I once saw the wreck of a small pleasure boat perched on the rocks in Cape May, New Jersey. It was green, slimy, and hauntingly lonesome. Shipwrecks have always given me goosebumps, but they're fascinating nonetheless. I was reminded of this when CNN recently reported the discovery of a World War II PT boat shipwreck, revealed after the tragic April 2 earthquake in the Solomon Islands. Apparently, the quake raised the reefs above the water's surface, exposing the wreck that was lying on them.

This story reminded me of a great book I read--listened to on audiobook, actually--called Shadow Divers. Published in 2004, "Shadow Divers," by Robert Kurson, is the true story of the discovery and identification of a German U-boat that sank off the coast of New Jersey during World War II. The submarine was discovered in 1999 by deep-sea divers. Although they quickly recognized it as a U-boat, it took years of additional diving and research before the U-boat's identity, and that of its crew, could be conclusively authenticated.

Looking for more like "Shadow Divers," I browsed the catalog for books about North Atlantic shipwrecks. It turns out that we have a related book, about two men who perished diving to the U-boat:

The last dive : a father and son's fatal descent into the ocean's depths, by Bernie Chowdhury.

There are a few others that look interesting:

Miracles on the water : the heroic survivors of a World War II U-boat attack, by Tom Nagorski. A new arrival.
Simple courage : a true story of peril on the sea, by Frank Delaney.
Pride of the sea : courage, disaster, and a fight for survival, by Tom Waldron. (This one's in large print.)

On the fictional side, I enjoyed Clive Cussler's "Raise the Titanic!," which was written before Robert Ballard's discovery of the Titanic. Cussler imagined the discovery and retrieval of an intact Titanic. A diver himself, Cussler has written many other books that involve shipwrecks and nautical adventure. (And for those who want them, of course, we also have many nonfiction books about the Titanic.)

The weather outside, today at least, would encourage you to believe in spring. One of the enjoyable things about spring is the flea market. I enjoy flea markets much more than yard sales. Although they both involve picking over someone else's stuff, at a flea market, the owner of the stuff you are dissing is not standing there watching and listening. At a flea market, there is a chance that you might find a hidden antique or valuable piece of jewelry that everyone else missed. Not a big chance, but you never know.

Many flea markets are located here in New Hampshire, a number of them are a short drive from Nashua. There is a flea market directory online which lets you search for flea markets by state. It gives the location, the hours, a brief description of each one, and in most cases, a contact number to call for information. About.com also has a web page listing flea markets in New Hampshire ; some of them different from the ones on the previous website.

I've discovered that I don't have a knack for bargaining with vendors, so I arrange to bring someone with me who is more assertive than I am, or I pay the price being asked without discussion. I also look for the things that I like, and not those things that are currently "hot". I like old stuff regardless of its current or potential monetary worth. If you have something you like to collect, like flamingos, the flea market is the place to go!

Once you find something that appeals to you and bring it home, there are a couple of things to think about. What will you do with it? How will you take care of it? The second question is easily answered. The library has a great book written by the Senior Conservator of the Smithsonian Institute. The book is called Saving stuff and it isn't just Smithsonian quality stuff. The book also contains information on caring for and preserving things like sports trading cards, macaroni necklaces, holiday decorations, and dolls. The library also has a number of books to answer the what will you do with it question. A flea market find can get a make-over or a fix-up and these books will show you how to do that:

Flea market jewelry ; new style from old treasures
Flea market make-overs
Fabulous painted furniture
Flea market makeovers for the outdoors
Easy flea market style

Those of you who have read the scintillating book Freakonomics know that if you have a swimming pool in your backyard and a gun in your house, the swimming pool is 100 times more likely to kill your child than your gun. Hard to believe for many who oppose having guns in the home, but apparently true. Yet with the recent massacre at Virginia Tech, debate over gun control legislation has again taken front stage.

While this blog is not really the place to voice my opinions about gun control, it is a place for me to point out some of the library's books on gun-related topics. Sure enough, we have a few new additions to the collection that I thought you might find interesting. So here they are along with excerpts from book reviews or jacket cover summaries.

