Practical Politics for Kids

Election Season

Books for Kids

With Election Day less than three weeks away, you may be interested in sharing books about elections with your kids. Here's a few kid-friendly books about running for office.

Grace for President ** Elections and Voting ** Duck for President ** As If Being Twelve and Three Quarters Isn't Bad Enough! (My Mother is Running for President!) ** Amelia Bedelia 4 Mayor ** The Kid Who Became President ** Fourth Grade Weirdo ** First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover ** Deep Doo-doo ** Election Day.

The Usual Suspects and Them Some

Bestselling Fiction
Nicholas Sparks, John Sandford, and Stuart Woods are no strangers to bestseller lists. They write 'em; we read 'em. Mixed in with Sparks' The Lucky One, Sandford's Heat Lightning, and Woods' Hot Mahogany are some equally hot reads.

Ted Bell's latest, Tsar, is an Alex Hawke spy thiller set in the 'new' Russia. A great book with a current feel for fans of recent favorites Vince Flynn and Stella Rimington.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes from the late Swedish crime writer, Stieg Larsson. The plot is intricate and exposes many grim secrets in many closets. The author left the doors ajar just enough to keep us going.

Karen Marie Moning offers up Faefever, in which MacKayla Lane continues the hunt for her sister's killer. This is the third in Moning's Celtic fantasy series. First book is Darkfever; second is Bloodfever. Read them in order so you don't miss a trick.

The World's Richest Man

Warren Buffett
With money matters high on the list of everyone's everyday conversations, we expect demand for Alice Schroeder's The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life.

Buffet apparently 'tells all' to the author, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley and who Buffett chose as his biographer. Sure to be an interesting read given Buffett's personal investments in our nation's economy and his stature in the worldwide financial community.

Sequels?

Finally!

Nelson DeMille follows up The Gold Coast (1990) with The Gate House, due for release later this month. Welcome back Wall Street attorney, John Sutter, whose life is up-ended by Mafia dons.

John Updike follows up The Witches of Eastwick (1984) with The Widows of Eastwick, also due for release later this month. Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie return home...

Paul Theroux took a train trip across Asia more than 30 years ago and his trip-ticket book, The Great Railway Bizaar (1975), became a modern travel classic. Theroux tours again in the Ghost Train to the Eastern Star.

History, Memoir, Current Events

Latest and Greatest

Annette Gordon-Reed delves deep into early America's mixed-race bloodlines and the complex relationships between Thomas Jefferson, his slave Sally Hemings, and the extended Hemings family. Take it slow; the book is worth your time.

Elizabeth McCracken tells us an intimate story about the loss of her first child just days before birth. The author's heart-wrenching grief is all the more magnified by straightforward prose.

This week we'll also add Linda Robinson's book to our new non-fiction collection, owing to patron requests. The book offers a probative account of strategy and tactics in post-surge Iraq.

Definitely Not Kansas...

Oz According to Gregory Maguire
In Maguire's first Oz novel, Wicked, we learned about Elphaba, the much misunderstood Wicked Witch of the West. Son of a Witch told the story of Liir, Elphaba's son or not; we'll not say witch or which...

The third novel in the Wicked Years series, A Lion Among Men, is due for release this coming Tuesday. We expect to enjoy learning about the Cowardly Lion before and after his adventures with Dorothy.

Sounds like another fun read from the inventive Gregory Maguire, who shows great respect for L. Frank Baum's Oz classics and pays it forward...

For the Smart Connecticut Shopper

iConn.org: Connecticut's re search engine

Did you know full text reviews from Consumer Reports are available online? Better yet, did you know all you need to access product reviews from this trusted source is an East Hampton Public Library card?

How to Access Consumer Reports

(1) Login to iConn using your library barcode number; slide down to the Magazines and Journals heading (left). (2) Click on InfoTrac Student Edition; second click on the Publication Search tab. (3) Type Consumer Reports in the Publication Search box; click on the link to Consumer Reports magazine.

