How Does Your Garden Grow?

We can’t say about you but we’re ready for spring. It’s been a long, windy, cold winter and we’re enthusiastic that the days are getting longer and soon, yes soon, the temperatures will start to climb. With this in mind, our thoughts turn to the gardens outside and planning for this season’s crops. Many people are turning to growing some of their own food due to the economy and publishers are doing their part to help out with new books geared specifically to the new gardener. We  recently came across Gayla Trail’s book Grow Great Grub: organic food from small spaces (look for it to arrive soon at the Library.)  She has some great ideas about growing vegetables without requiring an acre of land. Long before she wrote Grow Great Grub, Trail was blogging about gardening:

“You Grow Girl was launched by Gayla Trail in February 2000 and has grown into a thriving online community that speaks to a new kind of gardener, seeking to redefine the modern world relationship to plants. This contemporary, laid-back approach to gardening places equal importance on environmentalism, style, affordability, art, and humour.”

We learned some new gardening tricks and tips from her blog and we have high expectations from her book. In the same vein, San Francisco gardening guru, Maria Finn also has a blog–CityDirt.net and a new book out. Her book,  A Little Piece of Earth: How to Grow Food in Small Places is perfect for the gardening novice or the old hand–and it looks great on a table top as well.

Barnes & Noble Discover Award Finalists Selected

Since 1990, a group of Barnes & Noble booksellers has met seasonally to select the best forthcoming new work by debuting and under-appreciated writers. Chosen solely on the basis of literary merit, these exceptional books are promoted throughout Barnes & Noble. Then each spring, a group of distinguished literary jurists name two outstanding writers (one each in fiction and nonfiction) from the previous year’s Discover picks for a career-changing prize — the Discover Award.

This year’s judges for the Fiction panel:

Stewart O’Nan–who was “discovered” by B&N for his debut novel, Snow Angels, published in 1994. He has since written 11 novels, including Last Night at the Lobster, The Good Wife, The Night Country, Wish You Were Here, A Prayer for the Dying, and his latest, Songs for the Missing, two works of nonfiction, and a screenplay on the life of Edgar Allan Poe.

Kathryn Harrison–who was “discovered” for her novel, Thicker Than Water, published in 1991. She has published five additional novels including Envy, The Seal Wife, and The Binding Chair, two memoirs, The Mother Knot and The Kiss, a travel memoir about the Camino de Santiago, a biography of Saint Therese of Lisieux, and a collection of personal essays, Seeking Rapture.

David Schickler–who was “discovered” for his work of debut fiction, Kissing in Manhattan, published in 2001. He published a second work of fiction in 2004, Sweet and Vicious. A graduate of the Columbia University MFA program, his work as appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, Zoetrope: All-Story, and Travel & Leisure.

Judges for the Non-Fiction panel:

Rachel Simon–who was actually “discovered” by B&N twice — a rare mistake, and one that also occurred with Kim Edwards, author of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. Simon’s 1994 debut novel, The Magic Touch caught B&N’s attention first, and again when she published her first memoir, Riding the Bus with My Sister, eight years later. Last year, she published a new memoir, Building A Home with My Husband.

Lee Martin– who was “discovered” for the compelling memoir of his boyhood, From Our House, published in 2000. He has since penned another memoir, Turning the Bones, a short-story collection, The Least You Need to Know, and two novels, Quakertown, and The Bright Forever, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Martin directs the creative writing program at Ohio State University.

Danielle Trussoni–who was “discovered” for Falling Through the Earth, her acclaimed memoir about her childhood as the daughter of a Vietnam veteran, and which the New York Times named one of the best books of 2006. Trussoni is publishing her first novel, Angelology, in March.

The 2009 Fiction Finalists:

More of This World or Maybe Another by Barb Johnson
Mathilda Savitch by Victor Lodato
All the Living by C.E. Morgan

The 2009 Non-Fiction Finalists:

Columbine by Dave Cullen
The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map that Gave America Its Name by Toby Lester
In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir by Neil White

The winners in each category receive a $10,000 prize and a year of additional promotion in B&N stores. Second-place finalists receive $5,000, and third-place finalists take home $2,500. Winners will be announced March 3.

