September 25, 2013

Employee Spotlight: Karyn


Karyn is the Windfall Branch Manager. She has been with the library 1 1/2 years. 

Favorite Authors:
Carl Hiassen
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Terry Pratchett
Stephen King
M.C. Beaton
Agatha Christie
Rick Yancey

Favorite Music:
AC/DC
Cake
Vampire Weekend
Rush
David Bowie
Louis Armstrong
Ella Fitzgerald
Frank Sinatra
The Temptations
Linkin Park

Favorite Movies and TV: 
Dr. Who
Warehouse 13
Psych
Murder She Wrote
Red
Meet Me in St. Louis
Gaslight
Stranger Than Fiction
Cookie's Fortune
Heavy Metal
The Fifth Element
Practical Magic

Hobbies:
Custom painting furniture
Cross-stitch
Showing sheep
Letterboxing

Karyn likes to hear about how books affect people's lives. She truly believes there is a book out there that can help you through any situation in your life. She enjoys helping people find those books. 

What you may not know about Karyn--"I have run late to appointments, etc. my whole life...in fact I was 20 minutes late to my own wedding." 


September 18, 2013

Employee Spotlight: Wilma


Wilma has worked at Windfall Branch as a Circulation Clerk for 3 months. 

Favorite Authors:
John R. Rice
Dan Walsh
 Gary Smalley
Wanda E. Brunstetter

Favorite Music:
Old hymns
 Gospel
Country

Favorite Movies and TV: 
Hallmark Movies
Wheel of Fortune
Carol Burnett Show

Hobbies:
Reading
Photography
Baking
Sewing

Wilma enjoys helping young children check out bright, colorful books to take home and read. 

When she was in Kindergarten she brought a baby lamb to school. They built a pen for it in her classroom. The children enjoyed seeing a live farm animal. 

September 11, 2013

Series Spotlight: Heather Wells Mysteries

If you're looking for lighthearted mysteries with quirky characters, try Meg Cabot's Heather Wells series. 

About the Author: Meg Cabot was born in Bloomington, Indiana. In addition to her adult contemporary fiction, she is the author of the bestselling young adult fiction series The Princess Diaries. She lives in Key West, Florida, with her husband.

Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot (#1) 
Summary: Heather Wells Rocks! Or, at least, she did. That was before she left the pop-idol life behind after she gained a dress size or two--and lost a boyfriend, a recording contract, and her life savings (when Mom took the money and ran off to Argentina). Now that the glamour and glory days of endless mall appearances are in the past, Heather's perfectly happy with her new size 12 shape (the average for the American woman!) and her new job as an assistant dorm director at one of New York's top colleges. That is, until the dead body of a female student from Heather's residence hall is discovered at the bottom of an elevator shaft.
The cops and the college president are ready to chalk the death off as an accident, the result of reckless youthful mischief. But Heather knows teenage girls . . . and girls do not elevator surf. Yet no one wants to listen--not the police, her colleagues, or the P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives--even when more students start turning up dead in equally ordinary and subtly sinister ways. So Heather makes the decision to take on yet another new career: as spunky girl detective!
But her new job comes with few benefits, no cheering crowds, and lots of liabilities, some of them potentially fatal. And nothing ticks off a killer more than a portly ex-pop star who's sticking her nose where it doesn't belong . . .

Size 14 Is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot (#2)
Summary: Former pop star Heather Wells has settled nicely into her new life as assistant dorm director at New York College—a career that does not require her to drape her size 12 body in embarrassingly skimpy outfits. She can even cope (sort of) with her rocker ex-boyfriend's upcoming nuptials, which the press has dubbed The Celebrity Wedding of the Decade. But she's definitely having a hard time dealing with the situation in the dormitory kitchen—where a cheerleader has lost her head on the first day of the semester. (Actually, her head is accounted for—it's her torso that's AWOL.)
Surrounded by hysterical students—with her ex-con father on her doorstep and her ex-love bombarding her with unwanted phone calls—Heather welcomes the opportunity to play detective...again. If it gets her mind off her personal problems—and teams her up again with the gorgeous P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives—it's all good. But the murder trail is leading the average-sized amateur investigator into a shadowy world. And if she doesn't watch her step, Heather will soon be singing her swan song!

