LibraryPoint Blog

Keep up-to-date with the latest news about the Central Rappahannock Regional Library.
04/01/2013 - 8:11am

Young Lee Bennett Hopkins was an unlikely candidate to go down in the Guinness Book of World Records for having edited the most poetry anthologies ever.  He spent half his childhood in the projects of Scranton, New Jersey, and hated school.  His father left the family when Lee was fourteen, leaving him to look after his younger brother and sister.  His mother had her own problems, but she did love her children.

What made the difference for him was a special teacher who gave him hope.  In eighth grade, Mrs. Ethel Kite McLaughlin encouraged him in his writing and urged him to go to as many plays as possible, some of which he managed to see by slipping into the theatres during intermission and catching this second act. This opened a new perspective for Lee, and he was soon on different path, away from the poverty and street life he had known.

04/01/2013 - 3:30am
Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories

A lot of writers for teens have excellent memories for very painful things. Some remember what it was like to be a targeted teen--the dread of going to school every day knowing what would probably happen, whether it was going to happen in a hallway, a locker room, a classroom, or on a school bus. Being pulled apart emotionally and humiliated was often just an everyday occurrence for them. The usual.

But some writers remember high school very differently. They were the people who just stood to one side AND DIDN’T DO ANYTHING while watching their friends and classmates being bullied. And in a few, a very few, cases they did the bullying themselves. Dear Bully is a collection of reflections of writers for teens who share their true stories of hurt and regret and how these experiences changed them.

03/29/2013 - 3:30am
Raven Black by Ann Cleeves

This readalike is in response to a patron's book-match request. If you would like personalized reading recommendations, fill out the book-match form and a librarian will email suggested titles to you. Available for adults, teens, and kids.  You can browse the book matches here.

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves: "In a remote Sheltland Islands hamlet, New Year's Eve rings in a dead body for Inspector Jimmy Perez in this 2006 Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award winner." (Library Journal)

If you enjoyed the unique rural British Isles settings of these books, here are some other titles you may enjoy:
 

The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor A tale set in eighteenth-century Cambridge finds bookseller John Holdsworth commissioned to investigate Lady Anne Oldershaw's son's mental illness, a deep melancholy tied to a woman's mysterious death and a secret society. (catalog description)

 

 


The Arsenic Labyrinth by Martin Edwards Ten years after the disappearance of a Lake District woman, Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Scarlett re-opens the case when a stranger's tip leads to clues that could solve the mystery. Once again, Scarlett's mystery and historian Daniel Kind's research intersect at the Arsenic Labyrinth, a group of mining tunnels. (catalog description)

 

 

03/28/2013 - 3:30am
Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds. Illustrated by Peter Brown

Everybody knows that rabbits love carrots. Jasper Rabbit, in Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds, is no exception. Jasper especially loves the carrots that grow in Crackenhopper Field. The problem is that Jasper can't get enough carrots, yanking and ripping them from the ground every chance he gets. That is, he did until the carrots started following him. Jasper is convinced that the carrots are creeping up on him.

03/27/2013 - 8:30am
Cover of Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman

Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman is the story of Rory Dawn Hendrix, a girl growing up on the Calle de las Flores, a trailer park on the outskirts of Reno, Nevada. The Calle is a neighborhood where people live from government check to government check. It is a place where a mother must take the night and weekend shifts because the tips are better and they need the money to survive, even though there is no such thing as reliable child care. It is a world where a mother's determination to spare her daughter the abuse she suffered as a child isn't enough to give her the skills to identify the true risks to that girlchild.

03/26/2013 - 11:31am
Poetry Readings. Fridays in April at 4pm. England Run Library

Drop in to the England Run Branch each Friday this April at 4:00 pm for informal poetry readings in our “living room.” Bring a few poems to read or come to listen. Poems can be your own work or just ones you enjoy. If you’re a published poet, you’re welcome to bring copies of your work for people to purchase. No advance sign-up needed.

