Smythie
The monthly e-newsletter of the Smyth Public Library
June 2020
Volume 14, No.3
COMING SOON!
Limited reopening…
Watch your emails for details…
In the meantime…
We understand the desperate!
The library is still closed but we are now putting out reserved materials for your pickup. Please reserve online or call or email if you would like to access any materials. Materials will be left under cover behind the large interlibrary ‘mailbox’ next to the meeting room door. We will let you know when the materials are there so you can pick them up safely with no human contact. Be safe. Read well.
The fine print: At this point, we do not have a policy on the return of the books, so they will be automatically renewed until we have one. We are working with the state library and ALA to develop a process that is safe for everyone.
SUMMER CONCERT MUSIC SERIES POSTPONED TO NEXT YEAR!
BUT GOOD NEWS
SUMMER READING PROGRAMS AND
VIRTUAL STORY TIME WITH JAYDA
COMING SOON!
Events…
Heidi Deacon is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Lighthouses of the Outer Banks with Laura Keyes
Jun 30, 2020 @7:00 PM
Join Zoom Meeting…here’s the skinny…
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/99925388891?pwd=blAyU0pTelhRZ2o5SDRTZCtSMi9LQT09
Meeting ID: 999 2538 8891
Password: 587264
One tap mobile
+13126266799,,99925388891#,,1#,587264# US (Chicago)
+16465588656,,99925388891#,,1#,587264# US (New York)
Dial by your location
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+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
Meeting ID: 999 2538 8891
Password: 587264
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/acqfJUvdTd
HOW-TO’s
Nothing to see here…move along… 😊
New on our shelves…
New Fiction…
Hello, summer Andrews, Mary Kay
Sanditon Austen, Jane
Walk the wire Baldacci, David
One little lie Coble, Colleen
Wrath of poseidon Cussler, Clive
The goodbye man Deaver, Jeffery
A week at the shore Delinsky, Barbara
Shakedown: a novel Gingrich, Newt
Fake truth Goldberg, Lee
Credible threat Jance, Judith A.
Devoted Koontz, Dean R.
Death at the Château Bremont Longworth, M. L.
Death in the Vines: a Verlaque and Bonnet Provencal mystery Longworth, M. L.
Murder in the Rue Dumas: a Longworth, M. L.
Murder on the Île Sordou: a Verlaque and Bonnet Provençal mystery
Longworth, M. L.
The glass hotel: a novel Mandel, Emily St. John
The mirror & the light Mantel, Hilary
The water keeper Martin, Charles
The talented Mr. Varg McCall Smith, Alexander
Fearless Michaels, Fern
Truth and justice Michaels, Fern
Dead land Paretsky, Sara
Robert B. Parker’s Grudge match Lupica, Mike
The 20th victim Patterson, James
Texas outlaw Patterson, James
Close up Quick, Amanda
Hour of the assassin: a novel Quirk, Matthew
A conspiracy of bones Reichs, Kathy
Golden in death Robb, J. D
Hideaway Roberts, Nora
The last odyssey: a novel Rollins, James
To wake the giant: a novel of Pearl Harbor Shaara, Jeff
The last tourist Steinhauer, Olen
Girls of summer: a novel Thayer, Nancy
The last trial Turow, Scott
Bombshell Woods, Stuart
Hit list Woods, Stuart
New Non-Fiction…
The gift of forgiveness: inspiring stories from those who have overcome the unforgivable Schwarzenegger, Katherine,
The pleasure plan: one woman’s search for sexual healing Zam, Laura,
The flight of Jesse Leroy Brown Taylor, Theodore
The canine good citizen: every dog can be one Volhard, Joachim.
