Our Summer Reading Program ended this year on August 2nd with amazing results from our young readers! There was a 15% increase in sign-up and a 55% increase in children who finished the program in comparison with last year. In total, we had 259 children signed up for our program and 110 finished the program to receive their free books.
Many of the children also read beyond the program’s required 10 hours to put their names into the grand prize drawings that we held on August 4th. Also by entering their names into the extra drawings we tallied up the child who read the most hours to receive our grand prize of an iPod nano!
Presenting our Winners!
GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Biggest Reader of the Summer Reading Program
iPod Nano
Miquela Longley
Many of the children also read beyond the program’s required 10 hours to put their names into the grand prize drawings that we held on August 4th. Also by entering their names into the extra drawings we tallied up the child who read the most hours to receive our grand prize of an iPod nano!
Presenting our Winners!
GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Biggest Reader of the Summer Reading Program
iPod Nano
Miquela LongleyGRAND PRIZE DRAWING WINNERS
Ryan Pini
Kelsey Jenuwine
Serena Bara
Andrew Longley
Nicholas BeachOur program performances this year were also an amazing success for our library! Every performance was filled to capacity and the children were always entertained! Some of the performance favorites were Science Alive, Kevin Kammeraad, and Animal Encounters. We are hoping that next year we will have some of your favorites return to our library to help promote reading!
Next year’s Summer Reading Program slogan is going to be “Be Creative @ Your Library” with the central theme around Arts and Music!
Pre-School story-time will be returning Tuesday, Sept 16th at 11am with Miss Donna. If there are any changes to this date and time, we will be sure to let you know!
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NEW ARRIVALS
DVDs
“The Suite Life with Zack and Cody: Lip Synchin’ in the Rain”
“Elmo’s World: Summer Vacation”
“Care Bears: King of the Moon”
ADULT FICTION
(See Descriptions Below)
“Being Elizabeth” Barbara Taylor Bradford
“Cry Wolf” Patricia Briggs
“Smoke Screen” Sandra Brown
“Gale Force” Rachel Caine
“Never Romance a Rake” Liz Carlyle
“The Gargoyle” Andrew Davidson
“Nightwalker” Jocelynn Drake
“Before the Scandal” Suzanne Enoch
“Rough Justice” Jack Higgins
“Mercedes Coffin” Faye Kellerman
“First Daughter” Eric Lustbader
“Some Like It Wicked” Teresa Medeiros
“A Highlander Never Surrenders” Paula Quinn
“Scandalous Deception” Rosemary Rogers
“Faces of Fear” John Saul
“The Last Colony” John Scalzi
“Eighth Shepherd” Bodie Thoene, Brock Thoene
“Deadline!” Paula L. Tutman
ADULT NON-FICTION
(See Descriptions Below)
“Cheech & Chong: The Unauthorized Biography” Tommy Chong
“Measure of the Heart: A Father’s Alzheimer’s, A Daughter’s Return” Mary Ellen Geist
“Six Six Six: The FBI Agent, The Mob Killer, and the Bloody Alliance the Geds Couldn’t Hide” Peter Lance
“Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Nineteen-year Love Story of an Owl and His Girl” Stacey O’Brien
“The Marriage Benefit: The Surprising Rewards of Staying Together” Mark O’Connell
“Blue Sky July: A Mother’s Story of Hope and Healing” Nia Wyn
ADULT AUDIO BOOKS
“Say Goodbye” Lisa Gardner
“Blue Smoke and Murder” Elizabeth Lowell
YOUNG ADULT FICTION
(See Descriptions Below)
“Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox” Eoin Colfer
“Breaking Dawn” Stephenie Meyer
YOUNG ADULT NON-FICTION
“Construct-a-Catapult” Lee Pulis
YOUNG ADULT AUDIO BOOKS
“Breaking Dawn” Stephenie Meyer
“The Dangerous Days of Daniel X” James Patterson
JUVENILE NON-FICTION
Eyewitness Series
“Horse” Juliet Clutton-Brock
“Castle” Christopher Gravett
“Soccer” Hugh Hornby
“Eyewitness Ancient Rome” Simon James
“Astronomy” Kristen Lippincott
“Ocean” Miranda MacQuitty
“Shark” Miranda MacQuitty
“Dinosaur” David Norman
“Climate Change” John Woodward
“Great Musicians” Robert Ziegler
CHILDREN’S FICTION
“Pinky Dinky Doo: Where Are My Shoes?” Jim Jinkins
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ADULT FICTION
“Being Elizabeth” Barbara Taylor Bradford
At age twenty-five, Elizabeth Deravenel finds herself in a position few women her age could image: the head of Deravenels, a business empire that spans the globe. It’s a company whose reach is wide and whose secrets are deep. Deravenels has roots that go far back in her family’s history, and she knows the price that many had to pay to see it reach the success it is today. And Elizabeth is the youngest executive in the company she now leads. Surrounded by rumors and disloyalty, she knows that there are many people who would give anything to take down the company—and her with it. With her enemies circling, she finds herself at a crossroad of choices involving her mind, her heart, and her destiny. As scandal surrounds the one man she’s ever loved, Elizabeth discovers how the next move she makes could have deadly and final consequences. Being Elizabeth is Barbara Taylor Bradford at her storytelling best.