We’ll also be giving out poem scrolls all month long. Some of the poems were written by our own patrons, like this one! (posted here with permission of the author.) To submit your own poems, click here.
 

Poem scrollsSpring Snow

Winter pauses spring,
Maple and forsythia
At the ready, waiting.
Cardinals, juncos and finches
Flit and feast, 
Instinct trumps weather.

by Lori Izykowski

 

 

 

03/26/2013 - 8:18am
The Grimm Reader by Maria Tatar

Modernized versions of traditional fairy tales have become popular in recent years, with television series such as ABC’s Once Upon a Time and graphic novels such as Bill Willingham’s Fables providing creative and original narratives utilizing characters and concepts from old folk tales. Although popular, these newer variations on older fairy tales have created controversy for altering the traditional characterizations and stories that many people grew up with. This exposes a major flaw in many people’s understanding of fairy tales and traditional folk culture—which versions are the “most correct” version of the story, and why? Maria Tatar’s The Grimm Reader is a collection of many of the traditional fairy tales recorded by the Brothers Grimm, providing an English translation of some of the oldest written versions of these stories.  Notable for being far more violent than the “traditional” versions of the fairy tales popularized in the Victorian period (and later, by Disney films), the typical Grimm story is a combination of children in jeopardy, adults that range from neglectful to destructive, and flat narrative that is driven by plot rather than by characterization.

03/25/2013 - 12:10pm
My Favorite Office Alternatives

Microsoft Office maybe the go-to suite for businessy type things, but goodness gracious, it is expensive!  And copy-protected!  A single-PC license for the most stripped-down version of Office, the Home & Student edition which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, runs $139.99.  That’s for ONE PC and lord help you if you need to reinstall it at any point - you’ll likely end up on the line with Microsoft tech support trying to re-activate your legitimately-purchased software.  You’ve also got the option of paying $400 (or as I like to call it, my grocery budget) for the full Office experience with all its bells and whistles  . . . again, for one PC.  Please.  Have some free software, on me!
 

03/25/2013 - 3:31am
I heard the Owl Call my Name cover

My favorite book when I was in high school was I Heard the Owl Call my Name, by Margaret Craven, so I decided to reread it to see how I related to the book now.  Even though it is almost 50 years old, the book is still just as timely and beautifully-written as it was in the 60’s. Perhaps its message is even more important in today’s world.  It is about a young Vicar, Mark Brian, who has been diagnosed with only a few years to live.  His Bishop has been told his diagnosis, but the Vicar has not. 

When the Bishop learns of the young Vicar’s diagnosis he says, “So short a time to learn so much? It leaves me with no choice. I shall send him to my hardest parish. I shall send him to Kingcome on patrol of the Indian Villages.”

03/22/2013 - 3:31am

This readalike is in response to a patron's book-match request. If you would like personalized reading recommendations, fill out the book-match form and a librarian will email suggested titles to you. Available for adults, teens, and kids.  You can browse the book matches here.

The Cider House Rules by John Irving: "First published in 1985, The Cider House Rules is John Irving's sixth novel. Set in rural Maine in the first half of this century, it tells the story of Dr. Wilbur Larch--saint and obstetrician, founder and director of the orphanage in the town of St. Cloud's, ether addict and abortionist. It is also the story of Dr. Larch's favorite orphan, Homer Wells, who is never adopted." (Book description)

If you enjoyed this book, here are some other titles you may enjoy:

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
Macon Leary hates to travel. He is someone who travels through life accidentally. Things just happen to him--the senseless death of his child, the baffling desertion of his wife, even his involvement with Muriel, the frizzy-haired, stiletto-heeled, non-stop talker from the kennel where he boards his dog. (worldcat.org)

 

 

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
A classic tale of an orphan growing up in the 1800's of England. Intimately rooted in the author's own biography and written as a first-person narrative, "David Copperfield" charts a young man's progress through a difficult childhood in Victorian England to ultimate success as a novelist, finding true love along the way. (worldcat.org)