Springfield Library Corner
July 3, 2003

ELEANOR'S BEST WEBSITES

Candy Harrington: Have Disabilities, Will Travel at www.candyharrington.com/clips/dallasNews.html

Classical Music Archives at www.classicalarchives.com/

Cool Science for Curious Kids at www.hhmi.org/coolscience/

Galileo’s Battle for the Heavens at www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/galileo/

International Railway Links at www.tadlane.com/rrlinks.htm

San Francisco After the ’06 at http://photo.ucr.edu/california/projects/sf1906/

JOY'S PICKS

Are you looking for a way to improve on your standard summer cookout? Jane Murphy’s “The Great Big Burger Book” is filled with new and unusual ways to prepare this culinary favorite. So throw tradition to the wind, get out of your rut, and sink your teeth into something totally off-beat!

Baseball fans and historians take note. “The First World Series and the Baseball Fanatics of 1903” by Roger I. Abrams is the perfect book for hammock-reading this summer. It’s an interesting look into the American way of life at the turn of the century and the merging of all economic classes in the name of “team spirit.”

Do you believe in divine intervention? “A Little Help From Above” is Saralee Rosenberg’s debut novel about families and the never ending job of motherhood. It’s about sisters and first loves and karma. Reading this book is a total delight. It will stop you in your tracks and really make you think.

Are you dreading an upcoming affair where you’ll be expected to make a speech? “Great Toasts” by Andrew Frothingham will give you ideas for all occasions and circumstances. This valuable reference includes the history of toasting as well as amusing anecdotes from famous authors. So raise your glasses and say something profound!

If you’re an elementary school teacher or a primary grade pupil you’re sure to enjoy “First Year Letters” by Julie Daneberg. A novice teacher’s first year in the classroom is chronicled in hilarious letters from her students. This book will charm both children and adults. The illustrations are priceless!

LIBRARIAN'S PICKS OF THE WEEK

“First Degree” by David Rosenfelt. What I really like about this book is the laid-back, almost effortless style Rosenfelt uses in his narration.

He tells the story of Andy Carpenter, a lawyer, also kind of laid-back because his father left him 22 million dollars that he’s trying to figure out what to do with. Money can’t buy happiness, though, as Andy’s girlfriend, a former cop, is charged with the grisly killing and beheading of Alex Dorsey, a man she used to work with and admire. Dorsey has turned out to be dirty, and Laurie had gotten the goods on him, only to be stymied by a concurrent F.B.I. investigation that gave Dorsey a slap on the wrist, and left Laurie disenchanted with police work.

You can imagine Andy’s shock when Laurie is charged with Dorsey’s murder. “First Degree” reads easily and quickly, and deeply satisfies.

Also new and recommended: “Dying Embers” by Robert Bailey; “White Death” by Clive Cussler; “Washington Schlepped Here” by Christopher Buckley; “Die in Plain Sight” by Elizabeth Lowell; “A Cold Heart” by Jonathan Kellerman; “Beachmont Letters” by Cathleen Twomey; “Bourbon Street Blues” by Greg Herren; “Behaving Like Adults” by Anna Maxted; and “We Can Still Be Friends” by Kelly Cherry.

New Nonfiction: “Worried All the Time” by David Anderegg; “The Last Alchemist” by Iain McCalman; “Rossini” by Gaia Servadio; “Art Held Hostage” (the Barnes collection) by John Anderson; “The Great Big Burger Book” (grilling, anyone?) by Jane Murphy; “Books and slands in Ojibwe Country” by Louise Erdrich; “Old London Bridge” by Patricia Pierce; “A Parent’s Guide to Philadelphia” by Bobbi Dempsy; “The Man Who Found Time” by Jack Repcheck; and “An Obsession With Butterflies” by Sharman Rusel.

For kids to age seven: “Flower Girl” by Kathy Furgang; “The Name Quilt” by Phyllis Root; “Zoom!” by Robert Munsch; “My Grandma is Coming to Town” by Anna Hines; “What Are You So Grumpy About?” by Tom Lichtenfeld; and “Dinosaurumpus” by Tony Mitton. For kids age six to twelve: “Airborne” by Mary Collins; “The Goblin Wood” by Hilari Bell; “My Mother’s Daughter” by Doris Orgel; “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” by J.K. Rowling; “Otters” by Adrienne Mason; “The Man Who Made Time Travel” by Kathryn Lasky; and “Kids Draw Anime” by Christopher Hart