Starry Night - Isabel Suppe, Author

Isabel Suppé - Author Program

Monday October 28, 2013 @ 6:30 pm.

Event is free and open to the public

Starry Night, is based on the story of a real life experience involving a 1,100 ft fall while ice-climbing in the Bolivian Andes where Isabel Suppé spent two days and nights dragging herself over the ice in order to be rescued.  Suppé s book, Starry Night ,tells the story of her survival and her passion of climbing.

Shelves Are Done

The shelving project was completed last Friday, and the library staff was ready to put all the juvenile books back on the new shelves. It truly was an exciting moment for all of us here at the Colfax library.

First thing we realized was, yikes, we have more book space! After getting all the books back on the shelves, we ended up moving and re-moving the books around to even out the shelf space. You know, the wood stain blends in so well with the existing wood that most people who come in to the library don't even realized we replaced the shelves! Don't you think they would notice the strong varnish smell??? Well, we librarians notice it every day! Can't wait until the smell subsides.

Happy books, happy librarians.....that sums it all up!

"Be a Smart Cookie....READ!"

Story time kids can participate in our promotional reading program...."Be a Smart Cookie, READ!" How it works.....

• Kids get a chart on which to write books down that they have read.


• For every book read, a "cookie" will be added to a giant cookie jar on the wall in the kids area.


• When we read 100 books collectively, we will have a party and eat cookies and other munchies while we watch a short movie!

To get a reading record, attend story time at the Colfax Public Library, on Wednesday mornings at 10:00am, starting September 7th.

Guilt Free Reads

Once in a while it is fun to highlight staff "reads." This stack happened to be waiting for me today at the library. I spent some time last week, on my day off, browsing through a local bookstore that is going out of business. Of course, I found plenty of books I would have loved to purchase and initially I did have a giant stack in my arms, but the tightness of my pocketbook won out and I ended up putting all but a few favorites back on the shelf.

As I was working online that evening at home, I thought....huh, I bet the MORE will have those titles I wanted to read. Sure enough, I found every single one! I added them all to my online book cart and requested to my heart's content.....guilt free.

I did a little figuring. I took the number of books I read last year (around 150 books, both fiction and nonfiction titles), times an average price of $20.00 per book (the middle ground of a hardback and softcover) and found that I would have had to spend, conservatively, around $3,000 dollars to purchase all those books. I am SO thankful for the library. Otherwise, I would be broke simply feeding my reading need.

If you are an avid reader and library user, let your library know how thankful you are for them!

Jenny

Youth Services Librarian

Fresh Look To Our Book Sale

Our local video store just went out of business this week, so we acquired a nice red cart for our ongoing book sale.  The cart is taller and higher, so I think it will be nicer for browsing through the book sale.

Our ongoing book sale is out in the municipal hallway near the library entrance.  Hardcovers sell for 50 cents and ALL soft covers and paperbacks sell for 25 cents.....all movies are $1.00 each.

Want to donate books to the library?  We will take adult and children's books (only clean books, not soiled or mildewed books).  Come check out the books. 

Book Review - Leviathan

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld is a new young adult novel.  I thought it would be great if one of our young adult patrons wrote up a review for us.  This review is from Korbyn age 14.

The book Leviathan was more or less a fictional story about the events leading up to and the fighting of WWI. Even though some parts of the story were true, the feeling of the story leans more to the fictional side.


To start off, the book began with the introduction to two different characters across Europe where the start of WWI originated. One of the characters was Aleksander the son of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Hungary. As you should know, WWI started with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. When Alek’s father dies, he is forced to go into hiding or face his death by the assassins of his father.

The other character is Deryn who is in the Darwinist (British) air force. She snuck her way into the air force by pretending to be a boy under the name of Dylan. She goes up in a Huxly (a flying beasty) that gets caught in a storm and is rescued by a huge airship called the Leviathan. It is a beast made up of many beasts and is on a mission. While flying, the Leviathan gets attacked by a group of German ,Clanker (Middle Europe and Russia) airships. They sustain heavy damage and go crashing into a glacier.

Meanwhile, Alek and his escapes are witnessing the crash from a castle not far away from the damaged Leviathan. Alek devised an ingenious scheme, or so he thought, to help the Darwinists. He carried some medical supplies down to the ship. It turns out that he gets arrested, but is then set free to help the Darwinists escape the Glacier and the Germans. The Germans attack the ship but the ship miraculously survives. The downside is that the engines on the ship were shot and unusable after the attack. It so happens that Alek and his escapes had a walker that was heavily damaged, but the engine was still operational. They eventually got the engine on, and narrowly escaped the oncoming German assault that was just moments away from blowing them out of the sky.

I personally thought that the book was a huge success. I love the huge war machines and fictional beasts/animals that were so extravagantly detailed. The plot and overall story was a hit and the characters were dynamic. All in all, the book was a huge success for me and if you have a passion for enormous war machines or like a fictional twist on historical events with adventure, this is a book for you.

Author Talk & Book Signing

Celebrating National Library Week

Author Talk & Book Signing – April 14, 2011 @ 6:30 pm.

