December 2013

  • Dreaming of Wild Places

    Cold weather and snow (snow!) make me want to curl up under my bubble lights and dream about outside adventures in the natural world. I like a touch of nostalgia too, so here are a few memoirs that are intricately connected to the time and place they were written in, with a great mindfulness for… Continue reading

  • Movie Mondays: While you’re waiting…

    While you’re waiting for Nebraska, check out director Alexander Payne’s first feature, Citizen Ruth (1996).  Laura Dern is Ruth Stoops, an irresponsible gas-huffer who finds herself pregnant for the fifth time – and at the center of a tug-of-war between pro-life and pro-choice groups when a judge (Kurtwood Smith) orders her to get an abortion. This wicked… Continue reading

  • How are you feeling about vitamins these days?

    There’s been quite the discussion recently about whether vitamins are good for us—pretty much every major news outlet covered the statements by a group of doctors who said perhaps we shouldn’t bother.   However, many of us WILL still bother (and even the study’s authors said that Vitamin D, which can be hard to get naturally… Continue reading

  • Freegal – Three for Free – Under the Covers Edition

    This week in Freegal, consider using your three free downloads to discover some interesting cover songs. Jimi Hendrix – “Blue Suede Shoes” (Carl Perkins cover) from Hendrix in the West Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Happily Ever After on Christmas

    Holidays can be the most stressful time of year. But if you’re stuck at home on Christmas with the in-laws and sugar-crazed children, take heart! You can sneak off for a few minutes and check out some of these Christmas-themed e-books through the Library’s Overdrive collection—you can check them out and add them to your e-reader without… Continue reading

  • Cold Weather Music, Part One

                   Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the boom-box is so delightful… I’m sure everyone has noticed: It’s getting A LOT colder outside. It’s getting bleaker and bleaker out there, and we’re all of course just trying to stay warm and awake. And as the holiday season sashays… Continue reading

  • They see dead people…sort of

    Here are two paranormal series written on a theme, a woman who can see how and when people die, one in hindsight and other as foresight. The Harper Connelly Series is the invention of Charlaine Harris who is known for several series including Sookie Stackhouse in the Southern Vampire Mysteries. The other by Chuck Wendig is the Blackbirds Series.… Continue reading

  • Science Fiction Fridays: The best eco-horror of the year

    Black Feathers by Joseph D’Lacey The world is in the middle of an environmental apocalypse and one young boy must escape the clutches of those that seek to profit from the decay to find the Crowman, a mythical champion of the planet. A strange and thrilling read that flirts between fantasy and dystopia in interesting… Continue reading

  • Top Ten Audiobooks of 2013

    This has been a great year for audio fiction, with new readers and a wide variety of titles to sample. These are my favorites from 2013. Longbourn by Jo Baker Find out more about the Bennet household, from Pride and Prejudice, in this Downton Abbey-esque story of the servants downstairs.   Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: A Second Slice of Holiday Fruitcake

    One post just wasn’t enough to contain all the romantic goodness. There are some people who read holiday romances all year long. (And then there are some who believe that listening to “Grandma got run over by a reindeer” even once is one time too many!) Your own personal holiday mileage may vary. But for… Continue reading

  • Happy (vegan) Holidays!

                                      Happy (vegan) Holidays! Are you a vegan living in self-imposed food exile, avoiding holiday parties? Are you afraid to bring dessert to a potluck, lest it taste like dense cardboard? Are you tired of answering the question, “but what… Continue reading

  • Movie Mondays: The ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ Primer

    It has been three long years since a Coen brothers film graced the silver screen. Thankfully, the drought ends this month with the release of their sixteenth feature, Inside Llewyn Davis. The film follows a struggling singer-songwriter in the burgeoning New York folk scene of the early 1960s. Want to get the most out of… Continue reading

  • Movie: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

      Join us on Friday, December 20 at 4:00 pm at the Central Library for a screening of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” Perks of attending: Free snacks, a trivia contest and a drawing to win the movie DVD and book. Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Best of 2013

    This year on Twitter, librarians around the country tagged their top 10 favorite reads of 2013 with the hashtag #libfaves13, and several romance books emerged from the list! Hopefully some of these notable titles will make it onto your “best of” list, too. Check them out! The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan Since making the… Continue reading

  • Movie Mondays: Doppelgänger Movies

    Many people remember Philip Seymour Hoffman’s tour-de-force performance as Truman Capote in the biopic Capote, which earned him an Academy Award. Less well known is the fact that another movie was released shortly thereafter which covers almost exactly the same ground: Infamous. Both films are about Capote’s efforts to research and write his landmark book… Continue reading

  • Nightstand Reads: Seattle writer Nicola Griffith

    Nicola Griffith will be reading from her new historical novel, Hild, at the Central Library on December 10 at 7 p.m. Hild is set in 7th century Britain and follows the life of the young seer, St. Hilda of Whitby. Seattle author Nicola Griffith, originally of Yorkshire, England, has received several awards for her writing… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Holiday Romances

    It’s that time again. What time is that, I hear you asking? In this early December, when the spirit of holiday shopping is everywhere, it’s the perfect time to celebrate the season with the gift of a perfect Holiday Romance. Here are just a few to start off the season, but there will be more.… Continue reading

  • Books make great gifts!

     “A book is a gift you can open again and again,” says Garrison Keillor. Books make wonderful gifts for the holidays—there’s something for every taste and interest level, they can be fun, educational, and tear-jerking, or all three at once, and the best of them are unforgettable and life-changing. To celebrate books as gifts, and… Continue reading