How can you not be excited about a new Indiana Jones movie? How many archaeologists, do you suppose, entered the field because Indy made it look so…cool. Yes, a professional archaeologist will tell you that most of what they do involves painstakingly digging holes to retrieve broken pots and other stuff that ancient people threw out; that they’re not treasure hunters but highly trained professionals trying to shed light on our common human heritage. Yeah, yeah, but how many of them wish they had a little Jones in them? Maybe have the hat in their closet?

For the next generation of Indy-inspired budding archaeologists we offer the following titles:

Gods, Graves, and Scholars: the Story of Archaeology by C.W. Ceram is a classic history of the field. He covers all the great early digs: Pompeii, Troy, Mycenae, Crete, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Sumer, and Central America.

Stones, Bones, and Ancient Cities: Great Discoveries in Archaeology and the Search For Human Origins by Lawrence H. Robbins covers some of the same ground, but adds finds from paleontology, as well as underwater archaeology, and early astronomy.

Eyewitness To Discovery: First-Person Accounts Of More Than Fifty Of the World’s Greatest Archaeological Discoveries, edited by Brian M. Fagan gathers together 55 vivid accounts of great discoveries by the people who found them.

Vanished Civilizations: The Hidden Secrets Of Lost Cities and Forgotten Peoples and Lost Cities: 50 Discoveries In World Archaeology both offer glimpses into cultures and civilizations from every continent, and from Stone Age Turkey to Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.

One thing about ruins is that they tend to all look alike. What’s cool about Virtual Archaeology: Re-creating Ancient Worlds is that it gives computer reconstructions of ancient sites, using archaeologists’ best guesses about how places like the Temple of Karnak, the Acropolis, Teotihuacan, or Pompeii once looked.

The new Indiana Jones movie is set in a lost city in the Amazon jungle; the closest thing in real life is probably the long-gone civilization of the Maya, in Central America. To learn more about them, A Forest Of Kings: The Untold Story Of The Ancient Maya by Linda Schele and David Freidel, is a good place to start.

And yes, there are such things as crystal skulls scattered in museums around the world, and yes, we actually have a book about at least one of them. It’s called The Crystal Skull: The Story Of the Mystery, Myth, and Magic Of the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull Discovered In a Lost Mayan City During a Search For Atlantis by Richard Garvin. Truth can be stranger than fiction.

“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.”

–Henry James

It’s unfortunate that afternoon tea never really caught on in America; it’s so much more civilized—and probably healthier—than grabbing a soft drink and a candy bar from a vending machine, and, since tea and scones are hard to eat on the run, it allows you time for a proper break from your daily routine.

The Fairborn Library is hosting a High Tea on Monday, May 19^th, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. (which is quite late for tea, but we wanted to allow as many people as possible to come). Members of the various Library book clubs will be present to answer questions and sign up new members. Please call to register at 878-9383, ext.4312.

In case you are not able to come, but are inspired to add a little tea time to your life, here are some books on the subject:

Loving Tea: A Tea Lover’s Guide to Types of Tea, Brewing & Preparation, Herbal Teas & Health, Ceremonies & Parties, by Jane Resnick
The Book of Tea & Coffee, by Sarah Jane Evans and Giles Hilton

If you want to know more about tea as ceremony, you might want to read:

The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea: The Art & Pleasures of Taking Tea, by Helen Simpson

The Afternoon Tea Book, by Michael Smith. Rock Cakes with rose petal jam, anyone?

If rock cakes aren’t your cup of tea (sorry, couldn’t resist), we have lots of books with recipes for biscuits, muffins, quick breads, etc.Two you might consider are:
Scones, Muffins & Teacakes: Breakfast Breads and Teatime Spread

Totally Teabreads: Quick and Easy Recipes for More Than 60 Delicious Quick Breads and Spreads, by Barbara Albright and Leslie Weiner

There are those who love tea so much that they enjoy collecting teapots. If you are among that number, you might take a look at
Collectible Teapots: A Reference & Price Guide, by Tina M. Carter

Many of us had our first tea party as little girls. If you know a little person who would love to have a tea party, perhaps inviting some friends, perhaps only a few stuffed animals, here are some books:

Teatime with Emma Buttersnap, by Lindsey Tate

Winnie the Pooh’s Teatime Cookbook, inspired by A.A. Milne

Let’s Have a Tea Party: Special Celebrations for Little Girls, by Emilie Barnes

Have you stopped by the Fairborn Library lately? In honor of the start of baseball season, we have a jar of chocolate baseballs on display right now. Adults can fill out a form with their guess as to the number of chocolate pieces in the rather large jar; whoever gets closest to the actual number, wins all the chocolate! It looks like enough chocolate to last until football season starts!

Here are a few books about baseball you may want to check out when you come in to the library to make your guess.

Basebal between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know about the Game Is Wrong

The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip through Buck O’Neil’s America

The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia

Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan’s Guide for Beginners , Semi-Experts and Deeply Serious Geeks
Echoes of Cincinnati Reds Baseball: The Greatest Stories Ever Told

These are just a few of the many books about baseball the library carries that you could take home. Check out the other offerings on the shelf at Dewey Decimal number 796.357. You’ll find our baseball books there. You can even look for baseball related documentaries at the same call number in the nonfiction DVDs. Books about baseball card values will be located at 769.5. Any of the Greene County Public Library branches will have the same things at the same number. The great thing about the Dewey Decimal System is once you know the call number of your subject, you’ll be able to find the same types of things at other libraries at the same call number.

On Tuesday, February 26 at 7pm, the Fairborn Community Library is hosting a talk entitled: “Is Pluto a Planet, or Isn’t It?” Presenter Patrick Craig, president of the WSU Astronomy Club, will explore the implications of Pluto’s demotion. You’ll hear about the controversy surrounding Pluto’s status, and the decision taken by the Internation Astronomical Union to downgrade Pluto to”dwarf planet.” You’ll also hear about the space probe New Horizons. Audience participation is welcome. The talk is sponsored by the Friends of the Fairborn Library. Light refreshments will be provided.

To get your juices flowing and ready for the presentation, check out these websites:

International Astronomical Union

NASA’s website on Pluto (with images)

New Horizons Website

Did you know the Fairborn Library has a Scrabble Club? It meets every other Thursday at 7pm downstairs in the meeting room. The next meeting is scheduled for February 21st. Since there really isn’t anything interesting on television, and it is cold out, you should come down to the library and join us! This club is for adults and older teens. All skill levels are welcome.

The library has all kinds of resources for those of you interested in words, or “word-freaks” if you will. I saw a really interesting documentary called Wordplay not too long ago. It follows people who are very (read: extremely, obsessively) interested in crossword puzzles. Will Shortz, the famous editor of the New York Times Crossword Puzzle, tells about how he selects puzzles for the paper as well as giving personal background. The World Crossword Puzzle Championship Tournament is featured. If you think you are good at crosswords, watch this: the people in this film will make you feel like a beginner! As I was researching for this post, I came across this book in the library: Crossworld: One Man’s Journey into America’s Crossword Obsession. Looks like a winner if you’d rather read about the world of puzzlers.