Yoga and t'ai chi class resources

With the end of the summer series of the Seldovia Arts Council yoga and t'ai chi classes, instructors Kate Springer and Betsy Scott have left some resources at the library to help class members and other interested members of the public continue with their practice during the winter.

The classes have donated the following items to the library's collection:

• Qigong Beginning Practice dvd (watch a video clip)
• The complete idiot's guide to t'ai chi and qigong / Bill Douglas (includes dvd)
• OM yoga : a guide to daily practice / Cyndi Lee

Kate Springer has also suggested the following list of additional resources for her students:

• Yoga the Iyengar Way / Silva, Mira & Shyam Mehta, forward by BKS Iyengar
  Publisher: Brookvale, N.S.W. :Simon &Schuster, 1990.
  ISBN: 0731800737 : 9780731800735
• The Sivananda companion to yoga : a complete guide to the physical postures, breathing exercises, diet, relaxation, and meditation techniques of yoga / Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center (New York, N.Y.)
  Publisher: NewYork : Simon &Schuster, 2000.
  ISBN: 0684870002 9780684870007
• The complete yoga book : yoga of breathing, yoga of posture, and yoga of meditation / James Hewitt
  Publisher: NewYork : Schocken Books, 1978, ©1977.
  ISBN: 0805236872 : 9780805236873 0805205926 : 9780805205923
• Elise Miller: Intermediate Yoga in Fiji (at netflix)
• Shiva Rea: Creative Core Abs (at netflix) (Anything by Shiva Rea is recommended)
• Power Yoga Total Body with Rodney Yee (advanced) (at netflix)
• Yoga Conditioning for Weight Loss (at netflix)

For class members, the library also has pdf copies of Kate's yoga workout suggestions and her recommented resources list.

8/25: New at the library this week

Books:

• Last breath / Mariah Stewart — As renowned archaeologist Dr. Daria McGowan readies the most important project of her career–a University museum exhibit showcasing the priceless artifacts her great-grandfather unearthed a century earlier in the Middle East–she makes a shocking discovery: many of the most significant pieces have vanished. Panicked, Daria turns to the FBI. (read an exerpt)
• High profile / Robert B. Parker — When the body of controversial talk-show host Walton Weeks is discovered hanging from a tree on the outskirts of Paradise, police chief Jesse Stone finds himself at the center of a highly public case, forcing him to deal with small-minded local officials and national media scrutiny. When another dead body-that of a young woman-is discovered just a few days later, the pressure becomes almost unbearable. (Jesse Stone Series, #6)
• Woodworking classics : skill-building projects for the home woodworker / Woodworker's Journal
• Woodworking favorites : top projects and techniques for your shop and home / Woodworker's Journal
• Woodworking secrets : essential methods and projects for fine-tuning your shop skills / Woodworker's Journal
• The home woodworker : classic projects for your shop and home / Woodworker's Journal
• From start to finish : quality plans and techniques for the home woodworker / Woodworker's Journal
• The complete woodworker : time-tested projects and professional techniques for your shop and home / Woodworker's Journal
• From shop to home : essential projects, tips and techniques for today's home woodworker / Woodworker's Journal
• Olivia Owl's opposites / Maurice Pledger — Maurice Pledger's Olivia Owl teaches children how to identify opposites in this beautifully illustrated board book. Children will delight as they turn each page and learn such things like big and small, long and short. Each page is packed with wonderful drawings of Maurice Pledger's animal friends. (Age Range: For infants or children in preschool)
• Bobby Bear's ABC / Maurice Pledger — Maurice Pledger's lovable Bobby Bear coaxes children to think of a creature for each letter of the alphabet in this colorful board book. Young ones travel from A is for Ant to Z is for Zebra before going Zzzz along with a sleepy Bobby Bear. Children will delight in the wonderful drawings of busy bugs, reptiles, birds, and animals. (Age Range: For infants or children in preschool)
• Billy Bunny's 123 / Maurice Pledger — Maurice Pledger's cuddly Billy Bunny makes counting fun in this delicately illustrated board book. Children count with Billy, finding and adding up the correct number of animals on each page, from one little bunny to ten beautiful butterflies! It's counting at its cutest and most fun! (Age Range: For infants or children in preschool)
• Oscar Otter's colors / Maurice Pledger — Maurice Pledger's lovable Oscar Otter 's Colors will delight children with it's vividly illustrated spreads. This book will captivate children as they turn each page and learn about color in nature. Each page is packed with animal friends and things in nature that are so different yet created in the same color. (Age Range: For infants or children in preschool)
• Justice denied / Judith A. Jance — Seattle investigator J. P. Beaumont is handed a hush–hush special assignment: find out what really happened in the shooting death of an ex–con. At first, everything seems straightforward, but the deeper Beau digs, the more complicated it becomes. The ex–con really had turned over a new leaf and his murder has nothing to do with, say, a drug deal gone bad. Someone targeted DeShawn for death. (read a sample chapter)

