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Martha Canfield Library E-news
Welcome to the August 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.
News
Don’t forget to check out our new, completely redesigned website if you haven’t already, at marthacanfieldlibrary.org. From the website you can link to our online catalog, the Mango language learning program, the Vermont Online Library, and more. You can also see the Canfield Gallery schedule, our upcoming events, a list of new books and even back issues of our newsletter.
Events
FAMILY GAME NIGHT
In keeping with the summer theme of ONE WORLD, MANY STORIES we are having a family game night Saturday evening, August 13th, at 6:30 pm. We will learn about the ancient Mayan game of BUL that is still played today. For the Maya, BUL was, and is, a game to celebrate the harvest and is played by many players at a time. Recommended for ages 12 and up. Everyone that wants to play should bring 5 identifiable markers for their game pieces. (Use buttons, or something unique, since game pawns all tend to look alike). It's also a fun game to watch, so bring the family!
SHERLOCK HOLMES TALK
What is Holmes’ appeal? Why are there over 300 societies dedicated to him? Why are pastiches, fan fiction, video games, movies and television programs still being produced in great numbers? Sally Sugarman will visit the Library on Saturday, August 27 at 7:00 pm and examine some of the reasons.
Ms. Sugarman helped found the Baker Street Breakfast Club twenty-one years ago as a scion society and has chaired two conferences on Sherlock Holmes; the first was Sherlock Holmes: Victorian Sleuth to Modern Hero and the second was Sherlock Holmes: The Man and His Worlds.
She co-edited the book Victorian Sleuth to Modern Hero, a book of the papers of the conference published by Scarecrow Press and is currently editing a book based on the conference papers of The Man and His Worlds conference. Her article on Sherlock Holmes and the Children was published in the Baker Street Journal.
She has also given presentations on Holmes at Shakespeare and Company, the Berkshire Institute for Lifelong Learning and at the Bennington Free Library. She edits the quarterly newsletter of the Baker Street Breakfast Club, Groans, Cries and Bleatings. Ms. Sugarman is a collector of Sherlockian materials of all kinds, and an invested member of the Baker Street Irregulars.
Book Sale
Mark Your Calendars! We are having a really big book sale, August 19 & 20, at the Fisher School. There will thousands of books, VHS movies and DVD movies as well as a bake sale. Nothing goes as well with a good read as a cookie!
On Friday, from 5 - 8 pm, there is an admission charge of $10. On Saturday, from 8 - 4 pm, admission is free. At the close on Saturday we will hold a bag sale. Fill one of our bags for $1.
If you could donate some time during that weekend, to help us man the sale, please let us know. Call Phyllis at the library (375-6153) or drop by the front desk. We will also appreciate any baked goods you care to donate.
For Kids
Vermont Magician Tom Joyce will bring his “One World Many ‘Magical’ Stories Magic Show” to the Library on Wednesday, August 17 at 10:30 am. This Fun and Funny Magic Show takes us on a tour around the world with lots of audience participation and Magical Books.This show is suitable for ages 4 and up.
Come and see if Lily the ‘Gracious’ ladybug from Luxembourg is any match for her grumpy nemesis, “The Grouchy Lady Bug”. Learn what lesson Harry the English rabbit learns from his favorite book, The Magic Rabbit. Use your imagination like Harold does with his Purple Crayon and come to Canada for the Confusing Crayons. These and other books come alive like Magic!
Tom Joyce is the former magician at the world famous, “F.A.O. Schwartz Toy Store” in New York City that was featured in the popular movie, “Big”.
Tom performed his first magic show at the age of 8 years old and has been living up to his nickname, “The Funny Magic Guy” ever since.
This program is sponsored by the Vermont Department of Libraries and the Martha Canfield Library.
In the Canfield Gallery
Our current exhibit is by Ukrainian born artist Helen Young. Her small, jewel-like oil paintings will delight your eye through August 31.
A resident of Londonderry, Young immigrated to America in 1950 and grew up in upstate New York, receiving graduate and undergraduate degrees in education from Syracuse University. She began painting in the late 1980's, and though she is largely self taught, she is seriously committed to the work, painting outside on-site nearly every day. Her paintings are mostly small-scale landscapes, but she also paints close-up studies of flowers and still lifes that have echoes of both Morandi and Manet. Young is a regular exhibitor at Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester, where she has had several solo shows in recent years.
