New York Times Best Sellers

Here's this week's best selling books, according to the New York Times, that we have available in your Library. We print this list every week - look for it next to the New Books Section.

FICTION

THE SEARCH, by Nora Roberts. The only survivor of a serial killer has found peace in the Pacific Northwest, but her life is shaken by the appearance of a new man and a copycat murderer.

THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, by Stieg Larsson. The third volume of a trilogy about a Swedish hacker and a journalist. Excerpt

PRIVATE, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. The head of an investigation company pursues the murderer of his best friend’s wife.

SIZZLING SIXTEEN, by Janet Evanovich. The bounty hunter Stephanie Plum comes to the aid of a cousin with gambling debts.

THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett. A young white woman and two black maids in 1960s ¬Mississippi.

THE PASSAGE, by Justin Cronin. More than a hundred years in the future, a small group resists the vampires who have taken over North America. Excerpt

FOREIGN INFLUENCE, by Brad Thor. The covert operative Scott Harvath joins a new spy agency and investigates a bombing in Rome that killed American students.

THE LION, by Nelson DeMille. John Corey, now a federal agent, pursues a Libyan terrorist.

THE ISLAND, by Elin Hilderbrand. A woman, her daughters and her sister take refuge from life’s complications on a tiny island near Nantucket, but their time there is far from quiet.

THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET, by David Mitchell. Forbidden love in Edo-era Japan. Excerpt

ICE COLD, by Tess Gerritsen. A group of friends are murdered when they take refuge in a remote abandoned village in Wyoming.

FAMILY TIES, by Danielle Steel. A woman who raised her deceased sister’s three children must juggle their needs, her business and the new man in her life.

DEAD IN THE FAMILY, by Charlaine Harris. Sookie Stackhouse is exhausted in the aftermath of a Fae war.

UNDEAD AND UNFINISHED, by MaryJanice Davidson. Betsy Taylor, a suburban vampire queen, makes a deal with the Devil that involves traveling to hell with her kid sister.


NONFICTION

OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell. Why some people succeed, from the author of “Blink.” Excerpt

SPOKEN FROM THE HEART, by Laura Bush. A memoir from the former first lady.
THE LAST STAND, by Nathaniel Philbrick. Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Excerpt

FIFTH AVENUE, 5 A.M., by Sam Wasson. The making of the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s" and its cultural influence.

THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS, by Rebecca Skloot. The the story of the woman whose cancer cells were cultured without her permission in 1951. Excerpt

BORN TO RUN, by Christopher McDougall. Secrets of distance running from a Mexican Indian tribe.

FREE Practice Tests and More

You might have noticed public service announcements recently on Mississippi Public Television and Radio about Learn A Test from Learning Express Library. Learn A Test is a valuable service which has grown more comprehensive in scope, offering skill development at every academic level and beyond. Here are just a few of the services offered absolutely FREE, thanks to the Mississippi Library Commission.

Elementary and Middle School Level

• Math Skills Improvement
• Reading Skills Improvement
• High School entrance exams preparation

High School Level

• Math skills improvement
• Reading comprehension skills improvement
• Vocabulary and spelling skills improvement
• Writing and grammar skills improvement
• AP preparation (Advance Placement)
• GED study guides and practice exams

College Level:

• CLEP testing preparation
• Graduate school entrance exams preparation
• Math and reasoning skills improvement
• Reading comprehension skills improvement
• Vocabulary and spelling skills improvement
• Writing and grammar skills improvement
• Technical and career college skills

Careers:

• Practice tests for careers in Electrical, Plumbing, Air Traffic Control, Military Aviation, and more
• Job search and resume writing skills
• Business writing

Skill Building for Adults:

• Math and reasoning skills
• Reading skills improvement
• Writing and grammar skills improvement

Computer Skills

• Adobe Flash and Illustrator courses
• Adobe Photoshop courses
• Corel WordPerfect courses
• Microsoft Access, Excel, Outlook, and Powerpoint courses

All of this PLUS study guides and practice tests for virtually every standardized test out there. Many of the study guides are also available in Spanish. Recently, 24 eBooks have been added including titles to help prepare for careers in Civil Service, Education, Allied Healthcare, and more.

Learn A Test is a free service. To begin your journey, go to Learning Express Library and register. (There is also a link on our website - go to Practice Tests under Resources.) Your user name can be your library card number OR our library code (090) plus your phone number without the "1" or dashes. Then you will create your password. Once you are registered, you can choose what areas you would like to work on, and your work may be saved and returned to when you log in again. You work at your own pace, and correction and guidance is offered all along the way. If you encounter any difficulty logging in, call the Library for assistance (601.445.8862.)

Learn A Test can open up an unlimited world of learning and achievement!

Water Your Mind - Grownup Summer Fun

Why should kids have all the fun making a splash at the Library this summer? We have some things in mind that should give grownups that great feeling of summer vacation reading.




Scrapbooking Group

If you've been curious about scrapbooking or even are a long time scrapbooker, join us on Saturday mornings from 10 am -12 noon for our summer scrapbooking group. If you're working on a project, bring it along. The Library also has some helpful books on scrapbooking and card making.

Book give-away

We're giving away some nice hardback new releases this summer as a reward for grownups reading. For each book read, enter a slip into a weekly drawing. We'll give away two books each week through July 15.

