Tag: Websites

Fantastic Fiction

- Rachel Leave a comment

Most people get stuck in a reading rut. They have read all of the books by their favorite author and now they don’t know what to read next. Sometimes a friend recommends a good book to you and that keeps you from being stuck in a rut too long. But sometimes you want a book now and you have no one to ask. May I suggest a website. A wonderful website that thousands of people love. It is called Fantastic Fiction.

Fantastic Fiction began in 1999 as a hobby for Dave Wands of the UK. The website grew and in 2004, Wands resigned from his job and formed the website company. Now there is a small team of family and friends that works hard to keep the information accurate and current. There are not enough words to express my gratitude to these people!

Fantastic Fiction is a website that keeps track of books and authors. If you are wondering if your favorite author will be publishing a book soon, you can find that information on the website. If you do not know the order of the books in a series, Fantastic Fiction can help you with that. I always turn to this website first when I am looking for a book in a series, even over an author’s webpage. Fantastic Fiction always has the series listed and publication dates. It is very useful when you are looking up an author that writes books in different series (and there are a lot of authors that do!).

While having a website that lists books and authors is pretty great, the best features of Fantastic Fiction have not been mentioned yet. There are other features of Fantastic Fiction will help you find other books to read. First, you will see a section of books that an author recommends. For example, if you were on James Patterson’s webpage, you will see that he recommended Crimson Lake by Candice Fox. So if you enjoy reading James Patterson’s books, you might like to read a book by Candice Lake. Also, some of the books that he recommended are part of a series. So you may discover a new author and  a new series to love. Another feature on each author’s webpage is a section that lists other authors that are similar to the author that you are looking at. On James Patterson’s page, other authors that are listed include David Baldacci, Lee Child and Michael Connelly. This section is a great tool for finding a new author that you may like based on your reading preferences. And if you are still stuck, you can check out the top authors and popular books pages.

I hope that you check out Fantastic Fiction. It has a lot of useful information. And the author bios can be quite interesting and the author pictures can be amusing! Fantastic Fiction has a lot to offer so stop by and visit their page.

 

National Hanging Out Day

- Ann 3 Comments

The Clothesline

clothes·line [ klṓz ln, klṓz ln ]
noun (plural clothes·lines)
Definition: line for hanging laundry: a cord on which clean laundry is hung to dry,usually outdoors.
 

It is a simple word that is causing much discussion these days. The act of hanging out clothes in the fresh air brings back many memories for me. Days with my grandmother and mother, the smell of fresh sheets on the bed at night. I still hang out my clothes, rarely using a dryer. I read an article in the New York Times about a year ago about clotheslines and how some areas, mostly new house subdivisions, have banned the use of clotheslines. The article led me to Project Laundry List where founder Alexander Lee gives the top reasons why you should hang out your clothes, the first and foremost being to save money – about $100 per year on electricity for most households. The organization has designated April 19th as National Hanging Out Day to encourage everyone to hang out their laundry and save energy.

There is a beautiful book on the subject, The Clothesline by Irene Rawlings and Andrea VanSteenhouse, which discusses the history of drying laundry, types of clotheslines, laundry rooms, laundry collectibles and clotheslines as art. The illustrations alone make it worth a look.

First day of spring

- Ann 1 Comment

Spring trainingThat’s the true harbinger of spring, not crocuses or swallows returning to Capistrano, but the sound of a bat on the ball. – Bill Veeck, 1976

Every baseball fan knows that spring starts this week – pitchers and catchers are reporting to Spring Training. Just knowing that somewhere there is warm sunshine and blue skies and green grass and that the boys of summer are working out the kinks makes the promise of spring seem closer. If you’re lucky enough to be able to escape the Midwestern winter and visit one of the leagues (the Cactus League is in Arizona and the Grapefruit League is in Florida) check out out Spring Training Online for in-depth information about the teams, the parks they play in during spring training, how to get tickets and directions on how to get there as well as spring training game schedules. Spring Training Tips offers lots of valuable information from people who have gone to spring training including information on how to rent a house for your visit, where to go to squeeze in a round of golf and what kind of weather to expect. Major League Baseball has a wealth of information including the most sacred to baseball fans: statistics. Check out all the news about your favorite team and what players to watch this season.

And for the rest us, hang in there – the Cubs home opener is March 31 and the newly renamed Quad Cities River Bandits open April 3!

And The Oscar Goes To …..?

- Valerie Leave a comment

oscar-statuette.jpgHollywood’s big night is coming – The Academy Awards. Oscar’s red carpet will be unrolled on Sunday, February 24th. See the lists of nominees at www.oscar.com.

To learn more about the history of movie making take a look at the 791.43 area within the Library. Here are some titles that might spark your interest:




Movies That Changed Us by Nick Clooney (Yep, that’s George Clooney’s dad.) 791.43 Clo

100 Years of Hollywood by Time-Life Books 791.42 One

The Golden Age of “B” Movies by Doug McClelland 791.43 McC