Submitted by:

Judy Jamesson, La Crosse County Library, Library Administration Center

January 6, 2012

S. O. L. I’m not sure what that might mean to anyone else in this day of text messages and tweeting, but to me it means “Support Our Libraries.”

When I was a child growing up in a farming area my family didn’t have a lot of money to buy things. My sisters and I learned to sew our own clothes; Dad raised corn, beans, cattle and pigs; Mom planted a large vegetable garden; so we were pretty self-supporting. Looking back I think we had better quality clothes and food then than we do now, but even so there wasn’t a lot of money for extras and that included books.

We lived a couple of miles outside a small town that had a small library, but we three girls soon read our way through most of their books. By the time I was 8 or 9, my parents were driving us twenty miles each way to the County Library. It was located in a converted house and the books filled the two biggest rooms, one for children’s books and the other for adults. As a 10-year-old I would look at the adult room and look forward to the day I could check out books from there. They were such fat, full books with such interesting titles compared to the small books in the children’s room. To a child adult things always look so much better than what is available.

While I waited to grow up I enjoyed “Caddie Woodlawn” by Carol Ryrie Brink, “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott, all of the “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, the “Betsy-Tacy” books by Maud Hart Lovelace, and anything else I could get my hands on. I loved to read.

Eventually I graduated to the adult room and found the contents to be as fascinating as I had imagined. Neither the librarian nor my parents censored my choices and I was free to read history, murder mysteries, romances or whatever caught my eye. When I was a junior in high school I became interested in the Plantagenet family of England and their descendants, the Tudors. After having read a number of historical fiction books I researched the dynasty and the time period for my term paper in my senior year. During my high school years I also read all the Perry Mason books written by Earl Stanley Gardener, a great many by Zane Grey, and many more of various authors and genres.
Looking back I feel that my vocabulary and grammar, as well as my spelling, were given a boost beyond the standard lessons offered in school. Living in the country meant there were few other kids within walking distance and I filled many evenings and weekends with books. There was no limit to the friends I had then - right up until the tenth time my mother told me to turn out the lights and go to sleep.

Later I married and raised three children, all of whom are avid readers, and when they were small I read to them each day, sometimes reading favorites so often that they could “read” them back to me, having memorized the words that went with each picture.

Through my life as a child, mother, and grandmother I have found that, to me, not having a book to read is very like a starving man with no access to food. From a very young age the library was my main source of books. I could never have afforded to buy all the books I have read. As of today my record at the La Crosse County Library shows that I have checked out 1,038 books in the 14 years I have had my library card. That averages out to one book every five days.
Given the economic uncertainties in the nation, the state, the counties and the municipalities, we need to SOL (Support Our Libraries) to the hilt. Even as money to fund them becomes harder to find, the residents of our communities need them more than ever. On these shelves you can find information, entertainment and knowledge, free for the taking. Each library facility has public access to computers for word processing, spreadsheets and the Internet. The staff members at each library are there to help you find the materials you want, even to the extent of searching other libraries in other cities or states.

Your library services are paid for when you pay your property taxes. A library card costs you nothing. The use of the materials costs you nothing. Obtaining items from other libraries costs you nothing. Daily late fines are minimal.
“Support Your Local Library.” The small amount it costs you in taxes to have a library is very little compared to what the library has to offer you. The La Crosse County Library has facilities in Bangor, Campbell, Holmen, Onalaska and West Salem. Access our web site and our catalog at lacrossecountylibrary.org. Administration phone number is 608-526-9600.

Submitted by:

