Friends of the Lake Benton Public Library

June 6th City Council Meeting

lbfriends — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 03:15:23 +0000

Many thanks to everyone who attended the City Council meeting last night. The Friends and the Library Board members were a strong presence of support for the library. The Mayor noted this at the beginning of the meeting as he thanked everyone for coming, citing that there are usually two people present vs. an entire roomful of people.

Meeting Notes:

The Library Board reviewed a letter sent to the City Council last week, stating that they 1) voted unanimously against the Emporium building (initial cost, ongoing maintenance cost, inefficient use of space, a better use of grant money exists), 2) are still committed to seeking a larger space for the library, and 3) requested to form a joint committee between the City Council and Library Board to work on the issue together. The grant money and low-interest loan are not tied to a particular building, so there is flexibility in what/where it can be used.

The City Council agreed to the committee formation. It was also stated that the Council is waiting for the most recent report from Banner Associates on the Emporium building, which they will review together.

All other details are TBD.

Your donations buy new books for the library

lbfriends — Wed, 18 May 2011 20:45:14 +0000

If you have books, DVDs, CDs or VHS tapes you’d like to get rid of, donating them to the library is a great option. It’s spring cleaning time! Clear the shelves and de-clutter.

The Friends of the Library sell used books and movies throughout the year on our Book Sale Cart and summer always brings the most sales. Sunny weather is coming, so look for the book sale cart on the library’s front sidewalk during library hours.

It is a win-win situation, because all funds made from the Book Sale Cart go directly towards the purchase of brand-new books. The Friends donate 100% of the profits for new library materials.

The Friends’ yearly Sidewalk Book Sale will be in front of the library on May 28^th from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM during the City-wide Rummage Sale. Expect to find a good variety of new and old, hardcover and paperback, fiction and non-fiction.

Prices are very reasonable: $1 for hardcover books, $.50 for softcover books, and $1 for movies.

So please: donate books and movies. Come buy books and movies – lift up your library by bringing brand-spankin’ new books to the shelves. Then finally, read and enjoy the new books. Treasures are lurking around every corner!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

BOOK and FLOWER SALE: Saturday, May 28 – 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM in front of the library. Books are priced $.50 softcover and $1 hardcover unless otherwise marked.
The silk flowers and floral supplies being sold are from the collection of the late Jack Burk, donated to the Friends by Carl and Jo Ann Burk. Prices range from $.25 to $3, depending on size. Bouquets will also be offered for sale.
RUMMAGE SALE: Saturday, May 28 – 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM, with tables set up in the Frontier Pro garage. Household items, clothing, shoes, toys to sell.
BBQ LUNCH: Sunday, June 5 – 10:30 AM – 1:00 PM at the Lake Benton Community Center. Pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, cole slaw, bars, coffee, lemonade. Prices: $6 adults, $3 kids 10 and under.

Family Storybook Time

lbfriends — Wed, 11 May 2011 20:33:55 +0000

by Keith Greer

Hello everyone! I thought I’d write a short bit on what my children, Noah and Zoey, recommend from our local library!

Noah is at the age now where I no longer have to read to him (which quite truthfully saddens me in a way). He is doing a wonderful job of reading on his own though, and he really enjoys reading to his younger sisters!

Noah just recently read Indiana Jones and the Golden Fleece by Pat McGreal. In this installment of one of Indy’s many adventures, we find our hero, accompanied by his newfound companion Omphale, in a stolen German war plane being pursued by the Cult of Hecate, a group of mystics in search of the fabled Golden Fleece!

Indy crash lands the plane in the sea and he and Omphale narrowly escape death! They survive the crash and promptly seek out a library where they find a book that contains a map showing the location of the Golden Fleece.

The rest of the book is one exciting twist after another as Indy and Omphale race against time to find the Fleece before the Cult does, all the while trying to stay out of sight of the police and the Germans!

Noah likes Indiana Jones because “he has really cool adventures!” He also wants me to add that Indy is “really good at his work!” I suspect he thinks the bullwhip is pretty cool too (I know I sure do!)

