An Easter Playlist

Every occasion needs a soundtrack. Check out this list of classical and contemporary music appropriate for Easter celebrations. Some of these you might remember from church, but not realize who actually wrote them. Others were written secularly, but adopted later as hymns. Did you know that Elvis Presley started out as a gospel singer?  He attended a Pentacostal church that encouraged modern music.
1) Cantata 147: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, by Johannes Sebastian Bach
You probably remember this one from church
2) Concerto no. 1 in E (Spring)  by Antonio Vivaldi
You’ve heard this one in the movies and on TV
3) How Great Thou Art by Elvis Presley
One of his most-requested songs
4) The Old Rugged Cross by Johnny Cash
5) The Lord’s Prayer
There are many beautiful instrumental songs on Windham Hill’s Prayer album, perfect for quiet meditation.
6) Amazing Grace  by Anne Murray
7) El Shaddai  by Amy Grant
According to Exodus 6:2, Shaddai is the name by which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew God
8) You’ll Never Walk Alone by Elvis Presley
9) The Passions According to St. John and St. Matthew   by J. S. Bach
10) Ave Maria  by The Priests
11) Hallelujah Chorus from The Messiah   by G. Handel Baroque at its finest
12) Symphony No. 9 in D minor “Choral”   by Ludwig von Beethoven
You probably know this better as the “Ode to Joy,” or Hymn # 8, “Joyful, Joyful”
13) Judas Maccabeus by G. Handel
14) Russian Easter Liturgy A whole service on one disc!

 

 

 

What to Read After, or While Waiting for, The Fault in Our Stars

Are you among the masses that read and loved The Fault in Our Stars by John Green? If not, know that the book is emotionally charged. While considered a young adult novel because of the ages of the two main characters, the book has been read and raved about from teens and adults alike. It is not an easy read, but one that is worth the emotional investment that it seems to require. The book is about sixteen year old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, who has accepted her terminal diagnosis. Then a chance meeting with a boy at cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen year-old who, after being diagnosed with Creutzfeld Jakob’s (aka mad cow) disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.

You Have Seven Messages by Stewart Lewis
Teenaged Luna, who lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with her movie director father, tries to piece together the death of her mother with the seven unheard messages left on her forgotten cell phone.

Me & Earl & the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia.

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr
Told from their own viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Jill, in grief over the loss of her father, and Mandy, nearly nineteen, are thrown together when Jill’s mother agrees to adopt Mandy’s unborn child but nothing turns out as they had anticipated.

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner
As she tries to sort out her feelings of love, seventeen-year-old Cass, a spunky math genius with an introverted streak, finds a way to memorialize her dead best friend.

Before I Die by Jenny Downham
A terminally ill teenaged girl makes and carries out a list of things to do before she dies.

Hate List by Jennifer Brown
Sixteen-year-old Valerie, whose boyfriend Nick committed a school shooting at the end of their junior year, struggles to cope with integrating herself back into high school life, unsure herself whether she was a hero or a villain.

Still looking for more? Then you might also be interested in: Saving June by Hannah Harrington, Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, Ask the Passengers by A S King, Every Day by David Levithan, Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn, David Levithan,  The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan, Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A S King,  Just One Day by Gayle Forman, Where She Went by Gayle Forman, The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen, Hold Me Closer, Necromancer Lish McBride,  Wonder by R J Palacio, The Cardturner by Louis Sachar, and Speechless by Hannah Harrington.

Great Poetry Books to Share with Children

Do you love poetry and want to inspire the same love in your child, are trying to teach young children to read and write poetry, or simply looking to spark your own enjoyment of the genre. Poetry can seem intimidating at first glance, but knowing where to start, and starting simple, are often a good idea. These books are full of poetry that is suited for all ages, the young and young at heart. So, regardless of the reason you might want to venture into the worlds of poetry, these books are a great place to start.

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  1. Falling Up (or any collections) by Shel Silverstein
  2. The World of Christopher Robin; the Complete When We Were Very Young and Now We are Six by A.A. Milne
  3. A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
  4. Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
  5. Sad Underwear and Other Complications: More Poems for Children and Their Parents by Judith Viorst
  6. Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer
  7. A Pizza the Size of the Sun by Jack Prelutsky
  8. Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman
  9. Forest Has a Song: Poems by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
  10. A Dazzling Display of Dogs by Betsy Franco
  11. It’s Raining Pigs and Noodles by Jack Prelutsky
  12. Kids Pick The Funniest Poems by Bruce Lansky
  13. The Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry by Bill Martin Jr.

There are, of course, many more fantastic books of poetry and novels in verse out there for us all to enjoy. If you have a favorite that I missed please share it with us in the comments so that others can discover it too!

Staff’s Favorite Books of 2013

book collage 2

One of the great perks of working in a library is access to copious amounts of books to choose from for our reading pleasure.  One of the biggest drawbacks of working in a library is access to copious amounts of books!  The Cheshire Library staff love to read and I thought it would be fun for them to list their favorite books they read or listened to in 2013.  They were very busy readers!  Below is just a sampling of some of the titles our library staff submitted.