Joy at work: organizing your professional life Kondō, Marie,
On desperate ground: the Marines at the reservoir, the Korean War’s greatest battle Sides, Hampton
Blaze of Light: The Inspiring True Story of Green Beret Medic Gary Beikirch, Medal of Honor Recipient Brotherton, Marcus,
The Lincoln conspiracy: the secret plot to kill America’s 16th president–and why it failed Meltzer, Brad
American Ulysses: a life of Ulysses S. Grant White, Ronald C
War fever: Boston, baseball, and America in the shadow of the Great War
Roberts, Randy,
New Books on CD…
The boy from the woods: a novel CD (8) Coben, Harlan
A Week at the Shore CD (11) Delinsky, Barbara
Perfect little children: a novel CD (8) Hannah, Sophie
Credible threat CD (9) Jance, Judith A.
If it bleeds CD (13) King, Stephen
Hideaway CD (13) Roberts, Nora
The last odyssey: a thriller CD (12) Rollins, James
Hit list CD (6) Woods, Stuart
New Video…
Emma [PG]
Sonic and the Hedgehog [PG]
Spy Game [R]
I Still Believe [PG]
Royal Wedding [PG]
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” – Neil Gaiman in Coraline
Tip from the front desk
5 Amazing Things Found in Old Books
If you’ve ever purchased a used book or cracked open a library title, chances are you’ve seen something unexpectedly falling from inside its pages. Sometimes it’s a grocery list; other times it might be a bookmark or photograph. Others have been lucky enough to find something with a little more financial or historical value. Check out some of the more surprising things that have been tucked inside old volumes.
1. A Lock of George Washington’s Hair
When you want some light reading, chances are you won’t be reaching for Gaines Universal Register or Columbian Kalendar [sic] for the Year of Our Lord 1793, an almanac which printed population estimates for the American colonies. But there was something slightly more riveting awaiting the person who picked up the volume at Union College in Schenectady, New York. In 2018, a librarian at the college’s Schaffer Library found an envelope with a lock of George Washington’s hair inside. The inscription on the envelope read: “Washington’s hair, L.S.S. & [scratched out] GBS from James A. Hamilton given him by his mother, Aug. 10, 1871.”
The provenance for the hair being genuine is encouraging. The book belonged to Philip Schuyler, the son of Union College founder General Philip Schuyler, who was a friend of the president. It might have been passed from Martha Washington to Alexander Hamilton’s wife, Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, on to their son, James Hamilton, and then to the Schuyler family. The book also contained one other treasure—the junior Schuyler’s instructions for preserving beef in the warm summer months.
2. Cold Hard Cash
While you can buy hollowed-out books and covert soda cans that double as money banks, it’s not often that these items find their way into donation bins. In early 2019, Cathy McAllister, a volunteer for Arizona’s annual VNSA book sale, was sorting through volumes when she came across an installment of the 1776-1788 six-volume series The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. McAllister was ready to throw it out—the title is not a popular seller—when she opted to take one last flip through its pages. Not many were intact. Someone had carved a hole inside and stuffed it with cash totaling $4000. There was also an envelope inside with an address. McAllister contacted the donor and returned the money.
3. An Original C.S. Lewis Letter on Finding Joy
In 2014, Dominic Winter Auctioneers in England presented a great find. Tucked inside a copy of 1940’s The Problem of Pain by Chronicles of Narnia author C.S. Lewis was an original, handwritten letter by Lewis addressed to a Mrs. Ellis that detailed his definition of joy. “Real joy … jumps under one’s ribs and tickles down one’s back and makes one forget meals and keeps one (delightedly) sleepless o’ nights,” he wrote. The book’s owner, whose name was not disclosed, had picked it up in a secondhand shop some years prior. The letter, dated August 19, 1945, seemed to be an early example of Lewis musings that he would later expand upon in his 1955 memoir, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life. The note sold for roughly $6000 at auction. The identity of Mrs. Ellis, Lewis’s pen pal, is still unknown.
