Pegleg Parley

The pirate primer : mastering the language of swashbucklers and rogues / George Choundas.

Ahoy! Here's luck and a fair wind to you. That's a pirate's way of saying hello! The book "The Pirate Primer" will give you an introduction into the language of pirates. The author looks at a variety of different sources in literature, movies, and television to construct a book of common pirate phrases and meanings complete with terms, pronounciations, and parts of speech. This book is a neat way to pick up a few phrases to make you sound like a 'scavenger o' the seas' (one of the many terms used for a pirate). Don't forget, September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Don't be the only one of your friends to sound like a 'mutton-headed landloving ninny' instead of a 'swashbuckling privateer'.

If you are serious about learning the language of the seven seas, check out LPL's Mango Language database. They have an entire interactive course on how to talk like a pirate!

Jenny R - Reference

Pose Prose

Enlightenment for idiots:  a novel. 
By Anne Cushman

I am a student of yoga (a perpetual beginner) and am always looking for good fiction on this subject.  This novel is one of my favorites:  light but not silly; intelligent but not ponderous.  The protagonist, Amanda, is a young yoga teacher who also freelances as a writer for a 'dummies' book series. She is charged with traveling to India to research the 'simple' project of reaching enlightenment.  Her editor suggests she research it and write it in a few months:  it's a hot topic and she needs it finished soon!

Amanda, is self-deprecating and witty, but is having serious problems with a boyfriend who won't commit.  In India she encounters many crazy and interesting people and meets and becomes close to an American traveler, Devi Das.  Devi is a true enlightment seeker but is also a sweet and supportive friend to Amanda.  Local interest note:  the author characterizes him as having been a religious studies student at KU! Amanda and Devi travel through India, from one guru and ashram to another in order to investigate various paths to enlightenment.  (All of the adventures are entertaining, but the tantric yoga episode is especially funny.)

The author, Anne Cushman is a contributing editor to Yoga Journal and Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and is the author of From here to Nirvana:  the Yoga Journal Guide to spiritual India, so she knows her stuff.

How Amanda manages travel in chaotic India, comes to terms with her confused personal relationships, and finds her own version of enlightenment makes for an easy, but rewarding read.

Tricia - Tech Services

Tis the Season

Friday Night Lights:  A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger
I love the TV series, and the book did not disappoint. Pulitzer Prize winner H.G. Bissinger lived in Odessa, TX, among high school football champions for one year in the late '8os, and here tells their story with the same unfeigned love and critical honesty that made the show so fabulous. He confronts race, class, education, politics, and still makes you agonize over who the heck's gonna win the Friday night football game. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!

Rachel - Programs

If you like The Help...

Often times when a film adaptation of a book is released, the popularity of that title increases at the library, and Kathryn Stockett's The Help is no exception. The book currently has a waiting list of more than 70 people. If you're on that waiting list and are looking for something similar in the meantime, here are five titles you might enjoy as well:

	Stand the Storm by Breena Clarke Sewing Annie Coats and her son Gabriel have managed to buy their freedom and operate a tailor’s shop and laundry, but they still struggle with their former owner. As they prepare for the imminent war, they assist escaped slaves seeking freedom.
	Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill Abducted from Africa as a child and enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata dreams of returning to her home. Sold and torn away from her husband, she winds up in Manhattan and helps pen the Book of Negros, a list of blacks rewarded for service to the king with a safe passage to Nova Scotia.
	The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd Fourteen-year-old Lily is on the run with motherly servant Rosaleen, fleeing both Lily's abusive father and the police who beat Rosaleen for defending her new right to vote. The two take refuge with three middle-aged black sisters who produce the well liked Black Madonna Honey and help Lily come to terms with her past.
	Cane River by Lalita Tademy A family saga following four generations of strong-willed women born into slavery near the Cane River in Louisiana. Slaves on a Creole plantation, Elizabeth and her daughter, Suzette win freedom after the Civil War, but their own children still struggle to gain financial independence and security.
	The King of Colored Town by Darryl Wimberley Cilla Handsom and Joe Billy King must endure the backlash of the integration of their segregated school with an all-white one run by an all-white board. Cilla falls for Joe Billy, who helps her with her gift with music, but Joe Billy sacrifices himself to protect her during an assault by the Klan.

Click here for more information on Kathryn Stockett's The Help.

William - Reference

Song Dedication: I Found a Reason

When we meet Miles, the main character of Looking for Alaska, he is hanging out with his parents and two acquaintance friends at his going away party. His parents are embarrassed by this lame turnout, but Miles expected it... Instead of sticking it out at his current high school, Miles decides he will do what many of his literary heroes have done before him: go in search of the “Great Perhaps” (from the last words of François Rabelais, "I go to seek a Great Perhaps."). He decides to enroll in Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama for his sophomore year of high school, and in doing so opens himself up to a world of new experiences.

So, to Miles I dedicate “I Found a Reason” by The Velvet Underground for two reasons. Reason #1: The lyrics “If you don't like things you leave/ For some place you never gone before”. Miles was eking out an unsatisfying existence at his school and instead of accepting this as his fate, he went some place he’d never been before. And Reason #2: The character Alaska became the essence of life and mystery to him… she became his “Great Perhaps” and one of his main reasons for living (“Honey, I found a reason to keep living/ And you know the reason, dear it's you”). Miles, wherever you are, I hope you like The Velvet Underground.

Miles is obsessed with last words (as is the author, John Green). To find some choice words, check out Famous Last Words: Fond Farewells, Deathbed Diatribes, and Exclamations upon Expiration compiled by Ray Robinson

Jennifer C. - Children's