The Davenport Public Library will be closed Tuesday December 24th and Wednesday December 25th in observance of the Christmas holiday. All locations will reopen on Thursday December 26th at their regularly scheduled time – Main and Eastern Avenue at 9am and Fairmount Street at noon.
Have a safe and happy holiday!
If you’re anything like me, packing a healthy, flavorful lunch day after day is a surprisingly difficult task. So I was pretty excited when I found Beating the Lunch Box Blues: Fresh Ideas for Lunches on the Go! by J.M. Hirsch. Utilizing a combination of leftovers and fresh ingredients, Beating the Lunch Box Blues was created not only to provide recipes, but to give inspiration.
This book gives very simple, practical advice. As I perused the pages, I had a lot of a-ha moments. Why had I never thought that I should cook a little extra couscous to save for lunch that week? Why did I bring leftovers exactly as they had been cooked the night before? Why couldn’t I bring the leftover chicken from dinner as part of a salad for lunch? (I’m clearly not a creative lunch maker.) And why do I never plan lunches, but just toss them together as I’m running out the door?
Hirsch’s recipes focus on creating variety in your meals and planning ahead. This will save time in the end and might prevent you from buying that bag of chips from the vending machine. If you’re looking for additional ideas check out Hirsch’s blog: www.lunchboxblues.com or these other lunch box cookbooks from DPL: Best Lunch Box Ever by Kate Sullivan Morford and Vegan Lunch Box by Jennifer McCann.
There aren’t many books more beloved than The Tale of Peter Rabbit and even fewer authors as iconic as Beatrix Potter. More than 150 million copies of her books have sold worldwide and interest in her work and life remains high. And her characters – Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle Duck, and all the rest – exist in a charmed world filled with flowers and gardens.
Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life is the first book to explore the origins of Beatrix Potter’s love of gardening and plants and show how this passion came to be reflected in her work. The book begins with a gardener’s biography, highlighting the key moments and places throughout her life that helped define her, including her home Hill Top Farm in England’s Lake District. Next, the reader follows Beatrix Potter through a year, with a season-by-season overview of what is blooming that bring her gardens alive. The book culminates in a traveler’s guide, with information on how and where to visit Potter’s gardens today. Richly illustrated and filled with quotations from her books, letters, and journals, it is essential reading for all who know and cherish Beatrix Potter’s classic tales. (description from publisher)
There are a lot of great things about holiday parties: cookies, presents, drinks, friends & family, drinks, decorations, food, and did I mention, drinks? If you’re considering shaking things up and trying a new drink, we have a wide range of books to wet your whistle.
Here are a few of my favorites (visit the reference desk for additional suggestions!):
Cocktails for a crowd : more than 40 recipes
for making popular drinks in party-pleasing batches by Kara Newman is a great go-to for people with a long guest list. From punches to drinks served with an umbrella, this book covers its bases well. Featuring beautiful photography, easy to follow directions, tips from bartenders, and a modern aesthetic, this is a great resource all year long.
Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist by Tim Federle is a pun heavy book of drink recipes. While the drinks may not be revolutionary, the names breathe new life into old standards. Who could pass up a “Are You There God? It’s me, Margarita.” or a “Brave New Swirled”? Federle includes some bar tip staples, a few non-alcholoic drinks featuring familiar names from children’s literature (“Charlie and the Chocolate Fake-tini”), and bar bites like “The Develed Egg Wears Prada”.
The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World’s Great Drinks by Amy Stewart has been on a number of best non-fiction book lists this year. Part history, part science, and part cookbook, The Drunken Botanist is an examination of how humans created the drinks that we consume today. With over fifty recipes and growing tips for libation minded gardeners, this is a great choice if you want to share some trivia along side your cocktail.
Who says the winter months have to be bleak and barren? Author Tammy Donroe sees this season as an opportunity to stay inside, fire up the oven, and produce decadent desserts from the bounty of wholesome winter ingredients.
Wintersweet encourages readers to make use of fresh, local ingredients for warming seasonal desserts. While summer farmers’ markets are always overflowing with ripe produce, there’s plenty to be had from November to March: squashes and pumpkins, parsnips and carrots, apples, pears, citrus of all types, and feel-good ingredients like nuts, cheese, and chocolate. The fresh and rustic recipes in Wintersweet push the envelope of traditional winter desserts like pumpkin or apple pies with such delicacies as Pear Cranberry Clafouti, Spicy Prune Cake with Penuche Frosting, Tangelo Sorbet, and Goat Cheese Cake with Dried Cherry Compote. Each chapter is devoted to different ingredients, ranging from Persimmons, Pomegranates, and Cranberries to Citrus, Cheese, and Dried Fruits, allowing readers to experiment with new and exciting ingredients for complex and delicious flavors. They taste even better when they can be found near your own backyard; Donroe provides resources for finding the best local farmers’ markets and agricultural centers near you.
Perfect for holiday gatherings or to warm the belly on a cold night, Wintersweet is the perfect dessert companion to make the year’s coldest season a bit more festive. (description from publisher)
The Snail Soup Can Decoy to keep the candy stash safe. The Customizable ‘Keep Out’ sign to deter meddlesome siblings and parents. A Bunk Bed Communicator made from cardboard tubes (“Psst! Can you keep the snoring down”) You’ll find these projects and lots more in Made by Dad by Scott Bedford.
