Under the Cajun Moon

I just read the first book in (I hope) a new series by Mindy Starns Clark. Under the Cajun Moon is set in New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana and involves the things I love most about the state---food, music and eccentric people! The heroine of the story is Chloe Ledet, daughter of the famous chef Julian Ledet, owner of a famous French Quarter restaurant. Chloe has tried to "win" the love and respect of her parents for years, but finally moved away to have a successful career as a business etiquette consultant in Chicago. Chloe is called back to New Orleans suddenly when her dad is shot and ends up in a coma. Chloe is called to handle her father's affairs but when she wakes up in a strange hotel room with her father's dead lawyer on the couch, she immediately falls under suspicion of murder and must clear her name as well as discover who shot her father. With the aid of the son of her father's best friend, a handsome cajun named Travis, Chloe must "follow the recipe" and search for a priceless treasure while staying one step ahead of the people trying to kill her and her father--while trying to find the treasure. I absolutely loved the non-stop action of this story as well as the descriptions of Louisiana's swamps and exotic food and wildlife. Mindy Starns Clark truly knows Louisiana and her gutsy heroine is one you'll remember for a long time. Try a "taste of New Orleans" by reading this book!

Jane Goes Batty

I thoroughly enjoyed this second installment in Michael Thomas Ford's series featuring Jane Austen---as a vampire! Jane Goes Batty continues the story of Jane Austen, aka. Jane Fairfax, bookstore owner and author of the recent bestseller, Constance. In this installment, Jane must contend with meeting her boyfriend Walter's strong-willed Jewish mom and deciding whether or not she can marry Walter and confess her vampirism, while dealing with her persistent and pushy editor who wants chapters of her six-months-behind new novel. Add to this mix a pushy film editor and crew who are filming a version of Constance...set in the 1950's! What's an un-dead vampire author to do with all this mess? Jane deals with all of this drama in her classically unflappable way--she is witty, well-mannered and a great heroine. If you love Jane Austen or any of her books you are sure to love this delightful series that celebrates one of the world's most beloved authors. Be sure you start with the first book in the series, Jane Bites Back, or you might be a little confused!

New "Bullying Books" Available at the Library

Every April, in celebration of Child Abuse Prevention Month, the library is pleased to be the recipient of two donated books. The books were donated to the library by the Vicksburg Child Abuse Prevention Center. The Adult book is titled The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander: From Preschool to High School--How Parents and Teacher Can Help Break the Cycle of Violence, by Barbara Coloroso. The author is an acclaimed speaker on parenting, teaching, conflict resolution and grieving who lives with her husband in Littleton, Colorado. The author uses her years of work with troubled youth to discuss the three kinds of bullying and the differences between boy and girl bullies. After identifying which type of bully your child is experiencing, Mrs. Coloroso shows parents four abilities that you should teach them in order to protect them from succumbing to bullying. The book also includes seven steps to take if your child is a bully, and how to help the bullied child heal and effectively discipline the bully. The best part of this book is the chapter on cyberbullying and a section on how to evaluate a school's antibullying policy.

The children's selection that the CAP Center donated to the library is The Three Bully Goats by Leslie Kimmelman. This book was recently published and tells the story of Billy goat brothers Gruff, Ruff and Tuff who are bullies who rule their meadow. When they cross sweet Little Ogre's bridge and are mean to the baby animals on the other side, they are in for a surprise from Little Ogre! The book will be read at a special CAP Center storytime during the month of April, as well as other children's books that the library currently has on bullying.

Thanks again to the CAP Center for providing us with these two wonderful books that are great resources for parents and children to learn how to recognize and prevent bullying!

The Secret World of Hoarding

I have to admit this---I've recently been watching a few episodes of "Hoarding: Buried Alive," a television show. The show features people who are hoarders, and tries to help them clean out their houses as well as offer them help to find the "root" of the hoarding issue. The show is fascinating and mostly uplifting, although some of the cases are so desperate that they make me very sad. My recent interest in this show led me to read a new book that the library has purchased, Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About her Mother's Compulsive Hoarding by Jessie Sholl. This book is an examination of what it means to be the daughter of a hoarder, as Jessie's mom is a hoarder. The book centers around Jessie's return to her hometown of Minneapolis to help her mom prepare for her upcoming surgery and get her affairs in order when she is diagnosed with cancer. Dirty Secret describes Jessie's confrontation of her mom's disorder and an examination of her life among her mom's clutter. Hoarding is triggered by a traumatic event and Jessie's journey involves identifying that event in her mom's life and the endless cycle of cleaning and organizing her mother's house. The book does explore the issue of hoarding, but it also explores a mother-daughter relationship where the daughter tries to overcome many obstacles to remain a "good daughter." This book reads like a novel, and is a respectful introduction to the world of a hoarder. I think this book would be enjoyed by any person who has an interest in reading about mental illness, the disease of hoarding, or mother/daughter relationships.