Zoey’s selection from the library was Disney’s Pinnochio, A Golden Sound Story book. This is one of those children’s books where as you read along, you can press buttons on the side of the book to make sounds to go along with the story!

In the story, Geppetto is a woodcarver in a small Italian village who carves a wooden puppet named Pinnochio. Geppetto is playing with Pinnochio, making him dance about, when he sees a star in the sky and makes a wish for Pinnochio to be a real boy.

The Blue Fairy appears while Geppetto is sleeping and brings Pinnochio to life, though he is still a puppet. The Blue Fairy tells Pinnochio that if he wants to become a real boy, he must prove himself to be brave, truthful, and unselfish and be able to tell right from wrong by listening to his conscience.

Pinnochio does not understand what a conscience is, so the Blue Fairy asks Jiminy Cricket to serve as Pinnochio’s conscience. Geppetto then wakes up and sees that Pinnochio is alive and is overjoyed because he has someone to keep him company!

We all know the rest of the story, and if you don’t I don’t want to ruin it for you! Zoey says that I should leave off here so that people can “go to the library and read it for themselves!”

Zoey’s favorite part of the book is “when the Fairy came and brought Pinnochio to life.” She also likes it when “Pinnochio can talk but he is still wooden.”

There is nothing like watching your children get lost in a fairy tale land of literature, and actually taking a break to use their minds for something other than watching television or playing video games!

Spend some rewarding family time reading with your kids today! It is a great opportunity to bond with the children, and i guarantee you that you’ll enjoy it just as much as they do!

Plus you’re making memories that will last a lifetime!

Upcoming fundraisers

lbfriends — Wed, 04 May 2011 20:41:52 +0000

Our Friends of the Library group is actively working towards raising money for our library. The most recent purchase was the addition of a three-tiered bookshelf for the children’s library, replacing the shelving unit that Mary Nordmeyer so graciously lent to the library for over a year.

All funds raised by the Friends go directly in support of the Lake Benton Library.

BOOK/FLOWER SALE

Saturday, May 28 – 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM in front of the library. Books are priced $.50 softcover and $1 hardcover unless otherwise marked.

The silk flowers and floral supplies being sold are from the collection of the late Jack Burk, donated to the Friends by Carl and Jo Ann Burk. Prices range from $.25 to $3, depending on size

Pre-made bouquets will also be offered for sale.

RUMMAGE SALE

Saturday, May 28 – 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM, with tables set up in the Frontier Pro garage.

Household items, clothing, shoes, toys, and various miscellanies will be available for purchase at rock-bottom prices.

BBQ LUNCH

Sunday, June 5 – 10:30 AM – 1:00 PM at the Lake Benton Community Center. Prices are $6 adults, $3 kids 10 and under. On the menu: pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, and cole slaw, with bars for dessert and lemonade and coffee to drink.

Magazines: Save money and reduce clutter

lbfriends — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 20:49:05 +0000

by Lisa Schardin, Lake Benton Librarian

Are you tired of piles of magazines and the gathering of dust and clutter on your desk, table or bedside? Are you sick of all those subscription notices you get in the mail, some as early as a month or two after your initial order? Do your arms hurt after you lug a pile of magazines to the garbage or recycling? Or are you on a tight budget and have had to give up some of the weekly or monthly periodicals you enjoy? If any of this sounds familiar, good news! The Lake Benton Library has a large variety of magazines available to check out for a week at a time.

With over 35 magazines to choose from, you are sure to find one that fits your interest. We carry most of the popular magazines (featuring home and gardening, woman’s interests, remodeling, nature and entertainment) as well as some specialty magazines (fishing, crafting, cooking, cars, etc..). We also carry the Lake Benton News and the Tyler Tribute. We typically have three months of issues to view or check out. You are able to browse, pick your favorites, take them home and then drop them back off in our convenient drop boxes available 24/7. We take care of the expense, junk mail, clutter and recycling.

