October is World Menopause Month!

October 1, 2019 | sobczakd

If you're one of the 40 million women over 45, you might be having a hot flash now. Menopause is a natural part of the aging process. There are some things to celebrate during the "change," and World Menopause Month's goal is to help you embrace it. Here some books in our health collection to that will hopefully provide the best ways to find balance and well-being.

The hormone fix : burn fat naturally, boost energy, sleep better, and stop hot flashes, the keto-green way by Anna Cabeca

As women approach menopause, many start to experience the physical and emotional indignities of hormonal fluctuation: metabolic stall and weight gain, hot flashes and night sweats, insomnia, memory loss or brain fog, irritability, low libido, and painful sex. Too often, doctors tell us that these discomforts are to be expected and that we will have to wait them out during "the change"; some of us even agree to be unnecessarily medicated. But Dr. Anna Cabeca's research and experience with thousands of her patients show that there is a fast-acting and nonpharmaceutical way to dramatically and permanently alleviate these symptoms.

The good menopause guide : the ultimate guide to looking and feeling your radiant best throughout the perimenopause, menopause and beyond by Liz Earle

Liz Earle, MBE, is one of the world's most respected and trusted authorities on wellbeing. Following up on her bestselling books, Skin and The Good Gut Guide, this beautifully illustrated guide shares all of the information, tips and advice you need for a healthy menopause. She provides guidance on how to balance your hormones, the importance of a nourishing diet, the myths and facts about HRT, osteoporosis, how to optimize bone health, and how to boost energy and self-esteem. An expert on beauty, Liz Earle also provides advice on how to take special care of skin, hair and nails, and how to combat aging with supplements. She also shares 60 nutritious recipes - including many suitable for vegetarians - to help you feel and look your best

September is National Yoga Awareness Month

September 9, 2019 | sobczakd

According to the National Yoga Association, September is National Awareness Month! If you are looking for a holistic mind-body connection, yoga is the exercise for you! Yoga combines strengthening and stretching poses with breathing and mediation. There are many different forms of yoga. So be sure to find one that's right for you to stay strong and in shape! Here some of the latest yoga books from our health collection to get you started!

Yoga for everyone : 50 poses for every type of body by Dianne Bondy

For years, yoga books have asked readers to bend over backward (literally!) to conform to their physical demands. It's time for the opposite-for readers to demand that yoga conforms to their individual needs. It's time for a yoga book to reflect the broader population who would benefit from a yoga practice geared toward them. This book offers yoga for everyone- big, small, elderly, pregnant, disabled-everyone. It's why that word is in the title. No matter who you are, you can do all 50 poses in this book. And then you can perform all 16 sequences, which combine different poses into one singular experience that focus on specific physical and mental issues.
No matter who you are or what you look or feel like, yes, you can keep doing yoga-and Yoga for Everyone will show you how! 

Close to om : stretching yoga from your mat to your life by Andrea Marcum

Before Andrea Marcum was a sought after celebrity yoga teacher, she was someone who thought she couldn't do yoga because she couldn't be still. Now after sixteen years of teaching yoga, she works with network executives, global brands, Hollywood actresses, and everyone in between.Yoga is the yoke of body, mind, and spirit, and in Close to Om, Marcum offers a program that teaches all three aspects of yoga. It is a program that combines the teaching of poses with the exploration of yoga philosophy and insight into meditation and mindfulness. By the end of Close to Om, you will not only know a lot about yoga and its poses, but you'll also know more about you: who you are, what you want, and how to get there-on and off your mat. The progression in Close to Om is the architecture of every yoga practice-and will show you that how you do your yoga is how you do your life.

National Lighthouse Day

August 7, 2019 | sobczakd

For over two hundred years, lighthouses have served as a beacon of light on American coastlines. The lighthouse symbolizes safety and security for ships and boats at sea. On August 7, 1789, Congress signed into law an act establishing federal control and support of lighthouses. But in 1939, the United States Coast Guard took over. Lighthouses have declined due to the expense of upkeep and modern navigational systems. The oldest lighthouse in the nation is the Boston Light on Little Brewster Island in Boston, Massachusetts. It was built in 1716 and is still operational. The Fort Gratiot Lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse in Michigan and it keeps watch over Lake Huron at the entrance of the St. Clair River. Want to learn more? Check out these resources about lighthouses from our collection!

