New Year's Resolution

Have you made a New Year's resolution yet? Here is resolution you can keep without dieting or exercising. Try reading a book a month. It doesn't have to be War and Peace, just any book in any format you like.

While commuting to work, try an audiobook. Some libraries are even providing Playaways, which are digital audiobooks on a small player the size of a cell phone. Earplugs are not included.

Sometimes I just want to sit, read and relax to escape from the stress of daily life. Since I can't travel all over the globe, I love to read travel guides. Right now I am reading 1,000 Places to See Before You Die in the USA and Canada by Patricia Schultz. The book has lots of informative and fun information for the traveler at heart including web addresses, locations and phone numbers of sites. Where else can you read about the Annual Crane Migration in Nebraska or the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, Canada?

Happy New Year and Happy Reading!

Laura

Polar Express

Enjoy the family favorite Polar Express!

Happy Holidays!

Laura

Photofunia!

Everyone can be a star at http://www.photofunia.com/. Just pick a category, upload a photo and post to your blog!

Laura

Plain Truth

Since I work for a public library, I have a heads up on popular authors. Novels by Jodi Picoult are always in demand, so I thought I would give one a try.

In the Plain Truth, Picoult pens the story of an 18 year-old unwed Amish girl, Katie Fisher, who is charged with the murder of her newborn infant. Katie claims she was never pregnant or even had a baby, yet an infant is found dead in a calving stall next to her and also shares her DNA.

Enter high profile Philadelphia attorney, Ellie Hathaway, who wants nothing more than a break from the courtroom and her stressful career. Yet she is Katie's only hope of acquittal. As part of Katie's bail requirement, Ellie must accompany her 24/7, which forces Ellie to move into the Fisher's home on a Amish dairy farm in Lancaster County. Ellie finds herself torn between two vastly different cultures and sets of values.

Picoult does an excellent job of immersing readers in the Amish or "plain" lifestyle. Instead of telling readers upfront about the Amish, they are slowly introduced to the mysterious culture through character and plot development. At the same time, Picoult keeps the novel moving with various subplots and a moving courtroom drama.

Give Plain Truth a shot and you won't be disappointed.

Laura

Book to Movie

American author Cormac McCarthy has struck gold with the film adaption of his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Road, scheduled for release Wednesday, November 25. The post-apocalyptic thriller follows the journey of a father and son walking across a burned out America searching for the unknown. Cast includes Viggo Mortenson, Charlize Theron, Robert DuVal and newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee. Think Oscar buzz...

McCarthy also penned the award winning No Country for Old Men, which won the 2008 Best Picture Award.

Laura

Christmas Reads!

Christmas is just around the corner and publishers are releasing holidays books. Here are a few titles to enjoy over the holiday season.

1. The Gift by Cecelia Ahern

2. Home for Christmas by Andrew Greeley

3. Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb

4. The Christmas Clock by Kat Martin

5. A Christmas Promise by Anne Perry

Happy Holidays!

L

Under This Unbroken Sky

"There is a black-and-white photograph of a a family: a man, woman, and five children. Scrawled on the back, in tight archaic script, are the words Willow Creek, Alberta, 1933. This will be their only photograph together.

Within three years, this farm will be foreclosed. Two years later, one will die. Two others, of whom there is no photograph, will be murdered.

But this day, in the moment right after the shutter clicks shut, this family takes a deep breath and smiles. "

In the spring of 1938, after two years in prison for stealing his own grain, Ukrainian immigrant, Teodor Mykolayenko is a free man. While in prison, his no-frills wife, Maria, takes of care of their five children and Teodor's delusional sister, Anna, on a barren homestead in the northern Canadian prairies.

Surviving Stalin's regime and near starvation, Teodor is determined to build a profitable farm and provide for his family and sister, but the odds are against him from the very beginning. Clearing the land and raising wheat in the middle of the harsh Canadian tundra is difficult enough, but when Anna's loser of a husband, Stephan, returns, Teodor's problems escalate.

This debut novel is not about the characters, but about the land and starkness of existence in the middle of nowhere. The author, Shandi Mitchell, shows the reader through language the difficulties of one man and his family as they try to build a home and provide for themselves against natural elements and family feuds.

If you enjoy literary books and beauty of language, you will devour Under This Unbroken Sky. I give this novel a 10!

L