End of Summer Reading 2015

There are only a few days left to complete your Summer Reading activity charts. Get them turned in before Saturday, August 1 so that we can enter you in our drawing for an Android tablet. Plus, even better, you can brag about getting your summer reading goals accomplished!

Visit the Summer Reading page for a Comic Panel Chart, in case you’ve misplaced yours, as well as links to the calendar and the Summer Music Playlist. And, just because Summer Reading is finished doesn’t mean you can’t continue to read this Summer. Ask one of the Reference Librarians for a recommendation.

Take Ten: Playing Games

Last night we had our first Adult Game Night! We brought out the Wii and a few board games and managed some fun and friendly competition. And, it worked so well, we think we’ll try it again next month. In celebration, here are a few novels that feature a game as an important part of the plot.

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A Clue for the Puzzle Lady by Parnell Hall

• Bakerhaven Police Chief Dale Harper is perplexed by a piece of evidence in his first murder investigation–an apparent crossword puzzle clue found on the body of a teenage girl–so he recruits the town’s famed “Puzzle Lady,” the eccentric author of a weekly syndicated crossword puzzle column. (First in a series)

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

• Young Ender Wiggin is recruited into the International fleet’s legion of child warriors, training to become a commander in Earth’s defenses, and he struggles to find himself in the grueling ranks of the Battle School.

The Eight by Katherine Neville

• A young novice during the French Revolution risks her life to keep a jeweled chess set that Moors gave Charlemagne, and in the 20th century, a computer expert and a chess master try to solve its mystery.

The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez Reverte

• When a young art expert discovers a murder hidden in a valuable fifteenth-century Flemish painting, she must overcome some unscrupulous twentieth-century characters to uncover the identity of the killer.

Interstellar Pig by William Sleator

• Barney’s boring seaside vacation suddenly becomes more interesting when the cottage next door is occupied by three exotic neighbors who are addicted to a game they call “Interstellar Pig.”.

Last Call by Tim Rogers

• When a high-stakes card game went awry, professional poker player Scott Crane went into hiding. Twenty years later, Crane now finds himself the target of the country’s most ruthless gangster: his father. Crane Sr. has ruled the West since 1948, when he killed famed criminal Bugsy Siegel. To save his life (and his soul), Crane must sit down for one final showdown at the card table.

The Maze of Bones (39 Clues #1) by Rick Riordan

• When their beloved aunt–matriarch of the world’s most powerful family–dies, orphaned siblings Amy and Dan Cahill compete with less honorable Cahill descendants in a race around the world to find cryptic clues to a mysterious fortune. (Juvenile Fiction)

Pocket Kings by Ted Heller

• Frank Dixon’s first novel, Plague Boy, is sinking into oblivion on Amazon, and neither his nor anyone else’s literary agent will return his calls. Then Frank discovers online poker, and is soon addicted to the rush he feels as the successful, popular ‘Chip Zero.’ But as he wins thousands of dollars, it soon becomes clear that his Internet success is not the solution to his problems. And when the virtual world comes crashing in on Frank’s real life, it can only mean trouble.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

• Immersing himself in a mid-twenty-first-century technological virtual utopia to escape an ugly real world of famine, poverty, and disease, Wade Watts joins an increasingly violent effort to solve a series of puzzles by the virtual world’s creator.

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

• The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance. (Juvenile Fiction)

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Annotations are courtesy of NoveList Plus. Log into NoveList Plus with your TFPL card for more book summaries, reviews, and series information.

The Way Back Machine – Best Sellers 1970

We’re going back to a time when the swinging 60s were transforming into the “Me” decade – 1970. That year saw the endings of some things (the Supremes, the Beatles) and the beginnings of others (Earth Day, All My Children). You can see how the tone of things was set to change…

Here are some other events that occurred that year:

• Two iconic cars, the AMC Gremlin and the Ford Pinto go on sale! (What is it about ugly cars and the 70s?)
• Apollo 13 makes it back to Earth safely (April).
•  The North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York is finished, making it the tallest in the world (December).

Get a taste of this changing era through its popular literature. The following books were all on the New York Times Best Sellers list for the week of July 19, 1970. Groovy.

