NonFiction

One of the best things about Michigan is its long summer days. These give us a feeling that we have more time to do many things! If you’re feeling crafty, but never have time to create during the winter, we have some new craft books that will inspire you to make some beautiful items.

When I first saw the title Pretty Little Cozies, I thought, just how many tea cozies can there be? But this is not just about tea cozies. This lovely book has ideas for protecting many of our belongings - like an iPod cover, credit card holder, laptop cover, Wii control protectors, as well as the typical coffee cup holders, casserole covers and many more cute and clever projects.

If you are an environmentalist as well as a crafter, check out Eco-Craft: Recycle, Recraft, Restyle. The author says that the book "…is an homage to the idea that there is a secret life in even the lowliest garbage…." Her projects for finding these secret lives use items such as those awful plastic clamshell packages, recycled yellow pages, knitted strips of shrunken wook sweaters, six-pack beverage holders, and even woven strips of inner tube. The results are fun and not like many of the ugly recycled crafts from back in the ‘70’s.

And if during these long summer nights you still feel as if you don’t have much time, try a book that uses only one ball of yarn for projects. We have One Ball Knits: Purses and One Ball Knits: Accessories:20 stylish designs made with a single ball  skein, hank, or spool as well as One Skein Wonders and others.

For quick scrapbooking projects, look at Outstanding Mini Albums: 50 ideas for Creating Mini Scrapbooks. These would be perfect for capturing some of your favorite moments from summer 2009. Enjoy!

The next ACT tests in 2011 are April 9 and June 11.
Are you ready?  The library is here to help!

First, to get you started, we've got all sorts of books (many with accompanying CDs and DVDs).  Just go to the Catalog tab at the top of this page and search the key words ACT study guides in the catalog.

Next, head over to the Research tab, click through to the alphabetical list of databases and choose Learn A Test.  With your library card number you'll gain access to a real treasure trove.  After registering (for first time users), click on College Preparation on the left panel, then choose ACT Preparation -- there, you'll find ACT practice tests and free online preparation courses.  In addition, if you go back to the Learn A Test front page and click on ebooks (under What Do I Do Now?), you'll find a complete library of free ebooks such as ACT Exam Success, and many more on building reading, math, and writing skills.

Finally, these web sites should help you out:

ACT - the official site
ACT Exam Practice Tests
Test Prep Review for the ACT

With all this help, you can't help but ace the ACT!  Good luck!
 

The final physical contact between humans and the Hubble telescope occurred last week.  Visit http://hubblesite.org to find out all about Hubble and its successor, the Webb Space Telescope.  You can also watch videos of Servicing Mission 4. 

Two of the library's latest acquisitions on the Hubble are:

The 2009 Pulitzer Prize winners have been announced.  This year's fiction winner is Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout.  The winner for general non-fiction is Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon.  The history selection is The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed.  American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham took the prize for history.

For a full list of winning titles, visit the Pulitzer Prize website.

On this day, many Jewish communities will light candles to remember and honor victims of the Holocaust (http://urj.org/holidays/hashoah).   Here are the most recent acquisitions on the Holocaust for adults:

My Germany: a Jewish writer returns to the world his parents escaped by Lev Raphael

Defiance by Nechama Tec

The journal of Helene Berr by Helene Berr