“Cry Wolf” Patricia Briggs
Anna never knew werewolves existed until the night she survived a violent attack…and became one herself. After three years at the bottom of the pack, she’d learned to keep her head down and never, ever trust dominant males. But Anna is that rarest kind of werewolf: an Omega. And one of the most powerful werewolves in the country will recognize her value as a pack member—and as his mate.
“Smoke Screen” Sandra Brown
At the start of this scorching if somewhat formulaic thriller from bestseller Brown (Play Dirty), Charleston, S.C., TV reporter Britt Shelley wakes up in bed next to the dead body of police detective Jay Burgess. While Jay had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, the authorities suspect foul play. Jay's former best friend, ex-fireman Raley Gannon, suffered a similar shock five years earlier, waking up next to party girl Suzi Monroe's naked corpse after a party at Jay's home. Raley had been investigating a fire at a local police station that took seven lives, despite the heroic efforts of Jay and several other cops, one of whom is now South Carolina's attorney general. Cleared of Suzi's death, Raley eventually teams with Britt to look into a nasty arson coverup. Brown laces her dependable romantic fireworks with a solid action-filled plot, though readers should be prepared for a few stereotypes, including a limp-wristed gay, a macho skinhead and a power-mad female politician.
“Gale Force” Rachel Caine
Weather Warden Joanne Baldwin is on vacation when her Djinn lover, David, asks Joanne to marry him. She’s thrilled to say yes, even if some others may be less than happy about it.
Unfortunately, Joanne’s pre-marital bliss is ended by a devastating earthquake in Florida. And she can’t ask David and his kind for assistance. Because the cause of the quake is unlike anything Joanne has ever encountered—and a power even the Djinn cannot perceive.
“Never Romance a Rake” Liz Carlyle
If he wins this hand...
Shunning the glittering elite of high society Kieran, Baron Rothewell, prefers the dangerous pursuits of London's demimonde. Hardened by a tormented past, he cares little for anyone or anything. So how can he resist the wager proposed by the dissolute Comte de Valigny? A hand of cards for the possession of the comte's exquisite daughter.
Will he win her heart?
Abandoned by her highborn father -- until he decides to use her -- Mademoiselle Camille Marchand puts no trust in an aristocrat's honor, especially that of the notorious baron. She too is gambling -- for her life -- and Rothwell is just one more card to be used. But whatever dark desires run through his veins call to her own, and the heart plays its own game -- winner take all!
“The Gargoyle” Andrew Davidson
At the start of Davidson's powerful debut, the unnamed narrator, a coke-addled pornographer, drives his car off a mountain road in a part of the country that's never specified. During his painful recovery from horrific burns suffered in the crash, the narrator plots to end his life after his release from the hospital. When a schizophrenic fellow patient, Marianne Engel, begins to visit him and describe her memories of their love affair in medieval Germany, the narrator is at first skeptical, but grows less so. Eventually, he abandons his elaborate suicide plan and envisions a life with Engel, a sculptress specializing in gargoyles. Davidson, in addition to making his flawed protagonist fully sympathetic, blends convincing historical detail with deeply felt emotion in both Engel's recollections of her past life with the narrator and her moving accounts of tragic love. Once launched into this intense tale of unconventional romance, few readers will want to put it down.
