Mercer County Library Blog

Following up a critically and commercially successful 2022 in the film industry after several years of hardship, movie studios have set the stage for 2023 to be incredibly exciting at the theater. In anticipation of the new year in film, the following list contains 10 major movies releasing in 2023: 1. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (April 7 th , 2023) directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) produced by Illumination is the first film to be based on the iconic video game franchise since the disastrous Super Mario Bros. (1993) live-action film and the forgettable Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! (1986) anime film before that. The new film has an all-star celebrity voice cast with Chris Pratt (Mario), Anna Taylor-Joy (Peach), Charlie Day (Luigi), Jack Black (Bowser), Keegan-Michael Key (Toad) and Seth Rogan (Donkey Kong). Recent trailers have made it clear that King Bowser and his Koopa army seek to conquer Mushroom...

As the end of the year rolls around, many people start to think about New Year’s resolutions, and often that involves their personal finances. According to the Statista web page " What Are Your 2022 Resolutions ", financial goals were the fifth most common type of resolution. But what can you realistically achieve? And is it too late to make a positive change in your finances? If you use the resources available at the Mercer County Library System, you can follow through on your financial New Year’s resolutions at every stage of your life. Maybe you’ve just graduated and have gotten your first job. Now your financial resolution might be to start building your credit and saving towards retirement. If so, then you may want to look at Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties . It shows you how to stay within a budget, build your credit, and start investing wisely. Maybe you’ve established yourself in a career, put some money in stocks, but you find that it just isn’t enou...

Winter is my favorite time of year to cozy up in front of the fireplace with a warm blanket, a mug of hot chocolate and a good winter rom-com book! What is a rom-com book? A rom-com is short for romantic comedy. You guessed it...there are two parts: a light and fluffy central love story and a happily-ever-after with some humor and spice mixed in. There are so many rom-com books. Try reading a few of these this winter. Happy reading! In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren "Love Actually meets Groundhog Day in the quintessential holiday romance by the New York Times bestselling author of The Honey-Don't List"-- Maelyn Jones is living with her parents, hates her job, and just messed up her love life. She is dreading the family's last Christmas at their Utah cabin, but one random wish and she may just get a do-over." - from the publisher The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer "When her publisher insists that she write a Hanukkah ...

It’s that time of year again. Halloween candy has been consumed, the Thanksgiving meal and its leftovers have been eaten, and Christmas is barreling down on us. There are many things to love about Christmas - the food, the gifts, the decorations, the whole “peace on Earth” aesthetic - but today let’s talk about the music. The music collection at Mercer County Library System is top notch and that includes our Holiday collection. All the albums I’m going to discuss are available for checkout both digitally (through hoopla) and physically, unless otherwise noted. These albums are not ranked in any particular order; and this is just a selection of some of our Christmas albums. The first album I’ll be looking at is Motown Christmas *, not to be confused with Christmas with Motown , a different, but also good, holiday album. Motown Christmas is sixteen tracks of holiday goodness wrapped in the world-famous Motown sound. For those who don’t know, the Motown sound was a sophisticated blend o...

STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math, and as a kid, I had a love for it all way before it had a cool acronym. Throughout school, I had always been more interested in science and math courses, drawn to facts and messy experiments. History, English literature, and writing? Not for me! I love learning about how things work or how volcanoes form or what happens when you mix vinegar and baking soda or what ingredients do you need to make the best slime. A lot of our patrons at MCLS love them too - we have an extensive collection of over 5,000 science books in our juvenile nonfiction section! They range from fact books about animals and space to dinosaurs and fossils. We even have books featuring hands-on experiments for kids to try at home (or at the library - I use a lot of these ideas in my Mini Scientists programs where we introduce simple science concepts to toddlers and preschoolers). Check out this recent blog by Miss Gr...

Biography is my favorite type of book to read. Each biography gives me an opportunity to experience second-hand (in the case of an autobiography) or third-hand (in the case of a biography) events that I have not actually lived through, to visit places I have not actually traveled to, to live through another person’s experiences and learn from them or be entertained by them. Reading through others’ eyes helps me get another perspective—on world events, on travel, on everyday life, on personal tragedy. A biography is a book written about a particular person’s life. In an auto biography, the author writes about themself—with or without some degree of help from a coauthor or ghostwriter. Memoirs are a collection of memories about specific events in a person’s life, like a book of short stories.  History You could spend years reading the many biographies written about popular historical figures such as Queen Elizabeth II or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Titles include The Last Queen: E...

The Icelandic Christmas tradition, Jólabókaflóðið, translates as “Christmas Book Flood.” Have you heard of it? Earlier this year, I did. The custom is to gift your household family members each a book for Christmas. The wrapped packages are opened at the end of the night on Christmas Eve. Everyone cozies up with hot cocoa or another preferred hot drink and reads their new gifts. (Thinking of “hygge,” I imagine there are lit scented candles involved too.) It is such a nationwide tradition that in the autumn each year, the Iceland Publishers Association delivers a book catalog for free to every household in the country on the occasion of the Reykjavík Book Fair. Jólabókaflóðið is a relatively new tradition. Its roots began during World War II and the necessity of war rationing. Paper and paper goods, unlike other commodities, were easier to access so books were items that people could buy and gift. When researching for this blog post, I learned that Icelanders rank high in the number o...

Dear Tech Guru, My Chrome browser says my passwords on 35 sites have been compromised. Just changing one took forever. Any advice? Signed: On Dangerous Ground   Hi On Dangerous Ground, I’m sorry to hear that your passwords have been compromised! This seems to be a common occurrence for many of us online these days. There is no easy way to update your passwords, but this leads me to wonder if you are using the same password for multiple websites. If so, this is considered a safety concern and you should make sure to create a different password for each website for logging in. A new password for each log in can be a lot to remember, but I suggest coming up with a simple system. When creating a new password, I follow this simple yet effective pattern. I pick a word I associate with the website, a special character, and a four-digit number combination. For example, if I was creating a password for a website where I shop for shoes, I...