Adult Services

Back to School

Summer vacation is over and Lake Forest students have returned to school. Even if some things have remained the same, change is in the air … new schools, new classes and new extra-curricular activities. And if your children are older you may be helping them begin the college application process or sending them off to college.

So as you return to the school-year routines check out these new library materials on education and parenting:

Acceptance by David L. Marcus –Follows a “legendary” college counselor as he helps high school seniors chose colleges by focusing on self-discovery rather than test scores and grades. 378.161 MAR

College Admission Simplified – A DVD with suggestions on navigating the college admissions process. DVD 378.1 COL

Different Learners: Identifying, Preventing and Treating Your Child’s Learning Problems by Jane M. Healy – A comprehensive, practical guide to children’s learning problems. 371.9 HEA

Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents by Christine Carter - Offers thoughtful approaches and practical tips on raising grateful, playful, and mindful children. 649.7 CAR

That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week: Helping Disorganized and Distracted Boys Succeed in School and Life by Ana Homayoun – A top academic counselor claims that most boys need to be taught how to get organized and study. 649.132 HOM

Why Good Kids Act Cruel: the Hidden Truth About the Preteen Years by Carl Pickhardt – Offers suggestions on how to help your child during the early adolescence years. 302.3 PIC

And don't forget about our on-line resources. Check out LearningExpress Library and Live Homework Help under the database section of our web page.

Adult Services

New DVD’s

Remember those library classes in elementary school where a librarian would patiently explain that books are divided into two main categories: stories (fiction) and information (nonfiction)? Well librarians are still grouping materials into categories: fiction, nonfiction, mysteries, science fiction, audiobooks, playaways … the list goes on and on.

For example, our DVD collection is organized into fiction (i.e. movies and TV shows) and nonfiction (how-to, travel, science, test prep, exercise, history, etc). All DVDs are on the Lower Level. The nonfiction DVDs are shelved by Dewey Decimal number. Movies and TV shows are grouped alphabetically by the first letter in the title.

Look for these new informational DVDs next time you’re at the library:

Is It Real? Vampires – A National Geographic special that explores centuries of vampire lore and legend. Shelved under DVD 133.423 IS

Last Chance to See: Animals on the Verge of Extinction – Examines remarkable creatures from around the world. Shelved under DVD 591.68 LAS

The Belly Off! Workout – Circuit Plan for Men that Accelerates Muscle Building. Shelved under DVD 613.71 STR

Stanley Cup: 2010 Champions – Relive the Chicago Blackhawks’ Championship Season. Shelved under DVD 796.962 STA

World War I in Color – Six episodes. Rare archival film, meticulously colorized, makes the past fresh and relevant. Shelved under DVD 940.3 WOR

Informational DVDs check out for 14 days.

Adult Services

Too Good to Miss

Have you seen the rotating “Too Good to Miss” display in the upstairs lobby? It’s located to the right of the circulation desk and it’s a good place to find recent bestsellers, reading group titles and other high-interest books. The library’s Adult Services Department gathers and displays the recommended titles.

This week features Chicago mysteries. Look for:

Big City, Big Blood by Sean Chercover

The Bishop in the Old Neighborhood by Andrew Greeley

The Blade Itself by Marcus Sakey

Cherry Bomb by Joe Konrath

The Chicago Way by Michael Harvey

Fire Sale by Sara Paretsky

And before the snow and ice arrive check out the Mystery Writers Walking Guide: Chicago by Alzina Dale which offers 10 city walks based on mysteries set in the Windy City. Each walk begins with a brief background of the area, the length of the walk, places of interest and a map. The author then provides a block by block discussion of the area with tie-ins to mystery stories from Sara Paretsky’s Guardian Angel to Scott Turow’s Burden of Proof.

Stop by the “Too Good to Miss Shelf” on your way to the fiction, mystery and DVD collections. Or ask at the Reference Desk for more information.

Adult Book Discussions will Resume in September

Our popular book discussions meet once a month during the school year in the programming room downstairs. Books can be borrowed from the library so check our catalog for availability. Our fall programs begin with two recent titles: The Glass Room by Simon Mawer and Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. Please make plans to join us.

"Evenings with Elise Barack" returns on Thursday, September 2 at 7:15 pm when this popular presenter will lead a discussion on The Glass Room by Simon Mawer.

The Glass Room was short listed for The Booker Prize. For more information read what The Washington Post's Ron Charles says about this deeply moving novel:

" During the pause between world wars, a Jewish businessman and his new wife commissioned a startlingly modern house for themselves in Czechoslovakia. They hired the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and gave him free rein to design an avant-garde structure that looks like a Mondrian painting in three dimensions: a long, low building of dramatic straight lines, marked by a large room with floor-to-ceiling glass walls. Unbelievably, this elegant house survived the dismemberment of the First Republic of Czechoslovakia, German bombing, Soviet invasion and the natural forces that conspire against a neglected building. The Villa Tugendhat, which has been a public museum since the mid-1990s, remains a masterpiece of minimalist architecture, and now it's the evocative setting for a stirring new novel that almost won this year's Booker Prize. The author, Simon Mawer, moves through six decades of European history, much of it unspeakably tragic, using the glass house as a window on the hopes and fears of its various inhabitants and the conflicts that rip Europe apart. Pianists and Nazis, doctors and servants, everyone is drawn to the living room's extraordinary vista and feels aroused by the promise of such clarity."

The first meeting of "Afternoons with Judy Levin" is scheduled for Thursday, September 16 at 12:30 pm. We will discuss Zeitoun by local author Dave Eggers.

Don't know the book ... check out these reviews:

"Through the story of one man’s experience after Hurricane Katrina, Eggers draws an indelible picture of Bush-era crisis management. Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a successful Syrian-born painting contractor, decides to stay in New Orleans and protect his property while his family flees. After the levees break, he uses a small canoe to rescue people, before being arrested by an armed squad and swept powerlessly into a vortex of bureaucratic brutality. When a guard accuses him of being a member of Al Qaeda, he sees that race and culture may explain his predicament. Eggers, compiling his account from interviews, sensibly resists rhetorical grandstanding, letting injustices speak for themselves." The New Yorker

"Zeitoun offers a transformative experience to anyone open to it, for the simple reasons that it is not heavy-handed propaganda, not eat-your-peas social analysis, but an adventure story, a tale of suffering and redemption, almost biblical in its simplicity, the trials of a good man who believes in God and happens to have a canoe. Anyone who cares about America, where it is going and where it almost went, before it caught itself, will want to read this thrilling, heartbreaking, wonderful book.” Neil Steiberg, Chicago Sun-Times

"Zeitoun is a riveting, intimate, wide-scanning, disturbing, inspiring nonfiction account of a New Orleans married couple named Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun who were dragged through their own special branch of Kafkaesque (for once the adjective is unavoidable) hell after Hurricane Katrina." James Wolcott, Vanity Fair

Look for information on book recommendations, programming notes and new additions to the collection in future postings on the Lake Forest Library Blogspot.