Gun show nation : gun culture and American democracy / Joan Burbick.
"Tenaciously exposing the role guns play for many Americans in their national and political identity, Burbick (Rodeo Queens and the American Dream) talks to gun owners, sellers, lobbyists, grassroots organizers and policy makers as she tours gun shows, gun-rights conventions and National Rifle Association gatherings across the land. Mining the history of gun manufacturing and shooting magazine editorials, she charts how the gun industry has successfully marketed its products using the image of the patriotic, law-abiding civilian shooter. She describes Civil War–era white fears of armed blacks and shows how the Second Amendment rights movement was born of the social unrest of the 1960s." Publisher's Weekly Review

The global war on guns : inside the U.N. plan to destroy the Bill of Rights / Wayne LaPierre.
"In July 2001, the United Nations hosted a bonfire, but they weren't roasting marshmallows-they were burning piles of guns seized from the citizens of member nations. There's perhaps no better picture of what the UN thinks of private gun ownership, and in the summer of 2006, the gun-destroyers will be at it again, when the UN re-confers about regulating gun possession, pushing for an international criminal court that would usurp U.S. sovereignty and open the door for global arms-controllers to finally enforce their anti-gun agenda. In this vital book, LaPierre sounds the alarm, reveals the secrets, and shows the path back to freedom, national sovereignty, and independence." Book Summary

Her best shot : women and guns in America / Laura Browder.
Exploring "the social meanings of armed womanhood in a culture where violence is associated with masculinity...In Her Best Shot, Laura Browder examines the relationship between women and guns and the ways in which the figure of the armed woman has served as a lightning rod for cultural issues...Utilizing autobiographies, advertising, journalism, novels, and political tracts, among other sources, Browder traces appearances of the armed woman across a chronological spectrum from the American Revolution to the present and an ideological spectrum ranging from the Black Panthers to right-wing militias."

¡Viva Mexico!

Cinco de Mayo ("The Fifth of May" in Spanish) is a national, but not an official, holiday in Mexico. It is also widely celebrated in the United States. The holiday commemorates the victory of Mexican forces led by General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin over the French occupational forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862 (part of the Franco-Mexican War). There are observances throughout Mexico that combine food, drink, music and dancing.

In the United States, many Americans regardless of ethnic origin observe Cinco de Mayo, most of all in the southern border states where there are large Hispanic populations. Celebrations honor such traditional Mexican symbols as the Virgin de Guadalupe and such prominent figures of Mexican descent in the United States as Cesar Chavez. In Washington, DC, the Maru Montero Dance Company each year hosts the National Cinco de Mayo Festival. President Bush has delivered an official Cinco de Mayo message.

You can go to the Cinco History website or MexOnline.com for more information about the history of the Cinco de Mayo. Or take a look at the Food Network's Cinco de Mayo for information about recipes and parties. The District del Sol website presents several special Cinco de Mayo photographs.

Our library has several adult and juvenile resources about Cinco de Mayo including The Latino holiday book : from Cinco de Mayo to Dia de los Muertos-- the celebrations and traditions of Hispanic-Americans by Valerie Menard. You may also wish to take a look at our resources about Cesar Chavez including Sal si puedes; Cesar Chavez and the new American Revolution by Pete Matthiessen and Delano, the story of the California grape strike. Photos by Ted Streshinsky by John Gregory Dunne.

So happy celebrating and happy reading!

What do Nora Roberts, Simon Fuller, Tony Dungy, Rosie O'Donnell, Warren Buffett, Brian Williams, Queen Elizabeth II, Osama bin Laden, John Roberts, Justin Timberlake, Condoleezza Rice, Rhonda Byrne, Raul Castro, Pope Benedict XVI, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Chien-Ming Wang, Richard Dawkins, Nancy Pelosi, and Steve Jobs have in common?