4. A Map of Middle-Earth Annotated by J.R.R. Tolkien
The joy of discovering the world imagined by J.R.R. Tolkien in 1954’s The Lord of the Rings is usually reason enough to crack open its spine, but employees of Blackwell’s Rare Books found another treasure lurking in a copy of the novel in 2015—a map of Middle-Earth with comments handwritten by Tolkien himself. (Among the details: Hobbiton is on the same latitude as Oxford, and Minas Tirith could have been inspired by the real Italian city of Ravenna.) The edition once belonged to Pauline Baynes, who was working on an illustration for a new edition and used an earlier map as reference. That version was published in 1970. Baynes’s personal copy, map tucked inside, wound up at Blackwell’s, where it was put up for sale for roughly $77,000.
5. A Winning Lotto Ticket Worth $750,000
It pays to tidy up around the house. Couple Roger Larocque and Nicole Pedneault of Montreal bought a lotto ticket on Valentine’s Day 2018 and then promptly forgot about it. The ticket was a winner worth $750,000, but the two didn’t know—it had been tucked away in a book. Pedneault didn’t come across it again until April 2019, when she was sorting through her belongings at her grandson’s request—he needed help with a school project about Japan—and found the ticket stuffed in a book about the country. Pedneault checked the lotto results online and realized that it was valuable. She discovered it in the nick of time: After not having been claimed, it was due to expire in just two days.
Excerpt by Jake Rossen (February 12, 2020, online)
Heidi Deacon, Director
Did you Know???
Lewis Carroll once stayed up all night composing this anagram of British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone: ‘Wild agitator, means well’.
LOVE TO SHARE A GOOD BOOK?
Now! 2 Book groups! 2 times!
How about sharing your thoughts on a book at the friendly monthly book discussion group?
One on hold and one on Zoom!
Contact the library if interested in joining.
Wednesday, June 17, 7pm Monthly Reading Group meeting via Zoom
Book feature: A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel (pick up your copy via member)
Ralph and Anna Eldred are an exemplary couple, devoting themselves to doing good. Thirty years ago as missionaries in Africa, the worst that could happen did. Shattered by their encounter with inexplicable evil, they returned to England, never to speak of it again. But when Ralph falls into an affair, Anna finds no forgiveness in her heart, and thirty years of repressed rage and grief explode, destroying not only a marriage but also their love, their faith, and everything they thought they were.
Next month: The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee
Hugh Lofting, author of Dr Doolittle, thought books should have a ‘senile’ category to complement the ‘juvenile’ section.
In Charles Dickens’ pantry, you’d find the best of thyme and the worst of thyme.
Library On Line Assets…
Digital Movies, Music and More –Instantly Available –24/7 –Free with your Library Card!
Movies, TV,Music Albums, eAudiobooks , eBooks, and Comics/Graphic Novels. All in one location, from your computer, tablet or Smartphone!
With hoopla, there are no hold lists, no extra apps or accounts needed or special steps to use it.
It just works! On a mobile device, borrowed content may be temporarily downloaded and accessed offline or, in either the app or on a computer, all borrowed content may be enjoyed while connected to the internet by streaming.
KANOPY
OUR NEW FILM STREAMING SERVICE
Smyth Library Patrons Now Have Access to Kanopy featuring more than 30,000 Films, For Free!
Library card holders can access Kanopy and view up to four films per month. Films can be streamed from any computer, television, mobile device or platform by downloading the Kanopy app for iOS, Android, AppleTV, Chromecast or Roku.
With the motto of “thoughtful entertainment,” Kanopy provides patrons with access to films of unique social and cultural value; films that are often difficult or impossible to access elsewhere, and programming that features diversity, with a wide array of foreign language films and films on race, and current affairs.
TRY IT AND DOWNLOAD NOW AT: smythpl.kanopy.com
NEW: FREE MidAmerica Books Online
Elementary Digital Bookshelf Prek-8
Secondary Digital Bookshelf 5-12
The TumbleBook family of online libraries is available for free to our public library until at least August 31, 2020.
Its flagship product, TumbleBooklibrary (www.tumblebooklibrary.com) is a collection of animated talking picture books, read-alongs, ebooks, quizzes, lesson plans, and educational games which is used by thousands of schools and public libraries in over 100 countries across the world.