8/18: New at the library this week

DVDs:

• Stone cold

Books:

• The secrets of a fire king / Kim Edwards — In this, her first collection of stories-now with three new stories added-she explores the lives of those who exist on the fringes of society: a fire-eater, an American and his Korean war bride, Madame Curie's maid, and others.
• The Visual dictionary of everyday things / Dorling Kindersley Limited — Here is an entirely new kind of dictionary — one that is packed iwth vivid photogrpahs and thousands of names for the components that make up familiar objects. The Visual Dictionary of Everyday Things will give you instant access to the specialist vocabulary used in furniture making, clock making, tailoring, bookbinding, and manufacturing a multitude of everyday objects.
• Eyewitness question & answer book / John Farndon
• Seashore / Steve Parker — Here is an original and exciting new look at the fascinating natural world of the seashore. Stunning real-life photographs of crabs, lobsters, tide pools, fish, seals, seabirds and more offer a unique "eyewitness" view of life on the seashore. (table of contents)
• Crystal & gem / R. F. Symes — Here is a spectacular and informative guide to the amazing world of crystals and gems. Superb color photographs of crystals, jewels and gemstones of every color, size and shape offer a unique "eyewitness" insight into their extraordinary beauty and variety. (table of contents)
• Making things : the handbook of creative discovery / Ann Sayre Wiseman — A compilation of the "best selections" from Making Things and Making Things 2, published in the 1970s, this book has many inspirational quotes, philosophical tidbits, and a wealth of creative ideas.
• The beastly book : 100 of the world's most dangerous creatures / Jeanne K. Hanson
• The adventures of Tom Sawyer / Mark Twain — The adventures of a mischievous young boy and his friends growing up in a Mississippi River town in the nineteenth century.
• The Twits / Roald Dahl — How do you outwit a Twit? Mr. and Mrs. Twit are the smelliest, ugliest people in the world. They hate everything -- except playing mean jokes on each other, catching innocent birds to put in their Bird Pies, and making their caged monkeys, the Muggle-Wumps, stand on their heads all day. But the Muggle-Wumps have had enough. They don't just want out, they want revenge. (Age Range: 9 to 12)
• Esio trot / Roald Dahl — Mr. Hoppy is in love with Mrs. Silver, but her heart belongs to Alfie, her pet tortoise. Mr. Hoppy is too shy to approach Mrs. Silver, until one day he comes up with a brilliant idea to win her heart. If Mr. Hoppy's plan works, Mrs. Silver will certainly fall in love with him. But it's going to take one hundred and forty tortoises, an ancient spell, and a little bit of magic. (Age Range: 8 to 12)
• The Borrowers afloat / Mary Norton — The Borrowers, a family of miniature people, journey down a drain, live briefly in a teakettle, and are swept away in a flood before finding a new home. Sequel to "The Borrowers Afield." (Age Range: 9 to 12)
• The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm / Nancy Farmer — The year is 2194, and Tendai, his brother, and his sister -- the children of Zimbabwei's chief of security -- have escaped from their father's estate to explore the dangerous city of Harare. The Ear, the Eye and the Arm was a Newbery Honor Book, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, an ALA Notable Children's Book, a BCCB Blue Ribbon Book, and received a Golden Kite Award, and a Parents' Choice Award. (Age Range: 7 to 10)
• The family under the bridge / Natalie Carlson — This is the delightfully warm and enjoyable story of an old Parisian named Armand, who relished his solitary life. Children, he said, were like starlings, and one was better off without them. But the children who lived under the bridge recognized a true friend when they met one, even if the friend seemed a trifle unwilling at the start. And it did not take Armand very long to realize that he had gotten himself ready-made family; one that he loved with all his heart, and one for whom he would have to find a better home than the bridge. (Age Range: 7 to 11; read an exerpt)
