Preserving the environment is paramount to me. I’m in my fifth year of driving a hybrid; you’ll find me singing the praises of ceiling fans over central A/C; and I’ve jumped wholeheartedly on the "eating local" bandwagon. But my commitment PALES in comparison to what Barbara Kingsolver has accomplished. Wanting to make a major life change, the well-known author moved her family from her beloved but parched Arizona to the lush farm land of Virginia. In a relatively short time, she, her husband, and two daughters planted an extensive garden, began raising chickens and turkeys, baked their own bread in an outdoor oven, and even delved into cheese making.

The first time I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life I was so enamored with the "laugh out loud" anecdotes, as well as the plethora of facts, that I would spontaneously spout passages to anyone unlucky enough to be in my vicinity. Because of my upcoming discussion, I needed to reread the book. With a desk full of exciting titles waiting, I wasn’t looking forward to the second time around. Surprise - I was equally enthralled!

"Each food item in a typical U.S. meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles."

"If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week."

"Modern U.S. consumers now get to taste less than 1% of the vegetable varieties that were grown here a century ago."

These are just three of the mind-boggling statistics that jump start you into thinking how you, as an individual, can affect our planet’s future.

If you get a library copy of the book and it’s dog-eared, it was probably mine and I apologize in advance. I finally broke down and bought my own copy! By turns hilarious and (statistically speaking) heartbreaking, you will agree that Kingsolver’s writing is too good to not share with family, friends, coworkers, and even the occasional stranger.

Join us for two upcoming programs concerning sustainable agriculture at Ellicott City’s Miller Branch. The Monday Night Book Club will meet at 7:00 pm on September 8 to discuss Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. And on September 22 at 7:00 pm, Joan Norman, owner of One Straw Farm - the largest organic vegetable farm in Maryland - will present how "eating local" is a win-win proposition. Register online beginning Sept. 8 or by calling 410.313.1950.

Fritzi Newton - Miller Branch

The Closer is one of those crime dramas that has both dynamic characters played by an impressive cast and interesting cases that will keep you hooked.

Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, played by Golden Globe winner Kyra Sedgwick, has a personality as strong as her southern accent. Tough, tenacious, and strong-willed (except where sweets are concerned), Brenda battles not only the crime in Los Angeles, but the chaos in her own life and squad. The leading member of LA’s Priority Homicide Division (PHD), she is what is known as "a closer"- the person who tries to get a confession from a suspect.

Considered an outsider by the Los Angeles police department, Brenda faces a doubting police force, unsupportive co-workers, and her drama-filled personal life. Yet her commitment to solving crimes shines through in every episode and makes this series a must-see.

Elizabeth Furr - Central Library

Stand-up comedienne Rita Rudner’s newest book, I Still Have It.,..I Just Can’t Remember Where I Put It, is a laugh-out-loud, light-hearted look at life as a fifty-something. She offers short, snappy pieces about the indignities of aging, but also includes some hilarious vignettes on other subjects such as electronics, fashion, raising children, buying a home in Vegas, losing a home in Vegas, etc. She has a soft-voiced delivery when she does her stand-up routines, and if you have ever watched her HBO or PBS specials, you will hear this unique delivery in her writing.

Each chapter begins with a quick witticism. This was my favorite because I so closely identify with it:

“I bought a new wrinkle cream. If you use it once a day, you look younger in a month. Twice a day, you look younger in two weeks. I ate it.”

Eve Olsen – Central Library

Singer Aimee Mann has come a long way from her new wave hair days with ‘Til Tuesday and their monster 80s hit, "Voices Carry."  Here in the 21st century you’ll find that while she’s a lot less angry,  she more than makes up for it in sadness. The reviews for her new album (what exactly do you call it, by the way?) are overwhelmingly positive and why not? Her voice is both completely natural and unnervingly dispassionate, much like Karen Carpenter’s, the 70s vocalist she’s been compared to more than once in her solo career.

Anyone familiar with Mann’s deceptively lightweight sounds on "Bachelor No. 2" and "Lost in Space" will appreciate how the title @#%&*! Smilers is a sly wink at those who dare to question her never-ending parade of somber songs. On the most haunting of the tracks, "True Believer," you can’t help but wonder if emotional heartache is best served by detachment until it hits you that detachment IS the price you pay for a broken heart. My favorite verse goes: "really when you come into the room it’s not helping me"…that hits a little too close to how it feels when you’re trying to get over someone and you thought you’d never have to see them again, but then you do. Love’s really all just a complicated mess sometimes, isn’t it?

