Taking the first steps to launching the career of your dreams.

According to Ben Arment, the author of 'Dream Year : Make the Leap from a Job You Hate to a Life You Love", there is no such thing as a 'dream job'.  A job is where you are working for someone else to fulfill their dreams, not your own.

In his coaching classes, he has worked with hundreds of people to help them identify their dream career, plan it out and launch it in one year.

His new book is full of insights and advice, but most captivating part is the stories of the people who have followed his step-by-step program to switch from the jobs that paid the bills to work that they are enthusiastic about and enjoy while still making a living.

The book covers the steps in individual chapters starting with finding and defining your dream career and follows through to growing and sustaining it.  One of his main points - never give up and he gives several examples of those who had to make multiple tries before they reached their own goals, including Abraham Lincoln.

A love letter to public libraries told in photographs

New to our Adult Non-Fiction collection, The Public Library : A Photographic Essay by Robert Dawson, is a loving tribute to the many forms that public libraries take all across the United States.

With a foreword by Bill Moyers and an afterword by Ann Patchett along with reflections by Isaac Asimov, Barbara Kingsolver, Anne Lamott, Philip Levine, Dr. Seuss, Charles Simic, Amy Tan, E.B. White and others, the book shows how strongly the presence of libraries has affected not only themselves but also those that they've known and how important they continue to be in this 'information age' where there is an ever-larger amount of information that needs to be sifted through to find the information needed.

Bill Moyer perhaps expressed it best in his foreword when he said, "when a library is open, no matter its size or shape, democracy is open, too."

Welcome MLA 2014!

     We are excited to announce that the Mississippi Library Association's annual convention is back in Vicksburg this year. MLA's mission is to "to provide professional leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all." This four day conference includes workshops and vendors selling aids for use in academic, public, and school libraries. Also included are tours of historic Vicksburg. On Thursday, October 16, there will be the annual Mississippi Author Awards Dinner. These awards are given to Mississippi authors in one of three categories: fiction, non-fiction, and juvenile literature.  All of this is being held at the Vicksburg Convention Center--just down the street from our own public library. I know that as a community you will join me in showing our participants and presenters the hospitality that Mississippi is famous for! If you would like to learn more about the conference, please feel free to follow one of the links below.

Mississippi Library Association's Convention Page
http://www.misslib.org/event-856714


Vicksburg Convention Center Homepage
http://www.vccmeet.com/

Setting boundaries on technology for your family

With technology changing practically daily and younger children using that technology on a regular basis, where do parents draw the line or even know what lines need to be drawn?

Janell Burley Hofmann, writer for The Huffington Post and mother of five, ran into that problem when she gave her 13 year old son an iPhone for Christmas.  She covered her concerns that outlined the boundaries and expectations for her son in the form of a contract that she had him sign when he was given his first cell phone.  Her editor at The Huffington Post posted a copy, now known as the iRules, and it went viral.

In this book, Hofmann provides families with tools to help them reach their own balance between personal human interactions and technology.  Using her guidance on what makes up the online culture (everything from cyberbullying to sexting), parents can fashion their own iRules to fit the needs of their own families.

The book also contains a glossary of common internet terms, a listing of current popular social networking sites and a list of translations for popular abbreviations used in online chats.  All in all, it's a great reference for both the tech-savvy and the not-so-tech-savvy.

Insomniacs Be Warned!

