Digital Bookmobile National Tour

Mondays can be so very drab. Rainy weather. Kids not back in school just yet. On days like this does your brain scream out the eternal parental question: "What to do, what to do?!" Consider yourself saved thanks to the Cranston Public Library and the Digital Bookmobile!

LOCATION: Cranston Public Library: Upper Parking Lot
140 Sockanosset Cross Road, Cranston, RI
DATE: Monday, September 21, 2009
TIME: 10:00am - 4:00pm
PRICE: FREE

Cranston Public Library and Ocean State Libraries will host the Digital Bookmobile, an immersive download experience inside a 74-foot, high-tech tractor-trailer.

Readers of all ages are invited to engage digital downloading through interactive demonstrations and experience the library's audiobook, eBook, music, and video download service at this free event.

The Digital Bookmobile is housed inside an 18-wheel tractor-trailer. This 74-foot community outreach vehicle is a high-tech update of the traditional bookmobile that has served communities for decades. The vehicle is equipped with broadband Internet-connected PCs, high definition monitors, premium sound systems, and a variety of portable media players, all of which help visitors explore the library's download service. Interactive learning stations give visitors an opportunity to search the library’s digital media collection, use supported mobile devices, and sample eBooks, audiobooks, music, and video.

Come and learn about digital media and the latest gadgets and technology. There will be a raffle and other fun stuff!

All Ages are welcome. Registration is not required. The Digital Bookmobile is handicap accessible and will be parked in the upper parking lot of Cranston Public Library for this event.

The Digital Bookmobile is a service of Ocean State Libraries and the Cranston Public Library. The Digital Bookmobile is operated by OverDrive, Inc.

For more information call: (401) 943-9080 EXT6 or email: central@cranstonlibrary.org

New Arrival!

Amigoland by Oscar Casares

This is an AMAZING new novel that is getting OUTSTANDING reviews!

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review.
Casares expands the clean, tender prose of his debut collection, Brownsville, into a winning novel. In an American town just north of the Mexican border, the estranged Rosales brothers are equally ambivalent and inwardly volatile. Don Fidencio is snappish, sickly and endearing: he refuses to admit his own incontinence, smokes cigarettes against his nurses' wishes and identifies people, often cruelly, by their physical appearances (such as The Gringo With The Ugly Finger). Meanwhile, his widower brother, Celestino, a diabetic, feels adrift toward the edge of a flat world. He's slowly drawn out, thanks to his Mexican cleaning woman, Socorro, who travels from the other side every day, wishing that the geographical and social borders between them could be gently... swept aside. The mysterious reason for the brothers' estrangement forces the three characters to push back from one another outwardly while returning, internally, to their own weaknesses, and their distinct voices pick up the thread of narration so easily that, from even mundane details, it's plain to see how love, borders, death—and most of all, willful ignorance—are part of everyday reawakenings. With Casares's blessing, you can laugh at them all. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

More Reviews
"Oscar Casares' AMIGOLAND, his first novel and a follow-up to his much-acclaimed book of short stories, Brownsville, is a liberating journey full of warmth and color....The group's impromptu trip to Mexico feels like a refreshing, rejuvenating trip for the reader as well as the characters. And the ending? Bittersweet, unexpected and undeniably precious. All told, AMIGOLAND is full of new friends and makes for perfect summer reading." (Bookpage)

"Knowing, touching and true." (Kirkus *starred review*)

"By turns hilarious and heart-breaking, this story of two feisty, aging brothers and their bumpy road trip to the past is a delightful romp. Think "Sunshine Boys" go south of the border, but funnier, much funnier, and infinitely more poignant." (Cristina Garcia, author of Dreaming in Cuban and A Handbook to Luck)

The 4-1-1 on 2-1-1

I originally posted this entry back in February of this year. However since our blog has spiked in interest since then (whoo hoo! keeping recommending us to your friends!), I thought a reposting might be in order.

The United Way is helping Rhode Islanders get connected to the resources they need thanks to a new program called 2-1-1.

What is 2-1-1?
It's an easy to remember phone number and website linking users in need to available health and human service programs. From the single mother needing food for her children to the senior citizen looking for in-home care, United Way 2-1-1 in Rhode Island brings people and services together.

What will United Way 2-1-1 in Rhode Island do?
They deliver comprehensive information and referral services, free of charge and 24/7/365, to the public by telephone, through the Internet and in print publications, in any language.

