Friday, January 30, 2009

Spotlight on Lincoln


Waterford Public Library Presents: Spotlight on Lincoln
Wednesday, February 11th
6:30 p.m.

It's Honest Abe's 200th Birthday!

A local historian, Joanne Scheffel hops aboard the train to ride with our greatest
president from Springfield, Illinois to Cooper Union School in New York City.
When he spoke there, he captivated the audience with his vision for our country and launched himself into the national spotlight as a serious presidential contender. Joanne brings Lincoln to life by sharing his thoughts and fears as he made the historic trip and delivered the speech that propelled him to the White House.
The talk is suitable for Lincoln admirers of all ages.
Refreshments will be served.

Monday, January 26, 2009

The Burlington Historical Society Presents.....


Civil War Historian Lance Herdegen to Speak at Celebration of 150th Anniversary of Lincoln School Building and Lincoln's 200th Birthday.

The Burlington Historical Society will hold its annual meeting on Sunday,February 8 at the 150-year-old Lincoln School building which sits on State Street between N. Kane Street and N. Perkins Boulevardin Burlington.

The featured speaker will be Lance Herdegen, historical consultant for the new Civil War Museum of the Middle West in Kenosha and retired director of the Institute for Civil War Studies at Carroll University in Waukesha. Regarded as the authority on the Iron Brigade, Herdegen is the author of many articles and several books on that famed Civil War unit, including the recently published book, "Those Damn Black Hats! The Iron Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign." Herdegen will speak on "Lincoln and the Badger Boys," focusing on President Abraham Lincoln's contacts with Wisconsin soldiers during the Civil War.

The Society will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln School building, which opened in 1859, and the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth in 1809. Artifacts and photos related to the building and to Lincoln will be displayed. A short business meeting will be held. The program will start at 1:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served following the program.


For further Information, call (262) 767-2884

Friday, January 23, 2009

I Do Solemnly Swear . . .

This site from the Library of Congress American Memory Collection includes items and files from the inaugurations of George Washington in 1789 to George W. Bush 2001, including diaries and letters of presidents and of those who witnessed inaugurations, handwritten drafts of inaugural addresses, inaugural tickets and programs, prints, and photographs.

Channel Weekly
Department of Public Instruction

Friday, January 16, 2009

Love My Library Month



You may have seen or carried Waterford Library's Love My Library book bags many times in recent years. In the spirit of Valentine's Day, the Friends of WPL have once again designated February:



Love My Library Month



The Friends raised over $2300 last year when 79 families and individuals supported Love My Library Month with their contributions. When you make a donation this year of $25 or more durning the month of February to Friends of Waterford Public Library, your name will be placed on the bookplate of a new volume as a 2009 donor. You will also be entered in a drawing with a chance to win the Life is Like a Box of Chocolates
prize package including a gift certificate for Thai-Italina Restaurant, Showtime movie passes and box of chocolates puzzle.



Throughout this next year, Friends of WPL will continue to welcome new members. Our mission has always been to enhance and support library collections and programs. As always, we will continue to look for new and fun ways to do that. If you are willing to join our endeavors, sign up below. Please help us with your membership donations today!


Join today!


Pam Belden, Library Director


Friends of Wateford Public Library

FREE Tax Help (Elderly & Low income)


Federal, State & Homestead
For spanish & English Speaking people


At Love, Inc.
480 S. Pine
Burlington, WI
Call for an appointment
763-6226

Tax preparation beginning in February, 2009.

Sponsored by the AARP volunteer tax preparation
program and Love, Inc.

Bring identification, your 2007 Form 1040 and 2008 social
security, SSI, pension and wage information.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Waterford Book Club

Come and Join Us!

Sign-up is free.
Discussions are held the last Wednesday of each month
beginning at 6:15 to 7:15 p.m. in the History Room.

Please call to reserve a seat
534-3988 to Register

Book List 2009


The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audry Niffenegger
January 28

This clever and inventive tale works on three levels: as an intriguing science fiction concept, a realistic character study and a touching love story. Henry De Tamble is a Chicago librarian with "Chrono Displacement" disorder; at random times, he suddenly disappears without warning and finds himself in the past or future, usually at a time or place of importance in his life. This leads to some wonderful paradoxes. From his point of view, he first met his wife, Clare, when he was 28 and she was 20. She ran up to him exclaiming that she'd known him all her life. He, however, had never seen her before. But when he reaches his 40s, already married to Clare, he suddenly finds himself time travelling to Clare's childhood and meeting her as a 6-year-old. The book alternates between Henry and Clare's points of view, and so does the narration. Reed ably expresses the longing of the one always left behind, the frustrations of their unusual lifestyle, and above all, her overriding love for Henry. Likewise, Burns evokes the fear of a man who never knows where or when he'll turn up, and his gratitude at having Clare, whose love is his anchor. The expressive, evocative performances of both actors convey the protagonists' intense relationship, their personal quirks and their reminiscences, making this a fascinating audio.

