August 2007

New Fiction

• Angelica - Arthur Phillips
  
• Divisadero - Michael Ondaatje
  
• The double agents - W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV
  
• Double take - Catherine Coulter
  
• The Judas strain: a novel - James Rollins
  
• Keeping the world away: a novel - Margaret Forster
  
• On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan
  
• Spare change - Robert B. Parker
  
• Power play - Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
• The Border of Truth - Victoria Redel
  
• Simple Genius - David Baldacci
• Peony in Love - Lisa See
• Mother - Linda Ann Rentschler
  
• I Heard That Song Bofore - Mary Higgins Clark
• Her Royal Spyness solves her first case - Rhys Bower
  
• The Tin Roof Blowdown: a Dave Robicheaux novel - James Lee Burke
  
• Someone to Love - Jude Deveraux
  
• The Water's Lovely - Ruth Rendell
  
• What Matters Most - Luanne Rice
• Bungalow 2 - Danielle Steel
• High Noon - Nora Roberts
• Michael Tolliver Lives - Armstead Maupin

New Non-Fiction

• Adventures of an Italian Food Lover: with recipes from 254 of my very best friends - Faith Heller Willinger
  
• 1,000 Places to See in the USA and Canada Before You Die - Patricia Schultz
  
• Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia - Elizabeth Gilbert
• Einstein: a biography - Jürgen Neffe; translated from the German by Shelley Frisch
  
• A Woman In Charge: the Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton - Carl Bernstein
• The Fiske guide to colleges - by Edward B. Fiske [et al.]
  
• Generation on Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s an Oral History - Jeff Kisseloff
  
• Hudson Valley Ruins: Forgotten Landmarks of American Landscape - Thomas E. Rinaldi and Robert J Yasinsac
  
• The Road to College: The High School Student's Guide to Discovering Your Passion, Getting Involved, and Getting Admitted - Joyce E. Suber
• Henry Kissinger and the American century - Jeremi Suri
  
• Orchids to know and grow - Thomas J. Sheehan, Robert J. Black
  
• The pirate queen: Queen Elizabeth I, her merchant adventures, and the
  
• Dawn of Empire - Susan Ronald
  
• The sunny side: short stories and poems for proper grown-ups - A.A. Milne
  
• SEND: the essential guide to email for office and home - by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe
  
• Symbols and their hidden meanings - T. A. Kenner
  
• Uncommon arrangements: seven portraits of married life in London literary circles, 1910-1939 - Katie Roiphe
  
• One perfect day: the selling of the American wedding - Rebecca Mead
  
• College Board guide to getting financial aid
  
• Toronto - Lonely Planet
• Off the Map: The Curious Histories of Place Names - Derek Nelson
  
• Fashion for Men: an Illustrated History - Diane deMarly
• Bob Dylan: Intimate Insites from Friends and Fellow Musicians - Kathleen Mackay
• The Garden Designer - The Royal Horticultural Society - Robin Williams
• Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm - Jon Katz

New Audios

All CDs unless noted

• The Big Girls - Susanne Moore
• Cat O'Nine Tales - Jeffery Archer

New DVD's

• The Holiday
  
• Miss Potter
  
• The Duellists
  
• Unreasonable Man - Ralph Nader
  
• Kissing Jessica Stein
  
• After the Wedding
  
• Robin Williams Live on Broadway
  
• To Live and Die in LA
  
• Ride with the Devil
  
• Heat
  
• Baby Einstein: Baby Wordsworth
• LaJetee/Sans Soleil

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BOOKLISTS

Every month in this spot we feature reading suggestions. These include historic fiction, science fiction, mysteries, and more. Many of these titles can be found in the Mid Hudson Library System.

