My New Hobby – Flower Arranging

March 17, 2015March 3, 2015 / Linda / 1 Comment

I love flowers and would have a house full of flowering houseplants if I didn’t have a black thumb. Unfortunately, nothing stays alive for very long. Recently, I decided to try my hand on buying cut flowers and making decorative arrangements. Turns out, my black thumb doesn’t affect this at all and the arrangements have lasted long enough to satisfy my love of having flowers in my home. I have a limited number of vessels to use, so I’m keeping things pretty simple right now. But just in case I want to take my hobby to the next level, I took a look at what the library has in the way of books to help me learn more about flower arranging. The library has a very nice selection of books. If you are looking for a new hobby, or already dabble in flower arranging, here are some books that might inspire you.

Flower Arranging The American Way: A World Association of Flower Arrangers Book – A book with more than 250 color illustrations showcases more than 250 flower arrangements by some of the most gifted amateur arrangers.

Keiko’s Ikebana – Keiko Kubo – An introduction to this international art form that is both practical and contemporary. Keiko’s unique approach combines traditional techniques with modern tastes, incorporating influences ranging from sculpture to today’s Western styles. The result is a one-of-a-kind look that is authentic, easy to create and attractive.

Flower by Flower: a practical and inspirational guide to the art of flower arranging – Tadhg Ryan and Anna Selby – Offers inspirational and practical information on creating fifty fresh-flower arrangements, providing projects for every mood and season that are affordable and easy to create.

The Book of Fresh Flowers: a complete guide to selecting and arranging – Malcolm Hillier – A comprehensive guide to creating flower arrangements, with suggestions on how to grow and buy the best flowers, as well as the techniques of the professionals

The Art of Arranging Flowers – Lynn Branard – After 20 years as an intuitive florist who has helped her friends, neighbors and customers with their romances, celebrations and sympathy gestures, Ruby Jewell looks to the power of that community to heal her floundering spirit after her sister’s death.

For more titles, take a look on the lower level of the library in section 745.92.

Super Pi Day!

March 14, 2015March 11, 2015 / Susan O. / Leave a comment

Super Pi day is coming!
Whether or not you’re a math aficionado, you may remember pi to be the ratio of a circle’s circumference (the length all the way around) to its diameter (the width across the circle). This number is symbolized by the Greek letter ∏. Pi is a unique number in that despite computers dividing it out to millions of places, no number sequence has been found to repeat itself – a number stretching as far to infinity as we can imagine it.

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Generally, Pi is abbreviated to 3.14 to make it manageable, and every March 14 social media will be inundated with Pi(e) memes and many pies will be baked in the number’s honor (I admit, I’m guilty of this one, too, even though I avoid higher math at all costs). This year, however, is a Super Pi day – at 9:26:54 a.m., the time will match Pi to ten digits – 3.14159265358, a phenomena that rarely happens.

The first known celebration of Pi day was by Larry Shaw, a physicist at the San Francisco Exploratorium, in 1988. Staff and public alike marched around a circular space and enjoyed eating fruit pies.

Celebrate Pi day by enjoying circles, even if you don’t feel like doing the math. Spin your wheels, have a donut with your coffee, or perhaps just spin your desk chair to enjoy the centrifugal force. Or, go all the way and enjoy some Pi(e), such as this simple blueberry pie (which can be made sugar-free with an artificial sweetener):

Blueberry Pie (because blueberries are circular, too!) :

4 cups blue berries
1 9” baked pie crust
¾ cup of sugar
¼ cup of water
3 Tbsp of cornstarch
¼ tsp salt
1 Tbsp Gran Marnier liqueur
1 tsp butter
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

Bake your pie crust, let it cool.
Spread 2 cups of the berries in the pie crust. Refrigerate until chillled.
Simmer remaining 2 cups of berries, sugar, water, cornstarch, and salt in a heavy-bottomed saucepan until thickened, stirring frequently (@ 7 minutes). Remove from heat.
Mix in Gran Marnier and butter. Cool completely.
Pour blueberry sauce over berries in piecrust. Refrigerate until welll chilled.
Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Enjoy!

United States of Pie by Adrienne Kane

Another Literary Loss; Saying Goodbye to Terry Pratchett

March 13, 2015March 14, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

Fantasy writer Terry Pratchett, creator of the Discworld series and author of more than 70 books, died on March 12 2015. He was 66 and suffered from a rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Pratchett was best known for Discworld, a series of more than 40 comic novels set in a teeming fantasy world. He has sold more than 65 million books worldwide, and his novels have pratchettcolorof been translated into several dozen languages. Pratchett was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours.

Lets remember this wonderful author by reading (or rereading) some of our favorite books from Terry Pratchett. Here is a list of some of my favorite titles to get your started.

The Color of Magic: the First Discworld Novel
A slightly disorganized and somewhat naive interplanetary tourist named Twosome joins up with a bumbling wizard and embarks on a chaotic voyage through a world filled withmonsters and dragons, heroes and knaves.

