Author Archives: Staff

Halloween Prep

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a zombie ate my cupcakeBefore I start making fun of this general group of women, let me just say: I am one. This is one of those preemptive comments that makes readers nervous but I feel like it’s a necessary precaution.  I’m talking about the women (and men? Are there any?) who spend hours on Pinterest, Blogger, and other social perfect-ifying websites studying up on how to do things just exactly so. Like, for example, preparing the perfect Thanksgiving holiday {All table decorations must be handmade from cloth you’ve woven yourself, twigs you’ve snapped from family heirloom trees, and candles scented with your backyard’s crisp fall air}, or maybe creating a working carousel out of your advanced child’s leftover construction paper scraps which will, as a bonus, teach them about the ups and downs in life as their little paper animals swing up and dip low, along with your mood for crafting.

I’m exaggerating, but you know who I’m talking about. The people who want to whisk Martha Stewart into their living room and get one of her signature half smiles of semi-approval. I could also mention actual mommy-bloggers, but then I’d be breaking my promise of personal inclusion in “the group” as I’m not yet a mother. I keep waiting for the competitive nature of these online bloggers and pinners to build until some hilarious display of primal rage, like a virtual food fight, erupts–except instead of cafeteria fodder, they would throw organic, home-blended baby food.

As much fun as I may make, I too have a Pinterest with thousands of pretty pins waiting to be imperfectly replicated, and I follow my favorite blogs as religiously as my parents and grandparents read the newspaper. Pinterest andblogs can make for some unique inspiration, and they’re great creative outlets for writers. They offer up ideas for every aspect of life imaginable so we don’t have to think of them ourselves, thank goodness, and they’ve birthed an entire generation of people looking to do things on their own, which can’t possibly be a bad thing. So, for those of you who are looking to throw a great Halloween party from scratch, worthy of a hundred re-pins, CCPL has got your back! Browse our great selection of Halloween books and look to the pros for your crafting and decorating ideas. Also, check out the fun books available for download via Freading. There are categories like crafts&hobbies, house&home, and cooking. The book “A Zombie Ate My CupCake!” by Lily Vanilli might be my personal favorite for goulish, fun eats–and when your party goers eat them up without savoring your creative culinary brilliance first, we have books for that too.

Staff Summer Reading: Polygamy

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“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. “ First Amendment to the United States Constitution

chosen oneIn a land that values its freedoms and rights where do we draw the line? For the library staff’s summer reading program this year, we were able to read books on the topic of our choice. The topic I chose has recently been in the news quite a bit and tends to ruffle feathers: Polygamy.

The Chosen One by Carol Williams is a young adult fiction book that gives a realistic voice to thirteen-year-old Kyra. Kyra finds herself with two great forbidden loves- one for books the other for a boy her own age, Joshua. Kyra must make a heartbreaking choice that had me sitting just a few extra minutes to learn what happened next.

Sister Wife by Shelley Hrdlitschka is a unique look at beliefs, family and outsiders. Told in alternating voices of Celeste, Nanette, and Taviana, each girl must abide by strict guidelines that influence every aspect of their lives. Celeste and Nanette are sisters that have never known anything outside of the Movement, while Taviana, who is from the outside world, has only been with them for a little while. These three girls will come to influence each other’s lives in so many unthinkable ways.

Lost Boy by Brent Jeffs, adult nonfiction, is a different take on the entire situation! I’m so glad I read this book as one of my selections. For girls in the FLDS, their future is out of their hands. They are told by the prophet who they will marry, essentially become their husband’s property, and are even told this is their only way into heaven. Learning about Brent’s experience with the FLDS made it slightly easier to understand the mind-set of the males involved. I highly recommend this triumphant book about overcoming and staying strong.

Keep Sweet, written by Michele Greene, is a young adult fiction book that tells of Alva Jane, who is content with the strict rules that define her life in the walled community where she lives with her father, his seven wives, and her twenty-eight siblings. But when Alva is caught in an innocent kiss with the boy she loves, everything changes. When she is beaten and faces marriage to a violent, fifty-year-old man, Alva must make the decision of her life.

Church of Lies by Flora Jessop is an adult nonfiction book that stunned and enraged me! Flora lived life on the inside of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS). She tells of her journey from an abused child to a leader in a modern day underground railroad of sorts.

