Staff Picks: Short Story Collections

Posted by Staff

Sometimes you don't want to read a whole book, but still crave a good story.  What to do?  Try a short story collection. Some authors specialize in shorts, but quite a few well known writers regularly create less wordy works.  If you are a fan of any of these author's novels, you will love the collections. Give one a try!

Alana T.:  The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson by Kim Stanley Robinson.  (Overdrive e-book).  Robinson is best known for his lengthy sci-fi novels, often part of very lengthy series.  An excellent storyteller, he is able to create interesting characters and gripping situations in much shorter formats.  This collection includes sci-fi, but also has some great general fiction.  Highly recommended.

Fragile Things by Neil Gaimen (Overdrive e-book).  A compelling collection of stories, mostly with a supernatural bent.

20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill. One of the best classic-style ghost story writers today.  His novels are all great, and he is able to write compelling short stories that keep you hooked.  His gift for the shorter works is also exemplified by his Locke & Key graphic novels (jump to a previous post for a short review).


Riley W.: Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell.  Short stories involving  vampires, people that turn into moths and other topics that captivate you, all while teaching lovely lessons about life struggles.

Susan C.:FaceOff (edited by David Baldacci).  Eleven stories featuring twenty-two authors—members of International Thriller Writers—who pair-off to present their characters together in the same story.This concept for an anthology is unique, and readers familiar with the characters will jump right into the stories like meeting a familiar friend. New readers will find the main players quickly defined and presented in full character. Recommended for all!

Below are two other highly rated collections that both staff and patrons have recommended:

This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz. In prose that is endlessly, inventive, tender, and funny, the stories in This Is How You Lose Her lay bare the infinite longing and weakness of the human heart. They remind us that passion always triumphs over experience, and that “the half-life of love is forever.

St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell.  Russell's stories are beautifully written and exuberantly imagined, but it is the emotional precision behind their wondrous surfaces that makes them unforgettable. Magically, from the spiritual wilderness and ghostly swamps of the Florida Everglades, against a backdrop of ancient lizards and disconcertingly lush plant life 'in an idiom that is as arrestingly lovely as it is surreal' Karen Russell shows us who we are and how we live.

Checking Out Books With 3M and Polaris

Posted by Staff

In addition to Overdrive, we subscribe to the 3M Cloud Library -a service that allows you to download e-books for your electronic device (for compatibility and apps, visit this site). To browse all the 3M titles, visit our online catalog, do a keyword search for ‘3M’ and  limit the format to “e-books”.   When you check out books via this service, they will appear on your library account.  

Currently, we have over 4000 titles and more are added each month. You can further limit by genre and publication date.  Both non-fiction and fiction selections are available.  Three books can be checked out at a time (renewals are not currently allowed), place holds and return books early.  

You will need a valid library card to use the 3M Cloud Library App. The 3M Cloud Library automatically syncs to all your devices that have the 3M Cloud Library App downloaded to them. When looking up your library, select Illinois Heartland Library System (Edwardsville Public Library is not an option).

We have a PDF on our website with instructions and the 3M site has an extensive list of FAQs.  As always, if you have questions or need help with your device, call or stop by the library for assistance.

Download our Staff Cookbook - Free!

Posted by staff
We've added a PDF version of our staff cookbook to our website and it is available to anyone, free of charge.  Our goal was to have it available as a free download on Amazon for the holidays, but it is surprisingly tricky and difficult to offer a free Kindle download.  We're working on it!  So for those of you with Kindles or Nooks, we apologize, but we will have this gem available as soon as we can in both EPUB and Kindle versions - for free. Thanks for your patience.

Coming Soon! The Edwardsville Public Library Cookbook

Posted by Staff

The Edwardsville Library Staff are jumping onto the e-book revolution by publishing a cookbook!  We've compiled our favorite recipes, both from cookbooks and family members, and we're sharing them with you.  The cookbook will be published in two formats, Kindle and E-Pub, so matter what type of e-reader or app you have, you can try a recipe or two.  We will also have a PDF version available for a short time on our website.   All versions will be available as free downloads.

While you wait for publication (next week), try this no-fail, super easy recipe shared by Joyce D.  It is staff tested and approved, not to mention highly recommended!