On another stand-out, "Looking for Nothing", Mann sings with swaggering indifference:

Oh I’m not looking for nothing
Just spend my money and go
I’m not looking for nothing
To put me in the rodeo

And on "31 Today," where the singer wonders what has happened to her life, the apathy continues with lines like "taking shelter in the black cocoon" and the more tell-tale "I pretended that I felt a spark." It may cross your mind that’s it’s just too bleak to listen to an album so jaded by someone so young, but the beauty and peace of Mann’s music is well worth soaking in the sorrow.  The album closes on a relatively (and I stress relatively!) upbeat note with the slightly cute "Ballentines." It sounds a little Beatlesque - think "When I’m 64" - but even a faster beat can’t turn a frown upside down.   

Angie Engles - Savage Branch

What I found most appealing about Annemarie Zimmer, the main character in Riding Lessons, was her plethora of flaws. Her husband is in love with another woman, but truth be told, Annemarie has been a less than wonderful wife. Her teenage daughter is testing every boundary, while Annemarie has an uncanny knack of exacerbating even the smallest problems existing between them.

As a young girl, Annemarie had shown great equestrian promise. Pushed by her parents to the point where she has little life beyond horses, she is virtually guaranteed a spot on the U. S. Olympc team. That is, until her beloved horse falters and Annemarie suffers catastrophic injuries. She eventually recovers, but her horse is put down and Annemarie never rides again.

I know it seems as if I’m giving away the entire plot, but trust me, the above is ancient history. The story actually begins with Annemarie and her daughter returning to her parents’ farm. Her father is suffering from an advanced case of Lou Gehrig’s disease and she agrees to ease her mother’s burden by taking over the business end of the farm. In true Annemarie style, she screws up the bookkeeping and alienates both the staff and the clients.

Can Annemarie turn her life around? Is there love in her future? Can she ever trust another horse to the point where she might consider riding again? If you like your characters far from perfect, check out Sara Gruen’s book for what promises to be a rough ride in the saddle!

Fritzi Newton - Miller Branch

Having a teenager in the house has opened my horizons in many ways, including my entertainment choices. If my son hadn’t asked to watch it, I would probably have foregone the pleasure of watching Hellboy, directed by Guillermo del Toro (who also directed Pan’s Labyrinth, which won Oscars for cinematography and art direction). And surprisingly, it really was a strange pleasure to watch. Hellboy has a comic book feel to it, which makes sense since that’s the medium where the story began. If you liked Nick Cage in Ghost Rider, this one will probably appeal to you. It’s a bit stranger though, with all the occult comings and goings, especially with a peculiarly physically-fit Rasputin as the evil nemesis. Then again, all the characters are a little larger than life, a little too big for their respective cliches. The movie places these extra-large characters in matching settings. Everything seems familiar, but somehow slightly warped. You think you know the story, but aren’t quite sure how someone named Hellboy gets to be the good guy.

Hellboy, complete with horns, tail, and bright red skin, was brought to our world from another during a Nazi attempt to find the ultimate weapon. He was raised, though, in an American research institute and has become a crime-fighting hero and something of a loose cannon. Hellboy is not exactly someone you’d call a team player. His friends include the wise professor who raised him, the fresh-faced, all-American FBI agent assigned to him, his long-lost girlfriend who’s a firestarter, and the fish-guy friend who can read minds and objects. Hellboy goes by the nickname Red, and the fish-guy (Abe) goes by Blue. The one-liners and visual jokes provide additional enjoyment, but you need to pay attention. There’s a great scene where Hellboy eats milk and cookies while getting romantic advice from a 9-year-old.

Sixty years after Hellboy is found, the bad guys are ready to destroy the world again. Rasputin is raised from the undead, monsters are set loose on the city, and Hellboy and friends ride to the rescue. It’s a lot of (rather gruesome) fun to watch Hellboy put a stop to their dastardly plans. The movie is rated PG-13, mostly for the action-movie violence. If you don’t do well with multiple monster fight scenes, you might skip this one. I’m glad my teenager convinced me to watch the movie - both for the opportunity to spend time together and for the chance to escape into a pretty good action flick. We’re looking forward to seeing Hellboy II next, now showing in theaters near you.

Kristen Blount - Administration Office

I first saw a preview of Show & Tell: Exploring the Fine Art of Children’s Book Illustration by Dilys Evans last winter at the American Library Association conference, and have been waiting for the finished results for months. The wait was well worth it.

Dilys Evans walks us through a gallery of twelve major artists, exploring samples of their work in depth and enriching our experience with how the artists’ lives impact their work. I have been privileged to work with some talented trained artists at Howard County Library; however, my knowledge is more of the "I know what I like when I see it" variety. The opportunity to understand why a piece of art is so effective, learn the vocabulary, and indulge myself in picture books all at the same time is heaven. Like another of my favorite docents Sister Wendy, Dilys Evans leads you to a painting, and from this single example broadens your appreciation of the work, the artist, and finally, the style of art.

