The Songbook Highway

El día de los muertos

My husband and I recently celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. Six years ago today, we were honeymooning in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico as the town was getting ready for the día de los muertos/Day of the Dead holiday. Marc and I were [...]

A book to match your costume

Myers, Christopher. Black Cat. New York: Scholastic Press, 1999. Print.

Lots of parents come to the library this time of year searching for books to match their children’s costumes. Here are a few of my favorite pairings:
For the Egyptian princess:

costumeworld.com

Climo, Shirley, and Ruth Heller. The Egyptian Cinderella. New [...]

Stitches by David Small

National Book Award Finalist
Small, David. Stitches: A Memoir. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2009. Print.

“David Small evokes the mad scientific world of the 1950s beautifully, a time when everyone believed that science could fix everything . . . Capturing body language and facial expressions subtly, [...]

October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month

Orlean, Susan. Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print.

Susan Orlean’s book about Hollywood’s most celebrated rescue dog is not your ordinary dog story. It’s about the impact of moving pictures (There were more canine roles during the [...]

Red Palms
If you liked Forever by Judy Blume, and The Cay by Theodore Taylor, you will absolutely LOVE Red Palms by Cara Haycak. I did!

Haycak, Cara. Red Palms. New York: Wendy Lamb Books, 2004. Print.

Blume, Judy. Forever: A Novel. Scarsdale, N.Y: Bradbury Press, 1975. Print

Taylor, Theodore. The Cay. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1969. [...]

Friday, September 23, 2011

Don’t point at outlaws
Langton, Jerry. Showdown: How the Outlaws, Hell Angels and Cops Fought for Control of the Streets. Mississauga, Ont: Wiley, 2010. Print.

The Outlaws Motorcycle Club is one of the oldest and largest riding organizations in the world. It is also one of the most widely feared. “God forgives, Outlaws don’t” [...]

Sunday, August 21, 2011

A cumulative tale by David Lowery
Lowery, David. The Palace Guards. Santa Monica, CA: 429 Records, 2011.
Album cover by Michael Wertz.
My favorite song from David Lowery’s solo album is a dreamy waltz called I Sold the Arabs the Moon. What I like so much is that the words sound like the scenes [...]

The Leftovers
“Perrotta has delivered a troubling disquisition on how ordinary people react to extraordinary and inexplicable events, the power of family to hurt and to heal, and the unobtrusive ease with which faith can slide into fanaticism.” — Stephen King

Perrotta, Tom. The Leftovers. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2011. Print.

Tom Perrotta’s latest [...]

Happy Birthday, Dr. Ruth!

Psychologist Dr. Ruth Westheimer is a brave woman. She grew up in a Swiss orphanage after her parents were taken by the Nazis in Germany. At age 17 she moved to Jerusalem and fought in the Israeli War of Independence. (And she’s only 4 foot six inches tall!) [...]