Self-Help Books to Boost Positivity

August 30, 2019August 28, 2019 / emily100101 / Leave a comment

Why wait for January’s New Year’s resolutions to be your best self? You can start any time during the calendar year. Small incremental changes work best, and this is where self-help books shine. Go at your own pace, ease in slowly, and you might find you don’t need a New Year’s resolution at all. This month’s Reader’s Depot focuses on self-help books to bring notes of gratitude and love into your daily life.

Almost Everything by Anne Lamott – Presents an inspirational guide to the role of hope in everyday life and explores essential truths about how to overcome burnout and suffering by deliberately choosing joy.

Outer Order, Inner Calm by Gretchen Rubin – Offers manageable steps for creating a more serene, orderly environment, which contributes to maintaining inner calm.

Let Love Have the Last Word by Common – Explores how love and mindfulness can guide people in living their lives and interacting with their communities, and calls upon readers to give and receive love in their lives.

Everything is F*cked by Mark Manson – A counterintuitive guide to hope looks at contemporary society’s relationships with religion, politics, money, entertainment, and the internet, and challenges people to be honest with themselves and connect with the world in ways they had not considered before.

Where the Light Enters by Jill Biden- The former second lady describes her marriage to Joe Biden and the role of politics in her life and teaching career, sharing intimate insights into the traditions, resilience, and love that have helped her family establish balance and endure tragedy.

Nanaville by Anna Quindlen – The author discusses her role as a grandmother and how she learned to support her grandson’s parents by stepping back and following their lead.

Brave, Not Perfect by Reshma Saujani – The founder of the Girls Who Code nonprofit shares insights into the toxic cultural standards affecting girls today, explaining how girls can transition from perfectionism to more courageous practices that understand the value of imperfection.

The Path Made Clear by Oprah Winfrey – Offers a guide for identifying one’s purpose and creating a framework for a life that is both successful and meaningful, sharing inspirational quotes by some of today’s most influential cultural figures.

Gmorning, Gnight! by Lin-Manual Miranda and Jonny Sun – The creator and star of “Hamilton” presents an illustrated book of affirmations to provide inspiration at the beginning and end of each day.

On Being Human by Jennifer Pastiloff – An inspirational memoir based on the popular workshop of the same name reveals how the author’s years of waitressing and hearing impairment taught her to recognize unexpected beauty, relinquish shame, and find love in the face of imperfection.

What’s Happening at Cheshire Library in September

August 27, 2019September 3, 2019 / cheshirelib / Leave a comment

Seems like summer just began and suddenly we’re looking at fall! It’s a busy time of year, but we hope you can make time to attend some of the entertaining and informative programs scheduled for September at CPL.

Understand Food Labels to Prepare Healthy Food

Tuesday, September 3, 2019, 6:30 – 8:00pm

Learn how to read and understand food labels and learn best ways to prepare healthy food for the week. Presented by Kathryn Glendon, Public Health Specialist, Chesprocott Health District. Registration is required.

New Movie Thursday: Avengers Endgame (2019)

Thursday, September 5, 2019, 4:45 – 8:00pm

After the events of Infinity War, the remaining Avengers must muster all of their remaining strength and resources to defeat the mad titan Thanos and bring their friends back from the brink of oblivion. (Please note that due to the length of this movie there will be a brief intermission). Rated PG-13, registration is appreciated for this adult program.

**Binge Watch Downton Abbey Season One**

Saturday, September 7, 2019, 10:00am – 4:00pm

Join us as we watch where it all began, Downton Abbey Season One. Downton Abbey a sprawling, lavish Edwardian mansion nestled in the Yorkshire landscape needs an heir. Dame Maggie Smith stars as Violet, the stubborn Dowager Countess of Grantham, matriarch of Downton. No registration required, please feel free to stop in and leave at your convenience.

Author Talk: Yale Needs Women

Monday, September 9, 2019, 6:30 – 8:00pm

In the summer of 1969, from big cities to small towns, young women across the country sent in applications to Yale University for the first time. The landmark decision was a huge step forward for women’s equality in education. Or was it? Join author Anne Gardiner Perkins as she discusses her new book. Registration required.

Fisher in Connecticut

Wednesday, September 11, 2019, 6:30 – 8:00pm

This presentation focuses on the history of fisher in Connecticut, an overview of fisher habitat, diet, behavior, and reproduction. It also provides practical recommendations for optimum coexistence with our fisher population. Fisher artifacts are shared with the audience. Registration is required.

**Documentary: Tea With the Dames (2019)**

Thursday, September 12, 3:00 – 4:30pm

Spend a delightfully bawdy afternoon with 4 legends of British stage & cinema. Dames Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, and Joan Plowright spill the tea on life, love, and art. Tea and light refreshments will be offered, bring your favorite tea cup! Registration is required.

Author Talk: Jane Austen’s Women

Saturday, September 14, 2019, 2:00 – 4:00pm

Why does Jane Austen “mania” continue unabated in a postmodern world? How does the brilliant Regency novelist speak so personally to today’s women that they view her as their best friend? Author Dr. Kathleen Anderson will discuss her book Jane Austen’s Women: An Introduction, which touches on these questions and more. A special thank you to the Jane Austen Society for hosting this event. Registration is required.

