Mercer County Library Blog

When I was a kid, I was not what you consider a reluctant reader. I was always reading and wanting to read. I never had trouble picking up an interesting book and digging right in, eager to jump into the world of fantasy. I never understood why there were other kids who hated reading. Now I’m older, wiser, and a professional librarian who understands more about why a child may be reluctant to pick up a book and read. To help these reluctant readers find their “next great read,” there is a type of book often called “Hi-Lo,” which actually means “high interest, low level.” In order to be called this, Hi-Lo books need to be well-written and engaging, but also easy to read, in order to keep readers’ attention. Hi-Lo books can be found in any genre or format, ranging from well-known graphic novels and fiction, such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney or Smile by Raina Telgemeier, to young adaptations of popular adult titles, like Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts by Susa

For book lovers, every summer brings with it recommended reading lists brimming with enticing titles of every shade and hue – mysteries and thrillers, memoirs, and nonfiction to enjoy outdoors in your backyard, on a sunny beach, or just curled up on your favorite couch in the cool of your home. Stephen King, in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft , proclaims “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” For all of you who enjoy a good work of nonfiction, the year 2021 has seen the publication of some outstanding reads. Here is a selection of a few fascinating titles owned by the Mercer County Library System that would make for great summer reading! Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgement by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein This book is the result of an interesting collaboration between three distinguished scholars - Daniel Kahneman from Princeton University; the 2002 Nobel Prize winner and author of Thinking Fast and Slow , Oliver Sibony, Professor of Strategy at HEC Par

Summer really brings the heat, and so do unexpected accidents that suddenly turn deadly if proper fire safety is not followed.  A recent incident involving a colleague of mine reminded all of us here at Mercer County Library System just how important fire safety is and why we should make sure to pay attention to the simple steps we can take to keep ourselves, our families, our pets, and our property safe this summer and year-round. The particular incident involved a seemingly small and innocent thing that can easily be overlooked – properly closing off natural gas appliances.   In this case, a stove burner was left slightly on after cooking dinner – enough to release gas, but not enough to fully burn, which produces carbon monoxide.   Fortunately, my colleague had a carbon monoxide detector placed in an appropriate location and was woken by it in time to get out and save her husband and dog in the process.   Her husband was one of about 50,000 Americans who will spend time in the hos

Picture this:  You walk into the library and see that the magazines and newspapers are back on display.  The comfy chairs have returned and you are free to sit and enjoy some quiet time while you catch up on the news, the new Hollywood scandal, or trying to find the perfect recipe for dinner. You go to the shelf but the magazine or newspaper you are looking for is gone, and you see there is another patron already reading it!  Well, you could just wait for them to finish, but you only have an hour to spend in the library! We have the solution to your problem with our In-house Circulating Periodical Tablets! You can sit in the library and read magazines and newspapers from around the world. Check out a tablet with your library card. Tablets circulate for 1 hour, but can be renewed if you need longer. The following apps can be found on the tablets with access built in, so no need to sign in: Flipster Flipster offers an easy, browse-a

Every season has beautiful greenery, but summer is full of spectacular blooms. Sunflowers and lilies, violets and foxgloves, zucchinis and tomatoes - the colors and species of plant life are endless. New Jersey earns its name as the Garden State with the proliferation of plants available to grow. Home gardeners have plenty of options, from nurturing seedlings to transplanting fully grown trees. Navigating this wide array can be challenging. The library is a great resource for beginner gardeners and for the more seasoned experts of New Jersey soil.       Looking to start a garden? Adam Frost, BBC Gardeners’ World presenter and winner of multiple Chelsea Flower Show gold medals, recently wrote a book called How to Create Your Garden . This book identifies modern garden needs, such as enhancing an urban landscape or suburban backyard. Budget and lifestyle are considered in this step-by-step gardening guide. Daryl Beyers, from the New York Botanical Garden, has a new book called The New G

As a librarian, I get a kick out of books about libraries – the one I am currently reading is The Midnight Library by Matt Haig and it starts with a line that caught my fancy: “Between life and death there is a library.” An excellent beginning, I thought, and promptly checked the book out. Of course, there are drawbacks to reading books about one’s chosen profession or hobby or hometown.  When you know something well there is a greater risk of coming across a statement in the book that you know to be wrong and that wrongness will jolt you right out of the story. Sometimes you can’t ever go back. To avoid that sense of falling out of the story, the safest sort of book-set-in-a-library for me is one that features a library not found in the everyday.  Maybe a library where the librarians steal books to keep the universe in balance would be the ticket.  Really – alternate realities and dragons included as well. Welcome to The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman – the first of a series.