I had heard of the wii system--who hadn't with the coverage it has received in the media. Anyhow, I still needed help in figuring out what I needed to buy and where (they are still not easy to get your hands on). After figuring out what I needed and tracking one down, I went shopping. Let me tell you, I felt every one of my 15,218 days when I walked into that store--you could say I was like a fish out of water. So for my pain and suffering I want this to be an extremely successful year for the Teen Summer Reading Program. If you are a Dover Public Library teen (going into grades 6 through 12) come in and sign up starting on June 30th, or if you know an eligible teen please let them know. There will also be lots of prizes to be had throughout the program. Call the library for more information 603-516-6082.

Tuttle’s Red Barn Beautifies the Library

We would like to thank Tuttle’s Red Barn for their generous gift of three large barrels of flowering plants. They really brighten up the Children’s Room entry way!

Library Life

Darn! If only I'd thought to write down all the stories---memorable, comic, sometimes absurd and unsavory---that have happened in our public library over my 30 year career here! Well, two people, with more forethought and direction than I, have done just that. Take a look at:
Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don Borchert; and
Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian by Scott Douglas, two new irreverent, no-holds-barred books which delve into the daily life of a public librarian. I highly recommend them both to anyone contemplating a career in librarianship. And, if you've ever worked in a library, or even if you are just a frequent patron, you will recognize some of the incidents, anecdotes and mayhem. Library customers run the gamut of human society including the quirky and the criminal: anyone who thinks that only silver-haired, Harlequin-reading ladies visit our stacks is woefully mistaken! To be a librarian these days, you also need to be a part-time counselor, social worker, computer guru, mental health professional and babysitter and Borchert and Douglas capture "our world" with wit, warmth, humor and some occasional profanity!

Titles so intriguing that I want to read the book

Clotilde’s Edible Adventure in Paris by Clotilde Dusolier

Edward Trencom’s Nose: a novel of history, dark intrigue, and cheese by Giles Milton
The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked by David Benjamin

Are You in Good Spirits?

Good Spirits: recipes, revelations, refreshments, and romance shaken and served with a twist by A.J. Rathbun.

Is there anything more decadent and yet quaintly old fashioned than sipping an ice cold martini on a hot summer night? This is THE book for the aspiring mix-ologist who doesn’t want to just throw some gin in a glass and be done with it but who wants to learn to mix the perfectly elegant cocktail and then recount its illustrious, scandalous, or just plain odd history to her (or his) enraptured guests. Filled to the brim (no pun intended) with “imbibement” trivia, your friends will be as impressed with your mixing skills as they are with your knowledge all things liquor related. On the downside, be prepared to spend, spend, spend as these gorgeous, frosty libations require the best and usually most expensive ingredients (like that lovely blue gin…ahhh …but I digress). They also require the perfect glasses, the perfect swizzle sticks, the perfect coasters, and quite possibly, the perfect little black dress and shoes.
BP-W

The Shadow Year

I just finished Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford. It takes place in the mid sixties and follows the adventures of a nameless boy and his brother who are trying to cope with an alcoholic mom, a father who has to work too much to support his family, and all the usual school age traumas. Throw into the mix a mysterious prowler, a school mate who has vanished, neighbors who suddenly die, an insane librarian, some supernatural events, and you have an involving, nostalgic novel that is hard to put down. Enjoy a little taste of Ford’s atmospheric story telling.

The lingering twilight finally breathed its last, and that first moment of night was like a gunshot at the start of a race. Instantly, frantic kids in costumes streamed from lit houses, beginning their rounds, not to return until they had reached the farthest place they could and still remember how to get home.

We traveled door-to door around the block, joining with other groups of kids, splitting away and later being joined by others. Franky Conrad, dressed like a swami, with a bath towel around his head, eyeliner darkening his eyes, and a long purple robe, walked with us for a dozen houses. The Farley girls were angels or princesses, I couldn’t tell which, but their costumes, made from flowing white material, glowed in the dark. President Henry Mason was dresses in his Communion suit, a button on the lapel that said VOTE FOR HENRY, and his sisters were ghosts with sheets over their heads. Reggie Bishop was a robot, wrapped in silver foil, wearing a hat with a lightbulb sticking out the top that went on and off without a switch, and Chris Hackett wore his father’s army helmet and told us how his dad had gotten hand-grenade shrapnel in his ass and lost three fingers in Korea.

We worked the trick-or-treat with dedication that rivaled our father’s for his three jobs, systematically moving up one side of the street and then down the other. Our pillowcases filled with candy. Old Lady Restuccio gave out Chinese hand-cuffs, a kind of tube woven from colored paper strips. You stuck a finger in each side and then couldn’t pull them out. That’s how we lost Franky Conrad. He was left behind, standing on Mrs. Restuccio’s lawn, unable to figure out that you just had to twist your fingers to free them. The slow, the hobbled, the weak—were all left in our wake as we blitzkrieged Willow Avenue and moved on to Cuthbert.

If I had the time...

New non-fiction titles in the library's Children's Room collection that I would read if I had more time:

• King George: What was his Problem? : Everything your schoolbooks didn't tell you about the American Revolution by Steve Sheinkin
  After years of writing American history textbooks, Steve Sheinkin uses all the amazing stories and quotes that he collected in his research (that textbook editors would never let him use) to write this funny but entirely true account of the American Revolution that kids (and adults) will actually want to read!
  



• Encyclopedia Horrifica: The Terrifying Truth! About Vampires, Ghosts, Monsters, and More by Joshua Gee
  This quote on the back cover had me wishing for the time to read every frightening page: "Bursting with evidence--special investigations, exclusive interviews, rare images, and chilling eyewitness accounts--ENCYCLOPEDIA HORRIFICA proves that the truth is not only stranger than fiction...it's also a lot scarier!".
  



• The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming by Laurie David and Cambria Gordon
  Why global warming happens, the ways it affects our planet, and how we can work together to stop it are topics dicussed in easy to understand language and catchy chapter titles such as "It's getting hot in here, Weird wacky weather, and Extinction stinks".

Do you ChaCha?

I recently read about a new free service for cellphone users who need quick answers to simple questions. It's called ChaCha (800-2chacha or 800-224-2242). Supposedly you just state your question and in a few minutes you'll get your answer via a text message. All for free! An article in the Wall Street Journal (April 24) said that their test of the service correctly answered queries such as: the name of the winning pitcher in last night's Red Sox game...the weekend forecast for Boston...the date of death of Abigail Adams...the cast members of "Brothers & Sisters"...Peyton Manning's salary...the sodium content of a McDonald's quarter pounder...and a Revolutionary War date. Your question is routed to one of 10,000 hired "guides" who look up the answer on the Web (they're paid $.20 per answer) and reply back. Speed and accuracy can vary but you can always text back for clarification or more information. ChaCha requires no registration and claims to work with most cellphone carriers. The only fee may come from your carrier if you're paying for minutes or text messages.
Has anyone out there tried this?
Of course, it's only natural that I also remind you that your library also supplies a free question-answering service (603-516-6082) and you can talk to a real, live human being and a professional librarian at that! You can even ask complex, multipart questions and we won't blink an eye! But I also believe that ChaCha has a place in our "search world", perhaps when the library is closed and you have that nagging question at 3am that's keeping you from going back to sleep!

An Evening of Poetry

These are the second category readers.