Chemistry may not hold your interest, but there’s a quirky tale associated with every element in the periodic table of elements. Sam Kean explores all of these in The disappearing spoon: and other true tales of madness, love, and the history of the world from the periodic table of the elements.  After reading Kean’s chemical miscellanea (i.e. trivia) you won’t be lacking for technical topics of conversation.

Kean is not the first to have fun with the period table. Scientists at the University of Nottingham have put together a series of short videos on each element.  Italian writer (and industrial chemist) Primo Levi used the periodic table as inspiration for a collection of stories and essays.

For  beautiful visual illustrations of the elements, their uses and applications see Theodore Gray's

The elements : a visual exploration of every known atom in the universe

Boomerang kids : a revealing look at why so many of our children are failing on their own, and how parents can help / Carl Pickhardt

Many young people college age and older are returning  live with parents at a time when they themselves, their parents and society expect them to be living on their own and economically and psychologically independent. Psychologist Carl Pickett, writer for Psychology Today’s weekly blog Surviving (Your Child’s) Adolescence, describes the period between 18-25 as trial independence. The challenges during this time include: missing home and family, managing increased freedom, flunking out of college, unemployment and losing a job, roommate problems, broken love relationships, substance abuse, indebtedness, stress, emotional crisis, fear of the future.  This easy to read book gives “parenting prescriptions“ summarizing actions that parents can take in supporting their children's recovery and strengthening their readiness to try again for independence. Also recommended for teachers and others who work with those in this last stage of adolescence.

Making mathematics with needlework : ten papers and ten projects / edited by Sarah-Marie Belcastro, Carolyn Yackel

I’m not a mathematician, but if, like me, you are proficient enough to work out your own designs in knitting, crocheting and other forms of craft, I suspect you may be intuitively working with advanced mathematics.  This novel and practical approach to mathematics contains 10 needlework craft projects (knitting, crochet, embroidery, and quilting) which make interesting reading and fascinating starting points for further exploration.  The editors' intention is that these projects  should be of interest  to mathematicians who don't know anything about crafting and to crafters who don't know anything about mathematics.  If mathematics isn't your thing, you'll find the photographs of these projects beautiful and inspiring.  Here are some examples:

Project list:

Quilted mobius band -- Picking up stitches and Diophantine equaions -- The Sierpinski variations: self-similar crochet -- Ony two knit stitches can create a torus -- Symmetry patterns in cross-stitch -- Socks with Algebraic structure -- Fortunatus's purse -- (K)not cables, braids -- The graph theory of blackwork embroidery -- Stop those (hypperbolic) pants!.

You Can Meet Buzz and Woody!

Noon, Wednesday, Feb. 22

King Library, Children's Room

Bring your camera and take a photo with a star from

Disney Pixars Toy Story 3.

Don't forget you can still donate a new children's book to the Partners in Reading Family Literacy Program's Book Drive "Together We Read."  Book drive ends Friday, Feb. 25.

Donate a new book at your local branch library and receive one FREE ticket to Disney on Ice presents Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 3. One ticket per family, while supplies last.

Why donate to the Partners in Reading book drive?

Only 1 out of every 300 children from low-income families own a book.  Help local families start their own home library and create the joy of reading as a family. Reading helps expand imagination, builds knowledge, it's cool, fun and exciting. Most importantly, reading takes you To Infinity ... and Beyond!

Fun Activities for the Family!

Disney on Ice representative will also present a special Make your own Mr. or Mrs. Potato Head!  Storytime/Craft program at three locations.

• Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 11:30 a.m. at  Evergreen Branch Library

• Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 3:30 p.m. at Tully Community Branch Library

• Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 11:30 a.m. at Edenvale Branch Library

Thank you for supporting Partners in Reading's Book Drive!

 The little bride 

An orphaned young woman leaves Odessa , solicited as a mail –order bride, for  America and a better life . Her destination is a sod house on the South Dakota prairie, her husband, a Jewish Orthodox farmer with two teenage sons.  A cold winter and hard work await her, but, by the end of the year, there is hope and a new beginning.  A different “little house on the prairie” story inspired by a little-known Jewish homesteading movement in the 1880s on the American west.

 At home: a short history of private life / Bill Bryson.

Travel writer and memoirist Bill Bryson starts at home – his house, a Victorian rectory in Norfolk England built in 1851, the year of the Crystal Palace Exhibition.  As he explores each room, Bryson expounds on the social history of household objects with digressions to significant events and people associated with them. A pleasant ramble, though I would not always recommend this book as a meal time companion.  Here’s what Bryson has to say::  

 If you like this, you might also want to read

What Jane Austen ate and Charles Dickens knew: from fox hunting to whist: the facts of daily life in nineteenth-century England / Daniel Pool.