They are among the members of The TIME 100, an annual list of the world's most influential people. TIME breaks the list into five categories: Artists & Entertainers; Leaders & Revolutionaries; Heroes & Pioneers: Scientists & Thinkers; and Builders & Titans. Each group includes between 18 and 22 people. Some appear in categories that you might not expect. Recognized for making A Journey to Darfur, George Clooney is featured in the Heroes & Pioneers list along with fellow actor Michael J. Fox, whose foundation is working to find a cure for Parkinson's Disease. Former Vice President Al Gore, no longer in public office, is considered a Scientist & Thinker for bringing attention to global warming. It is an intriguing feature, not only because of those included, but also because of an omission. Some are surprised that George W. Bush is not on the list. Politics aside, it is interesting that TIME does not consider the President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief of the American military, one of the people who shapes our world. Unfortunately, the magazine does not explain how the list was compiled. Readers don't know if the choices were made by the editorial staff or if a diverse group of people from various fields was surveyed. We do not know if the magazine had criteria for selection, either.

You can find TIME, along with our other magazines and newspapers, in the Stearns room (past the new fiction). Because the TIME 100 is in the most recent issue, you need to read it in the library. It will be available for checkout next week. In the meantime, you can take a look at TIME.com.

Are these truly the 100 most influential people, or can you think of others who shape our world? Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Ever get frustrated trying to search for books from the library's home page? The library's web site team has recently made some changes that we hope will make things a little easier. For starters, you can now search the catalog directly from the home page, www.nashualibrary.org. Look down at the bottom of the page, underneath the list of Upcoming Events @ Your Library, and you'll see a search box for the catalog. This allows you to do a general keyword search right from the main page. For a more advanced search, or to browse by title, author, or subject, you can still click the button labeled "Books & More" and then go to the Search tab.

The search box at the bottom of the page originally allowed users to search the library's web site in general (not the catalog) or search the internet using Google. You can still do that. Just go to the "Search" dropdown menu in the library banner, and select "Library web site" to search the site or click "World Wide Web (via Google)" if you want to search the internet.

There's also a new addition to the Search dropdown menu: a link to the statewide library catalog, "NHU-PAC." NHU-PAC is a collective catalog showing the holdings of most public and academic libraries in New Hampshire. If NPL doesn't own a book that you need, you can search NHU-PAC to find out whether other New Hampshire libraries have it. If the book is at least six months old, we can borrow it for you from another library. See Jenn's blog entry on interlibrary loan for more details.

Finally, the web team has added a list of popular databases to the Databases dropdown menu in the library banner. This provides more direct access to some of the most commonly used databases that the library subscribes to. Under "Most Popular," you'll find the EBSCO magazine collection, Newsbank newspapers, Obituaries, Novelist, and other databases. For access to the complete database collection, you can still use the "iBrowse Databases" button on the home page.

We hope that you'll find these changes helpful. If you have any questions or suggestions for us, feel free to contact the Reference Desk at (603) 589-4611.

"John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave." I remembered that from somewhere in the cobwebs of my brain when I saw that Wednesday, May 9 would be the 207th anniversary of the birth of John Brown. That is the first line of what was a famous marching song sung by the Union Army during the Civil War. There are apparently claims that the John Brown of the song is the abolitionist John Brown best remembered for his raid on Harper's Ferry. There are also claims that the John Brown of the song was a Union soldier from Boston, a member of a military glee club. When the song was sung, the John Brown who came to mind was apparently the more famous one, and the song took off from there. The lyrics of the entire song are available at Wikipedia.

John Brown was born on May 9, 1800 in Connecticut and died by hanging December 2,1859 in Charles Town, West Virginia. Son of an abolitionist and an abolitionist himself, he was, at one point in his life, a conductor on the underground railroad in Ohio. Brown had very strong religious beliefs and very strong opinions on the evils of slavery. He also came from a family where insanity was fairly common. His religious beliefs fueled his antislavery opinions and he became convinced that he was representing the hand of God in his dealings with pro-slavery individuals. He became a well-known representative of the antislavery cause in Kansas when, under his command, five pro-slavery individuals were hacked to death with machetes.