Exercise for Healthy and Active Aging

Monday, September 16, 2019, 1:00 – 2:00pm

This hour presentation will focus on common misconceptions of strength training as we age, how to do so safely and effectively regardless of physical limitations, and how to optimize results from an exercise program to achieve strength, balance, energy levels and overall functionality. Suitable for those 50 and older, this program is informational and features no physical activity. Registration is required.

Something Old, Something New: CT Weddings Through the Ages

Thursday, September 19, 2019, 6:30 – 8:00pm

From colonial to modern times, how did Connecticans tie the knot? How did they celebrate? What did they wear? And how did some of our cherished wedding customs originate? This program uses CHS’s extensive collection of wedding clothing, accessories, photographs and prints to examine these questions. Registration is required.

Books Over Coffee – A Gentleman in Moscow

Wednesday, September 25, 2019, 12:00 – 1:30pm

Want to engage in great discussions about books? Meet new people? Eat lunch with friends? Join us for an adult monthly book club program called “Books Over Coffee.” This month we’re reading Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow. You bring your lunch, we’ll provide the coffee and tea! Registration is required.

**Trivia Night ~ Special Downton Abbey Edition**

Wednesday, September 25, 2019, 6:30 – 8:00pm

Do you love Downton Abbey? Are you a superfan? Here’s an opportunity to test your knowledge, come by yourself or bring friends. Bring your favorite tea cup, as tea will be served! Feel free to come in your finery. Registration required for this adult program, (when registering please register entire group from one person to a max five people).

JFK – Media, Myth and Memory presentation

Thursday, September 26, 2019, 6:30 – 8:00pm

John F. Kennedy is one of the most recognized and remembered historical figures thanks to a wealth of photographic images, journalistic accounts, documentaries, books, and film adaptations of his brief White House tenure. Join Dr. Lisa Burns, Professor of Media Studies at Quinnipiac University, for a discussion of how the media have played a significant role in shaping our individual and collective memories of JFK’s life, death, and legacy. Please be aware that this adult program will be showing the footage of the assassination. Registration is required.

Happy Parents, Happy Kids

August 20, 2019August 15, 2019 / Susan O. / Leave a comment

Perhaps one of the fastest ways to pick a fight with a stranger is to comment on their parenting style. Around the country, let alone around the world, each culture or region is convinced only their way is right. Yet, American education has been in decline for years, currently ranking 27th in the world. On the world happiness index, the US only ranks 18th. How do we, as parents, raise happy, healthy, well-adjusted and productive children? Let’s take a look at a few approaches to child-rearing from beyond our shores…

Strict Helicopter

Parenting books number nearly as high as the number of parents, but several have made headlines. At one end is Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, by Amy Chua. China, with more than a billion people vying for jobs, education, and housing, is perhaps the most cut-throat parenting system of all: children seen with potential are removed from homes as young as three, and raised by the state to become champion athletes, mathematicians, scientists. Parents are relentless in ensuring their child’s excellence, demanding study or practice eighteen or more hours a day in a method most Americans would label sheer abuse. Imagine the pressure on an entire class where being #2 is not an option. Chua has no qualms about pushing her daughters into being virtuosos and Ivy League scholars.

Don’t Bug Me, Kid

Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman focuses on the ways the French raise their

children. “The result of raising children French style, Druckerman writes, is “a fully functioning society of good little sleepers, gourmet eaters and reasonably relaxed parents.”” French parents have a me-first attitude – if the baby won’t sleep through the night by four months, let him cry. They don’t like to breastfeed, because it interferes with intimacy. They don’t speak to their infants in baby talk, treat patience and waiting as the highest virtue after social manners, and feed their infants table food, resulting in children who like to eat normal food. Are French children perfect? Bien sȗr, non, but they seem to have far fewer struggles than Americans.

One Big Happy

The Danish Way of Parenting, by Jessica Joelle Alexander and Iben Dissing Sandahl may just have a little more power behind it. The Danes often score #1 on the list of Happiest Country in the World. They have high taxes, but they get free education, healthcare, paid maternity leave, and more – those things that are crushing us. To discuss Denmark (and many of the Scandinavian countries), one has to first understand the concept of Hygge, which rules everything the Danish do: Hygge (pronounced hue-guh or hoo-guh) is that warm, huggy feeling of comfort you get when you’re doing something with your family: sitting by the fire drinking cocoa, playing a board game, or maybe decorating cookies together, in one of those commercial-like scenarios where everyone is happy and the kids aren’t fighting and the dog isn’t chewing the game pieces – except, in Denmark, this is actually reality. It’s the land where Norman Rockwell must have taken notes.

