Monday Night BCB for October: Tuesday with Morrie, by Mitch Albom

Amazon.com Review

This true story about the love between a spiritual mentor and his pupil has soared to the bestseller list for many reasons. For starters: it reminds us of the affection and gratitude that many of us still feel for the significant mentors of our past. It also plays out a fantasy many of us have entertained: what would it be like to look those people up again, tell them how much they meant to us, maybe even resume the mentorship? Plus, we meet Morrie Schwartz--a one of a kind professor, whom the author describes as looking like a cross between a biblical prophet and Christmas elf. And finally we are privy to intimate moments of Morrie's final days as he lies dying from a terminal illness. Even on his deathbed, this twinkling-eyed mensch manages to teach us all about living robustly and fully. Kudos to author and acclaimed sports columnist Mitch Albom for telling this universally touching story with such grace and humility. --Gail Hudson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Thursday February BCB: Let's Roll by Lisa Beamer and Ken Abraham

From the Back Cover
9-11.
United Flight 93.
You heard hero Todd Beamer’s last words before he and other passengers fought back against the hijackers.
But is that the end of the story?
In Let’s Roll! Todd’s wife, Lisa, reveals what really happened on that ill-fated flight. She offers poignant glimpses of a genuine American hero—his growing-up years and their marriage and last week together. She talks candidly about the devastating day her children learned their daddy had died, the birth of her third child, and how she’s found the confidence to go on in the face of such tragedy and loss.
It’s no wonder that, through this unpretentious homemaker and mother, an entire nation can:
Find hope.
Find inspiration.
Find strength.
LET’S ROLL!

Book Club Book (BCB) September - All Over But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg

Product description from Hardback edition:

This haunting, harrowing, gloriously moving recollection of a life on the American margin is the story of Rick Bragg, who grew up dirt-poor in northeastern Alabama, seemingly destined for either the cotton mills or the penitentiary, and instead became a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. It is the story of Bragg's father, a hard-drinking man with a murderous temper and the habit of running out on the people who needed him most. But at the center of this soaring memoir is Bragg's mother, who went eighteen years without a new dress so that her sons could have school clothes and picked other people's cotton so that her children wouldn't have to live on welfare alone. Evoking these lives--and the country that shaped and nourished them--with artistry, honesty, and compassion, Rick Bragg brings home the love and suffering that lie at the heart of every family. The result is unforgettable.

Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton

Horse Soldiers is the extraordinary account of a small group of Special Forces soldiers who secretly enter Afghanistan after 9/11 and rode to war on horses to fight the Taliban. Way out numbered, they pursued the enemy across mountainous terrain and, after intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which was essential if they were to defeat the Taliban.

Deeply researched, the book reads like an adventure novel. It is full of unforgettable characters – the soldiers and the wives they left at home, the CIA operatives, the afghan warlords and the Afghan people themselves. Especially unforgettable is Mike Spann, the CIA paramilitary officer from Alabama who was killed during the Taliban prisoner uprising.

Horse Soldiers gives a vivid picture of war in a primitive land and a new appreciation of what these soldiers went through to protect freedom. I highly recommend it.

By Phyllis Kelly

A Year Without "Made in China" by Sara Bongiorni

After a Christmas full of new plastic and electronic toys mostly from China, writer and journalist Sara Bongiorni decides to try an experiment: boycott China goods for 12 months.

Aware that the experiment is flawed and that they can’t expect friends and family to fall in line, they do accept Chinese wares as gifts, a device that save the experiment and their sanity on many occasions!

Often frustrated by misleading labels, a mutinously sneaky husband and the fear of disappointing her young son, this anecdotal account will make you laugh and cry as the search for everyday items becomes an ordeal, you can just forget replacing electronic equipment and even birthday candles have to be forgone!

This thought provoking, witty and frank story of a family’s attempt to live without Chinese goods also provides an interesting insight into global economics.

Part of my 100+ reading challenge

The Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide

by David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men’s Health magazine

This fab little book is a must for everyone, whether you are trying to lose weight or just eat healthier. Not only does it give great tasting, healthier substitutions for all your favorite food items, it is jam-packed with shopping tips, great advice and money saving schemes.

Learn the tricks supermarkets use to make you buy certain items. Find out which veggies and fruits are in season and how to store them to get the best and freshest taste. Discover what to look for on food labels and what to avoid. Get info on how to pick the best and tastiest meat cuts and determine what those weird items on the ingredients list really are.