His attempt to arm slaves and help them to rise up against slave owners was the defining moment of his life. He was aided and abetted by six prominent Northern abolitionists referred to as the "Secret Six". With a small band of men both black and white, he attacked a federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry VA. He was not joined by vast numbers of slaves wanting to be free. Instead, he ended up surrounded and refused to surrender. When he was finally captured, he was tried for murder and treason among other things, found guilty, and hung. At that time, and in that place, he became a legend to some, a hero to others, and a nutjob to the rest.

The library has a number of resources which will help you to form your own opinion regarding John Brown. Biography Resource Center and World Book Online have informative articles about John Brown. The library also has a number of books in different categories which offer views of John Brown. If you are a fiction reader, you may be interested in Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks or Mine eyes have seen by Ann Rinaldi, or if you like poetry, Stephen Vincent Benet's John Brown's body, although an oldie, could still prove interesting.

The library also has some new biographies of John Brown. Patriotic treason : John Brown and the soul of America by Evan Carton was published in 2006. John Brown, abolitionist : the man who killed slavery, sparked the Civil War, and seeded civil rights by David Reynolds was published in 2005.

For the second year in a row, we'll be kicking off our teen summer reading program (You Never Know @ Your Library) with an outdoor concert. Here's coolest part, it's all teen musicians. So whether you're an in a death metal, rock, or funk band, or an individual performing acoustic guitar I want to hear from you. If you are in middle or high school and you've got some musical talent, forget about American Idol, and play locally for your friends and family.

Here's a few of the details:
Each band will get a 20 minute time slot (individuals will get a 10 minute slot).
*You must submit a sample of your music for review (no obscene lyrics will be allowed).
*The library will provide limited equipment, so please be prepared to supply most of it yourself.
*If it rains the concert will be moved indoors to the library theater.
*Call Jenn at 589-4612 for more details.

In an entry earlier this week, you learned that access to the library's most popular electronic databases are easier than ever to find on our website. Simply put your mouse over the "Databases" link in the gray horizontal bar, then roll down to "Most Popular", and then click on the database you desire. Pretty cool! With that in mind, you might like to know how many subscriptions the Nashua Public Library has to magazines and newspapers through these databases. Quite frankly, the number is staggering!

Take for example the library's EBSCO database. The EBSCO database provides access to complete "full-text" articles in several hundred magazines, even, in some cases, magazines which the Library already has a print subscription. Here is a list of some of the more popular magazines that are included in the EBSCO database:

* Consumer Reports (Full text of all issues since 1991, with a 3 Month delay)
* Newsweek (Full text from Jan.1, 1990 to the present)
* U.S. News & World Report (Full text from May 7, 1990 to present)
* Time Magazine (Full text from May 7, 1990 to present)
* Rolling Stone (Full text from August 9,1990 to present, with a 1 Month delay)
* Fortune (Full text from January 27,1992 to present)
* National Geographic (Full text of all issues since 1995, with a 3 Month delay)
* PC World (Full text from January 1,1996 to present)
* Scientific American (Full text from January 1,1995 to present)
* Economist (Full text from July 7, 1990 to present)
* Men's Health (Full text from June 1, 1990 to present)
* Cosmopolitan (Full text from June 1, 1996 to present)
* Discover (Full text from June 1, 1993 to present)
* Sports Illustrated (Full text from September 1, 1992 to present)
* Runner's World (Full text from May 1, 1990 to present)

And trust me when I say, the list goes on.

Of course you might be asking, how do I look up articles from some of these magazines in EBSCO. The answer can be found in the following diagram. To print out the diagram by itself, just click on it.

So hopefully, I've wetted your appetite for the world of magazine articles accessible in the EBSCO database. To learn more about using the EBSCO database, sign up for our EBSCO computer class or just pick up the phone and give us a call at 589-4611. Soon you'll be able to instant message the reference desk with questions, but more about that in a future entry.

p.s. If you're wondering what EBSCO stands for, the answer is nothing. It's the name of the company that sells us the database.

