12/23: New at the library this week

DVDs:

The big valley (Season one)

A song for the season

The Christmas shoes

Cricket on the hearth

The original television Christmas classics (Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, Frosty the snowman, Santa Claus is comin' to town)

The retrievers

The Ponderosa: Comes a horse & The lesser of two evils

The Ponderosa: Brother against brother & Treasure

The tangerine bear

Frankie and Hazel

I was a rat

By dawns early light

The treasure seekers

Franklin's magic Christmas

Return to the secret garden

The penny promise

Rigoletto

Escape from Wildcat Canyon

A fariy tale Christmas

Summer of the monkeys

The princess stallion

Pit pony

A family for Joe

Books:

• Runaways : Pride & joy / Brian K. Vaughan — All young people believe their parents are evil … but what if they really are? Meet Alex, Karolina, Gert, Chase, Molly and Nico – whose lives are about to take an unexpected turn. When these six young friends discover their parents are all secretly super-powered villains, the shocked teens find strength in one another. Together, they run away from home and straight into the adventure of their lives – vowing to turn the tables on their evil legacy.
• Runaways : Teenage wasteland / Brian K. Vaughan — (Runaways Series, #2) (Age Range: Young Adult)
• Runaways : Missing: The good die young / Brian K. Vaughan — The world as we know it is about to end and the Runaways are the only hope to prevent it! But if our fledgling teenage heroes are going to succeed, they may have to become just as evil as their villainous parents. The Runaways have learned how their parents' criminal organization began, and now they must decide how it should end. As the Runaways' epic battle against their evil parents reaches its shocking conclusion, the team's mole stands revealed, and blood must be shed. Which kids will still be standing when the smoke finally clears? This is the story that changes everything (seriously!). (Runaways Series, #3) (Age Range: 12 and up)
• Runaways : True believers / Brian K. Vaughan — When a group of teenagers discovers that their parents are actually super-villains, they run away from home... but that's only step one! Now that the evil Pride is gone, nearly every bad guy in the Marvel Universe is trying to fill the power vacuum in Los Angeles, and the Runaways are the only heroes who can stop them! Plus: What does a mysterious new team of young heroes want with the Runaways, and which fan-favorite Marvel characters are part of this group? (Runaways Series, #4) (Age Range: Young Adult)
• Runaways : Escape to New York / Brian K. Vaughan — The team's lineup changes forever in the perfect jumping-on point for the series that Wizard said "could be the most original book to focus on teenaged super heroes since Spider-Man debuted all the way back in 1962!" When a dangerous alien invades Los Angeles, the Runaways' own Karolina Dean may be the only hero in the Marvel Universe who can stop him... but at what cost? (Runaways Series, #5) (Age Range: Young Adult)
• Gifts / Ursula K. Le Guin — When a young man in the Uplands blinds himself rather than use his gift of "unmaking"--a violent talent shared by members of his family--he upsets the precarious balance of power among rival, feuding families, each of which has a strange and deadly talent of its own. (Age Range: Young Adult)
• Voices / Ursula K. Le Guin — Ansul was once a peaceful town filled with libraries, schools, and temples. But that was long ago, and the conquerors of this coastal city consider reading and writing to be acts punishable by death. And they believe the Oracle House, where the last few undestroyed books are hidden, is seething with demons. But to seventeen-year-old Memer, the house is a refuge, a place of family and learning, ritual and memory--the only place where she feels truly safe. (Age Range: Young Adult)
• Nature girl / Carl Hiaasen — Honey Santana-impassioned, willful, possibly bipolar, self-proclaimed "queen of lost causes"-has a scheme to help rid the world of irresponsibility, indifference, and dinnertime sales calls.
• Naked / David Sedaris — Sedaris's message is pay attention to me. Whether he's taking to the road with a thieving quadriplegic, sorting out the fancy from the extra-fancy in a bleak fruit-packing factory, or celebrating Christmas in the company of a recently paroled prostitute, this collection of memoirs creates a wickedly incisive portrait of an all-too-familiar world.
• Three complete novels / Nelson DeMille — (Word of honor, Cathedral, By the rivers of Babylon)
• Our bodies, ourselves : a new edition for a new era / Boston Women's Health Book Collective — Read a sample chapter, Table of contents
• Arctic lace : knitting projects and stories inspired / Donna Druchunas — Qiviut, or musk ox down, is a world-class fiber--luxurious, warm, and lightweight. People who experience it become obsessed. Qiviut makes perfect hand-knitted lace, as demonstrated by the Alaskan artisans of Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers' Co-op. This book presents how-tos for knitting and designing lace, projects suited to new as well as experienced lace knitters, yarn sources, and comprehensive cultural background.
• A photographer's life : 1990-2005 / Annie Leibovitz —"I don't have two lives," Annie Leibovitz writes in the Introduction to this collection of her work from 1990-2005. "This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it."

Oil Spills: resources to follow breaking news online

When events like today's tanker grounding in Cook Inlet happen, you can learn more about what's going on than just waiting for the popular media to get there and you can gain important background that might be left out of media reports by doing some direct research online. Oil spills fall under the purview of a number of agencies. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is the state agency responsible for enforcement actions in the case of spills. On their website, they post regular assessments and updates of ongoing spill responses. They also host the geographic response strategies that are plans specific to Alaskan coastal areas for dealing with active spills. There are specific response plans in place for Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound, the areas from which spills are most likely to affect the Seldovia area, and those GRS can be downloaded from those linked sites. When spills due to shipping occur in Cook Inlet, they are monitored by the Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council; when spills due to shipping occur in Prince William Sound or areas affected by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, such as Kodiak or lower Cook Inlet, they are monitored by the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council. Seldovia is represented on the CIRCAC board of directors by June Reuling; on the PWS RCAC board the Seldovia representative is Steve Lewis. Both representatives are charged with communicating to the city and community any situations in which oil spills might affect our local area. The Seldovia City Office or City Council and Mayor should receive updates from these individuals during active spills, but reports may also be available on the respective organizations' websites as events are followed. Other special interest groups may also post news of ongoing spill situations. Local environmental activists like Cook Inlet Keeper are often involved monitoring oil-related events. If events threaten Kachemak Bay, the Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve may also provide news related to reserve concerns. By visiting the sites of interest groups, a more nuanced picture of the impact of events can sometimes be derived. Lastly, photo repository sites such as flickr often contain images uploaded by participants and spectators as news breaks. Monitoring tags identifying obvious topics, such as oilspill or cookinlet, will give you an early and candid look at unfolding events. Finally, local media sources such as the Homer News, Homer Tribune, Peninsula Clarion and Anchorage Daily News all have online editions that may contain more detailed coverage than national media.