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Showing posts from June, 2014

Library Showcase: Out of Ireland

The savage loves his native shore, Though rude the soil and chill the air; Well then may Erin's sons adore Their isle, which nature formed so fair! What flood reflects a shore so sweet, As Shannon great, or past'ral Bann? Or who a friend or foe can meet, As generous as an Irishman? ~James Orr, Irish poet (1770-1816) Ireland is a very small country that has produced a very rich and dense body of writing. This month the Jessup library showcases Irish fiction. Come and take a bit o' the Isle home. (All descriptions are the publishers').  At Swim-Two-Birds A wildly comic send-up of Irish literature and culture, At Swim-Two-Birds is the story of a young, lazy, and frequently drunk Irish college student who lives with his curmudgeonly uncle in Dublin. When not in bed (where he seems to spend most of his time) or reading he is composing a mischief-filled novel about Dermot Trellis, a second-rate author whose characters ultimately rebel against him and seek vengeance.

Cool Down with New Books

Though summer has not yet officially arrived, it certainly feels as if it has. Wait out the heat wave by browsing our new books! You can always go back to checking items off your summer bucket list when C'ville stops pretending it's a sauna. It's been 100 years since World War I began, so commemorate the upcoming anniversary with  The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914  by Margaret MacMillan. Don't forget to check out two other books haunted by the shadow of the conflict:  The Secret Rooms: A True Story of a Haunted Castle, a Plotting Duchess, and a Family Secret  by Catherine Bailey, which takes place before WWI, and  Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby  by Sarah Churchwell, about the year 1922. Spice up your summer staycation with  Cool Japan: A Guide to Tokyo, Kyoto, Tohoku, and Japanese Culture Past and Present  by Sumiko Kajiyama. Or spend it immersed in the lives and memories of folk with intriguing stories:  A

And the winners are...

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The winners of the June Mathville puzzle are: Seth McElroy, winner of a $30 gift card to the PVCC bookstore. Jackie Meurer, winner of a $15 gift card to the Mermaid coffee cart. Michael Do, winner of a BIG Hershey's milk chocolate bar. Congratulations, winners! Please pick up your prizes at the library by June 19th, 2014, at 8 p.m. Thank you to all who played! And now the solution: If you open the box labeled SCARVES or the box labeled GLOVES first, you cannot be sure of what is inside. For example, if you open the box labeled SCARVES and take out a glove, you could have the GLOVES box or the GLOVES & SCARVES box. To be positive, you should open the box labeled GLOVES & SCARVES first . Because all the boxes are mislabeled, you know that this box does not have the two objects, but has either gloves OR scarves. So whatever object you remove from the box is what the box contains. So you stick your hand in and remove one object.  If the object is a g

Mathville Puzzles: Scarves & Gloves

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Sally Parker and Lisa Worthington work at the Golden Spiral Boutique on Heptagon Street in Mathville. They like to challenge each other with puzzles every day, and today is no exception.   This morning during a coffee break, Lisa said, "Sally, there are three new felt boxes in the stock room. One is labeled GLOVES, the other is labeled SCARVES, and the third one is labeled GLOVES & SCARVES.   But you see, I switched all the labels around and they are all wrong! I bet you can’t switch the labels back correctly by looking only at ONE object in ONE of the boxes. “ Sally smiled and replied, "I bet you MV$10 I can do it." "Deal," said Lisa, and they both went into the stock room, where Sally opened one of the felt boxes and took out an object. After a few minutes, Sally gave Lisa the right answer and won the bet. Can you repeat her success? Which felt box would you open first, and how would you rearrange the labels? Give the answer and explai