Lincoln, a Photobiography
by Russell Freedman
February 25

This work is perhaps the most complete and enjoyable children's book ever written about one of the nation's most fascinating and important figures, Abraham Lincoln. Russell Freedman covers Lincoln's life and career in a balanced treatment that is enhanced by period photographs and drawings. The book won the Newbery Medal, the Jefferson Cup Award and the Golden Kite Honor Book Award, and earned a citation as School Library Journal Best Book of the Year.

Family Tree
by Barbara Dellinsky
March 25

When Dana and Hugh Clarke's baby is born into their wealthy, white New England seaside community, the baby's unmistakably African-American features puzzle her thoroughly Anglo-looking parents. Hugh's family pedigree extends back to the Mayflower, and his historian father has made a career of tracing the esteemed Clarke family genealogy, which does not include African-Americans. Dana's mother died when Dana was a child, and Dana never knew her father: she matter-of-factly figures that baby Lizzie's features must hark back to her little-known past. Hugh, a lawyer who has always passionately defended his minority clients, finds his liberal beliefs don't run very deep and demands a paternity test to rule out the possibility of infidelity. By the time the Clarkes have uncovered the tangled roots of their family trees, more than one skeleton has been unearthed, and the couple's relationship not to mention their family loyaltyhas been severely tested.

Julie & Julia
by Julie Powell
April 29

Julie & Julia is the story of Julie Powell's attempt to revitalize her marriage, restore her ambition, and save her soul by cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I, in a period of 365 days. The result is a masterful medley of Bridget Jones' Diary meets Like Water for Chocolate, mixed with a healthy dose of original wit, warmth, and inspiration that sets this memoir apart from most tales of personal redemption.

The Other Boleyn Girl:
A Novel by Phillippa Gregory
May 27

Sisterly rivalry is the basis of this fresh, wonderfully vivid retelling of the story of Anne Boleyn. Anne, her sister Mary and their brother George are all brought to the king's court at a young age, as players in their uncle's plans to advance the family's fortunes. Mary, the sweet, blond sister, wins King Henry VIII's favor when she is barely 14 and already married to one of his courtiers. Their affair lasts several years, and she gives Henry a daughter and a son. But her dark, clever, scheming sister, Anne, insinuates herself into Henry's graces, styling herself as his adviser and confidant. Soon she displaces Mary as his lover and begins her machinations to rid him of his wife, Katherine of Aragon. This is only the beginning of the intrigue that Gregory so handily chronicles, capturing beautifully the mingled hate and nearly incestuous love Anne, Mary and George ("kin and enemies all at once") feel for each other and the toll their family's ambition takes on them. Mary, the story's narrator, is the most sympathetic of the siblings, but even she is twisted by the demands of power and status; charming George, an able plotter, finally brings disaster on his own head by falling in love with a male courtier. Anne, most tormented of all, is ruthless in her drive to become queen, and then to give Henry a male heir. Rather than settling for a picturesque rendering of court life, Gregory conveys its claustrophobic, all-consuming nature with consummate skill. In the end, Anne's famous, tragic end is offset by Mary's happier fate, but the self-defeating folly of the quest for power lingers longest in the reader's mind.

Dairy Queen: A Novel
by Catherin Gilbert Murdock
June 24

D. J.'s family members don't talk much, especially about the fact that 15-year-old D. J. does all the heavy work on their Wisconsin dairy farm since her father broke his hip and her two older brothers left for college. Nor do they talk about why D. J.'s mom, a teacher, is so busy filling in for the middle-school principal that she's never home. And they never, ever discuss the reason why her brothers haven't called home for more than six months. So when D. J. decides to try out for the Red Bend football team, even though she's been secretly training (and falling for) Brian Nelson, the cute quarterback from Hawley, Red Bend's rival, she becomes the talk of the town. Suddenly, her family has quite a bit to say.

Gonzalez & Daughter Trucking Co.: A Road Novel with Literary License
by Maria Amparo Escandon
July 29

Gonzalez and Daughter Trucking Co is a fascinating story of womanhood, crime and punishment and ultimately "libertad." The story is set in a Mexicali Women's prison where Libertad has started a reading club with the other women inmates. What they don't know is that through her read alouds she is actually telling the story of her childhood and how she came to be an inmate.