Clever, whimsical, and kind of genius, here are 67 unique projects that will turn any dad with DIY leanings into a mad scientist hero that his kid(s) will adore. No screens, no hi-tech gadgetry. Made by Dad combines the rough-edged, handmade ethos of a Boy Scout manual or The Dangerous Book for Boys with a sly sense of humor that kids love. Scott Bedford, a creative director by day and Webby Award winning blogger by nights and weekends, wields an X-ACTO knife, magic marker, and prodigious imagination to create endlessly delightful projects for his two sons. He knows that kids like contraptions and gadgets, things that are surprising – chair that appears to be balanced on eggshells. Things that are complex – multilevel city, with buildings, tunnels, and roads, built from old boxes around the legs of a table. And especially things with humor – the Snappy Toast Rack, made to resemble a crocodile’s gaping mouth. The projects are shown in full-color photographs, and the instructions are illustrated in detailed line drawings that exude personality. Some are quick and simple enough to be done in a coffee shop; others are more of an afternoon project – yielding hours and hours of rich, imaginative playtime. (description from publisher)
With her critically acclaimed, bestselling first book, Scent of the Missing , Susannah Charleson was widely praised for her unique insight into the kinship between humans and dogs, as revealed through her work in canine search and rescue alongside her partner, golden retriever Puzzle. Now, in The Possibility Dogs, Charleson journeys into the world of psychiatric service, where dogs aid humans with disabilities that may be unseen but are no less felt.
This work had a profound effect on Charleson, perhaps because, for her, this journey began as a personal one: Charleson herself struggled with posttraumatic stress disorder for months after a particularly grisly search. Collaboration with her search dog partner made the surprising difference to her own healing. Inspired by that experience, Charleson learns to identify abandoned dogs with service potential, often plucking them from shelters at the last minute, and to train them for work beside hurting partners, to whom these second-chance dogs bring intelligence, comfort, and hope.
Along the way Charleson comes to see canine potential everywhere, often where she least expects it – from Merlin the chocolate lab puppy with the broken tail once cast away in a garbage bag, who now stabilizes his partner’s panic attacks; to Ollie, the blind and deaf terrier, rescued moments before it was too late, who now soothes anxious children; to Jake Piper, the starving pit bull terrier mix with the wayward ears who is transformed into a working service dog and, who, for Charleson, goes from abandoned to irreplaceable.
The Possibility Dogs is an inspiring story that shows how dogs can be rescued, and can rescue in return. (description from publisher)
To say that I was excited about the release of Janelle Monáe’s newest album, The Electric Lady, is an understatement. Her 2010 album, The ArchAndroid (Suites II & III), is one of my favorite albums of all time. That epic, sprawling R&B recording (that feels like a collaboration between David Bowie, Lauryn Hill, Beck, and Outcast) tells the story of Cindi Mayweather, an android sent back in time to save the people of Metropolis from a time-traveling secret society that prevents freedom and love. Monáe’s first album, Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase) began the story and The Electric Lady continues with suites four and five out of seven.
But don’t let that complicated back story turn you away. The Electric Lady is as fun as it is smart. Collaborating with Erykah Badu (on the spectacular track Q.U.E.E.N.), Esperanza Spalding, Miguel, Solonge, and Prince, Monáe has created an exciting follow-up album. While there are stand-out tracks (Primetime and Dance Apocolyptic are two of my favorites), The Electric Lady is best listened to in full.
Power Hungry is the ultimate energy bar cookbook, complete with recipes and over 150 variations for protein bars, granola bars, endurance gels and bars, “knock-offs” of your favorite name-brand bars, and more.
Power Hungry recipes are 100% soy-free, completely adaptable to gluten-free and vegan diets; Paleo options and a raw bar chapter are also included. Control what you eat – Power Hungry calls for the best ingredients and high-quality proteins: rolled oats, multigrain cereals, quinoa, buckwheat, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, all-natural protein powders, and more. They’re easy to make, customize, and freeze and you’ll save money – store-bought bars are expensive. Maximize taste and nutrition – all-natural ingredients, no junky additives with these completely portable, healthy, energizing snacks. Power bars will be loved by everyone – whole families (lunchboxes, after-school snacks, parents on the run, road trips and travel), fitness buffs (pre-and post-workouts), individuals on special diets (gluten-free, vegan, raw, allergies), health-conscious eaters, busy students, active seniors, yogis, dancers, hikers, and campers. There’s something here for everyone. (description from publisher)
This year there have been a lot of fantastic books adapted to the big screen: Twelve Years a Slave, Catching Fire (The Hunger Games trilogy), The Great Gatsby, Warm Bodies, Admission, World War Z and The Book Thief — just to name a few! Right before an adapted movie comes out, many scramble to read the book first. In that rush it becomes difficult to find a copy that isn’t checked out. To prepare for the new year and start planning your reading, here are some of the books that you may want to read before you watch (who doesn’t want to get to yell, “The book was better!” in a crowded theater?)
Following successful film adaptations of Twilight and The Hunger Games series, movie studios are continuing to bank on YA dystopian sci-fi and paranormal romance series. With planned releases of Divergent by Veronica Roth, Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead, The Giver by Lois Lowry (finally!), and The Maze Runner by James Dashner (the first part of the third book in The Hunger Games series, Mockingjay is also due to be released in November) fans of speculative teen fiction have plenty to read in preparation.
Realistic fiction and a stand alone, John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars is another popular YA book set to debut next year (if you want updates, John Green has been pretty open about the process on twitter), and will star Shailene Woodley (who is also staring in Divergent).
Not all of the books adapted for the big screen next year will be targeted at young adults. In August, Helen Mirren is set to star in what has been described in the New York Times as Slumdog Millionaire meets Ratatouille, The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard Morais. Gillian Flynn’s massively popular Gone Girl is due for an October release, starring Ben Affleck and directed by David Fincher (The Social Network, Fight Club). And if you really want to get a head start, the release of Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James is planned for February of 2015.
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