Good Luck Kim, We’ll Miss You

We bade a fond farewell to Librarian Kim Sheridan yesterday. She has taken a job with the Connecticut Humanities Council to help put together an online encyclopedia of Connecticut history.

Kim enacted many of the Library’s recent positive changes; too many to enumerate here but they include: her very popular suggested reading brochures, inspired and diverting displays and her myriad fundraising tactics for purchasing additional materials. She was highly regarded and popular with our patrons and we will miss not only her dedication to library services and  professional talents but also her warm-hearted sense of humor.

Free E-Books Have Arrived At The Essex Library

Essex Library patrons don’t have to wait any longer to have access to free e-books. Our Overdrive service now provides over 250 e-books, both fiction and non-fiction with more to be added. The e-books may be downloaded to your computer–PC or Mac, a Sony Reader or a Barnes & Noble Nook. Look for additional compatible reading devices to be made available in the future. As with the Overdrive downloadable audiobook service,  Apple devices were eventually licensed to be compatible and we might expect the same to happen with the E-Book service. No idea when or if the Amazon Kindle will become a compatible device in the future, but we can hope so.

The E-Book service is as easy to use as Overdrive’s downloadable audiobooks. Just download the Adobe software to your chosen device–it took us less than 5 minutes to sign up for a free Adobe ID and then to download the software. Downloading the book to our computer took approximately 4 seconds. And there it was, at our fingertips. Features on the Adobe software include:  the ability to increase (or decrease) the font size on the page, bookmark multiple pages with notes and search for words or phrases throughout the text. How cool is that? Overdrive now allows for 7 titles in any combination of audio or e-book to be checked out at one time. The audiobooks check out for 10 days and the e-books for 2 weeks. The files expire automatically with no overdue fines to worry about. Even if you think you’d never enjoy an e-book, try one out…it’s free, and it might prove to be a way to increase your access to reading materials.

Early February Library Programs

Library staffer Jenny Tripp has lined up another terrific group of programs for our patrons in February. For a look at the full schedule of February events, check out our online calendar or the Adult Programs page on our website. Here are just a few of February’s lineup:

Navigating Through Market Volatility with Rob van Ostenbridge of Merrill Lynch.
Thursday, Feb. 4th, 7 -8 p.m.
This seminar explains market volatility, core principals of investing to cope with market uncertainty, and presents actionable investing strategies and solutions to help investors reposition their portfolios in anticipation of a future market recovery.

Essex And The Sea:  Sailing In Cuba with photojournalist Peter Swanson
Sunday, Feb. 7th, 4-5 p.m. at Essex Town Hall.
Just ninety miles south of the tip of Florida is an undiscovered boater’s paradise which is closed to Americans – restrictions that don’t apply to journalists. In his talk, Swanson will give an illustrated firsthand account of navigating these unspoiled coasts.

Women In Media with Janet Peckinpaugh
Thursday, Feb. 11th, 7 p.m.
Join us for a thoughtful conversation with this smart, savvy survivor of the rough-and-tumble world of broadcast journalism as she discusses her life in the media, sexism in network newsrooms, and the impact of the shift in the news world from information to “info-tainment”.

Centerbrook Architects’ Lecture Series Continues with Kent Bloomer- “Why Not Ornament?”

Friday, February 12th at 7 p.m. at the Essex Town Hall

Kent Bloomer is the principal and founder of the Bloomer Studio, and has served as its chief designer since 1965. He is also a Professor of Architecture at Yale University. Bloomer has taught at Yale since 1966. He was an instructor at the Carnegie Mellon Institute of Technology from 1961 to 1966. In addition to his permanent teaching positions, Mr. Bloomer has lectured and served as a visiting critic at many universities, including UT-Austin, Harvard, McGill, and Columbia. He has also spoken to audiences at the British Psychoanalytic Society, the Portland Museum of Art, the Graham Foundation in Chicago, the London Architectural Association, and the American Craft Museum in New York City.

