Fallen Grace

Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper
Teen Zone New Fiction Main Level - HOOPER

This story takes place in 1860s London. Grace and her sister Lily are very poor, living in a boarding house in the slums. They sell watercress to make enough to pay their rent and buy something to eat. They are orphans, just trying to stay out of the workhouse and survive on their own. Grace is 15 and her sister is 17. Grace takes care of Lily, though, who is mentally challenged. Lily is constantly taken advantage of by swindlers on the streets.

Grace has her own challenges - having been taken advantage of by a man when they lived in an orphanage, she has given birth to a stillborn baby. It is indirectly through that horrible experience that Grace and Lily find employment with the Unwins, who own a funeral business. It must be the answer to their prayers! Food, lodging, steady work, and a (small) salary each and every week! What they don’t know is that Mr. Unwin saw an ad in the newspaper looking for Lily, who stands to inherit a lot of money from their deceased father (who left for the Americas before he even knew Grace was expected by their mother). He thinks that if he can adopt Lily as his own, he can claim the inheritance on her behalf.

This is a fantastic book! I love historical fiction, and this is top-notch. The characters are interesting and their plight is emotional. It has the perfect balance of description and dialogue, so it is a fast read. Highly recommended!

Hanukkah for Wee Ones

My favorite Hanukkah book for years has been Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins. I’ll happily pull it out and read it to whoever wants to listen every year. As I noted in my review, though, it’s really too wordy for very young children. This year, I was challenged to find a Hanukkah book that would appeal to two-year-olds. Here are a few I found that look good:

Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah Illustrated by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov.
Youth Holiday – Lower Level – IVA

The lyrics to the classic Hanukkah song are paired here with appealingly bright acrylic paintings featuring a modern family – grandparents, parents, two children, and a dog. The tune is written out on the first page, so those unfamiliar with (or rusty on) the song can still learn it. It’s bright, bouncy and short while covering the basics of Hanukkah – perfect for young children.

Hooray for Hanukkah by Fran Manushkin. Illustrated by Carolyn Croll.
Youth Holiday – Lower Level – MAN

Here, a menorah tells about growing brighter and brighter on each of the eight nights of Hanukkah, and what its family does to celebrate each night. While still fairly brief, this one has a sentence or two on each page, and so has room to get a little more into the holiday. The pictures show a large and happy early twentieth-century family, done in what looks to my untrained eye like watercolor with colored pencil.

Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah by Susan L. Roth
Youth Holiday – Lower Level – R

It’s the same classic Hanukkah song, and the music is still included. This smaller format book is illustrated with paper and fabric collage featuring a family of mice. This version has a sweet and clearly handmade look.

Hanukkah: A Counting Book by Emily Sper
Youth Holiday - Lower Level - SPE

This is a counting book - from one to eight, obviously - with the names of the numbers written out in English, Hebrew masculine, Hebrew feminine, and Yiddish. All of the non-English words have American phonetic pronunciation written out as well as the words being written in Hebrew letters. After the shames candle is introduced, the counting proceeds with an appropriate number of Hanukkah-related objects, from one menorah to four dreidels, six heroes, and eight nights, on one page. The facing page is all black, with the numbers in the different language and cutouts of that number of candles, so that they show up brightly against the blackness . The combination of all these elements makes for a sleek, attractive book.

Twelve Deaths of Christmas

Twelve Deaths of Christmas by Marian Babson
Adult Mysteries-Main Level - BABSON


There is a certain chill in the air this holiday season with Marian Babson’s Twelve Deaths of Christmas. The story takes place in a London boarding house filled with a wide assortment of lodgers. There is a retired Major, a foreign student from the Middle East, an American, and several others. But something is not right with one of these seemingly normal characters. One of them has taken their dislike of the constant rushing nature of the holiday too far and has lashed out fatally toward those viewed as deserving punishment. This madman, or women, is on the loose in London. The killer has been able to make his or her crimes appear to be unrelated or even accidents but Detective Knowles is not fooled. He knows that this fiend will keep striking and will get more brazen with each murder. His investigation leads him closer and closer to the boarding house where the occupants inside are preparing a Christmas feast while unaware that one of them plans for this holiday to be everyone’s last. The story is a quick read at less than two hundred pages and the reader is actually clued into the murder’s thoughts in certain chapters which helps build some tension. In all, the book would be a perfect light read for those with a little down time during the hectic holiday season.

