Make Life Luxurious–Without the Complication

It’s a common saying that integrity is doing the right thing when no one’s there to notice. In that same vein, I think that luxury might be enjoying impressive things when no one is around to notice.

Do you ever:
Save your best new shirt for an important occasion?

Pull out your stylish glassware only for company?

Wear your nice PJs for when you might be seen?

Own guest towels that are way nicer than the ones you use on a daily basis?

A Little Luxury Goes a Long Way
Consider switching your routines up and save your best luxuries for the privacy of your own home, on your own time. It doesn’t take any extra money, so no worries about blowing your disposable income for the month on a whim. And it doesn’t take any time out of your life either.

Enjoying your pre-existing treats on your own time is about the least complicated way to make your life luxurious without any complication. It’s really just a matter of chucking self-imposed limitations out the window.

The hardest part, really, is getting used to treating yourself. It feels positively sinful to “waste” those perfectly good items on just yourself, doesn’t it? (I just about broke into hives when I started using my “good” Fiestaware for everyday use. By the time I actually broke a mug, it was almost a relief to get it over with.)

Remember: It’s Just Stuff, and You’re Worth It
There’s a good chance that most of us have a few luxurious, treasured, or special items tucked away, waiting to be pulled out to impress the right person. Guess what? You are the right person!
When there’s no one around to compliment your excellent taste or burn with jealousy at your cool possessions, you can truly start enjoying things for their genuine qualities, not their perceived value. Not only are you upgrading your life a notch without any real work, you can start to let go of the need to impress others.
What’s the worst that could happen? You might actually get the full usage out of an item before it wears out? You might enjoy your favorite possessions and rituals? Hmm. Sounds like dangerous living in the best possible way…

What do you think? Does luxury have to be shared or showed to be enjoyed? If an expensive bottle of champagne is consumed in private, does it still taste as good?

On Simplicity website.

http://www.onsimplicity.net/2009/06/make-life-luxurious-without-the-complication/

September New Books (additional)

Vanishing Act By Fern Michaels
For the women of the Sisterhood, planning a lavish reception for their longtime ally, attorney Lizzie Fox, at their lux mountain retreat is the ideal way to unwind after their latest successful mission. The only cloud over the happy occasion is that their mentor, Charles, is still mysteriously absent.But amid the friendly bickering about floral arrangements, cake tiers, and wedding favors, the ladies of Pinewood receive a frantic phone call from Nikki’s fiancé, Jack Emery. Harry Wong – Yoko’s true love and a staunch supporter of the Sisterhood – has become the victim of a ruthless identity theft ring. Harry’s bank accounts have been closed out, his beloved dojo is being foreclosed, and he’s being evicted. Distraught, Yoko is about to rush down the mountain to Harry’s aid when the Sisters intercept her. A situation like Harry’s requires finesse, careful planning, and the Sisterhood’s distinctive brand of vigilante justice…


Spartan Gold by Clive Cussler 9/1
Thousands of years ago, two superpowers of the ancient world went to war, and a treasure of immeasurable value was lost to the shadows of history.

In 1800, while crossing the Pennine Alps with his Grand Reserve Army, Napoleon Bonaparte stumbled across a startling discovery. Unable to transport it, he created an enigmatic map on the labels of twelve bottles of rare wine. When Napoleon died, the bottles disappeared-and the treasure was lost again.

Until now. Treasure-hunting husband-and-wife team Sam and Remi Fargo are exploring the Great Pocomoke Swamp in Maryland when they are shocked to discover a World War II German U-boat. Inside, they find a bottle taken from Napoleon's famous "Lost Cellar," and fascinated, they set out to find the rest of the collection. But another connoisseur of sorts is hunting his own prize, and the Lost Cellar is his key to finding it.



The Last Song by Nichaolas Sparks 9/8
Seventeen year old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller's life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alientated from her parents, especially her father...until her mother decides it would be in everyone's best interest if she spent the summer in Wilmington with him. Ronnie's father, a former concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating a work of art that will become the centerpiece of a local church.
The tale that unfolds is an unforgettable story of love on many levels--first love, love between parents and children -- that demonstrates, as only a Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that love can break our hearts...and heal them.



The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown 9/15
The controversial plot of his new novel, The Lost Symbol, has been one of the most guarded secrets in publishing history and is widely expected to focus on the mysterious Masons organisation.
But experts have criticised the author for 'twisting history' in the new book, in which the first U.S. President George Washington
is believed to be condemned as a traitor.

