Tonight’s the night to come to our first summer Mix and Mingle for adults at Marple Public Library! Tricia and I have planned an evening of fun, with games, prizes and refreshments. Test your “book knowledge” with our Mix and Mingle trivia game – don’t worry – it’s multiple choice! Prizes include $25 gift certificates to Applebees, Soprano’s Deli or Wawa, or a basket of audiobooks. Bring your favorite book of the moment to discuss as an icebreaker. Registration is required, so call our circulation desk at 610-356-1510 to join us tonight at 7. Check back next week for pictures!
June 27, 2008
June 24, 2008
Behind the scenes at the library
In our office downstairs, we just finished applauding our office supply delivery guy. Why? Because he brought us a toner cartridge for our reference desk printer. The printer magically ran out of toner yesterday, and believe me, all of the Marple librarians were terribly upset. We use that printer to print the paging slips that Debbie mentioned in her previous post. Not being able to print the slips makes it difficult and more time consuming to search for the book requests. We were up to 75 slips by 5:00 yesterday evening, and when we got in this morning we had 52 more.
Now we can print the slips to our hearts’ content – thanks to the office supply delivery guy.
June 20, 2008
Debbie has to sit down and rest
When you put a reserve (hold) on a book or other item from home or at the library-the person on the reference desk gets something called a paging slip with the title. We pull it off the shelf, label it and put it either at our circulation desk or in bins to get picked up by the county van and delivered to a library for you to pick up. I have done 58 today. During July we usually do over 100 a day.
This year we added to our workload by making older DVD feature films holdable. You can now put one on hold and pick it up here or at another library in the county. Our new release DVDS are still not holdable and must be picked up at Marple. These DVDs say Marple New DVD in the location code of the catalog. More work for us but more convenience and fun for you.
So check out our DVDS put some on hold and have a great weekend of film watching.
June 18, 2008
A Quick Book Review from Jennifer
I finally got to read the book Heartsick by Chelsea Cain.
Why do I say “finally”? Because it came out last summer and I just now had the time to read it. I knew when I read the reviews last year that Heartsick would be right up my alley – and it is! What a thriller! Set in current-day Portland, Oregon, it’s the story of a traumatized cop on the trail of a serial killer. Why’s he traumatized? Because he’s been off the job, recovering from wounds suffered at the hands of the “Beauty Killer” serial killer he’d been tracking for 10 years. What makes this novel so different from others in the “serial killer” genre is that the “Beauty Killer” is a woman – think Hannibal Lector in a dress. The story really works – it grips you and doesn’t let go – but it’s not for the squeamish.
I had to read Heartsick because Chelsea Cain has written a sequal called Sweetheart, which comes out soon. I hope it’s just as thrilling.
June 16, 2008
Author Visit Cancelled, but…
Due to a family emergency, Marisa de los Santos has had to cancel her appearance here at Marple Public Library for Thursday June 19. But fear not – we have rescheduled her visit for Monday July 28 at 7PM! In her email to me on Sunday, Marisa said she’s looking forward to coming back to Marple, as she had a nice time discussing Love Walked In on her first visit here.
We’re still selling copies of both Belong to Me ($25) and Love Walked In ($14) at the circulation desk. And now you’ll have a bit more time to read the books and ask questions when Marisa comes later in the summer! Check with me, Jennifer, in the library if you have any questions.
June 15, 2008
Seen Any Good Films Lately?
The best film I’ve seen in a while is “Once” directed by John Carney. In this 2007 film, a Czech immigrant (Markéta Irglová) stops to listen to a Irish street performer (Glen Hansard) in the streets of Dublin. They form a friendship based on their love of music and end up writing, rehearsing and recording songs together. It is a simple story about love and friendship and it’s full of great music. Their song “Falling Slowly”, which is in the movie, won them an Oscar this past year.
We’d like to hear about the films you’ve enjoyed. Please send us your comments!
June 13, 2008
Friday the 13th!
Nothing spooky planned at the library today, but be sure to check out our Fantastic Fridays special on DVD rentals. Marple has half-price DVDs on Fridays in the summer. New Release DVDs are just $1.06 and older releases are $.53. Check out a few for the weekend. And don’t forget to buy one of our green reusable signature totebags to carry all your library goodies home. Totes are just $1.06 each and available at the circulation desk.
June 12, 2008
Two Recommendations from Jennifer
Here are a few books I’ve recently read that I highly recommend:
The World Before Her by Deborah Weisgall: Set in Venice, Italy, the novel is split between two time periods – the 1870’s with the author George Eliot (Marian Evans) and her husband John Cross; and the 1980’s with the fictional characters Caroline Spinegold and her husband Malcolm. Separated by 100 years, each woman is dealing with remarkably similar lives. The characters are believable and the writing is very lyrical.
And for something completely different, try Nothing to Lose by Lee Child, the continuation of Jack Reacher’s adventures. Lee Child knows how to write thrillers, and I happen to be in “literature love” with the character of Reacher. This time he’s in Colorado, between Hope and Despair, two very different towns. Child manages to throw in lots of topical interest – the Iraq War, traumatic brain injury, recycling – and small town closed-minds. It’s a very fine ride, and a fun read.
June 10, 2008
Summer Mix and Mingle for Adults
We started the publicity for our second Summer Mix and Mingle for Adults today. It will be held on Friday June 27 from 7PM to 9PM and we’ll have refreshments, games and prizes. I’m asking attendees to bring their favorite book of the moment to discuss; it’s for the ice-breaker at the beginning of the party. The first Mix and Mingle was held last summer, and I remember that about 20 people came and had a lot of fun. Let’s hope that this Mix and Mingle is a blast, too!
June 9, 2008
It is hot !
Too hot to be outside. The library is really crowded today with everyone escaping the heat.
I am looking forward to seeing the film Noise on Thursday @ 7 pm. The filmmaker incorporates the police detective’s hearing loss into the movie in a very interesting way. It’s the second in our Film Movement @ Marple LIbrary series.
Local author Jeffry Johnston will talk about his book Fragments in August and Maria Snyder author of the Poison series (Poison Study, Magic Study & Fire Study) will be here in September. She is one of my favorites-I couldn’t put her first book down. I read it in a hospital emergency room in December and it was so good I forgot the pain of my sprained wrist and the hassle of getting it treated. Of course, Marisa de los Santos is coming June 19th and I am finishing her second book now-Belong to Me. I am really enjoying it. The library loves to get authors when we can, please let us know who you would like to meet.