Our September show will be an exhibit of unique art pottery by Arlington resident Jessica Phillips. Mark your calendars for her opening reception on Saturday, September 3 from 3:00 to 5:00 pm.
The Russell Vermontiana Collection
By Bill Budde, Curator
Over the past two months, we have been working on various projects in the collection. Irene Novotny has continued her work on preparing a detailed index for our photograph collection, Bob has continued to keep the obituary records up to date, Priscilla Kennedy has returned to maintain the vertical files, Pat Williams has been able to help sort out articles related to our collection, and Sarah Smith has worked on answering genealogy questions and keeping our clipping file current.
While that may seem like a lot of activity, we have several other projects on our “to do” list. Based on genealogy questions we would like to record and map the Sandgate, Arlington, and Sunderland (SAS) cemeteries, with photographs to identify each gravestone. We also have three donations that need to be surveyed and organized, and information about our archive collection entered into a computer program to enable us to find and share our local history.
If you are interested in helping out one to two hours per week, please feel free to talk with me regarding your specific interest. If you are not available on our regular Tuesday day, feel free to call me at home (375-9296) or at the library (375-6153) to discuss other options.
Volunteer Opportunities
As mentioned above, we need volunteers to help at our special book sale. On Friday evening, August 19 or Saturday, August 20 we need people to keep the tables stocked and to work at the “cash register” or the bake sale table. You can sign up for an hour or more, whatever fits your schedule. Call Phyllis at the library to let us know when you can help.
We also need someone to handle some publicity for the Library, writing press releases and submitting them to the media. If you have a flair for writing, we would appreciate your help.
The Mystery Corner
Another Look at Cozy Mysteries
Two years ago, in August, we mentioned several writers of 'cozies'. Since then we have included more of them in various articles, but there are so many cozies out there now that it seems like a good time to take another look at them.
Kathleen Bacus - Ms. Bacus is a former Iowa State Trooper and Department of Justice Investigator; so she knows her stuff. Her series character is Tressa "Calamity" Jayne Turner, a gal that dumb blonde jokes were invented for. This is a six book series that is very much in the vein of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels. The first is Calamity Jayne.
Dianne Day - Fremont Jones is a blue-stocking in early 19th century San Francisco. She owns and operates a typewriting service. The first book, The Strange Files of Fremont Jones, may be a bit "border-line cozy" (due to the material in one of the manuscripts she is typing), but I think it is a very enjoyable, six book, series.
Kathy Lynn Emerson - Emerson has two historical cozy series. The first features Lady Susanna Appleton, an herbalist in Elizabethan England. Face Down in the Marrow-Bone Pie begins the series. The second features Diana Spaulding, a widowed journalist in New York City in 1888, at the heyday of 'yellow journalism'. Deadlier than the Pen is the first. She also writes a modern day series, under the name of Kaitlyn Dunnett, featuring Liss MacCrimmon who helps out in her aunt's Scottish store in Moosetookalook, Maine.
Shelly Fredman - Some authors get better with each book, some start to get stale. Fredman is in the first category. No Such Thing as a Secret introduces Brandy Alexander, whom fans think is even better than Stephanie Plum! Her fourth book, No Such Thing as a Free Ride, has 30 reviews on Amazon; all of them rated five stars. I recommend you give her a try.
Anne George - This Pulitzer Prize nominee in poetry was the writer of eight 'Southern Sisters' mysteries before her death in 2001. The first in the series, Murder on a Girls’ Night Out, won both the Agatha and the Macavity Award for Best First Novel. The sisters are two southern gals "of a certain age". (A southern term for being 60-ish)
Julia Hyzy - Olivia (call her Ollie) Paras is the assistant chef at the White House and is on her way to becoming the head chef. This paperback series begins with State of the Onion. The recipes that are included are a side benefit.
