The Second Floor Librarians

In an age where examples of scandal and ludicrously bad behavior hit the mainstream through the delivery of a poorly planned tweet, it seems easy to concede that etiquette has gone the way of the typewriter. Headed into the annual minefield that my partner and I refer to as wedding season, I picked up the [...]

Here at the library we are absolutely thrilled that Joyce Carol Oates is coming to Corvallis!  If you haven’t heard yet, Oregon State University is awarding Oates the first ever Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement; a prize that comes with prestige, sure, but also a whopping $20,000.  OSU is hosting a public discussion and [...]

As an amateur vegetable gardener with all of my experience gardening in Texas, starting a garden here in Corvallis is like gardening in a different world.  There the soil was rocky and sandy and the weather so dry that watering was a major issue.  Here I’ve discovered that the soil in my yard is clay [...]

All this crazy, cold weather has me confused.  Is it March or is it mid-winter?  In any event, I’m ready for a little springtime.  Although we usually think of light reads as great for the beach, what I’m thinking about right now are some books that that put me in a sunnier state of mind [...]

Gluten-free or gluten-light living seems to be a trending topic that isn’t going to the archives of diet history anytime soon. Living in a divided household (one gluten-free eater & one gluten-lover), I have developed an interest in making gluten-free work for both palates. On the shelves of the library you can find many tools [...]

In honor of February being the Valentine month, I was going to come up with a list of quirky books about love.  But that’s not exactly how this short list turned out.  Instead, I decided to share with you five titles about passionate engagement in life and fate, or things that happen to you that [...]

I’m reading the slow-to-start, but deeply engrossing new magnum opus by the famed Haruki Murakami titled 1Q84.  This dark and bizarre novel is supposedly loosely related to George Orwell’s 1984.  Having not read the Orwell classic, I delayed my anticipation to devour the new  novel until I could read it.

Click on the picture at left to get to Booklist’s Top 10 Crafts & Gardening books of the year.  Want other hand picked titles and well-written book reviews?

I asked some of the Adult Services Librarians to share their favorite books from 2011.  The list that follows is an interesting and eclectic mix of fiction and non-fiction and includes some titles that are new to me and maybe to you as well.  Happy reading!

Just recently I watched my dad coach his high school soccer team to their second state championship.  After giving their all through 110 minutes of regulation and overtime, the team persevered and narrowly won the gold in penalty kicks. It capped off an amazing season, filled with highs and lows, excitement and sports drama. And [...]