The Danes rear their children with this mindset, which transforms them into happy adults. In (very) short:

Don’t overpraise. Find something specific and praise that one thing instead. “What a nice, straight line!” Encourage growth; don’t let your child think s/he’s perfect.
Let your child play. Play. With sticks, rocks, toys, not electronics. Play builds thinking skills, motor skills, social skills, and spatial relations a child needs for education.
Promote togetherness. Family game nights, dinner, movies, puzzles, walks or sports or just playing in the park. Do it together, or with friends. This promotes strong social ties and models appropriate behavior. 40% of American families eat dinner together less than three times a week – 10% never do.
Reframe negative thinking. Dwell on good things, not bad. If your child says they hate school, remind them of the things they do like.
Practice empathy and compassion. Talk about emotions, and help your child learn to recognize them in themselves and others. Compassion for people and animals makes for a caring society.
Let children figure things out for themselves. Don’t hover. Let preschoolers settle their own squabbles (within reason. If Agatha is beating Bjorn with a shovel, you might want to step in).

There are no absolutes to child rearing. Some children are just darling; others seem to come out of the womb looking for trouble. But in a time when Americans are fracturing at the seams from stress, when schools are failing, children are parenting themselves, and society itself seems to be tearing apart, perhaps it’s time to look elsewhere for advice. Considering the Danes were terrorized by two World Wars and are still the happiest people on Earth, maybe we should listen.

Also try:

Three Outstanding Women of Science Fiction

August 13, 2019June 17, 2019 / cheshirelib / Leave a comment

Our sci-fi-guy, Harold Kramer, has some authors to recommend:

Ursula K. Le Guin

The world of science fiction and fantasy lost two of its best writers in recent years: Ursula K. Le Guin and Vonda McIntyre. Ursula K. Le Guin, who I consider one of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers of the 20th century, died in 2018. She published over twenty-two novels, children’s books, and volumes of poetry and essays. Her works received many awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and National Book Award.

Her novels centered around two main themes: gender and political systems. Her 1969 novel, The Left Hand of Darkness is about the effect of gender on culture and society, It won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel. An example of novel based on political themes is The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, also a winner of both a Hugo and a Nebula Award. It is about two planets orbiting next to each other – that have almost no contact between them and that have totally different economic and political systems – and the scientist who tries to unite the two worlds. I recently re-read The Dispossessed and it is still relevant today, particularly in our current political environment.

The Dispossessed is the first of six books in Le Guin’s Hainish Cycle. These novels are loosely connected by a people called the Hainish, who colonized earth and other planets hundreds of thousands of years ago. The Left Hand of Darkness is a Hainish novel along with Rocannon’s World and Planet of Exile.

Le Guin also wrote The Books of Earthsea, a series that is decidedly more fantasy than science fiction. It full of magical events and it is the story of a young wizard – a sort of precursor to Harry Potter. The first book in the series, A Wizard of Earthsea, is still a great read. The Earthsea collection of novels and short stories won the National Book Award, a Newbery Honor, the Nebula Award, and many other honors.

Vonda McIntyre

Vonda McIntyre passed away in 2019. She was a prolific writer of science fiction novels, novelizations, screenplays and short stories and she was an acclaimed teacher of writing.

She was well known for her Star Trek novels that include The Entropy Effect and Enterprise: The First Adventure. She also wrote the novelizations of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Most readers agree that Dreamsnake is McIntyre’s greatest novel and it is based on her earlier novelette, Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand. It is about Snake, a female healer who possesses miraculous powers and a magical Dreamsnake.

Octavia Butler

My final recommendation is Kindred by Octavia Butler. Kindred has been acknowledged as the first widely known novel by a black, woman science fiction writer. It is a time travel story about Dana, a black woman, who in 1976 is abruptly transported back and forth, from her home in California to antebellum Maryland, where she encounters her ancestors and becomes enslaved. At its core, Kindred is about white supremacy, slavery, and, ultimately, survival. Butler is also the author of Lilith’s Brood, a collection of three works: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago. These dystopian novels were previously published in one volume called Xenogenesis. The New York Times said that “The complete series is about an alien species that could save humanity after nuclear apocalypse—or destroy it”—from “one of science fiction’s finest writers.”

30,000+ audiobooks are waiting for you!

August 9, 2019August 1, 2019 / Louise / Leave a comment

Did you hear? Cheshire Library recently announced the dramatic expansion of our RBdigital audiobook collection. With over 34,000 titles, there’s something for everyone—from classics to bestselling new titles, debut authors to major literary prize winners, children’s literature to business books, and more. With your Cheshire Library card, you’ll have access to thousands of free audiobooks!

The core collection of these audiobook titles are unlimited access—always available for immediate access without holds or delays. We will also be adding new titles to the collection every month, with the traditional borrowing model (1 user at a time). So while you’re waiting for that bestseller to become available, there are over 30,000 titles to select from in the meantime (everything from classics like The Hobbit and Great Expectations to contemporary favorites like Red Rising and Outlander, in addition to nonfiction, self-help, children’s titles, and more)!

You can listen to audiobooks at home from your computer, or on-the-go from your tablet or smartphone. You can also have up to 10 audiobooks checked out at a time with no monthly limits! Find the link to our RBdigital collection on our website, or download the app to listen on a mobile device: