Showing posts with label Summer Reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Summer Reading. Show all posts

Friday, June 21, 2013

C-SPL's 25 essential summer reads

Fernando Valença via Flickr
It's finally starting to feel like summer (just in time, too!) For those looking for a great summer read - whether you're on vacation or not -  we've picked out 25 of the season's most talked about, best-reviewed books. From family drama to mysterious deaths, and even the immigration experience of supernatural beings, these books can help you relax, keep you awake, make you think or to just escape reality - at least until the season’s over!

Dare Me by Megan Abbott
After a suspicious suicide, the members of a high school cheerleading squad - along with their new, perfectly cool coach - Colette French, are drawn into the investigation.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Separated by their ambitions after falling in love in occupied Nigeria, beautiful Ifemelu experiences triumph and defeat in America while Obinze endures an life as an undocumented immigrant in London.

Ladies' Night by Mary Kay Andrews
Forced to attend court-mandated group therapy after an act of post-divorce rage, rising media star Grace Stanton bonds with three fellow patients who she helps plot pursuits of justice and closure.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Ursula Todd is born on a cold snowy night in 1910 -- twice. As she grows up during the first half of the twentieth century in Britain Ursula dies and is brought back to life again and again.

The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman
Stage designer Egon Loeser leaves early 1930’s Berlin to pursue a disinterested woman and arrives in Los Angeles, where a Caltech physicist is trying to develop a teleportation device.

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
The sole survivor of a time-traveling serial killer—who began his murder spree in Depression-era Chicago—tries to hunt him down in 1989 with help from an ex-homicide reporter.

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
Ten-year-old Zimbabwe native Darling escapes the closed schools and paramilitary police control of her homeland in search of opportunity and freedom with an aunt in America.

No One Could Have Guessed the Weather by Ann-Marie Casey
Forced to give up her posh life and move to a tiny Manhattan apartment when her husband loses his job, Lucy unexpectedly falls in love with her new home and forges close friendships with three women who are also struggling with the disparities between the ambitions of their youth and middle age.

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani 
Exiled to an equestrienne boarding school in the South at the height of the Great Depression for her mysterious role in a family tragedy, strong-willed teen Thea Atwell grapples with painful memories while acclimating to the school's strict environment.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
A modern fantasy about fear, love, magic, and sacrifice is told in this story of a family at the mercy of dark forces, whose only defense is the three women who live on a farm at the end of the lane.

Flora by Gail Godwin
Isolated in a decaying family home while her father performs secret work at the end of World War II, 10-year-old Helen, grieving the losses of her mother and grandmother, bonds with her sensitive young aunt while desperately clinging to the ghosts and stories of her childhood.

May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Holmes
Feeling overshadowed by his more-successful younger brother, Harold is shocked by his brother's violent act that irrevocably changes their lives, placing Harold in the role of father figure to his brother's adolescent children and caregiver to his aging parents. Winner of the 2013 Women’s Prize for Fiction.

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister Pari live with their father and step-mother in the small village of Shadbagh. Their father, Saboor, is constantly in search of work and they struggle together through poverty and brutal winters.

Equilateral by Ken Kalfus
Obsessed by a belief that highly evolved beings exist on Mars, a turn-of-the-century British astronomer gets support for a massive project to build a signal that is undermined by malaria-stricken Egyptian laborers and two women who understand the astronomer more than he realizes

The Last Summer of the Camperdowns by Elizabeth Kelly
A 12-year-old girl keeps silent after witnessing a crime near her home on Cape Cod during the summer of 1972 as her parents struggle with running a political campaign.

TransAtlantic by Colum McCann
A tale spanning 150 years and two continents reimagines the peace efforts of democracy champion Frederick Douglass, Senator George Mitchell and World War I airmen John Alcock and Teddy Brown through the experiences of four generations of women from a matriarchal clan.

The Son by Philipp Meyer
Kidnapped by the Comanche, thirteen-year-old Eli McCullough quickly adapts to Comanche life until the tribe is decimated by Americans, leaving Eli alone in a world where he is neither white nor Indian.

