Last month, the American Library association named the Coretta Scott King Lifetime Achievement Award. Walter Dean Myers is this year’s winner, and we have many of his books. One of my favorites is the story of a nineteenth century African princess who was adopted by Queen Victoria. Sarah’s (royal) family was killed by an invading enemy kingdom when she was only about 6 years old. A British army officer stops her enemies from sacrificing the child by convincing the king to give Sarah as a gift to Queen Victoria. From that moment, Sarah’s life changed forever. At Her Majesty’s Request is a fascinating and well-researched story of a little-known episode in both African and British history.

Books that we have by Walter Dean Myers are:

Fiction in the Wright Children’s Room

• 145th Street: Short Stories
• Darnell Rock Reporting
• Hoops
• The Journal of Joshua Loper: a Black Cowboy
• The Nicholas Factor
• Patrol: an American Soldier in Vietnam
• Scorpions
• Somewhere in the Darkness
• The Young Landlords

Non-Fiction in the Wright Children’s Room

• Amistad: A Long Road to Freedom
• At Her Majesty’s Request: An African Princess in Victorian England
• The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage
• Here in Harlem: Poems in Many Voices
• Now Is Your Time!: the African-American Struggle for Freedom

Fiction in the Teen Section

• The Beast
• The Legend of Tarik
• Monster
• The Outside Shot
• Somewhere in the Darkness

Non-Fiction in the Teen Section

• Bad Boy: A Memoir
• The Greatest: Muhammad Ali
• Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary
• One More River to Cross: An African-American Photograph Album

It never seems to fail… if I so much as think about installing a new application in Facebook, I am almost guaranteed to get a virus on my machine. It’s gotten so bad that I no longer take any of the cutesy quizzes, use any of the “artist” programs, or even play many of the games. I ignore most invitations from friends to join this or that – although that has a lot to do with the amount of time I am willing to devote to Facebook, too – and I almost never play any of the videos.

And still, I get attacked by malware and viruses. Thankfully, I use a good (free) antivirus program, backed up by a purchased one, and a couple of good anti-malware programs. They tend to catch most everything that comes my way. My favorite free anti-virus program is Avast, although AVG is also very good. I also use Malwarebytes and Ad-Aware against malware, and I’ve also used Spybot.

Recently, though, I’ve found myself helping to clean other computers infected with “Internet Security 2010” or some variant of it. This is a pernicious program that makes the unwary person think that he or she has a virus, then requires the purchase of an expensive program that (you guessed it) doesn’t exist. But hey, now they have a valid credit card, so it’s time for them to go on spending spree! Grrrrrrr…

If you are infected, then it’s really not difficult to clean it off, but it is time consuming. Anyone who has taken one of my computer classes knows that I am very much a do-it-yourself person whenever possible about computers, and there are some great sites to walk you through cleaning this virus. I really like bleepingcomputer.com, because the instructions are step-by-step with pictures.

If using your computer to access the internet is impossible, please come by the library. We can print out the instructions for you, and even help you download the files to your flash drive. In fact, I have most of them on my computer now, ready simply to be copied. Like I said, I’ve done this a number of times already!

Just before Lent begins, I am having a Mardi Gras for my brain and gorging on my old fantasy favorites. Right now, I’m reading Mercedes Lackey’s novels of the SERRAted Edge, the first of which is Born To Run. Now, I don’t think anyone would accuse Ms. Lackey of being a “Great Author,” but for a plain-ole-fun fantasy novel that draws you into the story and lets you forget the world around you, you really can’t beat her. You won’t find heavy themes here (although the story does have darker elements about teen runaways, prostitution and child abuse) but you find… elves. Ms. Lackey writes several series dealing with elves, and in each one the race is different. In the SERRAted Edge novels, they are among the good guys as well as the bad guys. They can’t create things on their own, they are allergic to caffeine, and they race. As in car racing. In Georgia. And, oh yeah, the good elves (and their human friends) fight explosive mage battles with the bad elves.

Obviously, the series is light. I frequently burst out laughing (or at least a good deal of snickering) as I am reading, and anyone around me is treated to a reading of the section. The story follows a human mage (Tannim) who, if you were reading very carefully, you met in Jinx High as a friend of one of the protagonists. He’s an adult now, and in the very first scene of the book he rescues a redneck ghost haunting a stretch of highway. His day job is as a “Test Mechanic/ Driver” for Fairgrove Industries, a front company for the car-racing elves. Add a 65-year-young Irish engineer, an elven lord raised by humans, and a teen runaway in a heap of trouble. Season with evil elves waging an ancient blood feud against Fairgrove. Mix liberally with Celtic myth and modern Georgia, and you have something that is simply fun to read.

Genre: Urban Fantasy.
Why I read it: It’s a Mercedes Lackey novel, and I haven’t read one of her books yet that I haven’t enjoyed. Good battle scenes, teen coming-of-age, magic, usually humorous or at least with light moments. Kind of like a serious reader’s cotton candy… sweet, fun, not very heavy and definitely to be enjoyed.
Who should read it: Fantasy lovers, teens, young adults and adults who are young at heart. Fantasy lovers who can also laugh at the genre.

Beginning Computer Class for today, Wednesday, February 10th is cancelled due to the weather. Be safe and we look forward to seeing you next week.

Did you know that when you search Google, the first website that comes up is not necessarily the one with the best answers? It’s the site that gets the most traffic, or the most visitors. In other words, the information that you get may not be as useful, or even as true, as what you might find on another site. But even given search strategy will usually land you thousands, if not millions of possible “hits.” Who has time to look through that many search results? What can you do, but click on hits on the first few pages, increasing their traffic, and thereby keeping them on the top of Google’s results pages.

But sometimes you find that jewel of a hit. Sometimes there are even sites that are perfect for your project that simply aren’t indexed by the search engines, but you learn about from a friend. That’s where the thrill of research lies… the unexpected discovery. And that’s one of things we are trying to help you find at Hamner Library. We have set up a Delicious account to organize sites that we have discovered. If you have a site you’d like included, please let us know. If you submit enough really good sites, we’ll even train you in how we tag the sites once we save them. Yes, there really is a system, although we usual “regular” descriptions as well as the more formal language of traditional subject headings.

Right now, the collection of sites is heavy on religion and history… that’s because I am converting my personal Delicious links to the Hamner Virtual Library. Help me add links… submit them to me at dbrowe <at> hamnerlibrary.org, bring them to the Library, or simply leave them in a comment after this blog. Just remember that the comments are moderated, so your first comment won’t show immediately. This is your chance to show off the off-beat as well as the traditional sites that you know, love, and more importantly, USE.

We will have a special Valentine’s Day Craft with Carla this Wednesday at 4:00 pm. Come make pop-up cards for your friends, parents, and (if you have them) your sweeties. This program is intended for children between the ages of 7 and 12, but as most of you know, Carla teaches participants of all ages! See you there.

The Amelia County offices (and this includes the Library) closed at 12:30 today. We are closed on Saturday as well. Also, please check closings listed on Channel 12 for more information.