Big Boned by Meg Cabot (#3)
Summary: Life is reasonably rosy for plus-size ex-pop star turned Assistant Dormitory Director and sometime sleuth Heather Wells. Her freeloading ex-con dad is finally moving out. She still yearns for her hot landlord, Cooper Cartwright, but her relationship with "rebound beau," vigorous vegan math professor Tad Tocco, is more than satisfactory. Best of all, nobody has died lately in "Death Dorm," the aptly nicknamed student residence that Heather assistant-directs. Of course every silver lining ultimately has some black cloud attached. And when the latest murdered corpse to clutter up her jurisdiction turns out to be her exceedingly unlovable boss, Heather finds herself on the shortlist of prime suspects—along with the rabble-rousing boyfriend of her high-strung student assistant and an indecently handsome young campus minister who's been accused of taking liberties with certain girls' choir members.
With fame beckoning her back into show business (as the star of a new kids' show!) it's a really bad time to get wrapped up in another homicide. Plus Tad's been working himself up to ask her a Big Question, which Heather's not sure she has an answer for...

Size 12 and Ready to Rock by Meg Cabot (#4)

Summary: Summer break . . . and the livin' ain't easy! Just because the students at New York College have flown the coop doesn't mean assistant residence hall director Heather Wells can relax. Fischer Hall is busier than ever, filled with squealing thirteen- and fourteen-year-old girls attending the first ever Tania Trace Teen Rock Camp, hosted by pop sensation Tania Trace herself—who just happens to be newly married to Heather's ex-boyfriend, heartthrob Jordan Cartwright. But the real headache begins when the producer of a reality TV show starring Tania winds up dead . . . and it's clear that the star was the intended victim.


Grant Cartwright, head of Cartwright Records, wants to keep his daughter-in-law (and his highest-earning performer) alive. So he hires his oldest son, black sheep of the family and private investigator Cooper Cartwright—who just happens to be Heather's new fiancÉ. Heather should leave the detecting to Cooper. But with a dorm full of hysterical mini-divas-in-training, she can't help but get involved. And after Tania shares a really shocking secret with her, this reality suddenly becomes more dangerously real than anyone ever anticipated.
The Bride Wore Size 12 by Meg Cabot (#5) 

Summary: Heather Wells is used to having her cake and eating it too, but this time her cake just might be cooked. Her wedding cake, that is.

With her upcoming nuptials to PI Cooper Cartwright only weeks away, Heather's already stressed. And when a pretty junior turns up dead, Heather's sure things can't get worse—until every student in the dorm where she works is a possible suspect, and Heather's long-lost mother shows up.

Heather has no time for a tearful mother and bride reunion. She has a wedding to pull off and a murder to solve. Instead of wedding bells, she might be hearing wedding bullets, but she's determined to bring the bad guys to justice if it's the last thing she does . . . and this time, it just might be.

 Request the book (On order) 

August 28, 2013

New eBooks



The following eBooks are now available to download from our digital library. Enjoy these eBooks on your computer, eReader, tablet, or smartphone! 


Fiction
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos
Big Boned by Meg Cabot 
The Boyfriend App by Katie Sise
Cold Light by Jenn Ashworth 
Crush by Nicole Williams
The Cutting Season by Attica Locke
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas 
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear 
The Elite by Kiera Cass
Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain
Fire in the Hole by Elmore Leonard 
Footprints in the Sand by Mary Jane Clark
Hana by Lauren Oliver
Heartsick by Chelsea Cain
Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock
I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
Insurgent by Veronica Roth 
It Only Takes a Moment by Mary Jane Clark
Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult
Lady Killer by Lisa Scottoline
Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear
A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear
A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire
The Look of Love by Mary Jane Clark
The Lost Duke of Wyndham by Julia Quinn
The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear
Miss Me When I'm Gone by Emily Arsenault
The Moonshine War by Elmore Leonard
The Night Season by Chelsea Cain
The Pact by Jodi Picoult
Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdich
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore
Pronto by Elmore Leonard
Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot
Raylan by Elmore Leonard 
Requiem by Lauren Oliver
Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern
The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
Spellcaster by Claudia Gray
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
Swag by Elmore Leonard
Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain
Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo
To Have and To Kill by Mary Jane Clark
The Untamed Bride by Stephanie Laurens


Nonfiction

August 21, 2013

Library Reads: September 2013


Library Reads is a new monthly list that shares the top ten books librarians across the country loved reading. Think of it as a nationwide "Staff Picks" list!
Follow this link to see the first list:
 Library Reads - September 2013

August 14, 2013

Employee Spotlight: Cherie



Cherie is the library's Director and has been with the library for almost 3 years.

