Happy stewing!

Laurell K. Hamilton writes about vampires in a series with a slightly different viewpoint. Her main character is Anita Blake, a vampire hunter. The novels are a bit on the racy and violent side, so be forewarned.

1. Guilty Pleasures
2. The Laughing Corpse
3. Circus of the Damned
4. The Lunatic Cafe
5. Bloody Bones
6. The Killing Dance
7. Burnt Offerings
8. Blue Moon
9. Obsidian Butterfly
10. Narcissus in Chains
11. Cerulean Sins
12. Incubus Dreams
13. Micah
14. Danse Macabre
15. The Harlequin
16. Blood Noir

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro writes the long-running series about the vampire Saint-Germain. With the first book published in 1978 and the 20th book published just last year, you’ll be able to keep your vampire thirst quenched for a long while. Interestingly, Saint-Germain is portrayed not as a blood-thirsty paragon of evil, but as an heroic being; his stories are often set against the most horrendous periods of human history in order to make the reader wonder just who is the real monster. These novels combine elements of horror, romance and historic fiction. If GCPL doesn’t have a copy (and there are several that we don’t), we can usually get the book from another library system in about a week. Just ask at the reference desk.

1. Hotel Transylvania
2. The Palace
3. Blood Games
4. Path of the Eclipse
5. Tempting Fate
6. The Saint-Germain Chronicles
7. Darker Jewels
8. Better in the Dark
9. Mansions of Darkness
10. Writ in Blood
11. Blood Roses
12. Communion Blood
13. Come Twilight
14. A Feast in Exile
15. Night Blooming
16. Midnight Harvest
17. Dark of the Sun
18. States of Grace
19. Roman Dusk
20. Borne in Blood

Hope you find something you enjoy!

Another recent addition to the vampire phenomenon comes from an old source. I Am Legend came out in theaters in 2007. While the movie monsters weren’t exactly vampires, many people went back to read the 1954 Richard Matheson book of the same name. In this book, the monsters are far more recognizable as vampires, though they do have some zombie characteristics as well. The book is more thought-provoking than the movie and has a very different ending, so even if you’ve seen the Will Smith adventure, the book is worth reading.

One of my favorite vampire novel series is the Undead series by MaryJanice Davidson. Basically chick-lit with vampires, the main character Betsy is 30, single, newly unemployed and even more newly undead. She has a phenomenal designer shoe collection and some remarkable abilities that make her seem to be the prophesied Queen of the Vampires. An irritatingly hunky vampire and a tacky nemesis make for more than enough drama.

1. Undead and Unwed
2. Undead and Unemployed
3. Undead and Unappreciated
4. Undead and Unreturnable
5. Undead and Unpopular
6. Undead and Uneasy
7. Undead and Unworthy

Christopher Moore has another particularly funny take on vampires with his two book series - Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story and You Suck: A Love Story. With a crew of late-night grocery store stockmen who love to bowl with frozen turkeys, a homeless man known as the Emperor of San Francisco, and a goth girl minion there’s a little something for everyone in these two. Don’t read it if you want dark, brooding vampires.

Stay tuned for even more vampire novels in the next couple of days.

Let’s start with the classics. If you didn’t read Bram Stoker’s Dracula in high school, you’ve likely seen the movie. This edition of the classic novel is hauntingly illustrated. While Dracula wasn’t the first book about vampires, it was, and remains, a hit.

After Bram Stoker, I always think Anne Rice.  Maybe you saw the blockbuster Interview with the Vampire starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt? It was a book first, and an entertaining one at that. Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles series starts with Interview with a Vampire, and continues:

2. The Vampire Lestat
3. The Queen of the Damned
4. Tale of the Body Thief
5. Memnoch the Devil
6. The Vampire Armand
7. Merrick
8. Blood and Gold: or, The Story of Marius
9. Blackwood Farm
10. Blood Canticle

As always, we have a few books to recommend on the subject of wind storms and hurricanes. Try reading them in bed under the covers with a flashlight if you don’t have any power. You’ll feel like a little kid, and begin to understand even more about what we’ve all just experienced.

Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes by Kerry Emanuel

Isaac’s Storm: A Man, A Time, and the Deadliest Hurrican in History by Erik Larson

1001 Questions Answered About Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Other Natural Air Disasters by Barbara Tufty

Windswept: The Story of Wind and Weather by Marq de Villiers

Inside the Hurricane: Face to Face with Nature’s Deadliest Storms by Pete Davies

Extreme Weather: A Guide & Record Book by Christopher C. Burt

I’ll admit that Extraordinary Chickens and Extra Extraordinary Chickens are kind of cool.  These two books are filled with gorgeous pictures of unusual fowl. They will knock your socks off. I’ve never seen such interesting, unexpected, extraordinary chickens. Maybe if most chickens were this fancy, I wouldn’t find them so disturbing.