Although Plymouth, with Thanksgiving, the rock, and the plantation, gets a lot of attention here in New England, the Pilgrims did not establish the first permanent English colony in North America. Thirteen years before the Mayflower landed in Massachusetts, a group of 108 entrepreneurs sailed from London. The group, known as the Virginia Company, had been granted a charter by King James I to establish a colony, find gold, and search for a water route to Asia. On May 14, 1607--four hundred years ago today--they landed at the mouth of the James River, approximately 60 miles from Chesapeake Bay. Survival was a struggle; disease, starvation, and conflict with Native Americans almost destroyed the settlement. Only 60 of 214 settlers survived the winter of 1609-1610. The arrival of reinforcements, a new governor, and supplies later that year revived the colony. Among the newcomers was John Rolfe. He planted tobacco, which became a successful crop in Virginia and contributed to Jamestown's viability.

Two noteworthy stories come from Jamestown. The name of the colony might ring a bell if you have seen the Disney movie Pocahontas, which is set in Jamestown. The movie (I have not seen it) has been criticized for its historical inaccuracies and depiction of Native Americans. It depicts a love story between Pocahontas and John Smith. Although she is rumored to have saved his life, it was John Rolfe, another Englishman, whom the chief's daughter married. Also, Jamestown was home to the first African Americans. In 1619, a group of Africans pirated from a Spanish ship were traded to the colony for food. The Africans became indentured servants, not slaves, and contributed greatly to the colony.

In anticipation of the anniversary of the colony's founding, new books have been written. Take a look at Savage kingdom : the true story of Jamestown, 1607, and the settlement of America; The birth of black America : the first African Americans and the pursuit of freedom at Jamestown; or Jamestown, the buried truth. You can find other books about Jamestown for both adults and children, fiction and nonfiction, by doing a subject keyword search for Jamestown.

I also found a couple of interesting websites. Historic Jamestowne, has pages about the history of the colony and the archaeological dig site. I recommend taking a look at Jamestown1607.org. Here you will see pictures of individuals, each wearing a t-shirt with the name of someone who lived in the colony. Clicking on the picture will give you information about the person named. You can even add your own comments to the site. I really enjoyed this site because of both the information and the design.

May 15 is a banner day for literature, with three well-known authors born today: novelist and short story writer Katherine Ann Porter, children's author L. Frank Baum, and children's and teen author Paul Zindel.

They're certainly a diverse group of writers....

Porter won a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for her 1965 book, The Collected Short Stories of Katherine Anne Porter. She wrote several volumes of short stories and essays including Flowering Judas and Other Stories and The Leaning Tower and Other Stories. She is also the author of a novel, Ship of Fools.

Zindel was a hot teen author from the late 1960s through 1980s with books such as The Pigman and Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball; in later years he published a series of books for older children, the P.C. Hawke Mysteries.

Baum, of course, is the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.... as well as many other stories. If you loved The Wizard of Oz but never tried his other books, there are more than a dozen in the Oz series. Here are the first few (after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) to get you started again:

The Marvelous Land of Oz
Ozma of Oz
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
The Road to Oz
Emerald City of Oz
Patchwork Girl of Oz

Baum is also the author of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus and other stories about magical lands and people.

Global warming has suddenly become a serious matter. It seemed sudden, at least, to those of us who were going along not paying too much attention to the environment. It was interesting that winters were getting warmer, and it was something of a puzzle that glaciers were melting. Greenhouse gasses and the ozone layer were familiar terms, but they didn't really spur me to any action. I guess I thought that those "big companies" were the only ones at fault for all this, and they really should be doing something about it. And maybe those people who drive eighteen wheelers and Hummers?

Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth served as a wake-up call. Global warming is not some vague event that may happen sometime, but there's still plenty of time to do something about it. Apparently global warming has already happened to such a degree that, even if we all start now, we may not be able to "fix" it. This was frightening news to someone who hadn't been paying attention. So what can the average person do about global warming?

Newscasters began talking about everyone's carbon footprint. This carbon footprint stands for each person's impact on the environment. Using energy creates carbon dioxide and the more energy a person uses, the more carbon dioxide a person creates. This can contribute to a big carbon footprint. So how do you measure your carbon footprint? ABC News has the directions for calculating the size of your footprint on their webpage. There are also suggestions for reducing the size of your footprint. Everyone's goal should be to reduce their impact on the environment as much as possible.