TumbleBooks can be accessed by our patrons from the comfort and safety of their homes! The sites are easy to use, and access is completely unlimited.
Visit our website at www.smythpl.org to access the collections!
TumbleBookLibrary. K-5
TumbleMath. K-5
TeenBookCloud. 5-12
AudioBookCloud. Teen/Adult
RomanceBookCloud. Adult
OUR NEWEST LEARNING RESOURCE
Try any of these through links on website and catalog-Electronic Resources
Access Video On Demand offers an expansive collection of thousands of high-quality videos that complement and enhance your library’s content offerings. We bring exceptional content from around the world that they may never have had the opportunity to see: from Oscar®, Emmy®, and Peabody Award-winning documentaries, to how-to programs that make life easier and richer, top-quality performances spanning the arts, biographies of history-makers past and present, a variety of TV shows and movies, and more.
Just for Kids Streaming Collection gives children—and their parents—a thoroughly kid-safe, advertisement-free media platform they can freely explore and enjoy. Just for Kids has the educational videos children want to watch—Sesame Street, The Electric Company, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, The Berenstain Bears, Franklin, and thousands more—plus songs, games, and other interactives that are sure to entertain, educate, and inspire young patrons. Plus, the collection is ideal for librarians hosting a video storytelling hour, activities for preschoolers and early learners, an after-school or ESL/ELL program, homework help for students, or resources for homeschoolers that they can access anywhere, anytime.
Ferguson’s Career Guidance Center is a comprehensive resource for career exploration and planning that allows users to quickly find the valuable career information they need, whether it’s industry and professions articles, school planning resources, or skills and career advice. Working in partnership with Indeed.com, we have Live Links to Outside Jobs and Internships.
Health Reference Center is an essential resource that serves both the reference and practical needs of your patrons, including comprehensive, in-depth coverage of body systems, current health issues, major diseases and conditions, treatments, and procedures, as well as health and nutrition information specific to men, women, children, teens, and seniors. This important resource also helps improve decision-making skills, addresses social pressures and influences, and provides functional health knowledge that encourages users to practice healthy behaviors.
World News Digest — For more than 75 years, World News Digest has been a go-to resource for context and background on key issues and events in the news, presenting more than eight decades of authoritative news summaries and background articles. World News Digest also offers an editorial newsfeed featuring current newspaper editorials, many from international sources, via NewsEdge. These thought-provoking new editorials will keep users on top of trending topics, offering broad context and perspective to current and recent news events—and complementing the historical editorials already in the database.
Today’s Science bridges the gap between the science taught in class and real-world discoveries—giving in-depth explanations of important advances in biology, chemistry, environmental science, space, physics, and technology. An extensive backfile dating back to 1992 illustrates how one scientific advance leads to another. This essential STEM resource shows how the scientific method can be applied to everyday life, helping students think like scientists—applied science in a nutshell.
The World Almanac for Kids
The World Almanac® for Kids is the ideal one-stop reference resource for intermediate-level students. Convenient new search filters make it even easier for students and teachers to find the content they need most. The World Almanac® for Kids includes content from award-winning The World Almanac®, Chelsea House, and Facts On File sets and series. Each topic area provides resources for homework, reports, and projects, and kids can explore age-appropriate subjects while developing online research skills with a trusted content source.
The World Almanac for Kids Elementary
The World Almanac® for Kids Elementary is an exciting, fun resource especially for elementary school students. Providing a wealth of elementary-level content—including engaging illustrated articles, videos, interactives, Fun Facts, and more—in a colorful, kid-friendly format perfect for helping young children develop online research skills.
Science Online
Science Online offers a comprehensive overview of a broad range of scientific disciplines, with a wealth of content and a dynamic design that facilitates STEM research and learning. The Topic Centers feature specially selected content on core science disciplines to help students find a starting point for their research.