Use the 'search within this publication box' to find reviews on a particular product. For best results, we recommend keeping your search terms simple; e.g., washing machines, used cars, gas heaters. Give us a call if you get stuck; that's why we're here.

More Good News

Eric Hansen, iCONN's Electronic Resources Coordinator, recently announced that we no longer have to wait 90 days to read current Consumer Reports reviews online. That is, print and online content will be available at the same time. So pick your format; choose the information retrieval style that suits you best -- and either way, use Consumer Reports for free @ your library.

Link to iConn.

Pretty People, Stories to Tell

Careers Revisited
Tony Curtis, Bob Wagner, and Diahann Carroll all have stories to tell about what it takes to manage celebrity while at the same time managing the highs and lows of personal life.

What's the verdict? Tony's is the most dishy. Bob's book is in the end, about his love for Natalie Wood. Diahann's book has much to say about racial politics in Hollywood. All three of these books drop famous names galore and are fun, sometimes thoughtful reads.

The overlapping theme, you ask? It's simple: stars are people, too!

Titanic's Last Secret?

Jack and Rose Would Like to Know...
Author Brad Matsen's October release, Titanic's Last Secret, revisits why the Titanic sank into the North Atlantic almost 100 years ago. Newsweek Magazine recently featured an article about Matsen's book; his discoveries and contentions about the what ifs of Titanic's construction.

If you are a Titanic buff and would like to read Last Secrets, place your reserves here. In addition, the library holds a variety of books, both fiction and non-fiction, as well as educational video titles about the Titanic's history. We also have the highest-grossing big-screen film of all time in DVD format. It's all about Rose, Jack, and once-in-a-lifetime love on sinking ship...

For 'Da Vinci Code' Lovers

'The Game' Continues...
We've waited 20 long years for Katherine Neville to publish a sequel to The Eight (1998) and our wait is finally over. Now we have The Fire, recently released in trade hardcover.

If you loved the history, adventure, and suspense of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, we highly recommend both of Neville's books. A mystical chess game figures into the plot of each book; the action spans historical periods and generations of the same family.

For historical 'puzzle' and suspense book lovers near and far, Neville's The Eight and The Fire will not disappoint. We're not at all sorry we waited so long for this sequel and hope the author continues 'the game' in future installments.

The Latest 'Primary' Color?

Green
The East Hampton Public Library is one of 18 public libraries in Middlesex County. Over the course of the next year, our 18-strong will be working together on a ‘green’ issue public awareness campaign.

On the ‘green’ town news front, click here to learn about our town’s clean energy champions. For a quick look at green issue books available at the library, click here. Also keep an eye out for an ongoing selection of green programs @ your library. As many you may already know, we're steady about offering informative programs that satisfy you green interests.

County-wide collaboration is supported by the Middlesex County Community Foundation and overall support from the Connecticut Library Consortium.

Pet Stories

Dateline: Iowa

This heartwarming book tells the story of DeweyReadmoreBooks, a kitten who arrived at the Spencer Public Library; became a cat, and called the library home for 19 years. Vicki Myron's book is a great pick for those who believe animals can change people. It's also a winner for library lovers.

Dateline: California

In another charming book, biologist Stacey O'Brien meets a four-day-old baby barn owl, later named Wesley. Given her 19 year-long relationship with Wesley, O'Brien has much to say about the habits and instincts of a barn owl: intelligent, intuitive, loyal, and loving. Say hello to Wesley and enjoy this book.

Tip, Blink, Success!

The World According to Malcolm Gladwell
The Tipping Point (2000) examined how few people it takes to spread a small idea, message or behavior throughout our society.

Blink (2005) examined how people make 'blink of an eye' decisions using first impressions and instinct; who's successful at "blinking" and why.

Coming this November (2008) is Gladwell's Outliers, an examination of what makes people successful. Place your reserves and get ready to tip and blink again...

Changing Times for Teens

Changing Insights for Parents
Growing up has never been easy and is also not what it used to be. Today's teens face a staggering number of choices, many of them physically and emotionally risky.

