Hobbit Houses and Homebuilding

"In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a Hobbit-hole, and that means comfort." – wrote J.R.R Tolkien in The Hobbit.

One of my favorite books--and subsequent series in college--was J. R. R. Tolkien's  The Hobbit and
The Lord of the Rings.
These fantasies took me far away from the world of tests and papers and schedules and into the world of warm hobbit homes, the forests of Mirkwood, and the Misty Mountains.  

It's a timeless classic, and one that many people reread year after year.  Did you know though, that it inspired architects and home builders all over the world? So here are some real-life hobbit-holes that look suitably comforting:


http://io9.com/real-life-houses-that-look-like-they-belong-in-the-shir-475830122

 
While you may not envision yourself living in a hobbit house, you might be thinking about home building.  Stop by our center display and find books on housebuilding plans, green homes, earth sheltered homes, and even one about reinventing your home after the kids leave.

And if you're not thinking about building or remodeling, we still have copies of J. R. R. Tolkien's books, as well as movies about the series.  The newest movie version of The Hobbit will be at the library soon on DVD.

Spell Bound from Suzanne

Spell Bound
 (Women of the Otherworld, Bk 12)
Author: Kelley Armstrong

I've been in love with this series since Bitten. This is the second to last in the series. They should be read in order so you can keep up with the characters and their world.

At last, in the novel every Kelley Armstrong fan will need to own, all the major heroines and heroes of Otherworld are united. — It's been ten years since Bitten, the first novel in Kelley Armstrong's New York Times bestselling Otherworld series. In that time hundreds of thousands of fans have ravenously devoured the adventures of Armstrong's witches, demons, and werewolves. Now, in Spell Bound, she brings them all together for her most sweeping tale yet.

Savannah Levine is in terrible danger, and for once she's powerless to help herself. At the heartbreaking conclusion of Waking the Witch, Savannah swore that she would give up her powers if it would prevent further pain for a young orphan. Little did she know that someone would take her up on that promise.

And now, witch-hunting assassins, necromancers, half-demons, and rogue witches all seem to be after her. The threat is not just for Savannah; every member of the Otherworld might be at risk. While most of her fellow supernaturals are circling the wagons at a gathering of the council in Miami, Savannah is caught on the road, isolated from those who can protect her and unable to use her vast spell-casting talent, the thing she counts on most. In a story that will change the shape of the Otherworld forever, Armstrong gathers Elena, Clay, Paige, Lucas, Jamie, Hope, and other beloved characters, who soon learn that the greatest threat to supernaturals just may come from within. 

~ Suzanne

52 Books 52 Weeks / Week Ending April 22, 2013

THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN: A Novel of Suspense by Hallie Ephron

If you like page turner mysteries and vivid characters and a little history thrown in (a plane crash into the Empire State building in 1945 and an elevator operator who survived an 80 foot fall due to the crash) you should love this book.  And the story is set in fictional Higgs Point, NY, based loosely on a neighborhood called Harding Park, which is located in Clason Point at the southern tip of the Bronx and across the water from LaGuardia, where the East River meets the Long Island Sound. It has a tidal marsh, lagoons, and an anomalous collection of 1920′s bungalows and summer houses lined up on narrow streets, and a fantastic view of the Manhattan skyline. Throw in an intriguing story line and I was definitely hooked!  ~ Katherine

Evie Ferrante is not surprised when she gets a call that her mother has been taken to the hospital.  Her mother is an alcoholic and has been in a downhill spiral for a long time.  But when Evie arrives at her mother's home, she finds the house is full of trash and rotting food, roaches everywhere, squirrels in the upstairs, unpaid bills, a new flat screen tv, and envelopes stuffed full of money.  

Evie renews her acquaintance with her mother's spry 90 year old neighbor, Mina, and is disturbed by some of the incidents in happening in Mina's life, as well as by the nephew who is trying to talk Mina into a nursing home.  Are the issues with Evie's mom and Mina part of aging and illness, or is there something more sinister going on? 

