Looking for something?

Ever see something on our website or blog, then want to look at it again later, but you just can't seem to find it? Or maybe you want to get a specific piece of info ASAP without a lot of aimless clicking.

Well, did you know that you can search our entire website (PerrotLibrary.org), as well as our blog (perrotlibrary.blogspot.com), in one fell swoop? Give it a try here!

A Christmas Recommendation and New Great Reads List

Feeling a little disgruntled about all your Christmas work?

Try On Strike for Christmas, by Sheila Roberts. It's a fun fun, witty book about a group of women who meet for a knitting club and decide to organize and go on strike for Christmas. They all have their own complaints about how much work it is (and it always seems to be "women’s work") to make Christmas happen each year. Who does the shopping, the cleaning, the cooking, and gift wrapping if they are on strike? These ladies come up with a solution, but it may just backfire! Just a quick, fun read.

Also, view the rest of the Reference Librarians' List of Great Reads for December/January here.

Missing something?

. . .maybe it's at the Library. Inquire at the Adult Circulation Desk about our Lost & Found. We may just have that set of keys or glasses you can't seem to find.

Thanks!

Recommended Literature Websites

We received a tip to look at www.todayinliterature.com-- a website that promotes books, authors and reading. There is a daily highlighted story about a literature fact for that day in history. There are articles, quotations, and more-- and if you subscribe, there is total access to full stories, and to the archives. This arrives in your e-mail daily. What a great way to start your day!

Another book-oriented site is www.bookbrowse.com: “Your guide to exceptional books.” There are books and book group areas to explore, including interviews for book clubs, lists of recommended books, recent paperback and hardcovers, and lots more.

Both of these websites have at least a certain level of access for free, otherwise there is a membership charge.

--The Reference Librarians

Flute Sweets and Tickletoons

Yesterday, our youngest patrons and their families were given a wonderful treat: a fun and festive musical visit from Barbara Siesel and Keith Torgan, otherwise known as Flute Sweets and Tickletoons! Their performance for preschool children included lots of interaction, play and music, and their performance for older children explored the festivals of several different cultures via music and storytheater. Click here to see/hear just a little of the fun we all had.

This event was made possible by the generous donations of the members of the Perrot Memorial Library Association. Are you a member? THANK YOU!

Winners of the Bi-Annual Y2C2 Jeopardy Challenge!

(drumroll please . . . .)
We are pleased to announce the winners of our bi-annual Young Young Critics' Club (Y2C2) Jeopardy challenge and the current holders of the Wonderful Golden Y Award!

Although they faced serious competition from Team Bookworms, Team Bouncing Bananas, and Team Stinky Cheese, it was Team Four, with members Sarah, Karla, Emily B., Mary, Cristian, and Thomas, that emerged victorious.

Congratulations to the winning team!

A Reminder About Winter Weather Delays and Closings

There are several ways you can find out about a weather-related delayed opening or closure at Perrot:

• Call us at 203-637-1066, to hear a recording listing a delay or closure
• Check Channel 12 News on TV, or look at their website
• Listen to AM Station WSTC 1400 or WGCH 1490

Remember that our delayed openings and closures are not necessarily concurrent with those of the Greenwich Public School system.

Here is our Cancellation Policy for our Youth Services Programs:

• For Preschool storytimes at 10 A.M., 11 A.M., and 1 P.M.: Programs are cancelled if the Greenwich Public Schools are closed due to weather conditions. Programs will be held if the Greenwich Public Schools have a delayed opening due to weather conditions. 1 P.M. programs will be cancelled if the Greenwich Public Schools are released early due to weather conditions.
• For School-Age storytimes at 4 P.M.: Please call the library in the late afternoon to find out if programs will be held.
• For PJs at Perrot: PJs will be cancelled if Greenwich Public Schools are closed or released early due to weather conditions.

Youth Services' Holiday Gift-Buying Guide 2007

ACK! Time is running out to get presents for EVERYONE on your list! Good thing we've come to your rescue with a list of our favorite gift of all-- books!

Check out Youth Services' Holiday Gift-Buying Guide for 2007 here, or pick up a copy of the list at the Youth Services Circulation Desk.

Happy Shopping!

New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2007

The New York Times has announced its list of the 10 Best Books of 2007. The list will run in the Book Review on December 9th, but you can get started reading right away!

Fiction:

• Man Gone Down, by Michael Thomas: On the eve of the unnamed narrator's thirty-fifth birthday, he finds himself broke, estranged from his white wife and three children, and living in the bedroom of a friend's six-year-old child. He has four days before he's due in Boston to pick up his family, four days to try to make some sense of his life.
• Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson, translated by Anne Born: Trond is living in self-imposed exile in a primitive cabin, but his solitude is interrupted when he meets his only neighbor, the brother of his childhood friend, who forces him to remember the fateful summer of 1948.
• The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Natasha Wimmer: Bolano traces the hidden connection between literature and violence in a world where national boundaries are fluid, and death lurks in the shadow of the avant-garde.
• Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris: No one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the ad agency Ferris depicts is family at its strangest and best.
• Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson: This is the story of William "Skip" Sands, CIA-- engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong-- and the disasters that befall him. The 2007 National Book Award Winner.