Stephen Wallace, former head of SADD (renamed Students Against Destructive Decisions), offers all of us straight talk in his recent book Reality Gap: Alcohol, Drugs, and Sex: What Parents Don't Know and Teens Aren't Telling. The book's core premise is -- when it comes to parent-teen communication -- parents don't necessarily ask the right questions and teens don't necessarily offer revealing answers. The communication gap leads to what Wallace describes as a reality gap.

This is a great book for parent review or for any adult interested in forwarding useful, myth-free, inter-generational dialogue.

For Suspense Lovers Only

Zip-Through Reads
Canadian author Linwood Barclay's novels offer plenty to like if edge-of-your-seat reads give you pleasure. Bad Move (2004), No Time for Goodbye (2007) and Barclay's latest, Too Close to Home (2008) are good choices for quick-read thrill seekers.

We especially liked No Time for Goodbye, whose main character is a Connecticut teenager. So sorry for bias but we loved the 'local', though fictional touch.

Martial Arts and Mind Games

The 'Five Ancestors' Series

350 years ago, five young warrior monks were raised as brothers in 17th century China. They survive the destruction of their temple; endure the loss of their Grand Master... but are separated in mayhem. Each was well-trained in a different style of "animal" kung fu. These are their stories...

This 'quest' series (first three in the series shown above) promises to be winner with young adults who love adventure books with vivid action. Recommended for ages 11 and up.

View an interview with author Jeff Stone on YouTube or visit the Five Ancestors site sponsored by the series publisher, Random House.

The Translator

Light Book on a Heavy Subject

In The Translator, Daoud Hari offers a first-person account of the ongoing genocide against non-Arabs in the Darfur region of Sudan.

After escaping his own village and fleeing to neighboring Chad, native Darfuri, Hari, worked as a translator for aid agencies, U.S. and BBC reporters, and United Nations officials. In 204 pages (light book) Hari conveys the story of a society torn apart by racism, corrupt politicians, greed and unfathomable hatred in simple and unadorned prose.

We highly recommend The Translator, a book about horror, compassion, frustration, anger... and hope.

Poet of the Month

September's Featured Poet
Lorna Dee Cervantes (1954-) was born in San Francisco, California, the year the word ‘Chicano’ first gained currency to designate Americans of Mexican descent. Educated at San José City College and San José State University, she published in 1981 Emplumada, her first collection of poems, which won the 1982 American Book Award. In them she has given voice to the Chicana (American women of Mexican heritage). ‘Emplumada’ in Spanish means feathered, in plumage (after molting). It also means ‘pen’. Here is the book’s well-chosen title poem:

Emplumada

When summer ended
the leaves of snapdragons withered
taking their shrill‑colored mouths with them.
They were still, so quiet. They were
violet where umber now is. She hated
and she hated to see
them go. Flowers

born when the weather was good — this
she thinks of, watching the branch of peaches
daring their ways above the fence, and further,
two hummingbirds, hovering, stuck to each other,
arcing their bodies in grim determination
to find what is good, what is
given them to find. These are warriors

distancing themselves from history.
They find peace
in the way they contain the wind
and are gone.

Further Reading: Emplumada, poems by Lorna Dee Cervantes, 1981; From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger, 1991 by Lorna Dee Cervantes. Also visit the poet's blog.

Coming in October: Kay Ryan, new U.S. Poet Laureate, 2008-2009

Content developed by local resident and poet Leland Jamieson

Home

Well Worth the Wait
Marilynne Robinson's novel, Gilead, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The novel tells the story of Rev. John Ames, who begins a letter to his young son as an account of his life and the lives of his father and grandfather...

Robinson returns this month with a companion piece to Gilead, simply yet powerfully titled -- Home. Rev. Robert Boughton, a close friend of the Gilead's John Ames, is a lead character.

Home is likely to be a bestseller and award winner, just as Gilead was several years ago. Both of Robinson's extraordinary novels are available for checkout or reserve in both print and audio CD format.

