Lazy days are here at last!

Come browse our displays for backyard, lakeside, and beach reading ideas.  One display features vacation reading and listening ideas for all ages.  Another display features "Debut Fiction," first books by new authors who have drawn critical attention.  And, of course, our on-going Summer Reading Club display beckons you to grab a list of suggested readings and enter the weekly drawings for wonderful prizes. 

Lemonade in hand, hammock at ready ... feed your passion for the Great American Pastime during these long summer afternoons by delving into one of these recent baseball biographies.

The Rocket That Fell to Earth: Roger Clemens and the rage for baseball immortality, by Jeff Pearlman.  Clemens is fierce and hard-nosed, one of baseball's best pitchers, but deeply flawed.  The Boston Globe says this book "develops a stark, unsparing picture of Clemens's life that surpasses anything that's come before."

Satchel: the life and times of an American legend, by Larry Tye.  Leroy "Satchel" Paige could have been the star to break baseball's color line but Jackie Robinson got the first crack.  It's taken this long, says Publishers Weekly, to get the definitive biography of this black showman-athlete, one of the finest pitchers ever, who finally was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971.

A-Rod: the many lives of Alex Rodriquez, by Selena Roberts.  Roberts captures one of baseball's greatest players as a tragic figure in pinstripes: the man once considered the clean exception of the steroid generation is revealed as an unmistakable product of its greed and dissolution.

Straw: finding my way, by Darryl Strawberry.  Strawberry was dubbed "The Black Ted Williams," but he faced many personal challenges, including drug use, tax evasion, solicitation, and allegations of domestic violence. Strawberry tells his own story of finding redemption.

Yogi Berra: eternal Yankee, by Allen Barra.  "One of America’s most insightful and precise sports writers artfully separates the myth from the reality of the iconic Yogi," in this gripping biography of the legendary Hall-of-Famer and one of the most quotable figures in American culture. (David Maraniss).  "One of the best baseball books of the year," says Library Journal.

Would you like a chance to win $1,500 toward your child's college education?  Then participate in the "Get Creative @ Saving for College" program offered through the East Lansing Public Library. 

Simply fill out an entry card and return it to the reference desk.  Six contest winners will be chosen from participating libraries throughout the state.

Entries must be postmarked by August 21, 2009 and contest winners will be announced by September 30.  Visit the reference desk for an entry card and visit www.misaves.com/library for more information.

I have a new favorite heroine in children’s literature. Her name is Calpurnia Virginia Tate, or Callie Vee to her family and friends.  You can meet her in the new book The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly.

It is 1899 in Fentress, Texas, and 11 year old Callie Vee is wishing things wouldn’t ever change. She lives with her 6 brothers, mother, father and her mysterious granddaddy, and is happy running through the fields and floating in the river near her home.  She is interested in birds and insects and the natural world, and is surprised to find that her grandfather is a naturalist.  When the town librarian won’t loan her the new book by Charles Darwin. The Origin of Species,  granddaddy gives Callie his copy, and there begins a great friendship between the two.   Chapters also introduce us to Callie’s home life with great descriptions of firefly contests, the coming of the telephone, piano lessons, and a brother who makes a pet of the Thanksgiving turkey.   Gradually Callie realizes that things do change in this year before a brand new century. Her beloved older brother Harry begins courting, a new-fangled invention called the automobile comes to the local fair, and Callie herself begins to be groomed to be a “young lady”.  But she hates knitting and cooking and tatting.  Does she really have to give up her dream of being a scientist?

Summer's here and what better time to think about the health of you and your family?  The Health and Wellness Resource Center database is your one-stop source for quality information.

Find out how to deal with summer's sunburn, mosquito bites, and heat dehydration.  Look up a specific drug and the symptoms it treats.  Or search by symptom and find out what drugs treat those symptoms.  Find a medical term confusing?  Look it up in the dictionary section.  Then stay up to date on health and medical issues in "Topics in the News." 

The Health and Wellness Resource Center is available in the alphabetical list of databases under the Research tab at the top of the page.

For guidelines on evaluating any health information on the internet, check out MedlinePlus: Evaluating Health Information.

Are you interested in checking out downloadable audiobooks from ELPL?  Or do you prefer Books on CD?  Or Playaway?  We need to hear from you.  Fill out this short survey and let our Audiobook Librarian know just what you think.

ELPL is Your Library.  Talk to Us so that we can serve you better.

Do you have a Blu-ray player?  Thinking about getting one?  Do you think it is time for ELPL to offer Blu-ray movies?  We need to hear from you.  Fill our this short survey and let our Movie Librarian know just what you think. 

ELPL is Your Library.  Talk to Us so that we can serve you better.