“Nightwalker” Jocelynn Drake
For centuries Mira has been a nightwalker—an unstoppable enforcer for a mysterious organization that manipulates earth-shaking events from the darkest shadows. But elemental mastery over fire sets her apart from others of her night-prowling breed . . . and may be all that prevents her doom.
The foe she now faces is human: the vampire hunter called Danaus, who has already destroyed so many undead. For Mira, the time has come to hunt . . . or be hunted.
“Before the Scandal” Suzanne Enoch
It Was a Scandal Waiting to Happen . . .
Colonel Phineas Bromley is a legend—on the battlefield and in the bedroom. Though he's won many wars, and even more hearts, nothing could prepare him for his new life. When Phin discovers that someone has been pushing his family toward ruin, he assumes the role of a legendary highwayman. Riding out in the middle of the night, hidden behind a mask, Phin heads straight into trouble . . . and into the arms of the ravishing girl next door.
Coming face-to-face with a masked man did not frighten Alyse Donnelly as it should have. Instead, she finds him rather dashing. But her foolish heart has led her into trouble before, and helping a fugitive may mean jeopardizing her own plans, no matter how enticing his kisses. Now, as the danger grows, Alyse must make a choice between freedom . . . and the chance for true love.
“Rough Justice” Jack Higgins
he solid 15th entry in Higgins's Sean Dillon thriller series (after The Killing Ground) finds aging, arthritic ex-gangster Harry Salter retired from active operations, leaving Dillon, once the IRA's most feared enforcer, as the real leader of the loose gang of stalwart lads who covertly battle the foes of Western civilization. A newcomer to the team, Maj. Harry Miller, on the surface a mild-mannered MP who's in reality the British prime minister's secret hit man, hooks up with series regular Blake Johnson in Kosovo, where the Russians, intent on reclaiming old glory, are stirring up trouble. Meanwhile, Islamic fundamentalists are intent on bringing Britain to its knees. The action moves swiftly amid a variety of foreign locales, including Moscow, London and Beirut, to a climax that will leave readers asking themselves, evidence to the contrary, whether the great game is really over.
“Mercedes Coffin” Faye Kellerman
In bestseller Kellerman's uneven 17th novel to feature LAPD Lt. Peter Decker and wife Rina Lazarus (after 2007's The Burnt House), Decker must solve a 15-year-old cold case—the murder of saintly Bennett Little, a high school history teacher whose bound body the police found, with three shots in the back of his head, in the trunk of Little's Mercedes. When unscrupulous music producer Primo Ekerling turns up dead in the trunk of his Mercedes, Genoa Greeves, a wealthy computer mogul with fond memories of Little as a teacher, offers the LAPD a seven-figure charitable donation to reopen the case. Early in the reinvestigation, Decker is brought up short when one of the original cops on the case eats his gun just before a scheduled appointment with the lieutenant. Finding a link between Little and Eckerling won't prove easy. Fans may enjoy the interplay among Decker, Rina and their children, but newcomers would be advised to start with an earlier entry in this popular crime series.
“First Daughter” Eric Lustbader
In this uneven thriller from bestseller Lustbader (The Bourne Legacy), Alli Carson, the 19-year-old daughter of the U.S. president-elect, moderate Republican Edward Carson, is abducted a month before her father's inauguration to be programmed to do something truly terrible at the inauguration ceremony. ATF agent Jack McClure is chosen to lead the search for Alli, primarily because she was the boarding-school roommate of his now-deceased daughter, Emma. Jack faces many difficulties, chief among them his own severe dyslexia. The unnamed current president, who makes religion the basis for all his decisions, wants to use the search as an excuse for all-out war on his enemies, the First American Secular Revivalists and their secret partners, the E-Two terrorist group. Lustbader does a fine job depicting the search for Alli and reconstructing Jack's past, but the confusing political message will leave many readers wondering what the book was really about.
