Friday, May 30, 2014

Adult Summer Reading Program!!!

New for the Summer
Adult Summer Reading Program
Sponsored by
The Friends of the
North Shore Library
June 9th-August 30th


How it works:
-Sign up in person at the Reference Desk or by Phone (414) 351-3461.
-Read a book of your choice.
-Fill out a short questionnaire about the book.
-Drop it off at the Reference Desk to be eligible for a weekly prize drawing. One winner per week. Participants may only win one weekly drawing, but everyone is eligible for the grand prize.
-At the end of summer all participants will be entered into the grand prize drawing. The Grand Prize drawing will be September 2nd. (The more you read the better your chances are.)


Thursday, May 29, 2014

The Passing of a Wonderful Woman



Maya Angelou passed away on May 28, 2014.


The staff at North Shore Library saddens with the passing of Maya Angelou. As a poet and author she has had a lasting impact on our culture and our personal lives.




Official website: http://mayaangelou.com/

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3503.Maya_Angelou

Quotes by her:

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude."

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

"My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors."

"It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength."


Wednesday, May 28, 2014

National Hamburger Day!

Let everyone go out
and 
eat a
Hamburger!


Hamburgers and cheeseburgers have been a staple of the American diet for decades. Hamburgers originated in Hamburg, Germany, but eating it on a bun is actually an American innovation. It is most likely that the hamburger sandwich was invented in Seymour, Wisconsin. Each year the city hosts a hamburger festival call Burger Fest. This is where the largest hamburger made its debut in 2001. It weighed 8,266 pounds!

For Trivia:
http://www.foodreference.com/html/fhamburgers.html



Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Big Library Read


Become a champion mystery-solver with Laurien Berenson
As part of the Big Library Read program, North Shore library will be featuring A Pedigree to Die For by Laurien Berenson starting the morning of June 3 and concluding the afternoon of June 18. During this reading period, Laurien’s hair-raising murder-mystery will be available for every patron that wishes to read it—no holds, no waitlists. By participating in the Big Library Read, you can join a global movement of passionate readers and library patrons who support the availability of eBooks and audiobooks at your local library.
About the book
The apparent heart attack that killed kennel owner Max Turnbull has left seven pups in mourning, and his wife Peg suspecting foul play. But the only evidence is their missing prize pooch—a pedigreed poodle named Beau.Enter Melanie Travis. With her young son happily ensconced in day damp, the 30-something teacher and single mother is talked into investigating her uncle’s death—unofficially, of course. Posing as a poodle breeder in search of the perfect stud, Melanie hounds Connecticut’s elite canine competitions, and finds an ally in fellow breeder Sam Driver. But her affection cools when she’s put on the scent of Sam’s questionable past . . . and hot on the trail of a poodle-hating neighbor and one elusive murderer who isn’t ready to come to heel.
About the author               

Laurien Berenson is an award-winning author. She’s most noted for her Melanie Travis series of murder mysteries based on school teacher Melanie Travis who owns and shows full-size pedigree Standard Poodles. The series includes: Doggie Day Care Murder,  Chow Down, and Raining Cats & Dogs. Berenson is an Agatha and Macavity nominee, winner of the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, and a four-time winner of the Maxwell Award which is presented by the Dog Writers Association of America. She lives in Kentucky with her family.

www.mcfls.org/northshorelibrary

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Over the Rainbow-Craig Seimsen

North Shore Library
Saturday, June 28th at 1:00 pm

Craig Seimsen

Over the Rainbow

Songs of the 1930's-1960's


Featuring popular songs and stories from the 1930's through the 1960's, Craig treats you to a fun and engaging show of good memories and laughter! Craig's whimsical story telling and wit, will have you laughing and toe tapping during this memorable performance.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Tuesday Movie Fest Schedule

Tuesday Fest at the 
North Shore Library

All movies start at 6 p.m.

June 10th-Decoy Bride (89 min)                                      Highland Games
June 17th-Angel in Cracow (87 min)                                 Polish Pest
June 24th-Apnea (88 min)                                                 Greekfest
July 1st-The Band's Visit (87 min)                                     Summerfest
July 8th-Ocean Heaven (94 min)
July 15th-Renior (111 min)                                               Bastille Days
July 22nd-Salt of Life (90 min)                                          Festa Italiana
July 29th-Barbara (105 min)                                             German Fest
August 5th-Bag of Love (66 min)                                      African World Festival
August 12th-Caramel (93 min)                                          Arab World
August 19th-Boys and Girl from                                        Irish Fest
                    County Clare (100 min)
August 26th-Sabar a Canela (101 min)                             Fiesta Mexicana
September 2nd-TBA
September 9th-Hank Williams                                          Indian Summer
                        First Nation (90 min)

Titles Subject to Change without notice.