Ancestry.com now available from home.
(see the link on our catalog here: https://smyth.biblionix.com/catalog/?search=)
Search billions of records and discover your family story
Rosetta Stone
EBSCO is providing free access for NH public libraries to for at home language learning. Access via this link:
Making Your Life Easy:
By going to our website, you can search our entire catalogue for books, CD’s, DVD’s and movies. Once found, you can check to see if what you want is in. If so, just to our website and reserve the book. The next time you come in, it will be waiting for you at the front desk. WITH OUR NEW WEBSITE YOU CAN DO IT WITH YOUR MOBILE DEVICE!
PLUS!! Check out our smythpl.org website updates and Smyth Library’s Public Catalog featuring:
– A new signup button for new library card accounts! Tell your friends and neighbors!
– A crawl of new items.
– “What’s Hot” now covers several choices.
-“Most Popular” titles (a combination of checkouts and reserves are used to determine this list).
– “More Search Options” includes Medium that lets members search by DVD or Large Print, etc.
More Research Options:
Full text articles from thousands of magazines, journals and national newspapers, plus NoveList. Call or e-mail us and provide your name and your library card number, and we’ll give you the password.
We’re on Facebook!
Like the Smyth Public Library
Look at our page on Facebook for events and updates about our library!
Downloadable Books!!!!
Ipods and Kindles work and you can
Order right from our website!
2020 Summer Reading Program
This program entails a comprehensive list of at-home activities, crafts, and culinary explorations. Rather than offer one program each week — as it would have been, if held at the library — this year there are three different program categories. The categories are:
Read, Learn, Create;
Cooks Corner;
and Artist of the Week.
Each program category contains eleven different activities and ideas to engage children throughout the summer. It is up to you, at home, to decide which category you wish to pursue on any given week or day. It is also up to you to decide which order you wish to complete these activities. For example: you could choose to complete a Read, Learn, Create activity on every Monday, on Wednesdays complete a Cooks Corner recipes, and on Fridays complete an Artist of the Week masterpiece. More details coming soon!
CHILDREN OF ANY AGE, TRY THIS FUN OUTDOOR SCAVENGER HUNT:
New books for children…
Animal atlas Skene, Rona,
Hike Oswald, Pete
Richard Scarry’s great big schoolhouse Scarry, Richard
Richard Scarry’s The great pie robbery and other mysteries Scarry, Richard
I’m sorry! Timms, Barry,
Three Cups Townsley, Tony
New books for Juniors…
Hunger winter: a World War II novel Currie, Rob
A slip of a girl Giff, Patricia Reilly
Vader down — Volume 3 / Aaron, Jason,
Nightshade Horowitz, Anthony
A ceiling made of eggshells Levine, Gail Carson
Bouncing back Ostler, Scott,
Planet Earth is blue Panteleakos, Nicole
Owl’s Outstanding Donuts Yardi, Robin
From the Junior Shelves~
The Boy at the End of the World
Fisher is the last boy on earth-and things are not looking good for the human race. Only Fisher made it out alive after the carefully crafted survival bunker where Fisher and dozens of other humans had been sleeping was destroyed.
Luckily, Fisher is not totally alone. He meets a broken robot he names Click, whose programmed purpose-to help Fisher “continue existing”-makes it act an awful lot like an overprotective parent. Together, Fisher and Click uncover evidence that there may be a second survival bunker far to the west. In prose that skips from hilarious to touching and back in a heartbeat, Greg van Eekhout brings us a thrilling story of survival that becomes a journey to a new hope-if Fisher can continue existing long enough to get there. Goodreads
New books for young adults…
A void the size of the world Alpine, Rachele,
The ballad of songbirds and snakes Collins, Suzanne
Havenfall Holland, Sara,
The way to game the walk of shame Nguyen, Jenn P.,
From the Young Adult Shelves~
Between Burning Worlds(System Divine #2)
by Jessica Brody, Joanne Rendell
Laterre is on the brink of war. The Third Estate are rioting against the injustices of a corrupt system. The Patriarche, reeling from the murder of his only heir, makes brutal attempts to quash the unrest, while a new militant faction launches a series of deadly attacks.
