Fall into a Great Book …

…with the New Fall 2010 Staff Picks!

Looking for a great book?  Let our staff suggestions guide you in your search for that perfect Autumn read.  Check out the New Fall 2010 Staff Picks now on display on the 2nd floor.  Reviews for the selected titles can also be found on display.  Titles such as the following were recommended by various staff members throughout the building.

Broken Jewel by David L. Robbins

“Robbins’s ninth novel, the best WWII Pacific campaign novel in a long time, tells the dramatic story of the 1945 rescue of 2,100 American and allied prisoners from the Los Baños camp near Manila.” (From Publishers Weekly)

Recommended By: Susan Santa, Readers’ Services Librarian

Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger

“With frankness and compassion, H. G. Bissinger chronicles a season in the life of Odessa and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires—and sometimes shatters—the teenagers who wear the Panthers’ uniforms.”   (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Kalpana Mehta, Reference Librarian

A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova

“ Elena Gorokhova grows up in 1960′s Leningrad where she discovers that beauty and passion can be found in unexpected places in Soviet Russia.”   (From the Publisher)

Recommended By: Jackie Ranaldo, Readers’ Services Librarian

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

“Howe’s novel moves back and forth between the summer of 1991 in Salem, Mass., and the 17th-century witch trial era, as college student Connie Goodwin chances upon a mysterious book written by the elusive Deliverance Dane.”   (From Publishers Weekly)

Recommended By: Evelyn Hershkowitz, Librarian Trainee

Hope you enjoy our favorites as much as we did.  Happy Reading!

- posted by Jackie, Readers’ Services

Gardening in the Fall

It is that sad time of year for me.  The mums are colorful, the Autumn Joy sedem creates a graceful background  and the red, yellow, and bronze leaves are beautiful.  But the annuals in the garden should all be pulled out and put into the compost pile.

The autumn garden just does not have the variety of color and textures of spring and summer!

But rather than bemoan the deficiencies of my garden, I will focus on the future.  First, I will rake those leaves! Besides getting good exercise, I will be able to enrich my garden soil by adding the raked leaves to the compost pile. The library has some useful books on composting, Easy Composting by Jeff Ball and The Rodale Book of Composting edited by Martin and Gershuny.  If you need a primer on beginning your own compost pile, try the EPA website.

And I will plan the garden of 2010.  There were areas of my garden that lacked color and variety; I will get out my notes and plant what I can now…and then plan for spring plantings.

Spring blooming bulbs can be planted as long as the soil is not frozen.  I will put in some more crocus, daffodil and tulip bulbs.  Did you know there was a tulip craze when they were first introduced from Turkey?  In the  17^th century the demand  for  new tulip varieties drove up prices and even common people wanted to participate in the ever rising profits; eventually, the price crashed – shades of our economic turmoil!

I love the all the tulip colors and the various shapes.  I do not love the squirrels who feast on the bulbs in the winter, so I’ve been placing squares of window screen over the bulbs to keep the squirrels from digging up the tulips.  The squirrels do not like daffodils so those are a good choice.  I know my garden will never look quite like the wonderful gardens at Keukenhof which inspire me:

Increase your knowledge and love of tulips with Anna Pavord’s The Tulip.  New York Botanical Garden has some timely tips for protecting your bulbs  and Cornell’s Department of Horticulture provides reference information for planting bulbs in our area.

Right outside my kitchen window there is a gap in planting.  I thought I’d planned so there would always be something in bloom.  I mixed annuals and perennials in a variety of colors.  But now there’s nothing!  The yellow lantana I planted in the front is still growing and blooming, I will need more of that next year. In the coming cold and dreary days I can dream as I look through books about gardening.  I enjoy Irene Virag’s Gardening on Long Island and Better Homes and Gardens’ Choosing Plant Combinations.  Cornell’s site has a comprehensive guide to flowers that can be searched by either scientific or common names.

I read and I look and I learn something new all the time! I had never grown Hellebores before I saw them in London in full bloom in February – now they are one of my early season favorites and now is the time to plant  them.  I think I can find a spot for just one more……

- posted by Brenda, Reference librarian

A New Display…

…Celebrate Autumn has loads of books on a variety of topics associated with the season.  Included are books on “Fallscaping” your yard, knitting and crocheting of sweaters, scarves and hats, comfort cooking such as soups and stews, last minute pre-winter home renovations and repairs, outdoor activities and sports such football and baseball, seasonal landscape photography and  more. Stop by this main floor display for ideas on how to enjoy the last mild days of Autumn!

- posted by Jackie,  Readers’ Services

My roses are still blooming…

… but I think these flowers might be the last for the summer.  I had to wear a jacket this morning and I brought my hibiscus indoors today.  I think the lazy, hazy days of summer are being replaced by crisp fall days and nights.  This change came fast-last week I was walking along the beach!

I guess it is time to change what I cook for dinner.  My thoughts go to warm, comfy foods. Nothing makes it easier to cook these than a crockpot. Grab some tasty ingredients, put them in the pot, turn it on and, when I come home from work, dinner is ready.

If this has made you hungry, try some of our cookbooks for slow cooking. Better Homes and Gardens has Crockery Cooking, Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufman update recipes for the crockpot in Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook, and Fix it and Forget It Big Cookbook by Phyllis Good are just some sample titles from our collection. These and other titles can be found in our cookbook section on the main floor.

I think I will make a chili tomorrow…..

- posted by Brenda, Reference Services