In other news, despite the timid arrival of spring, summer is just around the corner and plans are underway for our Summer Reading Program. The theme will be “One World, Many Stories”. Information will soon be available at the library and it will also be shared with the elementary school kids on May 11. Information and a registration form will also be handed out to send home to parents and caregivers that day.

And starting May 25, the library will be open until 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday evenings.

Remember, “Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.” – P.J. O’Rourke.

For current information, be sure to check out our website at www.plumcreeklibrary.net/lakebenton or sign-up for e-mail news at lschardin(at)plumcreeklibrary(dot)net.

Book Recommendation: Shadow Spinner

lbfriends — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 20:37:25 +0000

by Bridget Dinnel

If you enjoyed the story of Arabian Nights, you will almost certainly enjoy this spin-off tale of the story behind the stories! In “Shadow Spinner” we’re told of Marjan, who was hired by the queen to help collect stories to tell the Sultan each night.

Marjan was orphaned and taken in by kind neighbors, who always wondered what would become of a lame orphan, whom no one would want to marry. Everyone was taken by surprise when Marjan was overheard telling stories, and taken to the palace to assist the queen Shahrazad. There she endures the Sultan’s mother’s wicked schemes to protect her son, and has many dangerous adventures sneaking out of the palace to accomplish her mission.

Of course, everything comes right in the end, but this creative book puts a fresh, new twist to the original classic. It is written for juveniles, and makes a wonderful read-aloud for the whole family.

Enjoy the spring and check out the new arrivals at the Lake Benton Library!

New books and a request

lbfriends — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:37:38 +0000

by Lisa Schardin

Lake Benton Librarian

Your library recently got a new shipment of books in. These include some recent releases from best loved authors: Tom Clancy’s Dead or Alive, Fern Michaels Déjà Vu, Debbie Macomber’s Family Affair, Jack Higgins’ The Judas Gate, Patricia Cornwell’s Port Mortuary, James Patterson’s Tick Tock and Dean Kontz’s What the Night Knows.

Also included were: In Too Deep by Jayne Ann Krentz, Marrying Daisy Bellamy by Susan Wiggs, and Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag. Be sure to check out our website for even more recent additions.

Now here’s where the requests comes in.

We get lots of book catalogs and the choices for ordering new books into our library can be endless. Help me narrow down that list by sending an e-mail (lschardin@plumcreeklibrary.net) or stopping by the library and letting me know which recently published books you’re dying to read. And who knows, maybe it’s already available at a Plum Creek Library just down the road and we could order it in for you shortly.

And if you’re interested in getting library news, including a list of new books when they arrive, send me an e-mail to be added to our mailing list.

Book Review: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

lbfriends — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 20:44:36 +0000

by Keith Greer

The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a #1 New York Times Bestseller written by Mitch Albom. I have read one other book by Mitch, titled Tuesdays With Morrie, that I enjoyed immensely, so i decided to give Five People a whirl!

The story opens as we are introduced to Eddie on his 83rd birthday! Eddie works at Ruby Pier making sure that the amusement park rides stay in working order. On this day Eddie is giving instruction to a fellow worker on how to fix one of the rides when a cart from the ride breaks free and plummets to the pier below!

Eddie jumps out of the way of the falling cart and he tries to push a little girl to safety also, but in this act of heroism Eddie does not make it out of the way in time and he is killed by the falling cart.

Eddie makes the journey to heaven and there meets his first person, the Blue Man. The Blue Man informs Eddie that he is going to meet five people in heaven whose lives he has somehow affected. Eddie comes to find that he was indirectly responsible for the Blue Man’s death.

The Blue Man teaches Eddie that events are not random and that lives intersect for a certain reason.

Next Eddie finds himself in a war-torn village during World War II. There he meets his second person in heaven, his former Captain from the war. During WWII it seems that Eddie and his Captain and some other soldiers were taken prisoner, and they end up distracting their captors so that they all might make an escape.

The Captain teaches Eddie the second lesson of sacrifice. Eddie finds out that the Captain died trying to make sure that his men made it out of captivity alive.

