Category: Books

Simply Sublime Bags by Jodi Kahn

- Ann Leave a comment

Ahh, yet another use for duct tape – making handbags!

Fun, whimsical, fresh Simply Sublime Bags by Jodi Kahn has 30 great ideas for no-sew or very-little-sew bags of all shapes and sizes. Use of unusual and unexpected materials is emphasized, from hardware store finds to placemats to pillowcases to candy wrappers, and creativity is encouraged. They range in size from coin purses and makeup bags to totes for the beach. Directions are clear and straightforward and, as promised, require little or no sewing (not all of them call for duct tape, but a few do!)

The great thing about this book is that the results are practical and pretty and are not only fun to make, they’re fun to use!

The Creative Family by Amanda Soule

- Ann 1 Comment

Although it’s stated purpose is to give you ideas for play and creativity with your children, The Creative Family also functions as a gentle parenting guide with projects that are designed to encourage active participation for child and parent together. Emphasis is on the handmade and imperfect; the goal here is shared experiences.

Although a wide variety of projects are given here (drawing and painting, sewing and embroidering, putting on a play, making music) you’re encouraged to be spontaneous, have fun, explore the world around you.

Included are ideas for celebrating family holidays and events, creating rituals, preserving memories with photos, transforming children’s art into personal displays for your home, and exploring the natural world season by season.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

- Ann 1 Comment

The Appalacian Trail (AT), a continuous hiking trail spanning the eastern United States from Georgia to Maine, has been the source of many adventures and stories but by far the funniest (and arguably the best) is A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson.

Bryson, middle-aged and overweight, decides to reconnect with nature and America by hiking the often arduous AT. He recruits long-time friend Stephen Katz who is even less athletic than Bryson (he packs for the hike by filling his backpack with candy bars – and nothing else) and sets off optimistically. What ensues is both laugh-out-loud funny and thoughtful, beautiful and provocative. Although the pair end up hiking only parts of the trail (the beginning and the end plus several day hikes in the central section), their experience is no less authentic than those of a thru-hiker.

Along the way Bryson (one of our best writers) fills you in on the history and lore of the trial, the varied accounts of the towns scattered along its length, the unique and beautiful landscape and wildlife of the areas crossed (although the chapter on bears is likely to keep you awake at night whether you’re in a tent or at home), insights into human nature and the value of keeping your friends – even those that drive you nuts.

But most of all, you’ll laugh. A lot.

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

- Ann Leave a comment

Set in England the years surround World War I, The House at Riverton by Kate Morton follows the decline and fall of a once-proud English family. Devastated by the ravages of the war, torn apart by secrets, disgraced by a very public scandal, the family unravels against a backdrop of war and the Roaring Twenties.

David, Hannah and Emmeline grow up in an idyllic, privileged atmosphere at the beginning of the century. When Grace Reeves begins service as a housemaid at Riverton, she becomes witness and confidant to the siblings and keeper of their secrets. Told in flashback many years later, an elderly Grace relives the tragedy that changed them all forever.

Part Upstairs Downstairs, part Brideshead Revisted and even a little Sense and Sensibility, The House at Riverton will keep you guessing with it’s twists and turns until its shocking end.

International Literacy Day

- Ann Leave a comment

Today is International Literacy Day! What better way to celebrate than to teach someone to read?

At the Davenport Main Library, we have two special sections which can help you do just that. Our ESL (or English as a Second Language) area is located on the second floor in the southwest corner. If English is not your native tongue, this is a good place to start. Picture dictionaries are an example of the material found here. If you can’t remember the word, you can always point to the picture of it!

Another area located in the same corner at Main is the Learning Center, which deals primarily with literacy issues. Most of the items here help those with limited reading abilities who want to master basic life skills. For example, there’s a whole series called Life Skills Literacy which includes titles such as Things to Know About Personal Paperwork or Things to Know About Spending and Saving Money, all by Richard Kimball. Come to think about it, even some very literate people could use these books!

He Said Beer, She Said Wine by Sam Calagione and Marnie Old

- Ann Leave a comment

Ever wonder which wine to have with a meal? Ever debate the pairing of different beers with specific foods? Ever argue with your SO about which is better, beer or wine? He Said Beer, She Said Wine by Sam Calagione and Marnie Old will not only educate and entertain you, it’ll provide you with fresh issues to debate.

Written by two acknowledged experts in their field, this book starts with an overview of each beverage, the basics of how each is produced, a discussion of varieties and styles and how to taste and evaluate each one. The heart of the book discusses pairing wine and beer with different foods such as cheese, vegetables, sandwiches, pizza, fish, pasta, chicken and desserts.

The final section is the fun part – bringing the debate home. Calagione and Old describe how to have a wine versus beer party, including giving you ideas on how to set up voting, sample menus and wine/beer pairings, and recipes.

Smart but never stuffy, this lavishly illustrated book is sure to encourage lots of friendly debate – and might even have you believing in the value of the other beverage, no matter what side you’re on.

Cheer! by Kate Torgovnick

- Ann Leave a comment

Cheerleaders are usually portrayed as air-headed and dumb, the sport is often the butt of jokes and in this age of equal rights, it’s considered anit-feminist to be part of a squad. The truth, of course, is very different.

