Exercising with Equipment

 

Do you have a piece of exercise equipment that you have no idea how to use?  We have DVDs in the library that will give you the inspiration that you need. 

A BOSU (which stands for “both sides utilized”) looks like an exercise ball that has been cut in half.  It has a domed side and a flat side.  It adds instability to your workout so that your core has to work harder to maintain form.  But what do you do with it?  We have a DVD titled “Essential BOSU: Pilates for Sports Training” that will demonstrate exercises you can incorporate into your workout.

If you have a regular exercise ball, you can use it several different ways.  For some ideas, we have “Slim Toning on a Ball” by Karen Voight.  In this 30 minute routine you'll achieve strength without developing bulky muscles with Karen’s new approach to strength and stability training. Some exercises are done sitting on the stability ball, other exercises place the ball in various positions to help you target several muscles at once.

For a different way to strength train, try a kettle bell.  Russian body builders have been using this piece of equipment for hundreds of years.  In the past several years, it has come to the U.S.  A kettle bell is a weighted ball with a handle.  There are several ways that you can use this piece of equipment that will benefit your body in ways that traditional weights cannot.  Angie Miller is a great instructor, and she produced the DVD ”Power Body Kettlebell Boot Camp.”

The last piece of equipment that I will mention here is the step.  Remember the craze in the ‘80’s with the tights and leg warmers?  Thankfully the clothing has been updated, but the step has remained an essential exercise tool.  For the step warrior we have “Advanced Step Challenge 3” by Amy Bento.  This workout is no joke, and is high impact and high intensity.  If a good sweat is what you’re looking for, give this one a try.

Want more ideas?  We have a binder in the fitness DVD area.  It has pictures of DVD covers all over it, and has lists to make your DVD searching easier.  The binder has five sections that are sorted as follows:

· 

Section 1: Call Number

Section 2: Title

Section 3: Keyword

Section 4: Presenter

Section 5: Equipment

The Melchior Marionettes Holiday Show

Families, please join us on Saturday, December 1 for the Holiday Cabaret on Strings.  This puppet show will delight young viewers with stories, singing, dancing, and whimsical holiday cheer!

Two shows are scheduled Saturday, December 1 beginning at 11:00 AM or 3:00 PM.  Please register so that you are guaranteed a seat for this spectacular show.

NaNoWriMo - 6 Days Left

Crazy writers everywhere are churning out words.  Their goal: 50,000 words before November 30th.   That’s the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge and it’s no small feat!  To get an idea of the immensity of the task, visualize yourself tapping out a story on a word processor.  You would need to write 209 words (give or take a few) every hour for 8 hours a day, thirty straight days (no time off for weekends or good behavior.)  Whew!  However, if you think this sounds fun, you might be interested in the following books:   The Glamour of Grammar: a Guide to the Magic and Mystery of Practical English by Roy Peter Clark, How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One by Stanley Fish, and The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall.

"Treasure the Holidays" Saturday, December 1st

Start the holiday season right with music, marionettes, crafts for kids and raffles for adults at the “Treasure the Holidays” Holiday Stroll at the Library on Saturday, December 1st, from 9:30am-5pm. The free trolley will make stops at the Library from 11am-4:30pm on Saturday, where eight decorated trees with corresponding crafts will delight children and teens, and adults may enter raffles to win holiday giveaways at seven of the trees.

The ZUMC Handbell Choir will perform on the first floor from 10-11:30am, and the ZMS Strolling Strings will play from 2-3pm. Be sure to take a peek at the model train display generously provided by Watts Trains.

The Melchior Marionettes will perform “Holiday Cabaret on Strings” at 11am and 3pm...reserve your seats now.

Shop for presents at the Friends of the Library Holiday Boutique, where all proceeds support the Library, and enjoy light complimentary refreshments at the Holly Day Café on the first floor.

Teens: check out the Eye-Spy Wall with a raffle giveaway on the second floor.

Harpist Tom Duncan will play beautiful music on the north side of the second floor from 2-4pm.

We'll see you at the Library on Saturday, December 1st for this family tradition!