Dreams of Joy

Dreams of Joy by Lisa See
CD Book Shelves - Main Level - SEE

Dreams of Joy by Lisa See
Adult New Book Display - Main Level - SEE

I listened to the audio version of this book, which was fantastic! The reader, Janet Song, was amazing. She captured the emotions of the characters perfectly.

This is the sequel to Shanghai Girls. It picks up with Pearl's daughter Joy, who grew up in Los Angeles, but fled to communist China to help them with the "Great Leap Forward" under Mao Zedong. She had idealist visions of communism, and was a quite disillusioned by what was actually happening when she got there. The book does not sugar-coat the famine, the violence toward village workers, or the scandalous government dealings. Joy made a few life-changing decisions that she had to find a way out of, risking death.

I loved Shanghai Girls and this book was great too. It is not for the faint of heart because it tells it as it really happened, fictionalized in a way that tears at our heart strings. We get to know the characters - some we despise and some we love - and it makes for an emotional reading experience. Highly recommended, but read Shanghai Girls first!

Ready Player One

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Read by Wil Wheaton.
CD Book Shelves – Main Level - CLINE

It’s a dark, dystopian future. The Recession never ended, and the ongoing energy crisis has ended the era of easy travel. Most people are unemployed, living in large stacks of trailers just outside the city. Life in the real world is so grim that the vast majority of people spend all their time logged into the Oasis, an immersive on-line alternate reality. Getting on to the Oasis and its main planet are free; it sustains itself and a large portion of the overall economy by charging for on-line goods and travel to its millions of other planets. The Oasis was imagined and designed by a hard-core socially impaired geek by the name of James Halliday. When he dies without heirs, he sends out to all the millions of Oasis users an invitation to participate in a treasure hunt for three keys leading to the location of an Easter egg hidden in the game. Our hero is one Wade Watts, an orphan living in the trailer stacks who is attending his senior year of high school in the Oasis. He’s named his avatar Parzival after the Arthurian grail-seeker and is determined to find the egg himself. In addition to all the time he spends in the Oasis, he’s devoted himself to mastering the 1980s arcade, computer and role-playing games, movies and movies that were formative during Halliday’s teen years. Geek children of the 1980s, this book is for you. There are multiple clues and puzzles which you might be able to figure out before Wade if you are familiar with the right movie or game, and even if you don’t, the trip down memory lane is exciting, filled with giant robots, planets of Zork and Blade Runner, D&D brought to life, Rush, and an entire Joss Whedon galaxy. Parzival eventually owns both a DeLorian and a Firefly class space ship.

Even if the 80s weren’t your era, the plot of the book keeps on moving. Wade may be just one of millions of gunters (as the egg hunters come to be known), but we know from the beginning that he’s the first one to find the first key. His rivals include his best friend H and the zaftig and beautiful (at least on-line) if reclusive Art3mis, but the real enemy is the giant corporation IOI. They have an army of corporate warriors bent on finding the egg to give ownership of the Oasis to IOI, so that they can then start charging monthly fees and adding more advertising to the Oasis. Can our poor, self-educated hero find the egg or help his friends get there before the evil corporation takes over the current refuge of the poor? Wil Wheaton, geek extraordinaire, gives a pitch-perfect narration here. Though this features a teen narrator, it is aimed at adults. There’s a little sexual reference (no actual sex) and some violence, mostly in the game. The language is pretty foul throughout. This is one of my very favorite books this year, and I urge fellow geeks to seek it out right now.

The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry

The Manual of Detection

Adult Mysteries
BERRY

“The Manual of Detection” is a great mystery for the reader looking for something a little… different. This is a mystery written in a place that is always raining and it is always being investigated by Detectives at The Agency. “The Manual of Detection” is the book given to our lead, Charles Unwin, when he is unexpectedly promoted from Clerk to Detective. Unwin is given little to go off of and must follow the cases he has prepared from the files of his Detective, Travis Sivart. Sivart has myteriously vanished and Unwin is starting to see that Sivart's famously solved cases might not be so....solved. There are the cases—The Oldest Murdered Man, The Man Who Stole November 12th—and the mysterious people surrounding them that Unwin must learn as much as he can about before time runs out and Sivart is never found. Fans of Kafka, Chesterton, Fforde and others will delight in this magical mystery.

