Road Trip!

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Here we are at the Fourth of July.  Are you enjoying your summer so far?  Are you looking for some new things to do?  We have new books at the library that can lead you into some fun summer activities.

Keep Out!  Build Your Own Backyard Clubhouse sounds like a fun time for kids and dads.  The book takes readers step by step from gathering the right tools and materials to building the roof and doing the finishing work.  It’s written for both kids and adults, with ideas for customizing your project.

If cooking is your idea of fun, check out Put ‘em Up! Fruit: A Preserving Guide and Cookbook: Creative Ways to Put ‘em Up, Tasty Ways to Use ‘em Up.  The growing season is behind schedule this year, but strawberries could be your first project out of the book.   Some of the recipes sound pretty interesting, like five-spice plum sauce, blueberry ketchup, and maraschino cherries.  Can you really make those at home?! 

For many people, summer means camping.  If you’d like some advice before you give it a try or if you want to improve your experience of roughing it, take a look at Camping’s Top Secrets: A Lexicon of Expert Camping Tips.  We have the 25^th anniversary version of the book, which just came out in March.  It covers the whole experience, including things like forecasting the weather, treating drinking water, handling animal encounters, and using maps and GPS.  Maybe if I read it sometime, camping won’t seem like so much work.  But I doubt it.

If you’d rather drive around and see interesting scenery on your vacation (me, me!), try the National Geographic Guide to Scenic Highways & Byways: The 300 Best Drives in the U.S.  The book describes 300 scenic routes all around the United States, including history and points of interest.  This one was also just published in March, so it’s very up-to-date.  Check out the department of transportation website for each state you’re visiting, of course, for the most up-to-date information on road construction, which could throw a wrench into your plan for a beautiful drive.

Looking for something different in your travels?  We have books that guide you to the less-traveled, less-crowded places.  We have brand-new Off the Beaten Path books about Connecticut, Colorado, and Georgia.  We also have National Geographic’s Secrets of the National Parks: The Experts’ Guide to the Best Experiences Beyond the Tourist Trail.  This book seems like a great idea for those of us who have seen the main areas of places like the Badlands and Wind Cave many times and would like to find something we haven’t seen before.

Do you like to go out to eat at interesting restaurants during your summer trips?  Guy Fieri’s new book Diners, Drive-Ins, Dives: The Funky Finds in Flavortown: America’s Classic Joints and Killer Comfort Food can give you plenty of interesting ideas.  A few of them are right in the Twin Cities because several of the people who work on his show are from there, so you can visit some of the Food Network star’s favorite restaurants with just a short drive. 

There’s plenty of summer left to get going on any of these activities.  Or just stop in to get some light summer entertainment in the form of a thriller, a mystery, or a romance novel.  We’ll have a display of some of those “beach reads” near our movies this month.

This 'n That

By Jan Pease

A very large tree has sprouted near the children’s desk.  It is a book display celebrating the summer reading theme, “Dig Into Reading,” one of the largest and most dramatic displays ever seen at the Litchfield library.  A giant flag on the east wall of the children’s department is titled “Where Do You Read?”   If you give us a picture of yourself reading in your favorite spot, we will put it up on the wall.  Digger the mole is hiding here and there in the children’s department, and children are guessing how many gummy worms are in the jar.  Summer things are already happening here, even if our patrons come in wearing hoodies and jackets.  Come in, get your children signed up for summer reading, and help them avoid summer reading loss.  Math worksheets are also available at the children’s desk, because children lose even more of their math skills over the summer break. 

As a younger mom, I didn’t understand how much students lost over the summer.  We always tried to get out daughter outside and doing.  She seemed to do all right in school, and usually tested right at grade level.  Now that I know that students usually lose about 2.6 months of math advancement over the summer, I know that I should have been very diligent about that during the summer.  Reading wasn’t as much of an issue at our house, because when our daughter discovered our  treasure trove of history books, she read at a college level without knowing it.  Sometimes ignorance is bliss.  

