This week’s read: Happy & You Know Itby Laura Hankin
Just before the band Vagabond becomes a sensation, lead singer Claire Martin is replaced. She finds a job as the musician for a baby playgroup for well-to-do mommies in New York City. At first it’s just a job for Claire, but slowly the women accept her as part of their tight knit group and she enjoys being with them. Not everything is wonderful for these women. An expensive vitamin supplement they all take promises health and boundless energy. It seems to be too good to be true. What follows is an adventure of drama, wealth, privilege, and secrets.
Again, I stepped out of my reading comfort zone and am glad that I did. I tend to read historical fiction and cozy mysteries–this was more like a trip to a Real Housewives reality show!
Reviewers suggest this book for those who enjoy reading novels by Sophie Kinsella, Elin Hilderbrand and Elizabeth Berg. I would also say that if you enjoy reality TV, you’ll definitely find something to like here!
Happy & You Know It by Laura Hankin will be released on May 19!
This week we are profiling the online resources of The Henry Ford.
Located in Dearborn, Michigan, a short drive from Detroit, this institution boasts a collection of objects from 300 years of American history. The museum was dedicated on October 21, 1929 and opened to the public in 1933. For the first 10 years visitors dealt with construction as the exhibits weren’t fully complete until the early 1940s. You can learn more about the history of the campus here on their History & Missionpage.
While the museum and campus are closed, the website features many digital resources.
Their Virtual Visit page is a great place to start your exploration. Here you will find a list of objects with links to the Ford’s Google Maps project from 2015. The photos give you a better sense of scale of these artifacts and allow for 360 degree experience. A great example is the museum’s towering Allegheny Steam Locomotive. There are also links to the object’s record in the Digital Collections.
The Digital Collectionscan be explored much like the other institutions we have highlighted in these posts. Additionally there are the Expert Sets. These curated groupings are a great resource for educators building lesson plans as well as individuals looking for a more structured way of exploring the vast collection.
For researchers there is the Digital Resources page. There are Research Databaseswhich include oral histories, the library’s catalog, photographs, and historic films.
A really interesting resource is their collection of historic Cookbooks. You can see what the people in the past ate and get some ideas for your own culinary efforts.
This month we received The Last Stop on Market Street written by Matt De La Pena and illustrated by Christian Robinson through our Imagination Library subscription. This vibrantly illustrated children’s book tells the story of a young boy on a bus ride with his grandmother from church to the soup kitchen where they volunteer. Along their journey they encounter many different types of people and the little boy grows to appreciate the beauty in the diversity of the world.
I’ve used this as an opportunity to divert from our current narrow scope of Paw Patrol and Disney Princesses. Here are a few picture books I’ve added to our quarantine reading list to add a little more cultural diversity to our current confines.
If you are like me and love to travel, you might be lamenting your lack of summer trips in the months ahead. One of my most favorite facets of visiting new places is researching the best restaurants in the area and trying out delicious regional food and drink. Wanderlust might have to take a pause this summer, but luckily there are many fabulous cookbooks available that allow you to experience exciting global cuisine from the comfort of your own kitchen.
I’ve rounded up some recently published and upcoming cookbook titles that will take your taste buds on a tour! Travel stateside with recipes from L.A, Maine, and Louisiana or traverse across the pond to Palestine, Northern Italy, Sardinia, and Poland. Culinary adventure awaits you!
Keep your eyes peeled for these mouth-watering new titles in our catalog!
A-There is just no winning during a pandemic. Just when I was figuring out ways to manage my anxiety over being stuck at home, things are once again changing. So, as businesses reopen and more people head back to work, a whole new batch of worries have cropped up. Are we moving too fast? Do I remember how to be around people? Who am I kidding, I was never great at peopling. I am craving routine and structure (and salty snacks, but no way am I going to a store anytime soon), but can we keep the comfy quarantine clothes? Staff will soon be heading back to the library and I am pretty excited about that, but what is our new normal going to look like? Gah! So many questions. So many unknowns. We’ll get through this together.
B-Books, babies, and beach therapy.
