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Martha Canfield Library E-news - April
Welcome to the April edition of the Martha Canfield Library’s e-newsletter. If you have any suggestions, you can email them to our hotmail account or leave them in our suggestion jar on the front desk.
Spring Cleaning
Are you starting your spring cleaning? Do you have books, children’s books, DVDs, games or puzzles you no longer use? Consider donating them to the library. Materials in good condition can be used in the library or sold in our book sale to raise operating funds. However, there are a few things we can’t use, such as old encyclopedias, textbooks or Reader’s Digest Condensed books. Just give us a call if you have any questions or drop items off during regular library hours.
Online Catalog Reminder
If you haven’t yet tried out our new online catalog you can do so by typing marthacanfield.follettdestiny.com in the address bar (not in a search box). Once you get to the welcome screen just click on the Martha Canfield Library link. You will be logged onto the catalog as a guest and you can see what we have and whether it is checked out. If you wish to create an account using your library card barcode number, click on the create account button on the upper right and follow the instructions. Once you are logged in, you can click the “My Info” tab to see what you have out and when it is due. You can also place a hold on an item that is out, or renew items once, unless they are on hold for another patron. This new catalog was funded by donations from the Vermont Country Store and from our friends. Thank you!
Tax Forms
If you haven’t yet filed your taxes, we still have forms, and the form to file for an extension. Or you can file online at www.irs.gov. Vermont forms are found at www.state.vt.us/tax.
For Kids
April brings showers, and showers mean indoor activities. We have lots of games you can borrow to occupy your indoor time. For the younger ones, there is The Very Hungry Caterpillar Game and Boggle, Jr. For all ages, we have dominoes and chess. For older kids and families, try Word on the Street or Ninja vs. Ninja. And for an international flavor, try Fox & Geese or Senet. These and many more are waiting for you at your library.
In the Canfield Gallery
For a change of pace, stop in to see hooked rug wall hangings by Arlington resident Dan Barber. Dan worked in the field of architecture and created oil paintings, then began to create woodcut prints. After visiting the Shelburne Museum’s exhibition of hooked rug wall hangings, Dan decided to try a new medium. Dan’s wall hangings will be on display through April 29.
The Russell Vermontiana Collection
By Bill Budde, Curator
March has been a busy month for the Russell Collection. Library renovations required us to take down the photographs, memorials to past collection curators, and ephemera donated over the years and displayed on the wall outside of the collection entrance. We found space to hang most of the material within the Russell Collection itself, but hope that more public space will be found to exhibit material when the renovation is complete.
The most exciting news is that the Russell Collection has received significant new, state of the art equipment through the eVermont broadband grant program. This will allow us to move forward with sharing the collection with the people of Arlington, Sandgate, and Sunderland and the researchers that contact us for help. Equipment we have received includes a large format flat bed scanner, an Elmo projector, a new computer, digital camera, and a flip camcorder. All of the equipment will allow us to improve our ability to record local history and preserve it for the use of future generations. It will also allow us to develop rotating digital exhibits on our website so that all residents have the opportunity to experience our rich history. This is especially useful for sharing the oldest, sometimes very fragile, documents dating from before the chartering of the towns in 1761.
Related to the donation of the new equipment are efforts to increase the involvement of area students in the use and understanding of the collection. We have contacted local and Manchester area high schools to let them know we have opportunities for community service or advanced studies projects for students in the coming school year. If you know of any students that might be interested have them contact the library or curator.
Adopt-A-Book
The Library Friends invite you to participate in the Adopt-A-Book program for the new Youth Room. Throughout April you can place an order for a young adult book from the Library’s book wish list, pay the discounted price when the book arrives, and you can read it first! Or, you can give a cash donation toward future purchases for youth.
The Mystery Corner
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING
By Martha Folsom
I’ve had a mixed bag of mysteries on my bedside table this month.