Please give your children the gift of experiences this summer.  Visits to the library, to museums, to parks, to plays or musicals, talking to older people in your family all provide rich memories that will stay in the hearts of your children forever.

Classes visited the library the final weeks of May and first week of June.  I visited Ripley School to make up for a visit cancelled by the weather, and also had the privilege of visiting the Kindergarten classes.  We enjoyed reading Mo Willems’ new book, “That is NOT a Good Idea.”   Students read the book aloud with me, especially as my voice became weary.  The anticipated ending of the book is that the goose becomes a key ingredient in soup, but Mr. Willems gives it a twist.  The goose shoves the fox into the pot and serves her children fox soup.  Perhaps it was a little too twisted for the youngest students, but they laughed and laughed.   

On a personal note, I’m enjoying rehearsals for a reader’s theater presentation of “Steel Magnolias,” which will be presented June 22nd at 7 and June 23rd at 3 at the Litchfield Opera House.  I am honored to be among a circle of friends gathered together by Carole Wendt.  I love to act, but have trouble learning lines and songs these days.  To be honest, moving around onstage is also a problem for me.   So reader’s theater is perfect.   The challenge of finding a character’s voice and becoming that person, without makeup and costumes, can be difficult, but it’s rewarding.  Ya’ll come over to the opera house and see us, y’hear?

Hot books for hot days

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Every year there are articles and radio stories on the best books to read that summer.  I was telling my husband that I’m eagerly waiting to see those lists, and he wondered why anyone would think adults have more time to read during the summer.   That’s when most of us are too busy to read!  At our house, that’s when we have gardening and home improvement projects to work on in the long daylight hours.  I know that’s the case for many of you, so that’s actually why our library has a reading program for adults in the winter. 

But I know that teachers and other people who work in schools usually have more time to read over the summer.  Some people take books with them on vacation (which is why these lists are sometimes titled “beach reads”).  And others just read all the time, so news about the new books of any season is always welcome.  Here are a few of the books that I think will be big this summer:

Dan Brown has a new book out, so that has to be big.  Professor Robert Langdon from the Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, and The Lost Symbol is back in the novel Inferno.  This one is about Dante’s The Divine Comedy and the art it inspired, and it is as full of thrilling conspiracies as Brown’s other books.

Waking Up in Heaven: A True Story of Brokenness, Heaven,and Life Again by Crystal McVea is currently a big hit in our library system.  It’s a nonfiction book along the lines of Heaven is for Real and Proof of Heaven, telling the story of a woman’s near-death experience.

It seems that everyone is reading The Great Gatsby since the new movie came out.  People have been telling me that they’ve never read this Jazz Age classic by Minnesotan F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Do I dare admit that I haven’t, either?  You might need to reserve a copy to get your hands on it this summer.

If you like Gatsby, try The Other Typist, a new novel by Suzanne Rindell.  It’s described as a black comedy about a stenographer accused of murder in 1920’s New York City.  It’s being compared to The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has a new novel out: And the Mountains Echoed.  It’s a story of family and choices.  Beginning in 1952 Afghanistan, the novel starts with a folktale and a heartrending separation of siblings, then goes on to cover the stories of three generations.  Reviewers are saying that Hosseini’s writing is more beautiful than ever.

Orphan Train is a popular novel by Christina Baker Kline that has gotten good reviews.  With themes of friendship and second chances, the book is a story of a teenage Penobscot girl who is about to age out of the foster care system.  She is assigned to a community service position as an alternative to juvenile detention, and she discovers that the elderly woman she is helping had difficult, rootless growing up years of her own: she was one of the children who rode an orphan train from New York to the Midwest. 

Besides the books I’m reading with our library’s adult book club, my summer reading list mostly consists of textbooks and articles for a class I’m taking on library services for kids.  I hope your summer reading list will be much more exciting than mine, and that this article will give you a new book idea or two.  We always have fresh new books here at the library, so stop in during your busy summer to check one out.