BLACKBERRY WINTER from Sharon

I recently finished reading Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio. She has also written The Violets of March and The Bungalow. I enjoyed them all so much!  ~ Sharon

BLACKBERRY WINTER by Sarah Jio

Seattle, 1932. Single mother Vera Ray kisses her three-year-old son, Daniel, goodnight and departs to work the night-shift at a local hotel. She emerges to discover that a May snowstorm has blanketed the city, and that her son has disappeared into the heart of the storm. Outside, she finds his teddy bear lying face down in the cold snowy streets.
Seattle, 2010. Seattle Herald reporter Claire Aldridge is assigned to cover the May 1 “blackberry winter” storm and its predecessor that occurred on the same date nearly eighty years earlier. Learning of the unsolved abduction, Claire vows to unearth the truth—only to discover that she and Vera are linked in unexpected ways.

    ~ From the author's website 

10 Chair Designs for People Who Really Love Their Books

Most of us have favorite places to sit and read.  Mine requires warmer temperatures so I can sit out on my deck, but during the winter I love to sit in my comfortable chair in front of the fire.  But take the idea a bit farther, and pick a chair that incorporates books.  These are pretty fun, my favorite is the "Sunflower Chair" but it definitely needs something to prop your feet up on and a table to set your drink on. Otherwise, it looks pretty comfy, although the back might be a little to upright. And personally, I'd arrange my books in a rainbow scheme! 

Which do you like?

10 Chair Designs for People Who Really Love Their Books

~ This post originally appeared on Architizer, an Atlantic partner site, and was written by Jenna M. McKnight, editor in chief of Architizer.

52 Weeks 52 Books - Week Ending April 15, 2013

S.E.C.R.E.T. by L. Marie Adeline
The next "FIFTY SHADES OF GREY?"

Cassie Robichaud’s life is filled with regret and loneliness after the sudden death of her husband. She waits tables at the rundown 
Café Rose in New Orleans, and every night she heads home to her solitary one-bedroom apartment. But when she discovers a notebook left behind by a mysterious woman at the café, Cassie’s world is forever changed. The notebook’s stunningly explicit confessions shock and fascinate Cassie, and eventually lead her to S∙E∙C∙R∙E∙T, an underground society dedicated to helping women realize their wildest, most intimate sexual fantasies. 

If you enjoyed Fifty Shades of Grey, this could be for you.  This is a more sophisticated book, filled with dimensional characters and a  New Orleans setting that sets the stage for a sultry piece of fiction. Cassie Robichaud is not in need of finding a man to dominate her like Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades , she’s a woman in need of some self worth. And S.E.C.R.E.T. helps her find it.

Read anything you'd like to share?  Tell us about it!

Color Your World

 Color Your World!

Looking for a book or two about attracting birds to your backyard?  Our center display has an assortment of books on how to entice birds--particularly hummingbirds, bluebirds and orioles to your gardens.  There are also books on building birdhouses and feeders, photographing birds and gardening for birds.  Any of the books on the display can be checked out.

Margaret Robbins of Wild Birds Unlimited in Brookfield will be here tomorrow evening  (April 11) at 7:00 p.m. to give us more insights on how to make our gardens a more welcoming environment for these specific birds. If you'd like to attend, you can click here to register.

~ Katherine

52 Weeks 52 Books / Week Ending April 8, 2013

 LOW PRESSURE by Sandra Brown

Sandra Brown writes the perfect vacation book--fast paced, easy reading, with a bit of romance.  Decent plot and a few twists and turns keep you reading til you've turned the last page.

 Bellamy Lyston was 12 years old when her older sister Susan, a salacious teenager, was murdered during a company picnic in the midst of a tornado. Eighteen years later, Bellamy has written a sensational, bestselling novel based on Susan’s murder, as a means of ridding herself of the ghosts from the past. She published the book as fiction, under a pseudonym to protect her family from the publicity as the murder had been so sensational. But a sleazy reporter for a tabloid newspaper discovers the book is based on fact and Bellamy’s identity is exposed along with the family scandal. The person convicted of the crime is now dead, murdered in prison.  And Bellamy becomes the target of someone vested in either keeping the truth about the real murderer a secret, or out for revenge.  Bellamy joins forces with Dent Carter, Susan’s boyfriend and a cleared suspect in the murder case, and the sparks between them fly, while they work together to find out what happened that fateful day.

