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Just finished the Black Unicorn

We are really enjoying the Magic Kingdom of Landover Novel Series. It is something I would definitely recommend for families and those who enjoy fantasies. We just finished The Black Unicorn which is book #2 and I'm online now hoping one of the libraries in our area has book #3. Summer really is a great time for reading especially series so pick up a book or audiobook and make the most of your day

Happy Father's Day

Myspace Comments - Happy Fathers Day

Read the complete article at TIMES ONLINE
From Times Online
June 10, 2008
'Any book in Hemingway's library for $200'
Irish thriller writer Adrian McKinty takes us on an atmospheric journey to one of literature's greatest shrines, and receives an extraordinary offer

The secret policeman wasn’t smiling. It just looked like that because his false teeth didn’t fit correctly. I was relieved. If Russian writer Isaac Babel is to be believed it’s when secret policeman start grinning at you that you should begin to worry.

“Think about it,” he said as he ran his fingernails along the right lapel of a navy double breasted blazer that was miles too big for him. His eyes were dark and squinty and his skin yellowy white. He was small, grey haired and not terribly menacing.

“I’m sorry?” I said, unsure that I had heard him correctly.

He repeated his offer. “Any book in Hemingway’s library for two hundred dollars,” he said in carefully enunciated English.

I nodded to show that I had understood his proposition.

I had spent the last half hour examining the library in Hemingway’s Havana house - the Finca Vigia. There were thousands of books: first editions, engineering texts, old atlases, older dictionaries, galleys mailed to Hemingway for blurbs, review copies, gifts; many of them had been doodled over by Hemingway himself and several were extensively underlined and annotated. A bruised early copy of The Sun Also Rises was probably worth a couple of thousand and at the bar of the Ambos Mundos Hotel a man had told me that somewhere in these stacks was a signed Catcher in the Rye which I knew I could flog on eBay for at least fifty grand.

The secret policeman tapped his foot, leaned backwards and placed his left hand on a cheetah skin which had been draped over a sofa. He patted it gingerly, like an underconfident Bond villain.

The cheetah interested me. In his 1958 Paris Review interview George Plimpton had described Hemingway’s house in Havana, and this room in particular, with meticulous detail. “The walls are lined with white painted bookcases from which books overflow to the floor...Hemingway stands when he writes in a pair of oversized loafers on the worn skin of a lesser kudu.” Opposite the writing desk and directly in Hemingway’s field of view Plimpton noted “an armoire with a leopard skin draped across the top.”

Apart from the books, papers, bull fight posters and letters, Hemingway’s home was dominated by hunting trophies. Plimpton observed dead animals everywhere - skinned, mounted, stuffed and yet more carved from wood and ivory. He also found random bags filled with shotgun shells and carnivore teeth. Hemingway’s writing desk is still opposite the armoire but strangely Plimpton’s leopard skin has metamorphosed into the hide of a cheetah. The animals are difficult to mistake. Their pattern of spots, heads, and bodies are completely different and this beast currently being drummed upon by the secret policeman’s chubby fingers was definitely not a leopard.

Read your way around the world with a “Passport to
Reading”. Collect stamps for a chance to win prizes. From
June 24 to August 19 for ages 11 and up.

Go online and check out the Westchester Library Teens -
Summer Reading Contest. Every Monday from June 23 to August
11 a new blog will be posted. Your comment on the blog is
your entry for the week. Blog address is:
http:\\westchesterteens.blogspot.com. The drawing for the
winner will take place at the finale.

Kick off the Summer Reading Program with a creative one:
Decorate a Visor. You will receive one visor to be
decorated anyway you want. Be creative, show the world the
real you are when you take it with you to wear on your
vacations. (June 24 @ 2:00)

Get your passport stamped in Japan with Taiko Drumming.
Enjoy this hands-on experience while you learn about
Japanese culture and the Taiko drum. (July 8 @ 2:00)

Next, get your passport ready for the Caribbean! This
Multicultural Dance program will teach dances from Cuba,
Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Brazil. (July 29 @ 1:30)

FINALE. How good are your hunting skills? How well do you
know your library? This is your chance to find out in the
First Annual Library Scavenger Hunt. Open you eyes and look
for all those little things you didn’t know we had!
(August 19 @ 2:00)

Winners of the blog contest and the passport contest will be
announced at the Finale.

Get your passports starting June 24 and get reading!

For more information contact me at the library. Hope to see
you there!

Kathy Lindemann
Teen Librarian
Westchester-Loyola Village Branch
7114 W. Manchester
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(310) 348-1095
klindem@lapl.org

We're Opening a Store!

There will be a variety of things (since we're a variety of people with a variety of interests), but thought I would share. Look forward to your input.

Sharing one of our Playlists with you


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