“Some Like It Wicked” Teresa Medeiros
In veteran author Medeiros's wickedly clever latest, set in 1805, Catriona Kincaid is a lovely Scotswoman exiled in England after her parents' deaths for the Scottish Cause. When her uncle tries to marry her off to protect her from further persecution by the British, she talks roguish Sir Simon Wescott into a devil's deal: marry her and take half her copious dowry in exchange for guiding her to Scotland to find her brother, Connor. Simon accepts, under the stipulation that he can take her, too. Love soon strikes them, but his determined avoidance of heroics and her desire to lead her kinsmen against the English lead to serious complications. Wit, charm and bravery abound as the two try to find their way back to one another.
“A Highlander Never Surrenders” Paula Quinn
Defending Her Was His Duty
Skilled with a sword and quick with her wit, Scottish rebel Claire Stuart cannot be tamed. And nothing can deter her from rescuing her beloved sister and saving them both from arranged marriages--not even the handsome Highlander who vows to protect Claire. His scorching gaze and fiery kiss bring her to the brink of surrender, but she belongs to no man...
Seducing Her Would Be His Reward
Graham Grant has had his share of lasses. But he has never met one as headstrong or as bonnie as Claire--or one with such desperate, dnagerous plans. Helping her could betray his honor, his country, and more. Graham can't claim her. Yet everything in him says: Take her, make her yours, teach her pleasure, and never let her go.
“Scandalous Deception” Rosemary Rogers
Desperate to escape her lecherous stepfather, flame-haired Brianna Quinn seeks refuge with the Duke of Huntley, a childhood friend. But her hopes crumble when she discovers that Edmond, the duke's hot-blooded twin, is masquerading as the duke to thwart an assassination scheme. With nowhere to turn, Brianna plays into the intrigue as Edmond's fiancée…and soon their forced proximity ignites into a burning desire. But when Edmond's enemies threaten Brianna, he must choose between his countrymen and the woman he loves more than life itself.…
“Faces of Fear” John Saul
Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Conrad Dunn has put his talents to work making his wife, Margot, the embodiment of physical perfection, but after her face is scarred in a boating accident, Margot takes her own life in this less than suspenseful thriller from bestseller Saul (The Devil's Labyrinth). Remarrying within a year, Dunn persuades his new teenage stepdaughter, Alison Shaw, who's struggling to adjust to life in the Dunn mansion and to a private school with a ridiculously affluent student body, to undergo breast-enhancement surgery. Meanwhile, the police are searching frantically for the Frankenstein Killer, a serial slayer who removes his female victims' glands as well as more obvious body parts. The motive for the killings and the eventual outcome will surprise few readers. The basic premise has a plot hole big enough to fit a truck, but Saul fans may not notice or care if they do.
“The Last Colony” John Scalzi
Full of whodunit twists and explosive action, Scalzi's third SF novel lacks the galactic intensity of its two related predecessors, but makes up for it with entertaining storytelling on a very human scale. Several years after the events of The Ghost Brigades (2006), John Perry, the hero of Old Man's War (2005), and Jane Sagan are leading a normal life as administrator and constable on the colonial planet Huckleberry with their adopted daughter, Zoë, when they get conscripted to run a new colony, ominously named Roanoke. When the colonists are dropped onto a different planet than the one they expected, they find themselves caught in a confrontation between the human Colonial Union and the alien confederation called the Conclave. Hugo-finalist Scalzi avoids political allegory, promoting individual compassion and honesty and downplaying patriotic loyalty—except in the case of the inscrutable Obin, hive-mind aliens whose devotion to Zoë will remind fans of the benevolent role Captain Nemo plays in Verne's Mysterious Island. Some readers may find the deus ex machina element a tad heavy-handed, but it helps keep up the momentum.
