Depending on where and when you read this, July will be almost done or completely finished. I was watching the Turner Classic Movies cable channel the other evening and was surprised they were showing a string (garland?) of Christmas movies. And then I looked at the calendar and realized it was July 25, which means one thing: Christmas is six months away. This put me in a bit of a funk because I like summer, and I don’t want to think about Christmas until at least, ideally, December. July has so much to offer—sun, sunscreen, barbecued meat, Bastille Day—and it just isn’t fair to pin July with the six-months-till-Christmas pressure. My apologies if that sounds cranky.
So, to take my mind off jingle bells and ho-ho-hoing, I decided to pick a date in July and look up famous people born on that day. Fun, right? Yes, a hoot. So which date did I choose? July 30, which revealed a great sampling of famous-birthday fun. For example, in chronological order, I found: Emily Brontë; Henry Ford; Casey Stengel; Peter Bogdanovich; and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Does the library have books and/or media about these special Leo birthdays? Yes!
To help celebrate those born in the fifth sign of the zodiac, I offer books and DVDs about the aforementioned celebrities: Emily Brontë, writer; Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company; Casey Stengel, baseball player and manager; Peter Bogdanovich, film director; and Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor, bodybuilder, and politician—be sure to check out material about these Leo personalities.
- Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character by Martin Appel.
- Great Writers: The Brontë Sisters [DVD] released by Kultur International Films.
- The Last Picture Show [DVD] directed by Peter Bogdanovich.
- The Terminator [DVD] starring Arnold Schwarnenegger.
- The Vagabonds: The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s Ten-Year Road Trip by Jeff Guinn.
New at the Library
Fiction
- The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts by Tiya Miles.
- The Couples Trip by Ulf Kvensler.
- Remember Me by Mary Balogh.
Nonfiction
- 100 Places to See After You Die: A Travel Guide to the Afterlife by Ken Jennings.
- Never Give Up: A Prairie Family’s Story by Tom Brokaw.
- Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar.
Children
- Dance with Oti: The Bird Jive written by Oti Mabuse, illustrated by Samara Hardy.
- The Department of Lost Dogs by Josephine Cameron.
- Wonderfully Wired Brains: An Introduction to the World of Neurodiversity written by Louise Gooding, illustrated by Ruth Burrows.
This is just a small sampling of the many new titles added each week to the Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries collection. Find more in our catalog, or call 360-906-5000 to reserve titles or find additional listings.
Jan Johnston, Collection Manager
Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries
You can email Jan at readingforfun@fvrl.org.