We also recommend Robinson's 1981 debut and equally stunning novel, Housekeeping.

Hot Non-Fiction Picks

Lectures of a Different Kind
The Last Lecture, The Secret, Stori Telling and Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea, gracefully stepped down a few rungs on the national bestseller ladder this week. Who stepped up?

Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded landed at the top of many national bestseller lists, with a call to improve America's green energy technology.

Bob Woodward offers The War Within, the fourth book in which this long-time Washington reporter analyzes the Bush Administration.

Conservative historian and former military officer Andrew J. Bacevich chimes in with The Limits of Power, a search through history and for common ground among people who disagree.

Oprah Loves Edgar

The Latest in Annointed Fiction
Oprah Winfrey today gave The Story of Edgar Sawtelle the nod as her latest Book Club pick. We're feeling mighty fine for being ahead of the curve on this must read novel.

Meet author David Wroblewski on Oprah's web site and print Oprah's "exclusive book mark" to use while your read.

Electronics Recycling

Recycling Your Oldies, Once Goodies

The Town of Glastonbury will be hosting an Electronics Recycling Collection Event on Saturday, September 20th from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM at our Highway Garage, 2340 New London Turnpike.

This program will be run by the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority (CRRA). Residents from any CRRA Town are eligible to attend; East Hampton is a CRRA town. Only electronics from residents will be accepted. There are no fees. Acceptable are: Computers, Monitors, Printers, Fax Machines, Copiers, TVs, Radios, Cell Phones.

Weekend "Staycations"

If Fall Goes Well
There is still time to enjoy the many attractions our state has to offer before fall becomes winter. If you're up for a weekend day trip, let any of these very handy and informative books be your guide:

Best fishing trips in Connecticut from ponds to pounding surf / text and photographs by Bob Sampson

Great day trips in the Connecticut Valley of the dinosaurs by Brendan Hanrahan

Great day trips to Connecticut's critical habitats / text and photographs by Robert Craig ; paintings by Barbara Lussier

Our travel section also includes a variety of up-to-date guides about day tripping in Connecticut and other New England states.

The Smartest Card in Your Wallet

September is Library Card Sign-up Month
A library card is easy to obtain and it's free! Stop by the library to obtain a card or to renew your old one. The registration process is quick and painless. If you're new to town, or have never had a library card, please be sure to bring some ID that shows you live in East Hampton. We issue cards to anyone of kindergarten age and up; a parent presents ID on their child's behalf. For teens, photo IDs (drivers licence or school ID) are great!

It's smooth sailing from here and you'll have free access to a wealth of local and statewide information services plus materials sure to inform, educate and entertain.

A "smart card" and a library "where smart growth begins"? Sounds like deal.

Wife Parade

Floats Not Included
Wives are a popular fiction topic and with late summer comes a new round of books about them. Here's a few quick read suggestions accompanied by quick plot notes:

Novel about My Wife by Emily Perkins (expatriate wife descends into madness)... American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld (wife of U.S. president thrust into the spotlight as in Laura Bush?)... The Professors' Wives' Club by Joanne Rendell (proper wives, each with a scandalous secret).

Add these to your list of older fiction reads about a kitchen god's wife, a pilot's wife, a zookeeper's wife, Ahab's wife, a senator's wife and we'll have a parade!

Places We'd Like to Visit

Shannara
Fantasy great Terry Brooks recently delivered the third and final novel in the Genesis of Shannara trilogy. As expected the third book, The Gypsy Morph, is on more than one national best seller list.

What is special about all of Brooks’ Shannara books is he never “phones it in” and always expects us to remember what came before. Shannara fans will again find Brooks respects his readers and by doing so, we're treated to a stunning conclusion to a great series.

Our Crystal Ball Says...

We Have a Winner!
Hannah Tinti's debut novel, The Good Thief, promises to be one of fall's most sought after reads. The novel is original, smartly-plotted, darkly comic, and has much to say about the age-old battle between good and evil.