Applesauce Cake

Adapted from a 1970s version of the Good Housekeeping cookbook

Makes 12 servings.

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 15-ounce jar applesauce (1 ½ cups)

1 ¼ cups sugar

2/3 cup shortening

1/3 cup milk

2 eggs

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp salt

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp ground cloves

1 cup dark seedless raisins

½ cup California walnuts, chopped

Confectioners’ sugar, optional

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a 13” by 9” baking pan (bundt pans work well, too).

2.  Into large bowl, measure all ingredients except raisins, nuts and confectioners’ sugar; with mixer at low speed, beat until well mixed, constantly scraping bowl with rubber spatula.  Beat at high speed 3 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl.  Stir in raisins and nuts.

3.  Pour batter into pan and bake 40 to 45 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool cake in pan on wire rack. 

4.  If you like, sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.

Magazines On the Go - Zinio!

We have added a new option for e-content available for download - now we have magazines!  Zinio is a service by Recorded Books (a major company in the audiobook industry).  The library subscribes to 100  e-magazines, many of which we do not hold as print versions.

The service is simple to use.  If you are using Zinio from home, click on the link on our webpage, you will have to log on using your Edwardsville barcode and PIN.  On your first visit, you will have to set up an account using an email address and password.  Your account keeps track of which magazines you have checked out (5 maximum) at any particular time. If you don't finish reading something, you can go back to that issue later by logging in again.  Once you are done with an issue, you can delete it from your reading list.  If you download the Zinio reader to your electronic device (phone, e-reader or pc), you can download magazines and read them when not online.

At this point, we don't have access to back issues, but we hope to provide that service in the future.  As always, if you have any questions, give us call.

Kids And E-Readers

Posted by Staff

Sorry for the length of this post, but there is some interesting information here.  Scholastic recently released a new study on kid's reading in the digital age.  They study found that children reading ebooks has nearly doubled since 2010.  For more details or to download the full report, visit the Scholastic Site.  Tell us what you think!



Kids, Families and  e-Books

• The percent of children who have read an ebook has almost doubled since 2010 (25% vs. 46%
• Among children who have read an ebook, 1 in 5 says s/he is reading more books for fun; boys are more likely to agree than girls (26% vs 16%).
• Half of children age 9-17 say they would rad more books for fun if they had greater access to ebooks - a 50% increase since 2010.
• 75% of kids who have read an ebook are reading them at home, with about 1 in 4 reading them at school.
• 72% of parents are interested in having their child read ebooks.
• 80% of kids who read ebooks still read book for fun primarily inprint.
• Kids say that ebooks are better than print books when they do not want their friends to know what they are reading, and when they are out and about/traveling; print is better for sharing with friends and reading at bedtime.
• 58% of kids age 9-17 say they will always want to read books printed onpaper even though there are ebooks available a slight decrease from 2010 (66%).

Kids' Reading Frequency and Attitudes Toward Reading

• Among girls, there has been a decline since 2010 in frequent readers (42% vs. 36%, reading enjoyment (71 vs. 66%), and the importance of reading for fun (62% vs. 56%).
• Compared to 2010, boys are more likely to think reading books for fun is important (39% in 2010 vs 47% in 2012), but they still lag girls on this measure (47% for boys in 2012 vs. 56% for girls in 2012).
• Frequency of reading books for fun is significantly lower for kids age 12-17 than for those age 6-11; frequency of reading books for school is also lower for kids age 12-17 than for those age 6-11.

Parents' Role in Kids Reading Practice

• About half of parents (49%) feel their children do not spend enough time reading books for fun, while the vast majority of parent think their children spend too much time playing video games or visiting social networking sites.
• The percentage of parents who say their child does not spend enough time reading for fun has increased since 2010 across all age groups of children (36% in 2010 to 49% in 2012).
• Having reading role-model parents or a large book collection at home has more of an impact on kids' reading frequency than does household income.
• Building reading into kids' schedules and regularly bringing additional books into the home for children positively impact kids' reading frequency.