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FICTION

1. Love Story by Erich Segal

2. Great Lion of God by Taylor Caldwell

3. The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles

4. Deliverance by James Dickey

5. Calico Palace by Gwen Bristow

6. The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart

7. The Lord Won’t Mind by Gordon Merrick

8. Losing Battles by Eudora Welty

9. The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight by Jimmy Breslin

10. Such Good Friends by Lois Gould

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NONFICTION

1. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex by Dr. David Reuben

2. The Sensuous Woman by “J”

3. Up the Organization by Robert Townsend

4. Zelda by Nancy Milford

5. Human Sexual Inadequacy by William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson

6. Hard Times by Studs Terkel

7. Ball Four by Jim Bouton and Leonard Shecter

8. Mary, Queen Of Scots by Antonia Fraser

9. The New English Bible

10. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

Great Online Resource: Zinio

Magazine subscriptions can get expensive – and sometimes it’s hard to keep up with them. If you’re like me, a pile will build up at home before I get a chance to sit down and read (and often, I scan them instead of reading in depth). Of course, you can always ease this fix by dropping in to the Library to read the latest issue. But in case that’s not possible, we have a database that will make it a lot easier to read your favorite magazines wherever and whenever you want.

First, navigate to our homepage and then click on the “digital” tab. On that menu, choose “downloads” and then “e-magazine” which will take you to our collection via ZINIO. We offer over 100 magazines, including Good Housekeeping, Motortrend, National Geographic, and Glamour, plus a ton more hobby/interest based. From the Zinio main page, click “Create New Account” and enter some basic information. Once that’s done, you can read a magazine in your browser, or download the app for free to use on your mobile device.

Using the app is easy – when it prompts you for your Library, just click on “Idaho Digital Libraries” and enter the information that you used to set up your account. Then download the magazine. Since the entire magazine downloads into the app, you’ll be able to read your magazine even if you don’t have a wifi connection. You can keep any magazine you download for as long as you like, and you can also delete magazines within the app.

Easy, peasy – right? And you don’t have a pile of magazines making you feel guilty. Give us a call at 733-2964 ext 200, or stop by the Reference Desk if you have questions or need help with the app.

Take Ten: “Independence” Day

Whether you’re chillin’ or grillin’ this weekend, you still might find yourself with a little extra time to read. And what better way to celebrate the 4th of July holiday than to read a little about “independence?” Each of the following books uses that word in the title, so there’s a built in excuse to justify your interest in something other than the fireworks. (Oh, who am I kidding – nothing beats fireworks!)

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FICTION

Daughter of Independence – Simon Brown

• As the people of Kydan, in an attempt to survive, work to make the New Land a trading empire, Strategos Galys Valera, the war leader of the colonists, must search for the secret papers hidden by her murdered lover, which hold the key to keeping the evil magic of the Hamilayan Empire at bay.

Independence! – Dana Fuller Ross

• In 1837, a group of pioneers sets out from Long Island to Independence, Mo., on the first leg of a journey to claim the Oregon territory. Among them are the fiery widow Claudia Humphries and Sam Brentwood.

Independence Day – Richard Ford

• Real estate agent Frank Bascombe moves into his newly married ex-wife’s old home, and is looking forward to the upcoming Fourth of July weekend, but somehow nothing turns out the way he expects.

Independence Day: Silent Zone – Stephen Molstad

• A “prequel” to the tale of extraterrestrial invasion dramatized in the blockbuster 1996 film, Independence Day, details an evil government conspiracy to conceal the reputed UFO landing in Roswell. National ad/promo.

The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet – Colleen McCollough

• The best-selling author of The Thorn Birds presents a sequel to Pride and Prejudice that finds the willful third Bennet sister setting out in her late thirties in pursuit of adventure while her sisters worry about her at home.

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NONFICTION

Beyond Fossil Fools: The Roadmap to Energy Independence by 2040 – Joseph M. Shuster

• Develops a plan to fulfill the energy needs of the United States through a combination of sun, wind, and atomic energy.

In Hock: Pawning in America from Independence through the Great Depression – Wendy A. Woloson

• The definitive history of pawnbroking in the United States that demonstrates that the pawnshop was essential to the rise of capitalism.*

Life Without Ed: How One Woman Declared Independence from Her Eating Disorder and How You Can Too – Jenni Schaefer

• The story of a woman’s break from an abusive relationship and how she began seeing her eating disorder in a new light, which helped her overcome it.*

Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality – Danielle Allen

• Explores three major themes of the Declaration, equality, liberty, and the abiding power of language, while discussing the challenges of writing a document designed to forge a social contract that reflected the desires of the population.

Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence – Joseph J. Ellis

• Presents a revelatory account of America’s declaration of independence and the political and military responses on both sides throughout the summer of 1776 that influenced key decisions and outcomes.

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Annotations are courtesy of NoveList Plus and the TFPL Catalog(*).