The Colfax Public Library is happy to announce a new young adult novel “Shooting Two” written by former Colfax resident, Jeanne Foley (PhD). Foley is currently an associate professor in the math department at University of Wisconsin-Stout.

A graduate of Le Sueur High School in 1971, Foley recalls there was no girls basketball program, however, girls could play with the Girls Athletic Association. Foley continued her love of basketball and pursued her basketball interest at St. Olaf College, where she received a degree in both math and physics. Throughout Foley’s academic career, she coached women’s basketball at Michigan Tech, Michigan State, the University of Michigan and Princeton University.



Foley followed her dream and wrote her first fictional novel about a small-town girls basketball team, set back in the 1980’s. The book centers on high school girls, their friendships and a team’s passion of winning the state championship.



The Colfax Public Library has invited Jeanne Foley to come and speak about her new book and what challenged her to begin writing. The Colfax Public Library will hold a books signing that night and books will be available for purchase.



For more information about the author talk and signing, please call 715-962-4334, or email: cocirc@colfaxpubliclibrary.org The program is free and open to anyone.

 

Book Review - The Red Garden

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman caught my eye in the Bookpage news, that our library subscribes to, to circulate to our patrons.  I have never read any other books by Alice Hoffman, so I have nothing to base my inclinations on other than feeling. 

The story follows a linear gathering of characters from the mid 1760's till the present day in an area around the small town of Blackwell, MA.  A rich tapestry of players enter the stage, from Hallie, a simple colonial girl searching for something more, to a contemporary girl that has her life planned out, only to be interrupted by the tenderness of a secluded poet. 

Each chapter represents differing stories that are faintly connected through geographical location, sentiment or family heritage.  I found this format to be on one hand, a fresh idea in a book, but on the other, it left me with a bit of a disjointed feeling.  One thing that does tie the character's stories together is a liberal dose of mystery, that includes a ghost of a drowned girl, an apple tree that blossomed and provided fruit to the town of Blackwell in the year without a summer, a supposed mermaid, and of course a garden where everything that is grown is red.

Some chapter stories were painted more rich and bold by the author and some held more of an impressionist style that had me trying to read between the lines for thoughts on how all the pieces fit together and left me wondering what the characters lives were like in the future.

Over all, I found the book to be interesting, drawing me in with the layered time periods and characters that form around an area that comes to be known as the Red Garden. 

It's Growing in Popularity

I finally decided I needed to figure out this Kindle thing.  Is it a book?  Or, is it a gadget?  People swear by this little machine.....they say they love it!

I checked out this Kindle from Menomonie Public Library.  With 17 Kindles to loan out, you have a good chance of checking one out for two weeks.  I'm not totally convinced I like the Kindle, but I'm giving it a try.

I will be talking to the Library Board about Kindles and their popularity and what it means for our library.  Should we jump on the bus and join the Kindle phenomenon?  What do you think?

Lisa

Double Delicious

This is the time of the year when I can experiment with new recipes, so I was very excited when I discovered this new cookbook called "Double Delicious."  I requested the book off  our library catalog (MORE).  The claim to fame on this cookbook is that the author, Jessica Seinfeld uses pureed vegetables to sneak in more fiber and more nutrients.  Seinfeld also makes her recipes low-fat! 

I only had a two week span of time to get busy cooking and baking, since this cookbook has multiple holds and other customers are waiting to receive the book as well.  My first recipe I made were these delicious whoopie pies.  These wonderfully chocolate, moist treats call for spinach puree in the batter!  How cool is that?  I also made a pot of creamy chicken & rice soup that used both carrot and cauliflower purees. 

I then found time to make the three-berry cobbler recipes that called for carrot puree in the cobbler batter....turned out so yummy.   I continued on to make the chocolate yogurt cheesecake, which called for using greek yogurt, sour cream, brown sugar, carrot puree and whipped egg whites.  The recipe also called for making a graham cracker/nut crust.  I gave that dessert an A+

Lastly, I chose to cook up a broccoli & orange soy sauce dish and served it with rice.  Another very tasty recipe that also used carrot puree.  I had so much fun with this new cookbook.  And where did all the food go you ask?  Of course I shared with my co-workers....and my hubby was a food taster as well.  Oh, did I  mention I'm on a diet, hee, hee!

Favorite Picture Books for Christmas Season

In The Christmas Alphabet kid's can follow the holiday season from A to Z in this lovely alphabet book.  As each lettered door is opened a fantastically wrought paper pop-out appears depicting images of Christmas time.  

Minerva Louise is definitely my favorite chicken.  I bet some giggles will break out when this book is read, especially when Minerva thinks the chicken (angel) on top of the Christmas tree has laid some pretty colored eggs in the branches.

Eric Carle's Dream Snow is a gem filled with collage images of a farmer dreaming of snow.  Clear pages  with snowy blobs add the illusion of Mr. Farmer and the animals covered in snow.  Mr. farmer awakes to find real snow covering the ground and realizes he better hurry and get some surprises set out for his animals.

