CDC predicts H1N1 virus to affect 40% of Americans

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is meeting to decide on an approach for inoculating Americans against the H1N1 virus. That comes after the agency projected that the virus could affect up to 40% of the U.S. population. Please see McKnight's for the full article.

Preventative actions from the CDC:

1. Wash hands frequently with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze;

2. Use antibacterial hand sanitizer between hand washing;

3. Do not report to work if you have flu-like symptoms;

4. Get vaccinated when vaccines are available;

5. Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it;

6. Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way. The average human touches his/her face an average of 400 times per day!

7. Try to avoid close contact with sick people. While sick, limit contact with others to keep from infecting them;

8. Visit the CDC website (http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/) to find out what to do if you get sick with the flu and how to care for someone at home who is sick with the flu.

What We're Reading: Teen Urban Fantasy

Orson Scott Card's book Magic Street (2005) is billed on its cover as “the long-awaited contemporary fantasy novel from the best-selling author of Ender’s Game.” I loved Ender’s Game (the first in a classic YA sci fi series), and I also enjoy urban fantasy, so I picked it up. Set in a middle class African American neighborhood in Baldwin Park, the book stars an abandoned baby named Mack Street, dreams that come true (though in weird and sometimes destructive ways), plus Oberon, Titania and Puck (yes, the king, queen and jester of the Fairies), walking around city streets in disguise, making trouble. If you liked American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, this one is exactly right for you!

What We’re Reading: Alice Hoffman

I have been an Alice Hoffman fan for a long time. Since Practical Magic came out in 1995, I can’t say that I have read every one of her books, but there are only a few I have missed. Her early works, like Turtle Moon and Second Nature, were a bit more lighthearted in some ways than her later fare, but the thing I like about her writing, even when she is dealing with dark subjects (spousal abuse in Here On Earth, murder in Blue Diary), is that she keeps her sense of whimsy intact. Hoffman is known as a writer of magical realism, but I find her much more accessible than some of the authors from that genre. The story isn’t about the magic, but the magic is always a part of the story, sometimes directly, but mostly as an added element that charms you through the serious moments, of which there are many. She essays it in such a matter-of-fact way that it seems merely a part of life rather than anything extraordinary. In her new book, The Story Sisters, she keeps these moments to a minimum, but they do pop up. In talking about an unhappy time in the life of the youngest sister, she writes,

“People wondered if Claire had ever fallen in love or walked arm in arm with a friend. She had become a cautionary tale, pitied, whispered about. Some of the older women kept butterfly nets in their shopping bags, ready and able to defend her should a demon happen to appear as she went walking by.”

Hoffman has achieved yet another enthralling read in this book, which is about the lives of three sisters who respond in radically different ways to a secret tragedy that happened to two of them in adolescence. It’s so inadequate to describe the book in this way, for it leaves out all of the intellect and emotion with which Hoffman bewitches you, and her language is, as ever, lyrical and expressive. If you haven’t read this author, try one of the books mentioned here, and see if you become a fan too.

What We're Reading: A Reliable Wife

A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick, has been receiving a lot of positive buzz from independent booksellers. It is set in the ice-covered country roads of Wisconsin, and the plot is perhaps as bleak as the surroundings. Writing a review is difficult because giving away anything in this suspenseful novel seems to be giving away too much. I can say that it involves an older man who takes out an advertisement looking for a reliable wife, and he finds her - but who she is and her reasons for answering is the main mystery. Neither one expects love, but will they find it? At what cost? It's nothing if not a page turner. It's not what one would call a "feel good" book, however, so stay clear if you're looking for a light summer read.

What We're Reading and Doing

Amigurumi World; Seriously Cute Crochet by Ana Paul Rimoli

I like to knit and crochet, but my ambitions usually outpace my abilities—not to mention my patience. Now I’ve found amigurumi. Amigurumi is a Japanese word for small knitted or crocheted animals and other creatures. Amigurumi World; Seriously Cute Crochet, by Ana Paula Rimoli is full of (seriously!) cute things to crochet like a lion, a penguin, an ice cream cone and the octopus I made to add to my collection. Next I’m tackling the baby octopus, which will take even less time to finish.

The patterns use the most basic crochet stitches and since the toys are small (6" or so) they're quick and easy enough to make even for someone with a short attention span like mine. Pull out your most inexpensive yarn or use up your leftover skeins and you’ll have gifts aplenty by next holiday season.