The Story in Brief
Twelve year-old Ren does not understand why he was abandoned as an infant at Saint Anthony’s Orphanage for boys. Benjamin Nab appears, claiming to be Ren’s long-lost brother; Ren is released into Benjamin's care. Adventures set in New England unfold from here with questions galore about Benjamin, Ren's past, and both of their futures.

The Good Thief is a thrilling read and a real-deal adventure novel for adults and teens alike.

Meggie's World

The Wait Will Soon Be Over

The highly anticipated release of Inkdeath, the conclusion to Cornelia Funke's engrossing Inkheart trilogy, is scheduled for October 7th. The first two books, Inkheart and Inkspell were filled with twists and turns and larger than life characters, set in a thrilling fantasy world.

Will Dustfinger be brought back to life? Will Meggie and Farid stay together? What will be the outcome of Resa's personal story? Will Orpheus and Violante become major players in the continuing saga? The author has been very tight-lipped about this long-awaited sequel. Guess we'll find the answers to these and other questions very, very soon...

Green Matters

Money and You
Financial planning titles indicate there are no hard and fast rules for implementing a financial plan. Each of these recent books on the subject, different in scope and perspective, demonstrate as much.

However, if there is a common recommendation in these and other similar titles available for checkout, it would be this: start planning and do it now.

Title covers shown:
The Busy Family's Guide to Money
Debt Cures
Expecting Money
Let's Get Real About Money
Rich Dad's Increase Your Financial IQ
Killing Sacred Cows

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

"O, woe is me, To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!" -- Hamlet

Mute from birth, Edgar Sawtelle grows up on a Wisconsin farm where his parents raise and train a fictional breed of what can only be described as mind-reading dogs.

Fast forward... Edgar's father unexpectedly dies; Edgar suspects his uncle was involved; Edgar sets out into the woods with three "Sawtelle" pups. Edgar's fate, and the fate of the Sawtelle dogs, is decided from here.

David Wroblewski's The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a glorious novel and an excellent choice for shared parent/teen reading and discussion. The 500+ page count should be no obstacle; you've together tackled Harry Potter and Stephenie Meyer's books with nary a whimper. Edgar's story may also invite your interest in the parallel story told in Shakespeare's play, Hamlet.

Thrills and Spills

Down-List Bestsellers, Too
The 19th Wife blends character-driven fiction (BeckyLyn and Jordan Scott) with the history of Ann Eliza Young, the real-life 19th wife of Mormon leader Brigham Young. The book is an outstanding read --filled with well-drawn characters and a murder-suspense plot; both made great by David Ebershoff's tight writing.

Eric Van Lustbader's First Daughter is a good choice for fans of political thrillers. In short, ATF agent Jack McClure leads the search for the president elect's kidnapped daughter. The plot does skip the tracks in a few places but leaves little doubt as to why Lustbader has successfully taken over the late Robert Ludlum's "Bourne" franchise.

Decisions, Decisions...

How We Make Them and Why
Malcolm Gladwell's 2005-2006 bestseller, Blink, examined how we make snap judgements. In Freakonomics, a bestseller well into 2007, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner suggested if the economic incentives are good, we're highly likely to make questionable (a.k.a. dishonest, illegal or plain old bad) decisions.

Latest books on the topic include Ori and Rom Braffman's Sway and Rick Shenkman's Just How Stupid Are We? Sway examines how we're driven to make decisions when the factual evidence suggests we shouldn't. Shenkman's book makes its case on the dumbing down of American politics and how easily voters are misled by spin.

We recommend all of these genuinely thoughtful books to non-fiction readers but darn -- if you do read 'em all -- you may start dropping bread crumbs to find your way home...

Rules of the Road

Traffic Stories
Let's face it. Driving -- to work, to run daily errands, or to play -- can often be a tough nut to crack. We'd bet you all have stories to share about jams and inconveniences and what you do to compensate for the on-road behavior of others...

In Traffic, author Tom Vanderbilt examines why we drive the way we do and what it says about us as wheel commanders. The book is a rich and surprisingly enough, entertaining info-mix of social sciences, history, and road engineering.