Andrea Camilleri – The Patience of the Spider is by one of my favorite mystery writers. I was reading it a little out of sequence but it didn’t matter as the book stands quite well on its own. I have found that each book in the Inspector Montalbano series is refreshing. An odd word to choose, but it is the only one I can think of. The mystery in this one wasn’t as complex as some, but I appreciated the development of the characters and the portrayal of Sicily. This one involves a kidnapping.
Dean Fuller – A Death in Paris was the first book by Fuller that I have read, and I quite enjoyed it. Luckily it is also the first in his series featuring Chief Inspector Alex Grismolet of the Surete and his assistant Varnas. As a police procedural it was excellent and I fully intend to read more by Fuller.
Robert J. Randisi – I’m a Fool to Kill You is the last available book in the Rat Pack series and I am eagerly awaiting the new book due out this summer. This one has Eddie G., a Las Vegas pit boss, and his body-guard/friend and pancake enthusiast, Jerry Epstein, helping Ava Gardner get out of a real tight fix. Randisi brings Sinatra, Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. to life once again. The books are a treat.
Julia Spencer-Fleming – Just finished reading a pre-release copy of One Was a Soldier. The book really is three stories – the mystery, the love affair between Reverend Claire and Police Chief Van Alstyne and the story of what war does to those who participate in it and the struggle they have coming back to life at home. All three stories are tightly woven together. The mystery itself has little that is unexpected but the book as a whole is excellent, perhaps her best in the series. Its only flaw: the changes which seem to be destined in future books.
Charles Todd – The brand new book, A Lonely Death, is as good as all the rest in this series, perhaps even the best of the series. Inspector Rutledge is a shell-shocked veteran of WWI carrying on with his duties at Scotland Yard. He is still accompanied by the voice of Hamish, the Scottish sergeant whose death he feels responsible for; luckily so, for Hamish often sees the truth of a situation. In this one he is faced with perplexing murders of several veterans. You can easily read A Lonely Death without having read the others in the series.
Eric Wright – I jumped into Wright’s Charlie Salter series with the fifth book, A Body Surrounded by Water, and I am going to start at the beginning and see what the others are like. Salter is a police inspector in Toronto but A Body Surrounded by Water takes place while he and his family are vacationing on Prince Edward Island. You’ll get to see the non-tourist side of PEI.
Mike Harrison – I started his Eddie Dancer series a couple of weeks ago (All Shook Up) and I am now on the third and last one (Ruby Tuesday). They are like the ‘hard-boiled’ detective stories featuring Mike Hammer and Sam Spade. I like Eddie, his back-up Danny and his girl friend Cindy. Harrison is a Canadian writer and Eddie’s home base is Calgary. I wish there were more Eddie Dancer books!
Walter Mosley – Known to Evil is Mosley’s second book featuring Leonid McGill. I don’t think I will come to like McGill as much as I did Easy Rawlins or even Fearless Jones, but the book is well-paced and a good read. McGill is a present-day character in New York City. Mosley is an excellent writer and my feelings about McGill are just personal likes and not any indication of deficiency.
This month I also read Jeffery Deaver’s new book, The Burning Wire, James Patterson’s, London Bridges and Alexander McCall-Smith’s Isabelle Dalhousie novel, The Charming Quirks of Others. While I enjoyed them as novels by familiar, favorite writers I found them all rather weak links in otherwise strong series.
The Mystery Reading Group will not be held Tuesday, April 12. We are reconsidering the meeting time, so the group will not meet until further notice. If you are interested in attending, please let us know what days and times work best for you.