• The door in the wall / Marguerite De Angeli — Ever since he can remember, Robin, son of Sir John de Bureford, has been told what is expected of him as the son of a nobleman. He must learn the ways of knighthood. But Robin's destiny is changed in one stroke when he falls ill and loses the use of his legs. Fearing a plague, his servants abandon him and Robin is left alone.
• Abel's island / William Steig — Abel's place in his familiar, mouse world has always been secure; he had an allowance from his mother, a comfortable home, and a lovely wife, Amanda. But one stormy August day, furious flood water carry him off and dump him on an uninhabited island. Despite his determination and stubborn resourcefulness--he tried crossing the river with boats and ropes and even on stepping-stones--Abel can't find a way to get back home. (Age Range: 8 to 12)
• Mrs. Frisby and the rats of Nimh / Robert C. O'Brien — Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, is faced with a terrible problem. She must move her family to their summer quarters immediately, or face almost certain death. But her youngest son, Timothy, lies ill with pneumonia and must not be moved. Fortunately, she encounters the rats of NIMH, an extraordinary breed of highly intelligent creatures, who come up with a brilliant solution to her dilemma. And Mrs. Frisby in turn renders them a great service. (Age Range: 9 to 12; on this year's Battle of the Books list)
• No reservations required / Ellen Hart — Twin Cities businessman Ken Loy is the first to die; shot between the eyes during a sunset bike ride. Half an hour later, Bob Fabian, the rich and handsome owner of the Minneapolis Times Register, meets a similar fate. It was a year ago when Loy broadsided the VW Beetle driven by Fabian’s wife, Valerie, killing her instantly. Coincidence? Sleuthing food critic Sophie Greenway doesn’t buy it. (Culinary Mystery Series)
• Call the devil by his oldest name / Sallie Bissell — Haunted by the death of her mother and tortured by the secret that died upon her best friend's lips, assistant district attorney Mary Crow is obsessed with finding the man who holds the key to both those tragedies. (Mary Crow Series, #3; read an exerpt)
• Land of burning heat / Judith Van Gieson — An ancient religion, a family's hidden past, and a modern-day murder confront archivist Claire Reynier in her search for a priceless document. A young woman named Isabel Santos discovers a faded scrap of paper buried for hundreds of years under her family's adobe house. It could be the controversial last words of a Jewish mystic condemned to death by the Inquisition in Mexico City in 1596. (Claire Reynier Series, #4)
• Death angel / Martha Powers — When Kate and Richard Warner's ten-year-old daughter is murdered, the normal world disappears into a nightmare of heartbreak, fear and grief. Kate struggles to keep her own sanity and fight against the rising tide of suspicions. Eventually she realizes that the only way to discover the truth is to join forces with the police, digging through the facts of the crime in order to help bring the murderer to justice.
• Unpaid dues / Barbara Seranella — Munch Mancini is one of those fictional characters who jump off the page and into readers' hearts. Mechanic, limo driver, mom, Munch -- short for Miranda -- has lived a hard life and done it all: sex, drugs, you name it. But now she has her adopted eight-year-old daughter, Asia; she has a house; she has a job she loves. And she has trouble. (Munch Mancini Series, #6; read an exerpt)
• Ordinary heroes / Scott Turow — Stewart Dubinsky knew his father had served in World War II. And he'd been told how David Dubin (as his father had Americanized the name that Stewart later reclaimed) had rescued Stewart's mother from the horror of the Balingen concentration camp. But when he discovers, after his father's death, a packet of wartime letters to a former fiancée, and learns of his father's court-martial and imprisonment, he is plunged into the mystery of his family's secret history and driven to uncover the truth about this enigmatic, distant man who'd always refused to talk about his war.

Special closed hours Tuesday evening, Aug. 14

The library will be closed Tuesday evening, Aug. 14, from 7:30-9:30 pm. It will be open that afternoon as usual, and resume the regular schedule Thursday, Aug. 16.