Mary Pearson Author Visit Book Winners!

Another big thank you to teen author Mary Pearson!  On Wednesday, November 7, Mary spoke with more than 70 teens about her book The Adoration of Jenna Fox.  Each teen who signed up was given a free copy of the book, which Mary then signed and gave all teens a small gift.  In addition to the awesomeness of a free book signed by the author, free pizza, and more than 30 minutes to ask questions about the writing process, eight lucky teens walked away with something extra special.  By completing a crossword relating to the book The Adoration of Jenna Fox teens earned a chance to win one of three copies of The Fox Inheritance, which is the second book in the trilogy.  Teens also earned a chance to win another one of three copies by completing an author visit evaluation form.  On top of that, two teens who handed in their author visit evaluations were big winners, as they each took home a signed copy of Fox Forever, which is quite possibly the most exciting part of the evening since the book doesn't come out until March of next year.  Several teens asked how they would know who won, so we decided to list all the winners on our blog.

Congratulations to Ryann Bowers, Ella Clayton, Lauren Geletka, Kris Gutierrez, Tori Hanshew, and Brandon Milby who all won copies of The Fox Inheritance, and another congratulations to Sara Bush and Nathan Olesinski who are the only two people likely in the state of Indiana to have signed copies of Fox Forever!

Once again a big thank you to Mary Pearson, our Teen Council who picked Mary to come to the library, and to all of our staff, volunteers, and teens who came to the visit.  Thanks to you, this has been our most popular teen author visit to date.  We will bring another author here in 2014, but in the meantime, keep an eye out for information about a book release party in March 2013 as well as autographed copies of Mary's books as summer reading prizes.

Usborne Book Sale-One Week Only!

It's hard to believe the holidays are right around the corner! 

You can start your shopping in the Youth Services Department of the Library at the first ever Usborne Book Sale, which will last
November 19-25. 

Books make great gifts for all occasions, and you will also be helping the Friends of the Library raise money for upcoming Youth Programming!  

Keep in mind the Library will have special hours Thanksgiving week. 

Listed below are the changes in hours you might want to note. 

  Wed., November 21-Library will close at 5:00 PM

Thurs., November 22-Library Closed

     Fri., November 23-Library Closed

When you take a vacation, make sure your holds do too!

If the book you want to read on the beach hasn’t come in and it’s time to catch your plane, Suspend Your Hold! 
If you have 3 books you’re reading and don’t need another right now, Suspend Your Hold! 

What does this mean, you ask? 
It means you can deactivate your hold request until a future date. Here’s how:

1)  Log in to your online library account from our website using your username and password.  (Haven't set this up yet? Send us an email and we'll get you started!)
2)  Click on the HOLDS tab.
3)  Make sure the box is check marked next to the item you wish to suspend. On the left side of the screen, click on the arrow to the right of Actions for Selected Holds. A drop down menu will appear; choose Suspend, then click GO.

Click on image to enlarge

4)  Click on the Edit button to the right of the suspended item. You will see that the hold is suspended and you can choose the date to reactivate it.  Unless a date is chosen, the hold will be suspended indefinitely.  When finished, click SUBMIT.

Click on image to enlarge

Now, you're set for vacation and you won't miss that book you've been waiting to read!

Short stories are hot!

Take Junot Díaz’s NYT Best Seller This Is How You Lose Her.  Those familiar with Díaz previous fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Drown, will recognize the amorous, masculine, storytelling voice of Yunior, a reckless Dominican immigrant.  In a review for NPR Books, poet Carmen Gimenez Smith speculates that Yunior “might some day rank with Philip Roth’s Nathan Zuckerman or John Updike’s Harry Angstrom as an enduring American literary protagonist who embodies the peculiar struggle men face.”  You can listen to Díaz discuss men, women, and relationships in an interview entitled "Fidelity in Fiction" on Morning Edition.  In addition to the success of his short story collection, Díaz, who teaches at MIT,  was recently named one of 23 MacArthur Fellows for 2012.

