Give Your Kitchen a Makeover

What do you do when it’s time to replace an old kitchen? Where do you even begin?

I recently faced this challenge. Realizing that my kitchen needed to be replaced was the easy part. Figuring out what I wanted to do proved to be daunting. My current kitchen is a vintage 1970’s no-particular-style kitchen. Not your dream kitchen by any standards.

The cost to gut and completely redo the kitchen was staggering. Literally. I actually staggered around the kitchen when presented with the final estimate. Clearly, putting in a new kitchen was not going to be an option.

Prowling through the library stacks, I struck gold. Our shelves are chock-full of great idea books and among them I discovered the solution to my dilemma.

The before and after photos were inspiring. I marveled at the creativity and ingenuity of do-it-yourselfers who tackled their old kitchens. The books are worth a look just for the pictures of the incredible renovations. The clever uses of space and color were amazing and the costs were reasonable. I began to look at my kitchen in a whole new way.

And what were the solutions? Paint the cabinets. Install new hardware. Put in a new backsplash. New tiles on the floor. A few nights and weekends, a lot of sweat equity and—voila! What looks and feels like a new kitchen.

Need some kitchen inspiration? Try these titles:

kitchen ideaCountry Living: 500 Kitchen Ideas: Style, Function & Charm from the editors of Country Living Magazine; text by Dominique DeVito

Do it Yourself Kitchens: Stunning Spaces on a Shoestring Budget from Better Homes and Gardens

Kitchen Ideas You Can Use: Inspiring Designs & Clever Solutions for Remodeling Your Kitchen by Chris Peterson

Kitchen Idea Book by Joanne Kellar Bouknight

Affordable Kitchen Upgrades: Transform Your Kitchen on a Small Budget by Steve Cory and Diane Slavik

New Kitchen Ideas that Work by Jamie Gold

What the Heck is eLearning?

QuestionmarkWhat the heck is eLearning?

The mundane definition is “an online collection of educational resources”. But it’s much more than that!

eLearning is learning at your own pace. It is suited to your specific needs. You choose the time, the place, the subject.

Where do you find it? At cheshirelibrary.com/elearning.

What can you find? Job resources, including resume prep and career counseling. Language lessons. Book reviews. School help for Kindergarten through oh-my-God-I’m-going-back-to-school-after-twenty-years!

learningexpressLearning Express, an educational and career resources for all ages,  headlines the Cheshire Library’s eLearning page on our website. Here you will find seven learning centers:

School Center – Resources for elementary, middle school, and high school studentsboard-784347_640
High School Equivalency Center – Resources for the GED, HiSET and TASC
College Prep Center – Prep for the PSAT, SAT, ACT, admissions essays and more!
College Center – Strengthen academic skills, prepare for Grad entrance exams
Career Center – Learn more about a career, prepare for career exams, improve workplace skills
Adult Learning Center  – Improve skills in math, reading, writing; prepare to become a U.S. citizen and more
Recursos en Espanol – Resources for Spanish speaking residents including reading, writing and math, GED prep and American Citizenship prep

Our eLearning page also includes:
JobNow – Resume resources, job interview skills, career assessment
Transparent Language – Learn a language! Over 90 languages to choose from, including ESL.
Muzzy – The world’s #1 language course for kids!
NoveList – Book discussion guides, reviews & sample chapters.  Recommendations & read-alikes for all ages.

The best part? It’s all FREE with your Cheshire Library Card.

Famous People Make Great Fictional Sleuths

I love it when well-known historical figures pop up in books I am reading. Since I could (and probably will!) write several posts on this topic, I thought I’d start with one of the most popular ways that famous people of the past get cast in novels: as amateur sleuths.

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Let’s begin with Eleanor Roosevelt, who appears as the chief mystery-solver in the Eleanor Roosevelt Mystery series  written by her son, the late Elliot Roosevelt. This enchanting series is a blend of fictionalized history and cozy mystery with a strong dollop of the atmosphere of the Roosevelt White House years as it can only be portrayed by an insider.

Going back in time to 18th century London, we encounter Benjamin Franklin in the mystery series by Robert Lee Hall. Books like, London Blood: Further Adventures of an American Agent Abroad, tell of Franklin’s detective experiences. His illegitimate son Nick, the narrator, is at Franklin’s side through the seven adventures that take place during the time Franklin was in England to intercede for the American colonies with the British government.

Jacket.aspxWho’s next? Jane Austen, of course, in the series by Stephanie Barron. Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor is the first in this series that depicts Jane as a sleuth with a subtle sense of humor and an eye for noticing, with excruciating exactness, nuances in the behavior of others.

And then there’s the ultimate real-person-as-fictional-sleuth genre in which famous authors cast themselves as the main crime solving character! Famous for this type of series are Steve Allen and Ed Koch. Allen penned a series featuring himself and his wife, Jayne Meadows. Books like Die Laughing are written with Allen’s trademark humor and wit. Former mayor of New York Koch also starred himself in stories such as The Senator Must Die, in which Hizzoner out-sleuths everyone around him.

I have to admit, though, my favorite mystery series that highlights the famous is Stuart Kaminsky’s Toby Peters mystery series. Although Toby Peters is a fictional character, his cases in the Hollywood of the thirties and forties bring him in contact with famous clients such as Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Salvador Dali and many others. These famous people often help him solve the case. I especially loved To Catch a Spy featuring Cary Grant, who may or may not be spying for the U.S. government during the early days of World War II, and A Fatal Glass of Beer, featuring a hard-drinking, hard-talking, shotgun-wielding W.C. Fields.