*All titles will be available to check out after the viewing but not before.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Annual Meeting and Author Presentation

Annual Meeting

Friends of the North Shore Library

Join us for an author presentation:

Catherine Fitzpatrick
"Going on Nine"


Published this May.
In this coming of age novel, Grace finds the summer of 1956
one she will remember for the rest of her life.

Wednesday June 11th
7 P.M.

Refreshments will be served.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Women with Mental Illness Book List



1) "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath's shocking, realistic, and intensely emotional novel about a woman falling into the grip of insanity

Esther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. In her acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes palpably real, even rational—as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.




2) "The Yellow Wallpaper and other Stories" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Enjoy seven thought-provoking stories that employ charm and humor to examine relations between the sexes from a feminist perspective. In addition to the title story, an 1892 classic that recounts a woman's descent into madness, this collection includes such masterful stories as "Cottagette," "Turned," "Mr. Peebles' Heart," and more.




3) "Prozac Nation" by Elizabeth Wurtzel

Elizabeth Wurtzel writes with her finger in the faint pulse of an overdiagnosed generation whose ruling icons are Kurt Cobain, Xanax, and pierced tongues. In this famous memoir of her bouts with depression and skirmishes with drugs, Prozac Nation is a witty and sharp account of the psychopharmacology of an era for readers of Girl, Interrupted and Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.




4) "The Virgin Suicides" by Jeffrey Eugenides

First published in 1993, The Virgin Suicides announced the arrival of a major new American novelist. In a quiet suburb of Detroit, the five Lisbon sisters--beautiful, eccentric, and obsessively watched by the neighborhood boys--commit suicide one by one over the course of a single year. As the boys observe them from afar, transfixed, they piece together the mystery of the family's fatal melancholy, in this hypnotic and unforgettable novel of adolescent love, disquiet, and death. Jeffrey Eugenides evokes the emotions of youth with haunting sensitivity and dark humor and creates a coming-of-age story unlike any of our time. Adapted into a critically acclaimed film by Sofia Coppola, The Virgin Suicides is a modern classic, a lyrical and timeless tale of sex and suicide that transforms and mythologizes suburban middle-American life.




5) "An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness" by Kay Redfield Jamison

In her bestselling classic, An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison changed the way we think about moods and madness.

Dr. Jamison is one of the foremost authorities on manic-depressive (bipolar) illness; she has also experienced it firsthand. For even while she was pursuing her career in academic medicine, Jamison found herself succumbing to the same exhilarating highs and catastrophic depressions that afflicted many of her patients, as her disorder launched her into ruinous spending sprees, episodes of violence, and an attempted suicide.

Here Jamison examines bipolar illness from the dual perspectives of the healer and the healed, revealing both its terrors and the cruel allure that at times prompted her to resist taking medication. An Unquiet Mind is a memoir of enormous candor, vividness, and wisdom—a deeply powerful book that has both transformed and saved lives.




6) "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden" Joanne Greenberg

Enveloped in the dark inner kingdom of her schizophrenia, sixteen-year-old Deborah is haunted by private tormentors that isolate her from the outside world. With the reluctant and fearful consent of her parents, she enters a mental hospital where she will spend the next three years battling to regain her sanity with the help of a gifted psychiatrist. As Deborah struggles toward the possibility of the “normal” life she and her family hope for, the reader is inexorably drawn into her private suffering and deep determination to confront her demons. A modern classic, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden remains every bit as poignant, gripping, and relevant today as when it was first published.

Eliza Doolittle Day

It is time to watch
My Fair Lady

"One day I’ll be famous! I’ll be proper and prim;
Go to St. James so often I will call it St. Jim!
One evening the king will say:
‘Oh, Liza, old thing,
I want all of England your praises to sing.
Next week on the twentieth of May
I proclaim ‘Liza Doolittle Day!"





The movie, My Fair Lady, is all about a Professor taking a girl off the streets and teaching her how to speak like the highly educated, rich upper class people of England. He wants to prove his theory that there really is no difference between them and the poor, and that he can successfully pass a poor girl off as a rich one.


Eliza Doolittle: [singing] I shall not feel alone without you, I can stand on my own without you. So go back in your shell, I can do bloody well without...
Professor Henry Higgins: [singing] By George, I really did it, I did it, I did it! I said I'd make a woman and indeed, I did. I knew that I could do it, I knew it, I knew it! I said I'd make a woman and succeed, I did!
[speaking]
Professor Henry Higgins: Eliza, you're magnificent. Five minutes ago, you were a millstone around my neck, and now you're a tower of strength, a consort battleship. I like you this way.
[pause]
Eliza Doolittle: Goodbye, Professor Higgins. You shall not be seeing me again.
(found on IMDb)

A website to learn more about this day: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127010097




Eliza's transformation.