Night Film by Marisha Pessl
When the daughter of a notorious film director is found dead in New York, an apparent suicide, investigative reporter Scott McGrath throws himself back into a story that almost ended his career.

The Other Typist by Susan Rindell
Working as a typist for the NYC Police Department in 1923, Rose Baker documents confessions of harrowing crimes and struggles with changing gender roles and searching for companionship before becoming obsessed with a glamorous newcomer.

The Peripatetic Coffin by Ethan Rutherford
Eight short stories focus on reality as it is known and as it could be and star characters who are confronted with, and battle against, the limitations of their lives.

Big Brother by Lionel Shriver
When her overweight brother - a once slim, hip New York jazz pianist -comes for a visit, Pandora, for whom love equals food, is forced to choose between her exercise fanatic husband and her brother, who desperately needs her support to lose weight.

The Silver Star by Jeanette Walls
Abandoned by their mother, Bean and her older sister, Liz, are sent to live in the decaying antebellum mansion of their widowed uncle, where they learn the truth about their parents and an increasingly withdrawn Liz has a life-shattering experience.

The Love Song of Johnny Valentine by Teddy Wayne
A satirical tale that follows preadolescent pop idol Jonny Valentine, who hides the bitterness and innocence of a child who feels manufactured by his Los Angeles label and hard-partying manager mother.

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Tells the story of two supernatural creatures, Chava, a golem brought to life by a disgraced rabbi, and Ahmad, a jinni made of fire, who form an unlikely friendship on the streets of New York until a fateful choice changes everything.

A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
Returning to the idyllic Rhode Island oceanfront for the summer of 1938, socialite Lily Dane is devastated by the appearances of her newly married ex-fiancé and former best friend, who reintroduce her to an alluring acquaintance from her college years at the same time she realizes that her ties to her ex remain impossible to ignore.


Stop by the Recommendations Desk on First Floor for even more reading recommendations! And don’t forget to sign up for our Adult Summer Reading Program!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Swimming World Magazine is July's Magazine of the Month

The Summer Olympics start at the end of this month, with the opening ceremony on July 27th, which means a renewed popularity for track and field, gymnastics, and swimming.

You can keep up to date on all the preparations and excitement of the London Olympics on the official website:
www.london2012.com

In honor of Olympic Fever, we've selected Swimming World Magazine as our Magazine of the Month. Swimming World Magazine has been in publication since 1960, and on their website you can browse a collection of all their cover images, as well as current articles, videos, and more

Michael Phelps is probably the most recognized name in swimming today, and he'll be trying for a spot on the 2012 Team, along with Dara Torres, Janet Evans, Amanda Weir, and dozens of other hopefuls. Because the Olympic Swim Team Trials are in progress, you'll want to check the results at USA Swimming to see if your favorites have made the cut

Carnegie-Stout also has a number of books on swimming that you might want to check out. From books for the competetive swimmer to books on swimming throughout life, from infancy to retirement.

And I can't write about swimming without mentioning Ben Lecomte and his ongoing quest to swim across the Pacific Ocean. You can follow his journey through his website: www.thelongestswim.com

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Beat the Heat, 2012

Bondi - Sculptures by the Sea '06 by MLHS
Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year and official start of summer, and we're definitely enjoying summer weather here in Dubuque!

Be sure to remind yourself of how to stay safe and healthy as the temperatures rise by taking a look at the CDC's Extreme Heat guide, as well as these tips from NOAA. And if you've ever wondered how meteorologists determine the Heat Index ("It's 89 today, but feels like 98!"), NOAA explains how they use a formula that accounts for humidity to determine the Heat Index.You can also try your hand at their Heat Index Calculator.

If you're struggling with the costs of keeping your home cool, you might qualify for assistance through Operation: New View or one of these programs.

Swimming is a popular way to beat the heat, and you can take a look at the schedules and fees for the Dubuque Community Pools on the city's website. The Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce has some information on swimming as well. Safety is also important with swimming, both the Y and the city have information on swimming lessons available in Dubuque.