Swamp Angel by Anne Isaacs is a stunning example of folk art. Paul O. Zelinsky’s choice of medium, oil on wood veneers, captures the spirit of the Tennessee hills.

In her discussion of  the cover art of Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin, Ms. Evans has you hold your finger over a tiny ladybug off to the side. Immediately, the colors become more subdued, the balance of the picture shifts, and you see Harry Bliss’ genius as an artist.

I can rave about Denise Fleming (she even makes her own paper!), Hilary Knight (who doesn’t know Eloise?), and the other marvelous artists in this book, but I will leave you with something to discover. OK, David Wiesner - of course, David Wiesner. And .. enough.…read the book and LOOK at the pictures!

Shirley O’Neill - Administration Office

Author and UK publishing exec. Jane Johnson is the descendant of a woman kidnapped by Barbary pirates in the seventeenth century. Fact, fiction and inspiration converged, resulting in her first novel, The Tenth Gift, which follows the gripping story of a small church parish taken hostage by Moslem corsairs on a Sunday morning in 1625. Their fate is quickly revealed: they have become slave cargo, bound for the ports of North Africa, and almost immediately, each parishioner is evaluated for worth.

Among them is Catherine Anne Tregenna, a spirited needlewoman at a turning point in her young life. A life which almost comes to a quick end when she commits an unwitting offense. Dressed in her favorite green gown, she is brought to the attention of El-Andalusi, the enigmatic captain.

Green, ‘Cat’ soon learns, is the color of sin in the name of Allah, and punishable by death.

Cat though, doesn’t die, but her fate no longer rests in the hands of her Christian God. Out of fear and anger she begins to chronicle her arduous journey into a diminutive, embroidery pattern-book she is never without – a book that finds its way into the hands of Julia Lovat and an alternate storyline set in the present.

Julia, a shop owner of vintage textiles who receives the old pattern-book as a ‘kiss-off’ gift from her married lover, sees in Cat’s detailed entries a chance to shed her sordid life and walk in the footsteps of the past.

The Tenth Gift is sometimes flawed, especially in the awkward shift between centuries, but Johnson’s enthusiasm for the authentic and the sultry more than makes up for it. Spice-scented bazaars, ‘gardens’ of love and fascinating historic detail (between the end of the Crusades and the beginning of the nineteenth century, nearly two million ‘white’ Europeans were abducted to North Africa by pirates and sold as slaves) all meld, promising readers a seductive end-of-summer read.

Aimee Zuccarini - East Columbia Branch

In 1991, My Bloody Valentine released their landmark third album Loveless. With their previous album, Isn’t Anything, My Bloody Valentine explored new ways to play guitar. Loveless, however, shows the Irish band’s daring attempt to completely reinvent guitar sounds. Relying on a heavy use of feedback, white noise, and an extreme amount of effects, My Bloody Valentine created a new genre of music, dubbed "Shoegaze" by fans and British music critics at the time. (Because of the ridiculous amount of effects pedals used by the band, they would rarely move around on stage, instead staring at the myriad of pedals below them. Hence, Shoegaze.)

Loveless is an ethereal album, both luscious and transcendent; often imitated but never duplicated. Dream-like vocals, heavy shimmering guitars, feedback, and pulsating drums encompass the eleven tracks. The first track, "I Only Said", opens the album with a rush of energy. Another highlight is the catchy and beautiful song "Only Shallow", with a hook that sounds as if it was made from a violin on acid. "Sometimes" is one of the album’s strongest songs and actually appears on the soundtrack to the amazing film, Lost in Translation. In fact, it was the Lost in Translation soundtrack that introduced me to My Bloody Valentine. I quickly found as much of their musical catalog as I could.

While I am a fan of everything My Bloody Valentine has produced, Loveless represents the band’s creative and artistic peak. I urge you to give them a chance.

Mike Dwyre - East Columiba

I’ve always been interested in the differences between men and women, so when I saw Norah Vincent’s Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey Into Manhood and Back Again, I thought it sounded fascinating. For 18 months, Vincent decides to discover what life is like as a man, and becomes "Ned." The author undergoes rigorous training to accomplish this, using makeup artists, vocal coaching, and restrictive clothing to meet her goal.

Ned decides to experience a variety of activities: he joins a bowling league, dates women he meets through an online dating service, visits a strip club, checks out life in a monastery, shops for a car, and attends a men’s-only therapy group. Vincent learns a great deal from these adventures. I would recommend this intriguing book for women who want to learn more about the men in their lives, and for men who want to know how women view them.

Jennifer Johnson - Glenwood Branch