It wasn’t that long ago (before Title IX in the 70s) that cheerleading was often the only organized sport available to high school and college women. Today, competitive cheerleading (not the silly dance steps performed by squads at professional football and basketball games) is a scholarship sport at hundreds of colleges, with National Championships held each year in April that are shown on ESPN. Like any college sport, it requires rigorous practices, learning specific skills, staying in excellent physical condition and game day situations. It is also plagued by the same problems – illegal drug use, often serious injuries and eating disorders.

Just in time for opening of college football. Cheer! by Kate Torgovnick takes you through a typical season with the squads from Stephen F Austin, Southern University and the University of Memphis. You’ll go behind the scenes, experience the hard times and the fun times and come to love the people of each squad. Well-researched and detailed, Cheer! will give you new insight into – and respect for – the world of cheerleading.

It’s what’s for dinner….during Lent

- Bill Leave a comment

To be filed under the category of “where does it come from” is Richard Ellis’s Tuna: A Love Story. There are all kinds of fish facts to amuse your dinner company, including:

* What you’re eating out of the can scientifically isn’t tune per se, but a member of the family called skipjack.

* The largest fish market in the world is in Tsukiji, Japan. Every day, this icebox is loaded with catch from around the world and millions of dollars are exchanged. One fish brought $173,600 US in 2001.

* The purse seining method of tuna fishing leads to the deaths of thousands of dolphins per year. If a can is labeled “tuna safe”, it merely means a good faith effort is made to rescue as many as possible, and these regulations are far from a global standard.

* A highly-prized bluefin tuna (a rich dark red meat unlike our Starkist, Bumblebee, and Chicken of the Sea) can fetch upwards of $400 a pound. The sushi restauranteur marks up from there.

* Around one in 40 million tuna eggs will make it to adulthood. Once they do, however, few species can compete physically with a quarter-ton fish that can swim in excess of 50 mph.

* The insatiable appetite and unlimited finances of the Japanese for this delicacy may very likely result in the species’ extinction in the future.

Sorry Charlie!

Apocalypse, Atheists, the Ark, oh my!

- Bill Leave a comment

How important is religion to you? Well it’s important to someone, as several of these new red-hot religious book have a starting print run of 200,000 copies.

Here are a few titles that just came off the mountain at DPL for your perusal:

Sylvia Browne – End of Days: Predictions and Prophecies about the End of the World
The world has become a scary place—religious wars, global terrorism, and genocide are all over the news, and thanks to the Internet, the Information Age has ushered in the Anxiety Age. Who better to lead the way out than Sylvia Browne, the most popular psychic working today?

Jack Kerouac – Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha
Published for the first time in book form, an account of the life of the Buddha by the author of On the Road

T.D. Jakes – Before You Do: Making Great Life Decisions
A guide by the author of Reposition Yourself identifies twenty-five spiritual and psychological tools for reevaluating one’s place in life before making decisions about relationships with family, friends, and others

A Friendly Letter to Skeptics and Atheists: Musings on Why God Is Good and Faith Isn’t Evil
Social Psychologist David Myers admits that many people throughout history who have claimed to believe in God have caused much evil in the world. He is respectful of his atheist interlocutors, like Richard Dawkins, preferring to discuss how Surely, in some ways I’m wrong, you’re wrong, we’re all wrong.

The lost ark of the covenant: Solving the 2,500 year of fable of the biblical ark
With painstaking historical scholarship, groundbreaking genetic science, and hair-raising fieldwork, Parfitt, who the Wall Street Journal calls “a British Indiana Jones,” debunks the previous myths and reveals the shocking history of the Ark and its keepers. From Israel to Egypt, Ethiopia, and the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, the journey leads to places Parfitt could never have imagined.

Anne Rice – Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession
In a haunting memoir, the best-selling author of Interview with a Vampire presents an intensely personal journey of faith that records her New Orleans Catholic childhood; loss of faith and involvement with secular humanism; the alienation and tragedy that marked her life; and her eventual return, after thirty-eight years as an atheist, to New Orleans and a belief in Christ

Joel Osteen – Daily Readings from Become a Better You: 90 Devotions for Improving Your Life Every Day
An anthology of inspirational and motivational readings by the pastor author of Become a Better You includes pieces that illustrate his seven principles for leading an improved life

Keep Your Doors Locked…

- Ann Leave a comment

So, the joke goes like this:

Be sure to keep your doors locked this time of year. Not because of a crime wave, but to keep the neighbors from sneaking bags of zucchini and tomatoes into your car/back porch!

It wasn’t that long ago that we were in the depths of icy winter and many of us had forgotten what a real, homegrown tomato tasted like (just that it wasn’t that pale red styrofoam substitute that you found at the grocery store) and now, just a few months later we’re drowning in tomatoes and overwhelmed by zucchini.

The library, of course, is here in your time of need. Here are some titles to help you cope with the Great Tomato Overload (you know, just in case the neighbors are on to you and are keeping their doors locked…)

Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without by Mollie Katzen

Tomatoes and Mozzerella by Hallie Harron

The Tomato Festival Cookbook by Lawrence Davis-Hollander

Perfect Vegetables by Carl Tremblay

The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich

Preserving for All Seasons by Anne Gardon

The Classic Zucchini Cookbook by Nancy Ralston