A good understanding of global warming and the immediacy of its effects on the climate can be found on the website for the Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change or IPCC. This is the large international group of scientists sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme who recently established, beyond a doubt, that climate change has happened and will continue to happen. Working papers produced by this group are available in pdf format on their website, as well as audios and videos of press conferences and presentations . Two other websites to visit for more information on global warming and climate change are the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Global Warming International Center.

The library has some new books about global warming and climate change which might shed more light on the issues.

Climate change: human effects on the nitrogen cycle by Jeri Freedman
Field notes from a catastrophe by Elizabeth Kolbert and, just in case you choose to consider both sides of the story,
Global warming : opposing viewpoints edited by Cynthia A. Bily

Check out this information and keep working on making your carbon footprint smaller!

On my way to work today I passed a big sign once again reminding me of St. Philip Greek Orthodox Church's annual Greek festival. I spent the rest of the drive reminiscing about all the good food I sampled at last year's event. By the time I actually got to the library I had started to wonder how to make some of the fabulous recipes I tried. So I thought I'd share some of the Greek cookbooks I found in our collection.

Cookbooks
The glorious foods of Greece : traditional recipes from the islands, cities, and villages
By: Diane Kochilas

The Greeks have a recipe for it : A collection of recipes
By the Anagennesis Ladies Society of St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral

The Greek vegetarian : more than 100 recipes inspired by the traditional dishes and flavors of Greece
By: Diane Kochilas

The regional cuisines of Greece
By The Recipe Club of St. Paul's Greek Orthodox Church

If you're interested in food from Greece, you might also want to take a look at some of our travel and history books, who knows, maybe you'll be inspired to take a trip and taste some authentic greek cuisine!

Travel
Greece

Fodor's Greece

History
Guide with reconstructions ancient Athens : Cape Sounion, Aegina, and Olympia past and present
A short history of modern Greece
By: C.M. Woodhouse

The Athenian empire
By: G.W. Cox

This Saturday is the 22nd New York AIDS Walk. This year is also the 20th anniversary of AZT, the first drug approved to fight HIV. (In 1987, the cost of a year's supply of AZT was $10,000, making it one of the most expensive drugs ever sold.) But what is the current state of HIV/AIDS in New Hampshire? What resources are available for those with the disease? And, what books and online resources does the library have and recommend? Here is summary of my findings. You might be surprised by what you learn.

According to the March 2007 HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report issued by the NH Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Public Health Services, there are 434 persons living in the state with HIV, and 574 persons living with AIDS. More specifically, 46% of those living with HIV and 41% of those living with AIDS reside in Hillsborough County. Of those with HIV or AIDS, about 75% are White, 14% are Black and 11% are Hispanic. Approximately 44% are men who were exposed to the disease through sex with other men (MSM) while 18% of those living with the disease were exposed through heterosexual contact, and about 17% were exposed via injecting drug use (IJU).

Source: NH STD-HIV-AIDS Surveillance Report – 2002-2006

HIV/AIDS agencies and support organizations in New Hampshire
Southern New Hampshire HIV/AIDS Task Force, 12 Amherst Street Nashua, NH 03064
NH Department of Health and Human Services, HIV/AIDS information
HIV/AIDS Resources in New Hampshire (Project Inform)

Other Online Resources
HIV/AIDS among youth [electronic resource]. (Center for Disease Control)
HIV/AIDS in New Hampshire (AIDS Action) [PDF]

Recommended Library Books
AIDS in the twenty-first century : disease and globalization / Tony Barnett and Alan Whiteside. (2006)

The guide to living with HIV infection : developed at the Johns Hopkins AIDS Clinic / John G. Bartlett, Ann K. Finkbeiner. (2006)

Not in my family : AIDS in the African-American community / [edited by] Gil L. Robertson IV. (2006)

Recently I completed a terrific book, Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen. It left me alternately laughing and crying, but most of all feeling quite contented by the story of the two sisters, the author's vision of the true meaning of success, and of the qualities in life that matter most. It probably does sound a bit corny, but Quindlen makes it work and very well, too.

