2009-12-04 / Lifestyles

See You at the Library

201 South Main Street

Suzanna Hupp will be at the Lampasas Public Library on Dec. 10 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. She will give a short talk and sign copies of her book “From Luby’s to the Legislature,” which will be available for purchased that night for $22.95.

A portion of the book sales will benefit the library.

The event is open to the public.

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Santa Claus is coming to the library. He will read Christmas stories to children on Dec. 22 at 6 p.m. Pictures of children with Santa may be taken following the program.

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A “Winter Wonderland” preschool storytime is Dec. 16 from 10-10:30 a.m.

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The library will be closed Dec. 24-26 and Jan. 1-2 for holiday observances.

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Automatically be on the reserve list when a new book comes out by choosing to be notified when a favorite author publishes a new book. Log onto your account, scroll down to “Have some favorite authors?” and click on the link. Choose from more than 35 popular authors.

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Recent donations have been given in memory of Mary Jane Bowman and Viola Dennis.

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New books at the library:

“The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” by Dayton Duncan. America’s national parks spring from an idea as radical as the Declaration of Independence: that the nation’s most magnificent and sacred places should be preserved, not for royalty or for the rich, but for everyone. In this lavishly illustrated narrative, Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan delve into the history of the park idea, from the first sighting by white men in 1851 of the valley that would become Yosemite, and the creation of the world’s first national park at Yellowstone in 1872, through the most recent additions to a system that now encompasses nearly 400 sites and 84 million acres.

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“The Christmas Pearl,” by Dorothea Benton Frank. Still spry at 93, Theodora has lived long enough to see her family grown into an insufferable bunch of truculent knuckleheads.

Having finally gathered the whole bickering brook together for the holidays at her South Carolina home, the grand matriarch pines wistfully for those extravagant, homey Christmases of her childhood. How she misses the tables groaning with home-cooked goodies, the over-the-top decorations, those long, lovely fireside chats with Pearl, her grandmother’s beloved housekeeper and closest confidante.

These days, where is the love and the joy, and the peace? But someone very special has heard Theodora’s plea -- and is about to arrive at her door with pockets of Gullah magic and enough common sense to transform this Christmas into the miracle it’s truly meant to be.

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“One and the Same,” by Abigail Pogrebin. Writer, mother, wife, New Yorker. Abigail Pogrebin is many things, but the one that has defined her most profoundly is “identical twin.”

Pogrebin’s relationship with her sister, both as children -- when they were inseparable -- and today, when she longs for that uncomplicated intimacy, inspired her to examine the phenomenon of twinship -- to learn how other identical pairs regard their doubleness and what experts are learning about how DNA impacts our sense of identity and shapes our lives.

Pogrebin presents a tapestry of twinship, weaving scientific reporting and personal memoir with the relevatory stories of other twins, such as two sisters who stopped speaking for three years, and football stars Tiki and Ronde Barber, who admit their twinship comes before their marriages.

In this account, Pogrebin shows how living identical is both a celebration of sameness and a struggle for singularity that defines us all.

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“Wolf Hall,” by Hilary Mantel. England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annual his marriage of 20 years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe oppose him. The quest for the king’s freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum.

Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell, a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people and a demon of energy. He is also a consummate politician, hardened by his personal losses, implacable in his ambition.

But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

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The Morning Show Murders,” by Al Roker. Network TV can be murder. Just ask Billy Blessing, famous for his smile, his charm and ability to survive the shark tank that is high-stakes morning TV.

Billy has outlived his fair share of prima-donnas, and his cooking segment on “Wake Up America!” is a staple of the American diet and his Manhattan bistro is a megasuccess.

His career has just taken a very dangerous turn when his perky show co-host Gin McCauley has launched into some brass-knuck- les contract negotiations and a visiting Mossad agent is about to tell all on the air. And then the network’s honcho is murdered in his luxury apartment, and an ambitious DA decides that Billy is to blame.

However, Billy knows someone is trying to frame him. He also knows a ruthless international assassin has just arrived in New York City. And suddenly, for the most trusted guy on TV, the ultimate career move is not about ratings. It’s about staying alive -- and stopping the next murder from becoming tomorrow’s breaking news.

* * * Other new books at the library:

“Fearless,” by Max Lucado.

Ford County,” by John Grisham.

“Half Broke Horses,” by Jeanette Wells.

“Grave Secret,” by Charlaine Harris.

“I, Alex Cross,” by James Patterson.

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