Which Brings Me to You - Steve Almond and Julianna Baggott
The Sweet Hereafter - Russell Banks
Love, Etc - Julian Barnes
Talking it Over - Julian Barnes "
The Innkeeper's Song - Peter S. Beagle
Circle of Friends - Maeve Binchy
Whitethorn Woods - Maeve Binchy
Beguilement - Lois McMaster Bujold
Noir - Vera Caspary
Falling Angels - Tracy Chevalier
The Virgin Blue - Tracy Chevalier
The Jade Peony - Wayson Choy
The Beans of Egypt Maine - Carolyn Chute
Hey Nostradamus! - Douglas Coupland
Stupid and Contagious - Caprice Crane
The Summer Guest - Justin Cronin
Love Walked In - Marisa de los Santos
In the Casa Azul: A Novel of Revolution and Betrayal - Meaghan Delahunt
Poor Little Witch Girl - Marie Desplechin
The Memory Keepers Daughter - Kim Edwards
As I Lay Dying -  William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury  - William Faulkner
Can't wait to get to Heaven - Fanny Flag
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
The Tenants of Time - Thomas Flanaghan.
Boleyn Inheritance - Philippa Gregory
Glass Houses - Jane Haddam
Gentleman and Players - Joanne Harris
Widow of the South - Robert Hicks
Penmarric - Susan Howatch
A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
Cashelmara  - Susan Howatch
The Wonder Worker - Susan Howatch
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
The English Passengers - Matthew Kneale
History of Love - Nicole Krauss
Leaps of Faith - Rachel Kranz
The Girls - Lori Lansens
Giraffe - J.M. Ledgard
Thinks: a novel - David Lodge
The Preservationist - David Maine
A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin (Series: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)
The Bright Forever - Lee Martin
Ballad of Frankie Silver - Sharyn McCrumb
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Eye Contact: a novel - Cammie McGovern
Heavenly Detour - Joanne Meyer
The Good Fairies of New York - Mark Millar
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Lost and Found - Carolyn Parkhurst
My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
Testament  - Nino Ricci
Cloud Nine - Luanne Rice
In a Dry Season - Peter Robinson
Drowning Ruth - Christina Schwarz
Reservation Road - John Burnham Schwartz
The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara
Happenstance - Carol Shields.
The Accidental - Ali Smith
Aberration of Starlight - Gilbert Sorrentino
Last Orders - Graham Swift
Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
Breathing Lessons - Anne Tyler
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant - Anne Tyler
Innocent Traitor - Alison Weir
Porno - Irvine Welsh
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
The Waves - Virginia Woolf

Compiled by the subscribers of the Fiction_L mailing list

Tea Time Book Group

Wednesday, August 8th,
4pm in the Reference
room

The selection for August is The Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. Prodigal Summer weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives inhabiting the forested mountains and struggling small farms of southern Appalachia.

Join us for lively Discussion and light refreshments.

Books are available at the library.

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HOLMES & CO.
Mystery Lovers Book Group

Thursday, August 30,
4pm in the Reference Room

The selections for this meeting include a book:
Death in Holy Orders: an Adam Dalgliesh mystery by P. D. James

and a short story:
The Five Orange Pips by Arthur Conan Doyle

The book and short story are at the circulation desk.

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Scrabble Night

Mondays, August 6, 13, 20, 27

6-8pm in the
Reference Room

Scrabble players meet every Monday in the Library's Reference room. Newcomers are always welcome!

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Knitting Group

Saturdays, August 4, 11, 18, 25 10am-noon at the Library

The Stone Ridge Library Knitters meet every Saturday morning from 10am - 12noon. All ages and experience levels can join us and drop-in knitters are also welcome. We each bring our own supplies and do our own work, but one of the best things about us is that whatever obstacle or confusion you might encounter, you're likely to receive as much comment and advice as you need to get where you're going with a project. Some of us can help toward the repair of knitted or crocheted items too.

The group is sociable and lively, and our conversation and sharing is just as wide-ranging as our projects. We are especially interested in the UFOs (Un-Finished Objects) that members bring in and love the show and tell of projects under way and being finished, new or old, simple or complex. Though knitting is our love and mainstay, we graciously adapt ourselves to stray crocheters and those of us who simply must take to the hook when the spirit moves. We share articles, magazines and books on knitting. Donations of yarn to the Library get made up into items for sale at the Library Fair and during the winter holidays for the benefit of the Library. Some of us also knit things for local hospitals or for the U.S. troops.

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ON THE SHELVES

Poughkeepsie Journal 7.1.07
On the Shelves with Gloria Goverman

Books written for young can please adults

On the Shelves is a monthly column by a rotating list of mid-Hudson Valley library directors who comment on notable books coming to your local public library.

I admit it freely - I'm a fantasy fan. I love to escape the ordinary every day with a headlong dive into the fantastic. This is tempered by my inability to tackle long books. Contrary to conventional wisdom, librarians do not get to read all day, so by the time I get to my book, it's usually about 11 p.m. and I can barely get through a few pages before Mr. Sandman knocks me out with a powerful shot to the head. My compromise, and as it's turned out, my joy, has been to read young adult books.

