Complementary Health Care

Panel Discussion on Tap @ your library
Complementary health care includes a very broad spectrum of interventions, aids, counselling and approaches. Join us from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 15, for a panel discussion featuring complementary care practictioners with offices in our local area.

Our current line-up of panelists includes:
Joseph Belanger, Holistic Physical Therapist
Dr. Patrick Connelly, Chiropractor
Susan Fielding, Massage Therapist
Dr. Bret Lieberman, Naturopathic Physician
Sherry Russenberger & Mary Ann Dayton-Fitzgerald, Reiki Energy Healing
Natalia Seguro-Wright, Acupuncturist
Michael Smithwick, Hypnotherapist

Reserve your seat by registering online or phoning the library at 860.267.6621.

The Great Outdoors: Connecticut Style

CT Adventures
The Connecticut Explorer's Guide is a clearinghouse website featuring a wealth of information on how to choose, plan, and undertake your next outdoor adventure in our home state. Organized by type of outdoor undertaking (hiking, paddling, biking, etc.) the site integrates National GeographicTM topographical maps to help you pinpoint the "where" in your next CT-based adventure.

The site also includes a link to adventure forums through which you may read or post news articles; share your personal adventure stories; or "Ask the Pro" for tips on a specific type of outdoor skill.

Though there is plenty of commercial content on the site, the .com content is not overwhelming and doesn't seriously detract from what you may learn about Connecticut's outdoor assets. Surf's up!

A Turn of the Friendly Page

Molly Maturo: Teen Reader
Molly Maturo is well-known to our library's staff and to legions of our community's teen readers. (She's the kid with a locker full of books and ready recommendations on books you might like to read, too.)

Molly has also and more recently made her mark in the CT Nutmeg Book award world; she's a teen book reviewer for Nutmeg 2010. Congratulations, Molly!

We'll be working with Molly to launch a YA book review section on the library's MySpace page this March and in May, a downloadable book review newsletter for and written by teens -- just in time for summer reading season.

If you would like to volunteer to help Molly and the library start up web services that are for and about what you like to read, make a friend and send us a MySpace comment, contact us, or stop by the library to chat with Jondahl or Sue.

In Like a Lion...

And Roaring All Month Long!
Upcoming Programs @ your library
Our March 2008 schedule of public programs offers a blend of information and entertainment. All of our programs are free and held in the Community Room. Browse our online events calendar for details and make plans to join us!

Community Drum Circle: Drop in, Tuesday, March 4, 6:30 p.m.
Adult Book Discussion: Wednesday, March 5, 7 p.m.
Consumer Prescription Information: Thursday, March 6, 1 p.m.
Contemporary Photojournalism: Wednesday, March 12, 7 p.m.
Complementary Health Care Panel: Saturday, March 15, 2 p.m.
Identifying/Selling Antiques: Thursday, March 20, 1 p.m.
Water Gardens, Start to Finish: Wednesday, March 26, 7 p.m.
'Too Human' in Concert: Saturday, March 29, 2 p.m.

2008 Nutmeg Book Award Winner: It's Official

Lightning Thief Wins Top Honors
Rick Riordan's adventure story about 12 year-old Percius "Percy" Jackson's quest for Zeus's master lightning bolt won the 2008 Nutmeg Book Award in both intermediate (grades 4-6) and teen reader categories (grade 7-8).

The book has everything a discriminating reader could want: a main character faced with many challenges, a quest against all odds, and a goal to prevent World War III. Percy, plus friends Grover and Annabeth, are believable characters (Percy is the wisecracking narrator) who also happen to visit the Underworld and Mount Olympus. Many of the classic Greek myths blend nicely into the first part of a continuing story.

If you were not one of the almost 9,000 Connecticut kids who voted Lightning Thief the hands-down Nutmeg winner, catch the buzz at the library. Other nominated Nutmeg books are also available for checkout.

Museum Pass Update

Discovery Room Now Open for Exploration
If you haven't recently visited the Children's Museum of Southeastern CT, you're in for a treat. The new Discovery Room opened in January and features numerous sensory experiences for children of all abilities. Try an Interactive Bubble Column, a Tongue Drum, a Tactile Panel, or a Musical Wall.

You can save yourself some money if you visit the museum using our circulating museum pass. The pass may be reserved up to 24 hours in advance of the day you plan to check it out/use it and circulates for 2 days. The pass admits up to 4 people free against the regular, individual admission price of $5.

Our pass program is funded by the Friends of the East Hampton Public Library and provides free or discounted admission to 13 area attractions. The Friends' annual membership drive is now underway. Become a Friend for as little as $5! You'll save that and more by using our pass program.