Teens: Big Fat Series

The end of summer, when you don’t quite want school yet but you’re running out of things to occupy your time, is the perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in a big fat series—fantasy, historical fiction, or a combination of the two—and escape to other worlds. Here are a few for you to try:

City of Bones / City of Ashes / City of Glass, by Cassandra Clare: Some say “derivative,” and they are, with echoes from Star Wars, Tolkien, and Buffy; but despite that, these three books about the world of the Shadowhunters, hidden in plain sight in New York City, hold your attention first to last. They have it all—tortured heroes and heroines, doomed romance, a larger-than-life villain, vampires, werewolves and faeries, ambiguous characters who could be friend or foe, sacred vessels and swords, high ideals and dastardly plots.

Gifts / Voices / Powers (Annals of the Western Shore), by Ursula Le Guin: Let me start by saying that if you have never read Le Guin’s Earthsea books (beginning with A Wizard of Earthsea), consider those five novels and a book of short stories included in this listing and go do so at once! (Wizards, princes, high priestesses, true love, DRAGONS.) This new cycle of books is less a traditional epic quest and more a personal odyssey, since each is narrated in the first person by its main character, but it still showcases its author’s talent for creating worlds and the societies that have evolved upon them with simple and spare yet beautiful and timeless language. I don’t know how she does it, but her prose and her characters are always both universal and intensely immediate. (They also have some pretty cool mental abilities.) Le Guin is not to be missed.

Bloody Jack / Curse of the Blue Tattoo / Under the Jolly Roger / In the Belly of the Bloodhound, etc. (Bloody Jack Adventures), by L. M. Meyer: This author may benefit from the fact that his last name is spelled the same as that of the author of Twilight, because the juxtaposition in shelving may cause more teen readers to pick him up. And they should—this is a really fun series. It’s a classic tale—almost a cliché: How many books have been written about either running off to join the circus or running off to become a pirate, with the added fillip of girl disguising herself as a boy to do so? But this one is fresh and engaging, with Mary “Jacky” Faber giving her day-by-day description of all the hazards, both insurmountably large and laughably small, of being a ship’s boy in Her Majesty’s Royal Navy in the eighteenth century. Great historical detail and also good storytelling.

Sorcery and Cecelia, or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot / The Grand Tour / The Mislaid Magician or Ten Years After, by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, are a winning combination of Regency Romance, historical (ish) fiction, and classic fantasy. Cousins Kate and Cecelia keep up a correspondence—one from her first Season in London, the other from her home in the country—that details their experiences with sorcery and enchantment as well as with fashion and romantic intrigue—the best of all worlds!

Remember that there are still two weeks left of Express Yourself!, our Teen Summer Reading Club. For every book you record in your reading log, and also for every book you review, you get a ticket for our weekly drawing—three chances each week to win Jamba Juice gift cards, AMC movie tickets, and more! It’s not too late to sign up…. Happy Summer Reading!

Lĭt / uh / ruh / sē Äw / fĭs

New Words for 2009 !
It is that time of year again—time to unveil the latest new words and senses added to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition and Merriam-Webster Online.

Hardworking word-lovers everywhere can now learn the meaning of the word staycation ("a vacation spent at home or nearby") along with nearly 100 other new words.

Many of the new words address: concerns about the environment (carbon footprint, green collar), government activities (earmark, waterboarding), health and medicine (cardioprotective, locavore, naproxen, neuroprotective), pop culture (docusoap, fan fiction, flash mob, reggaeton), online activities (sock puppet, vlog, webisode), as well as several miscellaneous terms such as haram, memory foam, missalette, and zip line.

A sample:

1. acai
2. carbon footprint
3. cardioprotective
4. earmark
5. fan fiction
6. flash mob:
a group of people summoned (as by e-mail or text message) to a designated location at a specified time to perform an indicated action before dispersing. noun, 1987
7. frenemy
8. goji
9. green-collar
10. haram
11. locavore:
one who eats foods grown locally whenever possible. noun, 2005
12. memory foam
13. missalette
14. naproxen
15. neuroprotective
16. pharmacogenetics
17. physiatry
18. reggaeton
19. shawarma
20. sock puppet
21. staycation
22. vlog
23. waterboarding
24. webisode
25. zip line:
a cable suspended above an incline to which a pulley and harness are attached for a rider. noun, 1984

Read More About a Movie Legend

She was Hollywood's first movie star and the first actress to become an international superstar. One of the leading forces of the film industry in her era, she was the highest paid actress in Hollywood, and the first to have complete control in the production of her films. Her name was Mary Pickford (1892-1979) and this year marks the centennial anniversary of film's pioneering icon. She burst upon the silver screen in a number of 1909 "flickers" and was an immediate hit.

