Book Club's Reading Recommendations

During our December meeting, Book Club discussed the Snow Goose by Paul Gallico. After discussing this "gem" of a book, to quote one book club member, book club shared with each other their picks for the best books they read outside of book club this year. Not all these books were published this year, but these books are all ones that members of Book Club had read this year. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz F Mys Lut
The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons F Sim
Life of Pi : a novel by Yann Martel F Mar
Harry Potter and the deathly hallows by J.K. Rowling JF Row
A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini F Hos
The pillars of the earth by Ken Follett F Fol
For One More Day by Mitch Albom F Alb
Blaze by Richard Bachman F Bac
Suite française by Irène Némirovsky F Nem
1,000 places to see before you die by Patricia Schultz 910.202 Sch
Mister God, this is Anna : a true story by Fynn F Fyn
The omnivore's dilemma: a natural history of four meals by Michael Pollan
394.12 Pol
Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski
In the garden trilogy (Blue dahlia, Black rose, Red Lily )by Nora Roberts PB Rob
Linda Winstead Jones witch trilogy (Star Witch, Sun Witch, Moon Witch) PB Jon



Join us in January for The Friday Night Knitting Club in which we will have our combination Book Discussion and Knitting How-to!

- LP

Safety suggestions for using public computers

If you use public computers, whether in our Library or another library, school, internet café, or any public venue, there are some precautions that you can take to safeguard your personal information. The suggestions listed below, written by Neil J. Rubenking, are from the December 4, 2007 issue of PC Magazine (p. 115).

It may not always be possible to follow all these steps because public PCs often have some or all of these activities locked down to prevent tampering and maintain uniformity and stability among all workstations. You can always ask about the settings on Public PCs to determine whether tasks like these are being done for you. Here at the Library, many of these options are not available, but we use IE Privacy Keeper software, which automatically cleans up browser history once you are done surfing the net.

Rubenking’s suggestions from PC Magazine:

Before you start, turn off dangerous browser settings. In Internet Explorer’s Options dialog click the Content tab, click the Settings button in the AutoComplete pane and uncheck all the boxes. In Firefox’s Options dialog click the Privacy tab and uncheck all the boxes under History and Cookies, then click the Security tab and uncheck all the boxes under Passwords.

Be careful not to visit any financial Web sites by clicking hyperlinks received in your Web-based e-mail. The sites they bring you to might be fraudulent, and the public computer may not have antiphishing software enabled. If you need to visit a bank or other financial Web site, type the URL yourself.

Before entering any sensitive data on the public computer, make sure there’s no active malicious software on the system by running a quick scan from www.nanoscan.com. Keep in mind that no software will detect a hardware keylogger, so limit your sensitive transactions to those that are utterly essential.

When you’re finished with the browser, erase your tracks. In Firefox, press Ctrl-Shift-Del and check all the boxes, then click OK. In IE select Delete Browsing History from the Tools menu and click Delete all.

When you are all done, launch My Computer, right-click the icon for the hard disk, and click Properties. Click the Disk Cleanup button and wait for the list of choices. Make sure that Recycle Bin and Temporary Files are checked and that Compress old files is not checked. Then click OK to clean up.

- JB

Bio of Best Band Ever

The Replacements were hailed as “The Last Best Band of the ‘80s” by Musician magazine, and in my opinion, they are the best band ever. Yet, many people have never heard of them. In some ways the Replacements were a band ahead of their time. Now, people can discover or re-discover this great band, by reading The Replacements : All Over But The Shouting : An Oral History by Jim Walsh.

I do not usually read biographies because I do not like to have my illusions shattered, but I really enjoyed this one. Jim Walsh presents the good and bad about the Replacements through snippets of interviews with the band members, people who knew them, people telling how they first discovered them, and even people who disliked the band. The book inspired me to listen to all their CDs for the umpteenth time and to search out my concert t-shirt.

The library owns six of the Replacements albums on CD and the two Best Of compilations if you are in the mood for early alternative rock.

-- NB

Where the heck is this CD?

One of the most frequently heard questions at the Adult Services reference desk is: “Where is this CD?” The person will then hand us a piece of paper with something like “CD D PAV” written on it. Okay, they’ll say, CD makes sense and PAV is for Pavarotti, but what is the D for?

The Library categorizes all its CDs using something called ANSCR, the Alpha-Numeric System for Classification of Recordings. Actually our music call number uses three parts: CD (for, you guessed it, Compact Disc); the ANSCR category (D is for Vocal music); and three letters that describe the recording (either the first three letters of the author/composer/performer or the title of the recording). So, CD D PAV describes a recording of vocal music by Luciano Pavarotti, such as Italian Wedding Favorites.

The important thing to remember is that all these CDs are shelved in alphabetical order, from CD B (Operas) to CD SFX (sound effects). If you need a CD Z, that’s a children’s recording—you’ll find it in Youth Services.

So what are among the most common categories? Here’s a sampling: MA—Popular music, MC—Country, L—Soundtracks, ML—Latin pop. And by the way, if you’re putting together a party this month, be sure to take a look at CD R—that’s holiday music.

-- JB

Give Back this Holiday Season

'Tis the time of year for giving, but what about giving back to community and those that are less fortunate? Giving DuPage wants to make volunteering as easy as possible and has compiled a list of family and youth-friendly activities.

Print copies of the Holiday Giving Guide, Giving DuPage's volunteer guide, are available at the Adult Services Desk. Guides are also available online from http://www.givingdupage.org/. Check the website to locate a volunteer opportunity by zip code, area of interest or by type of volunteer opportunity.

Warm someone's heart this holiday season--give back!

--KEL

Holiday Music @ Your Library

‘Tis the season for holiday entertaining, so set the mood with music CDs from the Library! We have a wide variety of Christmas CDs available for your listening pleasure, including childhood favorites, contemporary artists, religious and secular, classical, and instrumental. We also offer CDs featuring songs for celebrating Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Come browse our collection and get into the holiday spirit! CDs may be checked out for one week and renewed if not in high demand.
--KC