Michigan's Haunted Lighthouses by Dianna Higgs Stampfler

Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state, with more than 120 dotting its expansive Great Lakes shoreline. Many of these lighthouses lay claim to haunted happenings. Former keepers like the cigar-smoking Captain Townshend at Seul Choix Point and prankster John Herman at Waugoshance Shoal near Mackinaw City maintain their watch long after death ended their duties. At White River Light Station in Whitehall, Sarah Robinson still keeps a clean and tidy house, and a mysterious young girl at the Marquette Harbor Lighthouse seeks out other children and female companions. Countless spirits remain between Whitefish Point and Point Iroquois in an area well known for its many tragic shipwrecks. Join author and Promote Michigan founder Dianna Stampfler as she recounts the tales from Michigan's ghostly beacons.

Lighthouse : an illuminating history of the world's coastal sentinels by R. G Grant

With rare archival blueprints and stories of daring adventure, Lighthouse captures the romance and awe-inspiring history of these isolated, life-saving towers, along with the incredible feats of engineering and invention it took to create them. Beginning in the 18th century and ending in the mid-19th century, this book examines these iconic buildings from every angle, chronicling the evolution of lighthouse design; the tremendous obstacles overcome during construction and upkeep; the thrilling tales of heroism and mercilessness of the seas; and the daily lives of the dedicated and often long-suffering keepers. With over 350 illustrations, this seasonless gift book provides the tales and original architectural plans for beloved lighthouses found throughout the world, including Eddystone, Sandy Hook, Montauk Point, Stannard Rock, Borkum Grosser, Green Point, Tillamook Rock, Cape Hatteras, Erie Harbor, and many more.

John Hughes, 1950-2009

August 6, 2019 | sobczakd

A decade ago on this day August 6, 2009, John Hughes passed away suddenly after suffering a fatal heart attack while on a walk in New York City during a visit with family. He was just 59 years old. Born in Lansing, Michigan and grew up in Grosse Pointe, Hughes began his career as an author of humorous essays and stories for the National Lampoon. He wrote and directed some of the funniest and most iconic movies capturing suburban teenage life in the 1980s and 1990s. Many of those films, now considered classics, would also launch careers of actors including Michael Keaton and members of the Brat Pack group. These films made a huge impression on our generation and in popular culture back then. And they're still relevant today. Enjoy!

John Hughes : a life in film by Kirk Honeycutt

He allegedly wrote Ferris Bueller's Day Off in four days, Planes, Trains and Automobiles in three days, The Breakfast Club in two days, and Vacation in a week. He never went to film school or studied cinema. And he spent most of his incredible career in the Midwest, far from the Hollywood Hills. John Hughes was indeed one of the most prolific and successful filmmakers in Hollywood history. He helped launch the careers of Andrew McCarthy, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Macaulay Culkin, and Judd Nelson. He made John Candy a household name. In this first illustrated tribute to the legendary filmmaker, author Kirk Honeycutt offers a behind-the-scenes look at the genius that was John Hughes--from his humble beginnings in direct mail to his blockbuster success with classics like Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, and Home Alone. Honeycutt also explores the darker side of John Hughes: his extreme sensitivity, his stormy professional relationships, and the devastation Hughes experienced after the death of his closest friend, John Candy. Featuring fresh interviews with Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Steve Martin, and Jon Cryer, and a foreword from Home Alone director Chris Columbus, this is the must-read for fans of John Hughes.