~ Katherine

BACK IN THE DAY

"The book goes to the man, not waiting for the man to come to the book."  --Mary Titcom, the first bookmobile lady

Do you remember the libraries of your childhood?  I don't remember visiting the library until I was much older, but we had a bookmobile that parked on the corner of our street in Long Beach, California that was popular with all the neighborhood kids.  You could get a couple books and keep them until the bookmobile came back. How exciting was that! This is where I first fell in love with Carolyn Keene and her Nancy Drew series, and discovered the world that books could take me into.  While Brookfield or surrounding areas may not have a bookmobile, this method of book delivery is still alive in other parts of Connecticut and beyond.

My my, how times have changed! Growing up, did you have a bookmobile?

MYSTERY SERIES FROM SUZANNE

The Wild Wood Enquiry (Ivy Beasley, Bk 3)
By Ann Purser

In a brand-new mystery from the author of The Measby Murder Enquiry, the cantankerous golden years gumshoe Ivy Beasley keeps her mental faculties sharp with a strict regimen of crime detection. — Apart from the unwelcome noise made by the morning cleaning crew, life has been quiet at Springfields Home for the Elderly. Too quiet, in fact. Ivy and her team of sleuths, Enquire Within, have resorted to finding lost cats, and Gus is even threatening to return to his memoirs. But no sooner does he attempt to put a winning phrase together than he receives a call from his ex-wife, Katherine, who is in desperate needs of a place to hide.

Though Gus has a difficult time getting a straight answer from Kath -- just as it was in their many years of marriage -- something is most certainly afoot, and soon Enquire Within is back in business. This time they have their hands full, not only with missing pets, but missing jewels, and evidence of foul play uncomfortably close to their too quiet home …

I really enjoy all of Ann Purser's books. The Ivy Beasley series mixes humor, small-town English life and mystery. The characters are unique and you can't help but love the spunky Ivy and her fiance, Roy. 

~ Shared by Suzanne

Note:  Check the library's large print shelf for a copy of the first book in this series, HANGMAN'S ROW ENQUIRY.

52 Weeks 52 Books ~ Week Ending April 1, 2013

THE UNFINISHED WORK OF ELIZABETH: A NOVEL 
by Nicole Bernier

Another book about infidelity? Really?

And, if you keep a journal, have you thought about what will happen to it when you’re gone?

Elizabeth, author of journals left behind after she dies tragically in a plane crash, appeared to be very happy in her role of wife and mother of three young children, but her journals seem to tell a different story.  In her will, she leaves her trunk of journals to her best friend Kate, but before Kate takes possession, Elizabeth's  husband reads a few pages and learns that--instead of an artist getaway weekend--she was looking forward to meeting up with and spending time with "Michael."  Her husband is devastated, and Kate spends the summer reading the journals that started after the death of Elizabeth's sister, and wonders if she ever knew Kate at all.  She begins to examine her own role as a wife, mother, and her derailed career as a celebrity pastry chef.  And Kate's preoccupation with safety in a world where terrorists may lurk around every corner, play into the book as well. 

 

Bernier's debut novel is a bittersweet story on the delicate balance between motherhood, career, marriage, secrets and friendship, told in alternating views of journal entries and Elizabeth's reflection on her friend and her own life.  It would be an interesting book club choice, with many themes to ponder.  

~ Katherine

TBR Pile

We all have a pile of books "to be read," don't we?  And do you have books that have been in that stack forever?  For me it's a must to have a stockpile of books in case I can't get to the library or any other book source--think of that classic Twilight Zone episode with Burgess Meredith where he finds himself alone in a ruined world, with "Time Enough at Last" to read the books he so desperately loves...until his glasses break.  So I've got books, and a few spare pairs of eye glasses.

