September Is Library Card Sign-Up Month.

Now its even easier to get a free ABC Library card. You can apply in person or complete an online application. If you want to apply in person, you can print out the application, fill it out, and bring it to any ABC Library branch.

If you choose to go with an online application, it will expire within 21 days if it isn't completed in person at a library branch. Be sure to bring your current photo I.D. and proof of your mailing address.

When you complete your application in person, you will receive your library card. You can then check out books, DVDs, music CDs, magazines, cake pans, and access eResources, devices, and eBooks.  

The Library: An Illustrated History by Stuart A.P. Murray

Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles    

The Meaning Of the Library: A Cultural History edited by Alice Crawford

The Public Library: A Photographic Essay edited by Robert Dawson

I Work At a Public Library by Gina Sheridan

Library 2020: Today's Leading Visionaries Describe Tomorrow's Library edited by Joseph Janes     

The Repurposed Library: 33 Craft Projects That Give Old Books New Life by Lisa Occhipinti

The Long Overdue Library Book: Stories Librarians Tell Each Other by Sandy Bradley and Elsa Pendleton

The Library At Night by Alberto Manguel

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron

The Librarian of Basra: A True Story From Iraq written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter

The World's Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette's, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family by Joshua Hanagarne                                      
      

New & Novel: Sustainability

Multi-ethnic girls holding green balloons. [Photography]. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest.
http://quest.eb.com/search/154_2903305/1/154_2903305/cite

The Denver Post, meanwhile, notes that hundreds of gallons of toxic water are still leaking every minute from other abandoned mines in the mountains. “These mines are draining as we speak,” Bruce Stover, director of Colorado’s abandoned mines reclamation programme, told the paper. “We had a disaster last week – a surging amount of water coming out. That same amount of water is coming out over six months and harming the Animas. That water is coming out 24/7.”
~David Usborne, "Animas pollution: The toxic orange river that America cannot ignore", The Independent

The recent Gold King Mine disaster and the U.S. government's decision to allow Royal Dutch Shell to drill for oil and natural gas in the Arctic Ocean has got us thinking about environmental issues and sustainability. We all know the catchphrases - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! Upcycling! Freecycling! Green living! Carbon footprint! - but how much do we know about the many issues affecting our world today?

There's garbage - as the website Rotten Truth (About Garbage), on-line exhibition created by the ASTC and the Smithsonian Institution's Traveling Exhibition Service, says, "Throwing out garbage, putting it by the curb, taking it to the dump -- try as we might, we can never really make garbage disappear. When we throw garbage 'away,' it just goes somewhere else." There's plastic in our oceans, too, combining with the garbage to form The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Water shortages, over-fished oceans, pollution, global warming, deforestation, overpopulation, species going extinct - there's a lot of things to think about, let alone measures we could put into practice (carbon offsetting, going vegan, greywater reuse, planting bee-friendly flowers in your yard). Sometimes it's hard to know what to do - we like wind power, one of the cleanest and most sustainable ways to generate electricity, but it is not without negative impact on wildlife, for instance.

We've compiled a list of some of the library catalog's most recent sustainability reads for adults and youth, covering a variety of environmental issues. We figure, forewarned is forearmed.  Or, as journalist Martha Gellhorn once said, "Citizenship is a tough occupation which obliges the citizen to make his own informed opinion and stand by it."

For Adult Readers

A Buzz in the Meadow: The Natural History of a French Farm by Dave Goulson

After Preservation: Saving American Nature in the Age of Humans edited by Ben A. Minteer & Stephen J. Pyne

A Man Apart: Bill Coperthwaite's Radical Experiment in Living by Peter Forbes and Helen Whybrow

Rust: The Longest War by Jonathan Waldman   

The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, and Pips, Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History by Thor Hanson

The Water-Wise Home: How to Conserve, Capture, and Reuse Water in Your Home and Landscape by Laura Allen  

The Human Age: The World Shaped By Us by Diane Ackerman [audiobook]

The Hunt for the Golden Mole: All Creatures Great and Small and Why They Matter by Richard Girling

Gotham Unbound: The Ecological History of Greater New York by Ted Steinberg

Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet We Made by Gaia Vince

The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World by Russell Gold

The People's Republic of Chemicals by William J. Kelly and Chip Jacobs

Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA by E.G. Vallianatos with McKay Jenkins      

Your Water Footprint: The Shocking Facts About How Much Water We Use to Make Everyday Products by Stephen Leahy 

For Kids & Teens

Trash Talk!: Moving Toward a Zero-Waste World by Michelle Mulder

One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul

Climate Change: Discover How It Impacts Spaceship Earth by Joshua Sneideman & Erin E. Tawmley

