Not Quite Old School Anymore

phone

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been lagging behind in embracing some technology.  I was still using a flip phone and was quite content with it.  But in keeping with my recent foray with new things (moving into a new home and buying way too many new things for it) and the fact that my phone was barely working, I took a huge leap and bought a smart phone.

It was quite a process and I took my time in researching the various options.  I started off by going to Cheshire Library’s website and under Research it! I clicked on Consumer ReportsFrom there I looked up the articles reviewing smart phones and thoroughly read them.  This was a great resource for someone who didn’t know anything about smart phones.  I settled on a phone I thought would be the best for me.  But in the end, knowing I would need some tech help from my daughters, I went with the same phone that they have.

cell phone 2If you are looking to move to a smart phone, or are thinking of replacing your current smart phone, the Cheshire Library is a great place to start.  Besides Consumer Reports, here are a few books that also might help you.

Galaxy S4 – The Missing Manual

Teach Yourself Visually –  android phones & tablets

IPhone: The Missing Manual

 

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!

Keep Yourself Reading

I’ve always been an avid reader, but sometimes I stall out for weeks at a time. It could be that a book just isn’t clicking with me, and so I never make the time to finish it. Or maybe I finish a particularly challenging or emotional book, and I’m hesitant to jump into a new story right away. Or maybe I’m just busy. Or maybe I’m watching too much Netflix!

If this sounds like you, I can help. Over the years, I’ve learned a few tricks to keep myself always reading.

  1. Keep track of the books you want to read so you never have to wonder “What’s Next?” I love www.goodreads.com for keep tracking of what I’ve read and what I plan to read.
  2. Don’t waste time on a book that isn’t for you. If you’re not enjoying something, allow yourself to read another book instead. Reading for pleasure should never be a chore! You can always come back to that other book later.
  3. If life seems to get in the way of making time for reading, grab something that you can’t put down. It’s OK to indulge in fluffier stories if that’s what keeps your momentum going. You’ll be surprised by the time you suddenly “find” when a book is too good to ignore.
  4. Make reading a part of your routine. Whether it’s with your morning coffee, on your lunch break, or before you go to sleep, try to make a set time to read every single day.
  5. And my favorite tip: When you finish a book, immediately start reading another one, if only just the first page. This remedies the problem of letting a book “sink in” for a day, or two days, before picking up another.

I recently stalled after reading The Nightingale. It was such an emotionally intense book that I couldn’t bring myself to open another after I’d finished it, and soon a week, and then two went by. Luckily, a friend let me borrow a real page-turner, The Headmaster’s Wife, and I got my momentum back. If you like ivy-covered boarding schools, mystery, and intrigue, check it out!

The Nightingale        The Headmaster's Wife

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

The Headmaster’s Wife by Thomas Christopher Greene

 

What’s Better Than Pizza and Cookies?

autumn

pizza 3Enjoying them in October!  Fantastic weather, beautiful foliage, and it’s National cookiesPizza month and National Cookie month!  Feeling a little down?  Go outside with a handful of your favorite cookies.  Find a picnic table and munch on hot pizza pie!  Soak up the beautiful weather and add some tasty food.  Want to be creative and make your own cookies and pizza?  The Cheshire Library has books to inspire and tantalize!

PIZZA

Pizza: grill it, bake it, love it!

Pizza: a slice of heaven

Cool Pizza to Make and Bake

Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day

Revolutionary Pizza

American Pie: my search for the perfect pizza

 

COOKIES

Martha Stewart’s Cookies

Crazy About Cookies

Slice and Bake Cookies

Gluten-Free Cookies

Simply Sensational Cookies

The Gourmet Cookie Book

There are many more books to choose from.   Click on the headings Pizza and Cookies and our catalog will come up so you can browse to your heart’s content.

 

Book Club Picks – Thrillers

 

Open book resting on stack on booksThe days are getting shorter and the nights longer!  Pick up a thriller for your book club to read!

storied lifeThe Storied Life of A. J. Fikry – Gabrielle Zevin – When his most prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, is stolen, bookstore owner A. J. Fikry begins isolating himself from his friends, family and associates before receiving a mysterious package that compels him to remake his life.

The Life We Bury – Allen Eskens – After Joe Talbert interviews a dying the life we buryVietnam veteran for a college writing assignment, he discovers that the veteran is a convicted murderer recently released from prison and, suspecting that the veteran was framed, he begins a dangerous investigation into the thirty-year-old murder.

red sparrowRed Sparrow – Jason Mathews – Drafted against her will to serve the regime of Vladimir Putin as an intelligence seductress, Dominika Egorova is assigned to operate against first-tour CIA officer Nathaniel Nash, with whom she engages in a charged effort of deception and tradecraft before a forbidden attraction threatens their careers and the security of America’s most valuable mole in Moscow.

Dept. of Speculation – Jenny Offill – An unflinching portrait of marriage dept of specby the award-winning author of Last Things features a heroine simply referred to as “the Wife,” who transitions from an idealistic woman who once exchanged love letters with her husband and who confronts an array of universal difficulties.

silkwormThe Silkworm – Robert Galbraith – While investigating the brutal murder of a novelist who had just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knew, which would ruin many lives, P.I. Cormoran Strike must race against time to catch a killer unlike any he has ever encountered before.

Missing You – Harlan Coben – Spotting her ex-fiancâe’s photo on an missing youonline dating site, NYPD Detective Kat Donovan reaches out to him, hoping to rekindle the past, but her hope turns to suspicion and then terror as an unspeakable conspiracy is revealed.

blue labyBlue Labyrinth – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child – Investigating the murder of a long-time enemy, Aloysius Pendergast journeys to an abandoned California mine only to uncover a dark secret from his family’s past and a plot by a vengeful killer.

descentDescent – Tim Johnson – When their daughter disappears while out for a morning run during a late-summer vacation in the Rocky Mountains, her parents embark on a harrowing journey down increasingly divergent and solitary paths where they must answer some difficult questions to find the truth

Wolf In the White Van – John Darnielle – Creating fantastical mail-order wolf inthe white vanrole-playing games from his apartment where he endures a life of solitude after a disfiguring injury, Sean is blamed for a disaster involving two high school student clients, an event that compels him to reevaluate his own past.

officerAn Officer and A Spy – Robert Harris – A tale inspired by the infamous Dreyfus Affair finds Georges Picquart, the recently promoted head of Paris’ late-nineteenth-century counterespionage agency, leading the effort to convict Dreyfus only to succumb to gradual doubts that a high-level spy remains at large in the military.