Dodger
In an alternative version of Victorian London, a seventeen-year-old Dodger, a street urchin, rises in life when he saves a mysterious girl, meets Charles Dickens, and unintentionally puts a stop to the murders of Sweeny Todd.

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
The world is going to end next Saturday, but there are a few problems–the Antichrist has been misplaced, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride motorcycles, and the representatives from heaven and hell decide that they like the human race.

Snuff: a Novel of Discworld
Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch attempts to take a vacation, but, as usual, nothing goes as planned.

Nation
After a tsunami destroys all that they have ever known, Mau, an island boy, and Daphne, an aristocratic English girl, together with a small band of refugees, set about rebuilding their community and the things that matter to them.

The Science of Discworld by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen
The wizards of Discworld accidentally create a new universe, the one which houses Earth, and proceed to explain the science of this place, interweaving fantasy chapters with those that explain actual scientific principles.

More great books include: I Shall Wear Midnight, Only You Can save Mankind, The Carpet People, The long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, Thud!: a Novel of Discworld, The Wee Free Men, Wintersmith, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Thief of Time: a Novel of Discworld, The Carpet People, A Hat Full of Sky, The Fifth Elephant, and Going Postal: a Novel of Discworld.

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Cozy Mysteries – March 2015

March 12, 2015March 14, 2015 / Linda / 1 Comment

Another batch of cozy mysteries for your reading pleasure!

Horse of a Different Killer (Call of the Wilde Mystery) – Laura Morrigan

Ladle to the Grave (Soup Lover’s Mystery) – Connie Archer

How to Catch a Cat (Cats and Curios Mystery) – Rebecca M. Hale

A Healthy Homicide (A Blossom Valley Mystery) – Staci McLaughlin

Murder Ties the Knot (A Haunted Souvenir Shop Mystery) – Christy Fifield

Borrowed Crime (A Bookmobile Cat Mystery) – Laurie Cass

Dying for a Cupcake (A Devereaux’s Dime Store Mystery) – Denise Swanson

Suspendered Sentence (An Amish Mystery) – Laura Bradford

Flamenco, Flan, and Fatalities (A Happy Hoofers Mystery) – Mary McHugh

Realistic Fiction for Middle Grade Readers

March 10, 2015February 17, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

School assignments, curiosity, parents, friends, and more could urge children to pick up a book in a different genre than they would normally read. Sometimes this makes recommending a book difficult, because they do not know which book or books they might like and could be willing to dismiss any given title without much thought. Since realistic fiction is not my genre of choice (I prefer fantasy and other types of escapism in my reading), I scoured Goodreads lists, school library lists, and more to find the most recommended books in the realistic fiction genre that are best suited for middle grade readers. Here are some of the most mentioned books on these lists.

1. Firegirl by Tony Abbott
A middle school boy’s life is changed when Jessica, a girl disfigured by burns, starts attending his Catholic school while receiving treatment at a local hospital.

2. Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald
Her grandfather’s dying words lead 13-year-old Theodora Tenpenny to a valuable, hidden painting she fears may be stolen, but it is her search for answers in her Greenwich Village neighborhood that brings a real treasure.

3. Emma Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis
A quirky and utterly logical seventh-grade girl named Emma-Jean Lazarus discovers some interesting results when she gets involved in the messy everyday problems of her peers.

4. Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman
One by one, a number of people of varying ages and backgrounds transform a trash-filled inner-city lot into a productive and beautiful garden, and in doing so, the gardeners are themselves transformed

5. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
Weighed down by guilt, Joel searches for the courage to tell the truth about the disappearance–and apparent drowning–of his best friend Tony while the boys are playing near the treacherous, and forbidden, Vermillion River

6. Half a Chance by Cynthia Lord
Lucy, with her mother and her photographer father, has just moved to a small rural community in New Hampshire, and with her new friend Nate she plans to spend the summer taking photos for a contest, but pictures sometimes reveal more than people are willing to see.

7. The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata
Just when 12-year-old Summer thinks nothing else can possibly go wrong in a year filled with bad luck, an emergency takes her parents to Japan, leaving Summer to care for her little brother while helping her grandmother cook and do laundry for the harvest workers.

8. The View from Saturday by E.L. KonigsburgFour students, with their own individual stories, develop a special bond and attract the attention of their teacher, a paraplegic, who chooses them to represent their sixth-grade class in the Academic Bowl competition.

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Here are a few more books to chose from, including some very popular books that you might have already heard great things about; Dog Lost by Ingrid Lee, Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord, Paperboy by Vince Vawter, Paint the Wind by Pam Muñoz Ryan, See You At Harry’s by Jo Knowles, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin, The Broken Bike Boy and the Queen of 33rd Street by Sharon G. Flake, Warp Speed by Lisa Yee, Frindle by Andrew Clements, Rhyme Schemer by K.A. Holt,Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead, Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy, Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary, Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere by Julie T. Lamana, Wonder by R.J. Palacio, One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech, or The Not-Just-Anybody Family by Betsy Byars.