8/11: New at the library this week

Books:

• Very merry mysteries / Charlotte MacLeod; Margaret Maron; M.C. Beaton — Rest You Merry, by Charlotte Macleod, Corpus Christmas by Margaret Maron, A Highland Christmas by M.C. Beaton
• Sixpence House : lost in a town of books / Paul Collins — Paul Collins and his family abandoned the hills of San Francisco to move to the Welsh countryside-to move, in fact, to the village of Hay-on-Wye, the "Town of Books" that boasts fifteen hundred inhabitants-and forty bookstores. Taking readers into a secluded sanctuary for book lovers, and guiding us through the creation of the author's own first book, Sixpence House becomes a heartfelt and often hilarious meditation on what books mean to us.
• Dead air / Barbara Jean Miller — A politically savvy thriller that gives the reader a real-world glimpse into TV journalism.
• Deceit / Clare Francis — Her husband's tragic death forces Ellen Richmond to cope with matters she'd never had to deal with. And things are even worse than she'd feared. Harry went sailing alone and his yacht mysteriously vanished. Could it have sunk by accident? His business was in bad shape: the police imply that he might have committed suicide. (read a sample chapter)
• Letter from home / Carolyn G. Hart — World-renowned journalist G.G. Gilman does her best not to think of the past. But one day she gets a letter—sent from the small Oklahoma town where she grew up—that brings it all back. Memories of people she had once known and loved dearly—and of the sultry summer when her life changed forever. (read a sample chapter)
• We shall not sleep / Anne Perry — After four long years, peace is finally in sight. But chaplain Joseph Reavley and his sister Judith, an ambulance driver on the Western Front, are more hard pressed than ever. Behind the lines, violence is increasing: soldiers are abusing German prisoners, a nurse has been raped and murdered, and the sinister ideologue called the Peacemaker now threatens to undermine the peace just as he did the war. (World War One Series, #5; read an exerpt)
• The distant echo / Val McDermid — Four in the morning, mid-December, and snow blankets St. Andrews School. Student Alex Gilbery and his three best friends are staggering home from a party when they stumble upon the body of a young woman. Rosie Duff has been raped, stabbed and left for dead in the ancient Pictish cemetery. The only suspects are the four young students stained with her blood.
• Officer of the court: A Novel Of WWII / Bill Mesce — On a remote Scottish island the body of an American officer has washed ashore. Major Harry Voss, a lawyer in the Army's Judge Advocate's office, doesn't hesitate to take the assignment of finding out who killed Lieutenant Armando Grassi, and why. Harry worked with Lieutenant Grassi on the case of a murdered American fighter pilot shot down by his own comrades. That inquiry left good men dead, a woman destroyed, and justice undone. For Harry, this is a chance to right the wrongs of the past. (read an exerpt)
• The coil / Gayle Lynds — Liz Sansborough thought she had left her past behind forever. A former CIA field agent as well as the daughter of perhaps the most notorious Cold War assassin, the man known to the world only as The Carnivore, Liz is now a university professor in Southern California specializing in the psychology of violence. But her dead father's legacy has come back to overtake Liz. (read a sample chapter)
• Midnight in Ruby Bayou / Elizabeth Lowell — Since the breakup of a disappointing love affair, Faith Donovan has poured her heart and soul into making the exquisite artistic jewelry favored by the rich and famous. She needs rubies of the finest quality and to get them, she needs Owen Walker, a man with an intimate knowledge of the ruby trade. The idea of working with Faith makes Owen nervous. He suspects that protecting her and the fabulous wedding necklace commissioned by the Montegeaus, a family descended from smuggles and pirates, will be more dangerous than smuggling rubies out of Afghanistan. (Donovans Series, #4; read an exerpt)
• Still life / Louise Penny — Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montréal and yet a world away. Jane Neal, a long-time resident of Three Pines, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident and nothing more but Gamache smells something foul this holiday season…and is soon certain that Jane died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter. (read a sample chapter)
• The prayer of the night shepherd / Philip Rickman — At Stanner Hall, a Victorian mansion-turned-hotel, Ben Foley, unemployed TV producer, hosts unprofitable murder-mystery weekends and nurtures his dream—to prove that Stanner Hall is the house on which Arthur Conan Doyle based his immortal Baskerville Hall. It's a local tradition that the origins of The Hounds of the Baskervilles lie not in Dartmoor, but in the Herfordshire legend of a black dog foreshadowing death. Young Jane Watkins, whose first weekend job is at the hotel, is intrigued. But Jane's mother, the Reverend Merrily Watkins, Deliverance Consultant to the Diocese of Hereford, is unhappy when she learns how Ben Foley proposes to prove his theory. (Merrily Watkins Series, #6)