Summer Reading

• 99% of parents think children their child's age should read over the summer.
• 86% percent of children say they read a book (or books) over the summer.
• On average, kids say they read 12 books over the summer.

Need Help With Your New E-Reader?

Posted by Staff

We've seen an increase in the number of people stopping by the circulation desk with their new e-readers.  Many of our staff use devices of their own, and if you have general questions about downloading e-books or the basics of how to use your device, we can help.  If you prefer, we have a set of self-help PDF's for Kindles, i-Pads and Nooks. You can view these online, or print one out to use at home.

We also have a wide variety of e-books available for you to check-out and download through OverDrive.  At the beginning of January, we had over 5300 e-book and 1300 audiobook titles from which you can choose.   You will need your Edwardsville barcode and PIN.  If you don't know your PIN, call the circulation desk to set a new one. 

Things to know about downloading e-books from the library:
1.  You will need your Edwardsville barcode and PIN to start an account.  If you don't know your PIN, call the circ. desk to set a new one.  If you are not an Edwardsville patron, contact your home library to see if e-books are available to you.
2. E-books are just like paper books in the library; there are limited numbers of copies available.  If a title is checked out, you have to put a 'hold' on it, and your name is added to the hold list.  You will be notified via e-mail when the book is ready for you.  You have a few days to check it out and download it.
3.  You can check-out five books at a time.
4.  Books can be returned early.  Files may remain on your device after the loan period, but they can't be read.  You must check out the book again.
5.  You can search by genre, title, author, or type of device/file.  See our PDF's for more on this.
5.  An e-reader can also be used to listen to audiobooks - and you can download those as well.

As always, if you have questions, please let us know.

Visit Beautiful Old Books From the Comfort of Home



Poissons, Ecrevisses et Crabes, de Diverses Couleu  - 1719 - Renard, Louis (author) - Amsterdam - The Warnock Library

Posted by Alana T.

Do you love old books - really, really old books?  Jump over to rarebookroom.org.  This educational site provides access to high quality digital scans of some of the great books of the world.  Where else would you get the chance to see Copernicus' book describing the earth orbiting the sun, Shakespeare's First Folios, and copies of Beethoven's sheet music?

From their home page: "Over the last decade, a company called "Octavo" digitally photographed some of the world ’s great books from some of the greatest libraries. These books were photographed at very high resolution (in some cases at over 200 megabytes per page). This site contains all of the books (about 400) that have been digitized to date. These range over a wide variety of topics and rarity. The books are presented so that the viewer can examine all the pages in medium to medium-high resolution."

Old books are a source of much fascination with the public.  Popular novels have been written about the mysterious, lost book, collectors spend fortunes buying rare books at auction, and a near endless supply of myths circulate featuring ancient tomes.  Interestingly, few people get a chance to see a real example of an old book.  The experience can be both awe-inspiring and disappointing.  The books themselves can be stunning (beautiful, hand-done illustrations, intricate bindings), but they can be difficult to read.  And be advised, most of these books are not written in English.  Still, they are beautiful. Jump over and take a look.

Staff Summer e-book Picks

Posted by Staff

Many of the staff regularly download e-books and we use a variety of types of readers (Nooks, Kindles, Sonys, phones, tablets, computers, the list goes on).  To request and/or checkout e-books, visit Overdrive and follow the instructions (or download one of our PDFs).  You will need your barcode and PIN; if you have questions, give us a call and the circ staff can help you with the process.

Following were some of our favorite summer e-reads:

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baster.  A fantastic collaboration between these two well known sci-fi authors.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.  A prize winning young adult book that is very readable for adults.

Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by Barry Estabrook.  A fascinating look at the recent history of the tomato and why the quintesential summer food disappoints us at the grocery store.

The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian.  An historical love story from Syria 1915 to New York 2012.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  A woman disappears on the day of her 5th anniversary.  Is her husband a killer???

A Taste For Death by P.D. James.  One of the early Inspector Dalgliesh novels, it is a classic, good British mystery.

Heaven is Small by Emily Schultz.  A great summer read about a man who lands a job at a romance publishing house and suspects that he really is in Heaven.

The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne.  A sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  A little adventure, a little action, and a little old-fashioned sci-fi make this classic a good choice.