The breakfast club [videodisc]

John Hughes wrote and directed this quintessential 1980s high school drama featuring the hottest young stars of the decade. Trapped in a day-long Saturday detention in a prison-like school library are Claire, the princess (Molly Ringwald); Andrew, the jock (Emilio Estevez); John, the criminal (Judd Nelson); Brian, the brain (Anthony Michael Hall); and Allison, the basket case (Ally Sheedy). These five strangers begin the day with nothing in common, each bound to his/her place in the high school caste system. Yet the students bond together when faced with the villainous principal (Paul Gleason), and they realize that they have more in common than they may think, including a contempt for adult society. "When you grow up, your heart dies," Allison proclaims in one of the film's many scenes of soul-searching, and, judging from the adults depicted in the film, the teen audience may very well agree. Released in a decade overflowing with derivative teen films, The Breakfast Club has developed an almost cult-like status.

Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon

August 5, 2019 | sobczakd

Neil Armstrong was born on this day, August 5. He would have been 89. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men on the moon. It was back on May 25, 1961 that President Kennedy made a bold announcement before Congress to send an American safely to the moon and back before the end of the decade. At approximately 4:18 pm EDT, Neil Armstrong contacted NASA and said, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." About 6 hours later, with more than a half billion people watching on their black-and-white tv sets, he climbed down the ladder from the lunar module and proclaimed, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." If you want to learn about this great man, here's some resources to get you started!

Shoot for the moon [electronic resource] : The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11. by James Donovan

When the alarm went off forty thousand feet above the moon's surface, both astronauts looked down at the computer to see 1202 flashing on the readout. Neither of them knew what it meant, and time was running out...ON JULY 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. One of the world's greatest technological achievements-and a triumph of American spirit and ingenuity-the Apollo 11 mission was a mammoth undertaking involving more than 410,000 men and women dedicated to winning the space race against the Soviets. Set amid the tensions of the Cold War and the upheavals of the sixties, and filled with first-person, behind-the-scenes details, Shoot for the Moon is a gripping account of the dangers, the challenges, and the sheer determination that defined not only Apollo 11, but also the Mercury and Gemini missions that came before it. From the shock of Sputnik and the heart-stopping final minutes of John Glenn's Mercury flight to the deadly whirligig of Gemini 8, the doomed Apollo 1 mission, and that perilous landing on the Sea of Tranquility-when the entire world held its breath while Armstrong and Aldrin battled computer alarms, low fuel, and other problems- James Donovan tells the whole story.

The first men who went to the moon by Rhonda Gowler Greene

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued a challenge to the nation: land astronauts on the moon by the end of the decade. The Apollo program was designed by NASA to meet that challenge, and on July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 lifted off from Kennedy Space Center carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin Aldrin. Apollo 11's prime mission objective: "Perform a manned lunar landing and return." Four days after take-off, the Lunar Module "Eagle," carrying Armstrong and Aldrin, separated from the Command Module "Columbia," and descended to the moon. Armstrong reported back to Houston's Command Center, "The Eagle has landed." America and the world watched in wonder and awe as a new chapter in space exploration opened. Through verse and informational text, author Rhonda Gowler Greene celebrates Apollo 11's historic moon landing.

International Assistance Dog Week

August 4, 2019 | sobczakd
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

It's International Assistance Dog Week! From August 4 through August 11, we celebrate service dogs who help those with disabilities. Service dogs help individuals become more independent so they can live their best life. A service dog is highly trained. They may assist with basic tasks like helping to open a door or bringing the phone to the owner or alerts others if the owner is in distress. It takes as long as two years to train a service dog. Interested? Explore the American Kennel Club's article on Service Dog Training 101 or check out these resources from our collection!

Tuesday's promise : one veteran, one dog, and their bold quest to change lives by Luis Carlos Montalván

In this spectacular memoir, Luis and Tuesday brought their healing mission to the next level, showing how these beautifully trained animals could assist soldiers, veterans, and many others with mental and physical disabilities. They rescued a forgotten Tuskegee airman, battled obstinate VA bureaucrats, and provided solace to war heroes coast-to-coast. As Luis and Tuesday celebrated exhilarating victories, a grave obstacle threatened their work. Luis made great progress battling his own PTSD, but his physical wounds got so bad that he was wheelchair-bound. He needed to decide whether to amputate his leg and carry on with a bionic prosthesis. Even as he struggled with dramatic emotional and physical changes, ten-year-old Tuesday was lovingly by his side through it all. Luis' death in December 2016 was another terrible tragedy of the invisible wounds of war. This book was his last letter of love to his best friend, Tuesday, and to veterans, readers, friends, and fellow dog lovers everywhere. Never more timely than now, Tuesday's Promise is an inspiring story of love, service, teamwork, and the remarkable bond between humans and canines.