We would love to hear from you about this column, your favorite writers, writers we have missed, best mystery ever... Let us hear from you. Email us at
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Reader Pick by Richard E. Gower
One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde
Thursday Next, who lives with her irascible pet Dodo, Pickwick, and a hapless house-helper, Mrs. Malaprop, has the good fortune to sleuth among the text-based life forms in BookWorld, an alternative universe that will capture and completely absorb anyone who loves reading about the written word. Thursday reports to Commander James "Red" Herring, overall leader of the BookWorld Policing Agency in the intricately constructed detective series. This latest book took my imagination for a ride in the countryside in an old-fashioned, wire-wheeled sports car, with the top down on a crisp fall day. I knew I was in for a delightful spin when the frontispiece map of Fiction Island showed MP's expenses as a stop along the way to the more established genre towns of Crime, Comedy, Horror and Drama. A whistle stop to be sure, it's apropos of nothing in the story; just an added fillip that gave me yet another delicious shiver and contributed to the whimsy of the adventure.
New Books
FICTION
The Adamantine Palace, by Stephen Deas
Any Human Heart, by William Boyd
The Matchmaker of Kenmare, by Frank Delaney
The Postmistress, by Sarah Blake
The Seamstress, by Frances de Pontes Peebles
The Storyteller of Marrakesh, by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya
Waiting for Columbus, by Thomas Trofimuk
The Hearing, by John Lescroart
A Second Legacy, by Joanna Trollope writing as Caroline Harvey
A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore
A Thousand Tomorrows, by Karen Kingsbury
Medusa: a Novel from the NUMA Files, by Clive Cussler, with Paul Kemprecos
Corsair: a Novel of the Oregon Files, by Clive Cussler, with Jack Du Brul
The Cookbook Collector, by Allegra Goodman
The Gift, by James Patterson and Ned Rust
The Lotus Eaters, by Tatjana Soli
The Pleasure of My Company, by Steve Martin
The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay, by Beverly Jensen
What the Night Knows, by Dean Koontz
A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
The New Yorker Stories, by Ann Beattie
Spun By Sorcery, by Barbara Bretton
MYSTERY
Devil’s Food, by Kerry Greenwood
The Excalibur Murders, by J. M. C. Blair
Fade to White, by Wendy Clinch (VT author)
Mirror Image, by Dennis Palumbo
Tell Me, Pretty Maiden, by Rhys Bowen
The Way Home, by George Pelecanos
A Secret Rage, by Charlaine Harris
A Bone to Pick, by Charlaine Harris
A Fatal Grace, by Louise Penny
One of Our Thursdays Is Missing, by Jasper Fforde
Silent Mercy, by Linda Fairstein
The Secret Hangman, by Peter Lovesey
Thereby Hangs a Tail, by Spencer Quinn
Bellfield Hall, by Anna Dean
NON-FICTION
Citizen Canine: 10 Essential Skills Every Well-Mannered Dog Should Know, by Mary R. Burch
The Longevity Prescription, by Robert Butler
The Shallows: What the Internet Is doing To Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr
The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos, by Brian Greene
Flying Aprons Gluten-Free and Vegan Baking Book, by Jennifer Katzinger
How Philosophy Can Save Your Life, by Marietta McCarty
Before Your Pregnancy, by Amy Ogle
The Private Lives of Birds, by Bridget Joan Stutchbury
The Arab-Israeli Conflict, by Cath Senker
The Grass Grew Greener, by Harry M. Rowe, with Terry Hoffer (VT author)
Fiction Set in Vermont 3, by Ann McKinstry Micou
The Summer World: a Season of Bounty, by Bernd Heinrich
The Nesting Season, by Bernd Heinrich
Service Included: Four-star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter, by Phoebe Damrosch
Twin: a Memoir, by Allen Shawn
DVD
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, with Cicely Tyson, Barbara Chaney and Richard Dysart
Bee Season, with Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche
Breaking Up, with Russell Crowe and Salma Hayeck