Marcellus is now a traitor to his planet, willing to do anything to stop his grandfather from seizing control of Laterre, even if it means joining the Vangarde, a rebel group back from the dead.
Chatine is a prisoner on Bastille. Desperate to survive the harsh conditions of the moon, she becomes embroiled in the Vangarde’s dangerous attempt to free their infamous leader.
Alouette is a fugitive who has been lied to her entire life. Searching for the truth about her mysterious past, she soon finds herself hunted by the Regime for reasons she’s only beginning to understand.
But when Laterre is threatened by the emergence of a deadly new weapon, these three renegades must risk everything, traveling to the far reaches of the System Divine and into the white hot center of a planet ready to ignite. Goodreads
Trivia Time!
Every month we ask a trivia question. If you know the answer, drop it off at the front desk or e-mail it here. We will randomly select the winner from the correct answers and the WINNERwill win ONE FREE WEEK of OVERDUE FINE AMNESTY ON ONE BOOK
Last month’s question and answer:
Q. Who was Harry Potters non magical cousin?
A. Dudley Dursley
This Month’s Trivia Question:
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, what was the name of the pig leader?
From the New and Recent Shelves~
We (being I) are always looking for contributors to this reviews section. The editor has a limited range of taste, so any reviews would be more than welcomed. Just e-mail them in reply to this, or to librarian@smythpl.org
Fiction…
Generally, authors (at least in the thriller/mystery genre) churn out a book a year. Coben and Box are two authors upon whom you can rest assured that not only do they write a book a year, it will be a good one.
C.J. Box’s newest is the twentieth in the Joe Pickett series. Pickett is a Wyoming Fish and Game officer who has a propensity to crash trucks and find bad guys. The novels stand alone, but knowing the characters gives additional depth. Long Range is one of the better ones in a while.
Harlan Coben started with the Myron Bolitar series that was as hilarious as good. He has left that series to go with stand-alones like this year’s The Boy from the Woods, which is, as usual outstanding. His lead character is very different, and this may be the beginning of a series. He includes some current events without any judgment whatsoever which makes the novel topical as well as his usual excellent mystery. If I were to carve a Mt. Rushmore of today’s thriller writers, Coben would be on it. If you answer the phone with “Articulate” you will understand the book’s brief references to the earlier series.
Non-fiction…
Everyone knows the story of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, but few are aware of the original conspiracy to kill him four years earlier in 1861, literally on his way to Washington, DC, for his first inauguration.
The conspirators were part of a pro-Southern secret society that didn’t want an anti-slavery President in the White House. They planned an elaborate scheme to assassinate the brand-new President in a Baltimore train station as Lincoln’s inauguration train passed through en route to the Capital. The plot was investigated by famed detective Allan Pinkerton, who infiltrated the group with undercover agents, including one of the first female private detectives in America. Had the assassination succeeded, there would have been no Lincoln Presidency, and the course of the Civil War and American history would have forever been altered.
The bestselling team that brought you The First Conspiracy now turns their attention to the story of the secret society that tried to kill Abraham Lincoln and the undercover detectives who foiled their plans Goodreads
Ever want to be one of those know-it-all reviewers?
Got a book to recommend?
Want to write a blurb?
Have a child with a favorite book who would like to contribute to the Smythie?
We welcome contributors (less for us to write!), especially children and teens to review and recommend favorite books. Just drop Heidi Deacon an e-mail at librarian@smythpl.org or “reply” to this and we’ll include it here. It need not be a new book – it can be a golden oldie, a classic, a trashy beach book or whatever you have enjoyed.
I hope you have enjoyed this edition. Comments, suggestions and, of course, reviews are always welcomed.
Rick Mitchell and the library staff
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