The Aviary

The Aviary by Kathleen O’Dell
Youth New Book Shelves - Lower Level – O’DELL

“Together always to the last,
Our love shall hold each other fast.
Delivered from the frost and foam,
None shall fly ‘til all come home.”

The above poem plays an important role in the unique and heartwarming mystery, The Aviary by Kathleen O’Dell.

Young 11-year-old Clara Dooley lives at the turn of the 20th century with her mother, Harriet and the housekeeper, Ruby in the old and haunting Glendoveer Mansion in Lockhaven, Maine. The three women live in the mansion with the matriarch of the Glendoveer family, sickly yet kind Cenelia Glendoveer. While Clara loves her mother, Ruby, and even Mrs. Glendoveer, she is frustrated with her life. Nobody from the neighborhood ever visits, and there are frightening birds that Mrs. Glendoveer adores living in the backyard aviary. Inquisitive Clara wishes she could go to school and play with the other children in Lockhaven. Unfortunately, she has an unspecified heart condition which causes her mother to be very overprotective. Thus, young Clara’s only true outlet is reading.

One day, while Clara is looking out the window, a young girl from the neighborhood waves to her. This girl, Daphne Aspinal, is the one person who wants to be friends with Clara. However, how can Clara be friends with someone when she isn’t even allowed to leave her home? Soon after this event, the birds in the aviary start to repeat the name “Elliot.” Who is Elliot? Clara soon finds out the answer to this question which starts her on a quest to unravel the truth of the Glendoveer family mystery.

The Aviary, written by Kathleen O’Dell, is an extremely fascinating middle grade novel. The mystery of the Glendoveer family is richly told with riveting details. Clara is a strong and sweet heroine, her friendship with Daphne is precious, and the story of the Glendoveer family is touching and engrossing. The Aviary is getting buzz as a Newbery contender for 2012, and I would recommend it to those of all ages who enjoy well-written and extraordinary youth literature!

Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World
by Michael Lewis

Adult Nonfiction 330.905 L


Michael Lewis begins his new tale of economic despair by reflecting on his previous work, The Big Short, and the man he left out of that book, Kyle Bass. Kyle, like the investors Mr. Lewis chronicled in The Big Short, foresaw our 2008 economic crisis and made a fortune off of it. Lewis, in retrospect seeing how right Mr. Bass was, heads back to Dallas to ask ‘What’s next?’ His answer, that countries around the world will go bankrupt and default on their debt, sends Michael Lewis to Europe as he tries to find out why this is happening.


He begins in Iceland and finds that a country whose economy was once centered on fishing has transformed into a nation whose economic goals focused on acquiring as many foreign assets as possible. When those assets lost value, Iceland went bankrupt. He travels to Ireland to find a nation that decided to make financing real estate projects ridiculously easy. This of course led to overvalued assets, a huge bubble and eventual crash (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?).


Lewis then makes his way to the current Ground Zero of national economic failure, Greece. It turns out that Greeks really enjoy it when their government hands out as much money to them as they can. The problem with that is a population averse to paying for any of this reckless government spending. The violation of tax law is so rampant in Greece, it is essentially ingrained into the culture. This leads him to Germany, who is now essentially in charge of fixing Europe. They aren’t innocent in this whole mess, having provided the financing for many of the failed investments across Europe.


The author finally heads back to the U.S. and details the municipalities, particularly in California, that are starting to go bankrupt. The biggest reason for these financial shortcomings? Outsized pension obligations. The author tries to end on a positive note by saying that all of these problems are solvable. While this may be true, it is unlikely that the necessary sacrifices will be made and our problems will continue to be pushed off for future generations to handle. This can only happen for so long, so the question becomes: Where does it end?