It is believed to be based on the idea the Holy Grail was taken to Scotland in 1368 by a Scottish Knight Templar, Henry Sinclair - the grandfather of the man who built the Rosslyn Chapel.
It features the symbol of the 33rd degree of the Scottish rite of Freemasonry, the highest rank within the craft in this country.




13 1/2 by Nevada Barr 9/29
In 1971, the state of Minnesota was rocked by the “Butcher Boy” incident, as coverage of a family brutally murdered by one of their own swept across newspapers and television screens nationwide.

Now, in present-day New Orleans, Polly Deschamps finds herself at yet another lonely crossroads in her life. No stranger to tragedy, Polly was a runaway at the age of fifteen, escaping a nightmarish Mississippi childhood.
Lonely, that is, until she encounters architect Marshall Marchand. Polly is immediately smitten. She finds him attractive, charming, and intelligent. Marshall, a lifelong bachelor, spends most of his time with his brother Danny. When Polly’s two young daughters from her previous marriage are likewise taken with Marshall, she marries him.
However, as Polly begins to settle into her new life, she becomes uneasy about her husband’s increasing dark moods, fearing that Danny may be influencing Marshall in ways she cannot understand.


The Perfect Christmas by Debbie Macomber 9/29
For Cassie Beaumont, it's meeting her perfect match. Cassie, at thirty-three, wants a husband and kids, and so far, nothing's worked. Not blind dates, not the Internet and certainly not leaving love to chance.
What's left? A professional matchmaker. He's Simon Dodson, and he's very choosy about the clients he takes on. Cassie finds Simon a difficult, acerbic know-it-all, and she's astonished when he accepts her as a client.
Claiming he has her perfect mate in mind, Simon assigns her three tasks to complete before she meets him. Three tasks that are all about Christmas: being a charity bell ringer, dressing up as Santa's elf at a children's party and preparing a traditional turkey dinner for her neighbors (whom she happens to dislike). Despite a number of comical mishaps, Cassie does it all—and she's finally ready to meet her match.
But just like the perfect Christmas gift, he turns out to be a wonderful surprise!

September New Books

The Missing by Beverly Lewis 9/8

Twenty-one-year-old Grace Byler longs to find her missing mother and to uncover the secret that drove her to leave them three weeks before. Grace suspects the reason has to do with her father and his reserved, uncommunicative ways. This conviction led Grace to break off her betrothal to her quiet, staid beau, and she is now resigned to remain single. But when the young Amishman she thought was courting her best friend takes a sudden interest in her, Grace is befuddled and wonders if he can be trusted. "Englisher" Heather Lang has come to Amish country to relive fond memories of her mother and to contemplate a grave medical prognosis of her own. While in Bird-in-Hand, Heather meets Grace Byler and the two young women strike up a fast friendship, amazed by how well they click. Following the only clue they have, Grace and Heather travel together in hopes of finding Grace's mother and bringing her home. Will they find what they're looking for...or something much more?



Blood's A Rover By James Ellroy 9/22
The violence begins with an unsolved 1964 L.A. armored car heist that will come to have major repercussions later in the novel, as its effects ripple outward from a daring robbery into national and international affairs. There's Howard Hughes's takeover of Las Vegas, helped along by Wayne Tedrow Jr., who's working for the mob. The mob, meanwhile, is scouting casino locations in Central America and the Caribbean, and working to ensure Nixon defeats Humphrey in the 1968 election. Helping out is French-Corsican mercenary Mesplede, who first appeared in Tabloid as the shooter on the grassy knoll and who now takes under his wing Donald Crutchfield, an L.A. peeping Tom/wheelman (based, curiously, on a real-life private eye). Mesplede and Crutchfield eventually set up shop in the Dominican Republic, where the mob begins casino construction and Mesplede and Crutchfield run heroin from Haiti to raise money for their rogue nocturnal assaults on Cuba. In the middle and playing all sides against one another is FBI agent Dwight Holly, who has a direct line to a rapidly deteriorating J. Edgar Hoover (the old girl) and a tormented relationship with left-wing radical Karen Sitakis, and, later, Joan Klein, whose machinations bring the massive plot together and lead to more than one death.


The Lost Art of Gratitude by Alexander McCall Smith 9/22
Isabel’s son, Charlie, is now of an age—eighteen months—to have a social life, and so off they go to a birthday party, where, much to Isabel’s surprise, she encounters an old adversary, Minty Auchterlonie, now a high-flying financier. Minty had seemed to Isabel a woman of ruthless ambition, but the question of her integrity had never been answered. Now, when Minty takes Isabel into her confidence about a personal matter, Isabel finds herself going another round: Is Minty to be trusted? Or is she the perpetrator of an enormous financial fraud? And what should Isabel make of the rumors of shady financial transactions at Minty's investment bank?