“Eighth Shepherd” Bodie Thoene, Brock Thoene
After Yeshua of Nazareth has raised his friend El'azar from the dead, news of Yeshua travels fast and the Sanhedrin begin their plot to kill him. Despite the danger, Yeshua and his followers begin the journey to Jerusalem for Passover. Meanwhile, Zachai the tax collector (Zacchaeus), the most hated man in Judea, longs to be a part of the Jewish society that he has been cut off from due to his profession. He falls into despair, believing God can't hear him and that he will always be alone. Simona, a leper who was healed by Yeshua but remains cut off from society to live in the sycamore grove, shows compassion to Zachai and tells him of Yeshua. Zachai begins his quest to find Yeshua in hopes that this man can heal his heart, just as he healed Simona's leprosy.
“Deadline!” Paula L. Tutman
Deadline is very loosely based on something that actually happened to Paula when she was a young police reporter in Baltimore.
The Set up...PS Garrett, Detroit's top crime reporter shows up at the scene of a double murder. Two kids are shot and killed senselessly...it's a crime of opportunity...but what PS doesn't know is the triggerman still lurks on the scene. While soaking up the aftermath of his handy work, he catches a glimpse of his favorite TV reporter. He realizes that if he keeps killing, she'll keep showing up...and perhaps...just perhaps...one of these times she shows up to cover his crimes, he'll get a chance to meet her...and make her his.
ADULT NON-FICTION
“Cheech & Chong: The Unauthorized Biography” Tommy Chong
Dave's Not Here, Man
But America's favorite stoner comedian, Tommy Chong, is back and funnier than ever as he takes us on a nostalgic trip through his career with partner Richard "Cheech" Marin. Over the course of their decades-long partnership, Cheech and Chong performed to sold-out crowds across the country, made nine hit albums, starred in eight blockbuster movies, and created memorable and iconic characters that still resonate with fans today.
But the good life didn't just appear in a haze of smoke. It all started during the late 1960s in a strip club in the fragile heart of Vancouver's Chinatown, where Tommy was winding down his career as a Motown recording artist and starting an improv comedy troupe, and Cheech was a draft-dodging, pottery-throwing, underground music reviewer. Together they came to define the hippie-era counterculture, and theircelebrated movie debut, Up in Smoke, remains one of the highest-grossing Warner Bros. films ever.
In his very own unauthorized autobiography, New York Times bestselling author and pop culture hero Chong reveals his unique relationship with Cheech and recalls the inspiration for their most beloved bits. He introduces famous guest stars like Peter Sellers, John Belushi, Jimi Hendrix, Dan Aykroyd, John Lennon, Diana Ross, and Jack Nicholson, and examines the influences that had the greatest impact on his comedy -- from R&B musicians and Redd Foxx to Lenny Bruce and (of course) marijuana. Finally, with keen insight and utter candor, he explores the rift that has separated the legendary comedy team for more than twenty years.
From pot smoking to politics to the universe at large, Cheech & Chong: The Unauthorized Autobiography is the closestyou'll ever get to sitting in a van made entirely of marijuana, trading stories with an unlikely legend, and feeling...well...funny.
“Measure of the Heart: A Father’s Alzheimer’s, A Daughter’s Return” Mary Ellen Geist
For everyone who loves someone with Alzheimer's, Geist observes, there are markers and moments that tell you the disease is on the way. Her account of two years spent helping a person with Alzheimer's stay in this world is both travel guide and love story—neither in the conventional sense. As Geist makes her way, trying new things, failing, scratching plans, making mistakes, and starting all over again, she uses her professional skills as a journalist and TV anchor to incorporate conversations with other caregivers, consultation with experts and wide reading in the literature. Sensitive that Alzheimer's disease affects patients and spouses in many different ways, Geist offers helpful suggestions (using his words instead of trying to teach him mine) and practical advice (Doing activities alone is imperative to the survival of a caregiver). True, there was a downside to having to come home to help care for my father, but Geist's love of her parents and their love for one another is as palpable as the sadness wrought by the disease. To all readers, she offers a deeply affecting account of personal growth: I define myself and my life in a whole new way. These days, it is the measure of the heart that matters most to me.
“Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Nineteen-year Love Story of an Owl and His Girl” Stacey O’Brien
Owls permeate literature and mythology, an ancient animal ("some 97 million years" old) that has fascinated for centuries; still, few people have had as intimate an encounter with the mysterious night birds as biologist O'Brien. As a student researcher at Caltech, she fell in love with an injured four-day-old barn owl and seized the opportunity to adopt him permanently. She named him Wesley, and for 19 years kept, cared for and studied him, forging a tremendous relationship with the still-wild animal, as well as a vast understanding of his abilities, instincts and habits: "He was my teacher, my companion, my child, my playmate, my reminder of God." Her heartwarming story is buttressed by lessons on owl folklore, temperament ("playful and inquisitive"), skills, and the brain structure that gives them some amazing abilities, like spotting a mouse "under three feet of snow by homing in on just the heartbeat." It also details her working life among fellow scientists, a serious personal health crisis, and the general ins and outs of working with animals. This memoir will captivate animal lovers and, though not necessarily for kids, should hold special appeal for Harry Potter fans who've always envied the boy wizard his Hedwig.
“The Marriage Benefit: The Surprising Rewards of Staying Together” Mark O’Connell
Baby boomers' expectations for their marriages are often unrealistic. When their relationship comes up short on romance and sex, but seems long on disagreements and strife, many boomers choose to leave.
THE MARRIAGE BENEFIT is less a book about how to make our relationships better than it is about how our relationships can make us better if we just work on our expectations and improve communications. Harvard Medical School clinical instructor and psychotherapist O'Connell offers a peek behind the door of a marriage therapist, where readers can see that their problems are not unique.
Through wonderfully revealing anecdotes of couples with problems many of us face: long-held bitterness, diminished sexuality, the scars of infidelity, and the search for authentic meaning, O'Connell shows how by respecting each other's individuality, looking for "real" sex, and learning how to play with each other again, we can reap the benefits of the long-term emotional investment we've made.
“Blue Sky July: A Mother’s Story of Hope and Healing” Nia Wyn
Set between the summers of 1998 and 2005 in Cardiff, Wales, Blue Sky July follows the story of Nia Wyn, a mother who battles against impossible odds to heal her son after he suffers a brain injury and is diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy. Told by doctors that her son would never walk, talk, see or even recognize her, Wyn devotes her every waking moment to exploring alternative treatments in the hopes of achieving even the smallest of breakthroughs. Through her intimate day-to-day interactions with her son and partner, Wyn explores the impact of the tragedy on her thoughts and feelings as this most extraordinary relationship unfolds into one of the most uplifting and poignant memoirs published this or any year.
Already a sensation in the UK, Blue Sky July will strike a chord with every reader in search of a memoir resonating with an extraordinary sense of honesty, courage, and faith in the unassailable bond between mother and child. This is an inspirational story through and through.
YOUNG ADULT FICTION
“Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox” Eoin Colfer
Artemis's mother has contracted a deadly disease--and the only cure lies in the brain fluid of African lemurs. Unfortunately, Artemis himself was responsible for making the lemurs extinct five years ago. Now he must enlist the aid of his fairy friends to travel back in time and save them. Not only that, but he must face his deadliest foe yet...his younger self.
“Breaking Dawn” Stephenie Meyer
It might seem redundant to dismiss the fourth and final Twilight novel as escapist fantasy--but how else could anyone look at a romance about an ordinary, even clumsy teenager torn between a vampire and a werewolf, both of whom are willing to sacrifice their happiness for hers? Flaws and all, however, Meyer's first three novels touched on something powerful in their weird refraction of our culture's paradoxical messages about sex and sexuality. The conclusion is much thinner, despite its interminable length. Everygirl Bella achieves her wishes quickly (marriage and sex, in that order, are two, and becoming an immortal is another), and once she becomes a vampire it's almost impossible to identify with her. But that's not the main problem. Essentially, everyone gets everything they want, even if their desires necessitate an about-face in characterization or the messy introduction of some back story. Nobody has to renounce anything or suffer more than temporarily--in other words, grandeur is out. This isn't about happy endings; it's about gratification.
