Wednesday, March 23, 2011

How Hard Can it Be to Find Good Fiction? Check it Out!

How far will you go to "get away from it all?" National Geographic's "How hard can it be?" campaign goes to the extreme by piling on the hot air balloons and lifting a 16'x16' house from the ground, taking the house up, up and away to a destination unknown. Answering the question, "How hard can it be?" can be tricky. In theory, and with a little imagination, (and the help of scientists and other experienced professionals), adventures such as this one undertaken by National Geographic may be a cinch. With a little help from your friends at JCPL, you can answer the "how hard can it be" question easily...with a stack of new fiction titles, just waiting to be checked out for your next great escape! Check out these new books!

When Frank Mackey was nineteen, he and his girlfriend, Rosie Daly, planned to meet at Faithful Place. From there, they were going to run away to London to start their life together. Rosie, however, never showed up for their rendezvous, and Frank never heard from her again. Twenty years later, working as an undercover cop in Dublin, Frank gets a call from his sister, informing him that Rosie's suitcase has turned up, leading Frank on a journey into his past in "Faithful Place," Book 3 of the Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox series by Tana French.

Researching deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, Diana Bishop dredges up bewitching information in an old manuscript. Descended from a long line of witches and sorcery, Diana takes a few notes from the manuscript and returns it to the stacks, but has unwittingly scratched the surface of the underworld in the process, drawing forth a horde of centuries old witches and vampires and a coveted treasure in "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness.

Deep in the recesses of Pakistan, Sonia Laghari and eight others have been captured by terrorists. Using her psychology background and her religious training, Sonia delves into the kidnappers' psyches to estabish a connection, while her son, Theo, uses military strategies to unhinge the group. Can the agenda of this deadly group of armed terrorists be changed? Find out as Sonia and her son race against time to save each captor in "The Good Son" by Michael Gruber.

Isolated and set in an uninhabited section of the Spanish sierra, the Our Lady of Mercy Convent stands alone with its six women, cut off from the world that they have chosen to leave behind. When an abandoned baby is left on the doorstep of the convent, Mother Superior Maria Ines must face the fact that their quiet, uneventful world has been forever changed, and that her own past must be confronted in "The Convent" by Panos Karnezis.

You don't have to tie thousands of hot air balloons to your house for a great getaway. The best getaway can be found right around the corner at your local branch of JCPL, where the great escape is shelved within the stacks of great, new fiction! After all, when choosing books, with a little help from your friends at JCPL, how hard can it be?

Friday, March 4, 2011

New Non-Fiction at JCPL: It's All Good!

Never one to dress any way but casually, the fashion police would have a field day with me. Blue jeans, sweatshirts, and whatever footwear is readily available is the outfit of the day. My three year old granddaughter, however, knows how to dress in style. Her ensembles consist of whatever strikes her fancy, and may include several sets of clothes, layered upon each other all at once, topping the outfit with her favorite Minnie Mouse costume. She changes it up on some days, though, and dresses as Tinkerbell, complete with wings on her back, accessorizing her wardrobe with plenty of bling-bling. I wonder what Carson Kressley or Clinton Kelly would have to say about her wardrobe choices? From muffin tops to suntan colored hosiery to visible panty lines, every fashion faux pas has crossed the paths of these "fashion police," and in "Oh No She Didn't: The Top 100 Style Mistakes Women Make," Clinton Kelly talks straight about style, offering detailed critiques for the most common 100 slip ups that women make in the fashion department. This famous host of TLC's "What Not to Wear" examines wardrobe, hairstyle, posture, and accessories, presenting easy and practical suggestions for creating stunning outfits for women of every age.

I'd like to list 100 of the most wonderful, new non-fiction titles on the shelves of JCPL in this article, but to save space, I chose a few I thought you'd really like. Read on!

Searching for greener pastures annually is what migration is all about for a variety of birds and animals, but migration is one of the deadliest phases of life for both bird and beast. "Great Migrations: Epic Animal Journeys" by Karen Kostyal follows the National Geographic film documentary, "Great Migrations" as different species race against time, battling freezing temperatures, scorching heat, and the threat of predators in their long distance travels, desperately crossing thousands of miles despite the dangers that await them.

Do you have a spare hour to settle your finances? According to Ellie Kay, sixty minutes is all it takes to revolutionize your financial situation. If you are looking for long-term economic recovery and stability, "The 60-Minute Money Workout" by Ellie Kay offers feasible and fun alternatives to being debt-free, covering topics such as saving for college, having and enjoying a debt-free vacation, paying cash for your cars, giving and living generously, finding financial peace with your spouse, and being content with your current financial circumstances.

You say "Achoo!" and we automatically say, "gezondheid" or "bless you!" The commercial for a popular cold medicine shows a woman TV producer's alternate personality whispering to her, "You can't do anything about a cold." What exactly is a cold? Some colds come on with a vengeance, leaving the sufferer feeling like they've been hit by a truck, and still others are nothing more than a sniffle or an annoyance for a few days. In "Achoo! The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold" by Jennifer Ackerman, we learn what a cold is, how it works and whether it's possible to really "fight one off." This ode to the common cold also dispels myths about the common cold, and offers advice for treating the symptoms as the search for a cure continues.

When it comes to wardrobe choices of any kind, my motto is "let freedom ring" and "variety is the spice of life." Never apologize for your taste in clothing, and more importantly, your reading tastes, because, as the saying goes, "It's all good!"