Want to Get a Head Start on Planning Next Year's Garden?

     This is the South, and I know a lot of people who have gardens. We grow a great many things down here and whether it's vegetables or flowers, herbs or trees and shrubs, we all want to know how to choose the right plants, how to check soil conditions, and, increasingly, how to do all of this without a bunch of chemicals. Well, the library has two new books that can help you with that particular conundrum.

     The first is Southern Gardening: An Environmentally Sensitive Approach by Florida Master Gardener Marie Harrison. The author gives you all her tips and tricks for creating a verdant landscape that any gardener would be proud to call their own. Harrison's comprehensive guide focuses on environmentally conscious yards by suggesting use of ground-cover as well as easy-care, adaptable trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. She tells you how to deal with exotic and invasive plants that threaten natural areas and native plants. She offers minimally damaging ways to deal with insect pests. Plus, she includes a month-by-month guide for planning your earth-friendly garden. (On a side note; I would like to thank the Green Hills Garden Club, Hester Flowers Garden Club, Openwood Garden Club, and the Morning Gardeners Garden Club for presenting this wonderful resource to the library!)
     The second title for environmentally friendly gardening is Roses Without Chemicals by Peter E. Kukielski. This book includes one hundred fifty disease-free varieties of roses that the author rates on its disease resistance, flowering, and fragrance.

Since roses have a reputation for being finicky plants that require chemicals and fertilizers to remain healthy, this book offers a refreshing look at recent breeding efforts that have produced disease resistant varieties that perform wonderfully in all types of conditions. Kukielski lets the reader know which varieties perform best in each region and gives tips for simple cultivation techniques that are sure to result in beautiful, easy-to-care-for roses that will fill your garden. Also included is a helpful resource guide and a list of other books to help you make the most of your garden.
     Gardeners will enjoy flipping through these books and may even be inspired to try something new in their next gardening project. Both contain full-color photographs that will make it easier to identify the plants they wish to use in the garden. These two books--along with many others found in the library--will help you make your garden lush and beautiful with minimal use of harmful and potentially dangerous chemicals.

New Additions to our Adult Non-Fiction

We've had several interesting books added to our New Adult Non-Fiction section.  Here is a selection of four of the ones available.



In The Book of Joan, Joan Rivers' daughter and co-star of 'Fashion Police' Melissa Rivers shares some of her memories and many stories about her mother,

Beginning and ending with speaking about her late mother's passing in September of last year, the book is a tribute, a memorial and an inside look at the private side of the public mother-daughter relationship that they shared.

A companion volume to the Fox News historical docudrama series, Bill O'Reilly's Legends & Lies looks behind the tall tales and fables that have been told over the years about many of the colorful characters from the westward expansion of America.

The truth behind many of the figures was sometimes brutal, but in many cases, the true stories are more interesting than the legends that have been retold over the years.





Oscar nominated actress/singer/comedian Madeline Kahn, who passed away in 1999, is remember and saluted in Madeline Kahn : Being the Music, A Life by William Madison.

Through interviews with her friends, family and colleagues, Madison covers both the highs and lows of her career and focuses on her love of music and the importance that it played in her life.

Filmmaker Judd Apatow (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, etc) is a self-confessed comedy nerd and has been since his youth when he took a dish-washing job in a comedy club so that he could watch the comedians for free.

In his new book, Sick in the Head, he shares some of the interviews he's done with some of the greatest comics of our times.  Starting back in 1983, he's spoken with comic legends like Mel Brooks and Steve Allen as well as newer comic stars such as Amy Schumer.  It's an entertaining as well as insightful look into some of the funniest brains in the business.


All of these books can be found in our New Adult Non-Fiction section along with many others.  Look over our selection - we have something for nearly everyone's reading preference.

Another Pair of DIY Books!

     People are always asking me for books on different hobbies. Who can blame them? Most people enjoy learning new skills or improving on the ones they already have. Sometimes people want to turn their hobbies into small businesses to bring in a little extra money. Well, the library is always a good place to browse when you want to do any of the preceding. We have books on hobbies, small business, and turning your hobbies into a small business.
     A popular idea for hobbyists is soapmaking. I often see handmade soaps at flea markets and craft fairs. In the days before commercial soaps, people made their own at home; usually from ashes and animal fat also known as tallow. There were also soaps made from olive oil and later coconut oil. These were usually expensive and, as such, were reserved for the wealthy. Nowadays, however, soapmaking is usually left to hobbyists or homesteaders and is therefore not a common skill. The library has recently acquired two books on making your own soaps for your own personal use or even as a small craft-based business idea.

     The first book is called, The Natural & Handmade Soap Book written by Sarah Harper. There are twenty soap recipes for bath time, kids, home, and gifts. The author shows you how to use two key techniques in making your own artisan soap--the traditional cold-process method and the faster melt-and-pour method. Included are recipes for soaps, shampoo bars, homemade laundry detergent, and even dishwasher soaps. These recipes include handy tips and tricks that will help you perfect your technique and allow you to find your own variations of ingredients for your projects. There is a comprehensive list of the tools needed for both techniques as well as an outline of how to be safe while pursuing your new hobby. Harper also includes some advanced techniques as well as a list of suppliers and other resources that may prove useful.
     The second book for the hobby soapmaker is The Complete Soapmaker: Tips, Techniques & Recipes for Luxurious Handmade Soaps by Norma Coney. This book walks you through every step of the process of soapmaking.

From finding and using the right equipment and ingredients to handling lye safely and making basic bars or fancy molded and marbled soaps, this book covers more than fifty hand-milled recipes that include herbs, fruits, and vegetables. There are also specialty soaps including translucent bars, gels, and shampoos. Coney includes tips on storing your soaps so that their fragrance will be preserved as well as how to gift-wrap and display any soaps you want to sell. She also includes convenient conversion charts for figuring out weights, volume and temperature.
     Why not try one of these or any of the other hobby books the library offers?!

An Unexpected and Horrific Family Secret Uncovered

How would you deal with the sudden discovery that your grandfather was a mass murderer?  One that would, had he lived to see you, have killed you as well?

That was the situation that author Jennifer Teege, a German-Nigerian woman, found herself in when she was 38 and happened to randomly choose a book from the shelf that would radically alter her perception of her family and the Holocaust.  A picture in the book that she recognized as her grandmother and mother led her to a stunning discovery - her grandfather was the Butcher of Plaszow - Amon Goeth, who was the vicious Nazi commandant portrayed in the movie Schindler's List.

That discovery led Teege on a search to unearth her family's history.  This book is about that search and her personal search to find peace with her heritage.  Nikola Sellmair, an award winning journalist, adds in another narrative using interviews with friends and family as well as giving historical context to what Teege discovers during her quest.

This is an intriguing memoir and shows how profoundly the past can affect the present.  It might even lead readers to wonder how well they know their own family's background.