November 14, 2003


Library Corner...
Alternative medicine is being accepted in today's world more than ever before. Veterinary care as well as human care can benefit from an open minded approach to maintaining health. "The Complete Holistic Dog Book" by Jan Allegretti, D.V.M. is filled with useful information to make sure that your canine companion has the healthiest and happiest life possible. Dog lovers everywhere will enjoy this book. Do you need more living space in your home? Before you decide to build an addition, why not consider finishing and customizing your below ground space. "Better Homes and Gardens Basement Planner" will open your eyes to possibilities you never imagined. This is an inspiring collection of ideas with solutions for every style and budget. "Hydroponics" or soilless gardening is a fascinating concept, and Les Bridgewood explains it all. He begins with the basics and addresses the issues of nutrients, greenhouse hygiene, and actual hydroponic growing units. He touches on the practical advantages of this technique as well. Today we live at a frenetic pace. Stress runs rampart in our daily lives. It's no wonder that so many of us have trouble sleeping. Fiona Johnston's "Getting a Good Night's Sleep" is a handbook for the sleep disabled. Read it and you may just eliminate your 3 a.m. tossing and turning. Muffins are simple to make and great tasting. "500 Best Muffin Recipes" by Esther Brody is a collection of wonderfully satisfying baking ideas. The author presents a variety to taste delights that range from classic muffins to microwave muffins. She also touches on (and this is for real) buffins, cuffins, and puffins. There is definitely something for everyone in this book! "Snakes Don't Miss Their Mothers" by E.M. Kerr story is told from so many points of view that it ought to be a verbal kaleidoscope. Yet Kerr's way of telling her story is both compelling and interesting, and not at all confusing. The story revolves around an unusual animal shelter on Long Island and its told from the point of view of both humans and the animals. And, of course, sometimes the humans are more savage than the animals more humane than the people. But that is the only "of course" in the book. The author tells her story through interactions; people to people, people to animals, and animal to animal and all to the real world. There is nothing maudlin about this book; the glow the author creates is ore real than maudlin and much, much more rate. "How Sweet it is (and Was) The History of Candy" by Ruth Freeman Swain is not a history of candy. It is a compilation of fun facts that the aunthor put in chronological order. and, as such, is an enjoyable and zany book. the book works because of the illustrations by artist John O'Brien, which set just the right tone, being, well, zany and enjoyable. So, if the title were changed to something like: "Candy: Fun Facts and Sweet Sequences" it would be more satisfying to the discerning reader. But whatever the title, this is a good example of interesting and entertainging reading in the non-fiction sector. Through this review I hope to encourage parents to try reading out loud some of the fun non-fiction in the library. You'll be pleasantly surprised and may-be even delighted.




Librarian's Pick of The Week:
"Quantico rules" by Gene Riehl. If I hadn't read on the inside back cover that Riehl used to be a FBI agent, I might have thought that he made up some of the things that happen in this book. Puller Monk is an agent in charge of Special Inquiries (SPIN). SPIN investigators, among other assignments, delve into the backgrounds of people like Brenda Thompson, the first Black women to be nominated for the Supreme Court. The President himself has nominated her, and it's Monk's job to make that she's squeaky-clean. Things seem to be going wel until his partner, agent Lisa Sands, comes up with a background statement that doesn't jibe. what happened during the unaccounted-for three weeks back in 1972, when Thompson says she was caring for her family for her terminally-ill aunt? Monk isn't having the best year of his life at this point- he's an obsessive gambler whose bank account is running low, and he's trying to become an extremely successful liar to pass the new cognative lie dectector tests so that he can lose the SPIN appointment and go into counterterrorism. Monk and Sands make a good pair - in an out of the bedroom - and they soon track down another factor in the Thompson conundrum, one that leads them into deadly danger. Page turner? Your bet!!
Librarian's Second Pick of the Week:
"Ghosty Men" by Franz Lidz. When I was about nine years old and collecting Batman and Superman comic books, my mother noted my pie of treasures and remarked that if I kept on building piles of magazines, I would "end up like Langley Collyer, who died inside his home, and it took two weeks to find him because of the magazines - they only located him by the smell. Out went Batman and Superman (actually, Mom threw them out when I was at school; I wonder what they'd be worth now!) In "Ghosty Men," Lidz, a magazine and book writer, intersperses stories of the Collyer brothers with meories of his own uncles, one of whom picked trash in the Collyer tradition Homer and Langley were two bright men who had attended college, had impeccable manners and eschewed life outside the 12-room brownstone they inhabited in Harlem. From 1938 to 1947, homer was a total recluse, bent with rheumatism and going blind, while Langley ventured out at night to collect precious junk, more than 136 tons of it. The hungry stray cats that Langley fed awhile outside on his missions were the first to sound the Collyers' death knell. this amazing story benefits from the historical background of Harlem and the City that Lidz smoothly feeds into his tale.




Eleanor's Good Stuff:
C.A.S.P.I.A.N-(CONSUMER INFORMATION)
Calculate Your Body Mass Index
Discover Peru
Red Hat Society
TimeRef - Timeline of Great Britain from 800 to 1499 AD
Voices of World War 2: Experiences From the Front and at Home