Now's your chance.  We're looking for a group of volunteers to work on a new monthly podcast...    We need:

Talent! (Voices)

Behind the scenes! (recording, editing, writing)

EVERYBODY!

Come find out more and start planning the first episodes on Saturday Aug 1st at 3:00pm in the Teen Lounge. 

If you can't make it Saturday, but would like to volunteer, email hmartyn@darienlibrary.org

image courtesy of flickr user pateffron

Prom Nights From Hell is full of horrifying short stories about going to the prom, by all your fav authors.  Stephenie Meyer writes about a girl (--or is she?) with a secret plan to ruin the prom.  Lauren Myracle writes about what happens when you use magic to get a date.  Meg Cabot tells the story of what happens when a vampire shows up at school and asks your best friend on a date.

These stories are fun and well written, and a little scary.  Highly recommended, and a must if you’re trying to read through Stephenie Meyer, Meg Cabot, Lauren Myracle, Michele Jaffe or Kim Harrison.  
 

This is the true story about how a regular guy managed to trade a paperclip for a home of his own.  Kyle was pretty much a regular unemployed free-spirit without too many prospects.  One night he decided to post an ad on craigslist offering to trade one red paperclip for anything better, with the intention of continuing to trade up until someone offered him a house.  Kyle’s journey takes him to some strange and interesting places, he meets some weird and wonderful people and becomes an internet celebrity.  He trades the paperclip for a fish pen, the fish pen for a doorknob and so on… 

One Red Paperclip is unforgettable because it shows how nothing can be turned into something with the application of creativity and determination.  Kyle is a quirky writer and a good storyteller.  I really recommend this book.  You can also read Kyle’s blog at oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com
 

Photo of the original red paperclip courtesy of flickr user kylemac

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”  It’s one of my all-time favorite opening lines in a book, setting the stage for a fantasy-horror-western seven-book epic that spans twenty-seven years of Stephen King’s career.  The Gunslinger, Roland of Gilead, is the last of his kind in a world that no longer resembles the one he grew up in.  He seeks the Dark Tower, a place that unites the universe, and which may hold the key to preventing more decay in the world.  He seeks the Man in Black, who may hold the secret of finding the tower and to Roland’s destiny.  Roland believes he will do anything to get to the tower, he has sworn to find it, but the price for a meeting with the Man in Black may be too high.  The Dark Tower Novels are a must-read for Stephen King fans. 

The series has spawned the prequel graphic novels The Dark Tower  by Peter David, which was listed by the American Library Association as one of the best graphic novel series for teens for 2009.  Beginning with Roland winning his guns, the comics show the love, the loss and the war that turn Roland from a serious kid into the hardened gunslinger we meet in the first Stephen King novels.  The art in these books is amazing, but also gory.  The story is scary and sad.  I highly recommend it.  The graphic novels are  rated PG by Marvel, which they suggest as 15+ for more explicit content.