Hardball of Sara Paretsky 9/22
In her search for a black man who disappeared in 1967, Lamont Gadsden, Vic reconnects with some of her father Tony's old police colleagues; pays a prison visit to Johnny Merton, a notorious gang leader she once defended in her lawyering days; and tracks down Steve Sawyer, who disappeared following a murder conviction. Vic confronts an ugly period in Chicago's history, a peaceful march in 1966 by Martin Luther King that resulted in a white riot and the murder of a young black woman, Harmony Newsome. Digging into this ancient history stirs passions and fears of what secrets might be revealed. The apparent kidnapping of Vic's fresh-out-of-college cousin, Petra, who's come to Chicago to work on a senatorial campaign, raises the ante


Hothouse Orchid by Stuart Woods 9/22
When Holly returns home to Orchid Beach, Fla., where she was once chief of police, she's reunited with both welcome and unwelcome figures from her past. Renegade ex-CIA agent Teddy Fay, sporting a new identity, has chosen to settle in nearby Vero Beach. Lauren Cade, a former military comrade, is now a sergeant with the Florida State Patrol. Holly is shocked to learn that James Bruno, her former commanding officer who was tried and acquitted of raping Lauren and who once tried to rape Holly herself, is Orchid Beach's new police chief. Holly's not so shocked to learn that a serial killer and rapist is at work in the area.

There Goes The Bride by M.C. Beaton 9/29

James Lacey wandered over to the window of his hotel room. His fiancée, Felicity, was asleep. He was feeling some twinges of unease. What he loved about Felicity was the way she looked at him with her large eyes, appearing to drink in every word.
But on the plane journey, he wondered if she were listening to him. “The order to charge was given,” said James, “and a spaceship landed in the valley and some little green men got out.” “Fascinating,” breathed Felicity. “You weren’t listening!” “Just tired, darling. What were you saying?”

James heard a commotion down below the hotel. He opened the window and leaned out. A woman had tripped and fallen getting into a cab. He only got a glimpse but he was suddenly sure the woman was Agatha. A familiar voice rose on the Crimean air, “Snakes and bastards!”

Bossy, impulsive, yet hopelessly romantic, Agatha is dreading the upcoming marriage of her ex-husband, James Lacey. Although she has set her sights on a handsome and beguiling new Frenchman, she can’t quite stop obsessing about James.
Her best intentions to move on with her life are put on hold when James’s young bride is shot to death just minutes before saying “I do,” and Agatha is named the prime suspect. Agatha’s sleuthing sidekick Toni stands ready to help find the real killer, but the case proves trickier than ever.
Will her name be cleared, or has the outrageous Agatha finally had her last romp?

Rough Country by John Sanford 9/29

Virgil's always been known for having a somewhat active, er, social life, but he's probably not going to be getting too many opportunities for that during his new case. While competing in a fishing tournament in a remote area of northern Minnesota, he gets a call from Lucas Davenport to investigate a murder at a nearby resort, where a woman has been shot while kayaking. The resort is for women only, a place to relax, get fit, recover from plastic surgery, commune with nature, and while it didn't start out to be a place mostly for those with Sapphic inclinations, that's pretty much what it is today.

Which makes things all the more complicated for Virgil, because as he begins investigating, he finds a web of connections between the people at the resort, the victim, and some local women, notably a talented country singer. The more he digs, the more he discovers the arrows of suspicion that point in many directions, encompassing a multitude of motivations: jealousy, blackmail, greed, anger, fear. Then he finds that this is not the first murder, that there was a second, seemingly unrelated one, the year before. And that there's about to be a third, definitely related one, any time now. And as for the fourth . . . well, Virgil better hope he can catch the killer before that happens. Because it could be his own.

Apples Storytime

APPLES! APPLES! and more APPLES!!
Tuesday, September 8th

This summer the library and staff were fortunate to have guest story readers and the tradition continues today with guest reader Betsy Singer.







Children enjoyed coloring their apple trees.

Wednesday, September 9th

Library Director Bonnie reads stories about apples. The children helped her count the number of apples on the heads of the characters in the story. We also talked about their favorite apples and whether their like just eating apples or baking them in pies and crisps.

Children color their own apples trees and wow there were a lot of variation in the color of the apples.