J. J. Murphy - The 'Round Table' mysteries are not about King Arthur's famous table, but rather that table made famous during the roaring 20's in NYC at the Algonquin Hotel. Here, Dorothy Parker and her writing friends lunched on a regular basis. In the first book, Murder Your Darlings, Dorothy discovers a body under the table. He's dead. Not dead drunk, just dead, stabbed in the heart with his fountain pen. A nice young southern man in Parker's group, "Billy" Faulkner, is the chief suspect.
Sharon Pape - Ms. Pape has just started her "Portrait of Crime' series, and there are only two books so far. Our sleuth, Rory McCain, is a police sketch-artist and she shares her home on Long Island with the ghost of Federal Marshall Zeke Drummond, a lawman from the 1870's. The first book is Sketch Me If You Can.
Kerry Greenwood - Phryne Fisher is the popular sleuth in a series set in Australia during the 1920's. The first title is Cocaine Blues.
Cleo Coyle - My own personal motto has long been, "With coffee you can accomplish anything!", and so it is a pleasure to find a cozy series called, "Coffeehouse Mysteries". Clare Cosi is the manager of The Village Blend, a coffeehouse, in NYC's Greenwich Village. The first is On What Grounds.
Reader's Pick by Martha Folsom
Bottom of the 33rd, by Dan Barry is about minor league baseball. It is the story of the longest game in baseball's history, a game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings. It took over 8 hours to play and lasted 33 innings. Pawtucket won 3 - 2.
I admit that I was predisposed to like the book. Once when I was responsible for coming up with some trivia questions I chose to make the questions about this game. By page 5 I knew this was a book that I would have to own.
This is a rare book. The writing is one of the best examples of baseball storytelling that I have had the pleasure to read. By the end you know the town, the players - who they were and what they went on to become, and what that game was really - a moment suspended in time that seemed to stretch to infinity. "The night seems to have said something about time itself: the deceptiveness of it; the dearness of it. Beseeched by the older ballplayers to slow down the clock, and begged by the younger players to hasten it, the night choose instead to stop time; to place it under a stadium's laboratory lights and pin it to the Pawtucket clay." This book is a grand slam home run.
Reader's Pick by Lesley Nase
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
If you are missing a bit of magic in your life now that Harry Potter has come to an end, or if the Twilight series was more to your liking, Deborah Harkness’s debut novel is for you. Diana Bishop’s family legacy of witchcraft goes back to her ancestor Rebecca Bishop who was hung for witchcraft in Salem. Only Diana doesn’t use witchcraft. Diana is an historian who is in Oxford’s Bodleian Library doing research when she requests a manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Little does Diana know that the book has been spellbound, placing her hand on it unlocks unknown magical information. Wanting to live as a human not a witch, Diana sends the book back to the stacks.
Too late! Witches and vampires come to the library to see how Diana could have called up a book that has been missing for years. All want to know what is inside of Ashmole 782. All believe that Diana is the key; all want to use her to gain the magical secrets of the book. Top among them is the ever charming geneticist, a fifteen-hundred-year-old vampire—Matthew Clairmont. Matthew wants what everyone else does from Diana, knowledge that is lodged in Ashmole 782. He soon finds himself as teacher and protector to Diana as she learns about vampires, love and her own magical destiny.
It is Deborah Harkness’s own love of history that aids in her telling of this epic tale that will take you from England to France and finally to New York. You’ll learn witchcraft lore, vampire traits and the creative madness of daemons along the way. Discover how far witches, vampires and daemons will go to keep humans from knowing of their existence in our world. A Discovery of Witches is a supernatural thriller that will keep you up late at night turning pages and wanting more.
Reader’s Pick for Kids, by Martha Folsom
Like Pickle Juice On a Cookie, by Julie Sternberg
"Chapter One
I had a bad August.
A very bad August.
As bad as pickle juice on a cookie.
As bad as a spiderweb on your leg.
As bad as the black parts of a banana.
I hope your August was better.
I really do".
Eleanor's babysitter, Bibi, the one she has had all her life (she's eight years old) and whom she loves dearly is moving away. While she is feeling very sad that Bibi is gone, she must get used to a new babysitter, and a new class at school and a new teacher. Matthew Cordell has made wonderful drawings for the book. You can really see how Eleanor looks and feels. If you are eight years old, you will love this book. If you are eighty, but can remember being eight, you will love it too.