If the book has any one important thing to say, it'd be this: we'd get further down the road, faster -- and we'd save fuel -- if we followed the signs and played/drove well with others.

Poet of the Month

August's Featured Poet
Richard Wilbur (1921-), born in New York City, sees poetry “as a means of organizing oneself and the world” which he took up as a result of the horrors of WWII. He uses meter and rhyme because in “complicating the writing-process” its “limitation makes for power: the strength of the genie comes of his being confined in a bottle.” He finds a kinship in French poets, whose work he has widely translated. He has won numerous awards for his translations and original work. He is a past poet Laureate of the U.S.

A Barred Owl

The warping night‑air having brought the boom
Of an owl's voice into her darkened room,
We tell the wakened child that all she heard
Was an odd question from a forest bird,
Asking of us, if rightly listened to,
"Who cooks for you?" and then "Who cooks for you?"

Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear,
Can also thus domesticate a fear,
And send a small child back to sleep at night
Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight
Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw
Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.

Further Reading: Collected poems, 1943‑2004 / Richard Wilbur, 2004. The disappearing alphabet / Richard Wilbur ; illustrated by David Diaz, 1998. Things of this world : poems / Wilbur, Richard, [1956].

Coming in September: Lorna Dee Cervantes

Content developed by East Hampton resident and poet Leland Jamieson

2009 Nutmeg Book Award Intermediate Nominees

Decisions, Decisions: All of Them Yours!

The time to begin voting for your favorite 2009 Nutmeg Book in the Intermediate Category (grades 4-6) is already here. Though rumor has it there are strong local favorites among the crop of 10 nominees; there's still time to read and review nominees you might have missed.

Explore plot descriptions to help you choose yet another stellar Nutmeg nominee; check our online catalog for availability -- then Spice It Up a Notch on the Nutmeg's wicked "wiki" cool web page. Here you'll find easy online ways to say what you mean/mean what you say about which Nutmeg books mattered most to you...

Through Thin and Thinner

What Is 2-1-1?
2-1-1 is a free community service administered by the United Way of Connecticut. It is supported by the State of Connecticut and Connecticut United Ways. You can call 2-1-1 to obtain information, or to seek help in a crisis. The service is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Simply dial 2-1-1 or 1-800-203-1234 any time of day or night.

Call 2-1-1 or visit the 2-1-1 web page to learn about state/local resources available to you and your family. Local Human Services contacts are East Hampton Social Services and East Hampton Youth & Family Services.

Read Your Way to Olympic Gold Recap

Olympics Winding Down...
Your library's summer reading program, Read Your Way to Olympic Gold, is winding down and ends on Saturday, August 30th. Needless to say there is still time to pursue a BINGO and collect your summer reading incentive prize. What a great summer and thank you for sharing your time at the library!

Thanks to East Hampton Winding Up!
What deserves great mention is how our community's businesses and organizations so strongly support our annual efforts to promote reading as an everyday summer choice for the children in town. Support is nothing short of amazing so please be sure to thank our Summer 2008 reading program sponsors and partners any time, all the time:

American Distilling -- Angelico's Lake House Restaurant -- Belltown Learning Center -- Century 21 Realty -- Dunkin' Donuts -- East Hampton Lanes -- East Hampton Parks & Recreation -- East Hampton Public School District -- 80 Licks Ice Cream Cafe -- Friends of the East Hampton Public Library -- Kids of Chatham Organization -- Island Coffee Traders -- Main Street Pizza -- McDonalds -- Nichols Bus Service -- Subway -- Rossini's Italian Restaurant.

Secrets Told...

Questions Answered...
If you were inspired by The Secret you might also decide to continue refining your approach to The Answer that best works for you.

Inspiration is good! So is the success all of us have to work at achieving. What may be missing from both of these books is mention of actual work...

What do you think?

One Fish, Two Fish, Red State, Blue State

Books Either Way
“Political” books are all over the place these days and with fall elections not that far away, it seems as though everyone has something to say. In the recent crop of polemics...