Looking through some of my books, I spotted one that has been there for as long as I remember.  Someone close to me sent me the book after reading and loving it.  I've had the extra push of a book club that selected it.  But it still remains unread.  So one of these days, I'm going to crack the cover of Anna Karenina.  

What is the oldest book in your book hoard?

A Thriller from Jaclyn

FINAL THEORY by Mark Alpert 

 

What if there was a theory to explain how everything in the universe worked? Einstein was working on this theory until the day he died. What if he found it but decided against publishing it? David Swift will have to find the theory and decide what to do with it. But he has to do it quick because some people will do anything, kill anyone to get their hands on it. 

I enjoyed this fast paced book.

 ~ Jaclyn

MORE FROM SUZANNE

OPTICAL DELUSIONS IN DEADWOOD
By Ann Charles

Someone is spreading rumors around Deadwood that Violet Parker likes to chat with dead folks. With her reputation endangered, her bank account on the verge of extinction, and her career at risk of going up in flames, Violet is desperate. When the opportunity to sell another vintage home materializes, she grabs it, even though this "haunted" house was recently the stage for a two-act, murder-suicide tragedy. Ghost or no ghost, Violet knows this can't be as bad as the last house of horrors she tried to sell, but sexy Doc Nyce has serious doubts. Her only hope of hanging on to her job is to prove that the so-called, ghostly sightings are merely the eccentric owner's optical delusions. But someone-or something-in the house wants Violet stopped...dead.

Second in the series. This book was just as enjoyable as the first book. Violet gets herself into some crazy situations but holds her own. I'm looking forward to reading book three.

~ From Suzanne

Suzanne's Reads

TOO BIG TO MISS
By Sue Ann Jaffarian

Too big to miss--that's Odelia Grey. A never-married, middle-aged, plus-sized woman who makes no excuses for her weight, she's not super woman just a mere mortal standing on the precipice of menopause, trying to cruise in an ill-fitting bra. She struggles with her relationships, her crazy family, and her crazier boss. And then there''s her knack for being in close proximity to dead people . . . . When her close friend Sophie London commits suicide in front of an online web-cam by putting a gun in her mouth and pulling the trigger, Odelia's life is changed forever. Sophie, a plus-sized activist and inspiration to imperfect women, is the last person anyone would ever have expected to end her own life. Suspecting foul play, Odelia is determined to get to the bottom of her friend's death. Odelia's search for the truth takes her from southern California strip malls to the world of live web-cam porn to the ritzy enclave of Corona del Mar.

This was one of those books that I finished but wasn't sure I liked it. Then I found myself thinking about the characters and realized it had something to make me care what happens next. I think part of it is I can relate to Odelia. She's not model-perfect as many leading female characters are portrayed. I'll be reading the next in the series and looking forward to Odelia's character development. 

~ From Suzanne

 

Suzanne's Reads

THE WEAVER AND THE FACTORY MAID By Deborah Grabien

When Ringan Laine, British folk musician, becomes the owner of a restored eighteenth-century cottage, he discovers right away that the cottage and the ancient barn on Ringan's property are haunted. Ringan and his longtime lover Penny, researching the identity of their unwanted tenants, learn that they were a young couple, victims of a famous double murder in the year 1817-their story the subject of a song that is a staple in Ringan's repertoire. And they must stage a full-scale musical exorcism to lay the ghostly couple to rest. The Weaver and the Factory Maid is only the first in what promises to be an exciting new mystery series featuring the ghosts of characters in folk ballads.

The Weaver and the Factory Maid is an interesting take on a ghost story but I forced myself to finish it. I didn't "bond" with the characters and I thought the musical exorcism was really silly. There are several more in the series each ghost story built around an old English ballad.  