Wanted: More Reader's Picks
How about a Biography Reader's Pick for this newsletter? Or a History Reader's Pick, a Young Adult Reader's Pick -- even a Cookbook Reader's Pick? Send us short reviews of favorite books you think other like-minded readers will enjoy.
By the way, if the Library doesn't yet own the book, perhaps you'd like to purchase a copy -- at the Library's 20-45% discount -- and gift it to the collection. Talk to Phyllis.
New Books
Fiction
Against All Enemies, by Tom Clancy
Escape, by Barbara Delinsky
Maine, by J. Courtney Sullivan
Split Second, Catherine Coulter
Beatrice and Virgil, by Yann Martel
Doc, by Mary Doria Russell
Ghost Country, by Sara Paretsky
Hearts on a String, by Kris Radish
Storm Cycle, by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen
The Vintage Caper, by Peter Mayle
Mystery
Old Dogs, by Donna Moore
Crossing Places, by Elly Griffiths
The Poisoned Chocolates Case, by Anthony Berkeley
Large Print
Happy Birthday, by Danielle Steel
My Lucky Life, by Dick van Dyke
Non-fiction
Benedict Arnold’s Navy, by James L. Nelson
Ever By My Side, by Nick Trout
The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster’s Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture, by Joshua Kendall
The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, by David McCullough
In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson
Knowing Your Value: Women, Money and Getting What You’re Worth, by Mika Brzezinski
On China, by Henry Kissinger
Alphabet Juice, by Roy Blount, Jr.
And Furthermore…, by Judi Dench
Black Hawk Down, by Mark Bowden
Bossypants, by Tina Fey
Bottom of the 33rd: Hope and Redemption in Baseball’s Longest Game, by Dan Barry
Change your Brain, Change Your Life, by Daniel G. Amen
Clueless in New England: the Unsolved Disappearances of Paula Welden, Connie Smith and Katherine Hull, by Michael C. Dooling
“There Are Things I Want You To Know” About Stieg Larsson and Me, by Eva Gabrielsson
AUDIOBOOK CD
Dance Hall of the Dead, by Tony Hillerman
One Was a Soldier, by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Odd Thomas, by Dean Koontz
VHS
Bananas, with Woody Allen, Louise Lasser and Carlos Montalban
DVD
A Dog Year, with Jeff Bridges, Lauren Ambrose and Lois Smith
Young Adult
Angel: a Maximum Ride novel, by James Patterson
Theodore Boone: the Abduction, by John Grisham
Forgotten, by Cat Patrick
Darke, by Angie Sage
The Sky Is Everywhere, by Jandy Nelson
Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher
Children
Fiction
Abigail, the Breeze Fairy, by Daisy Meadows
Amber, the Orange Fairy, by Daisy Meadows
Crystal, the Snow Fairy, by Daisy Meadows
Evie, the Mist Fairy, by Daisy Meadows
Fern, the Green Fairy, by Daisy Meadows
Sunny, the Yellow Fairy, by Daisy Meadows
Ruby, the Red Fairy, by Daisy Meadows
Sky, the Blue Fairy, by Daisy Meadows
Storm, the Lightning Fairy, by Daisy Meadows
Pearl, the Cloud Fairy, by Daisy Meadows
Goldie, the Sunshine Fairy, by Daisy Meadows
Heather, the Violet Fairy, by Daisy Meadows
Inky, the Indigo Fairy, by Daisy Meadows
Fira and the Full Moon, by Gail Herman
Rani in the Mermaid Lagoon, by Lisa Papademetriou
A Masterpiece for Bess, by Lara Bergen
Strawberry Girl, by Lois Lenski
Picture Books
Biblioburro, by Jeanette Winter
The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman, by Darcy Pattison
Maisy Goes Camping, by Lucy Cousins
Mule Train Mail, by Craig Brown
My World of Color, by Margaret Wise Brown
Old Black Fly, by Jim Aylesworth
Non-Fiction
How To Talk To an Autistic Kid, by Daniel Stefanski
Spotlight on Africa, by A. R. Schaefer
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