Elizabethtown, with Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst and Susan Sarandon
The Emperor’s Club, with Kevin Kline, Emile Hirsch and Steven Culp
The End of the Affair, with Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore and Stephen Rea
Friday Night Lights, with Billy Bob Thornton, Derek Luke and Jay Hernandez
Gosford Park, with Eileen Atkins, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates and Charles Dance
The Hotel New Hampshire, with Jodie Foster, Beau Bridges and Rob Lowe
The House of Sand and Fog, with Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley and Ron Eldard
The Five People You Meet in Heaven, based on the book by Mitch Albom, with Jon Voight, Ellen Burstyn and Jeff Daniels
The Fog of War, Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
Just the Ticket, with Andy Garcia and Andie MacDowell
The Missing, with Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchette
Munich, with Eric Bana and Daniel Craig
Music from Another Room, with Jude Law, Gretchen Moll and Martha Plimpton
My Family, with Jimmy Smits, Esai Morales, Eduardo Lopez Rojas and Jenny Gago
Mystic River, with Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne and Marcia Gay Harden
West Side Waltz, with Shirley MacLaine, Liza Minelli, Kathy Bates, Jennifer Grey and Robert Pastorelli
Le Divorce, with Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts and Jean-Marc Barr
The Other Boleyn Girl, with Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana
YOUNG ADULT
Dragons of Darkness, by Antonia Michaelis
The Silver Blade, by Sally Gardner
The Visconti House, by Elsbeth Edgar
Beautiful Darkness, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
The Sable Quean, by Brian Jacques
CHILDREN
Fiction
Aloha, Kanani, by Lisa Yee (American Girl series)
Good Job, Kanani, by Lisa Yee (American Girl series)
Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, by Lincoln Pierce
The Buddy Files: the Case of the Lost Boy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
The Buddy Files: the Case of the Missing Family, by Dori Hillestad Butler
The Buddy Files: the Case of the Mixed-up Mutts, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Changes for Rebecca, by Jacqueline Dembar Greene
Dr. Brad Has Gone Mad!, by Dan Gutman
Miss Laney is Zany!, by Dan Gutman
Mrs. Lizzy is Dizzy!, by Dan Gutman
Miss Mary is Scary!, by Dan Gutman
Mr. Tony is Full of Baloney!, by Dan Gutman
Rebecca and Ana, by Jacqueline Dembar Greene
Surprises According to Humphrey, by Betty G. Birney
G’day, Sydney!, by M. C. King
Ciao from Rome, by Helen Perelman
Fablehaven, by Brandon Mull
Magic Below Stairs, by Caroline Stevermer
Non-Fiction
An Astronaut Cookbook, by Sarah L. Schuette
Creepy, Crawly Critters, by Jeff Corwin
Eat Green, by Anita Yasuda
The Extraordinary Everglades, by Jeff Corwin
Kristen Stewart, by Anita Yasuda
Robert Pattinson, by Anita Yasuda
Taylor Lautner, by Anita Yasuda
Shaun White, by Blaine Wiseman
World War I, by Stewart Ross
World War II, by Nathaniel Harris
The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge, by Joanna Cole
Whaling Season, by Peter Lourie
Mobiles and Other Paper Windcatchers, by Noel & Phyllis Fiarotta
Emma Dilemma: Big Sister Poems, by Kristine O’Connell George
Picture Books
Read All About It!, by Laura Bush and Jenna Bush
Spider-man’s Big City Showdown, by Joe F. Merkel & John Sazaklis
Substitute Groundhog, by Pat Miller
Red Butterfly: How a Princess Smuggled the Secret of Silk Out of China, by Deborah Noyes
I Am a Backhoe, by Anna Grossnickle Hines
The Book of Sleep, by Il Sung Na
DVD
Because of Winn-Dixie, with Jeff Daniels, Cicely Tyson, Dave Matthews and Eva Marie Saint
So come on in!
Hours:
Tues. & Thurs. 9 - 8
Wed. 9 - 5; Fri. 2 - 6; Sat. 10 - 3
Closed Sun. & Mon.
Russell Collection: Tues. 9 - 5, or by appointment
Martha Canfield Memorial Free Library, 528 E. Arlington Rd., P.O. Box 267, Arlington, VT 05250 (across from Arlington High School)
Phone: 802-375-6153 e-mail:
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web: www.marthacanfieldlibrary.org
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