As "America's Sweetheart," Mary Pickford dazzled audiences with the depth of her emotional range, playing comedic and tragic roles with equal brilliance. As the only woman to ever own a major Hollywood studio, Pickford had the fierce business acumen of the wiliest movie mogul. Along with her business partners Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and D.W. Griffith, she founded United Artists studios and produced a string of major hits. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Mary's film career never faltered when silent films gave way to the talkies. In 1929, Pickford won the first Academy Award for an actress in a talkie for Coquette.

If you'd like to read more about this amazing Hollywood legend, the library has many biographies to choose from, including Pickford: the Woman Who Made Hollywood by Eileen Whitfield and Kevin Brownlow's Mary Pickford Rediscovered: Rare Pictures of a Hollywood Legend.

Cari Beauchamp's award-winning biography, Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood, captures an exciting, and often neglected chapter in movie history. It was a time when strong women like Pickford and screenwriter Frances Marion collaborated to produce some of filmdom's first megahits.

Be sure to check the library's DVD holdings for documentaries about this remarkable woman.

Teen Art Contest Deadlines

TEEN ARTISTS:

The deadline for the SNAIL MAIL ART EXCHANGE postcards to be turned in is TOMORROW, JULY 15, by 5 p.m. We will mail it all the next day. So if you haven’t made any mailable artwork yet to send to Borrego Springs Public Library, now is your chance! We received a bunch of mail from San Luis Obispo Library yesterday—the most creative mailed item was an EGG CARTON. Yes, decorated, addressed, and sent through the mail! (All the SLO Library artwork will be displayed at Buena Vista Branch during August.)

Here is the address you must include on your letter, postcard, or whatever…

Borrego Springs Library
500 Palm Canyon Drive
Borrego Springs, CA 92004

We will put on postage.

Also, are you working on an entry for the “Judge A Book By Its Cover” contest? Those are due on THURSDAY, JULY 30—we extended the deadline a bit. Remember, there are first, second and third prizes of Barnes & Noble gift cards, AND the first-place winner will also have his or her artwork on the COVER of the next “Burbank Teens’ Favorite Reads” brochure, to be published this fall!


If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then YOU need to come to the library and sign up for our Teen Summer Reading Club, "Express Yourself," and receive all the details of summer reading, contests and programs. It's not too late, so come on down!

What We're Reading - 3 mystery best sellers!

Looking for some perfect summertime reading? Like your reading a bit on the mysterious side of life? Well then, I've recently read not one, not two, but three recent best sellers that will more than satisfy such cravings.

Scarecrow, by Michael Connelly, is a sequel to his 1996 thriller The Poet. It features newspaper reporter Jack McEvoy, who is about to be laid off from the Los Angeles Times. He decides to go out with a bang by writing the story of his life when he discovers a shadowy, smart, and sinister serial killer who has avoided notice by police agencies. His former lover, FBI Agent Rachel Walling, joins up with McEvoy to try to stop the Scarecrow. Everything you'd want and expect from Connelly. A terrific read--and an added bonus is his take on the declining state of newspapers. [Connelly is a former LA Times reporter].

Cemetery Dance, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, is my first encounter with Special FBI Agent Pendergast. [Thanks, Patrice and Matt, for pushing me to read this series!] Pendergast is billed as the most enigmatic agent in the FBI and I shall not argue. The book opens with a fatal stabbing and the suspect is easily identified by surveillance tape, eye witnesses and evidence. Open and shut case, right? One little problem: The suspect was found dead--drowned in a river--two weeks prior. I was hooked when I read that set-up, since I love seemingly impossible plots and to see how the author(s) will escape from them. Twisty, dark, fast-paced, gripping story and I will have to read more by Preston and Child. (Best read this one in daylight.)

Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich. After the terror and suspense of the first two books, it is time to relax, kick back and laugh with another winning number detailing the usual problems in bounty hunter fare, Stephanie Plum's life. What can one really say about burning cars, horrifying attempts at BBQ by Lula and Grandma Mazur, a dead celebrity chef, romantic intrigue for Stephanie with Joe Morelli vs. Ranger vs. a host of parental blind date set-ups, danger, adventure, Rex the wonder hamster, Mr. Clucky, a neighborhood flasher and plenty of chicken and donuts. Get a napkin, because fifteen is finger lickin' good!