The easy-to-use book features pictures, detailed break downs of the calorie, fat and sodium content on colour coded tags that correspond to the healthier options making shopping a breeze.

Part of my 100+ reading challenge

February Book Club Book: Dewey by Vicki Myron

From the back of the book:

How much of an impact can an animal have? How many lives can one cat touch? How is it possible for an abandoned kitten to transform a small library, save a classic American town, and eventually become famous around the world? You can't even begin to answer those questions until you hear the charming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa.
 

Dewey's story starts in the worst possible way. Only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, he was stuffed into the returned book slot at the Spencer Public Library. He was found the next morning by library director, Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Dewey won her heart, and the hearts of the staff, by pulling himself up and hobbling on frostbitten feet to nudge each of them in a gesture of thanks and love. For the next nineteen years, he never stopped charming the people of Spencer with his enthusiasm, warmth, humility, (for a cat) and, above all, his sixth sense about who needed him most.

As his fame grew from town to town, then state to state, and finally, amazingly, worldwide, Dewey became more than just a friend; he became a source of pride for an extraordinary Heartland farming town pulling its way slowly back from the greatest crisis in its long history.

The Artist's Guide to GIMP Effects by Michael J. Hammel

This is an excellent book for new users and those just wanting to learn a few new tricks in GIMP – the GNU Image Manipulation Program, which has become one of the most admired freeware rivals to Adobe Photoshop.

The book takes you detailed-step-by-detailed-step through each stage of your image's development to produce professional looking images, text effects or logos from scratch and how to create fabulous photographic effects. Michael J. Hammel also shows you where, on the drop down menus, to find each effect you need.

From a crash course in using GIMP, this book helps you create fancy gel, metallic or distressed texts, tiled patterns, perspective shadows, different textures, (to just name a few!) for fantastic movie posters, web designs and so much more.

Still not impressed? Then take a look at the logo for this blog, the graphics on the teen and youth pages on the GPL website. All of those images where created using GIMP with the help of this book!

To request this book from the JCLC catalog, click here!

John Adams - the HBO Miniseries

As a former New Englander, and a Colonial period history buff, I knew that I had to see this movie. What an awesome recount of the life and times of John Adams (Paul Giamatti) and Abigail Adams (Laura Linney). The sets are remarkable in their showing an expert rendition of that time period. From the inception of the Declaration of Independence, to the death of John in 1826, it shows the courage of a man who was hot tempered, yet a great orator in the courtroom and meetings with the delegates. What a thrill to see the White House being built, his being sworn in, and many other tidbits of his life.

As we know from our history books, Abigail was an integral part of her husband's life as a President. While he was in France, Abigail wrote many letters to John, but he was silent. You can see the uncomfortable atmosphere portrayed after their 3 years of being away from each other. Their love for each other through all the hard times keeps them strong for everything that they had to endure.

The author of the book, David McCullough, was on site while the film was being made, and he was really excited at how good the production crew made his book come alive. This movie is not for the faint-of-heart as a man is tarred and feathered and surgeries are done with no anesthesia. It makes me thankful for how far we have come in the medical field. It is for adults and young adults alike. A must see for every history buff.

To request your copy from the JCLC catalog click here.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow

We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the Hand - Randy Pausch

There are books written that are timeless. You know that you will remember it always. "The Last Lecture" was that book for me.

Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give a lecture with other professor's about what they would want their legacy to be. Randy Pausch did not have to imagine his last lecture. He had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Randy was not going to talk about dying but LIVING. The title of his lecture was "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". It was about overcoming obstacles, enabling the dreams of others, and seizing every moment in life.

This book will make you think about your dreams as a child and have you make your dreams come true. That it is never too late. Randy talks about being a Tigger or an Eeyore in life.

This is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

Randy Pausch lost his battle to pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008

Written by Vicki Morton.

Marley and Me by John Grogan

This is a book about a young family and their experiences with their pet, a crazy Lab named Marley.

The book begins when the couple were young and newly married. The wife, Jenny, becomes very upset after she kills a house plant - worrying that this is a sign that she will be incapable of being a good mother. In an effort to console her, the two decide to buy a dog. The actual scene when they buy their precious, beautiful, yellow lab puppy, whom they name Marley, is foreshadowing their future with this crazy canine. Marley's mama is probably the best dog ever. Enter Marley's father - a terror!

Marley's wild and unusual antics carry the reader through the book, and the way Grogan delivers the stories will leave you laughing so hard you'll have tears in your eyes. A great read for one and all, but especially for dog-lovers!

Written by Lisa Hawkins