Let the library help you with the holidays

Are you hosting Thanksgiving this year? Or Christmas or Hanukkah? Or just having a good party? Does this stress you out? Well, let the library help you get ready! We have a rather extensive cookbook collection, and specifically a lot of holiday cookbooks, and even more specifically we have some Thanksgiving cookbooks. Thanksgiving 101 and How to Cook a Turkey both look super helpful in getting the cooking done. We also have a DVD by Martha Stewart, Martha's Classic Thanksgiving, which will help you with the cooking and the decorations.

Of course, if you like Martha Stewart, you can let her help you through the rest of the holiday season. We have Martha's Homemade Holidays that features Christmas and Hanukkah recipes. For help with desserts, you can have Martha show you the ropes in her Baking Handbook. Or if you just need help getting the house in order, she can do that too with her Homekeeping Handbook.

Now of course, not everyone is hosting huge family holiday gatherings. Maybe you're just having a small dinner party with your best friends. This book looks like it has some really fun ideas! Perfect Parties: Tips and Advice from a New York Party Planner.

Whatever your plans are for celebrating with friends and family, the library has resources for you.

Please note, I don't use cookbooks so much as look at the pictures. So, I can't really speak to how well the recipes are...but good luck to those of you that are cooking!

Teens Top 10 for 2009

YALSA just announced the winners of their Top Ten list for 2009. Teens nominate and vote for their favorite books of the year. You can visit their website for more information on the nomination and voting process. And here's the best news, we have ALL of this year's list in the Lackawanna County Library System! Here's the list with links to the catalog.

• Paper Towns by John Green*
• Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer*
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins*
  
• City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
• Identical by Ellen Hopkins
  
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
  
• Wake by Lisa McMann
  
• Untamed by P.C. and Kristin Cast
  
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
  
• Graceling by Kristin Cashore*
  

*Books I've read and Loved!

Of course, I've already told you about the Twilight Series as well as how much I loved Graceling and The Hunger Games. Paper Towns was also amazing and I'm really glad it's number 1. It's the story of a sort of dorky boy, Quentin, who has an adventurous night with his wild neighbor and long time crush, Margo. Then, she disappears. He makes it his mission to find her, searching for clues that she may have purposely left behind for him. There were moments reading it, where I was worried for Margo's well being and other moments where I was angry at her for leaving Quentin behind. I also love the relationship between Quentin and his group of friends. They're so close and supportive, but they fight and make fun of each other too, so it feels as real as my friendships. It's a fast paced story and I was super anxious to find out where Margo went and will he ever find her again.

Scranton Reads

Well, Scranton Reads month is about half over and we still have a ton of events for people of all ages! There's still several book discussions as well as the online book discussion if you can't make any of the in person ones. Tonight, we have a panel discussion on the music of the Vietnam Era and next week we have a panel discussion on the Media coverage of the war. Of course, we have our film festival every Thursday at 6PM in the Community Room of the Lackawanna County Children's Library. This Thursday we're showing Apocalypse Now.

Sunday the 18th, Lisa Facciponti, a storyteller, will be bring stories of Southeast Asia to life at the Lackawanna County Children’s Library. And on October 22nd, there will be a night of Vietnamese Folktales, also at the children's library.

Most importantly, author, Tim O'Brien will be visiting Scranton on October 29th at 7PM. His lecture will be held at Marywood University. Tickets are free, but they're going fast! Pick them up at all county libraries as well as at Anthology book store.

Don't forget to read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.

Southern Vampire Series / True Blood

I've been seriously addicted to the world created by Charlaine Harris in the Southern Vampire Series. The series features Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress, living in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Vampires have recently come out of hiding and admit to the world that they do exist. Sookie takes comfort in the presence of vampires, as she cannot hear their thoughts and it's a comfort for her. As the series progresses, we learn of the existence of werewolves, witches, fairies, and more! Sookie's boss and close friend is a shape shifter, someone who can change into other animals. Sookie begins to date Vampire Bill and is thrown into the vampire community. Vampire sheriff, Eric Northman, learns that Sookie is a telepath and begins using her ability to his advantage.

The series has been adapted into a show, True Blood, by HBO and is now in its second season. The show is a phenomenon in its own right. I'm loving the development of Sookie and Eric's relationship and I cannot wait to see how it progresses.

You can begin to explore the world of Sookie Stackhouse by checking out the books and tv show from the library! Note that this is definitely a more adult series than I write about. Here is a list of books 1-9 in order:

Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead and Gone

I'm on book 5, Dead as a Doornail. There is also a collection of short stories featuring Sookie Stackhouse coming out in October: A Touch of Dead

Review Categories in the Catalog

You may remember a post I did on LibraryThing for Libraries or the one on the Review feature in our catalog. Well, there is now an enhancement to the review feature that lets you choose a category. If you are a member of a book club, you can review your clubs titles in our catalog, and check that it is for a book club. Or, for Scranton Reads, you can review The Things They Carried and select that it is for Scranton Reads. We're going to be using those review to promote the titles on the Scranton Reads Website.

Another cool thing you can do with LibraryThing for Libraries reviews, is to share them with your friends on Facebook. After you review your favorite books, click on the reviews in your account. Below your reviews, you'll see a link to Put Your Reviews on Facebook or Share Your Reviews on your blog. Click the link to put them on Facebook. This will open Facebook to the LibraryThing for Libraries "At My Library" application. From there, you can select how many of your reviews you want to share, if you want them in your news stream, if you want to share other peoples reviews from your library, and if you want to put the application directly on your profile.

This is also very cool from a librarian perspective, because the application links back to our catalog directly to the titles you've reviewed! So keep on sharing and make our catalog a happening place.

Favorite Books of the Summer

So far this summer my favorite books have been Young Adult titles, surprise surprise. But, they're shockingly not about vampires. I really enjoyed Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world and their main source of entertainment is a show where teens are chosen to fight to the death. Our heroine, Katniss, must decide to fight on her own or form alliances to stay alive. It's heartbreaking and riveting. The sequel, Catching Fire comes out September 1st! I can't wait to see where this story leads.

Next, I fell in love with the fantasy world presented by Kristen Cashore in Graceling. This time our heroine's name is Katsa. She is graced with the ability to kill at will. Her uncle, a king, uses her as his personal weapon. She meets a prince, Po, who is a graced fighter. Together, Katsa and Po realize their full strength with some shocking twists. Of course, there's love and romance too! You won't want to stop reading until you know if their graces and their love will get them through their journey.

Just realized how similar their names are, strange coincidence! You'll be rooting for both Katniss and Katsa before the summer's over. What have you been reading this summer?

Rolling Thunder Rally

On Sunday, I went to the Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally in downtown Scranton to help promote this years Scranton Reads title The Things They Carried. It was a pretty interesting event and I thought I'd share a quick video that I took of some of the motorcycles leaving for their ride through Northeast PA. Enjoy!