I haven’t been doing to much reading with my eyes, but I have been bingeing audiobooks like crazy. I have revisited old favorites-Harry Potter, Skulduggery Pleasant, Bloody Jack-all available in Overdrive and Hoopla. All my comfort books have comforted me enough to be ready to look for new content. This week I fired up the ereader and took a look at some of my digital advance reader copies of upcoming books. Here are the two I decided to start reading:
Look for The Invisible Girl in October and The End of Her in July.
One of my favorite ways to relax is to get what I like to call beach therapy. It’s finally warming up enough to sit on some sun-baked sand and sift through the rocks looking for treasures. One of my favorite spots is close to the library-Bradstreet Landing in Rocky River. Today I treated myself to a trip to the drive through of one of my favorite local coffee shops and headed to the beach. Look at the fuzzy baby geese!
Wrapping up with this week’s C is RiverCon (yeah, it’s a stretch, but I am really excited about this event and want to keep talking about it)! RiverCon has an offical logo and it is FANTASTIC! I am thrilled to be able to share it with you today and remind you to register here for your RiverCon kit. Registration opens this Saturday! Each kit will have a comic craft, reading recommedations, Hoopla and Overdrive swag, a RiverCon magnet, and more.
RiverCon is official! Behold the gloreous new logo!
What is your favorite book this year and why is it your fave?
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? by Horace McCoy Two strangers with nothing to lose in depression-era California enter a marathon dance where they battle physical and mental exhaustion. I was fascinated by the parallels between 1930’s marathon dancing and modern-day reality televisions.
What book are you looking forward to reading next?
I recently started Schitt’s Creek after having been told to watch it by many people for the last few years.
What are you doing to occupy your time during these uncertain times?
I’m well into my second 3000 piece puzzle and I’ve been replaying the video game Mass Effect 3. Also, I have a sourdough starter from which I’ve made a few loaves of bread with already.
It’s been hard to concentrate lately. I know that many people also are feeling this way right now. I’m even (sniff sniff) having a hard time reading. So, for some escape this week, and for lots and lots and lots of laughs, I’ve been streaming NBC’s Superstore, starring America Ferrera. The quirky characters on this multi-season sitcom are coworkers at Cloud 9, a big box store, where hi-jinx ensue on the regular. This show just might help you stop missing your coworkers whileworking from home.
What else am I watching? Birds! We are an advanced-beginner bird-watching household. We have our dog-eared guide book and hurry each other to the window to see something new.
Ducks. Hummingbirds (Yes, they are back even with this snow!). Orioles. Nuthatches. I know these birds have always been in (or migrating through) my yard, but it feels like I am seeing them with new eyes. This shutdown has provided me with an opportunity to be present, it slows me down when I feel restless and uncertain and helps me appreciate what is around me– my backyard, my pets, my family. To be comforted by the familiar, and to be open to viewing the familiar in a new light are starting to feel like gifts.
I see more birds because I am looking more, which takes time. I know that eventually everything will bounce back and return to a new version of normal, but I aim to hold on a bit to the good stuff I’ve learned from this. When life picks its pace back up, I plan to keep taking the time to take time.
Despite the recent snow (sigh) it really is Spring, a season that brings out all sorts of newly created flora and fauna. Spring also reminds everything that went into hibernation it’s time to wake up! While it isn’t really news to anyone, this year -being inside at home so much- I realized this includes house spiders! ugh. I’m working very hard to embrace the challenge of living peaceably with these multi-legged, fast-moving arthropods. (It would help a lot if they would stop running across the ceiling or hiding in the bathroom…¯\_(ツ)_/¯) So, what have you learned about your house this Spring?
As I give my new spider frens plenty of space, I’m also attempting to grow an avocado tree from a seed! I’m mid-week two and no roots yet but we’re in the early stages… oh, the hope! In-between refilling the water and moving Ava Cado to the warmest spots around the kitchen I’m enjoying some upbeat songs on Freegal, the Library’s new ad-free music service -all you need is your Rocky River library card and pin number to start streaming music! Check out the different genres and why not try making your own playlist – enjoy!
Read it or Weep 