Young adult are books specifically written for the transitional age between seventh and 11th grades. The material is diverse in writing style, topic and theme. I generally look for the books that are more mature in content and storyline, but have often enjoyed some of the books meant for younger readers. I have found some terrifically satisfying stories.

Devilish, by Maureen Johnson, is a bright, funny book about one of the lesser demons who's working her way up the hierarchy by gathering souls at a girl's Catholic school.

She hits on a likely subject - Ally, a well-meaning but not-very-popular girl - who jumps at the chance to sell her soul for good looks, sleek hair and popularity. What Ally and her demon didn't count on was Jane Jarvis, Ally's best friend -short, wildly talkative, spiky-haired and fiercely loyal.

Jane hooks up with an unlikely group of allies, including a 116-year-old dead boy, and creates a dangerous plan to send the demon back to . well, you know where.

Beka Cooper, Terrier, by Tamora Pierce, is a solid, engaging fantasy written along more traditional lines.

It takes place in Tortall, a medieval type of city in which magic is practiced, although not routinely. The police officers are called "Dogs" and their structure is organized like a pack.

Beka Cooper, who has a magic-ish way about her, is a Puppy, assigned to two top-notch Dogs. Beka, who's fairly solitary by nature, ends up solving some very nasty cases with the help of a talking cat, a flock of ghost-inhabited pigeons, several dust dervishes and a group of friends made up of thieves, Puppies and Dogs.

It's gratifying to see how Beka grows, develops and learns to trust her abilities.

Flora Segunda, by Ysabeau S. Wilce, was like nothing I have ever read.

It's sort of the book that would happen if you mixed "A Clockwork Orange" with "A Wrinkle In Time." Hard to wrap your mind around, but the subtitle might help, "Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog."

Flora is the daughter of a general. She is the second Flora, the first one presumably died some years before Segunda was born. Also in Flora's house lives her father, who is somewhat unstable, and a somewhat diminished magical house butler. The book starts with Flora Nemain Fyrdraaca ov Fyrdraaca writing her Catorcena speech in which she should be talking about the glory of her House and Family.

Flora is running into big trouble - the fact her House's name is "Crackpot" should clue the reader as to why. "Flora Segunda" is a terrifically original and very funny book. It's filled with characters who are inviting, likeable and dangerous. Most are even human. This is a debut novel and I'm looking forward to what Wilce writes next.

The Beast of Noor, by Janet Lee Carey, is more of a traditional folk tale.

The first half is told from the perspective of Miles, who is learning music and herb lore from the Falconer. But Miles is eager to learn spell-casting. There's urgency to his need - the Shriker is loose in the hills, preying on the townsfolk and Miles is determined to stop it.

The second half of the book is told more from his sister Hanna's perspective. It takes both young people's strength and determination and a lot of magic to stop the deadly reign of the Shriker.

Gloria Goverman is the director of the East Fishkill Community Library. She has lots more Young Adult magic/fantasy books to recommend to anyone who's interested.

Can't decide on what to read? Visit
Mid Hudson for links to lists of titles that might attract your interest.

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Personal Finance Advice

Two library articles from Personal Finance Advice, a Blog about all aspects of personal finance by several contributors with various perspectives:

More Than Books - The Many Ways Your Library Can Save You Money

If you have not visited your local library in awhile, you might want to make a trip there to check out all the activities and services they offer these days. The library now offers a whole lot more than just books and it's a perfect place to save yourself a bundle of money each year. Here are a number of ways that your local library can save you money: more

How To Get Access To Hundreds Of Magazines At Home For Free

Here is a great money hack that most people are not familiar with. Most libraries offer free, 24/7 at-home access through your computer to money-saving publications like Consumer Reports, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly, and many other top business magazines and professional and trade journals. This is just in personal finance area. There are a large variety of other magazines in almost every topic imaginable which you can also access from home. more

GREAT WEBSITES!

