The Cheapskate Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of Americans Living Happily below Their Means.
Yeager, Jeff (author).
June 2010. 240p. Broadway, paperback, $12.99 (9780767931328). 332.024.
REVIEW.
First published July, 2010 (Booklist).
Ah, yes, belt-tightening is the procedure of the day, from how giant businesses conduct themselves to managing one’s own personal finances. It is the latter aspect of conservative spending that the author of the popular Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches (2007) and of the blog Green Cheapskate addresses in this delightful—yes, delightful—guide for me, you, and everyone else. Personal finance...
The Staircase by Ann Rinaldi. Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults Winner Legend has it that the beautiful spiral staircase in Santa Fe's Chapel of Loretto was built with miraculous speed by a mysterious carpenter. Around this apparent miracle, Rinaldi spins a melodramatic tale narrated by a resilient, nineteenth-century teenager. After Lizzy's mother dies on the trail to...
Sunday Smirk #37: Make Cosmopolitans
Libraries & the Jobs for Main Street Act: Urgent Action
Out of Work Librarians Need Your Help NOW! The Senate has passed its first round of the jobs bill, however sources on Capitol Hill indicated that there will be more jobs legislation proposed. Please contact your Senators and tell them that whatever jobs legislation is being considered, library workers need to be included. Click here to learn how you can help.
Laura and Libraries
Before our daughter Laura started school, her favorite time of the week was Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning meant Book Buddies, a weekly story time program at a local library for kids ages four through six. In addition to hearing great stories read aloud by an expert storyteller, Laura and the other children got to make a craft each week, color a page of their own book creation, and play a rhyming game which allowed them to transform the stories they heard into silly stories of their own.
We are a family of readers; even Laura’s name comes from her mother’s favorite childhood books (Laura Elizabeth Ingalls came up in our very first conversation on our very first date, ah the romance of books). Our house so overflows with books that we annually load at least two laundry baskets with “extras” to donate, in order to make room for the many new additions to our collections — especially Laura’s — that continue to arrive. And while books have always been a big part of Laura’s life, we could never have imagined where they have taken our ten-year old little girl.
East Elmhurst, a community that was carved out of the surrounding areas of Jackson Heights and Corona, is a bustling area that has seen rapid demographic changes over the years. The first people who settled in the area, eastern Europeans, have since been succeeded by Italians, African-Americans, Haitians, Asians, and others. Read more...Queens Library at East Elmhurst: A Neighborhood That’s Alive with Jazz and More
Facing Cuts, NYPL turns to Improv Everywhere for Viral Advocacy Video
Fearing severe budget cuts more than ghosts, New York Public Library teamed up with public pranksters Improv Everywhere to host one of IE's missions at the library—and produce a viral video supporting NYPL's "Don't Close the Book on Libraries" advocacy campaign in the process.
"We are facing a $37 million budget cut from the city of New York," NYPL spokeswoman Angela Montefinise told American Libraries. As a result, she said the library is trying to reach out to new audiences, and Improv Everywhere offers audience in abundance.
The library contacted Improv Everywhere, but IE largely developed the prank on its own. "We said we wanted them to do something and we wanted to incorporate the closing of a book," to support the campaign theme. "They went with it." Read more...