And finally, don't forget you can come into the library to relax with a good book, check your email, browse our movie and music collections, or just chat with a friend! We've put together a display of books that will help you forget the weather (including books on making ice cream), and don't forget all the fun events and speakers we have scheduled for Adult Summer Reading.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Staff Picks: Audiobooks

Audio Book Concept by dalydose
Whether embarking on a summer road trip, making the daily commute, or just doing chores around the house, the right audiobook can make the hours fly by! Not to mention, June is Audiobook Month. For today's blog post we've gathered together some suggestions from Carnegie-Stout's audiobook collection, including some staff favorites.

You can always stop in to browse or ask at the Recommendations Desk for suggestions, and don't forget our collection of Downloadable Audiobooks (and eBooks too). If you're planning a big road trip for this summer, you might want to submit a Personal Recommendations request!

Janet Evanovich's mystery series featuring bounty hunter Stephanie Plum are a favorite of many staff members. One for the Money, the first book in the series, is narrated by C.J. Critt. Set in New Jersey, the books have a colorful cast of characters and some hot love interests. Amanda says this series "will have you laughing so hard its difficult to see the road."

If you're looking for a laugh, Sharon recommends The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson or anything by Ellen Degeneres. Mr. Bryson's hilarious memoir of growing up in 1950s Iowa would be a good choice for a family with older kids on a long trip, and is available on CD and as a downloadable file. At this time, Carnegie-Stout only owns Ms. Degeneres' latest, Seriously- I'm Kidding, as an audiobook, but we do have a number of other witty comediennes you might want to check out too!

Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy is narrated by Carolyn McCormick (Dr. Elizabeth Olivet on Law and Order), and Sharon and Angie say it's worth the wait for these popular books! Ms. McCormick is also the narrator for James Patterson's popular Women's Murder Club series, and Chelsea Cain's series featuring serial killer Gretchen Lowell. You can search for a favorite narrator in our catalog under Author as Last Name, First Name. Then select CD Audio Book under Item Types on the left.

But of course, sometimes the best narrator is someone you know. Maybe your favorite book hasn't been released as an audiobook, or maybe you enjoy taking turns reading aloud as a family activity. Michelle has fond memories of reading The Tale of Despereaux and The Summer of the Monkeys on family road trips. We invite you to share your favorites in the comments section!


Other Favorite Audiobooks include:
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (Biog)
Blood Red Road by Moira Young (YA)
By Myself and Then Some by Lauren Bacall (Biog)
Echo Park by Michael Connelly (Fiction)
Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith (Biog)
The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Fiction)
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (YA)
I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron (814.54 EPH)
Life by Keith Richards (Biog)
The Magicians by Lev Grossman (Fiction)
Marley and Me by John Grogan (636.752 GRO)
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (Fiction)
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick (Fiction)
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (YA)
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Fiction
Will Grayson, Will Grayson byJohn Green (YA)

Friday, June 1, 2012

Spotlight: Summer Reading

School's out, the pools are open, and the weather is seasonably warm. That means it's time for summer reading! We hope you'll be joining us for our Adult Summer Reading Program events and contests this year.

You can check out the schedule and register for the fun on our website, or stop in in person. (Note: Registration begins on June 4th). The Youth Services department will be offering fun and activities for kids and teens as well.

Whether you prefer a steamy beach read, the comfort of an old favorite, or are planning to tackle some classic literature, Carnegie-Stout has a book for you! If you're not sure what to pick up first, stop by the Recommendations Desk on the first floor or submit a Personal Recommendations request, and we'll help you find the right book.

Right here on the blog we have reading suggestions for Mysteries, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Romance, True Crime, and more.

In addition, everyone from the big publishing houses to Anderson Cooper is putting out a list of must-read titles for the summer. We've put together a short list of links below, but we'd love to know what Dubuquers will be reading this summer. Leave us a comment here, or on our Facebook page.

Photo: Beach Book by Steve & Jemma Copley

Monday, July 25, 2011

"The Rough Guide to First-Time Around the World"

My wonderfully cruel co-worker has started adding me to the hold lists for interesting travel books as they arrive at the library. It's no particular secret that I'm infected with the travel bug, and with a Summer Reading theme like Novel Destinations, it's easy to justify hours spent reading about others' adventures in far off lands.