More pictures of this and other events can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kassonlibrary/

Feeling Good About Feeling Old

I turned 59 last week and had a great party with friends, who are in the same boat age wise as I am. I've been thinking that when I turn 60 next year to start a new traditon. Celebrate the whole month of August as many of my friends have done this for years and really have a wonderful time doing special things for themselves during the month. At first when I heard them say they take the whole month I thought how selfish and foolish. But the older I get I find it is important to take time for yourself and your family and friends.

So along those lines I found this great blog from On Simplicity(http://www.onsimplicity.net/) that expresses exactually what I feel and think about birthdays and having another day on this side of the green grass. To me everyday is a gift and should be savored and appreciated.


I’m not one to worry about getting older or avoid birthdays. (Give me another decade and I might get a bit more concerned, but I hope not.) In fact, as another birthday approaches, the overwhelming feeling I have is, “Thank goodness I’m older!” Think I’m kidding? Try these reasons on for size:

You can live the way you only dreamed about as a kid.
I had big dreams for myself when I was younger. I’d wear high heels and spunky outfits, I’d get to do whatever I wanted, eat whatever I choose, and generally have fun every hour of every day. Adulthood hasn’t panned out quite like that (some hours downright suck and I’ve grown very fond of flats), but the fantasy is still there, always within reach. Even with a job to hold down and a family to consider, we all have a great deal of freedom—the kind of freedom that would’ve made our childhood selves drool. Anytime you feel old, just remember that you can eat ice cream for lunch and wear clothes your mom would never allow. Your life clearly rocks.

Mellowing out is not quite the slow death you might once have imagined.
Mellowing out doesn’t necessarily mean turning in at 7 p.m. and turning up the Kenny G. It’s more like not having to worry so much about what the rest of the world thinks. It also means not panicking at the thought of going to dinner alone or flying solo. Enjoying a night on the couch as much as a night on the town doesn’t actually equate to death anymore which, to be honest, frees up a lot of mental energy for better things. When “OMG!” is replaced by, “Huh. Interesting,” as your first reaction, you’re in the driver’s seat of life.

You’re both less patient and more patient.
If patience is a virtue, it’s a questionable one. As an adult, you’ve likely developed great reservoirs of patience by dealing with crazy girlfriends, kids, and spouses for years. Lots of things roll off your back because you’ve learned that there are better things to worry about. On the other hand, you’ve probably been burned (or simply annoyed) enough to have lost patience for family drama, workplace drama, and overly needy pals. Experience makes it easier to detect b.s. and the energy-suckers who serve it up. Losing patience with those parts of your life is a great thing.

You have so many more memories that you wouldn’t trade for anything.
Sure, it may sound fun to be 17 again, to do all the rights and live life with the confidence you have now. But would you ever want to go back to a younger age if it meant you lost all the memories you’ve built up? Think of all the friends in your life, all the books you’ve read, the laughs you’ve shared, and the places you’ve traveled. Would you trade those for naivete? Probably not. Each year isn’t time lost, it’s memories and experience gained.

PICTURES & MORE PICTURES

Take time to look at all of the photos that have been taken during the Summer Reading Program

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kassonlibrary/

August New Books

206 Bones by KathyReichs 8/25

There are 206 bones in the human body. Forensic anthropologists know them intimately, can read in them stories of brief or long lives, and use them to reconstruct every kind of violent end.

Tempe and Lieutenant Ryan had accompanied the recently discovered remains of a missing heiress from Montreal to the Chicago morgue. Suddenly, Tempe was accused of mishandling the autopsy -- and the case. Someone made an incriminating phone call. Within hours, the one man with information about the call was dead. Back in Montreal, the corpse of a second elderly woman was found in the woods, and then a third.

Fire and Ice by J.A. Jance 7/21
Seattle investigator J. P. Beaumont is working a series of murders in which six young women have been wrapped in tarps, doused with gasoline, and set on fire. Their charred remains have been scattered around various dump sites, creating a grisly pattern of death across western Washington.

At the same time, thousands of miles away in the Arizona desert, Cochise County sheriff Joanna Brady is looking into a homicide in which the elderly caretaker of an ATV park was run over and left to die. All the man has left behind is his dog, who is the improbable witness to some kind of turf warfare—or possibly something more sinister.

Then a breakthrough in Beaumont's case leads him directly to the Southwest and into Brady's jurisdiction. When the two met on a joint investigation years earlier, sparks flew. Under different circumstances, both of them admit, even more could have happened.

The Deep Blue Sea For Beginners by Luanne Rice 8/4
Years ago, Lyra Davis left behind a world of wealth and privilege and the people she loved most in the world, unable to reconcile the expectations of her celebrated family with the longings of her own wild heart. Now she lives quietly among a community of expatriates on the isle of Capri, slowly, carefully learning to live fully for the first time, flourishing in the friendship of a singular man who recognizes in her a kindred spirit.