In the book, The Snow Tree, the animals of the forest find a way, in the white of winter,  to remember the colors of the year.  Each animal brings something of a different color to decorate a special snow tree.

Kids will enjoy feeling the embossed pages and looking at the colorful animal images along with hearing the story of friendship, peace and the glory of nature.

Share one of these books with a child in your life.  Reading to and with children really does help children develop so many learning skills, plus it is time well spent with someone you love.

Happy Reading!

 

Click on the title links to take you directly to the MORE to request a copy of these books.

October Picture Book Picks

Here are some favorite pumpkin and Halloween themed books from storytime.  Share them with a child in your life!  Click on the links to take you to the MORE to request a book.



Boo To You, by Lois Ehlert is a fun book where mice take on the scary role.

 It's Pumpkin Time, by Zoe Hall is a classic book with bright illustrations and simple text that takes kids through the life of a pumpkin from planting time to harvest.

The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin by Margret Wise Brown, tells the tale of a little pumpkin who has big dreams of how big and scary he'll be someday.

Pumpkin Shivaeree by Rick Agran tells the story of a pumkin's life in poem form from seed to jack-o-lantern.

Happy Halloween and happy reading!

A Must Read

Hi, Jenny here....I guess it has been awhile since my last book review, not that I haven't been reading some great books, just haven't taken the time to write down my thoughts. Out of all the books I've read these past months, Bloodroot was the best and I highly recommend it as a must read for 2010.

If you are looking for a book that will stick with you, this is the one. First time novelist Amy Greene weaves a fascinating story of one Appalachian family that spans decades. The book unfolds like a living scrapbook, penned all in first person using the voices of each different character to write on the hearts of readers the ethereal joys, sorrows and intimate decisions of each person.

I am intrigued with the authors ability to breathe life into each character and give them their own distinctive voice. The story language of this book is like a slow brewed and savored drink that once drunk, becomes a part of you.

Click here to reserve your copy.


"Named for a flower whose blood-red sap possesses the power both to heal and poison, Bloodroot is a stunning fiction debut about legacies - of magic and madness, faith and secrets, passion and loss - that haunt one family across the generations, from the Great Depression to today." (taken from the publishers description)

Victoria Houston - Program & Book Signing

Author Program & Book Signing

Colfax Public Library

Thursday January 21, 2010 @ 6:30 pm

Please be sure to come and join us January 21st to welcome Victoria Houston, author of the poplular series, "Loon Lake Fishing" mysteries. Houston just released her 10th book in the series called "Dead Renegade." As of today when I checked the MORE system, there were already 40 holds on her new book!

We are all excited to meet Victoria and learn more about her, so please stop by Thursday night. Any questions about the author program, give us a call 962-4334, or email: colfaxpl@ifls.lib.wi.us Hope to see you there.

Lisa

Meeting Ree!

Saturday November 21st. was a super day. One of my co-workers and I got the chance to meet Ree Drummond (a.k.a. Pioneer Woman), who happens to be a very popular blogger in the the blogger world. Be sure to check out her blog, Pioneer Woman.

Ree & Me

We happen to get to the MOA early in the morning, so luckily we were within the first 150 people to be near the front of the line. It still took us about 3 hours to finally get the chance to sit down and met Ree. It was a quick 1 minute chit chat and a quick snap of the digital camera....wow, all for 3 hours. It was really fun talking with Ree and seeing all the people in line.

By the way, The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook is awesome. She did all the photography herself, which makes the cookbook very visual just like her blog. After some questions and answers, Ree went right into signing books. The crowd became excited when Ree's husband (a.k.a Marlboro Man) showed up and randomly started signing his name to his picture, which is featured in her cookbook.

Be sure to request her new cookbook online (http://www.more.lib.wi.us/).

Lisa

Teen's Top Ten

Paper Towns by John Green

More than 11,000 teen voters chose Paper Towns as their favorite book in the 2009 Teen's Top Ten contest during Teen Read Week in October. Here's the whole list of winners....if you haven't heard of these titles, you may want to request through the M.O.R. E system. Let us know what you've read recently and tell us if you liked the book (s).

1. Paper Towns by John Green

2. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

4. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

5. Identical by Ellen Hopkins

6. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

7. Wake by Lisa McMann

8. Untamed by P.C. and Kristin Cast

9. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

10. Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Happy reading!

Lisa

New Job Seekers Books Are Available

Since January, we've seen an increase in people coming in to the library looking for job information, or basically just wanting to use the Internet computers for job searching. Recently, our library was part of a Job Seekers grant, which allowed us to buy about $350 worth of resource books on job searching and resume building. I snapped a photo of our new books on display to the public.

By August or September, our library hopes to be offering computer classes for adults that are job searching and needing to brush up on their computer skills. We will advertise locally when the computer classes will begin. My staff members and I are excited to be able to teach computer skills to individuals who need help finding a job.

The resource books and funding for teaching computer classes is all part of a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant. Thanks to Indianhead Federated Library System and Leah Langby (Library Development and Youth Services Coordinator) for writing and obtaining the grant.

Lisa