I don't know if I'll ever be in a position to put a change of clothes in a backpack and head off into the unknown for months or even years. That hasn't stopped me from dreaming or creating fantasy itineraries. You might not think it would be fun to plan out budgets or to decide on the perfect backpackers wardrobe, but The Rough Guide to First-Time Around the World is the perfect fit for my fantasy life as a vagabond. It's not the most detailed or extensive guide, but it's a great starting place, especially for anyone new to backpacking.

And just in case anyone is in need of further inspiration or escape, I'll highlight a few of the travel memoirs available at Carnegie-Stout.

Sand in My Bra and Other Misadventures: funny women write from the road
At less than 200 pages, and with more than 25 contributors (from Sarah Vowell to Ellen Degeneres), this is a great choice for a quick escape. Read about self-acceptance on the beaches of Mexico, wardrobe malfunctions in Muslim countries, or the many other opportunities to confuse and be confused by the intricacies of other languages.

Tales of a Female Nomad
When children's author Rita Golden Gelman is confronted by a divorce and an empty nest, she impulsively sets out for Mexico, starting her decades long journey from home to home around the world.

The Lost Girls: Three friends, four continents, one unconventional detour around the world
Three 20-something career-driven friends decide to leave their New York City lives to spend a year traveling the world. While, at points, I found myself deeply annoyed by the highly privileged authors, in the end, I must admit, I was mostly jealous.

Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik: one woman's solo misadventures across Africa
In 2001, Marie Javins blogged her journey around the world, and this book collects some of her adventures on the African continent. For the 10th anniversary of her trip, Ms. Javins has hit the road once more and you can once again follow along on her blog.

A Year in the World
You might know Frances Mayes from her memoirs about life in Tuscany. This books collects some of her travels to other locations around the Mediterranean.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Road Trip Movies

Are you ready to take a break from your summer reading? How about watching a great road trip movie. Stop by the Recommendations Desk and check out the Road Trip movie display and pick up a list of some of the great road trip movies spanning multiple decades. This is by no means a comprehensive list so feel free to post about your favorite road trip movie on Carnegie-Stout's Facebook page. Check out this You Tube link for the trailer of National Lampoon's Vacation.

We hope that you are enjoying this year's Adult Summer Reading Program, Novel Destinations! Remember for every five books you read this summer, you can be entered into a weekly prize drawing. All passports need to be returned by August 6th so you still have a couple of weeks to get entered into the drawings for the weekly prizes.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

What the heck are these?

Have you seen a selection of bookmarks that look like license plates by the Recommendations desk on the first floor of the library? Did you ask yourself "what the heck are these?" The theme for this year's Adult Summer Reading Program is Novel Destinations. The beauty of reading is that a book can take you anywhere. There is a license plate for each of the 50 states and one for the District of Columbia (Washington D.C.). On the back you will find a selection of fiction novels that take place in that state. So come on by and pick up a license plate bookmark for a state you've never been to but perhaps always wanted to visit.

We hope that you are enjoying Novel Destinations! Remember for every five books you read this summer, you can be entered into a weekly prize drawing. Just stop by the Reference or Recommendations Desk the next time you visit Carnegie-Stout to get signed up. All passports must be returned by August

Friday, July 1, 2011

Beat the Heat

LinkWith a projected high today of 94°F (and the humidity to match), my mind keeps turning to the colder landscapes of the polar regions. That and ice cream!

For anyone else interested in escaping the heat with a bit of narrative travel, I've gathered together a few book suggestions.