Eddie next finds himself on a mountain range peering through the window of a diner. Inside the diner at one of the tables sits Eddie’s father. We learn that one of Eddie’s father’s friends named Mickey Shea had tried to hurt Eddie’s mother, and Eddie’s father had witnessed the act and chased Mickey Shea down the pier.

Mickey falls into the ocean, and Eddie’s father jumps in after him and saves Mickey’s life. Eddie’s father, however, catches pneumonia because of this and the pneumonia eventually kills Eddie’s father. Eddie sees that his father died trying to be loyal to one of his best friends.

Eddie then finds himself wandering through different wedding receptions, where he finally runs into his beloved deceased wife, Marguerite. They talk for awhile, and Marguerite teaches Eddie about the power of love, which is his fourth lesson.

Even though people pass away, their love does not die. Marguerite tells Eddie that she loved him even after her death, and that true love endures forever.

The fifth person that Eddie meets in heaven is Tala, a young asian girl. Tala explains to Eddie that he killed her in a fire. You see, back in WWII in that village in the Philippines, Eddie and his fellow soldiers decided to burn the village down after their escape from their captors. Tala was in one of the huts that caught fire and lost her life.

Eddie washes Tala free from her burns and injuries from the fire, and Tala informs Eddie that his place in life was to be at Ruby Pier keeping the children safe. This is what Eddie was doing when he was killed by the falling amusement park ride.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven has many themes throughout the book: there are no random acts in life, lives are sacrificed to save others, forgiveness and letting go of anger, and the power of love.

The mood of this novel is both somber and yet thoughtful. We learn that Eddie has had many events in his life that are quite tragic, yet at the end of the story we (and Eddie) see the reasoning for the many events in his life!

Mitch Albom is a wonderful writer and his works are a delight to read! Stop into the Lake Benton library and ask for a copy of The Five People You Meet in Heaven today!

Getting to know The Stranger

lbfriends — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 13:22:23 +0000

Keith Greer

Hello everyone!! Well, February has just begun, which means only a couple of more months until Spring!! I think the snow is pretty, but I can’t tell you how glad I’ll be to actually see my yard again!

This month I thought I’d write about a little book that I just read called The Stranger by Albert Camus. Now when I say “little book” I mean that quite literally, considering that the translation that I read is only 123 pages.

That’s right, I said “translation.” The original novel is titled L’Etranger (The Outsider) and was originally published in 1942 in French. There have been three translations, and the third translation by Matthew Ward is the one that I have read.

At the beginning of the novel we are introduced to our main character, Meursault, just as he receives a telegram informing him that his mother has died. The old folks’ home where she was residing is about 80 kilometers from where Meursault lives, and he promptly sets out for that destination.

Meursault attends the wake first, declining to view his mother’s body when asked, and then smokes a cigarette and drinks coffee with the caretaker of the nursing home. Meursault does not cry or show any of the emotion expected of one when a parent or loved one passes.

The burial is the next morning, and Meursault takes the opportunity to describe to the readers’ the others attending the funeral, as well as continuously commenting on the depth of the heat and humidity of the day.

Upon returning home, Meursault happens across Marie, a former employee of the place where he works, and the two strike up a relationship that quickly becomes physical. It seems to have no bearing on the fast-moving relationship that our protagonist just lost his mother.

We learn that Meursault has a neighbor, Raymond Sintes, who has a reputation for “living off of women.” Meursault encounters Raymond in the hallway one afternoon and Raymond invites Meursault into his apartment for wine and blood sausage.

While visiting with Raymond, Meursault learns that Raymond is in search of his advice concerning a young woman who Raymond had been seeing. It seems that Raymond is convinced that she is cheating on him, and Raymond has an idea in mind that he needs Meursault’s help with.

Raymond, we find out, would like to lure the young lady over to his apartment with a well-written and educated letter “with a punch and also some things in it to make her sorry for what she’s done.” Raymond asks Meursault what he thinks of the whole matter, and Meursault replies that he doesn’t think anything either way about it but that it definitely sounds interesting.

