October 18, 2003


Library Corner...
Do these cool fall days give you wanderlust? Hop in your car and experience the beauty of your home state! "Backroads of Pennsylvania" by martin Scheck will lead you to spectacular scenery and unusual destinations. So gas up your SUV and get yourself on the road again. Don't pick up Dorothea benton Frank's third novel "Isle of Palms" unless you have the time to read it from cover to cover. This is an engaging tale of life spinning out of control. The characters are colorful and the story is captivating. It's about new beginnings and old relationships. It's a really fun readand I hated to see it end. "What She Wants" by Cathy Kelly weaves the lives of four very different women into the complexities of personal tragedies. Each has her own agenda. Each deals with her own crisis and survives with the help of her girlfriends. The story takes place in Ireland and the descriptions of the cottages and countryside are fascinating. Author Elin Hilderbrand presents a graphic view of Nattucket with "Summer People." This novel's characters capture your heart as they deal with some very messy life situations. This is a story you won't soon forget. Key West, Florida is a tropical paradise with an amazing history. Maureen Ogle;s "Key West: History of an Island of Dreams" is a tribute to this legendary city. Her timeline reads like a novel as you get caught up in the intrigue of this remarkable place.

October 18, 2003


Library Corner...
Do these cool fall days give you wanderlust? Hop in your car and experience the beauty of your home state! "Backgrounds of Pennsylvania" by martin Schneck will lead you to spectacular scenery and unusual destinations. So gas up your SUV and get yourself on the road again. Don't pick up Dorothea Benton Frank's third novel "Isle of Palms" unless you have the time to read it from cover to cover. This is engaging tale of life spinning out of control. The characters are colorful and the story is captivating. It's about new beginnings and old relationships. It's a really fund read and I hated to see it end. "What She Wants" by Cathy Kelly wewaves the lives of four very different women into complexities of personal tragedies. Each has her own agenda. Each deals with her own crisis and survives with the help of her girlfriends. The story takes place in Ireland and the descriptions of the cottages and countryside are fascinating. Author Elin Hilderbrand presents a graphic veiw of Nantucket with "Summer People." This novel's characters capture your heat as they deal with some very messy life situations. This is a story you won't soon forget. Key West, Florida is a tropical paradise with an amazing history. Maureen Ogle's "Key West: history of an Island of Dreams" is a tribute to this legendary city. Her timeline reads like a novel as you get caught up in the intrigue of this remarkable place.




From The Children's Librarian:
Almost all current juvenile fiction that deals with magic, (and even some that has no relationship to anything more magical than boarding school) is compared to the Harry Potter series. It is October and a good time to read books dealing with magic. Here are some that we enjoyed by those who "don't like Harry Potter." I do like the Harry Potter Series, even though the last offering is my least favorite. And i also liked three books. Still, for those of you that are looking for something other than the famous Harry Potter I suggested; "Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism" by Georga Byng, "Owl in love" by Patrice Kindl, and "midnight of Charlie Bone" by Jenny Nimmo. "Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism" begins with the main characters in an orphanage that would seem like home to Oliver Twist. Mean Matron, poor food and all. At the library Molly finds a book on hypnotism and it changes her life, giving her fame, fortune, and fun... up to a point. She is being trailed by a bad guy that has been methodically tracking the book for years, and when she moved to New York to be a star she did leave those other orphans behind. The story is well written and we like the main character, even if, and maybe because, she isn't perfect. And while we are given stock bad guys, the author has a lot of fun with them, making the book delightful to read. "Owl in Love" is full of teenage angst, as the main character, Owl Tycho, struggles with her crush on her Science teacher. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that owl's fall in love only once and for life and Owl is a shape shifter. Owl has wonerdfully wacky family, making her the most normal, to us at least. And the author artfully weaves the magic and non magic together and shows us the dangers that they present each other. Here is a book with a magical teen with no hint of Hogwart's and an engaging, orginal story. "Midnight for Charlie Bone" by Jenny Nimmo is the story in this group that was most obviously written after Harry Potter, but it really resembles Diana Wynne Jones' "Aunt Maria", since both tales have boys with a mom who loves them and absent father. Both worlds have tension between good and evil in the magical world and a wicked matriarch controlling the mother and abusing the son. Both Rowling and Jones have given us much better books. Still, Charlie Bone will be a series, and if you are looking for more magical worlds within our world, Charlie is a likeable enough character. the plot is much more transparent and the writing much less advanced than what we get from Rowling, but that may make the book easier for some, especially as the Harry Potter series leaves Junior Fiction and heads for Young Adults status. Meanwhile, you may want to check out "Aunt Maria".




Librian's Pick of the Week:
"A faint Cold Fear" by Karin Slaughter. Slaughter's third book featuring Dr. Sara Linton, the medical examiner of Heartsdale, Georgia, starts out with the mystery of the young college student who kills himself by jumping off a bridge. Sara and her pregant sister, Tessa, are coming back from a trip to the Dairy Queen when Sara gets a call from (ex-husband/police chief) Jeffery Tolliver about the suspected suicide. It soon becomes obvious that ther is more there than meets the eye when Tessa is stabbed in the nearby woods and a college girl appears to have shot and killed herslef in her room. Impeding Jeffrey's investigation is Lena Adams, a former policewoman and now security guard at the college. Lena's conducting her own investigation behind her boss's back, and getting in over her head with an ex-con who stood by while several other men raped his girlfriend. Sara's renewed relationship with Jeffery takes second place to the mystery, but gives the reader a welcome counterpoint to violence and suspense. read slowly and savor. Also new and recommended: "Presumption of Death" by Perri O'Shaughnessy; "The Trespass" by Barbara Ewing; "Justice by Dan Mahoney; "Murder in the Museum" by Simon Brett; "Miracle girl" by Keith Scribner; "Stone Cold" by Robert B. Parker; "Split Second" by David Baldacci; "Last car to Elysian Fields" by Jame Lee Burke; "Lunch at the Picadilly" by Clyde Edgerton; "Angels & Demons" by Dan Brown; "Blacklist" by Sara Paret.




Eleanor's Good Stuff:
Haunted PA
Gender in the Visual Arts
SATH - Society For accessible Travel and Hospitality
Tudor England - 1485 to 1603
Spices, Excotic Flavors & Medicines
Volcano World