The Perfect Scoop: ice creams, sorbets, granitas, and sweet accompaniments (641.862 LEB)

Planet Arctic: life at the top of the world (591.70911 LYN)

Cold: adventures in the world's frozen places (910.911 STR)

Arctic Dreams: imagination and desire in a northern landscape (508.98 LOP)

Polar Obsession (591.70911 NIC)

The Coolest Race on Earth: mud, madmen, glaciers, and grannies at the top of the world (796.4252 HAN)

The Magnetic North: notes from the Arctic circle (910.911 WHE)

Among Penguins: a bird man in Antarctica (598.41 STR)

The Great White Bear: a natural and unnatural history of the polar bear (599.786 MUL)

For practical advice about hot summer weather, check out the CDC's Extreme Heat guide, as well as these tips from NOAA.

The crafty among our readers should click on the picture of ice cubes up top. The photographer created a method for do-it-yourself fake ice cubes (directions included)!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The Modern Armchair Traveler

There are many great ways to travel the world from the comfort of your own home these days. I've gathered together a few links to help you get away this summer!

A book can be an excellent window into another time or place, and two librarians have created a website to match the reader with a destination. BiblioTravel allows you to search by location in addition to more traditional title and author searches. Perfect for readers who've enjoyed our License Plate Bookmarks Display!

I should warn you that it's possible to spend a crazy amount of time at this next link (especially if you've ever been sucked in by Google's Street View feature). 360 Cities offers interactive 360 degree panoramic images from around the world. You can see Grant House in Galena, but there are, as yet, no images from Dubuque.

Many museums around the world offer virtual tours of their collections, including the Louvre, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and the National Gallery of Art.

Or maybe you were among the thousands who watched the Decorah Eagle Cam this spring? Many zoos have live webcams year round! The San Diego Zoo has live cameras for their Pandas, Polar Bears, Elephants, and Apes, as well as videos of other animals (including babies). The Smithsonian National Zoological Park has 18 live webcams for everything from the Cheetas to Microscopic Organisms. The BBC provides an index of webcams available throughout England, which show everything from traffic to giraffes. Also fun is the South Pole Live Cam, though it is down for the Antarctic Winter.

We hope that you are enjoying this year's Adult Summer Reading Program, Novel Destinations! Remember for every five books you read this summer, you can be entered into a weekly prize drawing. Just stop by the Reference or Recommendations Desk the next time you visit Carnegie-Stout to get signed up.

Photos from Flickr users Wonderlane and Sharon Hall Shipp.Link

Monday, June 27, 2011

A Review of Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

One of my favorite characters in Rules of Civility is Fran Pacelli, a five-foot-nine City College dropout from North Jersey who "unsettled the prim at the boardinghouse by wandering the halls without a shirt on and asking loudly if they had any extra booze." Another favorite is Evelyn Ross, a "surprising beauty from the American Midwest." When Evelyn passes out drunk in a New York City alley, the only clue to her identity is the library card the police find in her coat pocket.

A rebellious sort, Evelyn insists on reading Hemingway by "skipping ahead to anywhere but the beginning" because doing so puts "bit characters on equal footing" and "frees the protagonists from the tyranny of their tales." The protagonist in Rules of Civility is twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent—pronounced Kon-TENT, "like the state of being." Bored with her job and attracted to a banker she meets in a jazz club, Katey "embarks on a journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool through the upper echelons of New York society," and inevitably drifts away from interesting bit characters like Fran and Evelyn, the ones I would have liked to read more about.

At one point, Katey recalls an old family story about her father, a deceased Russian-immigrant who used to cook "closed-kitchen eggs" for Katey when she was a girl. According to her uncle, Katey's father burned his remaining Russian currency in a soup pot when he first arrived in New York, even though "the ruble was as widely accepted as the dollar in some neighborhoods." Katey goes on to burn her own currency, so to speak, encouraged by her father's obstinance and her rebellious friends. But since Katey turns out to be so reluctant and cautious, her own awkward path toward self-actualization is not terribly exciting.

Rules of Civility attempts to be "an implicit celebration of happenstance," a recognition of the potential and poetry of "spur of the moment decisions" and "chance encounters." But it's a bit overdone, much in the same way that New York City is explicitly romanticized as the place where these chance encounters are most likely to take place. It's hard to take seriously the character who laments, "The problem with being born in New York is you've got no New York to run away to."

