Manchester City Library

The Library wants your opinion! We want to provide the best possible service and to do so we need your feedback. We’re doing a survey to collect input to help us to reconsider library hours in both buildings, assess new wireless service, and expand web services. You can respond to the survey online and at the Main Library and the West Branch.

Diet Books

Now that Christmas and the Super Bowl (sob) are over, there can be no more excuses. It’s time to start that diet. The Library has the diet books that are the old standbys – Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach and the Zone. You can also try these diet/fitness books that may help get you get started on the road to losing weight.

Picture Perfect Weight Loss by Howard M. Shapiro

Dr. Shapiro uses pictures to show it’s not necessary to diet to lose weight –you just have to choose the right foods. Picture Perfect Weight Loss uses side-by-side pictures to show how you can consume the same number of calories by eating a scone for breakfast as you would by eating oatmeal with peaches, an English muffin with jam, cherries, corn flakes with banana, 2 slices light toast with marmalade, AND orange and pineapple pieces. Shapiro does the same thing with lunch and dinner, takeout food, snacks and desserts. The Library also has Dr. Shapiro’s Picture Perfect Weight Loss 30 Day Plan and Dr. Shapiro’s Picture Perfect Weight Loss Cookbook.

The 12 Second Sequence by Jorge Cruise

With Cruise’s method of resistance training, you can burn fat and shrink your waistline and all it takes is two twenty-minute workouts each week. The 12-Second Sequence claims to shrink your waist in 2 weeks with a resistance exercises that are slowed down to a 10-second motion and 2-second motionless hold, which act to increase metabolism. This book also includes diet recommendations.

The G.I. Handbook: How the Glycemic Index Works by Barbara Ravage

This book ranks foods according to the effect they have on blood sugar, which is the basis of the South Beach and the Atkins Diet. The G.I. Handbook does a good job of explaining in plain language the science behind low-carb diets and helps construct a diet that is not as extreme as some low-carb fads.

Ultrametabolism by Mark Hyman

Dr. Mark Hyman based the weight loss plan he calls Ultrametabolism on nutrigenomics –the science of how food talks to our genes. Food contains information and instructions for our bodies –eat the right foods and send instructions of weight loss and health; eat the wrong foods and send messages of weight gain and disease. Dr. Hyman suggests that we should eat omega-3 fatty acids, avoid gluten to boos thyroid production and detoxify the body so that the liver can work properly. Ultrametabolism includes a six week plan with menus and recipes that includes phase 1 that detoxifies the body and phase 2 that rebalances the metabolism.

Don’t forget that the libraries are closed on Monday, February 18th for President’s Day.

Book Reading and Signing at West Community Library

New Hampshire author Kathy Brodsky will read, sign and discuss her newest book “My Bent Tree” at the West Manchester Community Library, 76 North Main Street, on Wednesday January 30 at 6:30 PM. Brodsky, a psychotherapist, life coach and poet, has written a warm, sensitive children’s book that will appeal to readers of all ages. “My Bent Tree” is a story about overcoming disabilities, protecting the environment, and the power of friendship. The story is followed by two pages of questions that spark discussion on the topics of people with challenges and the environment. Local artist Cameron Bennett, who contributed beautiful illustrations to the book, will also attend this event.

New Fiction Coming to the Library
Get your holds in now on upcoming fiction! You can place your holds online with a PIN number (obtainable at the Circulation Desk) or call 624-6550.

Stranger In Paradise by Robert B. Parker
Ten years after hit man Crow Comartie escapes with the spoils of a lucrative heist, Massachusetts police officer Jesse Stone is astonished when the fugitive enlists his cooperation with a job gone bad involving a young woman whose father wants her killed. This book is due out Feb. 5.

Firefly Lane by Hannah Kristin
Kate and Tully are inseparable best friends who, despite their very different lives, have vowed to be there for each other forever. They’ve kept that promise for thirty years until an act of betrayal threatens to tear them apart. Hannah Kristin is a great author that will appeal to readers who like Barbara Delinsky, Barbara Taylor Bradford, and Janet Dailey. This book is due out Feb. 5.

The First Patient by Michael Palmer
Bestselling author Palmer mixes political intrigue with his usual medical suspense in his latest novel. The disappearance of the President’s personal physician reunites country doctor Gabe Singleton with his former Annapolis roommate, Andrew Stoddard, now President of the United States. When acting as the President’s physician, Gabe finds evidence that Andrew is going insane and that the condition may not be the result of natural causes. Gabe must find the culprit before the President’s life and the future of the country is jeopardized. This book is due out Feb. 19.