I’ve been assured that aside from providing delicious dinners and the eggs for lovely breakfasts, keeping poultry has other benefits. Apparently chickens eat all manner of bugs and creepy-crawlies. Chickens help gardens by providing chemical-free pest control! I was unaware of that. I thought they ate corn. See? Even librarians learn something new everyday.

To help people who already understand the positives of chickens, we have a whole slew of books about keeping chickens. Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens seems to be a classic. You could also check out Storey’s Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds if Extraordinary Chickens has inspired you. Living with Chickens: Everything You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Backyard Flock and Keep Chickens!: Tending Small Flocks in Cities, Suburbs and Other Small Spaces both appear to be good choices for many people around Fairborn who want to have a backyard flock. We have a relatively new book about housing chickens called, of all things, Chicken Coops: 45 Building Plans for Housing Your Flock.  We also have a book called Hen and the Art of Chicken Maitainence: Reflections on Keeping Chickens if you’d like a little more philosophical approach to the whole endeavor.

Click here for a more complete list of books about chickens. If I keep looking at these books, maybe I’ll even change my mind about chickens.

But I doubt it.

One nice thing about being an adult is that generally you aren’t forced to learn about things that bore you. If I’m not interested, I don’t have to read whole books on botany or articles about the role of archivists in state government. I can spend my free time reading all of Stephen King’s books or learning how to grow perfect roses. On the other hand, it is easy to get stuck only learning about the couple subjects that most interest you and ignoring everything else. There are some strange things out there, that you may not even have imagined exist.

The library has books about subjects so wild we thought you might have overlooked them. Maybe one of these new things might pique an interest you didn’t even know you had.

The Girl Who Gave Birth to Rabbits by Clifford A. Pickover

Jumbo’s Hide, Elvis’s Ride, and the Tooth of Buddha by Harvey Rachlin

  The Family That Couldn’t Sleep by D.T. Max

Special Cases: Natural Anomalies and Historical Monsters by Rosamond Wolff Purcell

Ghost Lights and Other Encounters with the Unkn own by E. Randall Floyd

The Two-Headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels by Jan Bondeson

Ghosthunting Ohio by John B. Kachuba

Mutants, On Genetic Variety and the Human Body by Armand Marie Leroi

The people at the library couldn’t wait for school to start when we were kids, too. We fondly recall our own first day of school memories:

Nichole, a shelver, recalls that in fourth grade, her parents went to “meet the teacher” day prior to her first day of school. The teacher had each parent write a letter to their child, which she then collected. The letters were waiting for the students in their desks when they arrived for the new school year. While she doesn’t remember exactly what the letter contained, Nichole does remember it was so sweet, it made her cry!

Reference associate Celise remembers that, starting in junior high, she wore a white button up shirt and cool new jeans on the first day of school every year.

Mark, our circulation manager, remembers that he always enjoyed the first day of school because it meant new shoes. They had to last the whole year, but they were new and exciting that day!

Our children’s associate, Diana, was a teacher before she came to work at the library. She has more memories about the first day of school from the teacher’s side of the desk than the student side. She remembers how scary it was to think about meeting all those new kids. They know your name, but you don’t know most of theirs.

And me? I always remember that while I looked forward to the start of school, I really didn’t much appreciate the first day. The first day of school was filled with all those administrative items: filling out paperwork, getting textbooks, learning the new rules. I always found it tiresome to have to be told “No gum in class this year. Here’s where we keep the hall pass.” I like the second day of school better, when you cracked open the new texbook and starting learning something new!

Add your favorite first day of school memory in the comments, please!

Well…we have this policy about not revealing to anyone (at least without a court order) what anyone else happens to be reading or watching. That means we won’t tell parents what their kids are reading, and we won’t tell kids what their parents are watching. The policy is based on a philosophy that goes clear back to Saint Lawrence the Librarian, who was martyred in A.D. 258 for refusing to tell the Roman authorities who was checking stuff out of the Church library. After all, if the Romans had a list of borrowers from the Church library, they would have a list of Christians all ready to persecute. One stop shopping.

Anyway, Saint Lawrence wouldn’t squeal, and, according to legend, the Romans were so angry that they grilled him, literally (which is why he’s also the patron saint of cooks). Supposedly, at the moment of his death he told them (this is so cool) “Assum est, inquit, versa et manduca,” or, “This side’s done, turn me over and eat!” The moral of the story is, sorry, we can’t tell you what anyone else has checked out. If you want to keep track of your kids’s stuff, or even your parents’, write down their card number so you have it.

The Feast Day of Saint Lawrence is August 10^th, and if you feel like celebrating along with the library community, we recommend that you throw a barbecue. Here’s a good barbecue recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook:

Snappy Barbecue Sauce

1 cup catsup
1 cup water
¼ cup vinegar
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. celery seed
2 or 3 dashes bottled hot pepper sauce

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Use to baste pork, beef, or poultry. Pass any remaining sauce. Makes about 1 ½ cups.

Marley & Me

Dogs I Have Met

The Dangerous Book for Dogs

Dogs: A Natural History

Shelter Dogs

Dogs of Bedlam Farm