Black Moon is a novel by Kenneth Calhoun. This is a contemporary novel about the breakdown that can occur when a society is hit with a plague. In Calhoun's United States, people are suffering from endless bouts of insomnia. First, there is the exhaustion. Next is the forgetfulness and impaired reflexes. Then, comes the irrational behavior, hallucinations--both auditory and visual. Finally, is the full-blown descent into insanity and, in most cases, suicide. Men, women, and children roam the streets dazed, confused, and muttering to themselves. They are filthy, ever-maddening creatures who scrounge food where they can. There is hope in those who are still able to sleep at night, but those few are in mortal danger. If someone with this viral insomnia finds a person asleep, then they go into a terrible rage and attack the sleeper--in some cases killing them. There are mass suicides from highway overpasses and tall buildings. Our main protagonist, Biggs, has lost his beloved wife, Carolyn. Biggs is a sleeper, but his wife has succumbed to the insomnia that is running rampant throughout the country. In a fit of confusion and despair, Carolyn wanders from their apartment and out into the chaos. During his journey to find his beloved wife, Biggs meets all sorts of characters in various states of insomnia-induced madness. There is also Lila, a high-school student who has taken to roaming the streets and subdivisions of a desert town wearing an owl mask. She, too, can sleep, but her parents sent her away when they realized that she was not safe around them. The Marine who was taking her to a military base tried to attack her when she falls asleep in the backseat of the car. She suffers minor injuries to her face, but the Marine dies, leaving her alone to roam this new chaotic world. This story starts off strong with an interesting premise, but around the center, it seems to lose steam and the ending feels rushed and a bit contrived. I can deal with the author leaving us hanging with the crumbling state of civilization, but there are loose ends that could have been resolved before bringing this book to a close. One of the main characters seems to die "off stage" (which is very annoying). Overall this is a good book, but it is a bit hard to get through in places. Some of the descriptions of the break-down of people's psyches are pretty disturbing. If you like deeply psychological accounts of dystopian futures (and not-so-futures), then this is a good book for you.

Could You Run the Maze?

The Maze Runner is a juvenile novel by James Dashner that centers around a group of boys trapped in a garden-like prison surrounded by four hundred foot grey walls that open and close on four sides at dawn and dusk. Beyond these walls there is a maze that has to be solved before the boys can escape to the unknown. The story opens with "Thomas" inside a dark room that is moving. The top opens and there are faces peering down on him. Apparently, this happens once a month--a 'greenbean' comes out of the elevator shaft in the middle of the garden. There are no adults, no girls. The boys come to the maze with no real knowledge of who they are or where they come from. They must survive with what they have and what few supplies they receive every week. Thomas decides he has to become a Runner--one of several boys who go out each morning, run through their section of the maze, mapping it in their heads, and returning each night and sketching out what they learn. The maze is familiar to him somehow. The maze is not without dangers, however, there are these half-metallic, half-organic creatures called Grievers that inhabit the maze. Mostly, they come out at night, but if they catch you they inject you with a toxin that causes you to go through an extremely painful process that causes you to see your past and you gain some knowledge of what is going on in the world, but not everyone sees the same things. This dystopian future is a fun, quick read and is the first book in a series. Some of you may have seen previews for a movie with the same title--it is based on Dashner's series. The strong female leads of series like The Hunger Games & Divergent are wonderful, but sometimes, the boys need a strong role model, too--one that uses his brains over his brawn. I highly recommend giving this series a try. The library only has the first book of the series, but it is worth checking into.

Ebooks are also available at the library.

Have a desktop computer, laptop, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, iPad, iPhone or Kindle Fire?  The Blio eReader supports Windows, Android and IOS devices.

http://wcvpl.axis360.baker-taylor.com/Admin/ReaderList - this link will take you to the axis360 APPzone where you can find step-by-step directions on how to set up your specific device so that you can start enjoying the convenience of checking out a eBook today.

From the Written Word to the Television Screen

Last summer, CBS decided to run a thirteen episode television series based upon Stephen King's book, Under the Dome. In both the book and the t.v. series, the small town of Chester's Mill, Maine finds itself trapped under an invisible dome. Iraq veteran Dale Barbara and several other townspeople find themselves at odds with the ambitious and murderous Big Jim Rennie and his son. There seems to be a secret lurking around every corner and under every rock. The television show is about the characters and how they react to being trapped under this mysterious dome and how they interact with one another. Everyone must learn to survive, scrounge supplies, and keep everything from falling apart.

