Thank You, Essex Community Fund!

Our heartfelt thanks go to the Essex Community Fund for their generous donation to the Library. With it, we have been able to purchase 20, recently-released, Large Print books in fiction and nonfiction for our patrons. If you need, or like, large print materials, here’s the list of our new purchases:
Click on the title to put a hold on a book.
Mistress Of The Art Of Death by Ariana Franklin
The Story Of A Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen
A Person Of Interest by Susan Choi
Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell
The Fifth Floor by Michael Harvey
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
Lush Life by Richard Price
Death Was The Other Woman by Linda Richards
Bleeding Hearts by Ian Rankin
My Stroke Of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor
The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss
The Little Giant Of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
Knit Two by Kate Jacobs
Heart And Soul by Maeve Binchy
Third Chapter: passion, risk and adventure in the 25 years after 50 by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
Three Cups Of Tea by Greg Mortenson
Killing Rommel by Steven Pressfield
Telex From Cuba by Rachel Kushner

April Is National Donate Life Month

Over 100,000 Americans are waiting for a life saving transplant. In Connecticut, nearly 1,000 people are waiting for their second chance at life. With the national list growing by one person every eleven minutes, and 18 people dying every day…the need for more donors is urgent. Donate Life Connecticut is dedicated to educating the public about organ and tissue donation and raising awareness about how to register as a donor. Organ and tissue transplants offer patients a new chance at healthy, productive, normal lives and return them to their families, friends and communities. You have the power to change someone’s world by being a donor. It’s about living. It’s about Life.

Start Walking!

The American Heart Association and the Connecticut Department of Public Health have formed a partnership with the Connecticut Library Consortium and Connecticut Library Association to offer a series of “Healthy Messages @ Your Library!” This exciting new statewide initiative will help develop relationships between our libraries and state and local health agencies to help keep Connecticut’s citizens informed and healthy.

National Start! Walking Day is April 8th and the American Heart Association’s Start! initiative is calling on Americans to walk 30 minutes at work or in their free time. Some adults may gain as many as two hours of life expectancy for every one hour of regular, vigorous exercise, like very brisk walking. For substantial health benefits, aim for at least 2 ½ hours a week of moderate physical activity, such as very brisk walking.

Cardiovascular disease is our nation’s No. 1 killer and physical inactivity significantly increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. Seventy percent of Americans don’t get enough exercise, blaming lack of time and lack of motivation and 66 percent of Americans are overweight.

Start! is the American Heart Association’s national cause campaign that calls on Americans and their employers to create a culture of physical activity and health through workplace walking programs to live longer, stronger, heart-healthier lives.

For more information on START go to www.americanheart.org/start

New Overdrive Downloadable Audiobook Titles

We added some great new titles to our Overdrive downloadable audiobooks service in March. You can listen to new releases like T. Coraghessan Boyle’s The Women  and James Patterson’s Run For Your Life, as well as Jerome K. Jerome’s classic comic tale Three Men In A Boat. Into thrillers? March titles include books by Robert Ludlum, W.E.B. Griffin and David Baldacci. Looking for a little romance? Maeve Binchy, Julie Garwood and Kate Jacobs have just what you crave. Young Adults are covered too with Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart series. For nonfiction readers, March titles bring history, biography and financial help to your listening device. Here’s the complete list of March titles:

Divine Justice by David Baldacci
Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy
The Women by T. C. Boyle
Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
Inkspell by Cornelia Funke
Fire and Ice by Julie Garwood
Black Ops by W.E.B. Griffin
True Colors by Kristin Hannah
Scat by Carl Hiaasen
Knit Two by Kate Jacobs
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum
Run for Your Life by James Patterson
Crossroads by Belva Plain
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
The Smartest 401(k)* Book You’ll Ever Read by Daniel R. Solin
Get Motivated! by Tamara Lowe
Call Me Ted by Ted Turner
Che Guevara by Jon Lee Anderson
Factory Girls by Leslie T. Chang
A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich

What The British Think is Funny…

From  AbeBooks.com, a post by Richard Davies:

“The British sense of humor is famous around the world but what kind of literature makes them laugh? It seems the ideal amusing read for Brits would be a mind-boggling combination of P.G. Wodehouse’s sublime wit, a liberal dose of Joseph Heller’s black humor and a slice of Douglas Adams’ galactic comedy.

