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. 

Take a Stroll Through the Pines

Blake Crouch has written an unnerving novel titled the Pines.  Wayward Pines, Idaho is a quintessential small town in America, or so it seems on the surface.  Secret Service Agent Ethan Burke visits the town in search of two missing federal agents but is sidelined by an auto accident when he arrives.  He wakes up at the edge of town with amnesia, a killer headache and soon realizes that this "little corner of paradise" is not what it seems.  Although the townspeople are friendly and act "normal," little cracks in their facades begin to appear.  Ethan has no ID or cell phone and is thwarted whenever he tries to contact his family or his Secret Service boss.  As Ethan continues to drag up more questions than answers, he realizes that he

may never leave this creepy town alive!  Blake Crouch was a fan of the television shows Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure and The X-Files and he wrote Pines in order to create something that made him feel the way Twin Peaks did-- a story about a small town in the middle of nowhere that is beautiful on the outside but with a pitch-black underbelly.  Blake Crouch was born in North Carolina in 1978 and earned his undergraduate degrees in English and Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and published his first two novels within five years of graduation.  He has since published eight novels, many novellas and short stories and three novels cowritten with J. A. Konrath, Fully Loaded, Run,  and Stirred.  He currently lives in Durango, Colorado.

Philomena

I like to watch as many Academy Award Nominated films that I can every year, and I was just able to view Philomena, which was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay in 2013.  Judi Dench and Steve Coogan star in this wonderful story about Philomena Lee, an Irish mother who conceived a child out of wedlock and unwillingly gave him up for adoption.  Almost fifty years after his birth, Philomena meets Martin

Sixsmith, a former BBC reporter looking for his next big break, With a few clues in hand, they set off on a journey to find Philomena's long lost son---a journey that takes them from the Abbey in Ireland where Philomena lived and had the baby, then to America and back again.  Based on the 2009 book by Sixsmith, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, the movie is a wonderful story about an unlikely friendship full of humor and warmth.  The movie is rated PG-13 and contains special features such as "A Conversation with Judi Dench," "The Real Philomena Lee," a "Q & A with Steve Coogan," and "Feature Commentary with Steve Coogan and Screenwriter Jeff Pope."  The library has The Lost Child of Philomena Lee in both book and audio format.

Last Vegas

I recently watched a really fun movie that I checked out on DVD from the library.  Last Vegas stars Michael Douglas, Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline.  Best friends since childhood, the four "older gentlemen" decide to fly to Las Vegas to celebrate Billy's (Michael Douglas') marriage to his long-time, 32-year-old girlfriend.  Billy is the group's sworn bachelor and the group promises to stop acting their ages and relive their glory days in Vegas before the big wedding.  When they arrive, they realize that the decades have changed them and Sin City and they test the boundaries of their friendship as they take Vegas by storm.  The movie is a hilarious exploration of life and what it means to grow old gracefully.  The movie is rated PG-13  and contains special features such as filmmaker commentary and stories about "The Flatbush Four."