DATE of ARTICLE    

Two new books about our area are available for checkout now.  Another Way: Hospices of Marquette County by Dixie Franklin details the history of the hospice movement in Marquette County through the personal stories of nineteen local residents including physicians, nurses, social workers, volunteer, patients and family members.  “If a person walks into a doctor’s office a whole person and gets a diagnosis that it’s terminal, they are still that whole person when they walk out.  Hospice tries to make sure that people keep living, even with that diagnosis.”  Cindy Nyquist, R.N. Founder, UP Home Health & Hospice.

Voice on the Water:  Great Lakes Native America Now edited by Grace Chaillier and Rebecca Tavernini and published by NMU Press brings together new voices, along with a few established authors, to create a picture of contemporary Native American experience in Michigan with poems, stories, memories, essays and art.  Two years in the making, Voice on the Water is an enlightening pleasure to read.

The library has also added some new audiobooks to listen to on the road or at home.  Nothing to Envy:  Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick  provides a look at a nation that is in the news today as Kim Jong-un takes over the leadership.  Demick, Beijing bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today by following six North Koreans as they fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions and struggle for survival.  Read by Karen White who has won two AudioFile Earphones Awards, the book was a National Book Award Finalist.  10 CDs.

My grandson piqued my interest in Plastic Ocean: How a Sea Captain’s Chance Discover Launched a Determined Quest to Save the Oceans when he wrote a 6^th grade report on the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre where the largest garbage dump on the planet—a spiral nebula where plastic outweighs zooplankton, the ocean’s food base, by a factor of six to one.  Author Captain Charles Moore recounts his ominous findings and unveils the secret life and hidden properties of plastics—now suspected of contributing to a host of ailments, including infertility, autism, thyroid dysfunction and some cancers.  Read by Mel Foster, Audie and AudioFile  Earphones awards winner.  10 CDs.

February is Black History Month.  The Slaves’ War: the Civil War in the Words of Former Slaves by Andrew Ward is the first narrative of the Civil War told from the perspective of those whose destiny it decided.  Woven together from hundreds of interviews, diaries, letters, and memoirs, here is the Civil War as seen from the battlefields, camps, slave quarters, kitchens, roadsides, farms, towns and swamps and brought to vivid life.  Read by Richard Allen, four time Audie nominee and winner of three AudioFile Earphone awards.  11 CDs.

If you’ve been reading the news from Nigeria lately, you might enjoy Little Bee by Chris Cleave.  Little Bee and her sister are trying to escape machete-wielding soldiers who had killed the rest of their village to make the area available for oil wells.  British couple Andrew and Sarah O’Rourke, vacationing on a Nigerian beach in a last-ditch effort to save their faltering marriage, comes across Little Bee and her sister. The horrific confrontation that follows changes the lives of everyone involved in unimaginable ways.    Two years later, Little Bee appears in London on the day of Andrew's funeral and reconnects with Sarah. Sarah is struggling to come to terms with her husband's recent suicide and the stubborn behavior of her four-year-old son, who is convinced that he really is Batman. The tenuous friendship between Sarah and Little Bee that grows, is challenged, and ultimately endures is the heart of this emotional, tense, and often hilarious novel. Read by Anne Flosnik with a perfect voice for both Little Bee and Sarah.  9 CD. Also available as a downloadable audiobook in pdf or WMA format.

Eric Greitens reads his own memoir The Heart and the Fist: the Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy Seal.  Like many young idealists, Eric Greitens wanted to make a difference. During college and afterward, he traveled to the world's trouble spots, working in refugee camps, serving the sick and the poor on four continents, from Gaza to Croatia to Mother Teresa's home in Calcutta, among others. Yet he could not prevent violence or save anyone from becoming a refugee; he could only step in afterward and try to ease the damage. So Eric joined the Navy SEALs and became an elite warrior. In a moving and inspiring memoir, told with genuine humility, Eric offers something new in the history of military memoirs: a warrior who wanted to be strong to be good, only to discover that he had to be good to be strong. Throughout his SEAL training and deployments in Kenya, Thailand, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the lessons of his humanitarian work bore fruit. The result is a lesson for us all: the heart and fist together are more powerful than either one alone. 9 CDs.

As a fiction reader, that is the first place I head to for my reading material—the left side of the new-book kiosks. Fiction can then be divided further into other genres like mysteries, science fiction, westerns, and so on. I thought I’d highlight some new fiction that interested me over the recent holidays.

Naomi’s Gift by Amy Clipston is a novella, or short story, set in Bird-in-Hand, PA, a small Amish community. Naomi quilts, cares for her younger siblings and yearns for a different life. At 24 years of age, however, she has resigned herself to a life without a family of her very own. That is until she meets a man named Caleb. Caleb and his daughter brighten her life and bring meaning to it. This short story was a good, quick read with its many pages of conversation. I hope you’ll enjoy it even after Christmas.

English novelist Penelope Lively’s latest book, How It All Began, is a book about chance and  ---event. The original point of chance for this story is the mugging of retired teacher Charlotte Rainsford. Charlotte’s resultant broken hip causes her daughter Rose to miss work and bring Mum home for convalescence. This change, or ripple, displeases Lord Henry Peters, Rose’s boss, who then brings his niece, Marion, in to help him with his work. The ripples continue with names of Gerry, Stella, Anton, divorce, Delia, Mark, Jeremy the philanderer…  It is a good read filled with colorful characters that illustrate what happens when life occurs.   

