Quote of the Week

A room without books is like a body without a soul.
~ Marcus T. Cicero ~

Staff Picks
Check the blog every Wednesday for updates on what our staff is reading and watching and recommendations for our new and all-time favorite books and movies. What is your favorite book or movie? Post your answer in the comments section below. To see all previous Staff Picks posts, simply type "Staff Picks" in the search box at the top left of this blog and click the "search blog" button.

Kevin Fagan, Mission Viejo resident and author of the comic strip Drabble, will be speaking at the Norman P. Murray Community and Senior Center on Wednesday, March 26th at 7p.m.

You can Read Kevin's books Mall cops, ducks and fenderheads and Son of Drabble at the library.

In honor of his upcoming visit this week's staff picks (recommended by Jeff) are some additional comic strips or films based on comic strips you might enjoy.

Krazy & Ignatz: "there is a heppy land, fur, fur awa-a-ay" by George Herriman
Before television, movies, and even radio, newspaper comic strips were the entertainment for the masses. Recently, publishers have been reprinting the old strips in collections. One of the more surrealistic of the early strips was Krazy Kat & Ignats. With a kindhearted, innocent kat and a conniving mouse with a brick fetish, this strip, created by George Harriman, is the archetype of cat and mouse hijinks that can still be seen in pop culture today. This collection includes all 104 full-page, Sunday strips from 1925 and 1926.

Krazy and Ignatz: "love letters in ancient brick" by George Herriman
Krazy Kat is a love story, focusing on the relationships of its three main characters--Krazy Kat, Ignatz Mouse, and Offisa Pup. This volume is the second of a long-term plan to chronologically reprint strips from the prime of Herriman's career, most of which have not seen print since originally running in newspapers 75 years ago.

Popeye [Vol. 2] Well, Blow me down! by E. C. Segar

More well known today, Popeye is an American icon whose original comic strips are currently being republished. The scrappy, spinach eating sailor was first published in the strip Thimble Theater by E. C. Segar. For ten years Thimble Theater stared the Oyl family, Castor, Banana, Coal and Olive with her suitor Ham Gravy. Eventually, Popeye joined the strip as a bit player, but his popularity was immediately evident leading to almost 80 years with him in the American pantheon of heroes.

MOVIE WATCH
V for Vendetta
Set against the futuristic landscape of totalitarian Britain, the story of a young working-class woman, Evey, who is rescued from a life-and-death situation by a masked man known only as 'V.' Incomparably charismatic and ferociously skilled in the art of combat and deception, 'V' ignites a revolution when he urges his fellow citizens to rise up against tyranny and oppression. As Evey uncovers the truth about 'V's' mysterious background, she also discovers the truth about herself. She becomes his ally in his plan to bring freedom and justice to a cruel and corrupt society.

A Charlie Brown Christmas
Join Charlie Brown and his friends as they discover the true meaning of Christmas in this heart warming holiday classic.

Author Arthur C. Clarke dies at the age of 90

Read the CNN article about this science fiction and non-fiction author's passing.

Clarke's books include:

2001, A Space Odyssey
The Garden of Rama
Sunstorm
The Light of Other Days
The Sentinel

Check our library catalog to find more

Quote of the Week

"Properly, we should read for power. Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one's hand."
-Ezra Pound

GO GREEN! DONATE YOUR GENTLY USED BOOKS, VIDEOS, AND DVD’S
TO THE FRIENDS OF THE MISSION VIEJO LIBRARY BOOKSTORE

It’s good to be green! Donate your gently used books, videos, and DVD’s to the Friends of the Mission Viejo Library. The Friends of the Mission Viejo Library Bookstore, located inside the library, is open 7 days a week, during library hours. All donations are tax deducible. The Friends sell donated materials and the money they raise is used to purchase new library materials. This is recycling at its best! For more details call the library at 830-7100, extension 3076. The Mission Viejo Library is located at the corner of Marguerite Parkway and La Paz Road.

Quote of the Week

Frederick Douglas taught that literacy is the path from slavery to freedom. There are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom. But reading is still the path. - Carl Sagan

Gary Gygax

Dungeons and Dragons Co-Creator
July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008

Below is a list of novels the library owns based on game worlds used in D&D:

Black wizards /PB Niles, D.

Cloak of shadows /PB Greenwood, E.

Crypt of the shadowking /PB Anthony, M.

Darkwalker on Moonshae /PB Niles, D.

Darkwell /PB Niles, D.

Dragonlance saga -Time of the twins/PB Dragoniance

Dragonlance saga - War of the twins/ PB Dragoniance

Dragons of a vanished moon /FIC Weis, M.

Dragons of autumn twilight /YA FIC Weis, M.

Dragons of summer flame /PB W

Elfshadow /PB Cunningham, E.

Exile /FIC Salvatore, R.

Prince of lies /PB Lowder, J.

Promise of the witch-king /FIC Salvatore, R.

Prophet of Moonshae /PB Niles, D.

Realms of infamy /PB Realms

Road of the patriarch /FIC Salvatore, R.

Sojourn /FIC Salvatore, R.

Song of the Saurials /PB Novak, K.

The coral kingdom /PB Niles, D.

The Druid queen /PB Niles, D.

The giant among us /PB Denning, T.

The thousand Orcs /FIC Salvatore, R.

The Wyvern's Spur /PB Novak, K.

Viperhand /PB Niles, D.

Staff Picks
Check the blog every Wednesday for updates on what our staff is reading and watching and recommendations for our new and all-time favorite books and movies. What is your favorite book or movie? Post your answer in the comments section below. To see all previous Staff Picks posts, simply type "Staff Picks" in the search box at the top left of this blog and click the "search blog" button.

The Science of Happiness by Stephan Klein - recommended by Andrew
A leading German science journalist explores the nature of happiness through the latest research in brain science in this instructive study. Positive and negative feelings, he says, are generated by different mental systems; thus, people whose right frontal lobe dominates tend to be more pessimistic, while those with a stronger left lobe are predisposed to optimism and self-confidence. Despite genetic programming, the author says, the brain is "malleable," and anyone with a desire for happiness is able to perceive and experience more pleasurable emotions. Drawing on complex experiments with animals, he suggests specific strategies to overcome depression, including engaging in activities, especially physical activities or simple tasks that easily offer a sense of success; and writing down negative thoughts, then marshaling the evidence against them. Klein looks at the complex relationship between income and satisfaction and the importance of self-determination and social connections. The surest path to happiness, Klein is convinced, is to know oneself.

Post Secret compiled by Frank Warren - recommended by Megan
For the Postsecret project, which was started in October 2004, Warren asked people to write a secret they had never told anyone on a handmade postcard and mail it to him. This compilation is astonishing in its honesty and creativity.


MOVIE WATCH:
Finding Neverland - recommended by Cheryl
Well-known playwright James M. Barrie finds his career at a crossroads when his latest play flops and doubters begin to question his future. Then by chance he meets a widow and her four adventurous boys. Together they form a friendship that ignites the imagination needed to produce Barrie's greatest work. Traverses both fantasy and everyday reality, melding the difficulties of adult life with the spellbinding allure and childlike innocence of the boy who never grows up.

Quote of the Week

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

~ Ray Bradbury ~