The Gathering Storm is Here

The Gathering Storm is here. As I told you in previous blog messages Robert Jordan, the author of the Wheel of Time series, passed away before ending the series. Brandon Sanderson was chosen by the widow of Robert Jordan to finish the series. The end of the series was so long that it was decided to break it into 3 parts, The Memory of Light. The Gathering Storm is the first of the three books. I finished the book last weekend and I was really impressed by the combination of Robert Jordan's story told by the master fantasy writer, Brandon Sanderson. I had previously read all of the books a few years ago. In anticipation of the new books, I re-read the first five. When The Gathering Storm came out I abandoned the reading of previous books and read it. I was surprised how familiar everything was, Brandon Sanderson supplied background where needed, and there was incredible action. He went from main character to main character telling their story just like Robert Jordan had. I saw an interview Brandon Sanderson did on the book tour, he said that any main characters left out of this book will show up in the last two books. Rand and Egwene were highlighted as they faced their own inner fears and major threats from enemies and sometimes friends. We also got to see Mat and Perrin and Nynaeve and Aviendha and Min and Siuan all with their own problems, defeats and triumphs. It's like visiting with old friends. There are new people to become acquainted with too. I highly recommend this book, you could probably read it without reading the others but it will make more sense if you read the previous books. The Gathering Storm is being catalogued right now but will be available soon for check-out. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Change Your Brain Change Your Life

"New York Times Bestseller" -non-fiction by Daniel G. Amen is a detailed account of the recent extensive research into the functions of each and every portion of your brain. Not only does it give the functions of the brain but the how and why.It is very much in detail of not only of the tests that have been developed in this study ,but the different treatments . It is available now in audio-book (cd) form at Larson. Very interesting for those of us that like to know what effect our brain has on our behavior! Speedy

The Gathering Storm

The Gathering Storm will be released on October 27, 2009. This is the first book of the three that will complete The Wheel of Time series. Robert Jordan, the author of the first 11 books, passed away last year. His widow chose Brandon Sanderson, a well-known fantasy author himself, to complete the series using Robert Jordan's notes. Brandon Sanderson has recently published his own new book, Warbreaker. The Gathering Storm continues the story of the small group who left the Two Rivers area, Egwene, Nynaeve, Perrin, and Mat, to follow the young man who would become The Dragon Reborn, Rand al Thor. Others joined them along the way, Elayne, Aviendha, and Min. They, and many more, are involved in helping Rand in his fight against The Forsaken and The Dark Lord. The books are very detailed, full of unusual characters, exciting battles, and romance. All of the books should be available in the Navajo County libraries and I highly recommend them if you love Fantasy like I do.

New Hours

The library started new hours March 2, 2009. We are now open 9:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. We are closed Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We are aware that not everyone is happy with the new hours but we also recognize someone would be unhappy no matter what hours we were open.

We do expect a reduction in overhead costs and the wear and tear on employees. In spite of a 10% increase in patrons in 2008 we have not hired additional staff and as the Town has instigated a hiring freeze in all departments, we don't expect to hire anyone anytime soon.

The library staff and the community is better off than many other communities that have had to close branch libraries or severely reduce operating hours and layoff staff. And we still have over 27,000 items in the library including BOOKS, audiobooks, music CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes that will never die, magazines, newspapers, community information, and yes, computers with internet access. The library also has WiFi that's always on.

The material check-out periods are very generous--2 weeks for a Bestseller, 3 weeks for regular books, 1 week for DVDs and magazines, 3 weeks for audiobooks. And we allow 1 renewal for everything except Bestsellers, DVDs, and magazines. And it's all FREE!

So some people might have to adjust their schedule to get to the library but we have all had to make adjustments to our budgets, schedules, retirement plans....