Top 10 Library Downloads of 2013 : Audiobooks

December 1, 2013November 20, 2013 / cheshirelib / Leave a comment

Libraries are about more than physical books these days. More and more people are discovering the free downloadable books their library has to offer. Cheshire Library has over 4000 e-book titles and over 1500 audiobook titles in our collection. Here are some of the most popular downloads from our online audiobook collection:

AUDIOBOOKS – Adult Fiction

1.    A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin
2.    12th of Never, by James Patterson
3.    The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
4.   The Forgotten, by David Baldacci
5.   Inferno, by Dan Brown
6.   The Hit, by David Baldacci
7.   Bad Monkey, by Carl Hiaasen
8.   A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin
9.   The Black Box, by Michael Connelly
10. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin

AUDIOBOOKS – Adult Nonfiction

1.   Bossypants, by Tina Fey
2.   Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris
3.    Dad Is Fat, by Jim Gaffigan
4.   Orange Is the New Black, by Piper Kerman
5.   Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
6.    Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly
7.   Argo, by Antonio Mendez

8. Wheat Belly, by William Davis, MD
9. No Easy Day, by Mark Owen
10. Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Cookbooks to Tempt Kids into the Kitchen

November 27, 2013July 11, 2014 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

Do you have a child that wants to help in the kitchen or wants to try cooking on their own? Perhaps you just want to learn some more kid friendly dishes or are hoping to get some help from your children in the kitchen? The library has a wide variety of cookbooks in the children’s section. There are books that focus on ethnic food, special diets, celebrity chefs, and even some more unexpected themes. Check some out to help inspire or teach your children about cooking, and just might make cooking less of a chore and much more fun for you as well.

Noodlemania!: 50 Playful Pasta Recipes by Melissa Barlow, photographs by Zac Williams and illustrations by Alison Oliver.
The American-style recipes range from the everyday to the elegant, and the six chapters are divided according to the class of pasta needed for the recipes. Most ingredients are readily available, and the recipes are simple to make, given the adult supervision. Barlow adds twists to dishes to indeed make them playful (making robots out of macaroni and pretzels, etc.).

ChopChop: The Kids’ Guide to Cooking Real Food with your Family by Sally Sampson, photographs by Carl Tremblay.Simple, healthy, delicious dishes for children and parents to make together.

A Princess Cookbook: Simple Recipes for Kids by Sarah L. Schuette.
Provides instructions and close-up step photos for making a variety of simple snacks and drinks with a princess theme

A Pirate Cookbook: Simple Recipes for Kids by Sarah L. Schuette.
Provides instructions and close-up photos for making a variety of simple snacks and drinks with a pirate theme

One World Kids Cookbook: Easy, Healthy, and Affordable Family Meals by Sean Mendez. This healthy eating cookbook is aimed at encouraging young people to think about what they eat through emphasizing the importance of a balanced diet. It contains kitchen tips and suggests vegetarian substitutes to the meat recipes. One World Kids Cookbook aims to instill a passion for good, wholesome, healthy food as well as a passion for life. Includes fabulous dishes from around the world, from jollof rice to fajitas.

Salad People and More Real Recipes: A New Cookbook for Preschoolers & Up by Mollie Katzen. Introduces children as young as three the basics of cooking.

Want even more ideas? Our variety of cookbooks is staggering. Here a few more notable samples of the culinary fare offered up on the library shelves: Chinese Food by Wendy Blaxland, The Young Chef’s Italian Cookbook by Rosalba Gioffre, The Kids’ Holiday Baking Book: 150 Favorite Dessert Recipes from Around the World by Rosemary Black, Cooking the Swiss Way by Helga Hughes with photographs by Robert L. and Diane Wolfe, Cool Raw Food Recipes: Delicious & Fun Foods without Cooking by Nancy Tuminelly, The Multicultural Cookbook for Students by Lois Sinaiko Webb and Lindsay Grace Roten, Paula Deen’s Cookbook for the Lunch-Box Set by Paula Deen with Martha Nesbit, illustrated by Susan Mitchell, Emeril’s There’s a Chef in my World!: Recipes that Take you Places by Emeril Lagasse and illustrated by Charles Yuen with photographs by Quentin Bacon, Grandpa’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Cookbook written by Judi Barrett and drawn by Ron Barrett, Cool Nut-Free Recipes: Delicious & Fun Foods without Nuts by Nancy Tuminelly, Cooking Rocks!: Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals for Kids by Rachael Ray and illustrated by Chris Kalb, Vegetarian Food by Susannah Blake, and Kids Cook 1-2-3: Recipes for Young Chefs Using Only 3 Ingredients by Rozanne Gold and illustrated by Sara Pinto.