National Honey Bee Day is August 17

August 1, 2019 | sobczakd

Honeybees are responsible for pollinating crops and producing honey that provide one third of the food we eat. National Honey Bee Day recognizes the contribution of honeybees and how much of a positive impact they have on our world. Honeybees are amazing. They can fly for miles, defend their hive against predators, and survive harsh weather conditions. But they are vulnerable to climate change. National Honey Bee Day aims to raise public awareness to not the flight of the bumble bee but their plight. Interested in bees or beekeeping? Here are some resources to inspire any bee enthusiast. 

Honey bee hobbyist : the care and keeping of bees by N. E. (Norman E.) Gary

A Practical Guide to an Enjoyable HobbyBee keeping isn't just for the professional farmer--bees can be kept in any situation from simple backyards and rooftops to large expanses of farmland. Discover whether honey beekeeping is right for you, and find out everything you need to know to keep and acquire bees in this updated guide. Honey Bee Hobbyist, 2nd Edition will help novice beekeepers fully understand this exciting pastime. Dr. Norman Gary, a world-renowned honey bee expert and enthusiast, counsels beginners on all things honeybee related. He takes readers from finding bees and housing them to collecting honey and using their produce for pleasure and possible profit. With more than 100 fascinating color photographs and tips and tricks acquired over half a century of beekeeping, this practical handbook is your first step toward a wonderful and rewarding lifelong hobby.Honey Bee Hobbyist, 2nd Edition will show you how to: Start your own hive; Understand the life and times of honey bees; Care for your bees in each season and at every stage of life; Expand your apiary; Keep your neighbors happy; Educate others about bees; Get the most out of your new hobby.

The backyard beekeeper : an absolute beginner's guide to keeping bees in your yard and garden by Kim Flottum

More than a guide to beekeeping, this handbook features expert advice for:

  • Setting up and caring for your own colonies
  • Selecting the best location to place your new bee colonies for their safety and yours
  • The most practical and nontoxic ways to care for your bees
  • Swarm control
  • Using top bar hives
  • Harvesting the products of a beehive and collecting and using honey
  • Bee problems and treatments

What's New in the guide? Information for urban bees and beekeepers such as:

  • Using your smoker the right way 
  • Better pest management
  • Providing consistent and abundant good food 
  • Keeping your hives healthy

With this complete resource and the expert advice of Bee Culture editor Kim Flottum, your bees will be healthy, happy, and more productive. 

Adult Contemporary Book Club's Favorite Author

July 18, 2019 | sobczakd

Every third Monday of every month, the Adult Contemporary Book Club meets in the Community Room at 7PM to discuss books the group voted on to read. By far, the one author the group picked 7 times was...Jodi Picoult! She is our favorite author! We'll be reading her newest book, A spark of light, on Monday, September 16. Please join us! 

Leaving time : a novel by 1966- Jodi Picoult

Throughout her blockbuster career, Jodi Picoult has seamlessly blended nuanced characters, riveting plots, and rich prose, brilliantly creating stories that "not only provoke the mind but touch the flawed souls in all of us" (The Boston Globe). Now, in her highly anticipated new novel, she has delivered her most affecting work yet--a book unlike anything she's written before. For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe she was abandoned, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice's old journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother's whereabouts. Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest: Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons, only to later doubt her gifts, and Virgil Stanhope, the jaded private detective who'd originally investigated Alice's case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues. As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realize that in asking hard questions, they'll have to face even harder answers. As Jenna's memories dovetail with the events in her mother's journals, the story races to a mesmerizing finish. A deeply moving, gripping, and intelligent page-turner, Leaving Time is Jodi Picoult at the height of her powers.