Looking for more? Try these:

Jacket.aspx3The Beatrix Potter mystery series by Susan Wittig Albert

Blue Suede Clues: A Murder Mystery featuring Elvis Presley by Daniel M, Klein

Hemingway Deadlights by Michael Atkinson (featuring Ernest Hemingway)

The Color of Death by Bruce Alexander (featuring Sir John Fielding, founder of the first police force in London in the 1700s.)

A Marked Man by Barbara Hamilton (featuring Abigail Adams)

Escape Artist: an Edna Ferber mystery by Ed Ifkovic

The Illusion of Murder by Carol McCleary (featuring reporter Nellie Bly)

 

 

Love & Laughter: 10 Romances That Will Make You Laugh Out Loud

Light, lovely, and hilarious, these books are perfect for rainy days and lazy weekends. Indulge yourself in a little humor and romance!

AnyoneAnyone But You by Jennifer Crusie
For Nina Askew, turning forty means freedom—from the ex-husband, their and stuffy suburban home, freedom to focus on what she wants. And what she wants is something her ex always vetoed—a puppy. A bouncy, adorable puppy. Instead she gets…Fred. Overweight, middle-aged, a bit smelly, Fred is light-years from perky. But he does manage to put Nina in the path of Alex Moore, her gorgeous, younger-by-a-decade neighbor.

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie KinsellaShop
Becky Bloomwood has a fabulous flat in London’s trendiest neighborhood, a troupe of glamorous socialite friends, and a closet brimming with the season’s must-haves. The only trouble is, she can’t actually afford any of it

EnchantedEnchanted, Inc. by Shanna Swendson
Katie Chandler quickly learns that office politics are even more complicated when your new boss is a real ogre, and you have a crush on the sexy, shy, ultra powerful head of the R&D department, who is so busy fighting an evil competitor threatening to sell black magic on the street that he seems barely to notice her. Now it’s up to Katie to pull off the impossible: save the world and–hopefully–live happily ever after.

Single in Suburbia by Wendy WaxSingle
Amanda’s husband has just traded her in for an affair with a teenybopper. Brooke is a trophy wife collecting dust. And Candace (Don’t call me Candy) has had too many husbands and too little love. What do these three unlikely accomplices have in common besides a Little League team called the Mudhens? A plot to reclaim a little r-e-s-p-e-c-t.

RosieThe Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially inept professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers.

The Grand Finale by Janet EvanovichFinale
Berry Knudson had a talent for disaster, but when she climbed a tree to rescue a kitten, she wasn’t prepared for the scrumptious hunk undressing in a nearby window, or her dive downward that smashed Jake Sawyer’s pizza and won his heart!

dogsMust Love Dogs by Claire Cook
Divorced preschool teacher Sarah Hurlihy’s first mistake is letting her bossy big sister write her personal ad. Her second mistake is showing up to meet her first date in more than a decade. Now she’s juggling her teaching job, her big, rollicking, interfering south-of-Boston Irish family, and more men than she knows what to do with.

Recipe for Disaster by Stacy BallisRecipe
A delicious broth of a novel about a woman whose perfect life falls apart in spectacular fashion–leaving her with a house to restore, an antique cookbook (but no cooking talent), and one very unhappy schnauzer.

LadyThe Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne
To avoid embarrassing her father, a Member of Parliament, Melissa dons a blonde wig and becomes “Honey,” a no-nonsense bombshell who helps clueless bachelors shop, entertain, and navigate social minefields. She even attends parties if a client needs a “date.” But when a dashing American starts to request Honey’s services on a regular basis, it’s only a matter of time before Honey’s and Melissa’s worlds collide….

My Heart May Be Broken but My Hair Looks Great by Dixie CashHair
Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin have never encountered a problem that couldn’t be fixed with a strong margarita, a whole lot of hairspray, and an ear for gossip. No doubt about it, hearts are definitely going to get broken, but if these gals have anything to do with it, the hairstyles around town are still gonna look great!

Old and New Fictional Friends

Jacket.aspxIt was quiet in the Children’s Room. The preschool crowd had gone home for lunch and the after school crowd had not yet arrived. As I wandered around, picking up books to reshelve, I spotted a copy of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle.Jacket.aspx

How I loved (and still love) that book! It was one of my favorite’s from childhood. I wanted to be Meg Murry and travel to other worlds. I still know the story by heart.

This got me to thinking about the books my daughter loved as a child. Yes, A Wrinkle in Time was one, but she also loved The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede, featuring Cimorene, the princess who ran away to live with the dragons. Like my love for Meg, my daughter wanted to be Cimorene.

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Jacket.aspxWhen it came to historical fiction, I loved Laura Ingalls in the Little House on the Prairie series. My daughter also enjoyed the tales but had new heroines such as Patience Goodspeed (The Education of Patience Goodspeed) and Jacky Faber (Bloody Jack).

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Same thing for mysteries. Nancy Drew was my detective. My daughter had Enola Homes, Jacket.aspxSherlock Holmes’s younger sister in the Enola Holmes mystery series.

As I put A Wrinkle in Time back on the shelf, I wondered what my future grandchildren would be reading and who their favorites would be.