Raymond doesn’t think that he has what it takes to write such a letter, so he asks Meursault to write it for him. When Meursault doesn’t reply immediately, Raymond automatically assumes that Meursault will do this and asks him to go ahead and do it while they are visiting together.

It appears that Raymond’s plan works, and later in the week a loud argument between a man and a woman is heard coming from Raymond’s room. The police are called, and the woman in question claims that Raymond hit her. Meursault is asked to come to the police station later and testify on Raymond’s behalf, which Meursault goes along with.

Marie comes by Meursault’s place later and asks him if he’d like to get married. He replies that it doesn’t make any difference to him and that they can do it if she’d like to. Meursault is a pleasant enough guy, but he just seems passive and detached about most things.

Raymond invites Meursault and Marie to a friend’s beach house for the weekend and the two accept his offer. We find out about this time that the girl who Raymond had an altercation with has a brother who just happens to be Arabic and he has some friends and they have been tailing Raymond.

The Arabic brother and a friend of his catch up to the group on the beach later, and there is fight between Raymond and the brother of the young woman. Meursault and Raymond head back to the beach house where Raymond’s wounds from the fight are tended to.

Raymond had been carrying a gun the whole time and Meursault takes this from him, presumably to keep anyone from being hurt by it. Meursault takes off on a walk alone back down the beach.

While on his walk Meursault once again encounters the brother of Raymond’s ex. In a flash of confusion and what appears to be heat stroke, Meursault shoots and kills the young man on the beach.

The second part of the novel is Meursault being tried and imprisoned for his crime. At his trial Meursault’s passivity and detachment work against him and it is seen by the prosecuting attorney to be a lack of remorse.

The attorney concentrates on persecuting Meursault for not crying at his mother’s funeral almost more than he does for the actual crime that Meursault is on trial for! His intent is to paint Meursault as a soulless monster.

I will stop there so as not to ruin the outcome of the story for anyone who might be interested in reading for themselves.

The theme of The Stranger is most often cited as an example of existentialism, but in fact the story explores many different schools of philosophical thought such as absurdism, determinism, nihilism, and stoicism.

Something that I find interesting is that if Meursault would have voiced his remorse over the crime and tried to explain that his lack of tears at the funeral of his mother did not imply an emptiness of emotion on his part, he may have had a positive sway on the outcome of his case. Instead, Meursault is indifferent through it all.

The Stranger is a literary treasure that I would encourage anyone looking for a quick read to give a try. I read this book in about an hour and a half, so it’s ideal for someone on the go or someone who is in search of a story that is not so time-consuming.

Don’t let this thin little book fool you, however. It is full of undiscovered meanings and intricate thought!

Stop into the Lake Benton library and request a copy of The Stranger today! Thanks for reading, and stay warm!

Laurence of Arabia

lbfriends — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:51:37 +0000

by Camryn Dinnel

A few days ago, my family and I watched an old movie called “Laurence of Arabia”. It’s a true story about a British officer who helps Arabia get its independence back from the tyrannical Turks.

Laurence travels with a native Arabian guide through the desert, until the Arab gets shot and he’s on his own. He finally meets some important Arab tribe leaders and somehow, impossibly, gets them to momentarily agree to fight together. They pinpoint the Turks’ railroads, blow them up, seize the train’s goods, and disappear.

Eventually, Laurence’s luck runs out and he gets captured and beaten severely by the Turks. One of his Arab buddies helps him break out of prison, but Laurence is very much changed by the preceding events.

The first half of the movie was good, but unfortunately, it deteriorated in the second part. At first, Laurence was a good guy with a passion for mercy, but then he became a bloodthirsty warrior. Yes, he got what he came for, but he wasn’t a noble hero anymore! War drastically changed Laurence.

Overall, this is a good “historical” movie, but it does have violence and blood in it. The actors were all pretty good, and the costumes were impressive.

Order it in through the library and learn about “Lawrence of Arabia”.