This book caught my eye with its golf imagery on the cover. The Swinger by Michael Bamberger and Alan Shipnuck is a novel about golf icon, Herbert X. “Tree” Tremont. The word “swing” appears to be a metaphor for several things in this story. Tree is a golfer, who swings clubs for his livelihood. His lifestyle also swings. Readers will swing between stories of illicit affairs, major championships on the PGA tour and trips to exotic places. As the icon’s life and career stop swinging and dive into scandal, readers learn some real background about the worldwide professional sport of golf.

Superior Dilemma: a Lake Superior Mystery by Matthew Williams, a local writer from Marquette, is third in his mystery series based near Lake Superior. An Upper Peninsula version of the Iditarod, a sled dog race in Alaska, is the center of this story. Williams writes a good story that jump starts just like sled dogs at a race. Reporter Vince Marshall works to solve several mysteries; one dates back fourteen years.

Les Roberts’ latest book, The Cleveland Creep: a Milan Jacovich mystery, is his fifteenth about Cleveland’s favorite private eye. As always, Jacovich is working multiple cases at the same time. Taking the advice of a colleague, he hires an assistant, Kevin O’Bannion, who wants to learn the P.I. business. Be aware that this book deals with the issue of child pornography, although Roberts deals with it in a delicate, inoffensive manner.

Liberty Lanes by Robin Troy is another shorter novel at only 180 pages. It’s about a group of seniors who bowl in a league at the local Montana bowling alley. They have experienced life and now want to live it as they want -- with friendship, love and memories. The characters are believable as elder members of a small town who have known one another for decades. It’s a must read if you know a group of friends in their later years who are full of life.   

I love the sense of new beginnings that comes with the change of year.  For those who wish to take advantage of this opportunity for a fresh start, the library has a host of new titles to help.  Some commonly listed popular resolutions and relevant new titles are listed below: 

For those who plan to Lose Weight and Get Fit:  Bob Greene has written, The life you want! : get motivated, lose weight, and be happy.  Greene helps readers recognize how their mindsets might be preventing them from achieving their fitness goals and gives them the tools they need to break down these barriers. Filled with psychological studies, practical tips, and empathic advice, this book can help anyone who is struggling. 

Never smoke again : the top 10 ways to stop smoking now and forever by Dr. Grant Cooper can help you find the method that's right for you.  It isn't easy to stop smoking. Yet according to the American Lung Association, well over 45 million Americans have already quit. How did they do it? They found the method that worked for them and they stuck to it.  

If you are among those who wish to Learn Something New, you may want to try out Mango, a new online language learning tutorial system available through the library’s website:  www.pwpl.info.  Anything else you want to learn to do, from play the piano to tile your bathroom, the library staff will help you find a step-by step guide. 

Tonia Reinhard, a registered dietician, can help those who wish to eat healthier with her book Superfoods : the healthiest foods on the planet.  Reinhard identifies 200 of the most nutrient-dense foods. The book is divided by food type with sections on vegetables and fruit, legumes, nuts and oils, herbs and spices, grains, beverages and treats, supplements, and meat. 

If you are resolved to Get Out of Debt and Save Money, Solve your money troubles : debt, credit & bankruptcy by Robin Leonard can help.  Step-by-step instructions  show how to prioritize debts, create a budget, and negotiate with creditors.

Spending More Time with Family is goal for many parents.  Living Simply with Children by Marie Sherlock offers a realistic blueprint for zeroing in on the pleasures of family life.  It includes sections on “How (and why) to live simply and find more time to be with your children,”  “Activities and rituals that bring out the best in every family member,” and “How to focus on the "good stuff" . . . with less stuff.”

A year of adventures : a guide to the world's most exciting experiences by Andrew Bain is just the thing for those wishing to travel to new places. Discover a range of extraordinary experiences, including snow biking in France, volcano boarding in Nicaragua, kayaking with orcas in Canada and sailing the Whitsunday Islands. Choose from over 250 experiences in 115 countries, some to challenge you, some to enjoy at a leisurely pace, and catering to all fitness levels. Be inspired and plan a year to remember!

If you are resolved to be less stressed, Simplify your life : 100 ways to slow down and enjoy the things that really matter by Elaine St. James may be the right book for you.  If you’re overpowered, overextended, and overwhelmed, Simplify Your Life is your antidote.  

If your goal is to volunteer, you can join the friends of the Peter White Public Library.  If you’re interested in both traveling more and volunteering, check out Volunteer vacations : short-term adventures that will benefit you and others  by Bill McMillon.

For some reason, many people start the year determined to drink less.  In The science of drinking : how alcohol affects your body and mind, Toxicologist Amitava Dasgupta explains that while alcoholism is a serious problem requiring medical and psychological treatment, for those who are not addicted, drinking alcohol is not necessarily a bad habit. The problem is to distinguish between drinking sensibly and drinking insensibly. Dasgupta clearly outlines what constitutes healthy drinking and its attendant health benefits, offers advice on how to drink responsibly, and provides insight into just how alcohol works on the brain and the body.