Halloween Countdown # 4

As a kid growing up in NY we had the best TV of anywhere (is that proper english?). We had great movies on the Early Show, the Late Show, Million Dollar Movie and Chiller Theater and all of them showed a variety of horror and monster movies. We also had Zacherley (John Zacherle with an added Y) who was the best horror host of all time, not to mention funny (that laugh!) and brilliant at improvisation before, after and during the horror movies he hosted. He was one of the first people I had a crush on. I mean, who wouldn't? We ALL were mad about him. In looking for footage from those shows there wasn't a lot available, but here are some miracle of embedding clips from Youtube. It will maybe give you some insight into the mystique of  Zacherley.

And one of the most fun clips is a combination of Zacherley and 60's dance crazy teens:

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN #3

Today's Halloween cartoon:

Giant pumpkins are a thing around here. A friend of ours who is a local farmer won two first prizes in one day at two different fairs for his giant pumpkins:Hiram Watson Giant Pumpkins. He was very generous with the champion seeds which he brought to the Goodwin Library Gardeners' Roundtable seed swap:

Once you have your giant or regular size pumpkin and are trying to decide how to carve it... you might want to turn to the master, Extreme Pumpkin Carver Tom Nardone. Here he shows you how to get started:

So grab your power tools and lighter fluid and make your pumpkin a true Halloween statement!

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN #2

Here is another cartoon favorite:

And our embedded treat of the day: The Trailer for "The Walking Dead" season 2! This is a terrific show which manages to be tense and scary and has that great "Love Actually" lead Andrew Lincoln. Tune in tonight at 9:00:

Now, if you want to read a great and different sort of "zombie' series, try the addictive "Forest of Hands and Teeth" trilogy. Here's the book trailer:

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN!

I've said before how much I LOVE Halloween. We have a lot to celebrate with scary movies, Halloween cartoons and I'll be doing a Halloween Cartoon Club on Monday at the library. This week I was invited by a cartoon group called the Trees and Hills Cartoonist Group to be part of their ultra-cool idea of giving out original Halloween mini-comic books instead of candy for Trick-or-Treat. Here's a link where you can buy these really fun comics for very cheap: Trees and Hills Halloween Comics . My "Perfect Pumpkin" story will be included in this package!
I will be posting a Halloween cartoon a day until Halloween along with links and surprises, ending with a true horror story graphic mini-novel on Halloween which is Monday, October 31! So stay tuned!
Here is one of my favorite older halloween cartoons:

And now, once again through the miracle of embedding, the trailer for Case 39 which I watched on Netflix and booooo to you critics for panning this movie. It is actually quite creepy due to likable Renee Zellwegger as a child advocacy social worker and the adorable little girl (Jodelle Ferland) who is Case 39, the file dropped on her desk that puts an added stress on her caseload...and her life!

The Perfect Pumpkin

The semi-tragic tale of a perfect pumpkin for your Halloween enjoyment!

 

STUNG!

A few weeks back I was out in the garden
admiring the eggplants.

I reached in to pick one.

When something STUNG me!!!!

 I didn't know what it was! It was hidden by the leaves!

Not only had I been STUNG(!) But it was my DRAWING HAND!!!

I thought it might have the stinger left in so I went to the Doctor to get it checked out. With drawing hands...you can't be toooo careful.

Militant Recommender

I take home the Library Review journals every week and read through them to put in book orders. I put in for a LOT of books over the years. Lots of great reviews but the trick is to convince patrons to try new authors so I am constantly recommending. When you know a patron pretty well...you'll know what books to recommend to them. It's a fine art, getting people to try your favorite titles so they won't just sit there on the shelf with just their spines showing susceptible to weeding. I have a special shelf where I put my real favorites and then the Adult Floor staff have two small bookshelves on a table with a mix of all our favorites. Many patrons go right to these areas and it always makes you happy to see those titles get a chance to go out there and entertain someone new! I just did this new Cafepress design based on all this:

Click here to see all the gifty things with this design!

Now, I'll list 18 of my most frequent recommendations below:
1. June Bug by Chris Fabry
2. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
3.The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond
4. My Abandonment by Peter Rock
5. The Bride's Farewell by Meg Rosoff
6. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by  Jacqueline Kelly
7. Book of Bright Ideas by Sandra Kring
8. Miss Harper Can Do It by Jane Berentsen
9. Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard
10. The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant (I wrote about her "Glass Demon in my previous post, so I'm recommending that, now, too!)
11.Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
12. In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard
13. The End of Everything by Megan Abbott
14.  A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
15. The Summer Book by Tove Janssen
16. Selected Work of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen
17. The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman.
18. In the Woods by Tana French
Gad, I could just keep going with these!
These are not counting series I recommend like the Hunger Games and the Forest of Hands and Teeth and Louise Rennisen's Georgia books. All terrific!
I am also loving "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern, which is brand new and magical. I like different takes on circuses and carnivals like "Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Ray Bradbury and "The Circus of the Earth and of the Air" by Brooke Stevens.
Not to mention that this is Banned Book Week. Lots of recommendations, there, but you can find those lists all over.  So, happy reading, everyone!