Summer and Twilight

Stephenie Meyer's Series Continues
Love, love, love this young adult series. Intelligently written with very believable characters (a vampire and a werewolf, so?), these books sound and feel authentic to teen readers and from what we can see, to many of their moms, too! Can't wait to find out what happens to Bella, Jake, and Edward.

Breaking Dawn is scheduled for release on August 2.

What's New?

Our Online Catalog: Using the Recent Item Search
If we had to pick a winner FAQ (frequently asked question), it would be "How can I find what's new?" The question comes to us in different forms, depending on your material type preferences: new books, DVDs, audio in varied formats.

If you're a fan of online browsing, the quickest way to find out about additions to our collections is to use the Recent Item Search. This search may be limited by time period (last week, 2 weeks, up to 3 months) and may also be limited by material type. This search also comes with benefits. You will learn about on-order/forthcoming books as much as 3 months in advance of publication, as well as additions to our DVD and audio collections (new release or must-see/listen).

If your style is online, give the Recent Item Search a try. If you would prefer that we facilitate the online part for you -- stop by or give us call. We offer several programs to keep you informed about new, classic, and in-demand additions to your library's collections.

Rethinking the Picture Book

2008 Caldecott Medal Winner
Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic) won the Caldecott medal late last month, much to the surprise of many who know their way around a picture book. The book weighs in at a hefty 533 pages (very unusual for a picture book); is a novel (first novel to win the Caldecott); and is not a book for 4 and 5 year-olds (the usual picture book audience).

This being said, Hugo Cabret uses pictures in a highly inventive and carefully-crafted way to convey the story of a boy in a 1930's vintage Paris train station and his friendship with a very mysterious toymaker. The detailed drawings are spectacular and add layer after layer to the entertaining and well-written story.

About the Caldecott
The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

Poet of the Month

February's Featured Poet
Langston Hughes (1902-67) received his B.A. in 1929 from Lincoln University and wrote operettas and poems in the spirit of jazz, spirituals, and blues. “The mood of the blues is almost always despondency, but when they are sung people laugh,” Hughes said. (He was perhaps the first person to grasp Lucille Clifton’s gifts, extolling her work in an anthology of African‑American poetry.) Here is a blues poem:

Morning After
I was so sick last night I
Didn't hardly know my mind.
So sick last night I
Didn't know my mind.
I drunk some bad licker that
Almost made me blind.

Had a dream last night I
Thought I was in hell.
I drempt last night I
Thought I was in hell.
Woke up and looked around me‑‑
Babe, your mouth was open like a well.

I said, Baby! Baby!
Please don't snore so loud.
Baby! Please!
Please don't snore so loud.
You jest a little bit o' woman but you
Sound like a great big crowd.

Further Reading: Langston Hughes, Collected Poems, and Langston Hughes, I wonder as I wander : an autobiographical journey, with an introduction by Arnold Rampersad.

Coming in March: Emily Dickinson

Content developed by local resident and poet Leland Jamieson

TR Packs the House

Bully!
Theodore Roosevelt historical interpreter, Ted Zalewski (pictured left), attracted a standing room only crowd to the library today, leaving no doubt that TR's remarkable life continues to inspire and enlighten.

Welcomed by the familiar strains of Hail to the Chief, Zalewski led off with one of TR's more comedic lines, "My son Kermit said I wanted to be the bride at every wedding, and the corpse at every funeral." Using TR's words, Zalewski then led the audience through Roosevelt's life as a rugged cowboy, Governor of New York, historian, naturalist, explorer, author, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and 26th President of the United States.

Zalewski looked no worse for the wear after his stunning performance, offering gracious comments while closing the event with a presidential receiving line.

YA's Read

YA Reads
"Gossip Girl" set in 1899 Manhattan? Try Anna Godbersen's Luxe -- all 448 pages of this first in a planned four-part series with next installment due in June. Into Project Runway or Tyra's America's Next Top Model? Try Rachel Maude's Poseur. Of course, there's the Stephenie Meyer books -- Twilight, New Moon, and Meyer's latest, Eclipse. Or try Jeff Kinney's Diary of Wimpy Kid, a "novel" take-off on Kinney's popular web comic.

There are series books galore at the library (Pendragon, Gossip Girl, Alex Rider, Darren Shan and Meg Cabot books) not to mention our growing collection of great "regular books" and graphic novels.

Hope to see you soon and just as we ask everyone else in our community, let us know how we can better serve your needs. Comment here or make us a friend on MySpace.

Fountain of Youth

Puddles of Shame?
Or so we have discussed after eating one too many low food chain sweets over the holidays...

A number of heath and fitness books have peppered the hardcover bestseller non-fiction lists of late. What better time to dream of spring and plan for a healthier you? These plus others are available at the library.

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollen
Pollen offers deceptively simple advice: "Eat food, not too much, and mostly plants."

