Winter Reading Program!

Pipestone County Star January 31, 2013

It gets to this time of the winter and I’m already tired of the cold.  No matter how much I complain about how I hate the heat in the summer time and how much I’m looking forward to winter, inevitably it gets too long, even for me.  I’d rather just sit on my couch and read until the plants start to grow again and I can go outside without wrapping a scarf fifty times around my head.

The Winter Reading Program! Hot Reads for Cold Nights started on January 1^st and will continue until the end of March.  You still have plenty of time!  The next time you stop in to check out a book, make sure the circulation librarian gives you a punch card a bookmark!  Twelve books will fill up your card and you can receive a prize when you turn it in.  We’ve got coffee mugs, magnet clips, chocolate bars, post-it books, and a few other sundries.  Only one prize per person, but that shouldn’t stop you from filling as many cards as you can.  At the end of March, we will have a grand prize drawing from all the punch cards we have received – the more punch cards you fill, the more chances you have of winning!

To keep you going, here are some ideas for books that will put a little more thrill into your chill and a few plans we have to shake things up around here!

Agenda 21, by Glenn Beck and Harriet Parke

What was once America is now under the control of the UN, a program called Agenda 21.  Citizens live in identical concrete quarters and are required to do two things: create clean energy and create new humans.  A young woman named Emmeline is caught in this world, the only thing she’s ever known, walking her energy board every day and accepting the male partners that the Authorities instruct her to.  And then one day, they come for her mother, who can no longer help with energy or babies and is of no more use.  And Emmeline discovers that saving her mother is more important than anything else.

The Third Bullet, by Stephen Hunter

Bob Lee Swagger is involved in searching for answers to a conspiracy that has captivated the nation since November 22, 1963.  Why did the third bullet explode?  Why did Oswald return to his rooms after the assassination?  How could a conspiracy be created in only the two days between the announcement of the route and the actual day of the parade?  This thrilled brings Swagger and Hugh Meachum into direct opposition, Marine Sniper versus CIA Veteran.  This book will have you on the edge of your seat.

Blood Gospel, by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell

An earthquake in Masada kills hundreds and reveals a tomb of a mummified girl, a puzzle that proves to be undeniable for a trio of investigators: a forensic expert, a priest, and an archaeologist.  A brutal attack on the site sends the trio running in a race to preserve the treasures of the tomb: a book supposedly written in Christ's own hand.  This book is well-written and, while fiction, will have you trembling with revelation.

Just a reminder – you can add an email address to your account in order to receive notices when a book you are waiting for becomes available.  The library system will also send an automatic email when a book is overdue.  The Library will NOT use your email for any other purpose.

February is BookLovers Month and we’ve got a plan!  We’ll be having a “Blind Date with a Book” event all month and we’ll have a selection of juvenile, young adult, and adult fiction WRAPPED so the covers and titles can’t be seen.  Interested patrons can pick a package and check out the item inside for a change of pace.

March is Read Across America and we will be displaying books that took place in different states so patrons can “travel” around the country if they feel the urge.

Book Club Reminder: Book Club meets the fourth Thursday of the month at 7:00 PM in the Meinders Library conference room.  The next meeting is February 28^th and the book is Defending Jacob by William Landay.  Everyone is welcome and if you need a copy of the book, please let us know and we can order you one!

If you have questions or have a book you’d like to reserve or renew, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at (507) 825-6714.  The hours for Meinders Library are Monday through Thursday from 10 AM – 8 PM, and Friday and Saturday from 10 AM – 5 PM.  Meinders Community Library is located at 1401 7^th Street SW, on the south side of the high school.

What's Up With the Mayans?

Pipestone County Star – 01-10-13

So the world didn’t end on Friday, December 21^st like the Mayans supposedly told us it would.  Or perhaps I should say various crazy people told us it would.  Personally, I was almost hoping for it, since the end of the world would mean no more car payments, but we would have missed Christmas…

I wanted to know just how this prediction came to pass, so I thought it might make a good column – hope you enjoy it!

The Mayans were a very advanced culture that inhabited southern Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador.  They flourished from around 1800 BCE (Before Common Era) until 900 CE (Common Era) with their golden age occurring right around the end of that time.  For some reason, around 900 CE, they abandoned their fantastic villages, temples, and pyramids, scattering to the four winds.  Mayan is still spoken as a language in the area, but the ruins are just that – ruins.  Their architectural prowess was on par with the Romans, including irrigation systems, sophisticated mathematics and astronomical calculations, and yes, even the calendar.

This is what all the fuss is about – a stone tablet found in southern Mexico in the 1960s.  According to this tablet, called Monument Six, something is going to happen in the year 2012 involving Bolon Yokte, their god of creation and war.  It doesn’t say what is going to happen, nor does it give an exact date – that part of the carving was damaged.  So how did they come up with the date December 21^st, 2012?

According to Mayan scholars, the civilization used three different calendar methods simultaneously with one another: The Long Count, the Tzolkin (divine calendar) and the Haab (civil calendar).  To go into detail about all of these would be terribly painful, but it is interesting to note that their civil calendar also had 365 days, just like our Julian calendar. 

The Long Count consists of 5 Great Cycles, each of which are 1,872,000 days long.  According to those same scholars, the last Great Cycle began on the 11^th of August in 3114 BCE, meaning that the last day of that Great Cycle was December 11, 2012.  Astronomically speaking, there was also a close conjunction of the winter solstice sun with the galactic equator (the midline for our galaxy) at 11:00 pm Greenwich mean time on that date as well, something that would have last happened 26,000 years ago with the beginning of the first Great Cycle. 

So the question is, were the Mayans tracking this conjunction or did they simply need to go to the store to buy a new calendar?  I’m not being facetious (well, maybe a little), but if an archaeologist unearthed the calendar from my house, would he think that we thought the world would end on December 31^st of that year simply because I had not purchased a new one?  An interesting thought.

So, since we’re all still here to read this, obviously the scholars were right and the world wasn’t set to end.  We can hope, however, for a time of change that will lead us in a better direction and possibly bring more positive energy to the planet and all its inhabitants.   Hope you had a great holiday and welcome to 2013!!

PAFL Update:  Pipestone Area Friends of the Library is looking for members – anyone who is a friend to Meinders Library is welcome to join!  The Friends group works hard to promote the library, raise money for projects, and organize their yearly book sale, in addition to the HUGE amount of support they provide throughout the year.  For more information, please contact the library!

Book Club Reminder:  Book Club meets the fourth Thursday of each month (except December) in the Meinders Library conference room.  The next meeting is January 24^th at 7:00 PM and the book is The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman.  Everyone is welcome. 

If you have questions or have a book you’d like to reserve or renew, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at (507) 825-6714.  The hours for Meinders Library are Monday through Thursday from 10 AM – 8 PM, and Friday and Saturday from 10 AM – 5 PM.  Meinders Community Library is located at 1401 7^th Street SW, on the south side of the high school.