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Rare Book Room

This "educational site [is] intended to allow the visitor to examine and read some of the great books of the world." Includes digitized facsimiles of "some of the great books in science, including books by Galileo, Newton, Copernicus, Kepler, Einstein, [and] Darwin"; most of the Shakespeare Quartos; musical scores by Beethoven and Mozart; the 1455 Gutenberg Bible held by the Library of Congress; and many more. Searchable, or browsable by topic, author, or library. more

Anna Mary Robertson ("Grandma") Moses

Biography and details about the work of self-taught artist Anna Mary Robertson "Grandma" Moses (1860-1961), whose work was "discovered" in 1938. Includes images of selected paintings, listings of exhibitions, a brief timeline, and related material. From Galerie St. Etienne, the New York gallery that "mounted Grandma Moses's first one-woman exhibition in 1940 and represented her for the remainder of her life." more

Degas

Online exhibit exploring the life and work of French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas (1834-1917). Some of the topics covered include Degas' artistic style, subjects of his art (including laundresses, ballet, and women bathing), and art collected by Degas. Provides a glossary and selected bibliography. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art. more

NJ Wiffleball Association (NJWA)

Website for a New Jersey group that "has helped dozens of Wiffleball Leagues and Associations around the Country get started in the World of competitive Wiffleball." Wiffleball is a baseball-like game played with a perforated plastic ball. The site features rules, pitching tips, a dictionary of terms and jargon, and field photos. Also includes links to related sites. more

The Fund for Peace

The mission of the nonprofit Fund For Peace is "to prevent war and alleviate the conditions which cause war." The group's website features the annual Failed States Index (ranking countries "based on their social, economic, and political pressures") and reports on the Iraq conflict, globalization and human rights, peace and stability operations, and related topics. Additional material is subscription-based. more

Food in the Arts

This site provides a survey of the arts in connection with food. Themes include food in movies, music, literature, and art. Includes short essays on topics such as the movie "Like Water for Chocolate," food in Puccini's opera "La Bohème," Hemingway and food, poverty, and still life paintings of food. From the London Food Film Fiesta. more

Chocolate & Zucchini

A "blog written by Clotilde Dusoulier, a 27-year-old Parisian woman [and cookbook author] who lives in Montmartre and shares her passion for all things food-related -- thoughts, recipes, musings, cookbook acquisitions, quirky products, nifty tools, restaurant experiences, ideas, and inspirations." Also features a recipe index, picture gallery, and guide to Paris restaurants. more

Recipes From Provençe

Collection of recipes for dishes from the Provençe region of southern France. Includes recipes for ratatouille, basil and cheese flan, grilled red mullet, and Provençales bean soup with basil (soupe au pistou). Additional recipes are available to subscribers. Part of CultureKiosque. more

2007 World's Most Ethical Companies

This ranking arose from an evaluation of "more than 5,000 companies across 30 separate industries looking for true ethical leadership" in areas such as litigation and conflict resolution, corporate citizenship, pan-industry participation, and governance. Includes a description of methodology, a list of winning companies, and brief additional material about selected winners. From Ethisphere Magazine. more

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Index (CAM)

Collection of material about different types of CAM, such as acupuncture, biofeedback, herbal medicine, hypnotherapy, massage, and yoga. Includes discussions of conditions (by organ and symptoms), and drug, herb, and supplement interactions and uses. From the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). more

Ancient Gold Center Discovered on the Nile

June 2007 article about the discovery of "evidence of large-scale gold extraction in the ancient Nubian kingdom of Kush [that] has been found along the Nile River. ... The discovery is part of a race to save as many antiquities as possible before a dam inundates a hundred-mile (160-kilometer) stretch of the Nile in northern Sudan." Includes photos and links to related material. From National Geographic News. more

Wish You Were Here - Artists on Vacation

"Like everyone else, artists view vacation as a time to get away from the grind. ... Getting away, however, does not mean leaving the canvas or sketchbook behind." This exhibit "include numerous items that show artists on vacation, from snapshots and sketchbooks to letters and postcards." Browsable by topics such as anticipation, city, woods, summer homes, passports, and abroad. From the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. more

Sunscreen Summary -- What Works and What's Safe

"In a 2007 investigation of 785 name-brand sunscreens, the Environ-mental Working Group (EWG) found widespread evidence that many products on the market are not safe and effective, including one of every eight high-SPF sunscreens that does not protect from UVA radiation. [EWG has] also identified 130 products that offer very good sun protection with ingredients that present minimal health risks to users." Includes a summary of the report and details about products. You may need to scroll down the page to see the report. more

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