My Discoveries - make your own booklists

Too many things you'd like to read? You can now make your own lists of books you'd like to read, books you read and liked, or books you'd like to tag with descriptive phrases, using the My Discoveries feature in our new library catalog.


Anytime you search for a book - or anything else - in our new catalog, you'll have a chance to log in to My Discoveries.When you pull up the full record (click on the title), you'll see the "Save or Tag" option on the right.Click here, and you'll be prompted to log in to My Discoveries. The first time you click, you'll be prompted to register. (Make sure to save your username and password, as it's not stored with the rest of your checkout information so library staff cannot look it up for you.)


When you log in, the screen will refresh and show a new field where you can add the title to a list and tag it. Scroll down to look for the field under the tags, just above the copy availability.


Choose "Add to list" and you'll have an opportunity to create a list or add the title to an existing list. Then type in a tag or description and click Save. You can view your lists anytime by clicking My Discoveries in the upper right and logging in.


Please note: books you put on your My Discoveries list will not automatically be added to your holds list. To place a hold, click Place Hold and enter your library card and PIN numbers.

Book Review: The Glass Rainbow

THE GLASS RAINBOW, Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcell together forever? Written by James Lee Burke, read by Will Patton, reviewed by Star Lawrence

This is the 18th Robicheaux/Purcell caper—is it the last? I will get to that in a moment.

Dave, as the legions of fans know, is a mercurial cop-family man guy, who was tossed off the New Orleans PD and landed in the New Iberia, Louisiana, Sheriff’s Department. Clete is his bigger-than-life brawler of a pal, late of the NO cops, never at the Sheriff’s Department, and now sort of a freewheeling PI and world-class drinker.

These two are low-life Velcro. They find every reptilian, old-money, new-money, pimp and scoundrel rattling around Louisiana, In The Glass Rainbow, they are entangled with a creepy old oil man and his dilettante son, Kermit. Added to the mix are some young women tossed into landfills like trash and one of those celebrity criminals. You know, the kind celebrities lionize.

About then, Dave starts spotting the phantom steam paddlewheeler on his beloved Bayou Teche outside his house. And the guys in the black SUVs start to show up.

Amidst the trademark Burke nature lore, the bruised skies, the tink of raindrops, the great grand-daughter of New Orleans famed voodoo queen glances at Dave and remarks that he is “disappearin’, thinning out.”

Now, I don’t want to spoil this, but let’s say the ending is ambiguous. Dave boards the paddlewheeler, sees his long-dead parents, medics from Vietnam…Clete tries to pull him back down the gangplank.

Is this the end for our guys?

Star Lawrence owns two websites—one, HEALTHSass (http://healthsass.blogspot.com/), contains interesting health tidbits and the other, Do the Hopey Copey (http://hopeycopey.blogspot.com/) is for those seeking to stay alive in this economy.

Books in the News

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman was reviewed by Maureen Corrigan on NPR’s Fresh Air. This story about social manners in Silicon Valley during the dot-com era, featuring two sisters with opposite personalities, has been described as "updated Austen [that] hits the spot."

Room by Emma Donoghue has been nominated for the UK’s Man Booker Prize, and will be published in the U.S. in September. The Guardian calls it, "Perhaps the most controversial novel [on the nomination list], inspired by the case of Josef Fritzl who kept his daughter prisoner for 24 years," and The Economist says, "…it is already being talked about as the next The Lovely Bones."



The Power, the follow-up to Rhonda Byrne’s bestseller The Secret, is due out on August 17. The New York Times noted that the publisher has planned an initial print run of 2 million copies, and describes The Power as "a handbook to the greatest power in the universe - the power to have everything you want."

Book Review: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Aimee Bender's novel The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is a coming of age tale with a twist. Nine-year-old Rose, whose mother has made her favorite lemon cake for her birthday, bites into the cake and discovers that she can taste in food the emotions of the people who made it. She spends the next several years learning to avoid anger- or distress-laden foods, identifying the emotionless factories that make junk food, and making excuses not to eat her mother's cooking. While she struggles to navigate the feelings in food, she must also learn to navigate the dynamics of her troubled family: her depressed mother, her distant and workaholic father, and a brother so remote and strange that he actually seems to be disappearing.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake handles its unusual theme with a gentle touch, taking the impossibility as a given in Rose's life and examining how she comes to terms with it and what it says about her and her family. It joins the ranks of well-respected novels with fantastic or science-fictional themes, such as Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic fable The Road, Kit Reed's view of the not-so-distant future in Thinner Than Thou, and Margaret Atwood's classic futuristic novel The Handmaid's Tale. - Michelle (Sunset)

Book review: The Why of Work

The Why of Work, by husband and wife authors Dave and Wendy Ulrich, is not only a how-to manual on managing employees, but also a great tool to use every day when dealing with people. Resources and strategies are fully discussed, charted, and diagrammed for easy understanding. Dealing with conflict, managing change, and handling difficult people are just a few topics the authors explore. We live in a world of change, and this way of life is not slowing down. Therefore, managers and successful leaders must deal with issues head-on, to empower and engage their staff for a successful future. As detailed in the latter chapters, bringing a sense of delight with humor, fun, and productive activities also makes for a more meaningful work experience. Check out The Why of Work for better insight and a different perspective on what motivates people. - Kathy (Sunset)