Pocketful of Posies

Pocketful of Posies by Salley Mavor.
Youth New Book Shelves – Lower Level – J398.8 M

I have only this year discovered the wonderfulness that is the artwork of Salley Mavor. This is her latest effort, a collection of nursery rhymes illustrated with her signature felt and found object dioramas with the little dolls, here looking more involved yet than in her how-to book, Felt Wee Folk. It is stunning. I hauled this book around everywhere with me for three weeks, showing it off to people whenever I could pry it away from my toddler, and everyone I showed it to was sucked into exploring the details. There’s the look of exasperation on the Old Woman in the Shoe’s face, embroidered rain drops, little silver jingle bells growing on plants in Mistress Mary’s garden. There are branches used for roofs, shells and acorn caps, buttons and beads mixed in. I read that she spent a month on each page, and it’s easy to believe. Some rhymes have a whole page devoted to them, while others are grouped thematically, with illustrations flowing from one rhyme to the next. For example, one spread shows a street full of village shops and includes rhymes relating to them. The rhymes seemed to me a good mix of familiar and new, including things like “Simple Simon” and “Polly Put the Kettle on”, but also “I Eat my Peas with Honey”. The language is slightly modified from what I grew up with, but, unlike many modern nursery rhyme collections, the rhymes are not updated to fit modern values. This is now my favorite nursery rhyme collection, good both for cultural literacy and beautiful art.

Measure of the Earth

Measure of the Earth: The enlightenment Expedition That Reshaped Our World by Larrie D. Ferreiro
New Book Shelves - Upper Level - 526 F

In the 1730s, a group of scientists from France and Spain decided that they needed to measure the earth. Knowing its shape would help them navigate the oceans and map new places, giving them military and economic power. They went to Peru, a Spanish-owned country at the Equator, and literally measured a degree of latitude. This book, though non-fiction and based on real history and science, reads like an adventure novel. The scientists have weather, mountains, suspicious native people, and plenty of other hostilities to deal with in their quest. This is an exciting book about an important time in history, when Europeans learned more about South America and scientists made great strides in understanding our world.

Bride and Prejudice

Bride and Prejudice
DVD collection - Main Level - MUSICAL BRI

Like many people I know, I have a special place in my heart for Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. During the years that my sister was studying South Asian culture, she also introduced me to the joyous synthesis of squeaky-clean romance, music, dance and colorful costume changes that are Bollywood movies. Bride and Prejudice is the initially unlikely but quite successful synthesis of these two – Pride and Prejudice set in modern-day India, with lots of globe hopping. This setting translates the concerns of the original novel quite brilliantly. In modern-day India, marriage is still much more socially important than it is in the UK or America. I confess I don’t know anything about the Indian province of Amritsar, where Jaya, Lalita and their two younger sisters live, but it’s described in the film as a beautiful backwater. It has lovely cultural artifacts like the Golden Temple, but not much in the way of modernity. Lalita loves it passionately, and defends it fiercely both to American businessman Will Darcy, in town for a wedding with his best friend, and the Indian ex-pat distant cousin. The cousin is crass and wealthy and, even though he thinks America is better in so many ways, wants a nice traditional Indian girl for his wife. Very helpfully to fans of the book, while the girls’ names are changed to traditional Indian names, the men mostly have the same names as in the book. The plot is simplified and Austen's marvelous dialogue doesn't come over at all. But there’s music and dancing in plenty, both as part of regular life and when the characters sing and dance out their feelings. This isn’t true Bollywood, as it’s done by the UK team that did Bend it Like Beckham, so hard-core fans may find it lacking. However, for people like me who need to be able to fold laundry while watching a movie, having it in English was a big help. Bride and Prejudice is a delightfully fluffy movie, good for the liberal Austen fan and as an introduction to Bollywood.

Brave New Worlds

Brave New Worlds by John Joseph Adams
Adult Science Fiction-Main Level - BRAVE

The dystopian fiction genre has fascinated readers for generations. Dystopian literature often seeks to comment on contemporary society and also serves as a warning for the future. The anthology Brave News Worlds carries on this tradition and is clearly influenced by authors such as Orwell, Huxley, and Bradbury. These previous authors wrote groundbreaking works depicting terrifying visions of the future. While many of the stories in this anthology collection borrow elements from these previous works, there is enough variety of content to keep dystopian fiction fans entertained if they are looking for different spins on the genre. One advantage an anthology collection holds is the ability to skip around to different sections of the book. If a reader is not captivated by a certain story, he or she can always choose to try their luck with an offering from a different author. Anthologies are also an excellent way of sampling an unfamiliar author’s style and I know that many of these stories have made me interested in searching out further works by several of the authors.