Our UK website, AbeBooks.co.uk recently asked 555 of its customers to name the funniest book they had ever read. Right Ho, Jeeves, Catch-22 and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy were the top three. Eight of the top 10 authors were British but Americans Heller and John Kennedy Toole also featured prominently.

Top 10 Funniest Books According to AbeBooks.co.uk Customers

1. Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (1933)
2. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
3. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979)
4. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome (1889)
5. Wilt by Tom Sharpe (1976)
6. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1980)
7. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
8. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse (1938)
9. Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding (1996)
10. Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall by Spike Milligan (1971)”

Yoga 101 For Adults

We can’t think of a better time or place to begin a yoga class than at the Library this spring. Staffer Molly Osborne, who delighted the community’s children with her Yoga For Kids class, has agreed to take on an introductory class for adults. Clear your Tuesday morning calendar for 6 weeks starting April 28th through June 2nd at 10a.m. Wear comfortable clothes and bring a water bottle. Reservations are strongly encouraged.

Pysanky Egg Decorating Program

The Ukrainian/Russian folk art, Pysanky, produces colorful, detailed decorated eggs using wax and a stylus. Library staffer Molly Osborne will lead three Friday sessions at 3:45-4:45p.m., March 27th, April 3rd, and April 10th. Participants must attend all 3 sessions to complete eggs. Reservations required; class size limited to 10.

Hot Book News For Young Adults

We keep our ear to the ground for book news and what do we get– besides dirty ears? We get to tell you about great books already published, about to be published and in the pipeline.

One of today’s hottest bestsellers is a teen vampire story–and it’s not by Stephenie Meyer! It’s the 5th book in the House Of Night series by the mother/daughter team, P.C. and Kristin Cast: Hunted. The first four books in the series, also bestsellers, are: Marked, Betrayed, Untamed and Chosen.  Go ahead, read them all; you know you want to.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman, due out on April 2nd, is garnering comparisons with The Lovely Bones and is anticipated to be as popular as Twilight. This is Forman’s 2nd YA title–the first was Sisters In Sanity.  The director of the film version of Twilight, Catherine Hardwicke has already been signed to direct If I Stay.  Put your hold on this book now!

If you enjoyed The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, then you may already know that the sequel, Catching Fire, is due out September 1st. Film rights have already been sold for The Hunger Games. Scholastic, publisher of the books, is holding a writing contest that asks, in 500 words, “How would you survive?” The grand prize winner will get, among other things, to have a private lunch with Suzanne Collins in New York City.

National Book Critics Circle Awards Announced

The National Book Critics Circle, founded in 1974, is a nonprofit organization consisting of more than 900 active book reviewers who are interested in honoring quality writing and communicating with one another about common concerns. Submissions for the annual awards are made by both publishers and members of the judging committees.

Finalists for the Award were announced in January; winners were announced the other day.

The winners include:

FICTION: 2666 by Roberto Bolaño

NONFICTION: The Forever War by Dexter Filkins

BIORAPHY: The World Is What It Is : The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipal by Patrick French

AUTOBIOGRAPHY: My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq by Ariel Sabar

Charles Dickens On PBS

There’s nothing like an economic downturn to make you appreciate free entertainment. This spring, PBS, on Masterpiece Classic, has outdone themselves with a full schedule of beautifully produced dramas by Charles Dickens. Starting in March, you may watch David Copperfield (in 2 episodes), Little Dorrit (in 5 episodes) and The Old Curiosity Shop (in one 90-minute episode). Check your local PBS listings for times. By the way, that’s a young Daniel Radcliffe, of Harry Potter fame, playing David Copperfield.