Thursday, March 27, 2014

Book Bucket List | Miss Rumphius

We are lucky enough to get many materials donated to us here at the Manteca Branch.  What we cannot use at the library goes to the book sale run by the Friends of the Manteca Library.  They sell books, dvds, cds, magazines, and children's materials at very reasonable prices. I think most things sell for below $2.00 each.  It is a wonderful service run by volunteers and the proceeds support the library and our services.

A book that was donated to us this last week is Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius.  I recognized the cover very quickly and soon realized it was a book I loved from my childhood.  The story is about Miss Alice Rumphius, who at a young age was taught by her grandfather to do something in her lifetime to make the world more beautiful.  Miss Rumphius has many adventures (she even works at a library!) but decides she needs to take her grandfather's words to heart and spread beauty around the world.  She decides that she is going to plant flowers in as many places as she can and is soon known as "the Lilac Lady."  When she is older, Miss Rumphius teaches her niece that she also needs to spread beauty during her lifetime.

This is a really beautiful story with very detailed illustrations.  It not only gives a nice lesson to children that will hear or read the story, but adults can apply these lessons to their own lives as well.  So if you're in the mood to make the world a little more beautiful, go plant some flowers and read Miss Rumphius!


Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Learning | Mark Twain


In recent years, a very long biography began publication. Mark Twain was a prolific writer. He stipulated that his version of his life not be published until 100 years had passed. “I will...utter it from the grave. There is free speech there, and no harm to the family,” he once said.

I really want to read these books. Mark Twain is a larger-than-life figure in America's history; he was an adventurer, journalist, author and humorist. But since each volume is more than 700 pages long, I think I will have to wait until I have an extended vacation to get through them.



The Autobiography of Mark Twain is expected to be in three volumes, by the time it is completely published. So far, only volumes 1 and 2 are available, and you can check them out from SSJCPL. While no firm date has yet been released for the third volume, the expectation is that it will be published by the end of 2015.

While we all wait for the third and final volume of Twain's autobiography, we can amuse ourselves with the University of California's Mark Twain Project Online. Go ahead; poke around in Twain's letters and writings; view images, maps, and other resources.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Just Life| Free Magazines

Did you know that you can check out magazines from the library. It is free and you can check out up to 25 magazines.

I regularly checkout magazines from the library. It saves me money.  Why pay $4 for a magazine that you want to read only once? Right?

Here are a few of these magazines:

Woman's day

Sport fishing 

Country Living

Golf Digest

Hot rod

Popular Science

Men's Health

Bon Appetit 

So, on your next trip to the library, don't forget to checkout some magazines.

Signing off until next Monday- Panteha