My sister's keeper : a novel by 1966- Jodi Picoult

New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult is widely acclaimed for her keen insights into the hearts and minds of real people. Now she tells the emotionally riveting story of a family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness. Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate -- a life and a role that she has never challenged...until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister -- and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves. My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart, or let others lead you? Once again, in My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult tackles a controversial real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.

John Glenn, First American to Orbit the Earth

July 18, 2019 | sobczakd

On July 18, John Glenn would have turned 98. John Glenn became the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962 and later served as a United States Senator from Ohio. In 1998, NASA invited him to join the team aboard the space shuttle Discovery and at the age of 77, he became the oldest human ever to do so. He never gave up on his dream or fascination with flight. John Glenn was part of an elite group of astronauts known as the Mercury 7 who became national heroes. That historic mission was immortalized in the 1983 movie, The Right Stuff, starring Ed Harris as the iconic John Glenn. He passed away in 2016 at the age of 95. Godspeed, John Glenn.

The right stuff [videodisc]

The time was the late 1940s. World War II had just ended and the United States was entering into a new kind of war, a Cold War. New technology and the development of high-speed aircraft became one of the centerpieces of this new kind of conflict. The race to space between the United States and the Soviet Union had just begun. Adapted from Tom Wolfe’s best-selling book, The Right Stuff tells the heroic story of Chuck Yeager (the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound), the Flying Fraternity and the Mercury Astronauts – the first Americans in space. The bravery and daring exploits of these men captured the imagination of the American public during the 1940s and 1950s,and The Right Stuff re-creates these breathtaking events in emotionally riveting and suspenseful detail. 

The right stuff [large print] by Tom Wolfe

Millions of words have poured forth about man's trip to the moon, but until now few people have had a sense of the most engrossing side of the adventure; namely, what went on in the minds of the astronauts themselves - in space, on the moon, and even during certain odysseys on earth. It is this, the inner life of the astronauts, that Tom Wolfe describes with his almost uncanny empathetic powers, that made The Right Stuff a classic.

What to Read Next from Adult Contemporary Book Club

July 15, 2019 | sobczakd

Many of the authors we've chosen through the years have published new titles! Here's a list of what to read next from Adult Contemporary authors and enjoy reading throughout the 62 Days of Summer! 

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is "as good as anyone." Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides "physical, intellectual and moral training" so the delinquent boys in their charge can become "honorable and honest men." In reality, the Nickel Academy is a grotesque chamber of horrors where the sadistic staff beats and sexually abuses the students, corrupt officials and locals steal food and supplies, and any boy who resists is likely to disappear "out back." Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold onto Dr. King's ringing assertion "Throw us in jail and we will still love you." His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. The tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Formed in the crucible of the evils Jim Crow wrought, the boys' fates will be determined by what they endured at the Nickel Academy. Based on the real story of a reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers.

Lost roses : a novel by Martha Hall Kelly

It is 1914, and the world has been on the brink of war so often, many New Yorkers treat the subject with only passing interest. Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St. Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs. The two met years ago one summer in Paris and became close confidantes. Now Eliza embarks on the trip of a lifetime, home with Sofya to see the splendors of Russia: the church with the interior covered in jeweled mosaics, the Rembrandts at the tsar's Winter Palace, the famous ballet. But when Austria declares war on Serbia and Russia's imperial dynasty begins to fall, Eliza escapes back to America, while Sofya and her family flee to their country estate. In need of domestic help, they hire the local fortune-teller's daughter, Varinka, unknowingly bringing intense danger into their household. On the other side of the Atlantic, Eliza is doing her part to help the White Russian families find safety as they escape the revolution. But when Sofya's letters suddenly stop coming, she fears the worst for her best friend. From the turbulent streets of St. Petersburg and aristocratic countryside estates to the avenues of Paris where a society of fallen Russian émigrés live to the mansions of Long Island, the lives of Eliza, Sofya, and Varinka will intersect in profound ways. In her newest powerful tale told through female-driven perspectives, Martha Hall Kelly celebrates the unbreakable bonds of women's friendship, especially during the darkest days of history.

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