The dystopian genre is diverse enough to satisfy many types of readers and the assortment of stories in this anthology run the gamut from sci-fi to horror. Fans of 1984 will enjoy entries such as “Ten with a Flag” and Peter Skilling.” A reader who wants less of a straightforward narrative might be interested in the bizarreness of “The Pearl Diver” or “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” a story that gives us a world that is seemingly perfect in every way except for the monstrous price only one individual has to pay. Brazil fans will feel right at home in the worlds of “Dead Space for the Unexpected” and “ ‘Repent Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” which shows us a world fanatically devoted to the concept of being on time. Several of these stories were written decades ago but are still applicable to our society today. The mark of any great piece of literature is the ability to remain relevant for many generations and the stories in Brave New Worlds will certainly serve as cautionary tales for decades to come.

Chasing Lincoln's Killer

Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson
Teen Zone Nonfiction-Main Level - 973.7092 S

I tend to get bored with Non-Fiction books but I loved Chasing Lincoln's Killer!

8 hours before President Abraham and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln arrive at Ford Theater, actor John Wilkes Booth learns of their evening plans and sets in motion a plan to assassinate not only the President, but the Vice President and the Secretary of State. From that point forward, James L. Swanson follows the actions of Booth, his co-conspirators, their pursuers and the parties of Lincoln, Secretary of State Seward, and then-Vice President Johnson up until the point of Booth's capture and his accomplices' prosecution and hanging.

Swanson's telling of this story is exhilarating, emotional and action-packed while staying true to historical events (the author notes in the opening notes of the book that the events described are "[...] far too incredible to have been made up.") Chasing Lincoln's Killer based on Swanson's adult book, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, is specifically geared toward a youth and teen audience, but I didn't feel at all like I was reading a "dumbed down" version of another book at all.

The Lincoln assassination is a much more complex and interesting story than any history teacher ever told me and I walked away from this book feeling both interested in and well educated on the subject! It was definitely an interesting and worth-while read for teens and adults looking to actually have a great time learning about an important event in American history!

The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel

The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel
by Anthony Horowitz Main Level New Book - Horowitz

Never underestimate the power of pure blind luck. Anthony Horowitz himself could not have dreamed of the unexpected topicality of this book while writing it. Without giving the plot away, the events of the last two weeks have given sudden relevance to a book of fiction set in 1890. Arthur Conan Doyle could never have gotten this Holmes story published then, which leads to the device that Watson wrote it decades after the event, and then kept the story under lock and key for another century. Only now can the story be told...

Horowitz does a very good job of evoking the familiar milieu of 221B Baker Street and includes cameos from several characters from the Conan Doyle canon. He understands the dynamic of the Holmes/Watson relationship and treats Watson with respect. Serious Sherlockians will find some nits to pick, but for more casual readers this is a delightful historical read that also happens to correlate with current events through pure blind luck.

The Good Sister

The Good Sister by Drusilla Campbell
Adult Paperbacks- Main Level– CAMPBELL

Roxanne has taken care of her younger sister Simone all of her life due to an absent father and an abusive mother. Roxanne believes that she can finally have a life of her own when Simone marries a wealthy man. Roxanne was wrong though, Simone has been through multiple pregnancies desperate for the hope that she will deliver a baby boy. Between the pregnancies and suffering from postpartum depression Simone has been negligent in taking care of her 3 daughters. Even though Simone has a nanny, a maid, and her mother all on her estate to help her raise the girls she still turns to Roxanne for help. Simone believes she is doing the best she can given her circumstances and that does not change even when she is placed on trial for the attempted murder of her children. Simone and her lawyers fight hard to prove that she was insane and not in her right mind when the attempted murder happened. Roxanne tries hard throughout the sad events to stay true to herself and her husband knowing that she has done everything she could to help Simone but part of her wonders if she will ever be free of sister to live her own life. Postpartum depression is a real issue and this novel portrays what can happen to a women suffering from it and other mental conditions.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Teen Zone New Fiction - Main Level - RIGGS

Here is a creepy book for anyone who likes stories about orphans, asylums, and supernatural powers. Jacob and his father visit a remote island off Wales, once the home of Jacob's grandfather in an orphanage there. When Jacob goes to the orphanage, he finds some peculiar children, and begins to question everything he knew to be true about his grandfather's life...and his own. The book includes vintage photos collected by the author, which fit into the storyline perfectly and make it even more disturbing and eerie.