Summertime and the Cooking is Easy

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian


Summer has begun and the Fourth of July is almost here. With some of the hot days we’ve had, you might have run through your arsenal of grilled meats and pasta salads and be looking for something new. Or maybe you have a family picnic or barbecue with friends coming up, and you’d like to find an interesting dish to bring. The library has several new cookbooks you can borrow to find some new, unique recipes.

The Fire Island Cookbook, by Mike DeSimone and Jeff Jenssen, is an entertaining-focused cookbook with complete menus intended for each weekend from Memorial Day through Labor Day. The authors designed the recipes to include seasonal produce. Some of the menus can be prepped early in the day before the hosts leave for the day, say for the beach, with last-minute things to be grilled when guests arrive in the evening. Others are very elaborate for those who love gourmet cooking. All include wine suggestions.

Martha’s American Food is Martha Stewart’s latest offering, called a “love letter to American food” by the publisher. It’s divided into sections by region, plus a section called “all-American” which includes basics like blueberry pancakes, mashed potatoes, and three-bean salad. The Midwest section features some regional products, like wild rice and corn, and some regional ethnicities, with recipes like sauerbraten and lingonberry punch. Never fear, Martha did remember to include a hotdish recipe.

Food Network fans may want to borrow Weeknights with Giada, by Giada De Laurentiis. This cookbook focuses on suppers that are quick to make – some in 15 minutes or less. I don’t know about you, but I take longer than that just to chop things. Quick cooking times certainly help keep the kitchen cooler, though. Giada includes breakfast-for-dinner recipes, meatless Monday vegetarian recipes, sandwiches, and hearty salads.

Another cookbook with quick recipes is Jamie Oliver’s Meals in Minutes. Jamie says that you can organize your kitchen for faster cooking and learn techniques that speed it up, as well. He gives complete menus with instructions listed in order of preparation to help you get the meal done as quickly as possible. I think I could use a cookbook that tells me to start cooking this first, switch over to that, and remember to go back and do something more to that first thing, especially when managing more than one new recipe.

Baking may not be at the top of your mind in the summer, but the cover of Cake Boy by Eric Lanlard features a berry-topped cake that looks perfect for this time of year. The cookbook goes beyond cakes to include recipes for macaroons, Key lime pie cheesecake, and rhubarb and apple tart, all of it with gorgeous photos.

The photo of raw pigs’ feet on the cover of Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal, by Jennifer McLagan, is not so pretty, but most of the photos inside look delicious. This cookbook captures the trend of cooking the whole animal, nose to tail, which is actually a return to traditional practices of making good use of resources. The book explains the history of eating the most economical cuts of meat and why and how we have come to avoid them in the modern world. The recipes include things that are not at all troubling, such as Brisket Braised with Carmelized Onions and Chile, and things that would give most of us pause, such as Minted Tripe & Pea Salad. Foodies who enjoy meat, this book is for you.

Our library offers a broad variety of cookbooks, traditional and trendy, to help you find new recipes – or just have fun looking at pictures of food. Have a great Fourth of July, and happy cooking!

Find Great Summer Reads at the Library

It’s already August.  If you’re looking for a book to take with you on vacation or you’d just like another good book to read before the summer’s over, our library has some good summer reads.  These titles have come up on lists of this year’s best summer books, from CNN to Oprah to NPR.  The Litchfield Library owns copies of all of these books, and a few are available to download from our new e-book and audiobook service.

One of this summer’s big hits is In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson.  Larson is the author of the bestseller Devil in the White City.  In the Garden of Beasts is a nonfiction book that reads like a thriller.  It’s the story of the first American ambassador to Nazi Germany and his daughter, who gets involved with Nazi high society and has an affair with the head of the Gestapo.  This is a title we have available as an e-book, as well as in print at Litchfield.