Non-Fiction:

• Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran: The Washington Post's former Baghdad bureau chief takes us with him into the Zone: into a bubble, cut off from wartime realities, where the task of reconstructing a devastated nation competed with the distractions of a Little America.
• Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression, by Mildred Armstrong Kalish: Filled with recipes and how-tos for everything from catching and skinning a rabbit to preparing homemade skin and hair beautifiers, apple cream pie, and the world's best head cheese, Little Heathens portrays a world of hardship and hard work tempered by simple rewards.
• The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, by Jeffrey Toobin: Based on exclusive interviews with the justices themselves, The Nine tells the story of the Supreme Court through its outsized personalities.
• The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History, by Linda Colley: Conceived in Jamaica and possibly of mixed race, Elizabeth Marsh (1735-1785) traveled farther than the majority of men in her day. She was the first woman to publish in English on Morocco, and the first to carry out extensive explorations in eastern and southern India.
• The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, by Alex Ross: A history of the twentieth century, as seen through its music.

DVD Diva: Holiday Classics

With the Holiday Season just around the corner, why not plan on seeing some of these holiday favorites:

It's a Wonderful Life * Miracle on 34th Street * Scrooge * A Christmas Story * Home Alone * Home Alone 2: Lost in New York * Eight Crazy Nights * Kwanzaa * There's No Such Thing as a Chanukah Bush, Sandy Goldstein * National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation * Elf * Santa Clause 2

One day you’re ‘in’ . . .

This week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine (November 30), the one with J. K. Rowling, EW’s choice for Entertainer of the Year, on the cover, includes a regular "What’s In, What’s Five Minutes Ago, and What’s Out" feature by Jessica Shaw. So what’s IN? "Getting a library card"! So "Five Minutes Ago" is reading in the bookstore, while buying books online is OUT!

Visit us soon to get or use the coolest card you can carry!

Brian Selznick Visits the Book Clubs

Author and illustrator Brian Selznick visited with the Young Critics' Club and Young Young Critics' Clubs on Friday, November 16th, 2007. Selznick has illustrated books like The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins, Walt Whitman: Words for America, and When Marian Sang, and has both written and illustrated a few books, too-- including the innovative novel of words and pictures, The Invention of Hugo Cabret (voted Y2C2's favorite book of 2006-2007 [and YCC's 2nd-favorite book]). Brian Selznick talked to the book clubs about his inspiration(s) for the book, how he created the illustrations, and how he traveled to Paris for research.

You can see video and sound clips of the visit here!

Books on Entertaining

Thanksgiving is just the start of a season of occasions and holidays ahead. Now is the time to make your plans for entertaining!

Here are some books that may help (click on each title to place a request):

• Perfect Tables : Tabletop Secrets, Settings and Centrepieces for Delicious Dining, by William Yeoward


• Table Flowers, by Paula Pryke


• Napkins with a Twist : Fabulous Folds with Flair for Every Occasion, by David Starke


• What to Drink With What You Eat : the Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea-- Even Water-- Based on Expert Advice from America's Best Sommeliers, by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page


• Perfect Parties: Tips and Advice from a New York Party Planner, by Linnea Johansson

Stop by and see our selection of cookbooks, books on entertaining, and more.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Belated List of National Book Award Winners

The National Book Awards were presented on November 14th, 2007.

Fiction Winner:

Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson
This is the story of William "Skip" Sands, CIA-- engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong-- and the disasters that befall him.

Non-Fiction Winner:

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, by Tim Weiner

Tim Weiner offers the first definitive history of the CIA-- and everything is on the record. Legacy of Ashes is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA itself, and hundreds of interviews with CIA veterans, including ten directors of central intelligence.

Poetry Winner:

Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005, by Robert Hass

The poems in this collection-- Robert Hass' first to appear in a decade-- are grounded in the beauty and energy of the physical world, and in the bafflement of the present moment in American culture. This work is breathtakingly immediate, stylistically varied, redemptive, and wise.

Young People's Literature Winner:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Based on the author's own experiences, this Young Adult novel chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy attempting to break away from the life he was destined to live.

Try out our new Early Literacy Station!

Perrot is now the proud owner of an AWE Early Literacy Station! This PC has been specially configured to run 34 different games and activities in seven different curricula. Kids-- toddlers through second-graders-- will enjoy learning on their own at the ELS. They can even print to the ELS's dedicated color printer! Come on in today and give it a try.