Reading with the Stars

Reading with the Stars: A Celebration of Books and Libraries by Leonard Kniffel
Adult Non-Fiction Shelves - Upper Level - 027 K

This is a fun little book in which celebrities share their love of libraries and books. Each essay is just a few pages long, but some are quite powerful. For example, Pulitzer Prize-winner David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross) calls the Chicago Public Library his "alma mater" because he would skip school to read there. The essays by Ken Burns, who spent a remarkable afternoon with NYPL's Vartan Gregorian, and Ralph Nader ("I really don't need another cause, but reading about the state of libraries made me blush with shame." p.114) are especially poignant. The book includes lists of titles written by and/or recommended by the celebrities. Anyone who loves reading and libraries will appreciate this little gem.

My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady
DVD Collection - Main Level - MUSICALS MY

“Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” to have glorious musicals made for movie theaters again? While it seems this genre of film isn’t as popular as it used to be, fans of musical theater and motion pictures are lucky to have the classics restored and put on DVD to enjoy again and again. One such gem is My Fairy Lady with Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins and Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle.

My Fair Lady tells the story of poverty stricken flower girl Eliza Doolittle and her ascension into ladyhood. Professor Higgins, a phoeneticist, is the wealthy gentleman that takes her in and tries to teach her how to speak proper English. Of course hilarious events ensue as Miss Doolittle believes she can already speak proper English, and Mr. Higgins keeps having Eliza repeat simple words and phrases such as “The Rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.” The recitation of this phrase begins a special turning point for Eliza because she finally pronounces her “a’s” correctly. Soon Eliza, Professor Higgins, and Colonel Pickering are dancing around the parlor room to “The Rain in Spain” which is just one of the many beloved songs in the musical.

Based upon the theater musical, the movie does not disappoint. Miss Hepburn is magical as Eliza Doolittle. She speaks with her beautiful eyes and is completely believable and delightful in her character. In addition, Mr. Harrison captures the aloof yet caring professor perfectly. Mr. Harrison originated the role on Broadway. The other actors and characters along with the gorgeous music (written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe) are added icing to this delightful classic. If you are looking for a wonderful musical with comedy and heart then My Fair Lady is your ticket. It is a classic that will be around forever. In fact, there are talks of a My Fair Lady motion picture remake starring Colin Firth (winner of the 2011 Academy Award for Best Actor) as Henry Higgins. For now though, we can enjoy the beloved classic that won the 1964 Academy Award for Best Picture!

Eliza's Freedom Road

Eliza's Freedom Road: An Underground Railroad Diary by Jerdine Nolen
Youth New Book Shelves - Lower Level - NOLEN

This story follows Eliza on her trek toward freedom on the underground railroad. It takes place in 1854 in Alexandria, Virginia. Eliza's mother was sold away, leaving her with only a story quilt to remember her by. Eliza has the gift of storytelling, learned from her mother, and she shares them with the other slaves throughout the book. She also has the gift of being able to read and write, taught by the mistress of the house she serves. When her mistress gets very sick, Eliza becomes afraid that she, too, will be traded away by the master of the house. Harriet Tubman shows her another possibility: freedom. This is a very touching story of Eliza's journey north. She meets up with other escaped slaves, and they look out for each other as a new family. This is a well-researched book, full of history and folktales. It is an important book for most age groups, starting with children around 3rd or 4th grade. Adults will appreciate it too.

Elizabeth Zimmermann’s The Knitter’s Almanac

Elizabeth Zimmermann’s The Knitter’s Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Crafts Collection – Upper Level – 746.43 Z

I am writing this just in case there is a knitter who hasn’t heard of Elizabeth Zimmermann. Elizabeth Zimmermann’s books take homey, personality-filled writing applied to quite revolutionary ideas about making knitting just challenging enough but as easy as possible. Of course you can design your own sweater. Of course you’ll enjoy making a shawl, and you’ll naturally come up with some embellishments to make it pretty and less boring to knit along the way… that kind of thing. The Knitter’s Almanac features her thoughts and activities for each month of the year, with a selection of projects. Each is talked through in detail in the main body of the chapter, and followed with “pithy” short directions at the end of the chapter. There are some famous patterns in this book, including the Pi shawl and February’s baby sweater. The library has just purchased the new commemorative edition, which features a lovely introduction by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka the Yarn Harlot) and an adult-sized version of the famous baby sweater, February Lady. Never mind that at my current rate of knitting it would take me twelve years rather than twelve months to get through all the projects here – this is a book that every self-respecting knitter should read.