Another of this summer’s big books is State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.  A pharmaceutical researcher goes into the Amazon jungle in search of the remains of a colleague and to find her former mentor, who is studying a tribe’s ability to bear children at an advanced age.  This novel is described as a serious work of literature with a strong sense of place and plenty of adventure and suspense.

Like Larson’s and Patchett’s books, The Year We Left Home is on multiple lists of the best summer reads of the year.  This novel, by Jean Thompson,  is the story of an Iowa farm family over the span of three decades, from the 1970s to the 2000s. Chapters are narrated by a variety of characters, all searching for happiness and meaning in their lives.  Many reviewers praised the realism of the characters.

Another literary adventure novel that came out this summer is Once Upon a River, by Bonnie Jo Campbell.  Her 16-year-old main character is described as a female Huckleberry Finn, who sets out on the Stark River in Michigan to find her missing mother after the death of her father.  The story is described as violent but inspiring.

The HBO series Game of Thrones has renewed interest in George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series.  The first novel in the series, A Game of Thrones, came out in 1996, and the newest  installment, A Dance with Dragons, just came out this month.  It’s topping the best-seller lists.  We have this title available as an e-book, too.

Sister is the debut novel by Rosamund Lupton, an experienced screenwriter.  It’s a thriller about a woman investigating her sister’s supposed suicide, which she is sure is really a murder.  Reviewers say it’s both a page-turning, fast-paced mystery and a heartwarming story about the bond between sisters.  This, too, is available as an e-book on our Overdrive website.

The newest version of the Wyatt Earp story is Doc, by Mary Doria Russell.  Russell researched Doc Holliday’s life from his aristocratic beginnings in Georgia.  She based her idea of Doc’s character on the evidence that he was very close to his mother, who died of tuberculosis when he was fifteen.  The novel is a blend of fact and fiction, humor and action, set in Dodge City.  This is a title that we have available as a downloadable audiobook on our Overdrive site.

As for my own summer reading, now that I’m done with textbook reading for my summer class, I’ve started on The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan.  I think I’ll move on to The Hunger Games next.  I like young adult fantasy; there are so many good books in that genre these days.  I’d love to re-read Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows now that I’ve seen the last movie, but there are so many interesting books I haven’t read yet!   Whatever you enjoy reading, I hope you’ll find a book that interests you before the summer is up.

June Events Brought to You by the Library

by Mary Hansen and Beth Cronk, Litchfield library staff
5/26/11

As summer approaches quickly, the Litchfield Public Library has programming planned for all ages.

Minnesota author Mike Roberts will be at the library on June 2nd. Mike will speak about his experiences as the last lighthouse keeper at Split Rock Lighthouse and his work with the U.S. Coast Guard. The program will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the library meeting room. Mike lives in St. Cloud and is the author of the book The Last Keeper at Split Rock.

On June 7th the Litchfield Library will be hosting the event “Most Haunted Locations of Minnesota”. Join us and find out where you can supposedly see possessed statues come to life, pick up a phantom hitchhiker, encounter a ghost train, enjoy a play in a haunted theatre, or have your car pushed by spirits. This presentation will be given by Chad Lewis. Chad is a paranormal researcher and author for Unexplained Research, L.L.C. He holds a Master's of Science degree in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Chad has trekked across the world in search of the paranormal. He has been featured on the Discovery Channel’s “A Haunting,” ABC’s “World’s Scariest Places,” and hundreds of radio interviews, TV appearances, and newspaper articles. Chad is the author of the Hidden Headlines series and also the co-author of the Road Guide to Haunted Locations book series. Chad has presented at hundreds of libraries, universities, schools, and private functions for crowds of 7 to 700.