Nancy works as a Library Assistant at the Milford-Miami Twp. Branch.

While You’re Waiting for the Sequel to The Passage …

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white horseYou’ve read The Road and devoured The Passage? Take a ride on The White Horse! Working at an animal testing laboratory to pay her way through college, Zoe discovers that she is pregnant at the same time the world is shattered by an apocalyptic viral outbreak that wipes out everyone she loves and genetically mutates humanity’s survivors. The story has several plot twists and Zoe is constantly forced to decide who she can trust. Sometimes she even wonders if she can trust her own perceptions.

This is not a zombie book – just an intriguing reflection on what can happen when mankind opens up a modern-day version of Pandora’s box.

Eowyn Ivey’s “The Snow Child”

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snow childThis summer my literary focus has been on folktale traditions around the world. Often, the words in these stories are simple, but, like the magic they describe, they somehow convey the most complicated of society’s fears and wishes. Even better, those themes are almost always universally appealing whether they were first spoken in Germany, Russia or Cameroon. These are some of the countries I’ve spent my summer reading about, so it was a nice surprise to read “The Snow Child” by Eowyn Ivey—a modern revision of a classic Slavic fairytale, but this time, set in Alaska.

Although the state is one of the US fifty, it didn’t take long to realize that this is a place unlike any you might encounter on the modern continent. Ivey opens the novel with a scene that sweeps its reader up into a whirlwind, not unlike the Alaskan blizzards she describes. Her protagonist, Mabel, is the kind of lonely only possible when the fir trees and wild country are your only company. Although she lives with her husband, Jack, they behave more like friendly acquaintances than husband and wife. After the first snow of the season, they create a snow child in their spontaneous and unexpected joy, and there the magic begins. Ivey’s novel is not necessarily plot driven, but it reads like one that is. The reader has the honor of being an informed observer into the lives of Mabel, Jack, and their (real? imagined?) snow child, as the three of them navigate each of their own demons via the rugged landscape. “The Snow Child” will go down as one of my favorite novels, and certainly my favorite modern retelling of a fairytale. If you’re looking for a gust of cold air in this summer’s stifling heat, I would highly recommend Ivey’s brilliant novel.

Summer Lit for Chicks

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wallflower in bloomWhat ever happened to “chick” lit? It seems to have gone out of favor lately, but I would like to recommend three recent titles that are just right for a light summer read with a dash of romance and a serving of self-discovery for the main female characters:

Wallflower in Bloom – The story of a woman who emerges from the shadow of her overbearing family and finds herself voted on as a last-minute replacement on “Dancing with the Stars.”

Wife 22 – Baring her soul in an anonymous survey for a marital happiness study, Alice catalogs her stale marriage, unsatisfying job, and unfavorable prospects and begins to question virtually every aspect of her life.

The Next Best Thing – Believing she is realizing her dreams when her sitcom is bought, television writer Ruth Saunders finds her happiness threatened by demanding actors and executives as well as an unrequited crush on her boss and her septuagenarian grandmother’s upcoming wedding.

The main female characters are likeable, but far from perfect and you will enjoy learning what happens behind the scenes on DWTS, the launch of a new TV series and supposedly anonymous internet surveys. Quick reads for a summer that is already passing by too fast!

The Yard by Alex Grecian

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The Yard is set in London, 1889. The Scotland Yard is still reeling from their failure to catch Jack the Ripper, and have lost the respect of the public who call them “bluebottles.” Inspector Walter Day has been a member of the Murder Squad at the Yard for less than a week when a fellow Murder Squad detective is found dead in a steamer trunk. With help from a fellow detective, Black, Constable Hammersmith and Dr. Bernard Kingsley, a pioneering forensic anthropologist, he tries to solve the case in crime ridden Victorian London.
I was mesmerized by how the author was able to make you feel like you were a part of this time period. It was a fast read not because it was a great whodunit, but because it was an eloquent character study of law enforcement officials at the beginning of the modern age where forensic techniques that is commonplace today were looked upon with suspicion by the police. For example, Dr. Kingsley tries to convince the detectives to use fingerprints to eliminate suspects.
I would recommend this book to any person who enjoys historical fiction or is interested in Victorian England or the birth of a modern city and its police force. This impressive debut is the beginning of a series and I will definitely be reading the next one!

