Happy Valentine's Day from Y.A.!

We have a great dedicated young adult (y.a.) area at Missoula Public Library. Here's a great young adult book list if Valentine's Day puts you in the mood for a little love, but mushy romance novels leave you cold.

Y BIEDERM  Teenage Waistland by Lynn Biederman and Lisa Pazer. Three teenagers, two girls and a boy, alternate telling the story of their year as subjects in a clinical lap band surgery study. 

Y DASHNER The Scorch Trials by James Dashner. Picking up right where The Maze Runner left off,  Thomas and the Gladers once again find themselves entrapped in perilous danger. Can Thomas still trust Theresa, as she seems to betray him time and time again?

Y DELACRU Misguided Angel by Melissa De La Cruz. In this fifth installment of the Blue Bloods series, half-vampire Schuyler flees the Coven with her forbidden love Jack on a mission to find and preserve the seven gates that protect the world from Lucifer.

Y FANTASK Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey. Jill Jekel teams up with mysterious Tristan Hyde to work on a chemistry project, hoping to win a scholarship and to cure Tristan’s curse.

Y HYDE Jumpstart the World by Catherine Ryan Hyde.  Fifteen-year-old Elle develops a crush on older next door neighbor Frank after her mother dumps her in favor of her boyfriend, who does not approve of teenagers. Can her friendship survive Frank’s shocking secret?

Y MOSS Taking Off by Jenny Moss.  After being inspired by a chance meeting with teacher-in-space Christa McAuliffe, high school senior Annie struggles to follow her dreams.

Y NOEL Dark Flame by Alyson Noel. In this fifth installment of the Immortal series, Ever fights for control of her mind and her body after her attempt to free her beloved Damen from rival Roman’s power goes horribly wrong.

Y OCKLER Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler. Delilah spends the summer in Vermont with her mother, forced to help her mother and aunt settle her estranged grandmother’s estate, revealing family secrets and meeting a new love interest.

Y PETERS Maybe Never, Maybe Now by Kimberly Joy Peters. Caitlyn has broken away from an abusive relationship, but still suffers psychological damage. Can she learn to overcome her fears and insecurity to find true happiness?

YPB WEYN The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn. In the near future, when corporations run the world, Kayla is forced to run for her life when she refuses to get a bar code tattoo.

It's LOVE YOUR LIBRARY Month!

The month of February isn’t just about Valentine’s Day. It’s also Love your Library month!

I asked some patrons this week why they love Missoula Public Library and here are some of the responses:

“Books, books, books!”

“Programs! And lots of them for every age - Children’s storytimes, Film nights, & Computer Classes”

“Downloadable books!” “Free music!” “Cool librarians!”

“All kinds of DVDs including feature films, foreign films, Children’s movies, documentaries, and TV shows.”

“Summer Reading Programs” “Free Wifi! ”

“Librarians who can help find anything.” “The library has a typewriter!”

“They have great online resources.”

Why do you love your library?

Ravenous Reads

Books and food go together like bread and butter, wine and cheese, strawberries and cream… hungry yet? Try a delectable selection from MPL’s Book Chat Bag collection for your next book group read. Book Chat Bags contain ten copies of a title plus discussion questions, author information, reviews, and more! You’ll want to make sure to have plenty of snacks on hand when you play book club host to one of these selections:

“Every restaurant is a theater,” writes Gourmet editor in chief Ruth Reichl in Garlic and Sapphires, a memoir chronicling her experience as restaurant critic for The New York Times. As restaurants began rolling out the red carpet whenever she walked in the door, Reichl took to donning disguises and assuming new personalities in order to accurately capture a restaurant’s experience – an experience quite different from that of the critic’s.

In his bestseller, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan poses the question: What should we have for dinner? The result is a fascinating and often humorous investigation of industrial and organic food chains in the United States. Discover the greater impact of our food choices and just what it would take to create a meal of entirely foraged food.

In 1948 Julia Child set sail for France with her diplomat husband, embarking on a lifelong love affair with food that turned her into one of the most famous names in the cooking world. Lively, humorous, and filled with mouth-watering meal descriptions, My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme is a tribute to land, love, and food.

Call 721-2665 and ask for the Reference Desk to reserve a Book Chat Bag.

...and then there's Missoula MT

It may not seem like the most romantic approach to Valentine's Day, but the following have been named the most romantic cities in the U.S. based on sales data since New Year's Day for romance novels and relationship books, romantic comedy movies, Barry White recordings and sexual wellness products on a per capita basis in cities with over 100,000 residents. The Top 20 most romantic cities in the U.S. are:

1) Alexandria, Va.
2) Knoxville, Tenn.
3) Orlando, Fla.
4) Miami, Fla.
5) Ann Arbor, Mich.
6) Columbia, S.C.
7) Cincinnati, Ohio
8) Murfreesboro, Tenn.
9) Gainesville, Fla.
10) Tallahassee, Fla.
11) Vancouver, Wash.
12) Round Rock, Tex.
13) Pittsburgh, Pa.
14) Salt Lake City, Utah
15) Arlington, Va.
16) Las Vegas, Nev.
17) Clarksville, Tenn.
18) St. Louis, Mo.
19) Dayton, Ohio
20) Frisco, Tex.

Personally, I'm going for Missoula, MT as Most Romantic City for cities under 100,000 population and in Montana. For or romance novels and relationship books, romantic comedy movies, and at least one Barry White recording, come check out Missoula Public Library.

Word Woman

Welcome to another exciting episode of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Valentine's Day is just a few days away, so why not give yourself the gift of learning? It's a fat-free, non-dairy, low sodium gift that lasts a lifetime and all that it costs you is your time. Here's the Word of the Week to get you started:

Enmity: (noun)

a deep-seated ill will

"enmity" , http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/enmity , 1/27/2011.

Example: In Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet", the title characters' love for one another is doomed by the mutual enmity of their families.