In honor of National Gaming Day @ Your Library, I present to you my top three favorite games:

1. Catch Phrase - This one is a staple at my household over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and pretty much any Sunday night.

2. Cranium - Whether you're an artist, a vocab guru, or a music nerd, this game tends to have something for everyone.

3. Jenga - Even though I'm always the one who knocks it over. Every. Time.

And an honorable mention goes to Quelf because I have never played it but I have a strong feeling I would love it!

Check out these links on National Gaming Day @ Your Library:

• I Love Libraries: Gaming
• Board Game Ratings
• Brain Workout Benefits

What's your favorite game?

November is National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month and Family Caregiver Month. For more information on Alzheimer's Disease prevention, visit our book display on the second floor or check out these links:

Alzheimer's Association

Alzheimer's Awareness Source

On Thursday, November 17, Aging in Place + Gallivant will be hosting their Annual Luncheon at The Darien Community Association. The guest speaker will be Dr. Danilo de la Pena, the Executive Director of the Research Center for Clinical Studies in Norwalk, Connecticut.  Sustaining a Healthy Brain is the subject of Dr. de la Pena’s presentation.

The luncheon is free and open to the public. More information can be found here.

In Darien, we're used to cheering for the Blue Wave. But who is cheering for our ocean ecosystem? Get your feet wet with these great reads, many of them replete with beautiful, full-color photographs. Then join us on Monday, November 7 for a presentation on Healthy Oceans with Stephanie Wear, Director of Coral Reef Conservation for The Nature Conservancy.

This event is co-sponsored by Northern Trust.

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.

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

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

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

Summer in New England means firing up the grill, baking an apple pie, inviting friends over for dinner, and listening to the cicadas hum after dark. These books will provide you with endless entertaining ideas and breezy recipes perfect for those dog days of summer.

And check out  these guides to summer celebrating:

30 Tips for Easy Outdoor Entertaining

Barbecue Food Safety Tips

Summer Entertaining Guide

Image courtesy of Flickr user lapstrake

Mark Twain once said, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

These exciting accounts of adventure allow you to do just that. Trek the Appalachian Trail, build a log cabin in Alaska, explore the Antarctic alongside Ernest Shackleton, or board a raft to cross the Pacific Ocean.

Our second floor display table features books and movies that take us to the farthest reaches and the highest peaks...no passport required. Just click below to view our full list of adventure stories.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user rsenescu.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus in order to make room for a white passenger. This act of defiance led to her subsequent arrest. This sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a key event in the civil rights movement. Although it has been almost fifty years since Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his immortal "I Have a Dream" speech, the rich history of African-Americans is often overlooked in history courses today. Explore the vibrant African-American past with these books and DVDs from our collection.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user U.S. Embassy New Delhi