Mercer County Library Blog

Every April, Mental Health America (MHA) celebrates Stress Awareness Month to raise public awareness about the causes and cures of stress. This annual event is a great opportunity for everyone - individuals, families, and organizations - to take a step back and reflect on the impact of stress and to become more proactive in creating healthier lives. Stress is a normal part of life, but too much can be damaging to our physical and mental health. It can cause physical ailments such as headaches and muscle tension, as well as mental health issues like depression and anxiety. The good news is that stress can be managed, and even prevented, with some simple lifestyle changes. During Stress Awareness Month, MHA encourages people to take time to recognize the signs of stress in their own life and to take steps to reduce it. For example, it’s important to make time for yourself, to get enough rest and exercise, and to practice relaxation techniques such as dee...

Our website is full of helpful information regarding the services and items we provide system-wide and individually at the library. One of the most popular new pages and information we have is our book club lists page! Located at https://mcl.org/events/book-clubs/ or via the navigation menu: Events → Book Clubs, you can find a list of all the book clubs we offer at all the branches (including our virtual ones)! On this page, you will find the date, time, and location of each book club along with the next upcoming book. If you select (click on or tap) “Click here to go to…”, you will be taken to the book club’s page that includes all of the past and any upcoming books selected for the club. This is useful if you are trying to understand what type of novels the book club reads to see if it’s in line with what you are looking for (see what kind of vibes the book club gives off). If you click on the image of the book or the button that says, “Borrow It” you will be taken to the item in ...

Sometimes it’s nice to just be told what to do. In this blog post, I offer you recommended books from a variety of celebrities. Is it possible in our jaded and superficial world that some of these choices were chosen for publicity reasons? Yes, that is very possible. Don’t worry, though - PR representatives have good taste, and I wouldn’t recommend these titles to you if I didn’t support them. They are all available through the Mercer County Library System. If you read any of these books, whether you love or hate them, give Andrew at the Lawrence Branch Reference Desk a call and he’ll try to get your thoughts into our MCLS universe. Or, let us know in the comments. I hope you enjoy them! The Candy House by Jennifer Egan ISBN: 9781476716763 Celebrity Fan: Barack Obama Summary: “The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so successful that he is "one of those tech demi-gods with whom we're all on a first name basis." B...

I had read too many good books in a row, sucked in first by Jane Eyre  by Emily Brontë, which I had not yet read, then Arabian Nights and Days by Najīb Maḥfūẓ, Participation by Anna Moschovakis, and A Room With A View by E. M. Forster. As each book unfolded its plot and its atmosphere for me, I felt like a child with a flashlight up late and under the covers. But then I tried one book and another, and didn’t like either. The first was unredeemably sad, with a heaviness I felt would only increase as I read. The second was simply terribly written. Absurdly, I began to feel that I had run out of books. Even at the library, literally surrounded by them, I felt that I had run out of books for me . Because I so enjoyed Jane Eyre and A Room With a View , I was on the hunt for more classics that I had missed, but I have read so many, and the ones I haven’t read… maybe there’s a good reason for that. How ridiculous for a librarian to feel this way! I have a friend who feels overwhe...

What is the first thing you think of when you hear about a book being a cozy mystery? A bake shop? A lighthouse? Cats and dogs on the book’s cover? Food and recipes along with a good story? All of those would be great answers. And you always get a happy ending with any cozy mystery. But for me, the first thing I think of when I hear a book is a cozy mystery is the awesome titles. Let’s face it, when it comes to creativity in writing there is nothing quite like the title of a cozy mystery. The play on words for every title is enough to grab your attention right away. Who could possibly stop themselves from taking a look at a book with a title like Death by Tart Attack ? You have to wonder what comes first for some of these awesome novels. Does the author come up with a title and then figure out a way to build a book around it? One day author Amy M. Reade thinks The Worst Noel , and from there a book idea is born. With all of this in mind, I’ve put together my top 10 list of the best...

We know it’s important to recycle, but some items, like computers and other tech, can present more of a challenge than others. Recycling is often thought of as the third R in Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle but did you know there’s actually a fourth “R”? By focusing on these 4-Rs we can help reduce our e-waste responsibly. The blog, Going Zero Waste , by Kathryn Kellogg has a good breakdown of the 4-R’s .  For more of Kathryn’s Zero Waste living tips, check out her book, 101 Ways to Go Zero Waste . REFUSE what you don’t need. REDUCE what you have. REUSE what you can. RECYCLE or compost what you cannot. ( Source :  About the Lingo - Going Zero Waste ) With this in mind, let’s walk through some simple ways each of us can reduce our e-waste! Refuse This step stops waste before it even happens. Thinking about getting a new gadget? Pause and consider if you really need it. If it’s not something that’s serving a true immediate need, choose an amount of time to wait before making ...

March is Women’s History Month and it is the perfect time to give a shout out to one of my favorite picture books , The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch. It’s funny and clever, but moreover, it provides the perfect example of girl power! This book was way ahead of its time, too. Books with strong, spunky female characters bucking stereotypes are much more commonplace in 2023, but that was not the case when The Paper Bag Princess was published in 1980. According to a story on  The Official Website of Robert Munsch , the idea for the book came from his wife (very fitting). They were both working in a child care center at the time, and Munsch was telling the children lots of dragon stories. His wife asked him, “How come you always have the prince save the princess? Why can’t the princess save the prince?” And so, The Paper Bag Princess was born! The book begins, “Elizabeth was a beautiful princess. She lived in a castle and had expensive clothes. She was going to marry a princ...