Mercer County Library Blog

Black are my steps on silver sod; Thick blows my frosty breath abroad; And tree and house, and hill and lake, Are frosted like a wedding cake. - from “Winter-Time” by Robert Louis Stevenson Winter is not everyone’s favorite season, but for many winter has its own special magic. From the joy of gathering around a fireplace and watching a winter snow fall to the wonder of wandering through the stark beauty of a winter forest landscape, there are many reasons to appreciate the winter season. It is also associated with many celebrations and feasts such as Christmas, Hannukah, Mardi Gras, Valentine’s Day, and Carnival. So what’s to celebrate about winter? The book Winterlust describes how our perception of winter has changed over the years from a season of harshness and scarcity to a season to slow down and appreciate the comforts of home, what the Scandinavians called “hygge.” You may want to read Making Winter: a Hygge-inspired Guide to Surviving the Winter Months . In this book you can ...

Chicken of the Woods ( Polyporus sulphureus ) Have you ever heard of Chicken of the Sea? How about… Chicken of the Woods? Neither have anything to do with poultry. The former is a seafood brand, and the latter is actually a type of mushroom! I first learned of these mushrooms a few years ago at a farmer’s market in Wildwood, NJ. My husband is not a fan of mushrooms’ texture, but the mushroom hunter assured us that we’d be pleasantly surprised. I brought it home, sautéed it in a pan, and… it was delicious! It had none of the usual mushy mushroom texture and instead was quite firm and meaty. Flash forward to the spring of 2020, when we started watching the show Filthy Riches , which spotlights individuals hunting and foraging for eels, bloodworms, tree burls, and wild mushrooms! Our interest in chicken of the woods - and mushroom-hunting in general - was sparked once again. Wanting to see if we could find chicken of the woods – or any of the m...

It often seems as if we are living in an age of near-infinite distraction; we multitask constantly and rarely focus our attention on one thing at a time. “Put down that stupid phone and look at me when I speak to you!” every parent across the country is saying to offspring of all ages right now (probably).“Wait...wut?” those same offspring are (also probably) answering, meaning parents’ll just have to repeat themselves. Again. {Heavy sigh.} Is there nothing we can do to focus ourselves? My wife and I just finished watching the second seasons of a Belgian mystery series called Professor T. , which my wife somehow heard about—I’m not sure how; she told me, but at the time I was busy looking at my iPod and retweeting a hilarious picture of a dog wearing a Christmas sweater and fake antlers ! LOL!!! But I was listening to her, really! Anyroad, both of us got hooked from episode one of season one. Being a subtitled Belgian TV series, Professor T. forces you to drop all else and pa...

Some authors that we have lost in 2020 2020 was a horrible, no good year. I don’t think anyone can deny that. Reading (and watching) has been a comfort to many of us in this most peculiar year. A good book has been a place of refuge, and as bad as 2020 was, it was compounded by the loss of many great and beloved authors. Here is a select list of authors we have lost in 2020. It is not exhaustive, but focuses on some of the best known and widely read authors. A more exhaustive list can be found at the Literary Hub. John le Carré (October 19, 1931 – December 12, 2020; age 89 years) John le Carré (real name David John Moore Cornwell) was a true-life spy that wrote spy fiction. le Carré started working for the British security service MI5 in 1958. There he ran agents, conducted interrogations, tapped telephone lines, and effected break-ins in the service of protecting British parliamentary democracy and economic interests, and preventing counter terrorism and espionage within the United...

Reading materials, like picture books, bring the outside world to young readers. At the age of six months, parents generally introduce titles like My First Word Book, First 100 Words, and Baby Einstein: 100 Words, in order to increase their young ones' vocabulary. These books are usually read repeatedly till babies understand pictures and can relate to objects in the real world.    The same applies to mathematical concepts, which should also be introduced at an early age. When we use picture books to support math lessons, youngsters are not only excited to learn math in a different way, but they also come to associate the feel-good joy of reading with math. Picture books give readers an effortless visual and auditory connection to learning number recognition and counting. Some focus on simple math concepts like shapes and patterns, while others teach children addition and subtraction as well as the concept of measurement.   The Mercer County Library System has an exc...