Mr. Bloomer’s sculpture has been exhibited by numerous museums and galleries, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California, the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, CT, and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Hirshhorn Gallery, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. His large-scale projects have won statewide and national awards from the American Institute of Architects. Mr. Bloomer’s most recent projects include a foliated trellis for the Ronald Reagan National Airport, Washington D.C. (architect: Cesar Pelli & Associates), large roof sculptures on the Harold Washington Library, Chicago (architect: Hammond, Beeby and Babka), an aluminum horse, wings, and trellis for The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument, Kearney, Nebraska (architect: Peter Dominick, Urban Design Group), and exterior metal panels for the new Nashville Public Library (architect: Robert A.M. Stern).

Robert B. Parker, Dead At 77

Author of the bestselling Spenser series, Robert B. Parker died of a heart attack at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Monday. The New York Times published his obituary on January 20th. His books were consistently popular with our patrons. We suggest you read a few, not necessarily the Spenser series, in his honor.

Librarians Are ‘Dying’ For Sisters In Crime Lottery

Sisters in Crime was founded by Sara Paretsky and a group of women at the 1986 Bouchercon in Baltimore. They currently have 3600 members in 48 chapters world-wide, who offer networking, advice and support to mystery authors. Members are authors, readers, publishers, agents, booksellers and librarians bound by their affection for the mystery genre and their support of women who write mysteries.

Sisters in Crime  announced the first “We Love Libraries” lottery recently:  monthly grants of $1,000 will be awarded from January through December 2010. The grant money is to be used to purchase books for the library. Entries require a photo of one or more library staff members with 3 books in our collection written by Sisters In Crime members.

We’re sure we’re not the only ones to think of having a ‘dead’ librarian in the stacks surrounded by books written by Sisters In Crime members but we went ahead with the idea anyway. We selected our SInC authors randomly–we own quite a few of their books, including Linda Barnes, Linda Fairstein, Roberta Isleib and, for its perfect title for our photo, The Body In The Bookcase by Katherine Hall Page. The victim in our photo is fun-loving Children’s Librarian Judie McCann who valiantly laid down for the job after Library Director Richard Conroy–our first choice–rejected the notion. as “too obvious”. Cross your fingers and let’s hope for a win here because we could really use some money for books right now.

Best 2010 Children’s Book Awards Announced

The American Library Association held its mid-winter meeting over the weekend and, in keeping with tradition, the best children’s book awards including the Newbery, Caldecott and Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal winners were announced.

The Newbery Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
This year’s Newbery Medal winner is When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.
Newbery Honors went to:
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
The Evolution Of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
The Mostly True Adventures Of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick
Where The Mountain Meets The Moon by Grace Lin

The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.
This year’s Caldecott Medal winner is The Lion & the Mouse illustrated and written by Jerry Pinkney.
Caldecott Honors went to:
All The World by Liz Garten Scanlon, illustrated by Marla Frazee
Red Sings From Treetops: A Year In Colors by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award, established in 2004, is given annually (beginning in 2006) to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished contribution to the body of American children’s literature known as beginning reader books published in the United States during the preceding year.
This year’s Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winner is Benny and Penny in the Big No-No! by Geoffrey Hayes.
Geisel Honors went to:
I Spy Fly Guy! by Tedd Arnold
Little Mouse Gets Ready by Jeff Smith
Mouse and Mole: Fine Feathered Friends by Wong Herbert Yee
Pearl and Wagner: One Funny Day by Kate McMullan, illustrated by R.W. Alley

Dorothy Gilman Wins Grand Master Award

Dorothy Gilman, the author of 14 Mrs. Polifax spy novels, was recently chosen to receive the Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America. The Award honors important contributions to the genre, as well as significant output of consistently high-quality material.  Gilman, a Connecticut resident, has written and contributed to over 30 books that feature uncommon and unique characters. “What a lovely surprise!” Gilman said. “The list of past Grand Masters is like a Who’s Who of the great mystery writers of the last century. To be chosen for this award by my professional peers has to be the greatest honor of my 60 years as an author.”

The MWA award winners will be honored at the Edgar Awards banquet in New York City, Thursday, April 29, 2010.