My Fair Lady is based on George Bernard Shaw's play, Pygmalion.

Friday, May 16, 2014

Biography Book List



1) "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank's remarkable diary has since become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the "Secret Annex" of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.



2) "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.

Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.



3) "Night" by Elie Wiesel

Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man's capacity for inhumanity to man.

Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.



4) "Angela's Ashes: a Memoir" by Frank McCourt

“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”

So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank’s mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank’s father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy—exasperating, irresponsible, and beguiling—does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father’s tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.

Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank’s survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig’s head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors—yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance, and remarkable forgiveness.



5) "Eat. Pray. Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia" by Elizabeth Gilbert

his beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali.



6) "Running with Scissors: A Memoir" by Augusten Burroughs

Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist who bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus. So at the age of twelve, Burroughs found himself amidst Victorian squalor living with the doctor’s bizarre family, and befriending a pedophile who resided in the backyard shed. The story of an outlaw childhood where rules were unheard of, and the Christmas tree stayed up all year round, where Valium was consumed like candy, and if things got dull an electroshock- therapy machine could provide entertainment. The funny, harrowing and bestselling account of an ordinary boy’s survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.



7) "Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster" by John Krakauer

A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that "suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down." He was wrong. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more--including Krakauer's--in guilt-ridden disarray, would also provide the impetus for Into Thin Air, Krakauer's epic account of the May 1996 disaster.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Purple for Peace



Wear Purple and Support Peace!


May 16th is Wear Purple for Peace Day!



It's a day to promote peace between us and any space aliens who might be lurking about. You should wear a purple ribbon or purple clothing to be part of Wear Purple for Peace Day. If you live in a peaceful country, count yourself lucky on this day.

This is celebrated all across the world. 


http://ayearofholidays.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/may-16-wear-purple-for-peace-day/



Wednesday, May 14, 2014

National Dance Like A Chicken Day!

Get the Polka Music Started
and 
Dance Like a Chicken!





A dance like a crazy person, because everyone looks crazy when they do the chicken dance. 

The tune was written in the 1950's by Werner Thomas and it was first named the "Duck Dance" since it was used to call ducks and geese. It wasn't until 1963 that it was heard in a restaurant and it took off. 
To learn more about the history of the Chicken Dance, go to:

http://www.oldworld.ws/chickenhistory.html




How to learn the Chicken Dance:
http://dance.about.com/od/groupdancin1/ht/Chicken_Dance.htm

The Lyrics:
http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-chicken-dance-lyrics-stupid.html

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Horror Book List



1) "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War" by Max Brooks

“The end was near.” —Voices from the Zombie War

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War. 

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’?”


2) "The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead" by Max Brooks

The Zombie Survival Guide is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now. Fully illustrated and exhaustively comprehensive, this book covers everything you need to know, including how to understand zombie physiology and behavior, the most effective defense tactics and weaponry, ways to outfit your home for a long siege, and how to survive and adapt in any territory or terrain.
Top 10 Lessons for Surviving a Zombie Attack

1. Organize before they rise!

2. They feel no fear, why should you?

3. Use your head: cut off theirs.

4. Blades don’t need reloading.

5. Ideal protection = tight clothes, short hair.

6. Get up the staircase, then destroy it.

7. Get out of the car, get onto the bike.

8. Keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert!

9. No place is safe, only safer.

10. The zombie may be gone, but the threat lives on.

Don’t be carefree and foolish with your most precious asset—life. This book is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now without your even knowing it. The Zombie Survival Guide offers complete protection through trusted, proven tips for safeguarding yourself and your loved ones against the living dead. It is a book that can save your life.


3) "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Seth Grahame-Smith

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”
So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield. Can Elizabeth vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read.


4) "I am Legend and other Stories" by Richard Matheson

Robert Neville may well be the last living man on Earth . . . but he is not alone.
An incurable plague has mutated every other man, woman, and child into bloodthirsty, nocturnal creatures who are determined to destroy him.
By day, he is a hunter, stalking the infected monstrosities through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn....


5) "Rot and Ruin" by Jonathan Maberry

In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human.


6) "Plague of the Dead" by Z. A. Recht

The “zombie apocalypse,” once on the fringes of horror, has become one of the most buzzworthy genres in popular culture. Now, in Plague of the Dead, Z.A. Recht delivers an intelligent, gripping thriller that will leave both new and die-hard zombie fans breathless.