Favorite Authors: 
Abigail Thomas
Jodi Picoult
Judith R. Hendricks
Elizabeth Berg

Favorite Movies/TV:
Chocolat
Phenomenon
The Shawshank Redemption
The Holiday
Big Bang Theory
The Closer

Hobbies:
Reading
Baking
Knitting
Crafts
Gardening

What she likes best about her job:
Cherie loves being able to create a place in the community that meets the needs of the people who live here. She also loves working with the staff here and creating a great place for all of us to work.

Something you may not know about her:
Alton Brown from the Food Network once offered Cherie a job to work as a researcher for his show.

August 7, 2013

Series Spotlight: Thunder Point

If you're a fan of heartwarming, character-driven stories with a strong sense of place, give the Thunder Point series by Robyn Carr a try! 

The Wanderer(Thunder Point #1)
Request this book

Summary: From Robyn Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the popular Virgin River novels, comes Thunder Point-the highly anticipated new series that will make you laugh, make you sigh, and make you fall in love with a small town filled with people you'll never forget.

Nestled on the Oregon coast is a small town of rocky beaches and rugged charm. Locals love the land's unspoiled beauty. Developers see it as a potential gold mine. When newcomer Hank Cooper learns he's been left an old friend's entire beachfront property, he finds himself with a community's destiny in his hands.

Cooper has never been a man to settle in one place, and Thunder Point was supposed to be just another quick stop. But Cooper finds himself getting involved with the town. And with Sarah Dupre, a woman as complicated as she is beautiful.

With the whole town watching for his next move, Cooper has to choose between his old life and a place full of new possibilities. A place that just might be home.

The Newcomer (Thunder Point #2)
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Summary: With humor and insight, #1 New York Times bestselling author Robyn Carr looks at letting go of the past-and knowing when you've found something worth building your future on.

Single dad and Thunder Point's deputy sheriff "Mac" McCain has worked hard to keep everyone safe and happy. Now he's found his own happiness with Gina James. The longtime friends have always shared the challenges and rewards of raising their adolescent daughters. With an unexpected romance growing between them, they're feeling like teenagers themselves-suddenly they can't get enough of one another.
And just when things are really taking off, their lives are suddenly thrown into chaos.

When Mac's long-lost-and not missed-ex-wife shows up in town, drama takes on a whole new meaning. They're wondering if their new feelings for each other can withstand the pressure...but they are not going down without a fight.

Step into the world of Thunder Point, a little town on the Oregon coast where newcomers are welcomed, hearts are broken and mended, and the dramas of everyday life keep the locals laughing, crying and falling in love.


The Hero (Thunder Point #3)
On order - Request this book

Summary: With warmth and sensitivity, #1 New York Times bestselling author Robyn Carr shows readers that falling in love can be the bravest act of all.

In a moment of desperation, Devon McAllister takes her daughter and flees a place where they should have been safe and secure. She has no idea what is around the next bend, but she is pretty certain it can't be worse than what they've left behind. Her plan is to escape to somewhere she can be invisible. Instead, an unexpected offer of assistance leads her to Thunder Point, a tiny Oregon town with a willingness to help someone in need.

As the widowed father of a vulnerable young boy, Spencer Lawson knows something about needing friendship. But he's not looking for anything else. Instead, he's thrown his energy into his new role as Thunder Point's high school football coach. Tough and demanding to his team, off the field he's gentle and kind...just the kind of man who could heal Devon's wounded heart.

Devon thought she wanted to hide from the world. But in Thunder Point, you find bravery where you least expect it...and sometimes, you find a hero.