October 22 is the Aitkin Library Costume Contest for kids 5th grade and younger. The party starts at 5:30. Tricks and treats will be provided. We’ll have pumpkins to decorate and take home, and we’ll be showing classic Halloween specials. First, second and third place winners of the costume contest will take home spooky movies to get the whole family in the mood for Halloween! Sign up at the library or here on Facebook.
Author Archives: Marty Rheaume
Managing Your Account
Watch this video to learn how to manage your account. Learn how to sign in, reserve books, and renew books.
How to Find Books
In this brief tutorial, we’ll explain how to find books using our library catalog, and how to place requests on them.
Book Club
We’re hosting a new permanent event at the library. The last Wednesday of every month at 6:30 will be the book discussion group. We’re going to be reading a wide variety of books, and we’re always looking for new book ideas. The first book we’ll be reading is Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie. The book for next month will be Killer Angels by Jeff Shaara. Copies are available at the library for those with library cards.
The Martian
Click image to check for availability
The Martian by Andy Weir
In The Martian, astronaut Mark Watney is abandoned by his crew and left for dead. He shouldn’t have survived the freak accident that appeared to kill him, and when he realizes it didn’t, he knows that his chances for long term survival are bleak. Despite having enough food to last a year, being the only inhabitant of Mars’s red desert presents numerous challenges to the unwilling Earthling immigrant. Nobody knows he’s there, and even if they did, it would take years to get a rescue ship to him.
The story is mostly told through Watney’s space log where we get an appreciation of his ingenuity and self-deprecating humor. The book brilliantly demonstrates humanity’s instinct to persevere in the face of impossible odds. Watney uses his engineering skills to continuously find ways to extend his lifespan, and his observational wit to keep him sane as Mars’s loneliest resident.
The book does a great job of mixing the tension of a sci-fi thriller with a constant stream of one-liners from Watncy. His ability to keep his sense of humor despite leap frogging from one life threatening emergency to the next makes him easy to identify with and pull for.
The Martian is a page turner, and one of the funniest science fiction books ever written. It’s a must read for all sci-fi fans, and also fans of survival stories and thrillers. It’s being made into a movie starring Matt Damon.
Teddy Bear Picnic
We had another great group of kids and parents for our Teddy Bear Picnic, and student aide Shyela Reimel did a great job filling in for Margaret Hetzel doing the reading and helping the kids create some colorful sidewalk art!
Why is Sherlock Holmes Popular?
On Tuesday, August 4, renowned Sherlock Holmes expert, Regina Stinson, will be giving a presentation on the enduring popularity of the Baker Street detective. She’ll discuss his origins, his power of observation, and why he’s a timeless figure in popular culture. The library will celebrate this hero of scientific thinking by showing Holmes movies and shows throughout the day and by serving English tea and biscuits (cookies).
*Excerpt from Jeffersonian*
Nearly 130 years after his creation by author Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes remains a popular subject of books, films and television shows. He seems so real that many people actually send letters to his fictional 221B Baker Street Address. Stinson notes, “Holmes still fascinates us.” He sets the standard for all fictional detectives who have followed him, and his methods of observation and deduction are studied by real police forces around the globe. Stinson will tell us why we find him so compelling, and illuminate how he has influenced the art of crime detection.
New Website
The library’s new website is now live!! Please explore it use it, and feel free to ask questions or offer suggestions. It is still a work in progress, but our former website was due for an update. All of the most important functionality such as accessing the catalog, ebooks, and MeLCat are easily accessible.
Gone Girl
Click image for availability.
Gone Girl Book Review
As soon as I saw that my favorite director, David Fincher, was making a movie from the book, “Gone Girl” from Gillian Flynn, I knew I had to read it. Fincher doesn’t choose bad books to turn into screenplays. He has a reputation for taking the darkest most compelling Best Sellers and turning them into cult classic movies.
The ominous tone is set early as Nick comes home to a wide open door, broken glass, and a missing wife, the titular Gone Girl. Flynn seamlessly employs a chronologically disjointed narrative alternating between the diary of the missing Amy leading up to her disappearance, and the thoughts of the suspiciously calm Nick.
As her journal entries approach the present day, we can’t help but try to piece together the mystery through the tantalizing clues left in her diary, and wonder how the couple’s love turned from bliss to bitterness. We wonder if we can trust the husband, whom we’ve come to know through his first person narration. We’re in his head. It couldn’t be him we tell ourselves, but all the signs point to him, and there are disturbing gaps in his memories and an endless string of lies he tells the police, and who keeps calling him? What about the ever raging Mississippi River? Surely it has a role to play in this mystery, running endlessly through the story, constantly reminding the reader of its presence, and of the post-industrial malaise that hangs over the rust belt, and sets the tone for this dark psychological thriller.
The Truth About Alice
Click image for availability.
The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu
The following review for “The Truth About Alice” deals with mature themes and uses strong language.
So basically this story is about a girl named Alice Franklin who is a “slut” because she slept with two different guys at the same party. It is also well known that she killed Brandon, the star quarterback, because she was sexting him while he was driving and he died in a car accident.
This story is written from four different points of view and then lastly Alice’s. Elaine, the popular girl. Josh, the average jock. Kurt, the nerd that nobody likes. And Kelsey, who is Alice Franklin’s ex best friend. All of these people (except Kurt) helped some way in Alice’s downfall.
This was a great story to read, although it had many clichés, and it was kind of predictable, the characters and their stories made the book pretty great. It definitely will tear you apart seeing how teenagers (or really anyone) can be so selfish that they would spread rumors to make themselves more popular. I’m looking forward to future books by Jennifer Mathieu.
–Alyssa Plowman