Certification Exams? No Sweat!

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July is a traditional month for those seeking  certification in their chosen fields to submit to licensing examinations. ( What we older folks used to call your “state boards”)  My daughter is seeking certification as a Veterinary Technician and wants to practice for her state test. We decided to see if the library has a database with practice tests and discovered that Learning Express Library has dozens of practice tests for a multitude of careers and fields. We clicked on the left side of the homepage on Occupation Practice Tests.

The Vet Tech practice tests were grouped in the Nursing and Allied Health section, Licensure and Certification Test Preparation. There were also state licensing practice tests for Physical Therapists, Dental and Medical Assistants, Pharmacy Techs, Surgical Techs and many more.  There are also practice tests for teaching certification as well as for Real Estate licensing. If you or someone you know is prepping for any state certification tests, Learning Express Library can give you that added advantage!

 

Morning Routines

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good enough to eat breakfast cookbookOne of the gifts the library inadvertently gives to its employees is a certain few days of morning luxury. I come from a slew of night people. We turn away, scowling, from the rising sun in the morning and race toward evening when life feels calmer.

So it’s lovely to have late Sunday, Monday and Tuesday mornings (and Wednesday for me as a part-timer) to indulge in a routine few people find time for anymore: breakfast. Lately I’ve found a ritualistic need to mosey straight into the kitchen when my eyes are open enough, and begin preparing the first meal of the day. It’s become a comfort, and I love that I’m waking my body up with food I’ve put some thought into. By the time breakfast is finished I’ve had time to shimmy out of that reliable morning fog, and I can fully appreciate what I’ve spent time making.

My standard is steel cut oats with a spoon full of maple syrup and cinnamon, (made extra tasty in fall with apple cider instead of milk), and I always make a cup of tea or coffee. But this morning I must have felt particularly ambitious and so I roasted some asparagus with grapeseed oil, salt, pepper, and some parmesan, and put them on top of whole wheat toast with a sunny side up fried egg on top. With a grapefruit on the side it was pure decadence.

If you’re looking for some early morning inspiration, here’s a list of fantastic breakfast cookbooks. Bon Appetite!

Killing Lincoln – 8 Fascinating Hours of History

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killing lincolnWhat’s a definitive sign of a great book on CD? Sitting in your car to listen to just a little bit more even after you have arrived at your destination.

An admitted history buff, I was a little hesitant to try Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Lincoln: the Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever.  What more could O’Reilly and his co-author Martin Dugard add to the immense body of existing works on Lincoln? It’s not so much what they tell – it’s how they tell it. They talk in detail of the last few battles of the Civil War and of how General Robert E. Lee nearly escaped with his ragtag army. They show how John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators had several opportunities to kill President Lincoln and that the Vice President and several Cabinet members were to be eliminated as well.

There is a great sense of foreboding as events lead up to the assassination itself. President Lincoln seemed almost resigned to the fact that he would probably be assassinated – the authors seem to dwell on the fact that the President was a great admirer of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

Fans of local hero Ulysses Grant will be pleased by the manner in which the general is portrayed in the book as well. Many will be surprised to learn that Grant and his wife were originally planning on attending the theatre with the Lincolns on the night of the assassination.

O’Reilly’s narration is rapid fire and well-paced and there is nary a slow moment in the entire eight-hour work. Consider checking this one out if you are planning a vacation drive – you won’t regret it.

Redemption Behind Prison Walls

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Serving Life (DVD) is probably one of the best documentaries I have watched in a long, long time. The title is deceptive, because the movie is based in a Louisiana state prison. It follows four men who have committed serious crimes and are serving life sentences, some without hope of parole. At first you think the film is going to focus strictly on their adjustment to prison life – until you see the hospice ward in the prison, set up for prisoners who are terminally ill. The four men apply to be volunteers in this hospice unit and the title “serving life” takes on an entirely different dimension. I never dreamt I would be moved to tears watching a documentary set in a prison – I challenge you to stay dry-eyed watching this one. This would make a challenging subject of discussion for church groups and film discussion gatherings.