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Library Topics
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Address: 301 N.
Pennsylvania |
Welcome to National Creative Frugality Week, to help us give our post-Christmas budgets a break, and Direct Deposit Week. Wednesday marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year, year 2699 of the ancient Chinese calendar, designated as the Year of the Snake.
Wednesday is also Just Do It Day - Make the Connection, which encourages us to plan a vacation to connect ourselves to other people and places. In addition, Wednesday is National Compliment Day, so compliment at least five people today; they'll feel happier, and so will you!
Thursday is the anniversary of the First Scheduled Transcontinental Flight, non-stop from California to New York on an American Airlines 707 in 1959. Thursday is also the 40thanniversary of the First Televised Presidential News Conference, which was held by John F. Kennedy in 1961, five days after he was inaugurated the 35thPresident.
Friday is Fun At Work Day, and Monday is National Puzzle Day.
WHAT'S HAPPENING?
At Wednesday's 10:00 a.m. and 3:30 story times, participants will celebrate the Chinese New Year with stories and crafts. Saturday morning's 10:00 story time features a tea party story and craft time.
For the Free Fourth Friday Fun for Adults program, at 2:00 on January 26, at the Children's Branch, adults can make crafts with a Valentine theme. Everything is provided, but space is limited to 20 adults, so advance registration is required. To reserve your space, call 622-7101 and ask for the Children's Department. Since Fourth Friday Fun is a kid free zone, no childcare is provided.
BOOK TALK
The library's Bob Kerwick provides this week's book information. It has been thirty-seven years since John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, but the fascination with his life and death goes on. The library has many, many non-fiction books on all aspects of Kennedy's life, his service as a Naval Officer, as a Senator and as President. Unfortunately, there are very few novels about the man. I did find two in our library and enjoyed both of them. They both fall into a category of "Alternative History," in which a writer will try to imagine how things would have been different "if only."
George Bernau's "Promises To Keep" is a fictionalized account of the Kennedy assassination with a twist. JFK is badly wounded but does not die. His Vice President and fierce political foe is named acting President but is forever chafing at the bit because he needs to obtain the President's permission for everything that he does. Plans are proposed, deals are made, and conspiracies still smolder. In the end, the Kennedy-like character muses on what the world would have been like if he had "died that day in Dallas."
"The Only Thing To Fear," by David Poyer, portrays Kennedy as a 27-year- old Naval Officer who, while convalescing from injuries received in the Pacific Theater, is assigned to the staff of President Franklin Roosevelt. His job is to seek out a traitor and possible assassin on the President's staff. The author does a great job in bringing to life the legendary figures of a half-century ago. Both of these novels will delight and entertain and allow us to see recent history in a new light.
DID YOU KNOW?
According to researchers at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, our brains have a funny spot. A small region of the frontal lobe is critical to the ability to understand jokes. This explains why stroke victims who sustain injury to this part of the brain lose their sense of humor.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." (Thomas Edison)
JUDY ARMSTRONG, 624-7276
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Address: 301 N.
Pennsylvania |
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