Lady Killer by Lisa Scottoline
Scottoline returns with her lawyer character Mary DiNunzio in her latest legal thriller. When an old high school rival asks Mary for protection from a violent drug-dealer boyfriend, Mary finds her family, her career, and eventually her life placed on the line when she investigates the woman’s subsequent disappearance. This book is due out Feb. 19.

There have been numerous UFO sightings lately – newspapers report many Texans believe the strange lights they’ve seen recently belong to a UFO. We have our own famous UFO encounter in New Hampshire with the 1961 UFO abduction reported by Betty and Barney Hill that led to extensive media coverage, books, and a 1975 TV movie. Betty and Barney Hill’s UFO experience has been chronicled in a book by her niece Kathleen Marden and a well-known ufologist Stanton T. Friedman. This book, Captured: The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience contains the inside story about who Betty and Barney Hill were and what Betty revealed under hypnosis about her UFO experience. Ufologist Friedman reviews and refutes the arguments against the validity of the Hill abduction. This book is available at both the Main Library and the West Branch Library. It was purchased in memory of Marvin Wallace, a longtime library patron who recently died. He will be missed.

Betty and Barney Hill’s UFO experience was also described in “The Interrupted Journey: Two Lost Hours Aboard a Flying Saucer” written by John G. Fuller in 1966. Fuller also wrote “Incident At Exeter: The Story of Unidentified Flying Objects Over America” about another New Hampshire UFO incident. Both books are available at the Manchester City Library in one volume entitled “Incident at Exeter; The Interrupted Journey: Two Landmark Investigations of UFO Encounters Together in One Volume” by John G. Fuller.

For another view on alien abduction, take a look at “Abducted: How People Come To Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens” by Susan A. Clancy. The author, a post-doctoral fellow in psychology at Harvard reports on the 50 purported alien abductees she interviewed and explains the “sleep paralysis” that she believes is behind most of her subjects’ UFO reports. She takes a respectful view toward the people she interviewed and is very insightful about why they persist in their beliefs about alien abduction.

People who want to do research about UFOs might also want to look at the Air Force report issued in 1995 about the UFO incident in Roswell entitled “Roswell Report: Fact Versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert“. This report is kept in the Library’s Government Document Section and may be obtained by going to the Information Desk.

There are several movies that have recently been released that are based on books. I’m always hesitant to see a movie based on a book I really liked. Sometimes the director gets it right and sometimes the movie just isn’t as good as good as the book. Probably the worst movie based on a book was Endless Love, based on the book by the same name by Scott Spencer. The author must really have cringed when he saw Brooke Shields play his main character. The most surprising movie based on an author’s work is The Shawshank Redemption because most people don’t know Stephen King wrote the short story “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” that was the basis for the movie. The following books have recently been made into movies and are available at the Manchester City Library. All the movies mentioned will be available at the Library when they are released on DVD. See which one you like better – the book or the movie.

Atonement by Ian McEwan –This book has recently been made into a critically acclaimed movie starring Keira Knightly and James McAvoy. In Atonement a young girl makes a false accusation of rape, destroying the lives of several people. Nominated for Britain’s Booker Prize, this book has received varying reviews—from the best to the worst book ever written. Reading the book can add to understanding the characters and the plot depicted in the movie.

I am Legend by Richard Matheson – People are saying the movie based on this book that stars Will Smith is in the running for an Oscar. The book was written in 1954 and is actually a novella and ten short stories. Ray Bradbury called Matheson one of the most important writers of the twentieth century and Stephen King says the book I Am Legend was an inspiration to him. This is the story of the last man on earth – the only one who hasn’t succumbed to a virus that has transformed other humans into vampires.

P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern – Holly Kennedy, played by Hilary Swank in the movie, is a young Irish girl whose world collapses when her husband Gerry dies from a brain tumor. Gerry left Holly a series of letters –one to be opened every month—that guide Holly in her attempts to rebuild her life. Gerry gets Holly involved in some very funny schemes with her Irish friends and family. People who like Maeve Binchy and Marian Keyes will like this book.

Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane — Ben Affleck directed this movie starring Casey Affleck and Michelle Monoghan. It’s set in Boston and is the story of local private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angie Genarro working on a missing child case. Lehane’s book Mystic River was also made into a critically acclaimed movie.