E-Mail Delivery of Library Notices
Video Games
Playaways
New Acquisitions
New Audio-Visual Acquisitions (now includes CDs)
Readers' Advisory
Atrium Displays
Web Sites of Interest

E-MAIL DELIVERY OF LIBRARY NOTICES

Got E-Mail?

Tired…of waiting for snail mail to learn if your reserved book is ready for you? We now offer e-mail notification for all reserves, overdues, bills and courtesy notices.

Not Sure…if we have your e-mail address? Stop at the Reference Desk to update your account, or go to www.alisweb.org/patroninfo. Or call Reference at 223-6228. We're happy to help you.

Remember…if you opt for e-mail notification, all notices will be e-mailed. Add billalert@baldwinpl.org to your contact list, and check your e-mail account often.

A Note about Snail Mail…patrons without e-mail and Bestseller Club members will continue to receive postcard notices from us. There will be a 30 cent charge for all postcards mailed by the Library, even if the item is not picked up.

VIDEO GAMES

The Library now has video games to lend! We have games for the following platforms: PlayStation2, PlayStation3, XBOX360 and Wii. Games are available in the Children's Room and the Adult Department. Games may only be borrowed on Adult cards, by Baldwin residents. The loan period is 7 days--games may not be renewed. Adult titles include Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS2, PS3, XBOX360 and Wii), Halo 3, The Lord of the Rings Conquest (XBOX360), Madden NFL 09 (XBOX360), Mario Part 8 (Wii). Children's titles include Lego Star Wars (XBOX360), Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii) and Lego Indiana Jones (Wii).

PLAYAWAYS

The Baldwin Public Library is proud to announce the addition of Playaways, the newest technology in audiobooks, to our collection. Playaway is the simplest way to listen to an audio book on the go. It comes preloaded with one book on it. No cassettes or CDs. No downloads. Simply plug in earphones or a car adaptor to Playaway’s universal jack and enjoy! And at a mere 2” x 3 ¼”, the Playaway is the ultimate in lightweight portability. Playaways may be borrowed for 28 days. Look for this new collection of best-selling titles in the Audio Books area. Read more about them here.

NEW ACQUISITIONS

CHECK HERE FOR NEW NON-FICTION ACQUISITIONS OF SPECIAL INTEREST
(THESE TITLES ARE LOCATED IN THE NEW BOOK GALLERY)

We've Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication
by Judith Warner (618.9289 W)

Warner, New York Times columnist, set out to expose what she believed were capricious diagnoses and medication of children's mental and learning disorders. Instead, she fell down the rabbit hole to an alternative reality. Although she found the stereotype of pushy parents who shop for prescriptions or educational accommodations to fit their overscheduled children, Warner's heartbreaking conversations with pediatricians and the parents of children with mental issues such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, serious depression, or bipolar disorders led her to see beyond her prejudices. As Warner passionately writes, appropriate care for childhood mental illness, if possible, is not necessarily probable. The perceived stigma of mental illness, deep-rooted suspicions of the medical and educational establishments, and, above all, merciless economic factors deny a shocking number of children with learning or mental disabilities the care and medications they need to succeed in school and society. Parents, social workers, and educators will find Warner's compelling study troubling but enlightening.

Source: Library Journal

Making Toast
by Roger Rosenblatt (306.8745 R)

Family tragedy is healed by domestic routine in this quiet, tender memoir. When his daughter Amy died suddenly at the age of 38 from an asymptomatic heart condition, journalist and novelist Rosenblatt and his wife moved into her house to help her husband care for their three young children. Not much happens except for the mundane, crucial duties of child care: reading stories, helping with schoolwork, chasing after an indefatigable toddler who is the busiest person I have ever known, making toast to order for finicky kids.

Building on the small events of everyday life, Rosenblatt draws sharply etched portraits of his grandchildren; his stoic, gentle son-in-law; his wife, who feels slightly guilty that she is living her daughter's life; and Amy emerges as a smart, prickly, selfless figure whose significance the author never registered until her death. Rosenblatt avoids the sentimentality that might have weighed down the story; he writes with humor and an engagement with life that makes the occasional flashes of grief all the more telling. The result is a beautiful account of human loss, measured by the steady effort to fill in the void.

