Tea is a beverage that can be enjoyed anytime. During the cold winter months, I drink a lot of hot tea. I love to curl up with a good book and a cup of hot tea. It’s the perfect drink for sitting and watching the snow fall. When the winter flu or cold strikes, tea is the drink for me. There is just something so comforting about the beverage.
The Mid-Continent Public Library is always interested in providing the finest materials for young readers. To this end, the library collects many award winning books: Mark Twain, Caldecott, KC3, Newberry, Building Block, and Show Me Award nominees and winners; and they all show up at the Claycomo Branch. No one can predict what books any individual reader might like, but most readers can be reasonably confident that they’re choosing a quality book when they stick with the award books. These awards cover reading levels from the earliest readers (listeners) through young adult readers.
I love audiobooks. Shall I say it again? I love audiobooks!! I listen to them constantly. My family doesn’t understand me. They don’t understand how much I love someone else’s melodious voice speaking to me over my headphones. They don’t understand how I can tune everything else out, and listen to the sounds of some other worldly person speaking soft sounds in my ears. They don’t get that I can paint a room, vacuum a closet, scrub a toilet, or mop a floor while listening to someone take me away from all of that tedious, everyday, monotonous stuff.
What does that really mean anyway? For years, I have sung that song on New Year’s Eve, and I haven’t the foggiest idea what I am singing about. And, I am not the only one. According to a wonderful article from the Chicago Tribune in 1995 (found on the Mid-Continent databases), barely anyone does. Well, I’m here to change that. Scottish (makes sense) poet Robert Burns is listed as the lyricist in late 1700’s, but Guy Lombardo is readily credited as the man who made the song popular in the US. "Auld Lang Syne" actually means "old long since".
Kwanzaa is a celebration in the United States to honor African-American heritage and culture. It is a weeklong celebration that runs from December 26th - January 1 each year. The festival includes activities such as lighting a candleholder called a kinara. The seven candles in the kinara represent each of the seven principles of Kwanzaa, and a different candle is lit on each day of the celebration. The seven principles are: Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity, and Faith.
I recently read a great story by one of my favorite authors, Charles De Lint. The Mystery of Grace was nominated for two Canadian book awards; the Sunburst and the Evergreen. It’s an urban fantasy set in the American Southwest. Part love story, ghost story and mystery, it ties in classic hot rods, rockabilly music and Native American, Hispanic and Celtic magic. The main character, Grace, is recently dead and stuck in an in-between place that looks just like her home. She can cross over to our world only twice a year.
Do you like to play games like chess, checkers and Monopoly? Children 8 and up, come to the library the first Tuesday of each month to play games with other children. The first session of this program will be January 4th starting at 7:00 p.m.
Library Pages: NOT Robots Bent on World Domination
You’ve probably never really given us Pages a lot of thought (unless, of course, you’ve seen these blog posts). We’re just workers, marching to and fro, carrying our workloads, and trying to blend into the background while carrying out our mandate: Shelve all unshelved library items, or die trying…
Okay so, dying has absolutely nothing to do with it, but you get the picture.