8/9: New at the library this week

Videos:

• The pelican brief
• Lightning Jack

Books:

• Dead connection / Alafair Burke — When two young women are murdered on the streets of New York, exactly one year apart, Detective Ellie Hatcher is called up for a special assignment on the homicide task force. The killer has left behind a clue connecting the two cases to First Date, a popular online dating service, and Flann McIlroy, an eccentric, publicity-seeking homicide detective, is convinced that only Ellie can help him pursue his terrifying theory: someone is using the lure of the Internet and the promise of love to launch a killing spree against the women of New York City. (read a sample chapter)
• Harry Potter and the deathly hallows / Joanne Kathleen Rowling — The final volume in the series.
• The grey pilgrim / J. M. Hayes — A strikingly original plot blends unknown bits of real history with imagined incidents to create an unusual thriller. Its base is the last American Indian uprising in Arizona ,occuring in October, 1940. At its core lay a struggle for civil rights. Deputy U.S. Marshall and Spanish Civil War veteran J.D. Fitzpatrick arrives in Tucson, a shell shock case. His job should have been a sinecure, but then the insensitive local BIA agent provokes a gunfight over the draft and riles the Papagos. Fitpatrick is sent to the reservation to arrest the ringleader, Jujul, and his band of renegades, but they have skipped out into the desert. Why should they accept a call for military service from a country that refuses to recognize their citizenship?
• Daddy's girl / Lisa Scottoline — University of Pennsylvania assistant law professor Natalie "Nat" Greco finds herself in way over her head when an unintended visit to a minimum-security prison in nearby Chester County puts her in the middle of a deadly uprising -- and places her at the center of an elaborate plot that involves an incarcerated crime boss and more than a few improbable conspirators. (read an exerpt)
• Epic / Conor Kostick — Generations ago, violence was banned on New Earth. Society is governedand conflicts are resolved in the arena of a fantasy computer game, Epic. Everyone plays. If you win, you have the chance to go to university, get more supplies for your community, and fulfill your dreams; if you lose, your life both in and out of the game is worth nothing.
• Interworld / Neil Gaiman ; Michael Reaves — Joey Harker isn't a hero. In fact, he's the kind of guy who gets lost in his own house. But then one day, Joey gets really lost. He walks straight out of his world and into another dimension. (read a sample chapter)
• The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency / Alexander McCall Smith — The No.1 Ladies´ Detective Agency, located in Gaborone, Botswana, consists of one woman, the engaging Precious Ramotswe. A cross between Kinsey Millhone and Miss Marple, this unlikely heroine specializes in missing husbands, wayward daughters, con men and imposters. When she sets out on the trail of a missing child she is tumbled headlong into some strange situations and not a little danger. Deftly interweaving tragedy and humor to create a memorable tale of human desires and foibles, the book is also an evocative portrait of a distant world. (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series, #1; read a sample chapter)
• Tears of the giraffe / Alexander McCall Smith — Mma Ramotswe faces a new challenge: resolving a mother´s pain for her son who is long lost on the African plains. Mma Ramotswe´s own impending marriage to the most gentlemanly of men, Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, the promotion of Mma´s secretary to the dizzy heights of Assistant Detective, and the arrival of new members to the Matekoni family, all brew up the most humorous and charmingly entertaining of tales. (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series, #2; read an exerpt)
• Morality for beautiful girls / Alexander McCall Smith — Continuing the adventures of Mma. Ramotswe, Morality for Beautiful Girls finds her expanding her business to take in the world of car repair and a beauty pageant. (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series, #3; read a sample chapter)