Disney Go Green!: A Family Guide to a Sustainable Lifestyle by Gunndis Finnbogadottir

You Are Stardust by Elin Kelsey

What Happens to Our Trash? by D.J. Ward 

Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm

Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines by Paul Fleischman  [YA]

Skink--No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen [YA]

Links

Emergency Response to August 2015 Release from Gold King Mine [EPA] 

Gold King Mine Wastewater Spill of Wednesday, August 5, 2015 [New Mexico Environment Department] 

Shell in the Arctic [Shell Global] 

The Alaskan Arctic Oil Drilling Controversy Explained (Infographic) [LiveScience] 
 

Help Yourself to Some Self-Help: Part 1

Because my degree revolved around interpersonal issues, I love self help books.  Any book that helps me to better understand myself or loved ones enthralls me.  I thought I would share with you some of my favorites in a multi-part post (look for more later!).  These three that I'll share today have in common an offering of positive, powerful solutions for dealing with negative emotions, as well as my respect for each of the amazing authors and their research. 

How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It  by Patricia Love

I know a book has helped me if I find myself returning to it over and over - usually a direct result of the amount of practical information inside - and this is one that I have read a few times and will read again.  Obviously, this book is intended for married couples.  However, I could see it applying easily to any male-female committed relationship, whether in turmoil or not.  It gave me powerful insight into how emotionally-charged misunderstandings can crop up based on issues not even related to the conflict at hand.  More specifically, the different ways men and women tend to process similar information, their respective sensitivities, where those tendencies come from, and better ways of handling the conflict that so often arises from all of the above.

Guilt, Shame, and Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming Negative Legacy Emotions by Peter Breggin

This is a newer book that I know I will come back to again and again.  It, too, goes back to the root of many problems that we have in common as humans.  I love that Breggin takes apart each emotion - guilt, shame, and anxiety - to make a helpful framework of them from childhood (and evolution, which I had to skim over and/or mentally convert into creationism to get through).  He creates that foundation of understanding and then goes on to show how we can choose to overcome negative emotions through relationship and love rather than medication and "numbing" - both of which Breggin shows to be quite harmful.  I found Guilt, Shame and Anxiety very compelling and motivating, and highly recommend it for anyone who wants to better relate to themselves and others.

The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brené Brown

This one is definitely more well known, although harder to describe because of its totally unique subject matter.  Brown draws from her research on shame to distill ten "guideposts" for an authentic, shame-resilient life.  Epiphanies for me included that play and rest are vital, and that actually regularly using one's own creativity is essential to living an authentic (and therefore much happier, healthier) life.  A fascinating and extremely practical read that I would recommend to anybody pursuing more self-awareness and peace.

I'd love to hear of your own favorites in the comments - any life changing self help out there?  Also, if you've read any of these already, it would be great to hear what you thought.  One of our favorite things as library professionals is discussing books with people!

24 Books Everyone Should Read

Lately, it seems like I can't go online without coming across a list of the x number of books everyone should read. Sometimes the lists really are for everyone; other times, they're just for women, and yet other times, they're for women in a certain age range. I've even stumbled across some that are geared toward people of a specific ethnicity.

A lot of the times, I don't agree with what books make these lists, so I thought I would make my own, with the help of a colleague. It's a mix of young adult fiction, adult fiction, and adult non-fiction. Some of the books might appear on other lists you can find online, but I wanted to make my ideal list.  It would take too long to write an explanation for each book on the list, so I've only written explanations for some of them.

Here's the list, in no particular order.

Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden
Splitting an Order by Ted Kooser
Some of Tim's Stories by S.E. Hinton
Hawke's Harbor S.E. Hinton

S.E. Hinton is best-known for her young adult novel, The Outsiders, but there's something to be said about her adult fiction, too. I'm convinced that most people don't even know that she's written adult fiction. Hawke's Harbor is about a vampire (if you're not a fan of Twilight, don't worry--Hawke's Harbor is nothing like it), and the story is haunting. Some of Tim's Stories is a book of short stories, and I love that not only did Hinton move away from young adult fiction, she also wrote a different format.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

My colleague picked this one because it's amazing and because she likes the way Niffenegger wrote it.

Columbine by Dave Cullen

And the Sea Will Tell by Vincent Bugliosi (not pictured)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Haiku: This Other World by Richard Wright

I stumbled across this book several years ago by accident. I was looking for a different poetry book, but when I saw Wright's book, I was surprised that the author of Black Boy and Native Son was also a poet.

Jesus's Son by Denis Johnson
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Leverage by Joshua Cohen
Lovely, Dark, and Deep by Amy McNamara
The Long Walk by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman)

Before there was The Hunger Games, there was The Long Walk. I've always loved Stephen King's novels, and this is no exception. He is a master at writing dystopian fiction.