The 12 Second Sequence by Jorge Cruise
Cruise is a spokesperson for Bally Fitness Centers and 'ballyhoos" his success stories online and in TV interviews. First in series of three planned books.

You: Staying Young by Michael F. Roizen, M.D., & Mehmet C. Oz, M.D.
The Roizen/OZ health and fitness franchise continues with an offering geared to those a little older than those (ahem) a little younger.

Living Well by Montel Williams
Popular talk show host Montel, who lives with MS day-to-day, describes his diet regimen. Briefly: "no white flour, white sugar, salt, anything bleached" and a preference for yams over potatoes. Sounds smart and yammy-yummy.

Who Knew?

Ukuleles Can Be Cool

Yes, they can. An inter-generational audience of near 80 people enjoyed the smooth sounds of the Jim Rosokoff Trio this afternoon at the library. The trio delighted the audience with familiar jazz standards and pop songs from the 30s though the 70's, as well as tunes that every child (or the child within you) knows by heart.

Rosokoff is a Glastonbury-based dermatologist who as Dr. Uke also leads the Glastonbury Ukulele Club. If you're a lapsed guitar player or a 'youngster' of any age who's looking to enjoy music and the camaraderie of others like you, give the club a try.

Special thanks to Jo Ann Ewing and the Senior Center crowd for coordinating a potluck luncheon to coincide with concert, which produced the "inter" in inter-generational enjoyment.

Laughing Out Loud

Colbert

Regardless of your point of view (we've got some whopper but always friendly differences on our staff), Stephen Colbert is good for a laugh.

Colbert's looney-funny book, I Am America (and So Can You) and his Best of the Colbert Report DVD, are both available at the library.

But we must weigh in on one particular Colbert DVD routine. To any of us in the credible information business, Wikilaity/Truthiness is a hoot and we librarians remain unafraid...

The Capital of Happiness

Finding Bliss on a Map
In The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World, former NPR foreign correspondent Eric Weiner takes us on a world tour with a twist. Off to Iceland, Bhutan, Qatar, Holland, Switzerland, Thailand and India he goes to try to figure out why residents say they're happy. The answers end up being simple (you might not be happy in Bhutan but the Bhutanese sure are) and this read is also simply well worth it.

Taking Home a Starbucks

...Cup of Inspiration, Two Creams, One Sugar
Starbucks ranked 16th on Fortune's 2007 "Top 100 Companies to Work For" list. Little wonder according to the latest in our library's Starbucks book corner.

How Starbucks Saved My Life
Michael Gill explains how he was born into privilege, was "downsized" out of his upscale career, divorced by his wife after the woman with whom he was having an affair became pregnant, and learned that he had a slow-growing brain tumor—all of which eventually led him to an entry-level job at Starbucks at the age of 64. A quick read about the healing power of a java job well done.

The Starbucks Experience
Joseph Michelle touts Starbuck's success, boiling company practices down to a portable canon of essential business advice. A hot cup of mocha frappuccino for your inner MBA.

Poet of the Month

January's Featured Poet
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1969) was born in Worcester, MA, and grew up in New England and Nova Scotia. She lived also in Key West and Brazil. Each locale furnished vivid landscapes for her work. She taught at Harvard late in her life. She is an astute observer of the physical world, and finds in it metaphors for feeling she does not, without them, express in her poetry. “Late Air” is a good example of this:

Late Air

From a magician’s midnight sleeve

the radio-singers

distribute all their love-songs

over the dew-wet lawns.

And like a fortune-teller’s

their marrow-piercing guesses are whatever you

believe.

But on the Navy Yard aerial I find

better witnesses

for love on summer nights.

Five remote red lights

keep their nests there; Phoenixes

burning quietly, where the dew cannot climb.

Further Reading: Elizabeth Bishop, The Complete Poems, 1927-1979; available at our library.

Coming in February: Langston Hughes

Content developed by local resident and poet Leland Jamieson

Farewell Flashman

George MacDonald Fraser, 1926-2008
George MacDonald Fraser, creator of Harry Paget Flashman, that infamous swashbuckler of the 19th century British Empire, died of cancer on January 2. If you enjoy first-rate historical novels -- though politically incorrect by today's standards -- set aside some lounge chair reading time for the Flashman.

The Reavers, Fraser's last novel, will be published posthumously in April of this year.

Happy New Year East Hampton!

New Year's at Noon
Who says libraries don't draw crowds anymore?

Over 100 local residents today left us with little doubt that if we want to welcome the New Year, the best time to so is noon at the library!

Our 7th annual New Year's at Noon celebration featured oh so edible or made to be noisy crafts, plus group sing-alongs, dancing, and of course -- our signature balloon drop. Par-taay!