Book Talk

Learn something new!   

One of the great things about libraries is the way they help you learn to do new things. We take for granted the ways our lives are enriched by this continual learning. All my adult life I have turned to books to learn to do new things from cooking to roofing. And this month lots of new books have come in to help you expand your repertoire of accomplishments!

We’ll start with One Year to an Organized Life by Regina Leeds. This is a week by week guide to organizing everything in your life. Leeds takes a broad approach to the idea of organization. More than just cleaning out closets, she includes being ready and on time for appointments, dealing with the daily mail and organizing a trip. The best part? Leeds believes in rewarding yourself for your good work.

Programming Video Games for the Evil Genius by Ian Cinnamon teaches you to design and construct 57 gaming projects. There are a lot of teen gamers with fantasies of becoming game programmers out there. This is a good place for them to start.

Growing your own vegetables is satisfying on so many levels, and 101 Grow to Eat Ideas: Planting Recipes that Taste as Good as they Look will give you a great harvest in s small space. Gardner’s World Magazine has gathered many ideas for growing edibles in pots or on small plots. Everyone can grow something!

Want to spruce up your wardrobe for spring? Add a handcrafted belt. Using leather, fabric, old photos, ribbons and beads Ellen Goldstein-Lynch, Nicole Malone and Sarah Mullins show you how to design and construct your own wearable art in Making Stylish Belts: do-it-yourself Projects to Craft and Sew at Home.

Now an area where we can all use a little help…The Personal Finance Calculator: how to Calculate the Most Important Financial Decisions in your Life by Esme Faerber. I love when analysts describe your current financial assets as wealth, and this is where Faerber starts. She includes how to do both simple and complex things, from balancing your checkbook, renting versus buying a home, and what type of bonds to buy for your portfolio.

Diane Fitzgerald has produced the lovely Zulu Inspired Beadwork: Weaving Techniques and Projects. Not only are her colors and design based on traditional Zulu beading, but she explains the appropriate technique to reproduce it.

For those faced with caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s The Comfort of Home for Alzheimer’s Disease: a Guide for Caregivers by Maria M. Meyer, et al will help make your home as livable as possible. From home safety, adaptive devices, hiring caregivers and talking to medical personnel, this will be a reassuring companion. Also in the Comfort of Home series are books on Parkinson’s Disease, multiple sclerosis and stroke.

Time for a job change? Take a look at 120 Jobs that won’t Chain you to your Desk: Finding your Dream Career Outside an Office by the Staff of the Princeton Review.  (Only) the Princeton Review would group career types as schmoozing, mobile office, roll up your sleeves etc. When you’ve found your perfect fit, say as a mystery shopper, a typical day is described, preparation, getting started and additional resources are covered. But wait, demolition experts make a LOT more…

This month’s fiction books were selected using the cute title criteria…always reliable!

Debra Galant has written Fear and Yoga in New Jersey. The main character is a stressed out yoga teacher, Nina Gettleman-Summer. Her husband’s job was outsourced, her parents have come to stay, fleeing a Florida hurricane,  her son, though raised a Unitarian wants a bar mitzvah and her meditation fountain has overflowed causing a dangerous fall. Feng shui and crystals are just not working anymore.

Once an up-and-coming life style reporter at a prominent New York City newspaper, Valerie Vane has lost it all and been demoted to the obituary desk. After she writes the obituary of a graffiti artist she starts to receive mysterious phone calls claiming that his death was murder. A Little Trouble with the Facts is a witty, yet hardboiled crime novel by Nina Siegal.

Ovenman by Jeff Parker follows slacker When Thinfinger on his sub-par life in a small central Florida town. A singer in a local band (but only allowed to sing the band’s name, Wormdevil), skate boarder, and professional barbecuer, his parents haven’t spoken to him since he got an armful of bad tattoos. In desperation Piecemeal Pizza hires him, but should a young man’s life goal be ovenman?

Fired former corporate executive Annie Fleming is now a stay-at-home mom with too much time on her hands. Not content with her daughter’s spot on a mediocre soccer team, Annie decides she will teach her to excel. Annie finds out that kid’s soccer is as tough a venue as any boardroom, and the oven mitts come off! All you soccer and former soccer moms will want to read Carpool Diem by Nancy Star.

The ladies at the Ain’t Nobody Saved but Us-All Others Goin’ to Hell church have a secret. Bingo. Their devotion to the Lord competes with their love of gambling. And the annual Mother’s Board Conference is being held in Las Vegas!  The ladies find out the hard way just who is in charge. Read Somewhat Saved by Pat G’Orge-Walker.

Virginia Cooper
Adult Services Librarian