What can services can they connect you with?
After-school programs, Alzheimer's resources, basic needs - food, shelter, child care/health services, consumer protection, counseling, crisis intervention, disability services, domestic violence programs, donating food, clothing, etc., emergency shelter, energy/utility assistance, family counseling, financial assistance, health care/insurance, HIV/AIDS testing, homelessness, housing or rent assistance, job training, legal assistance, mentoring opportunities, parenting education programs, problem gambling, senior services/elder care, substance abuse programs, suicide prevention, transportation assistance, veterans services, and volunteer opportunities.

So dial 2-1-1 on your phone or click here and start getting the information you need to help create a better tomorrow!

Library Closed

In observance of VJ Day, we will be closed Monday, August 10th.
We will reopen on Tuesday, August 11th.

New Arrival!

Amateur Barbarians by Robert Cohen

This book is getting some rave reviews and is worth a look!

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review.
Artfully juxtaposing two contrasting personalities (as he did in Inspired Sleep), Cohen explores the terrain of male middle age in a novel that keenly observes the dissatisfactions of contemporary life. Teddy Hastings, the 53-year-old principal of a New England middle school, yearns for a grand adventure that would celebrate his manhood. Restless and impulsive, Teddy unwittingly causes a scandal that lands him briefly in jail. Disgraced and forced to take a sabbatical, Teddy leaves his wife, Gail, behind and flies to Ethiopia, where his college dropout daughter is working with orphans. Meanwhile, Oren Pierce, the younger man appointed in Teddy's absence, skitters through life in the same manner he has always done: perennially uncommitted, congenitally irresolute, though he is eventually forced to confront the limits of his desultory lifestyle. (Gail comes into play, as well.) Teddy's sojourn in Africa is the most dynamic part of the book, though it is Gail who acts as the novel's fulcrum; witty, sensual, focused and centered in reality, she remains an indelible figure as the two men in her orbit are diminished by the collapse of their dreams and expectations. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

"Hey, Stinky Feet" @ MPL!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to run a marathon, to get your feet all stinky? Well pull up a chair (and some medicated foot powder too!) and let me tell you about a cool thing we got happenin' at our very happenin' library.

On Wednesday, August 19th at 6:00PM the Middletown Public Library will welcome writer, martial artist and athlete extraordinaire Alexander Loudon! She be on site to give a FREE seminar called "Hey, Stinky Feet" (brilliant name, no?) based on her latest book. The seminar and book are aimed at helping you run your first marathon safely! She will take you from the couch to the finish line, giving you all the information you need to achieve your dream!

To learn more about Alexander, check out her very impressive biography.

Free Stuff!!

This entry is originally from January of this year. But because I'm getting lots of questions about museums and other cool/fun stuff to do on the cheap, I thought I would repost it.

Did you know the Middletown Public Library has discount passes to some amazing museums in Rhode Island AND Massachusetts? Well we do!

We provide passes and coupons to a variety of educational and cultural destinations throughout little Rhody and our sister state to the north. Passes and coupons can be obtained at the Circulation Desk.

So what passes do we have?

Audubon Society of Rhode Island, Bristol, RI & Seekonk, MA
Pass admits 2 adults and 4 children under the age of 18


Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum, Bristol, RI
Pass admits 2 adults and 6 children under the age of 18


Children's Museum, Providence, RI
Coupon allows free admission for up to 4 people


Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Coupon admits 2 adults at $8.00 each and discounted admission to special exhibits


Museum of Science, Boston, MA
Coupon admits up to 4 people at $5.00 each


New England Aquarium, Boston, MA
Coupon admits up to 4 people at $8.00 each - not valid July and August


Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Pass allows 2 adults free admission and 10% discount in the museum store


Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, RI
Pass admits up to 4 people at below prices:
July and August: $9.00 adults, $5.00 children/Rest of the year: $6.00 adults, $3.00 children

So gather up your friends and family and go see something wonderful!

(Please remember that passes cannot be reserved or renewed. Overdue fine is $5.00 per day. And if the pass is lost or damaged full replacement cost is charged.)

Recommendation from the Librarian

Grey Gardens, a film by Albert and David Maysles

I watched this documentary about a year ago and WOW! HBO recently produced a fictionalized account of the life of Edith "Big Edie" Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange; that film was based on this cult classic. If you've seen that movie or want to know more about Jackie O.'s eccentric family then this is a MUST SEE!

SUMMARY
Meet Big and Little Edie Beale—high-society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.—thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. An impossibly intimate portrait and an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, Albert and David Maysles’s 1976 Grey Gardens quickly became a cult classic and established Little Edie as a fashion icon and philosopher queen. Thirty years later, the filmmakers revisited their landmark documentary with a sequel of sorts, The Beales of Grey Gardens, culled from hours of never-before-seen footage recently found in the filmmakers’ vaults.