Springfield Library Corner
April 10, 2003

ELEANOR'S CHOICE: FUN AND USEFUL WEBSITES FOR THIS WEEK

Garden Guides at http://www.gardenguides.com

History and Mythos of the Knights Templar at http://www.templarhistory.com

Meteorology Guide at http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/home.rxml

Periodic Table of Elements at http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/

Sandart at http://lovethosekids.com/playgrnd/sandart.htm

JOY'S PICKS

A freshly brewed cup of tea does wonders for the spirits. Tammy Safi’s “Healthy Teas” is a beautiful and informative compilation of recipes, facts, and history. Learn how to feel better and improve your vitality by adding tea to your diet. The beautiful colored photos will turn even skeptics into tea drinkers!

More and more youngsters are discovering vegetarianism. Judi Gillies has recipes for kids of all ages in “The Jumbo Vegetarian Cookbook.” The meals are simple to prepare with step by step directions. If breakfast burritos or tempeh kabobs are appealing to you, check out this book!

Every child dreams of owning a puppy, but few realize the work involved. Laurence Anholt’s charming “The New Puppy” is perfect parent-child preparation for pet ownership. Young Anna is a dog-lover, but soon learns that puppies, though irresistible, require patience and understanding.

Can a fifty year old southern belle find happiness when her marriage ends and she’s forced to move back home and live with her eighty year old parents? Linwood Breedlove Scott discovers that families are forever in “Queen Bee of Mimosa Branch.” Author Haywood Smith will have you smiling one moment and near tears the next as she takes her heroine along the road to self-discovery and independence.

With the exception of a few South- Seas Islanders, Americans are the fattest people on the face of the earth. How we got this way and what we can do about it is the subject of Greg Critser’s “Fat Land.” The author attacks diets, fashion and child rearing techniques in his expose of our ever increasing girth. This is a humorous look at a scary topic.

NAT'S "YOU SAW IT HERE AT SPRINGFIELD FIRST"

Computer users have recently won a major battle through the peaceable cooperation of the world computing community.

OpenOffice.org has liberated users of word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and drawing software from the clutches of monopoly power and excessive pricing, flawed products and lack of choice.

OpenOffice.org is not a company but a community of programmers and developers which counts Sun Microsystems as a founding member and whose goal is to create an office suite that runs on ALL of the major computer platforms, including Windows, Mac OS, Solaris and Linux. It is an open source project, meaning that participants from around the world work on the code and contribute to its development and improvement. And to you, the consumer, it is FREE.

It is important to know before you install the software on your computer at home that your system must meet the minimum requirements, that there is no warranty attached to it, and that there may be some bugs in the program. That said, OpenOffice is both impressive and very familiar looking.

Thanks to an inquiry from a library patron some months ago, you can now borrow the software from the Springfield Township Library (version 1.0). Alternatively you may purchase a CD from a distributor for about $15, or a CD with book from an online retailer like Amazon for about $28. If you can handle a 52 megabyte download, you can download a newer version, 1.02, through the OpenOffice website at http://www.OpenOffice.org. Office to the people, right on!

LIBRARIAN'S PICK OF THE WEEK

Some titles by a wonderful author whom you should know! One of Elizabeth Goudge’s books, “Green Dolphin Street” was made into a movie, and some of you may remember it, but I’d like to introduce you to “The Rosemary Tree,” a lovely story about an elderly vicar who feels as if he has never been able to do his job in the way God wants him to, a child with the ability to see far beyond her years, and a young man who has lost his way.

This is more than a story about doubting things; it opens up the world of the village these people live in and makes you more than acquainted with their lives, their problems, and their joys. With Goudge’s stories, the reader enters a new world and doesn’t step out until she closes the book.

In” The Bird in the Tree,” we are introduced to the Eliot family, whose members are all fully realized in a way that makes you feel you know them. The children, Tommy, Caroline and Ben, worship their older cousin David and their great-grandmother Lucilla. In “Bird,” Lucilla, having come through the war relatively unscathed, would like to buy a suitable house, a refuge, as it were, to which her children and grandchildren could escape. Her children, Hilary and Margaret, do not know quite how to tell her that her finances have been decimated by the war, but know that this would not stop her in any case.

Lucilla finds the house she seeks, and in a wonderful paragraph Goudge explains the mystery and wonder of the heart of the house: “…the high mantelpiece and overmantel of dark carved wood that stretched from floor to ceiling…It seemed to tower above them, the carving of it lit here and there by the dusty beams of light that came through the shutters.

Looking at it Lucilla suddenly felt that a great ship was sailing towards her, driven fast on a rising sea…she could hear the roar of the water as it surged away from the proud curve of the prow…” And here begins the search for the answer to a local mystery. Don’t miss the second book about the Eliots, “Pilgrim’s Inn,” which is my favorite of the trilogy.

Also new and recommended: “Dead Aim” by Iris Johansen; “Death at Glamis Castle” by Robin Paige; “Cold Pursuit” by T. Jefferson Parker; “Keeping Watch” by Laurie King; “Birthright” by Norah Roberts; “Skyhook” by John Nance; “Evenings at Five” by Gail Godwin; “Children of the Storm” by Elizabeth Peters; “Lost Light” by Michael Connelly; “Lying Wonders” by Susan Rogers Cooper; and “The Speed of Dark” by Elizabeth Moon.

In the nonfiction section: “Tycho & Kepler” by Kitty Ferguson; “Pox” by Deborah Hayden; “Mercator” by Nicholas Crater; “Afghanistan: Lifting the Veil;” “The Chrysler Building” by David Stravitz; “Abraham Lincoln” by Thomas Keneally; “Dark Star Safari” by Paul Theroux; “Social Security Under the Gun” by Arthur Benavie; and “The Yoga Minibook for Longevity” by Elaine Gavalas.