Adult Fiction

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

Canada by Richard Ford

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Me Before Youby Jojo Moyes

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Three Sisters by Susan Mallery

White Dog Fell From the Sky by Eleanor Morse

We Are Water by Wally Lamb

Romance

Bachelor Firemen (series) by Jennifer Bernard

The Bad Boys of Crystal Lake (series) by Julianna Stone

Bad Boys of Red Hook (series) by Robin Kaye

Cowboy Take Me Away by Jane Graves

Free Fall by Catherine Mann

The Sullivan Brothers (series)by Bella Andre

Thrill Rideby Julia Ann Walker

The Way Homeby Cindy Gerard

What She Wants by Sheila Roberts

Whiskey Creek (series)by Brenda Novak

Science Fiction

Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding

Mystery

A Book Town Mystery (series) by Lorna Barrett

Killer Librarian by Mary Lou Kirwin

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

A Tea Shop Mystery (series)by Laura Childs

A Witchcraft Mystery (series) by Juliet Blackwell

Christian Fiction

For Every Season by Cindy Woodsmall

The House That Love Built by Beth Wiseman

Pearl In The Sand by Tessa Afshar

Take A Chance On Me by Susan Mary Warren

Adult Non-Fiction

The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum by Temple Grandin

Behind The Beautiful Foreversby Katherine Boo

Drunk Tank Pink by Adam Alter

Lost Empire of Atlantis by Gavin Menzies

The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way by Amanda Ripley

Biography

Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forgerby Ken Perenyi

Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road From Debt to Freedom by Ken Ilgunas

Wild: From Lost to Found in the Pacific Coast Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Audiobooks

The Good House by Ann Leary – Read by Mary Beth Hurt

The Mermaid of Brooklyn by Amy Shearn – Read by Hillary Huber

The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson – Read by Tim Kang, Josiah D. Lee, James Kyson Lee, Adam Johnson

One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson – Read by Bill Bryson

Young Adult

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saena

Boy 21 by Matthew Quick

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Children

Bugs in My Hair! by David Shannon

The Dark by Lemony Snicket

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

I’m A Frog! by Mo Willems

Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin

On Our Shelves: New Paperbacks

New paperbacks to suit a variety of tastes.

Big Sky Wedding (Parable, Montana) by Linda Lael Miller – Wedding bells are ringing in Parable, Montana, but Brylee Parrish hasn’t enjoyed the sound since being jilted at the altar by Hutch Carmody. She’s over Hutch now, and running a multimillion-dollar business is challenging enough for this country gal. So she should avoid falling head over boot heels for A-list actor Zane Sutton.

Gentle On My Mind (Caribou Crossings Series) by Susan Fox – Brooke Kincaid knows second chances don’t come cheap. She’s spent five years repairing past mistakes and making her life in Caribou Crossing steady and predictable. But now a stranger’s Harley has shattered her fence and her peace of mind in one swoop.

Against The Mark (The Against Series) by Kat Martin – A young woman’s quest to find the murderer of her estranged father and the private investigator who helps her.

Love Overdue by Pamela Morsi – Buttoned-up book lover DJ is all sensible shoes, drab skirts and studious glasses. After an ill-advised spring-break-fueled fling left her mortified, she’s committed to her prim and proper look. When she’s hired by a rural library in middle-of-nowhere Kansas, she finally has the lifestyle to match—and she can’t wait to get her admin on.

The Hero (A Thunder Point Novel) by Robyn Carr – In a moment of desperation, Devon McAllister took her daughter and fled a place where they should have been safe and secure. She has no idea what is around the next bend, but she is pretty certain it can’t be worse than what they’ve left behind. Her plan is to escape to somewhere she can be invisible. Instead, an unexpected offer of assistance leads her to Thunder Point, a tiny Oregon town with a willingness to help someone in need.

For The Love of Magic (Spellbound Falls Series) by Janet Chapman – After forty years of marriage, Rana Oceanus has done the unthinkable and run away from her mighty, magical husband. Not that she ran very far, having purchased a house in Spellbound Falls right on the shore of the Bottomless Sea, where she intends to prepare for the scariest battle of her life. The only flaw in her plan, however, is that she is still very much in love with Titus…

The Knight’s Temptress by Amanda Scott – Sir Ian Colquhoun has never feared danger. So when Lady Lachina MacFarlan is captured by a ruthless enemy, mounting a daring rescue seems only natural for the courageous knight.

Realm of Shadows (The Alliance Vampires) by Heather Graham – Tara Mason wants more than tourist sights out of her trip to the city of dreams, something strange and off the beaten path. But is it her own curiosity that draws her to an ancient cemetery on the outskirts of Paris? Or is she lured by a dark, immortal force she is powerless to resist?

 Clammed Up (A Maine Clambake Mystery) by Barbara Ross – Summer has come to Busman’s Harbor, Maine, and tourists are lining up for a taste of authentic New England seafood, courtesy of the Snowden Family Clambake Company. But there’s something sinister on the boil this season.

Love Inspired selections:  The Boss’s Bride by Brenda Minton, The Doctor’s Family Reunion by Mindy Obesnhaus, A Father’s Promise by Carolyne Aarsen.