Quindlen is one of our most versatile writers. Her work has appeared in America’s most influential newspapers and magazines and on both fiction and nonfiction bestseller lists. As a columnist for The New York Times, Quindlen became only the third woman in the newspaper’s history to write a regular column for its prominent Op-Ed page when she began the nationally-syndicated Public and Private. A collection of those columns, Thinking Out Loud, was a national bestseller. In 1992 Quindlen was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for commentary.She left The Times and journalism in 1995 to pursue a career as a full-time novelist. However, she returned to the newsworld in 1999 as a featured Newsweek columnist. In Loud & Clear, a collection of her Newsweek and New York Times columns, she combines commentary on American society and the world at large with her thought and experiences on being a woman, a writer and a mother.

Quindlen's other non-fiction books include Imagined London : a tour of the world's greatest fictional city about Quindlen's love of English literature and its London legacy and Thinking out loud : on the personal, the political, the public, and the private, a collection of essays from her syndicated New York Times column.

She has authored four novels in addition to Rise and Shine:
Object Lessons - her first novel,
One True Thing -- made into a major motion picture starring Meryl Streep and Rene Zellweger,
Black and Blue - a selection of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club,
Blessings - made into a TV movie starring Mary Tyler Moore.

Quindlen has also penned two children's books: The Tree That Came to Stay, a tale about family finding a way to preserve the feeling of Christmas into the new year by filling a basket with pine needles from their Christmas tree. and Happily Ever After, about a girl who loves to read fairy tales and is transported back to medieval times to discover that the life of a princess is not as magical as she had imagined. Quindlen has also published some coffee table pictorials. Naked Babies and its sequel Siblings, which she published with photographer Nick Kelsh, are intriguing books with perceptive and personal essays about children growing up plus some marvelous photographs.

So whatever your cup of tea, Anna Quindlen has probably written a book you may enjoy. I know I have enjoyed them all.

People often call or come to the library for directions. We have quite a few road atlases, both in reference and in circulation. Keep in mind, though, that the atlases in circulation tend to be older editions. Roads, especially in Boston or other areas that have undergone major construction projects, may have changed over the past few years. If you need point-to-point directions and do not have GPS, you can take a look at some online resources.

*Do you remember AAA TripTiks? Now, you can make your own. (You may need a AAA membership to use this service.) AAA allows you to choose multiple destinations on your journey and modify the route if you want to avoid certain roads. You can set the map to show construction, restaurants, gas stations, and other points of interest. In the settings section, you can change from English to French, miles to kilometers, and avoid tolls and ferries.

*MapQuest is another option. (I have even used MapQuest as a verb, a la Google.) MapQuest can provide an aerial view of your route. You can choose either the shortest time or shortest distance and avoid highways, tolls, and seasonally closed roads. You can also reverse your route.

*Like AAA, Yahoo Maps allows you to input multiple locations. It will provide a hybrid map, which gives you an aerial view of your trip, as well as a reverse route or round trip. Yahoo also offers live traffic information, which can be helpful if you are traveling during rush hour.

*Google Maps offers traffic information, a hybrid view, reverse directions, and multiple destinations. A new feature allows you to create and save your own maps with points of interest,
captions, photos, lines, and shapes, that you can publish on the web and share with friends and family.

How accurate are these maps? I have had success and failure with all of them. Personally, I have had the most trouble with MapQuest, so I tend to use the others more often. You can get to Google and Yahoo maps more quickly than AAA TripTiks; I generally use these two for shorter drives. I have used the TripTiks for longer road trips. It is not a bad idea to look at a couple of sites if you have the time. They sometimes take you different routes to the same place, so you can compare and make sure that small yet important details are not omitted. Despite some bad moments, these online driving directions are a great resource.

Much as I love to discuss books, today's a film day. It's the 100th anniversary of acting legend Laurence Olivier's birth. Let's celebrate with a look at some of his works.