Granddaughter of the reigning doyenne of Newport, Rhode Island, wise beyond her sixteen years, Pell Davis is poised to take her place at the pinnacle of society. Yet she and her young sister still long for the mother who ran away from them when they were children so that they could be raised by the father they adored. Pell knows that Lyra felt she loved them best by leaving. But with her father now dead and her sister veering dangerously into fantasy, she will travel across an ocean to find the mother she remembers and the deeper truths they all need so desperately….

Smash Cut by Sandra Brown 8/11
The murder of Paul Wheeler has all the elements of a blockbuster: family rivalries, incalculable wealth, and a prominent man dying in the arms of his beautiful mistress. It's a case that could earn Derek Mitchell even greater star power. When the Wheeler family approaches him about defending Creighton for his uncle's murder -- even before he's charged -- he jumps at the chance.
But Derek soon discovers that Julie will stop at nothing to secure justice for Paul -- and that includes preventing Derek from defending Creighton. Infuriated, Derek realizes that his hands have been tied in a way that could not only cost him the case, but ruin his entire career.

Intervention by Robin Cook 8/11
It’s been more than thirty years since New York City medical examiner Jack Stapleton’s college graduation and almost as long since he’d been in touch with former classmates Shawn Doherty and Kevin Murray. Once a highly regarded ophthalmologist, Jack’s career took a dramatic turn after a tragic accident that destroyed his family. But that, too, is very much in the past: Jack has remarried—to longtime colleague and fellow medical examiner Laurie Montgomery—and is the father of a young child. But his renegade, activist personality can’t rest, and after performing a postmortem on a young college student who had recently been treated by a chiropractor, Jack decides to explore alternative medicine. What makes some people step outside the medical establishment to seek care from practitioners of Eastern philosophies and even faith healers?

Blindman's Bluff by Faye Kellerman 8/11
As a lieutenant in the LAPD, homicide detective Peter Decker doesn't get many calls at 3 a.m. unless a case is nasty, sensational—or both. Someone has broken into the exclusive Coyote Ranch compound of billionaire developer Guy Kaffey and viciously gunned him down, along with his wife and four employees.
A well-known figure on both the business and society pages, Kaffey, with his sons and his younger brother, Mace, built most of the shopping malls in Southern California and earned a reputation for philanthropy, donating millions to worthy causes. It doesn't take long for Peter, his trusted detectives Scott Oliver and Marge Dunn, and the rest of his homicide team to figure out that the gruesome killings must be an inside job. Things become even more entangled when they discover that Kaffey's largesse had included organizations that extended second chances to delinquents, many of whom Kaffey had hired for his personal security. But was the job pure murder/robbery or something even more twisted? A developer of Kaffey's magnitude doesn't make billions without making more enemies with blood grudges.

Alex Cross's Trial by James Patterson 8/24
The year is 1906, and America is segregated. Hatred and discrimination plague the streets, the classroom, and the courts. But in WashingtonD.C., Ben Corbett, a smart and courageous lawyer, makes it his mission to confront injustice at every turn. He represents those who nobody else dares defend, merely because of the color of their skin. When President Roosevelt, under whom Ben served in the Spanish-American war, asks Ben to investigate rumors of the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in his home town in Mississippi, he cannot refuse. The details of Ben's harrowing story--and his experiences with a remarkable man named Abraham Cross--were passed from generation to generation, until they were finally recounted to Alex Cross by his grandmother, Nana Mama. From the first time hear heard the story, Alex was unable to forget the unimaginable events Ben witnessed in Eudora and pledged to tell it to the world.

Even Money by Dick Francis 8/25
O n the first day of Royal Ascot, the world’s most famous horse race, the crowd rejoices in a string of winning favorites. Ned Talbot has worked all his life as a bookmaker— taking over the family business from his grandfather— so he knows not to expect any sympathy from the punters as they count their winnings, and he his losses. He’s seen the ups and downs before—but, as the big gambling conglomerates muscle in on small concerns like his, Ned wonders if it’s worth it any more.When a gray-haired man steps forward from the crowd claiming to be his father, Ned’s life is thrown into far deeper turmoil. He’d been told since he was a baby that his parents had died in a car crash.Barely an hour later, his newly found father is stabbed by an unknown assailant in the Ascot parking lot. Blood oozing from his abdomen, his father warns Ned to “be very careful.” But of whom? Of what? Ned finds himself in a race to solve his father’s riddle—a race where coming in second could cost him more than even money—it could cost him his life. . . .