Expect a different, yet no less masterful, collection from Canadian octogenarian, Alice Munro.  Munro’s Dear Life: Stories will be released on November 13.  In a pre-publication review, Booklist gives Munro “unreserved praise for the continued wonderment provided by arguably the best short-story writer in English today.”  Munro is the acclaimed author of numerous short story collections, novels and screenplays.   Even if you don’t typically read short stories, you may remember the 2006 movie Away from Her starring Julie Christie, a heartbreaking examination of Alzheimer’s effects on a marriage.  Away from Her was adapted from Munro’s “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” which you can read online in The New Yorker Magazine.

For other great short story collections by Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Dan Chaon, Anton Chekhov, O. Henry and Joyce Carol Oates visit the Library's catalog.

Honoring Military Men and Women with Our Heroes’ Tree

Come to the Youth Services Department to visit Our Heroes’ Tree. Founded by Marlene Lee and Stephanie Pickup, Our Heroes’ Tree is a national initiative to recognize and honor the sacrifices made by the families of current service members, veterans, and deceased service members.


If you have a special service member you would like to recognize, you can create a handmade ornament to display on our Heroes’ Tree at the Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library.   Ornaments can be created with materials from your home, or you can stop by the Youth Services desk and materials will be provided for you.  Ornaments can include pictures, information about years of service, or stories you would like to share about your hero.  Ornaments can reflect your family, and remember you can be as creative as you want! 

Hope for Heroes

The Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library is a drop-off station for Hope for Heroes: Winter Warm-Up for Homeless Veterans, a project of the ESA Kappa Theta Chapter of Zionsville. You can help make winter a little warmer for United States Veterans who are homeless or at-risk.

Donations will be accepted in the Youth Services Department from now through December 16.

Items Requested for male and female Veterans:
Winter-Wear:
Jeans (size 40 and up)
Khaki pants (size 34-40)
Thermal Underwear
Underwear/Undershirts
Socks
Gloves

Personal Care Items:
Toothbrushes & Paste Deodorant
Shaving Supplies
Feminine Care Products

All items should be new.

Veterans Day

Veterans Day is an official federal holiday that we observe on November 11. It marks the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I—hostilities of that war were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11 month in 1918.  Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans living and dead.

There are many books and movies at the library about “the war to end all wars” which was the catch-phrase given to World War I
J.M. Winter’s pictorial review, The Experience of World War I is a gripping chronicle of the war and its aftermath. The photographs and text were well-researched.
    Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August dramatizes August 1914. That month determined the course of the war, and that war “determined the shape of the world in which we live today.” (B. Tuchman)
    A slim volume by Stanley Weintraub is well worth reading, Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce.
    All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque  is a timeless fiction classic of World War I Germany, but speaks to everyone about the horrors of war.
    A fairly new novel, The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller, an historian, demonstrates that surviving a war is not necessarily surviving.  After returning home, Captain John Emmett descends into madness and is sent to a facility where difficult cases of shell shock are treated.  He commits suicide—or does he? His sister  is not sure and decides to find out why four other men in his regiment also died shortly after they came home.  Speller’s moving mystery debut has wide appeal.
    In the mood for a movie about World War I?  Try African Queen, Joyeux Noel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Random Harvest or In Love and War—all worth watching.

Let NoveList Help

Wondering what to read next?  NoveList can help.  NoveList is a reader’s advisory database containing more than 120,000 adult and teen titles that’s FREE to Library cardholders.  NoveList uses literary “appeal factors” (storyline, tone, characters, pace, setting, and more) to generate lists of suggested read-alikes for preferred titles and authors.  Want more information?  Click on a title and read reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal, and Kirkus or link to Goodreads.com for other readers' opinions.  You can even read sample chapters of recently published books like Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and Haruki Murakami's 1Q84.

NoveList has something for everyone.  Readers of Stuart Woods' Stone Barrington mysteries, W. E. B. Griffin's Presidential Agent novels, and other series will find books listed in order with publication dates and plot summaries.  Book club members can peruse hundreds of book discussion guides, and parents will find Lexile levels (for teen books) as well as book reviews from School Library Journal.