While the Locust Slept
by Peter Razor
August 26

IA stirring tale of a Native American childhood, this debut draws on personal memories and official records to track Razor's painful yet triumphant years as a ward of the state of Minnesota. Abandoned by a jobless, alcoholic Chippewa father and an emotionally troubled, institutionalized mother in 1930, Razor was taken at 17 months to the State Public School at Owatonna, which he describes as a rigid, Spartan institution, where he awaited an adoption that never happened. At 15, having endured prejudice, isolation, neglect and terrible physical abuse by the staff, he was sent to work for a local farmer named John. Via a series of detailed flashbacks, Razor recounts his oppressive relationship with his new employer in spare prose loaded with feeling and insight. John's cruel treatment of Razor and of John's own wife, only stiffens the orphan's will. Meanwhile, at school, a savage hammer attack by one of the staff leaves Peter seriously injured and unable to attend classes or work for weeks. Upon returning to school, Razor finds new friends and experiences in the local high school, recounted with great energy and humor. But his situation on John's farm worsens, and eventually he's removed. While the book's conclusion is credible, it rushes toward a feel-good finish that does not live up to the power and grit of the early chapters. The epilogue of this valuable coming of age story sketches Razor's adult livelihood as a journeyman electrician, his decision to investigate his reviled Native heritage and the three children who have enriched his life. National advertising; regional author appearances.

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer
September 24

The letters comprising this small charming novel begin in 1946, when single, 30-something author Juliet Ashton (nom de plume Izzy Bickerstaff) writes to her publisher to say she is tired of covering the sunny side of war and its aftermath. When Guernsey farmer Dawsey Adams finds Juliet's name in a used book and invites articulate and not-so-articulate neighbors to write Juliet with their stories, the book's epistolary circle widens, putting Juliet back in the path of war stories. The occasionally contrived letters jump from incident to incident including the formation of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society while Guernsey was under German occupation and person to person in a manner that feels disjointed. But Juliet's quips are so clever, the Guernsey inhabitants so enchanting and the small acts of heroism so vivid and moving that one forgives the authors (Shaffer died earlier this year) for not being able to settle on a single person or plot. Juliet finds in the letters not just inspiration for her next work, but also for her life as will readers.

The Road
by Cormac McCarthy
October 28

Violence, in McCarthy's postapocalyptic tour de force, has been visited worldwide in the form of a "long shear of light and then a series of low concussions" that leaves cities and forests burned, birds and fish dead and the earth shrouded in gray clouds of ash. In this landscape, an unnamed man and his young son journey down a road to get to the sea. (The man's wife, who gave birth to the boy after calamity struck, has killed herself.) They carry blankets and scavenged food in a shopping cart, and the man is armed with a revolver loaded with his last two bullets. Beyond the ever-present possibility of starvation lies the threat of roving bands of cannibalistic thugs. The man assures the boy that the two of them are "good guys," but from the way his father treats other stray survivors the boy sees that his father has turned into an amoral survivalist, tenuously attached to the morality of the past by his fierce love for his son. McCarthy establishes himself here as the closest thing in American literature to an Old Testament prophet, trolling the blackest registers of human emotion to create a haunting and grim novel about civilization's slow death after the power goes out.

The World Without Us
by Alan Weisman
December 1

Teasing out the consequences of a simple thought experiment what would happen if the human species were suddenly extinguished Weisman has written a sort of pop-science ghost story, in which the whole earth is the haunted house. Among the highlights: with pumps not working, the New York City subways would fill with water within days, while weeds and then trees would retake the buckled streets and wild predators would ravage the domesticated dogs. Texas s unattended petrochemical complexes might ignite, scattering hydrogen cyanide to the winds a "mini chemical nuclear winter." After thousands of years, the Chunnel, rubber tires, and more than a billion tons of plastic might remain, but eventually a polymer-eating microbe could evolve, and, with the spectacular return of fish and bird populations, the earth might revert to Eden.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Altered Lunch Box




Saturday, January 17
9:30 a.m.

Create an Altered Lunch Box which you can use to store things like recipe cards, photos, receipts, greeting cards. Fill it with a flower arrangement. Or, give it as a gift.
Class fee is $18.00

Each participant is to bring the following:
2 sheets each of 3 different coordination designer papers.
(12" x 12" each) in colors or patterns of your choice.
5 or 6- 18 inch pieces of ribbon in colors that coordinate with the designer papers.
Choose a variety of pasterns and fabrics.
The ribbons should range between 1/4" to 5/8 inches in width.
A personal paper cutter (if possible), sharp scissors, a pencil and a ruler.
Any small decorations wanted to personalize the finished product.

Class is limited to 12 people.
Deadline for registering is Friday, January 9.
No refunds after that date.
Fee to be paid at the time of registration.
See sample at the circulation desk.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Making Good Resolutions and the Right Attitude

If you need some help in making wise resolutions and setting your mind right to sticking to them, I recommend reading the articles How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions and 10 Tips for Keeping New Year’s Resolutions on eHow and About.com, respectively.

Briefly, they recommend to…
be realistic and aim low
keep the number of resolutions down, don’t overload yourself
plan ahead and outline your plan
tell everyone you know, so they can remind you
when in danger of failing, make a pros and cons list for motivation
keep talking about your resolutions
track your progress
reward yourself
don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, some failure is OK
make an effort to stick to your resolutions
wait until spring for making resolutions
keep trying and start anew anytime of the year.


Meebo 1/2009