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.

Getting Old Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

A new addition to our collection is the latest in the 'Geezer-Lit' mysteries, Nursing Homes are Murder by Mike Befeler (number six of the series).

Octogenarian sleuth Paul Jacobson is back again.  This time, he's in Hawaii and asked for help by Detective Chun, who needs someone undercover to help investigate a sexual assault at a nursing home.  Things take a turn when the assault victim becomes a murder victim.

Jacobson has to cope with short-term memory loss as well as with some of the eccentric residents of the Pacific Vista Nursing Home, including wheelchair racers and one with a taste for soap.  It's a well-paced mix of humor, danger and mystery as Jacobson tries to put a stop to a killer before the killer puts a stop to him.

Longmire - Season 2

Walt Longmire gets a heap of trouble in the second season of the popular series on the A&E Network. First of all, he is in the midst of a heated re-election campaign against one of his own deputies--namely, Branch Connelly. Second, his daughter takes off for a few weeks without letting anyone know where she's going. Turns out that after she finds out that her mother was killed by a meth addict and not from cancer like her father told her, she goes to Denver to see what the police there know about the case. Third, we learn that Deputy Victoria "Vic" Moretti left Philadelphia under a dark cloud not of her making and it seems the cloud has found her. Then all hell breaks loose! I don't want to give too much away, so I'll just say that this is a wonderful television series that runs during the summer months on A&E and is based on a series of books by Craig Johnson. There is no mistaking that this is a modern-day western--complete with horses, cowboy hats, rodeos, and cattle rustlers. I thoroughly enjoy the characters and the actors who play them. Robert Taylor, an Aussie import, does a fine job of portraying the rough, intelligent, and caring Sheriff of Absaroka County. Lou Diamond Phillips--still as handsome as ever--plays Longmire's longtime and long suffering best friend, Henry Standing Bear. The first season was more of a way to introduce the characters; the second season goes deeper into their relationships and their pasts. While the television show is not exactly like the books by Craig Johnson, I think that it captures the spirit of Johnson's characters and of the people and places in Wyoming that are so lovingly drawn in the books.  The library owns both Season 1 and 2 of the show and it may be checked out in the audio-visual department.

Cast of Longmire (A&E Network)

"If Something Happens To Me"

A recent addition to our collection is the true story of the disappearance of Susan Powell, twenty-eight year old wife and mother of two young boys, in December 2009 and the eventual murder of her two sons at the hands of her husband/their father and his suicide in February 2012.


The authors have covered the story by making use of emails that were sent by Susan to friends and family, notes left behind, the police files (which were released last year when the case was closed) and interviews with friends, neighbors and family members.


Despite the case being closed, Susan Powell is currently still missing.  A chilling tale best read with the doors locked and the lights on.

Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

It is only fitting that my last blog entry for this blog, hosted by the Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library, be about a book that astounded me with it's lyrical beauty.   A friend of mine loaned me Gargoyle,  by Andrew Davidson, a few months ago and while I initially was interested in the story, I was distracted by other books and put it down.  I recently took a trip and discovered that the library has Gargoyle on CD, so I jumped at the chance to check it out and

finish it!  The story is simply stunning.  The book opens with the story of the narrator, who is visually beautiful by morally blank, as he is driving along a dark road and becomes distracted by what appears to be a group of arrows.  He crashes into a ravine and suffers horrible burns over most of his body.  He wakes in a hospital and suffers treatments until a somewhat unhinged gargoyle sculptress, Marianne Engel, appears at his bedside and insists they were lovers in medieval Germany.  She then spins the tale of their past life-intertwined with other tales of lovers--in a beautiful, twisting, tale of love and life.  He is eventually released into her care and they attempt to have a life together. The writing is beautiful and the story is intense as is the descriptions of burn victim treatments.  I believe you'll be as entranced as I was with this bookl, whether you check out the library's hardback copy or listen to the audio version.

A Cozy Library Mystery

     Author Miranda James continues her Cat in the Stacks Mysteries with the fifth book --The Silence of the Library. Charlie Harris, a kind and warm semi-retired librarian, and his large Maine Coon cat, Diesel spend their time working at the local college library as well as the public library of Athena, Mississippi. Unfortunately, Charlie always seems to get caught up in nefarious goings-on in this small Southern town. This time, Charlie is helping Teresa, the director of the public library, organize an event centered around children's detective stories for National Library Week. Fortunately for them, the centenary novelist Electra Barnes Cartwright--creator of the beloved Veronica Thane series--is a local resident. Charlie and Teresa convince Mrs. Cartwright to appear at their event. They don't realize, however, that inviting such a beloved writer to the event will bring out all manner of unstable individuals. When Carrie Taylor--a blogger and longtime fan of Mrs. Cartwright's work--agrees to bring some of her own memorabilia to be displayed in the library, she turns up dead. Why would anyone want to kill such a pleasant and innocuous woman? Could it be because she owned a rare version of the very first Veronica Thane book? Charlie is caught up in the matter, much to the chagrin of Deputy Kanesha Berry. On top of the murder, someone has broken into the hotel rooms of a couple of book collectors who have turned up for the event and Mrs. Cartwright's literary agent seems to have gone missing. Charlie and Diesel work their way through the clues and the list of suspects to give Kanesha a helping hand--whether she wants it or not! The ending will surprise many and the little twist is quite refreshing. I highly recommend this series for fans of cozy mysteries. If you would like to check out any of the other Cat in the Stacks Mysteries by Miranda James, they are:

1.  Murder Past Due
2.  Classified As Murder
3.  File M for Murder
4.  Out of Circulation
5.  The Silence of the Library

The Big Book of Baby Quilts!

The library just received a gorgeous new quilting book!  The Big Book of Baby Quilts published by The Patchwork Place contains 87 cute and cuddly baby quilt patterns with patterns, color photos and easy to follow directions.  The patterns range from easy to hard, and from traditional to abstract patterns.  The full-color photographs make creating the quilts an easy process, and the detailed directions make it easy to figure how many different fabrics you need to buy and the amount of each fabric you need.  The book includes quilts that are pieced and appliqued and many different quilting techniques are explained in the book too.  This book would be a great read for any quilter, as the quilt patterns can be used for baby quilts and/or modified to make bigger quilts.  This book is currently housed on our new nonfiction book shelves and can be checked out for a three week period.