Just Life | Library Treasure Chest

If this library is a treasure box, then non-fiction books are the precious stones of this treasure chest.

Nonfictions are the books that teach us how to cook, how to play the piano, how to tile a floor, or how to speak French. 

Nonfictions tell you what to eat to lower your blood pressure or what exercises to do to alleviate your arthritis.

Nonfiction books run this country.

Did you know that you can download free nonfiction audiobooks from our library Overdrive? 

Right now, I am listening to: Focus:use different ways of seeing the world for success and influence. I downloaded this audio book from the library Overdrive to my smartphone. 

If you have a smartphone, consider downloading the Overdrive Media console app to it and you can listen to audiobooks for free. All your need is your library card number & pin number. 

So, what do you fancy to learn today?

Signing off unitl next Monday- Panteha

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!

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.

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 

Books On Film | Garfield

Children love Garfield, the titular character from Jim Davis' comic strip. Garfield is a cat who loves to eat and who has humorous one-sided conversation with his owner Jon and Jon's dog Odie. Davis started the comic strip, which holds a Guiness World Record for being the most widely syndicated comic, in 1978 and it still continues today.

As a child, I spent time watching the animated series 'Garfield and Friends.' These days children watch the CGI animated 'The Garfield Show' and it's spin-off graphic novels in addition to collections of the original comic strips.

Besides inspiring several television shows, Garfield was also adapted into two live-action movies (Garfield The Movie & Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties) with comedian Bill Murray voicing Garfield. 

If you know a child who liked the movie try introducing them to the comics.

Learning | Honeybees

"It's a very funny thought that,  if Bears were Bees, They'd build their nests at the bottom of trees. And that being so (if the Bees were Bears), We shouldn't have to climb up all these stairs."

--from the song, "Isn't it Funny How a Bear Likes Honey?"  in Winnie the Pooh, by A. A. Milne

Winnie the Pooh had a few problems with honeybees--namely, finding their hives, and then figuring out the best way to get their honey, without being stung. Some pondering, singing, and talking with his friends usually gets him past any obstacles he faces.

Have you heard about the real life honeybee problem? All over the world, these bees are dying off.  Scientists are still investigating the reasons for this problem, which has been given the name of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD, for short.) 

Would you like to learn more about it? Would you like to learn how to help keep honeybee numbers up?  Then SSJCPL has a book for you:

Apis mellifera--Western Honeybee 
Photo courtesy of woolcarderbee's photostream
 on Flickr.com. Some rights reserved.

The Case of the Vanishing Honeybees: a Scientific Mystery 

by Sandra Markle. 

Markle tells about the discovery of the problem, and explains how a honeybee colony is supposed to work, with female worker bees, drones, a queen, and larvae.  She explains what the worker bees do--like gathering nectar from flowers--and how their work helps both their fellow bees and people.  

She then discusses possible causes of CCD--changes in habitat, parasitic mites, fungus, pesticides or even cell phones! The cell phone theory has been disproved, but it may be that the other possible causes are all contributing to CCD.

Even though the investigation into the cause of CCD has not ended, there are a number of things being done to ensure that we do not keep losing so many bees. Markle explains the things that beekeepers and others are doing to make sure there are more healthy bee colonies, like giving bees a rest, keeping their hives cleaner, and splitting colonies, to name a few.

As if that was not enough, she also gives suggestions for everybody, so they can help keep bees healthy.  My favorite suggestion is to buy local honey; I usually get that at the Farmer's Market here in Stockton.  Mmmmmmm!  When I think about honey, I start thinking about Winnie the Pooh again.  I wonder how much honey I have left in that jar....

I really like the glossary in the back, which defines bee-related terms. Markle also provides a list of books and websites in the back of the book, for those who wish to study the problem further. 

This book is for grades 4-8, but I think there are some bright students in younger grades, who might enjoy having this book read to them.

Just Life| Egyptian Book Of The Dead & More

A couple of years ago, a patron asked me to find him the Egyptian book of the dead. I almost giggled at that question telling myself that there is no chance that we would have such a book. 

Immediately, images of mummies running around London from The Mummy Returns came to mind.

You can't imagine how shocked I was when I found that book in our catalog.

So, I am leafing through this book to find out what this book is all about. 

To my disappointment, you can't bring back the dead with this book. 

In ancient Egypt, the book of the dead (roll of papyrus to be exact) was buried with the deceased person to help him in his journey through afterlife. 

Apparently, afterlife was quite a perilous journey where you would be tested and questioned and attacked by all sort of monsters. There were gates to pass through and questions to be answered before moving to the next stage and before finally reaching the Paradise. There was even the possibility of a second death which was apparently the worst thing that could happen to an already dead person.

 

Depending on your wealth, you could buy a fill in the blank Egyptian Book of the dead or a customized one.

The other perculiar book in our Ready Reference area is the Devil's Notebook. The book is written by Anton LaVey, founder of the church of Satan. I don't have any desire to read this book, but it is available if you want to take a peek at it.

I tell you, this library is full of surprises.

Signing off until next Monday- Panteha