Blogs

The movie was, of course, Dr. No, the first in the most enduring and popular film franchise of all time, still going strong today. Although less gadget-crazy than its successors, the first James Bond film established the formula (mysteriously deformed ;but superhuman villain, nifty secret lair, Bond girl in jeopardy, etc.) for much of what was to come. And it was part of a larger upheaval that magical year -- in movies, pop music, politics, and more -- that marks the true beginning of what we mean when we talk about the Sixties.

World War Z: The Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks was published in 2007 and is often cited as one of the best zombie novels of the last ten years. The book is a string of first person accounts of various characters around the world and how they remember the zombie outbreaks and following war. There are testimonies from military personnel, intelligence officials, and regular citizens who try to defeat the zombies.

Carlos Fuentes gave many fascinating interviews and many of them are available to watch online. The library has many titles by and about Carlos Fuentes, in Spanish and English. Here are a few:

As a library volunteer, some of the activities you may be able to help with include: the Summer of Reading program, crafts or gaming activities, or helping to shelve library materials. However, not all branches accept volunteers – check this web page to see if the branches near you have a teen volunteer program. Several branches also have teen advisory boards where you can give the librarians input on library services for those in grades 6-12.

There are fantastic resources online for those who want to learn how to code: I’ve started at Codecademy, which provides a series of self-paced, online tutorials on JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It’s gamified, meaning that you can earn points and badges for completing lessons and projects, brag about it on Facebook or Twitter, and you can compete against friends, should you have any.

Add some depth to your trek by bringing along a field guide or two:

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Director George Romero is the granddaddy of the classic school of slow, creeping, persistent zombies. Although some of his later “Dead” movies are arguably superior in quality, this is the one that started it all. It deserves your undying respect.

If you're itching to see flowers growing in your yard, make it happen! Get a bit messy with Throw & Sow Seed Balls, Wednesday, May 16 at 6 p.m. at the Smiley Branch!

This topic has recently been troubling me because I have gotten several emails from our "System Administrator" informing me that I am over the limit on my mailbox storage, emails that I know are fake.  The problem is, they are written convincingly enough that I'm worried that if people don't know what to look out for, they could be taken in by it. 

Here's the full text of the email that was sent to me:

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.