The end begins with a viral outbreak unlike anything mankind has ever encountered before. The infected are subject to delirium, fever, a dramatic increase in violent behavior, and a one-hundred percent mortality rate. But it doesn’t end there. The victims return from death to walk the earth. When a massive military operation fails to contain the living dead it escalates into a global pandemic. In one fell swoop, the necessities of life become much more basic. Gone are petty everyday concerns. Gone are the amenities of civilized life. Yet a single law of nature remains: Live, or die. Kill, or be killed. On one side of the world, a battle-hardened general surveys the remnants of his command: a young medic, a veteran photographer, a brash Private, and dozens of refugees, all are his responsibility—­all thousands of miles from home. Back in the United States, an Army colonel discovers the darker side of Morningstar virus and begins to collaborate with a well-known journalist to leak the information to the public...and the Morningstar Saga has begun.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Science Fiction Book List



1) "Dune" by Frank Herbert

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family--and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.
A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what it undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.


2) "Neuromancer" by William Gibson

The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus- hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace . . .

Case had been the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction.


3) "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov

The three laws of Robotics:

1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm

2) A robot must obey orders givein to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

With these three, simple directives, Isaac Asimov changed our perception of robots forever when he formulated the laws governing their behavior. In I, Robot, Asimov chronicles the development of the robot through a series of interlinked stories: from its primitive origins in the present to its ultimate perfection in the not-so-distant future--a future in which humanity itself may be rendered obsolete.

Here are stories of robots gone mad, of mind-read robots, and robots with a sense of humor. Of robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world--all told with the dramatic blend of science fact and science fiction that has become Asmiov's trademark.


4) "The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the GalaxySeconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide. Together they stick out their thumbs to the stars and begin a wild journey through time and space.

The Restaurant at the End of the UniverseFacing annihilation at the hands of warmongers is a curious time to crave tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his comrades as they hurtle across the galaxy in a desperate search for a place to eat.

Life, the Universe and EverythingThe unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky– so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals can avert Armageddon: mild-mannered Arthur Dent and his stalwart crew.

So Long, and Thanks for All the FishBack on Earth, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription conspires to thrust him back to reality. So to speak.

Mostly HarmlessJust when Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life, all hell breaks loose. Can he save the Earth from total obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter from herself?


5) "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons

On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all. On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope--and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands.


6) "Animal Farm" by George Orwell

As ferociously fresh as it was more than a half century ago, this remarkable allegory of a downtrodden society of overworked, mistreated animals and their quest to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality is one of the most scathing satires ever published. As readers witness the rise and bloody fall of the revolutionary animals, they begin to recognize the seeds of totalitarianism in the most idealistic organization—and in the most charismatic leaders, the souls of the cruelest oppressors.


7) "Jurassic Park" by Michael Crichton

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them—for a price.

Until something goes wrong. . . .

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Mother's Day

In honor of all the mothers in the world. 


The celebration of mothers and motherhood can be traced back to ancient Rome when they would have festivals for the goddesses, Rhea and Cybele. The tradition was adopted by the Catholic Church. It became the fourth Sunday in Lent when the faithful would return to the "Mother Church" It wasn't until World War II that Mother's Day became an official holiday in the United States. 
To learn more:
http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/mothers-day

For ideas on how to pamper the mother(s) in your life...

http://spoonful.com/mothers-day
http://www.gifts.com/ideas/mothers-day
http://www.uncommongoods.com/occasions/mothers-day-gifts/mothers-day-gifts

Romance Book List



1) "Fifty Shades of Grey" by E.L. James

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.
Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.
Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.
This book is intended for mature audiences.


2) "Beautiful Disaster" by Jamie McGuire

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand.
Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby wants—and needs—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.


3) "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman living near the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, near London.


4) "Perfect Chemistry" by Simone Elkeles

A fresh, urban twist on the classic tale of star-crossed lovers.

When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created “perfect” life is about to unravel before her eyes. She’s forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she's worked so hard for—her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect. Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more.


5) "The Notebook" by Nicholas Sparks

Every so often a love story so captures our hearts that it becomes more than a story-it becomes an experience to remember forever. The Notebook is such a book. It is a celebration of how passion can be ageless and timeless, a tale that moves us to laughter and tears and makes us believe in true love all over again... At thirty-one, Noah Calhoun, back in coastal North Carolina after World War II, is haunted by images of the girl he lost more than a decade earlier. At twenty-nine, socialite Allie Nelson is about to marry a wealthy lawyer, but she cannot stop thinking about the boy who long ago stole her heart. Thus begins the story of a love so enduring and deep it can turn tragedy into triumph, and may even have the power to create a miracle...


6) "Easy" Tammara Webber

He watched her, but never knew her. Until thanks to a chance encounter, he became her savior...

The attraction between them was undeniable. Yet the past he'd worked so hard to overcome, and the future she'd put so much faith in, threatened to tear them apart.

Only together could they fight the pain and guilt, face the truth - and find the unexpected power of love.

A groundbreaking novel in the New Adult genre, Easy faces one girl's struggle to regain the trust she's lost, find the inner strength to fight back against an attacker, and accept the peace she finds in the arms of a secretive boy.