Source: Publishers Weekly

The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea
by Philip Hoare (599.5 H)

After reading Moby Dick, author Philip Hoare was so captivated by the subject that he spent years trying to fathom the planet’s most enormous and enigmatic of creatures. Hoare's admitted mania for whales led him to write Leviathan, or the Whale—which was awarded the 2009 Samuel Johnson Prize, Britain’s most prestigious award for nonfiction. The book has finally migrated to this side of the Atlantic under a new title, The Whale.

Hoare is not a scientist, but rather a biographer whose subjects have tended toward highbrow figures like Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde. In approaching cetaceans, the author’s non-scientific background works to great advantage. Similar to Melville, Hoare has captured a wide range of historical and scientific facts about whales, but has chosen to present them through an extremely powerful instrument--the literary imagination. The result is a deeply moving and thought-provoking biography of the planet’s toughest, yet most vulnerable of prehistoric survivors. The Whale takes us well beyond the limits of what we can see, hear or otherwise objectively "know" about whales, and offers a much more vivid sense of their true magnitude.

Source: Amazon.com book description

The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half: The
Strategic Shopping Method Proven to Slash Food and Drugstore Costs
by Stephanie Nelson (640.73 N)

Americans are hungry for bargains these days, but one woman has developed
the ultimate strategy for enjoying a feast of savings. Taking the nation by storm, with appearances ranging from The Oprah Winfrey Show, Today and
Good Morning America, Stephanie Nelson has shown countless women and men how to save thousands of dollars by becoming savvy coupon clippers-without sacrificing nutrition or quality. Now, in The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half, Nelson demonstrates all of the tricks of the trade-beyond coupons and tailor-made for a variety of shopper lifestyles. Whether you're a "busy" shopper and have only a small amount of time each week to devote to finding the best deal; a "rookie" shopper who is ready to put more effort into cutting bills; or a seasoned "varsity" shopper who is looking for new ways to get the deepest discounts possible, this book offers techniques that will make it easy to save money at any level and on any timetable.

Source: Amazon.com book description

Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend
by James S. Hirsch, authorized by Willie Mays (B Mays H)

Willie Mays is arguably the greatest player in baseball history, still revered for the passion he brought to the game. He began as a teenager in the Negro Leagues, became a cult hero in New York, and was the headliner in Major League Baseball's bold expansion to California. With 3,283 hits, 660 home runs, and 338 stolen bases, he was a blend of power, speed, and stylistic bravado that enraptured fans for more than two decades. Now, in the first biography authorized by and written with the cooperation of Willie Mays, James Hirsch reveals the man behind the player.

Willie is perhaps best known for "The Catch"--his breathtaking over-the- shoulder grab in the 1954 World Series. But he was a transcendent figure who received standing ovations in enemy stadiums and who, during the turbulent civil rights era, urged understanding and reconciliation. More than his records, his legacy is defined by the pure joy that he brought to fans and the loving memories that have been passed to future generations so they might know the magic and beauty of the game. With meticulous research, and drawing on interviews with Mays himself as well as with close friends, family, and teammates, Hirsch presents a complex portrait of one of America's most significant cultural icons.

Source: Book jacket description

Crossing The Gates Of Alaska
by Dave Metz (917.9804 M)

This is the story of Dave Metz's death-defying, breathtaking, and passionate journey through the Arctic outback. Driven by his lifetime reverence for the outdoors, Dave, with the help of his two beloved Airedale terrier dogs, embarks on a three-month epic of survival and astonishing determination that rivals the most daring world-class explorations.

Skiing up frozen rivers, enduring bitter nights at twenty below zero, and
staggering across vast reaches of barren tundra and scrub woodlands, Metz's unprecedented 600-mile trek took him to the remotest regions of the untamed North. In frightening and stunning detail, he shows us an unwavering spirit and a compelling sense of adventure that can only be satisfied when truly free.

Source: Book jacket description