Book Review bulletin board

If you've recently read something you thought was particularly wonderful, we'd love to have you write a short review to post on our Water Your Mind bulletin board. Take a few minutes and read some of the reviews - you might discover a new author to love.

Have suggestions for other fun activities? Would you like to form a discussion group for mystery lovers? How about a rose growers group? Questions? Call your Library at 601 445 8862.

Teen Summer Library Program

This year the Teen Summer Library program theme is Make Waves @ Your Library. This summer we are doing more than making waves and reading books. During the month of June teens who sign up for the program will have an opportunity to particpate in the designing of the new Teen Zone space. We will be meeting every Wednesday from June 9-30 from 3:00 to 4:30 pm. We will discuss paint colors, furniture choices, wii games , board games, books, and magazines. If you're a local teen in grades 7-12, you're invited to sign up and participate, and if you bring a friend you get an extra chance for the raffle.

If you're not into room design, have no fear. We will still be doing crafts, playing games, discussing the latest books, and raffling off prizes. On June 16, we will have a special guest from the County Extension Service to talk about healthy eating through hands on activities and of course, there will be FOOD!

So if this sounds like fun and you haven't signed up yet, call the library for more information.

New Teen Room

It’s that time of year again – registration for the Summer Library Program is underway. The theme for this year’s program for children is Make a Splash – Read!

The Teen theme is Make Waves @ Your Library.




We are looking for a few good surfers to ride a really BIG wave – our new Teen Room! We have written a grant, which if funded, will furnish our room with all kinds of stuff: a Wii, games, a big-screen TV, comfy furniture, craft supplies, storage …. (the list goes on!). We hope to know by the end of this month if our grant (a Library Services and Technology Act grant administered through the Mississippi Library Commission) request is approved.

If our grant is funded, we'll need your help to design the new Teen room and to develop a new Teen program to go with it. We want this room to be a hangout for the teens of our community – for them to have a safe place to come, have fun, interact with other teens, study, and read – to find out that the Library is much more than a place to come when they have a school project to research or complete. We want this room to reflect the needs and wishes of our teens. What better way than to just ask? We have some ideas, but we want to know what the teens and the community think. Please email our Teen Librarian or call her at 601.445.8862 and let her know your ideas.

Check out the Teen section of our website for more information on the Teen Room and the Teen Summer Library Program.

Make a Splash-READ!

Parents, are you looking for things for your children to do during the summer? Hurry on down to your Library and sign up for the FREE Summer Library Program. Our theme this year is  Make a Splash –READ! . The children will explore the world of water through presentations, stories, songs, and other activities about oceans, rivers, lakes, pools, and the creatures that live there.

At the Armstrong Library in Natchez, children in grades 1 through 6 have their program on Tuesdays, June 8 through 29. There are two programs each day - one is 10 - 11:30 am, and the other is from 2 - 3:30 pm. PreK and Kindergarten children have their program on Wednesdays from 10 - 10:30.

In Wilkinson County, the program is on Tuesdays at the Centerville Library and Wednesdays at the Woodville Library - both from 2 - 3:30 pm.

Children who participate will maintain or improve their reading skills and enjoy a fun filled series of programs, which will help them develop the library habit. The goals of our program are to encourage our children to keep reading during the summer and to introduce them to the public library as a place for lifelong learning.

We want the children to be summer readers. The ability to read and enjoy reading is an important factor in the success of our children.

You can go to our website for more details and to download a registration form and agenda.

How Libraries Stack Up

In the United States, we go to libraries to find jobs, create new careers and help grow our small businesses. We borrow books, magazines, music, and movies. We learn to use the latest technology. We get tools and information needed to reenter the workforce. We get our questions answered, engage in civic activities, meet with friends and co-workers, and improve our skills at one of the 16,600 U.S. public libraries. Every day our public libraries deliver millions of dollars in resources and support that meet the critical needs of our communities.

Here are a few ways that our public libraries stack up:

Every day 300,000 Americans get job seeking help at their public library.

Most public libraries provide free wireless Internet access for their users. Nearly 12,000 now offer free Wi-Fi. That's more than Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, or Borders.

2.8 million times every month business owners and employees use resources at public libraries to support their small businesses.

Library cards are about as prevalent as credit cards. Two-thirds of American's have a library card. For many young people, the first card in their wallet is a library card.

More libraries - 5,400 - offer technology training classes than there are computer training businesses in the U.S. Every day, 14,700 people attend free library computer classes, a retail value of $2.2 million. That's $629 million worth of computer classes annually (based on 286 business days per year).

Every day, Americans borrow 2.1 million DVDs from libraries, and we spend over $22 million for DVD rentals at outlets like Netflix and RedBox vending machines.

Americans turn to libraries when searching for new jobs. Both public libraries and One Stop Career Centers provide career counseling resources, resume assistance, and help in filling out online applications.

More public libraries offer free meeting rooms than there are conference centers, convention facilities, and auditoriums combined.

Every year, Americans visit the library more often then we go to the movies and six times more often than we attend live sporting events (includes professional and NACA football, baseball, basketball, and hockey).

U.S. public libraries circulate as many materials every day as FedEx ships packages worldwide.

Libraries are at the heart of our communities, a resource for people of any age to find what we need to help improve our quality of life.

Save some money - visit your Library!