Hey y’all! It’s getting to be pretty hot and humid here in Fairborn, Ohio. You might say the weather resembles that experienced in the South. It makes me think of drowsy afternoons, lolling on a porch swing sipping iced tea. Or, if you prefer, sitting on the front lawn of Tara surrounded by beaux. Why don’t you check out one of these books, sit outside with a nice cool glass of lemonade, and transport yourself to a land more gracious.

Of course, we must start with the inimitable Scarlett O’Hara, queen of Tara. You can try the original, Gone with the Wind (in book or movie form) or try Alexandra Ripley’s 1991 sequel, Scarlett. Rhett Butler’s People came out last year. Both new novels are authorized by the estate of Margaret Mitchell to continue and enhance the beloved original.

After the Scarlett books, when thinking of the South, I always think of Rebecca Wells and her hit Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood. Some of you may not realize she wrote further about the Ya-yas, in Little Altars Everywhere and Ya-yas in Bloom.

For a funny look at what it means to be a Southern Belle, try any of Jill Conner Browne’s Sweet Potato Queens books. My favorite is the first, The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love, followed closely by The Sweet Potato Queens Wedding Planner/Divorce Guide (wedding planner on one side, divorce guide when you flip it over) and The Sweet Potato Queens Guide to Raising Children for Fun and Profit. The Queen is especially funny on audiobook; her fabulous Southern drawl just lends even more hilarity to the hijinks.

A couple more books on a Southern theme that the staff around here loves:

Being Dead Is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies’ Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral

A Southern Belle Primer, or, Why Princess Margaret Will Never Be a Kappa Kappa Gamma

Somebody Is Going to Die If Lily Beth Doesn’t Catch That Bouquet: The Official Southern Ladies’ Guide to Hosting the Perfect Wedding

The GRITS (Girls Raised in the South) Guide to Life

It’s hard, this year, to think of the Glorious Fourth as anything other than the start of a three-day weekend, with a parade and fireworks (weather permitting, of course!) thrown in for good measure. If the weather does force you inside for a couple of hours, I would recommend watching 1776, the musical based on the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Every American should see it at least once because a) it’s way more interesting than the history you remember from grade school, and b) it’s such fun to watch William Daniels (as John Adams) in full rant: “I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace, that two are called a law firm, and that three or more become a congress.”

However, underneath all the humor and music, you get the very real sense of how, well, revolutionary, that time was. Now, of course, we think of it as inevitable—we studied it in school!—but, really, we shouldn’t have won that war; it’s some kind of miracle that we did.

We have several books telling the history of our Revolution from the point of view of the losing side, i.e. the British. The Long Fuse: How England Lost the American Colonies, 1760-1785, by Don Cook, describes how Britain, at the height of her power but suffering from internal political strife, made one mistake after another, culminating in the loss of her prized American colonies.

Christopher Hibbert’s Redcoats and Rebels: the American Revolution Through British Eyes portrays a frequently savage guerilla war which raged the length of the continent. It was a war in which the British had, in some areas, the support of the majority of the colonists, rarely lost a battle on land or sea, more well-trained, well-supplied soldiers—and still lost the war.

Those Damned Rebels: the American Revolution As Seen Through British Eyes, by Michael Pearson, uses contemporary letters, journals, and official British government correspondence to present a “realistic picture of a major power attempting to put down a revolt for the very understandable reason that its leaders believed that if they failed, the whole Empire would collapse.”

Stanley Weintraub’s thesis in Iron Tears: America’s Battle For Freedom, Britain’s Quagmire: 1775-1783 is that our War of Independence was Britain’s Vietnam.

“A Few Bloody Noses:” the Realities and Mythologies Of the American Revolution, by Robert Harvey, (a descendant both of George Grenville, whose Stamp Act is credited with starting the Revolution, and the Marquess of Rockingham, who ended it), was “always fascinated by how the war divided British opinion, for and against: as with the Vietnam War, it was lost as much in the mother country and globally as in the actual theatre of hostilities.”

Reading one of these books reminds us that America almost didn’t survive her birth, and that we shouldn’t take her continued health, on this, her 132^nd birthday, for granted.

Ever wondered what to do with the rest of your life? Would you like someone else to tell you? Like to travel but don’t know where to go? Read any one of these books for more advice than you ever thought about wanting!

1000 Places to See before You Die was an early entry into the “list of things you must do/see before you leave the earth.” This book has nice pictures and good information about the entries. A couple more travel-based books are Unforgettable Places to See before You Die, 100 Things You Must Do before You Die: Travel Events You Just Can’t Miss, and 1001 Natural Wonders You Must See before You Die

1001 Books You Must Read before You Die sounds nice, but it actually stirred up a little controversy. See this article in the New York Times. What books do you think should be included but aren’t? Which ones do think should not have been included?

If you run out of movies to watch, flip through this book: 1001 Movies You Must See before You Die. Maybe you’ve always wanted to know what gardens or artwork to see or what golf courses you need to play, just check out one of these books: 1001 Gardens You Must See before You Die, 1001 Paintings You Must See before You Die, or 1001 Golf Holes You Must Play before You Die.

If, in the end, you don’t want someone else to tell you what you need to do before you die, make a list like the ones Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson made in the movie The Bucket List. Just in case you haven’t figured it out, a “bucket list” is a list of things you’d like to do before you “kick the bucket.” You can customize it! Maybe there aren’t 1001 items on it, but it would be your own.

What did you put on your list? Tell us in the comments!

We have weddings on the brain here in Fairborn. I got married about two weeks ago, and a couple of the other staff members have children getting married later in the year. I had a pretty low-key experience, but even my easy-going family had a few moments of tension. With all the drama associated with planning a wedding, it is no wonder weddings are a major source of inspiration for Hollywood. Try any one of these great (and not-so-great) movies next time you are in a bridal mood.

My Best Friend’s Wedding

27 Dresses

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

License to Wed

Monsoon Wedding

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The wait is almost over. Number fourteen on the Stephanie Plum hit parade is set to drop June 17^th. The problem is, what do you do while you wait? We have some suggestions.

First, did you know that starting a couple of months before the publishing date of her newest book, you can go to Janet Evanovich’s web site (www.evanovich.com), where she will have posted the beginning of the book? Get a jump on all your friends!

Second, we just received a book called Perfectly Plum: Unauthorized Essays On the Life, Loves, and Other Disasters of Stephanie Plum, Trenton Bounty Hunter. It’s a book of essays, written by authors who are also Plum fans, which addresses such burning questions as, Morelli or Ranger? Could Lula possibly be considered a role model? and, something we’ve all wondered at some point or another, How does this woman get car insurance!?

I know, having read the beginning of Fearless Fourteen online, that Steph has made it through the first ten pages or so without having a single car blow up, catch on fire, or get smushed by a burning garbage truck. If you’ve read the whole series, you know that’s a situation that’s unlikely to last. Just to get you ready for the inevitable mayhem, we’ve assembled a list of the most memorable automotive crashes, smashes, and burns in the Stephanie Plum series. Your challenge is to match the crash to the book. There’s one accident per book, and we’ve included the holiday novellas. Read each description, print out the entry form, fill it out with the title of the book in which each crash appears, and drop the completed form in the contest box at the Fairborn Library. You may win your own copy of Fearless Fourteen! Contest will end on June 17th, so make sure you get your entry form to the library before then. Happy hunting!

Download the Entry Form. (It’s a .pdf)

Click the link below to read the quotes.

P.S. There is another Fearless Fourteen contest at the library. When you bring in your form, make sure to check it out. You could win a Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpet like Stephanie always eats!

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