Winter Olympics wrap up

Wow! That was a great two weeks of international sport competition! If you didn't follow along on our Facebook page you can still check out all of the interesting trivia we shared about the Olympics. Norway was the overall medal winner with 39 (14 golds, 14 silvers, and 11 bronzes) and the United States finished in fourth place with 23 (9 golds, eight silvers, and 6 bronzes).  Many people have lamented this as a poor showing, and indeed we were down by five medals from the Sochi games, but 23 is nothing to sneer at.  We also finished fourth in Sochi and this Olympics there were 30 different countries who won a medal (which according to NBC was a record high). South Korea benefited from the often mentioned home team boost, winning 17 medals this year to finish in sixth place, up from 8 that they won in Sochi.

If you are wondering why the United States doesn't dominate the Winter Olympics the way they do in the Summer Games, imagine what the US medal total would be like if we didn't perform well in swimming and/or track and field.  These are the two sports with the largest number of medals available and we are equally strong with both our men's and women's programs.  The sports with the most medals up for grabs in the Winter Olympics are cross country skiing, speed skating and short track speed skating.  In previous years the US has down very well in both speed skating disciplines, but that hasn't been the case in the last two Olympics.  Also, the gold medal won in cross country skiing was only the second cross country skiing medal the US has ever won.  If the US wants to get back on top of the medal count they will need to improve in at least one of these sports.  But honestly, aside for some bragging rights, the overall medals race isn't even official.  The IOC does not keep a total of how many medals each country has won.

What should we fill the void in our free time left by the Olympics ending?  The Academy Awards are this weekend (March 4th) and the nominated films are all starting to appear on dvd.  We already own Get Out, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri and Darkest Hour go on sale tomorrow, Lady Bird goes on sale on March 6th, The Shape of Water and Call Me By Your Name go on sale on March 13th and the Phantom Thread goes on sale on April 10th.  I am unable to find any release date information on The Post and Dunkirk currently is only available on Blu Ray (which the college currently does not support). There is also no information on the release date for Coco (the forerunner for Best Animated Feature), but we do already own Loving Vincent, and the Breadwinner and Ferdinand are both being released in March.  The final Animated Feature nominee, The Boss Baby, is already out, and will be purchased at the start of the month.

Finally, on March 20th the library will be offering a program on the database Heritage Quest which is a free genealogy database brought to us by NCLIVE.  The program will be held twice, first at 10 and then again at 2. Because this database is an NCLIVE resource the program is open to the community as well, since they can use their public library card to access the resource.  If you don't have a public library card I highly recommend you get one.  You never know when it will come in handy. We hope you will join us on the 20th to learn about this fabulous resource and how to get started exploring  your family's history.

Fantasy Friday

If you love fantasy novels and you haven't read The Darker Shade of Magic trilogy by Victoria Schwab you are missing out.  The general premise is that there are four parallel worlds described as Red London, White London, Grey London (this would be the one that belongs to us) and the never discussed Black London.  Magic is real and the few who possess blood magic, the Atari, can transverse worlds.  Kell, the Antari for Red London, makes a very bad decision that sets in motion a struggle for the survival of the three Londons against the powerful dark magic that destroyed Black London. Aided by the Grey London thief, Delilah Bard, (who holds him hostage in order to join him on his adventure) Kell is in a race against time to save everything and everyone he loves.

It is gripping and the level of detail in the world building is incredible.  When I finished the first book I immediately went on Twitter to beg the author for more.  Fortunately there were two more books in the works: A Gathering of Shadows and A Conjuring of Light. You can read the first book and be satisfied.  You'll want more, but you won't NEED to read the next book NOW.  This is not true for the second book.  The year long wait I had for the third book physically hurt me. All three books are out and I recommend them every chance I get.

It was announced last August that the author has accepted a million dollar deal for a second trilogy set in the Shades of Magic world and I am on pins and needles waiting for it. A film adaptation of the first book is also in the works, but as of yet it has not made it onto The Internet Movie Database (at least not under the title of A Darker Shade of Magic). I LOVE this series. LOVE IT. Read it and thank me.

Go for the Gold

Mystery Monday

I love a good mystery novel. In fact, there is nothing I enjoy so much as to curl up somewhere cozy with a mystery that grips my attention. So I thought I would take the opportunity to share some of the mystery series I have enjoyed lately.

First up in the most recent: the Lady Darby series by Anna Lee Huber. There are currently five books in the series and the sixth, A Brush with Shadows, is scheduled to be published this year.  Set in the 1830s in Scotland the books follow Lady Kiera Darby who is unwillingly versed in human anatomy after being forced to draw the dissections conducted by her late husband for his anatomy book.  Fortunately light on gore, but filled with well developed characters, tight mysteries, and great chemistry between Lady Darby and the inquiry agent she joins forces with, Sebastian Gage. I highly recommend these books. The first is The Anatomist's Wife.

Next is another historical fiction mystery series set in the 1810s in England: the Sebastian St. Cyr novels by C.S. Harris.  This series has twelve books out already and the thirteenth book, Why Kill the Innocent is due out in April of this year.  St. Cyr is a gentleman sleuth who finds himself forced to investigate a murder in the first book in order to prove his innocence.  Being a series the author is forced to repeat certain information so if you binge them as I did you may get a little fed up, especially with his moping over his lost love Kat.  However, the individual mysteries are fantastic and the over arching  mysteries of the series (the truth about St. Cyr's parentage) is teased out slowly so that you'll want to keep reading. (And he finally gets over Kat for which I cheered).  I do hope more progress is made on that front in the next book.  I have had my fill of series that have ended without resolution because the author has passed away suddenly and I really need to know! The first book is What Angels Fear.

I don't know why both authors picked Sebastian for their dashing hero's first name. It is a rather odd coincidence. The library owns all of these books with the newest volumes on shopping lists for purchase once published. 

Tell me, what types of books do you enjoy? What's your favorite mystery?

Welcome February!

I can't believe it is February already.  This month is filled with many great sporting events (Super Bowl, Winter Olympics, NCAA basketball) and the birthdays of many cultural figures such as Langston Hughes, Jules Verne, Judy Blume, Art Spiegelman, Sidney Poitier and Wilhelm Grimm (the younger of the two Grimm Brothers).  The weather in February is also generally pretty miserable.  In fact, the National Weather Service is already forecasting a wintry mix for this weekend, and other sources have indicated that we could be hit by two more storms before Valentine's day!

Inclement weather can cause great stress for students who rely on the library to complete their assignments. Fortunately we have a number of great online resources you can access from home via our website and google documents has their own version of word which will allow you to write papers in the event you do not have Microsoft office installed at home.  It is true that none of this does you any good in the event you either don't have a computer at home or don't have high speed internet access and we wish that we could do more to help in that regard.

Keep in mind that the public library was open during the last snow storm and if you could get there safely they do have computers you can use.

Stay safe everyone.  Email your instructors ahead of time if you don't have internet access at home to explain.  Stop by today while the sun is still shining and pick up books or other resources for the weekend.  Maybe it will be nothing.  Maybe it will turn into a snow-pocalypse.  We don't know.  A little planning never hurt anyone though.