Thomas Frank (What's the Matter With Kansas?) offers up his new book, The Wrecking Crew. Matt Taibbi is a Contributing Editor to Rolling Stone Magazine and regularly reports on American politics. Atlantic Monthly writers Douthat and Salam speak to a conservative domestic agenda.

Add in books by John Harwood, David Boren, Grover Norquist, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Scott McClellan... there sure is much to think about...

Click here for other more recent books about American politics and its history.

Secret Agents

Liz Carlyle's Wild Ride
To those of you who enjoy vintage John le Carré or Vince Flynn's novels about invincible secret agent, Mitch Rapp, we highly recommend the latest in the Liz Carlyle series by Stella Rimington.

In Illegal Action, British operative Liz Carlyle uncovers a plot to assassinate fictional character Nikita Brunovsky, a vocal opponent of real-life Vladimir Putin. As is the case with all great espionage thrillers, Liz battles against the clock to figure out who’s who, so as to avoid a full-scale international incident.

Stella Rimington’s writing is solid and as a 30-year veteran of MI5, she’s able to offer insight on Cold War spying vs. spying in the age of anti-terrorism. The novel’s short chapters also make this book a good choice for busy readers who still want the benefit of a thrilling, roller-coaster read.

They Write... We Read...

Celebrity biographies/autobiographies, tell-alls, exposés, and reverent or irreverent retrospectives show up every spring (so we will read them over the summer) and every holiday season (so we will give them as gifts). Some are enlightening, informative, or fun; others dish up the dirt. Either way, books in this genre move on and off the best seller lists and on and off our shelves. Here's a few titles that have seen a great deal of action over the course of our spring-into-summer library season.

Summer's not yet over... there is still time to dish...

Off the Beaten Track Surprises

Where to Eat During Your "Staycations"
We can't help but notice that many of you are "staycationing" this summer. Our museum passes, funded by the Friends of Library, are getting a very rigorous workout. Not to mention the CT State Park Pass, which is yet another great "freebie".

In the few weeks left before school starts, match your next staycation trip to a list of "colorful and inexpensive" CT restaurants, courtesy of the team at Roadfood.com.

Telecommuting?

We Can Help
With gas prices rising, telecommuting may seem like an attractive alternative. Even one day off the highway will save you some money and lower the stress of your next fill-up at the pumps.

If you are telecommuting, or trying it out to see if it works for you and your employer, the library can offer you comfortable facilities and wireless Internet access for your laptop (B or G wireless card required). If you need to teleconference, no problem! You may use your cell in either of our closed-door conference rooms, subject to availability.

The best news is when your much needed break rolls around, there sure is plenty to read and enjoy at the library -- not to mention some great food and shopping options -- all on Main Street!

Budget Hero Game

Here's Your Chance to Play What You Mean
What if you could decide how our federal tax dollars were spent? You can, if only in an imaginary way, by playing the interactive game, Budget Hero, recently launched by American Public Media.

The game allows you to set a federal budget based on your values. Play issue-related budget "cards" to levy or ease taxes. The game will deliver results -- as in how your choices might affect a budget 10 years from now.

With November election season not that far away, Budget Hero offers an interactive way to explore your take on national issues and to generate useful discussion.

Vampire Fiction

Tongue in Cheek... With Fangs
Anne Rice, Laurell K. Hamilton, Christine Feehan, and Charlaine Harris are among the more famous vampire fiction storytellers. Darren Shan and Stephenie Meyer have recently dominated the vampire fiction market aimed at teens. Let's not leave out Dracula, the infamous 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, which has brought us more than a century's worth of the "Count" in books and on film.

Enter the fiction book Vampyres of Hollywood, a fictional story with one fundamental contention: everything we think we know about vampire myth, legend, and folklore was created in a Hollywood film studio!

The novel is very witty in places (who doesn't like a joke at Hollywood egos' expense?) but is also very gruesome in others. Certainly not for everyone but a sometimes entertaining addition to latest crop of vampire chic fiction.