According to the Academy Awards Database, Olivier was nominated for ten Oscars for acting (he won Best Actor for Hamlet), was nominated for directing Hamlet, and was awarded two special Oscars (one in 1946 for Henry V, and one in 1978 for his lifetime's work).

Hamlet won Best Picture for 1948, and Olivier is credited with producing, as well as directing and acting in the film. You can pick up a copy of Hamlet in the Music, Art, and Media Department.

Also available in the library's film collection are several more of his films, including:

An adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's Wuthering Heights;
Shakespeare's Henry V and Richard III;
Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca;
and Spartacus.

For more information about the man and his work, we do have books by and about the legendary actor:

"Olivier: In Celebration" published two years before his 1989 death, is a collection of essays about the actor.
"On Acting" by Olivier, may deliver some insights into his work and achievements;
"Confessions of an Actor" is his autobiography. Laurence Olivier was famously married to two actresses, Vivien Leigh, immortalized as Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, and Joan Plowright.

On Wednesday, May 23, the Library of Congress will be awarding a new annual prize; the Gershwin Prize for popular song. The first recipient will honored at a gala concert held at the Warner Theater in downtown Washington DC. The Library of Congress describes the Gershwin Prize as follows: "named in honor of the legendary George and Ira Gershwin, this newly created award recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world’s culture. The prize will be given annually to a composer or performer whose lifetime contributions exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins".

The performer/composer who will be receiving this award is Paul Simon. Once half of the very successful performing duo of Simon and Garfunkel, Paul Simon is also an extremely talented solo performer/composer. He has won numerous awards both as part of Simon and Garfunkel and as a solo performer. A press release from the Library of Congress gives details of Paul Simon's career and the many awards which he has received. A second press release gives the details of the concert. Those of us who are not able to attend the concert in Washington DC tonight will be able to share in the event when it is broadcast on PBS television June 27.

Paul Simon's song Graceland has been added to the National Recording Registry which was created by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000. The goal of this law, Public Law 106-474, was to create "a comprehensive national program to ensure the survival, conservation, and increased public availability of America's sound recording heritage". Sound recordings preserved include music, monologues, and speeches. The Library of Congress provides a description of the National Recording Preservation Board, its members and its functions. Recordings can be nominated for preservation by anyone. The Library of Congress has published the criteria and procedure for nomination on their website.

If you are interested in listening to Graceland, the library has the CD in MAM. There are also many more Paul Simon CDs to choose from, among others : One-trick pony and Negotiations and love songs 1971-1986. If you are a Simon and Garfunkel fan, here are two good listening choices : Simon and Garfunkel's greatest hits and Simon and Garfunkel : the concert in Central Park. If you are a Gershwin fan or you are wondering exactly who the Gershwins are, the library has a biography of George Gershwin, a book about George and Ira titled Fascinating rhythm and a CD of Gershwin music, By George: Gershwin"s greatest hits.

Last week the 2007 winners were announced for both the Isinglass Teen Read Award and the Flume: NH Teen Readers' Choice Award. The Isinglass was created, "to encourage middle school level students to read for enjoyment and promote a life-long love of reading and books." The success of this award then led to the formation of the Flume award for readers in grades 9-12.

Both awards only accept nominations from New Hampshire teens in their respective grades (7-8 for the Isinglass and 9-12 for the Flume), must appeal to teens, and if part of a series must be able to stand alone.

Okay, enough background information it's time for the big announcement. Drum roll please. And the winner is...Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. You didn't miss anything, the same book won both awards.

New Hampshire teens have spoken. They want romance. They want outcasts. They want suspense. They want vampires!

Twilight is the first in a series that has grabbed our nations teens. Meyer is no stranger to receiving recognition for her vampire love story. This title had a long run on the New York Times Bestseller list as well as being named to the YALSA's 2006 Best Books for Young Adults. Now she can add two more awards to her trophy case!

Once you've finished this book, you won't want to wait to read the sequel, New Moon. For those of you that have already finished New Moon, the third book in the series, Eclipse, is due out August 3, 2007.