Great Online Resource: A to Z World Travel

 

Is one of your New Year’s resolutions to travel more? If so, we have a great resource to help guide you – check out one of our latest databases, A to Z World Travel.

A to Z World Travel offers a comprehensive look at all things travel. Choose a destination and then get practical information regarding excursions, money and banking, cultural topics, and even security/embassy help. They also have a video dictionary for language learning.

To get there, start at our home page and then click on the button under our Featured Resources section. Bon Voyage!

 

The Way Back Machine – Best Sellers December 1982

The first day of winter 2018, ya’ll, a good time to cuddle up with a good book – that is unless you’ve got things to finish before the 25th! Here’s what we were reading 36 years ago this week, according to the New York Times Best Sellers list.

~~~

FICTION:

1. Space by James A. Michener

2. 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke

3. The Valley of Horses by Jean M. Auel

4. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial Storybook by William Kotzwinkle

5. Mistral’s Daughter by Judith Krantz

6. Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov

7. Master of the Game by Sidney Sheldon

8. Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams

9. Different Seasons by Stephen King

10. Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut

11. Crossings by Danielle Steel

12. Life Sentences by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey

13. Goodbye, Mickey Mouse by Len Deighton

14. Second Heaven by Judith Guest

15. The Parsifal Mosaic by Robert Ludlum

~~~

NONFICTION:

1. And More by Andy Rooney

2. Jane Fonda’s Workout Book by Jane Fonda

3. Growing Up by Russell Baker

4. Living, Loving & Learning by Leo Buscaglia

5. Megatrends by John Naisbitt

6. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

7. Keeping Faith by Jimmy Carter

8. When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold S. Kushner

9. The Fall of Freddie the Leaf by Leo Buscaglia

10. Life Extension by Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw

11. The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

12. Atlantic High by William F. Buckley Jr.

13. Having It All by Helen Gurley Brown

14. Jane Fonda’s Workout Book for Pregnancy, Birth and Recovery by Femmy Delyser

15. The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro

Readers Dozen 2019!

Hey Readers! If you’re looking for a challenge in the New Year, or maybe trying to fulfill reading resolution, try out our 2019 Readers Dozen starting in January.

Complete the monthly challenges during the month of the challenge and fill out your ticket by the 7th of the following month to be eligible for monthly prizes. We’re giving away books, mugs, games, gift cards, and more. And – if you complete all 12 months, you are eligible for the Final Prize (last year, we had tees for everyone!). All other participants will be entered in a drawing for a Final Prize.

For questions or recommendations, see the Reference Librarians!

Take Ten: Christmas Ghosts

Although we’re used to ghost stories around Halloween, in the past the tradition was to tell stories of spectres and spirits at Christmastime. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol re-popularized that tradition in the Victorian Era, but other than that, we’ve let the idea of Christmas ghosts slide a little. Bring the “spirit” back with one of these:

~~~

The Beautiful Child – Emma Tennant

• Presents a story based on the unfinished work of Henry James about a couple who enlist an artist to paint a portrait of a child they never had.

A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

• A miser learns the true meaning of Christmas when three ghostly visitors review his past and foretell his future. (If you haven’t read this one in awhile, or have only seen the TV shows/movies, pick it up – you won’t regret it! Also features five other Christmas stories/sketches.)

Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days – Jeanette Winterson

• A collection of stories written annually at Christmas includes tales of trees with magical powers, a tinsel baby that talks, flying dogs, philosophical fairies, and a haunted house.

Christmas Ghosts: An Anthology – edited by Seon Manley and Gogo Lewis

• Eleven classic Christmas tales, including a shortened version of A Christmas Carol that Dickens used during his public readings.

The Christmas Pearl – Dorothea Benton Frank

• The matriarch of a family of belligerent idiots, Theodora finds her efforts at bringing them together for a South Carolina Christmas reunion have gone badly awry, until a very special someone uses Gullah magic and common sense to bring about a miracle.

Christmas Spirits

• Lynn Kurland, Casey Claybourne, Elizabeth Bevarly, and Jenny Lykins present a collection of romantic holiday ghost stories.

Daniel Plainway, or The Holiday Haunting of the Moosepath League – Van Reid

• During the Christmas holidays in nineteenth-century Maine, Tobias Walton and his fellow companions in the Moosepath League become caught up in the lives of colorful associates of country lawyer Daniel Plainway.

The Ghost of Christmas Present – Scott Abbott

• Patrick Guthrie, a widowed public school drama teacher, will do whatever he can to make the money for a life-saving operation his ten-year-old son needs–including begging on the streets of New York.

The Haunted Tea-Cosy: A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas – Edward Gorey

• Provides an off-beat look at Christmas and the holiday season in a new version of Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol.

Merry Merry Ghost – Carolyn G. Hart

• When a determined heir moves to block a wealthy woman’s attempt to include her newly discovered grandson in her will, it is up to good-intentioned ghost Bailey Ruth Raeburn to protect a little boy, foil a murderer, and save Christmas.

~~~

Annotations are courtesy of NoveList Plus, which has great reader information. Log in with your TFPL card.