Thanksgiving time is just around the corner. To help you prepare for the season, we have arranged a display of our favorite Thanksgiving and holiday cookbooks, recipes and magazine articles.

The magazines include Bon Appetit, Better Homes and Garden, Food and Wine and Cooks Illustrated.

Click below for a list of the books that we have on display.

Celebrate Banned Books Week September 24 - October 1 by picking up a book that was challenged or banned in 2010-2011.

Each year, the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom records books that have been challenged or banned from public and school libraries. The following list includes those we have in our collection. Banned books remain popular at our library!

Check out the Banned and/or Challenged Classics list and to read more about Banned Books Week, please visit the Banned Books Week site.

Need help navigating the college admissions process? Let us be your guide!

We've put together a list of our favorite resources. We have books on rankings, insider secrets from the pros, choosing the best majors and even interview tips and early admissions help.

Make sure to stop by our display on the second floor and check out these online resources before booking that next college tour!

A college tour ~ image courtesy of York College of PA

Jigsaw puzzles exercise your mind and your fine motor skills. But what about other visual puzzles that force you to stare until a secret image is revealed? Here are some examples of great optical illusions to confuse and inspire:

Optical Illusions and Visual Perception Puzzles

Remember Magic Eye visual puzzles from grade school? When all your friends could see the dolphin except you? Try your luck with the Magic Eye Image of the Week!

Then try your skill with these visual puzzles from Psychology today:

Can You Solve These Visual Thinking Puzzles?

Image courtesy Flickr user DennisSylvesterHurd

Image courtesy of flickr user Mykl Roventine.

Did you know that respected organizations like the Center for Disease Control, Alzheimers Association and American Cancer Society promote building jigsaw puzzles to improve your health?  They're not only fun (and a great library activity!) but also have quite a number of surprising health benefits.

Here are just a few of the ways in which puzzles can enhance your health and brain at every age:

• The CDC and Alzheimers Association assert that activities such as puzzles, reading and board games are all ways to increase brain cells and delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
• The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute advises people who are trying to quit smoking to keep their hands busy by doing activities like needlework and jigsaw puzzles.
• The American Geriatric Society recommends that you exercise your brain by doing word puzzles, number puzzles and jigsaw puzzles.  Switching up the activities will also help keep your brain stimulated.
• The Center for Mental Health Services recommends creative and fun activities like jigsaw and crossword puzzles for recovery and relaxation.
• The American Cancer Society also recommends hobbies and crafts including puzzles, playing an instrument and board games to help smokers quit.
• The CDC’s BAM! Body and Mind program teaches kids to “take time to chill” by listening to music, putting together a puzzle or working on a project when they feel stressed.

Would you like more information about any of these topics?  Email us (askus@darienlibrary.org), IM or stop by the reference desk!

Can strength really be found in numbers? What about a good read? Take a look at this list of books with numbers in their titles and decide for yourself.

Image courtesy of Flickr user DrBacchus

Tree Conservancy of Darien

Tree Conservancy of Darien is a newly formed non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing the tree and forest resources of Darien for the benefit of the community, its health and its quality of life.  It's goals are to educate the community about the value of trees; identify and revitalize significant (heritage) trees in town; establish a stewardship program for the care and maintenance of existing trees; and protect and augment our community trees, both public and private.

Darien Library has a variety of resources that support the mission of the Tree Conservancy, including a wide selection of books on the history, care, care and selection of trees in New England. Librarians are available to help with specific questions, just ask us!

Before they were called jigsaw puzzles these games were actually referred to as “dissections.” European cartographers would mount a map onto a piece of wood and then cut out each country. They would then use these “dissections” to teach students geography. Sound familiar? I know I remember filling in an empty map of the United States with wooden puzzle pieces when I was little. Texas always made it in first!

These “dissections” had been around since 1760, but it was not until the invention of the treadle saw (pictured at left) in 1820 that puzzles became a recreational activity. In the beginning, puzzles were only made with wood. This meant they were expensive to produce. Each puzzle had to be cut one piece at a time. Thus, they became a high society activity for adults to enjoy at their weekend vacation homes.  

In the early 1900s, production of cardboard puzzles began. This dropped the price significantly. Puzzles became wildly popular during the Great Depression because they provided hours of entertainment for a comparatively small price, they were relaxing, and they offered a sense of accomplishment. Just think of the satisfaction that comes from placing in the very last piece! Puzzles became so popular that libraries even lent them out during the 1930s, charging three to ten cents per day.

Both wood and cardboard jigsaw puzzles remain popular today, the former mainly used in childrens’ puzzles. The manufacturing method used for puzzles is not very far off from the techniques they used in the early nineteenth century. Puzzles remain a timeless pastime: perfect for rainy (or hot!) days spent with good friends and family.

Image courtesy of Flickr user ianturton

Keith Haring - Image courtesy of National Portrait Gallery

Keith Haring was an American artist who became well known in the early 1980’s for experimenting with chalk drawings upon black panels in the New York City subway stations. Creating as many as 40 drawings a day, his work became very familiar to subway commuters who would stop to watch the artist at work. According to the Keith Haring Foundation, Haring described the subway as his “laboratory,” for “working out his ideas and experimenting with his simple lines.”

Haring’s career grew as he created billboards in Times Square, backdrops for theater productions, public sculptures and held several solo exhibitions. He produced over 50 public art installations around the world, many of which presented social messages. He collaborated with significant poets, performers and other artists of that time period including Madonna, William Burroughs, Yoko Ono and Andy Warhol.

After being diagnosed with AIDS in 1988, Haring established the Keith Haring Foundation. Their mission is to “sustain, expand, and protect the legacy of Keith Haring, his art, and his ideals” and it also “supports not-for-profit organizations that assist children, as well as organizations involved in education, research and care related to AIDS.” Haring passed away at the age of 30 in 1991. His work can be viewed in major museums and galleries around the world, and he will be featured at Pace Prints and the Children’s Museum of New York this fall.

For more information and to browse works from his career, visit the Keith Haring Foundation website: http://www.haring.com/.