~ From Suzanne

52 Weeks 52 Books: Week Ending March 25, 2013

Two books I was really looking forward to reading, but didn't quite live up to expectations.  DENTING THE BOSCH (don't you just love that title?), seemed like the perfect weekend read, but the characters seemed like they should have been pulled from the fifties--kind of Donna Reed-like cluelessness--and it was hard to find sympathy for them.  And I had been really looking forward to DARK TIDE after reading and loving INTO THE DARKEST CORNER, but even though I kind of felt the suspense, the resolution was weak and incomplete--at least for me.  If anyone else reads either of these, I'd love to know what you thought!   ~ Katherine

DENTING THE BOSCH by Teresa Link

Adele, Maggie and Sylvia are the best friends living in an affluent area in Southern California and spend much of their time together. It's mostly a happy  and comfortable life, especially for Adele, who considers her friends the one bright spot in her recent and much regretted move from New York. Things change with infidelity and the recession and the women’s lives begin to fall apart at the same time: Syl’s husband leaves her, Adelle’s husband decides he wants to live separate lives, and Maggie runs away from financial reality and focuses on a man from her past. Following the "denting of the bosch," they all work on rebuilding their lives.


DARK TIDE by Elizabeth Haynes

Genevieve has finally achieved her dream of saving up enough to leave her busy and stressful life in London and change directions, to purchase a houseboat away from the bustling city.  She loves working on her new floating home and her friendly neighbors. But the night of her boat-warming party, Genevieve finds a body in the water next to her boat, and she recognizes the victim. Because hardly anyone knows about her past as a dancer at a private members' club in London where she and her dead friend worked, she doesn't want to admit she knows her.

But Genevieve begins to receive strange calls and lurking visitors, and can't reach the one person who links the present danger with the club. And she can't reach the one person who may have put her in this danger, who also happens to be the man she loves. 

TWO GRAVES recommended by Jaclyn

TWO GRAVES by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Third book in the "Helen Trilogy"

Pendergast's wife has been kidnapped and he follows the kidnappers to get her back. There's a serial killer loose in NYC. How are these events related? Read the book! See Pendergast in a whole different form! I personally love Special Agent Pendergast and thoroughly enjoyed this book.  

~ From Jaclyn

Nonfiction Recommendation from Jaclyn

THE MURDER OF THE CENTURY by Paul Collins 

This book is about a gruesome murder, the shocking trial and newspapers trying to outdo each other. Sound familiar? Like something you've seen on the news? Well, this murder took place in 1897! The newspapers were insane trying to get the best headlines (and actually started the ball rolling on solving the murder!) to sell their papers. A well written and interesting story about "The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked The Tabloid Wars"     

 - from Jaclyn

Best List of Paranormal Fantasy

Paranormal Fantasies

Are you a fan of paranormal fantasy books?  They're continuing to gain in popularity and it's easy to see why. The "Twilight saga may have been geared toward teens, but they have proven to be just as popular with adults--lots of action, romance, strong women, sexy vampires, and just a great way to escape from the real world.  Do you have favorite authors, favorite series in this genre?  Barnes & Noble has just released their choices for the "Twenty Best Paranormal Fantasy Novels of the Last Decade."  Check it out and let us know if you agree/disagree or have your own choices.  I know I'm going to add the first book of the Kim Harrison "Hollows" series to my reading stack.  
 

Suzanne says:  I've read several of these series. The Nymphos of Rocky Flats by Mario Acevedo is fantastic! Don't let the titles fool you ;) It's an interesting take on the vampire genre. It's no where near Twilight. It's an amazing detective novel and the detective happens to be a vampire.

.

SNR says:  I've often thought of asking if the library would start a Paranormal Romance/ Urban Fantasy reading group, it's my favorite genre. I've read quite a few of those (Harrison, Harris, Briggs, Hamilton, Butcher)and am looking forward to checking out the rest on the list. In my circle of reader friends, Sherrilyn Kenyon and JR Ward have been favorites but my absolute favorite has to be Kelley Armstrong's Bitten series (her YA trilogies are good too!)

A Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy Reading Group? Why not?  We can put it out there and see if anyone else is interested!