Our charity of choice was the Dulaan Project, under the auspices of F.I.R.E., Flagstaff International Relief Effort, which collects knitted clothing for a yearly shipment to Mongolia. Our knitted goods joined a total of 10 tons of boxed donations which were shipped off on July 10th. All of us who participated in this project felt immense satisfaction in putting our knitting skills to work for others.
The statistical data for each topic are presented with a summary page of information and two pages of colorful charts, graphs, and maps. The book is designed with visual impact in mind, and you may find yourself suddenly fascinated by pie charts and bar graphs! 
1st century A.D. gold pendant from Tillya Tepe
Be Creative @ Your Library, Bernardsville Public Library's summer reading program, has attracted a huge number of young readers, but it has also caused "Pig Fever" to break out among our patrons.
Anyone who enters the library is sure to experience symptoms that include gasps of amazement, feverish urges to smile, and an overwhelming sense of complete happiness. No one seems to be immune.
This is all due to the performing pigs who highlight the summer reading program theme of creativity...
...and to their creator, Keiko Matsuura, who is one of our very talented library volunteers. Last year Keiko helped with the summer reading program by making the reading bugs that were so popular (see June 24, 2008 posting.)
Michaele Casey, Bernardsville librarian, once again asked Keiko to help her with this year's summer reading display, and Keiko came up with a design concept that incorporated her fondness for pigs. It was decided that pigs doing creative things would be the perfect visual accent to the summer reading theme. Obviously, Keiko was the first one to come down with "Pig Fever" because she worked feverishly for two months to create the piggies out of papier mache and other materials. 
Working from her home, Keiko glued multiple layers of brown paper around large balloons to form the pigs' bodies and then attached limbs and other features with more papier mache. This process took days to complete, followed by many layers of paint, trim and accessories to give each pig a unique character. Eyes and some lips were formed from sponges that Keiko cut, and hair and clothing were created with sculpted paper, paint or yarn.
Keiko reports that the rock 'n roll pig was the hardest one to make because he had to be able to stand even without the microphone. Although the pigs "hogged" the sofa in Keiko's house for the past two months, she and her husband were sorry to see them go. But they are delighted that the pigs have made themselves right at home in the library! Come see for yourself, and catch the fever.
Published in 2008, The Ayatollah Begs To Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran was written by Hooman Majd who, as coincidence would have it, is the grandson of a noted ayatollah. Born in Tehran but now living in the United States, Majd tries to explain the multi-faceted, conflicting nature of Persian life to westerners. In a review, The Financial Times states, "Hooman Majd offers a more conversational way into the history of Iran in The Ayatollah Begs to Differ, with anecdote, colour and paradox splashed over a contemporary canvas. His is a genial and companionable book." Yet Majd's book jacket also proclaims, "He points to the importance of the Persian view of privacy, arguing that the stability of the current regime owes much to the freedom Iranians have to behave as they wish behind “Persian walls.”
Two new memoirs recount their authors' upbringing and family lives in Iran during the downfall of the shah and the rise of the Iranian Revolution. Afschineh Latifi's Even After All This Time: A Story of Love, Revolution and Leaving Iran tells the story of her family's survival after her father, a colonel in the shah's army, was killed following the shah's overthrow. The family apparently had been a happy one, mother and father loved each other, and they all enjoyed a cultured, comfortable lifestyle until things changed so dramatically. Latifi was sent abroad once her mother realized what kind of danger her daughter could face under the repressive dictates of the Islamic Cultural Revolution. The author credits her mother with a remarkable show of courage and strength in saving all her children and reuniting them as a family outside of Iran.
In contrast, Azar Nafisi's memoir, Things I've Been Silent About: Memories, shows the author of Reading Lolita inTehran grappling with unpleasant memories of her mother, her own childhood, and of her parent's unhappy marriage. Like Afschineh Latifi, Azar Nafisi also grew up in a well-to-do, highly educated family in pre-revolutionary Iran, but family life was crippled by detrimental silences she says are too often nurtured in her home country. Her relationship with her difficult mother dominates the story as does her admiration for her father even though he had his failings, too. Collateral damage such as sexual abuse by trusted friends of the family, disillusionment with the revolution, and a dreadful first marriage all add a serious tone to this memoir of her early life in Iran.
~ Evelyn Fischel
These four books may be found in the collection of Bernardsville Public Library.
ACTION!!!
The stage is set at Bernardsville Public Library for Be Creative @ Your Library, a show-stopping summer reading program starting Monday, June 22nd. Children and young adults are invited to participate in a summer-long schedule of creative activities and reading programs. Sign-ups begin June 22nd, but first you'll have to get past those marvelous performing pigs in the lobby!!
STARRING!!!
Ham Jones? Elvis Piggly?
Phantom Pig of the Opera
The Little Piggy Mermaid, Porky Nureyev, Super Pig
and Pigcasso
A huge round of applause goes to Michaele Casey, Bernardsville Public Library's youth services coordinator, and Keiko Matsuura, our limitlessly talented library volunteer!! Under Michaele's meticulous planning, the library has brought the New Jersey Library Association's statewide summer reading program to life in a way that will bring smiles and looks of amazement to all who visit us. Keiko designed and handmade all the pigs, painting and accessorizing each of them with incredible detail. Her visionary staging of this display exceeded our wildest dreams. Keiko's imaginative artistry shows just how exceptional the results can be when you decide to "be creative."
...and Cecil B. DePig, Director, wants credit, too, for overcoming his fear of heights!
M.F.K. Fisher is still considered one of the 20th century's standard bearers of elegant prose about food, travel and life. Readers have long savored the detail and precision of her observations in such books as Consider the Oyster and The Art of Eating.
As for The French Chef, Julia Child's posthumous 2006 biography My Life in France, co-authored by Alex Prud'homme, recounts her culinary education in Paris with lively detail. It also seamlessly blends in loving memories of her husband and their time in France.
And Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone is a wonderful recollection of how she came to be an ardent epicure despite having a diffident mother who couldn't cook.
Today's rash of cooking memoirs may not demonstrate the same depth of experience and writing wizardry as those of Fisher, Reichl or Child, but they are nonetheless enjoyable to read. Among the newest food memoirs are two books written with wit and loaded with recipes. In both cases, these recipes accompany chapters of the books and tend to signify "chapters" in the authors' lives.
A Homemade Life, by food blogger Molly Wizenberg, mingles family stories and vignettes with a good assortment of recipes. She writes in an engaging manner about life, its little victories, big sorrows, and how her love of food and cooking drew her future husband to her like a moth to the flame. Actually, it was her blog, Orangette, that lured her husband to her, which goes to show the power of blogging. Unfortunately, Orangette is at present in suspension because Wizenberg apparently has too many irons in the fire or too many pots on the stove. In any case, there are plenty of nice recipes included in this book.
Giulia Melucci, author of I loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti, certainly believes that the fastest way to the altar is through a man's stomach. This Brooklyn author has been repeatedly disappointed in affairs of the heart and bed. Yet she finds that cooking and laughter have healed her broken heart, enabling her to try all over again! Her book is full of recipes reflecting her Italian-American heritage, and she shares how these recipes may have attracted a suitor or made up for a failed love affair afterwards. ~ Evelyn Fischel
Bernardsville Public Library has installed a new "Low Vision Station" among the public computers. This Low Vision computer is specifically dedicated for use by people with low vision or no vision. 