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider
The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

The Jasper Dent trilogy by Barry Lyga (I Hunt Killers, Game, and Blood of My Blood)

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand

Suicide has been a big trend this year in young adult fiction. All the Bright Places and The Last Time We Say Goodbye are the two best novels I've read that deal with this topic.

Old Friend From Far Away by Natalie Goldberg

A lot of people talk about Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft when they talk about writing guides, and while I love King's book, I also love Old Friend From Far Away. It's probably not a well-known Natalie Goldberg book; people tend to talk about Writing Down the Bones (also by Goldberg) the most. What I love about Old Friend From Far Away is that even though it's geared toward writing memoir, it can also be used for writing fiction and poetry. As a bonus, the sections are short, and don't have to be read in order, so for writing exercises, it's great.

In One Person by John Irving

What books are on your list of books you think everyone should read?

Off the Derech

For memoir lovers, there is yet another genre to enjoy: Ex-Frum Memoirs. A wave of ex-Hasidic writers have emerged to share their personal stories of life after leaving the insular world of Hasidism. For members leaving these communities, the challenges include insufficient education, language barriers, and crushing custody and divorce battles.

The first memoir I was introduced to was Leah Vincent's memoir, Cut Me Loose: Sin and Salvation After My Ultra-Orthodox Girlhood. This riveting memoir was impossible to put down, so I simply gave up and read it in a single sitting. Vincent details her life as a rabbi's daughter in the ultra-Orthodox Yeshivish community and the events that propelled her into the secular world, where she pursued a master's degree at Harvard. Vincent doesn't shirk from sharing her family's heartless rejection, the following years of isolation, and psychological torment that included self-injury and sexual exploitation . However, this is also a testament of perseverance and realness, when conformity isn't an option. Leah Vincent also became a member and board member of the non-profit Footsteps, a non-profit dedicated to helping men and women "Step Off the Derech" (path). 

The next set of compelling memoirs I discovered were Deborah Feldman's memoirs. Feldman was raised by her grandparents in the Satmar Hasidic dynasty, after her mother left and her disabled father was unable to care for her. Feldman poignantly conveys her sense of isolation and longing through her reminiscences of childhood literature, the reading of which was a borderline subversive act in her community. The breaking point for Feldman came in an arranged marriage and a tightening vise of expectations and restrictions. Following the birth of her son, Feldman courageously left her community with her son and managed to do something that most women in her position are unable to do; retain custody of her child and obtain a divorce. Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection Of My Hasidic Roots, details her self-actualization through education, free-thinking, and the chutzpah to be herself. Her follow up memoir Exodus, is a refreshing and liberating reading experience that allows us to follow her on a pilgrimage of self-discovery and travels through Europe, where she pays homage to her beloved grandmother by visiting her village in rural Hungary. 

Shulem Deen is the founder and editor of the blog Unpious, and author of the outstanding memoir, All Who Go Do Not Return, a revelation about the particular heartbreaks a man can face in the Skverer sect, where his roles as husband and father were usurped, due to his intellectual curiosity and questioning that branded him an apostate. Deen's first so-called transgressions came merely from listening to the radio, visiting a public library, reading encyclopedias and then bringing a computer and TV into his home. Deen's excerpt of his book in Salon.com "This Is How Lost My Faith: Science Helped, Yes - But Finally I Accepted the Holy Texts Were Written by Man" sums up his experience as a non-believer, who has to honor his authentic self and embark on a new path, gathering new found values along the way.

Shalom Auslander is a remarkable essayist and his fiction is bitingly funny. His memoir Foreskin's Lament recounts his rebellious upbringing in an ultra-Orthodox, exceedingly dysfunctional family. Auslander's anxious childhood concept of G-d is a temperamental, smiting, and adversarial entity. His humor is reminiscent of David Sedaris, but infused with a blistering sarcasm that readers can live vicariously through. His short stories Beware of God and novel, Hope: A Tragedy is like enjoying Woody Allen's short stories with an even sharper edge.

More books about Hasidism:

Here and There: Leaving Hasidism, Keeping My Family by Chaya Deitsch

The Religious Thought of Hasidism:Text and Commentary translated and edited by Norman Lamm

The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch by Sue Fishkoff 

Around Around Sarah's Table: Ten Hasidic Women Share Their Stories of Life, Faith, and Tradition by Rivka Zakutinsky and Yaffa Leba Gottlieb                

Jewish Wisdom: Ethical, Spiritual, and Historical Lessons From the Great Works and Thinkers by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin