Ann G.

  • Immerse Yourself in Bastille Day

    By Jen B and Ann G This Monday, July 14, is the 225th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille – when Parians invaded the fortress and prompted the French Revolution. The Bastille was for them a symbol of everything the uncaring old regime and its bloated monarchy stood for. The violence and passion of the attack… Continue reading

  • Medieval cathedrals reach for heaven

    ~ Posted by Ann G. and Jen B., who have contributed several posts together on different subjects as portrayed in nonfiction and in fiction. Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King Imagine that you had to climb Mt. Everest– as Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay did, with no modern climbing equipment and 44-pound… Continue reading

  • Caring for the Caregiver

    ~posted by Ann G. Some of the toughest things about caring for older family members are knowing how to navigate the many systems we come up against, and taking care of ourselves so that we have the energy to take care of them too. In July, the library is hosting a series of lunchtime programs… Continue reading

  • Got Milk?

    As summer comes, many of us dream of dairy.  Ice cream, milkshakes, and corn on the cob with butter are just a few of the treats of the season that depend on that staple, milk.  Usually, we don’t give it much thought, but there’s actually a lot to explore in the history and uses of… Continue reading

  • A Humble and Delicate Matter

    Posted by Jen B. and Ann G. Recently we posted A Literary Cure for Spring Fever in which we suggested fiction and nonfiction on a single theme. Whether you prefer one or the other, we think it’s important to present good options for maximum understanding of other important topics – like safe sex, emotional intelligence… Continue reading

  • A Literary Cure for Spring Fever

    Posted by Jen B. and Ann G. Ann suggests: Many of us have a literary character who we long to meet in real life.  Mine has changed over time—my first was Harriet the Spy (I wanted to read her secret notebooks).  In Letters to Juliet by Lise and Ceil Friedman, we hear from the people… Continue reading

  • Frugal Friday Fun

    Most of us don’t mind having fun that costs a little less….as long as it is just as fun as the costlier kind! Here are a few frugal AND fun ideas to get you ready for the weekend. First, take advantage of the library’s museum passes program. With your SPL card, you can reserve and print… Continue reading

  • To shred or not to shred?

    That is the question! Why do we ask?  Because it’s Money Smart Week! The library is hosting a variety of programs, from fun to educational to inspirational.  One of the things we are most excited about is that, for the first time, this includes shred days. You can come to the library, with up to five (copy… Continue reading

  • Just because Women’s History Month is over….

    …doesn’t mean that you can’t go on reading about the heroines of our past!  I read a lot of non-fiction, and I can testify that it isn’t necessarily turgid and boring.  Many biographies and histories center around a gripping story and read like fiction, and there are also the joys of well-written and humorous prose. … Continue reading

  • Where East Meets West

    For hundreds of years, Turkey has been a crossroads between European and Asian culture, politics, business and art. Turkey’s influence has also been wide-ranging– the Hungarian fondness for paprika is a remnant of the time that Hungary was part of the Ottoman Empire, and the pungent spice was brought to its citizens from the motherland.… Continue reading

  • The most depressing thing I have read in 2014

    We all want our health care professionals to have the best and most reliable information out there when they are deciding how to treat us, right? And if we are making a big decision about our health, we want to be sure we have the true facts, yes? Therefore, when I read this article with… Continue reading

  • Interested in healing foods? Try our Ways to Wellness Program…

    Food can be your best medicine! This Sunday the Beacon Hill branch will host the talk Anti-Inflammatory Food for Health and Wellness, by family nutritionist Michelle Babb. She’ll discuss how chronic inflammation can be the root cause of many diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease and diabetes. She’ll also teach you how to prepare low… Continue reading

  • Knitting—It’s Good for What Ails You!

    Knitting is turning out to be a healing art.  There’s starting to be more and more evidence of the ways in which it brings health benefits: repetitive activities make us feel more relaxed, can decrease stress, and may even ward off dementia.  And it’s not hard to learn—just get comfortable with a basic knit stitch,… 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

  • 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

  • Books from machines?

    This photo was taken in London’s Heathrow Airport recently. As the Brits would say, I was completely gobsmacked to see a vending machine for books!  Complete with a TV screen that gives an intro to the service and runs videos of author interviews, this is a bookstore in a box.  Most of the selections are mass… Continue reading

  • Maybe it will make sense now: ‘The Manga Guide to Calculus’

    Even though the library’s digital book service Safari Books Online hasn’t been at the forefront of my pleasure reading (no page-turning fiction to be found here!), I thought I’d take a look through it the other day — maybe there would be SOMETHING in it for me. I immediately liked that you don’t have to download any software… Continue reading

  • Looking back from a new decade

    It came pretty fast, the end of the oughts, or whatever we are calling the years from 2000-2009. 2010 is upon us, and the literary pundits are looking back to this most recent decade… I thought it could be fun to go back a century, to 1900 and see what was happening, by decade. A… Continue reading