Teens’ Top Ten (again)

Another book from the YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) “Teens’ Top Ten” ballot for this year: The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, Book One), by Patrick Ness. I didn’t start out thinking of this book as science fiction, because although you eventually learn that the story is set on another planet to which colonists have gone in search of religious freedom and the rural life, at first it just seems like a coming of age story with a confused teen boy protagonist named Todd. But the story turns ominous as you learn that: all the women are dead; all the men have been exposed to a germ that makes their thoughts (and those of the surrounding farm animals and indigenous “creachers”) constantly audible to everyone (they call it “The Noise”); and there is a mystery surrounding the town in which the boy lives—to do with his imminent achievement of manhood—that causes his guardians to risk their lives to send him away to safety. As Todd runs, the tension ratchets higher and higher as he learns that most of what he grew up knowing to be true was a lie, and the truth is putting everyone on the planet at risk. The issue of being unable to either shut out the thoughts of others or hide his own gives the chase both an additional hazard and a psychological twist, and the villains are truly terrifying. If you don’t like cliffhangers, then wait until just before the sequel, called The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking, Book Two), is released in September to read this book, so your satisfaction won’t be delayed. (A third book is planned.)

Teens are encouraged to read this and 23 more books during the summer, and to vote at www.ala.org/teenstopten between August 25 and September 15 for their 10 favorites. The winners will be announced during Teen Read Week, October 18-24. Ballots with the complete list of 25 books can be found in the Young Adult sections of all three Burbank Libraries. Happy Summer Reading!

What We're Reading: What I Saw and How I Lied

What I Saw and How I Lied, by Judy Blundell, was nominated as one of the "2009 Best Books for Young Adults" by the American Library Association. World War II is over and 15-year-old Evie lives with her stunning mother, Bev, and her ex-GI stepfather, Joe, in New York. They take a vacation to Florida, where the parents meet another vacationing couple and Evie meets Peter Coleridge, an ex-GI who served with Joe. Evie gets the attention that she yearns for from the charming and handsome 23-year-old Peter, and she falls deeply in love. Soon she discovers that her adoring parents and the adults in her life each hides a secret, and they aren't who she thought. At the end she has to weigh family loyalty over her disappointment and her loss of innocence.

With her main character, Judy Blundell captures the power of first love and the heartbreaking realization of all the things that were misinterpreted.

What We're Reading: Riverbig by Aris Janigian

Riverbig, the sequel to Bloodvine, is published by the Heyday Institute, which specializes in "books that foster an understanding of the history, literature, art, environment, social issues, and culture of California and the West." The story is set in California's Central Valley during the drug wars of the 1960s. It is the tale of Andy Demerjian, who relinquishes his inheritance to the family grape farm to his elder half-brother after their business goes bad. Desperate to support his family, Andy strikes a deal with two entrepreneurs to raise a crop of corn and arranges another venture to farm tomatoes on land rented from a widower with a disturbed daughter. As he struggles with the unpredictability of nature and with the corruption that has permeated even the Fresno Police Department, he finds his redemption in being a good family man and friend and relying on truthfulness.

Novelist and journalist Aris Janigian discussed his latest novel on June 1st at Glendale Public Library, and on July 9th he has a program at Los Angeles Public Library.

Lĭt / uh / ruh / sē Äw / fĭs

Chocolate Day: July 7

There is also:
National Chocolate Day, on October 28th.
World Chocolate Day on September 4th.
. . . and there's always Valentine’s Day and Easter.

Enjoy a chocolate-related book from Cocopedia: fiction, mysteries, picture books, poetry and more !

Check Out a Book @ Burbank Public Library

Resume and Career Management Workshop

Resume and Career Management Workshop

Wednesday, July 15, 20097:30pm – 9:00pm

Burbank Temporary Aid Center
Gary McCormick Conference Room

Learn how to manage your career and spruce up your resume. Brad Bucklin of Career Pro Resumes & Professional Literary Services will teach you how to build a resume to help boost your career search and how to manage your career.

Sponsored by the Burbank Jaycees.

No charge for BTAC clients
Cost for non-Jaycees: $10
Cost for Jaycees: food donations


Please RSVP by Sunday, July 12, 2009 with Jessica Duong at 310-896-6245 or jess_c_5377@hotmail.com or Lindsay Baca at lindsayjayceegal@gmail.com or 323-449-4965 for more information.