Top 10 Library Downloads of 2013 : E-Books

November 24, 2013November 20, 2013 / cheshirelib / Leave a comment

eBOOKS – Adult Fiction

1.   Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
2.   Inferno, by Dan Brown
3.   Fifty Shades of Grey, by E L James
4.   The Heist, by Janet Evanovich
5.   Fifty Shades Freed, by E L James
6.   Fi fty Shades Darker, by E L James
7. A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin
8.   T h e English Girl, by Daniel Silva
9.   The Racketeer, by John Grisham
10. Defending Jacob, by William Landay

eBOOKS- Adult Nonfiction

1.   Orange Is the New Black, by Piper Kerman
2.   Zealot, by Reza Aslan
3.   Lean In, by Sheryl Sandberg
4.   Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
5.    Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
6.    Quiet, by Susan Cain
7.    Dad is Fat, by Jim Gaffigan
8.    The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg
9.   The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
10. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo

Female Role Models in Young Adult Fiction

November 23, 2013July 11, 2014 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

Raising a teenager is hard, but if you think back to actually being a teenager, it was even harder. There are so many influences in your life it can be hard to know who to trust, what to do, and how you are supposed to be feeling. As you might have guessed, I spent many of those years reading books about other teenagers and adults in order to discover if I was ‘normal’ and if the feelings and doubts I had made me weird. Finding books that can reassure girls and young women that they are powerful, they can be strong, and that there is nothing wrong with diverging from what society expects can be hard. Convincing those same girls that it is better than just alright to follow their hearts and trust in themselves is terribly difficult, but sometimes a book with a heroine that does just that can be a good start. Here are some books for the thirteen and older crowd that feature strong, positive, female role models.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
On her way to marry a prince she’s never met, Princess Anidori is betrayed by her guards and her lady-in-waiting and must become a goose girl to survive until she can reveal her true identity and reclaim the crown that is rightfully hers. The Books of Bayern series continues with the sequel, Enna Burning and Hale’s Princess Academy series is also worth a read.

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
A young witch-to-be named Tiffany teams up with the Wee Free Men, a clan of six-inch-high blue men, to rescue her baby brother and ward off a sinister invasion from Fairyland. The Tiffany Aching series continues with A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith and I Shall Wear Midnight.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg’s father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.
Meg’s adventures continue in the sequel, A Wind in the Door and for a graphic novel version of this classic novel, check out A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel.

Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith
During World War II, a light-skinned African American girl “passes” for white in order to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots.

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
Lame and suddenly orphaned, Kira is mysteriously removed from her squalid village to live in the palatial Council Edifice, where she is expected to use her gifts as a weaver to do the bidding of the all-powerful Guardians.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Living with a foster family in Germany during World War II, a young girl struggles to survive her day-to-day trials through stealing anything she can get her hands on, but when she discovers the beauty of literature, she realizes that she has been blessed with a gift that must be shared with others, including the Jewish man hiding in the basement.

Lyddie by Katherine Paterson
Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie Worthen is determined to gain her independence by becoming a factory worker in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1840s.

If you have a tween that is not quite ready to hit the young adult section or a teen willing to cross over into the juvenile fiction area, then some of these books might hit the spot; Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata, One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly, Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Muñoz Ryan, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, The Game of Silence by Louise Erdrich, The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente ; with illustrations by Ana Juan, Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm, Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan, or The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages.

And as always, I am sure to have missed some fabulous books that offer female role models for teens and tweens. I know I let a few of my favorite authors out in the interest of space and a varied list. If I missed your favorite, or one you would like to recommend to others, please let us know in the comments so fellow readers can add it to their lists.

On Our Shelves: New Children’s DVD’s

November 20, 2013November 20, 2013 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

The library’s DVD collection (including regular and blue ray discs) grows rapidly and is often hard to keep up with. This holds true with the children’s collection just as much as it does with the family film and adult collections. There are feature films, favorite television shows (old and new), as well as educational programs. Here is just a small sample of some new DVD’s in the children’s room, though it barely scratches the surface!

Regular Show Fright Pack
The adventures of Mordecai and Rigby, two park groundskeepers who seek out various ways to escape the everyday boredom of their job.

Ivan the Incredible
After constantly being bullied by kids at school and ridiculed by his father, Ivan Olsen is given the chance to be the best at everything after a witch mixes him a magic potion.

Robot Zot
This is a tale of a robot determined to conquer the earth. But once discovers the princess – a toy cell phone – he must learn how to be a hero.

The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That. Hurray! It’s Valentine’s Day!
It’s Valentine’s Day with The Cat in the Hat, a great time to make friends with the Cat. Spend the whole day with wonderful friends in a place where adventure and fun never ends. Yes, friendship’s the key on this special day, and the Cat is the one who will lead the way.

Minnie’s The Wizard of Dizz
Minnie and Pluto end up in the silly but spectacular land of Dizz. It’s an amazing place, with rainbow trees, butterfly bows, and friendly ‘Chipmunchkins,’ but what Minnie wants most is to get home. Together, Minnie and her new friends Scarecrow Goofy, Mickey the Tin Mouse, and Donald the Lion, set off to ask the wonderful Wizard of Dizz to make their dreams come true. But look out! Bad Witch Pete wants Minnie’s magical, sparkly green shoes, and he’s got a few tricks up his sleeve. Includes bonus features.

Fish ‘n Chips
Hilarious adventures of a young fish, Fish, and his nemesis Chips, a cat, as they tear across land and sea, facing off for the love of the same catfish and bones of Fish’s ancestor.

Phineas and Ferb, the Perry Files. Animal Agents
So you thought Perry the Platypus, a.k.a. Agent P, was the only crime-fighting animal in the Tri-State area? Meet Perry’s animal agent comrades who are all members of the O.W.C.A., ”Organization Without a Cool Acronym.” This hilarious collection of animal agent-themed adventures will leave viewers wanting to join forces with the O.W.C.A. to help shell out trouble for evil-doers.