The kick-off for the summer reading program, One World, Many Stories, will be on Thursday, June 9th, at the Dassel, Grove City and Litchfield Libraries. Musician Dennis Warner will entertain us with music related to the theme for this year. Dennis is a folk/Americana singer and songwriter from Minnesota who performs all over the country and has recorded eight albums. He accompanies himself on guitar and is known for humorous, family-oriented concerts. He has been featured on National Public Radio and has performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Grove City Library’s kick-off event begins at 10:00 a.m., with Dennis performing at 11:00. Dennis will perform at the beginning of the Dassel Library’s event at 3 p.m. The kick-off will run from 6 - 8 p.m. at the Litchfield Library, with Dennis performing at 6:30.

The Minnesota Historical Society, along with the Litchfield Public Library and the Litchfield Opera House Association, will be sponsoring a concert called “Happy Days are Here Again” at the Litchfield Opera House on June 12th at 1 p.m. This free concert features Rhonda Laurie, a former New Yorker and now a Twin Cities jazz and cabaret singer, who is known for her sophisticated but warm voice and stage presence. Rhonda has performed at The Dakota, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Lake Harriet Bandshell, and the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, as well as many other venues. This Greatest Generation show is a musical journey with songs and stories from the 1930s through the 1950s. It should be fun for all ages.

You don’t need to sign up or pay admission to attend any of these programs. Just mark your calendars and come join us for some entertainment and culture to start off your summer!

Thinking Spring

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian
5/19/11

Spring is starting so slowly this year that we’re all getting impatient to get in the garden, in the fields, or just outside in the yard. While you’re waiting for the weather to cooperate, check out some books from our library that can help you plan for the warm weather ahead.

Homegrown Harvest: A Season-by-Season Guide to a Sustainable Kitchen Garden is a new book from the American Horticultural Society. Like the title says, it gives the gardener tips and to-do lists for each season, from early spring to late winter. It’s a beautifully-photographed and practical gardening book.

River Cottage Every Day will motivate you to get creative with farmers’ market offerings and your garden produce when it becomes available. This book is written by British farmer/cook/cookbook author Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, with a focus on using fresh, local, seasonal foods to cook family meals.

If spring means construction to you, the new book Framing a House may be useful. Former Fine Homebuilding editor and builder Roe Osborn created this comprehensive book that’s full of detailed photographs. It covers everything from the planning process and framing the first-floor deck to framing interior walls and installing exterior trim.

The New Backyard Idea Book is full of up-to-date ideas for porches, patios, outdoor rooms, sheds, and pools. If you’re dreaming of a new outdoor space, perhaps a well-organized potting shed or a cozy furnished porch, you’ll be inspired by this book.

If you’d like to do something new with your yard but you want to be frugal or environmentally-conscious, check out The Revolutionary Yardscape: Ideas for Repurposing Local Materials to Create Containers, Pathways, Lighting, and More. You’ll get ideas for turning your old junk into garden décor or junkyard or thrift store finds into pathways, garden lights, or arbors. The reader is encouraged to think outside the box and find creative uses for found objects.

Another do-it-yourself book for improving your outdoor spaces is Landscaping with Stone: A Sunset Outdoor Design & Build Guide. This book gives step-by-step instructions and hundreds of photo examples for using stone to create paths, walls, patios, and other yard and garden enhancements. It also covers plants that complement stonework.

If you’re a real do-it-yourselfer and you enjoy fishing, take a look at Making Wooden Fishing Lures: Carving and Painting Techniques That Really Catch Fish! This book provides patterns and step-by-step instructions for creating over 20 lures, covering surface, floating, diving, and sinking types.

If you’re planning summer travel and you’re over 50, you may find Discounts, Deals, and Steals: For Those Over 50 Who Don’t Want to Pay to Play useful for keeping expenses down. This guide from Readers’ Digest includes tips on getting low rates at hotels, rental car companies, museums, theme parks, and many other venues, travel-related or not.

Finally, if you’re coaching a kids’ baseball team this spring and summer, check out Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Baseball. This new book covers drills for developing fielding, outfield, throwing, pitching, and hitting skills, as well as basics on organizing your team and understanding your role on game days.

Whatever spring and summer activities are occupying your mind, I hope you’ll be able to find something useful about it at the library.