I do like the emphasis on books and authors, though, from Ernest Hemingway to Agatha Christie. The title Rules of Civility is taken from George Washington's schoolboy primer consisting of 110 maxims on everything from table manners to obeying parents, the last and most profound of which is, "Labour to keep alive in your Breast that Little Spark of Celestial fire Called Conscience."

When Katey finds a reprint of Washington's Rules of Civility in the banker Tinker Grey's apartment, she adopts it as sort of a philosophical approach to her own life. This complicates her relationship with Tinker, who relies on Henry David Thoreau's Walden as his guide, a book which thoroughly rejects social conventions. Can young lovers overcome such conflicting literary tastes?

And there are very interesting similarities between Rules of Civility and F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby. Both are set in and around New York between the world wars, and both use first-person narrators who reflect on past events. Both include car accidents and gas stations, old grieving fathers from the Midwest, party crashing at mansions overlooking Long Island Sound, and name changes: James Gatz to Jay Gatsby, Katya to Kate, Teddy to Tinker, and Eve to Evelyn.

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald writes, "The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world."

And in Rules of Civility, Amor Towles writes, "For however inhospitable the wind, from that vantage point Manhattan was simply so beautiful, so elegant, so obviously full of promise—you wanted to approach it for the rest of your life without ever quite arriving."

But in the end, The Great Gatsby immortalizes a fall from civility and grace, while Rules of Civility tries to describe an ascent to it. The Great Gatsby will "gut you like a fish," while Rules of Civility manages "a semblance of rhythm and a surfeit of sincerity."

~Michael May, Adult Services


Rules of Civility: A Novel, debut literary fiction by Amor Towles, will be published on July 26, 2011 by Viking Adult.

This review was based on the digital galley obtained from Penguin Group USA through NetGalley.com at http://netgalley.com/.

Please visit author Amor Towles's website at http://amortowles.com/.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Magazine of the Month: "Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel"

In celebration of Novel Destinations, June's Magazine of the Month is Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel. Budget Travel is a magazine for those of us who don't want to spend thousands of dollars for a vacation published by the company behind Frommer's Travel Guides.

You can check out the magazine's website for travel tips and tricks: http://www.budgettravel.com/

Or the main Frommer's website for more in depth destination information and interactive features: http://www.frommers.com/


Some other wonderful travel (or travel inspired) magazine titles available at Carnegie-Stout are:

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Towel Day

"A towel... is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have."
Make sure to have your towel handy tomorrow, May 25th! Towel Day is the annual celebration of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Trilogy, and this year is perfectly timed to coincide with the start of Adult Summer Reading. Our 2011 theme, Novel Destinations, celebrates the ability of books to transport readers to different times and places. In honor of Towel Day and Novel Destinations, we've compiled a list of Science Fiction titles new and old, classic and acclaimed, guaranteed to show you a whole new world.

Check out some Science Fiction today: Reading Suggestions for Towel Day

As a further celebration, we encourage you to post your very own Vogon Poetry in the comments. The Vogons, if you don't recall, are renowned as the worst poets in the galaxy.

You may also enjoy checking out these links:
http://www.douglasadams.com/
The BBC has an online game based on the Hitchhiker's Guide
The Towel Day Homepage

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Summer Reading 2011, US 20 Journey 2011: A Trip Along America's Longest Road

Tomorrow, Sunday, May 22 from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. in the Aigler Auditorium, poet, publisher and oral memoirist Michael Czarnecki will share photos, stories, poems and prose of his experiences along Route 20, both past and present. In the autumn of 1996 Michael traveled twenty days on America's longest road and wrote a book about his adventures, Twenty Days on Route 20. Now fifteen years later, he is once again driving the length of US 20, this time in the spring. His journey will begin on May 13 and end in Newport, OR on June 8. You can RSVP for US 20 Journey 2011 on our Facebook page.

Carnegie-Stout Public Library’s 2011 Adult Summer Reading Program runs from May 22 to August 5. The theme for the 5th annual reading program for adults will be “Novel Destinations.” A series of programs fostering armchair travel is planned. For more information, please call the Library Reference Desk at 563-589-4225 extension 2224