The key cast members--Dale "Barbie" Barbara, Julia Shumway, and others--try to figure out what the dome is, who built it, and why was Chester's Mill chosen to be covered? The first season and the book can be found here at the library. The second season of the television series just aired on CBS.

This summer, ABC aired the television series Resurrection. This story is based on the book The Returned by Jason Mott. Both the DVD of the first season of Resurrection and The Returned can be checked out at the library. A mysterious young boy wakes up in a rice patty in China. It turns out that the boy is from Arcadia, Missouri and he died over thirty years ago. He is reunited with his parents who are--understandably--bewildered, scared, and overjoyed. The little boy is just the first, soon, others return. As they do, the people of Arcadia are thrown into chaos. Is this really the miracle that some think, or is there a more sinister purpose to the return of dead loved ones? A local doctor teams with an ICE agent and they try to discover what is going on and why, but they run into trouble when word gets out that the dead have come back.The first season of this series only has eight episodes and the ending leaves you wanting more.

While I have not read the two books mentioned here, they have definitely gone onto my "Must Read" list. When the producers, writers, directors, and actors do a superb job of staying close to the source material and do some spectacular storytelling, you can appreciate the synthesis of literature and film-making.

A view of the Delta and the dogs that live there.

An interesting book we've added to our collection recently is Delta Dogs - a series of photographs by Maude Schuyler Clay, which includes an introduction by Brad Watson and an essay by Beth Ann Fennelly.

But the stars are the combination of the dogs and their surroundings. All the photographs are in sepia tones, showing dogs of nearly every size and shape in fields, by the side of the road, playing in the water and various other doggie activities.  Each of the photographs has a small notation about where the image came from, some very general like 'Field Dogs, Mississippi Delta' and some very specific as 'Dog under the Burrus House, near Benoit'.

The photographer was born in Greenwood, Mississippi and her works are part of the collections of several museums including the Museum of Modern Art.

British Mysteries on DVD

I have recently finished two new British Mystery series on DVD. The first one is Death in Paradise (Season 1) and it stars Ben Miller (Primeval, Johnny English) as the pent-up and proper Detective Inspector Richard Poole. DI Poole has been sent from Scotland Yard to the Caribbean Island of Saint Marie to solve the murder of a fellow police officer. he encounters an island full of colorful characters and a police station manned by an equally raucous crew. Paired with DI Poole is Detective Sergeant Camille Bordey (Sara Martins). Where Poole is up-tight and a little OCD; Camille is laid back and free-spirited. Needless to say, these two but horns at almost every turn, but Camille and her mother, Catherine, take every opportunity to try to get the DI to relax. Adding to Poole's headaches are Officer Dwayne Myers (Danny John-Jules) and Fidel Best (Gary Carr). Dwayne just wants to revel in the island that he loves so much. Fidel is a about to be a new father and while quite competent, he is a little on the green side when it comes to police work, but he is more than willing to learn. This eight episode season is full of character driven stories without all the blood and gore of grittier police shows and it is peppered with enough humor to keep it light and watchable.

The second set of British mysteries I've watched recently is called Scott & Bailey (Season 1). It stars Lesley Sharp (The Full Monty, Cranford) as Detective Constable Janet Scott and Suranne Jones (Coronation Street) as Detective Constable Rachel Bailey. This show is more serious and drama driven than the other series discussed here. DC Scott is the sensible, family-oriented detective. She is kind, intelligent and a by-the-book copper. DC Bailey is a single woman with a penchant for the wrong men. She, too, is intelligent and good at her job, but she is more likely to bend the rules than her partner. These two ladies are best friends as well as partners. They may not always see eye-to-eye, but when things get hairy they have each other's backs. This series doesn't have a lot of gore either, even though the cases are more gritty and urban than Death in Paradise. This is definitely a buddy-cop show and well worth watching.