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

October 14, 2015September 29, 2015 / Mary / 1 Comment

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

Anyone 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 Kinsella
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

Enchanted, 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 Wax
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.

The 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 Evanovich
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!

Must 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 Ballis
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.

The 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 Cash
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!

10 Books We’re Looking Forward to in July

July 15, 2015July 6, 2015 / cheshirelib / Leave a comment

Beat the heat! Find yourself some air conditioning (or a spot at the beach) and settle in with one of the new books hitting our shelves in July. Romance, thrills, good eats – the perfect summertime reading!

Every month, librarians from around the country pick the top ten new books they’d most like to share with readers. The results are published on LibraryReads.org. One of the goals of LibraryReads is to highlight the important role public libraries play in building buzz for new books and new authors. Click through to read more about what new and upcoming books librarians consider buzzworthy this month. The top ten titles for July are:

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
Kiss Me by Susan Mallery
Second Chance Summer by Jill Shalvis
Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs
Those Girls by Chevy Stevens
Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans
Love Lies Beneath by Ellen Hopkins
Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/day by Leanne Brown

My Angry Birds Obsession

June 24, 2015June 4, 2015 / Mary / Leave a comment

Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m addicted to Angry Birds.

It started innocently enough. When I got my new iPhone, my daughter said the game was fun and urged me to download the app. Why not, I thought. Everyone else was doing it.

At first, it seemed harmless. Cute little angry birds smashing fat, smug-looking pigs into oblivion. I quickly became adept.

And then new birds were introduced. They did cool things like explode and split into three separate birds. I learned which were good against glass and which against the wood structures those grinning little pigs erected. The exploding bird was great for stone. I got an unholy satisfaction from blowing pigs up.

I even found a great book, Learn to Draw Angry Birds. Now I could doodle Angry Birds in the moments when I couldn’t play the game.

Soon, it was no longer enough to just win a level with one star. I had to get three stars. ON EVERY GAME. I would try for hours to get that lone two-star game up to three stars. One-star wins began to feel like losses.

That should have been a warning sign, but I was too far gone. I conquered all the levels in the original Angry Birds game. I needed more. On to Angry Birds Rio. I ran my phone down playing Angry Birds.

My daughter must have seen my plight, for she intervened. She introduced me to Trivia Crack.

Gee, I thought. Everyone else is doing it. It seems harmless…

If you can’t get enough of Angry Birds, here are some more titles to feed your addiction… Um, I mean, give you more information.

Getting Past Captain Underpants

June 22, 2015June 1, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

My son was not as instantly attracted to books and reading as myself or his little sister. While he loved picking out books and being read to, once it came time to read on his own he was easily discouraged. He had the skills to read, but had trouble sitting still or focusing on decoding the more challenging words. I offered him every style of easy reader and early chapter book imaginable. Thankfully, as a librarian with many friends that happen to teach, I had plenty of resources. The book that finally caught his attention is one that many try to steer clear of because of its silly and sometimes disgusting humor. However, if he was going to read, and do so happily, I was going to encourage it regardless of the book in question.

As you might have guessed, that book was Captain Underpants. He has now read the boxed set of the series through more than a few times, and expanded to other books, all of which I like much better. Now he still loves that silly humor, but he also loves jokes and anything vaguely monster, hero, or adventure. So, for fellow parents that fear the draw of the Captain, there are some great follow up books that a fan might easily and happily transition to. The number of easier chapter books and graphic novels that will appeal to the fans of Captain Underpants is growing, with volume and quality. If you are trying to ease your young reader away from the underwear clad superhero, here are some great options to keep them reading. If the book belongs to a series, which most of them do, I have listed the first book in that series. And on a side note, do not be afraid to introduce harder books via audiobooks! I hooked both my kids on the Magic Tree House series by listening to the audio book collection in the car.

Squish 1: Super Amoeba by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm
Introducing SQUISH—a new graphic novel series about a comic book-loving, twinkie-eating grade school AMOEBA trying to find his place in the world (or at least trying to make it through a school day).

Sardine in Outer Space by Emmanuel Guibert
Sardine and her uncle, Captain Yellow Shoulder, sail their ship, The Huckleberry, across the universe meeting up with monsters and aliens in order to confront Supermuscleman, who is trying to take over the galaxy.

George Brown, Class Clown: Super Burp by Nancy E. Krulik
When fourth-grader George starts at a new school, he vows to become a model student instead of the class clown he has always been, but just as his plan is going really well, he is overtaken by a magic burp that turns him back into a mischief-maker.

The Fake Cape Caper by Greg Trine

Melvin Beederman, superhero in charge of Los Angeles, attends the Superhero’s Convention in Las V egas, leaving his young sidekick to keep Los Angeles safe from evil bad guys and bullies.

Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom by Eric Wight
Fourth-grader Frankie Piccolini has a vivid imagination when it comes to cleaning his disastrously messy room, but eventually even he decides that it is just too dirty.

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There is an increasing number of wonderful books for this reading level and age group as of late. If you have already read all of these and are still looking for me you might also want to try: Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osborne, The High and the Flighty by Catherine Hapka and Lisa Rao, Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy: The Hero Revealed by William Boniface, Notebook of Doom: Rise of the Balloon Goons by Troy Cummings, Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Wiley & Grampa’s Creature Features by Kirk Scroggs,Dragonbreath by Ursula Vernon, Looinverse: Stranger Things by David Lubar, My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish by Mo O’Hara, Galaxy Zack: Hello Nebulon by Ray O’Ryan, and Attack of the Giant Hamster by Paul Harrison.

How to Have Fun at Work

June 17, 2015June 22, 2015 / Mary / Leave a comment

We seem to have a lot of fun at our library.

For instance, we have a regular staff storytime. Louise, our Social Media Coordinator, chooses picture books and reads aloud to us. During our last session she read Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beatty and Kid Sheriff and the Terrible Toads by Bob Shea (complete with western accent!). We sat on the floor as she read the stories and showed us the pictures. We applauded. Then we all helped each other stand back up.

Want to have fun at work? Try some of our methods:

Dress up Elvis as Darth Vader.