Shelly Parshall, La Crosse County Library, Bangor

December 30, 2011

Well, it’s that time of year again, the time to make resolutions for the upcoming year. One of the most common resolutions is to lose weight, get fit and eat healthier. It’s not a bad one to make with studies showing that living a healthy lifestyle can lower your blood pressure and risk of heart disease as well as many other benefits.
The library is an excellent place to begin your journey to fitness. I love it that you can test drive cookbooks and exercise DVD’s before making the commitment to purchase them. We have everything from the very popular Zumba dance workout videos to yoga, Pilates and Billy Blanks Tae Bo. Exercise videos are a great way to get in shape, especially if you find treadmill workouts boring! If you’re a fan of the Biggest Loser program we also have books and workout videos by the popular Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper. Open our Web site lacrossecountylibrary.org. Type in their names and click on the SEARCH button to do an author search to see what we have available. Don’t forget the magazines; Weight Watchers, Fitness, Women’s Health, and Cooking Light are just a few of many health and fitness magazines in the library system.
Cookbooks are a definite must to utilize your library first before making the purchase. More often than not you’ll spend the money on one you think you’ll like but only find 1 or 2 recipes that you’ll actually make. Ellie Krieger’s new cookbook, “Comfort Food Fix” is one to take a look at. Ellie is a nutritionist, and author of the best sellers, “The Food You Crave” and “So Easy”, and a host of the Food Network’s “Healthy Appetite”. In “Comfort Foods” she turns traditional comfort foods into healthy alternatives, like meatloaf, lasagna and fried chicken to name a few. She lists the before and after fat, calories, carbohydrate, fiber, cholesterol, and sodium of each recipe and also the good and excellent sources of essential nutrients. I like Ellie’s philosophy on cooking. She believes in using real ingredients in moderation instead of fat free everything. She likes to mix egg whites with whole eggs; whole wheat flour mixed with white flour, and prefers to use full fat cheese, like flavorful sharp cheddar so you won’t need as much.
Bob Greene, Oprah’s fitness guru also has a book out called, “20 Years Younger”. With his science-based program he claims you can reverse the effects of aging with four pillars consisting of exercise, nutrition, skin care and sleep.
“Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights”, by Alex Hutchinson, Ph.D. is a book to take a look at if you have questions about exercise. Some of the questions he answers are; is the elliptical machine just as good as running? Is running on the treadmill better or worse than running outside? Can lifting weights fix my lower back pain? Surprisingly, the short answer to the last one is yes. Most of the answers aren’t black and white and are supported by research and studies. In conclusion what it pretty much comes down to is any type of physical activity you can do will improve your overall health.
Good luck and here’s to a successful journey on your road to health and fitness in 2012! Be sure to visit us at any of the La Crosse County Library locations in Bangor, Campbell, Holmen, Onalaska or West Salem and visit our website at www.lacrossecountylibrary.org.

Submitted by:

Sharon Aldahl, La Crosse County Library, West Salem

December 22, 2011

In the same manner as reality TV, post apocalyptic fiction is wildly popular these days. I often enjoy these books which usually involve some sort of disaster: an invasion of aliens as in Stephanie Meyers’ The Host, a natural disaster such as an earthquake followed by a flood in *One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, or an unspecified global crisis and children fighting to the death in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, for which I impatiently await the first movie, coming soon.

One such book, Vacation by Matthew Costello, takes place in a world devastated by drought and crop failure. Police officer Jack Murphy agrees to take his family on vacation only after he is forced to take leave after suffering a brutal attack by a Can Head, one of many human predators feeding off their own kind in unprotected areas of New York City. In order to get to a safe place where families can camp, swim and relax, Jack will have to drive his family outside of the Safe Zones on a long trip through the unprotected areas, places without fences, to beautiful Patterville Family Camp in the Adirondacks.

The family loads up the Ford Explorer with difficulty; after all, they have never been together outside the Safe Zone, never been to a beach, never walked on a forest trail or seen the mountains. Suitcases, coolers, swim suits, and a load of excitement are gathered as the family looks forward to the real food, fresh water, and family activities Jack and Kate remember from their own childhood. The glossy brochure of Patterville Family Camp promises it all.
Jack has plotted their route carefully and taken every precaution he can to protect his family in case of any problem. His SUV was already modified to be better than a Humvee in an accident. What the family doesn’t know about, and Jack keeps secret from them, are the items in the hidden compartment under the mat of the luggage area: Pistols, Glocks, M16s, and explosives. After all, Jack is a NYC cop just trying to do what is best for his family.

Don’t start reading this book at bedtime because this is one vacation you won’t want to last!

I’m about 50 pages into The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta. Half of the population of the world has disappeared instantly, at the same moment, not leaving any clues about what happened. This “Sudden Departure” was a random harvest, taking people from all walks of life and of all beliefs, leaving a diverse remnant behind. The story begins one year later as the “Leftovers” celebrate their first annual Departed Heroes’ Day of Remembrance and Reflection. How these ordinary people carry on will be interesting.

Stories don’t have to be totally apocalyptic to appeal to me. Nevertheless, many of my favorites seem to feature uncontrollably bad things happening to good people: The Exile of Sara Stevenson, historical fiction by Darci Hannah; Before I Go to Sleep, suspense by S.J. Watson; and *Learning to Swim; (or not learning in this case) crime by Sara J. Henry. Ask any of us at the La Crosse County Library locations in Holmen, Onalaska, West Salem, and Campbell about what we have enjoyed reading and we will be happy to steer you to one of our own favorites, not always a tragedy, but maybe something you have never tried before.

Notice that two of the books I’ve mentioned are marked with an asterisk. These two titles are free for you to check out for your eReader by clicking on the Overdrive icon on our web site at www.lacrossecountylibrary.org. Overdrive provides customized help for your computer or device – click on the Help! logo. All you need to download digital books from this site are
*a valid library card
*access to the internet
*free software from the site

Overdrive is currently gearing up for more business after the expected gifting of eReaders this season. By the time this article is in print, many more titles should be available because a million dollars are being put into statewide eBook collections late this year and into next year. Happy reading in the New Year from the staff at your La Crosse County Libraries!