Author Laurie Halse Anderson tells us the story of Wintergirls, a devastating portrait of the extremes of self-deception in this brutal and poetic deconstruction of how one girl stealthily vanishes into the depths of anorexia. Lia has been down this road before: her competitive relationship with her best friend, Cassie, once landed them both in the hospital, but now not even Cassie’s death can eradicate Lia’s disgust of the “fat cows” who scrutinize her body all day long. Her father (no, “Professor Overbrook”) and her mother (no, “Dr. Marrigan”) are frighteningly easy to dupe—tinkering and sabotage inflate her scale readings as her weight secretly plunges: 101.30, 97.00, 89.00. Anderson illuminates a dark but utterly realistic world where every piece of food is just a caloric number, inner voices scream “NO!” with each swallow, and self-worth is too easily gauged: “I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.” Struck-through sentences, incessant repetition, and even blank pages make Lia’s inner turmoil tactile, and gruesome details of her decomposition will test sensitive readers. But this is necessary reading for anyone caught in a feedback loop of weight loss as well as any parent unfamiliar with the scripts teens recite so easily to escape from such deadly situations. From Booklist. --Young Adult Fiction

In Roar, Emma Clayton portrays a bleak future in which humans use terrible chemicals to fight The Animal Plague that causes all of the world's animals to go rabid and renders most of the planet uninhabitable. The population now cowers in overcrowded walled cities. Mika, 12, and his parents live in London in terrible conditions. His twin, Ellie, supposedly drowned a year earlier, but Mika is convinced that she still lives. He's right. The story begins with Ellie and a tiny monkey named Puck fleeing a spaceship in a stolen Pod Fighter. Sadly, their attempt to escape is foiled by the evil Mal Gorman, who has a plan to co-opt the entire first generation of children born after the Plague and make them into an army for his own nefarious purposes. And Gorman has special plans for kids like Mika and Ellie, whose mutations give them unique abilities. To save his sister, Mika will have to win a contest involving simulator battle games and many deadly challenges, using abilities he never knew he had. The story starts fast and never slows down. While the bad guys are a bit stereotypical, the good guys are interesting and realistic. There's a touch of the supernatural, some interesting philosophical questions, and a cliff-hanger ending that will leave readers hungry for more. From School Library Journal. --Young Adult Fiction

Automotive Repair Information for Do-It-Yourself (DIY) People
The Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC) is hosting a free trial of Chilton's Online Database.  Please give it a whirl and let us know what you think in the Comments of this post!
Click this link to access the Chilton's Auto Database.

From the Chilton's Website: ChiltonLibrary provides exclusive photographs, diagnostics designed by instructors, step-by-step repair procedures, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) maintenance schedules, wiring diagrams, recalls and Technical Service Bulletins (TSBs) for automobiles and light trucks in one easy-to-use web site. Since this library subscribes to ChiltonLibrary, you are now equipped with decades of data to maintain your vehicle.

The Mancos Public Library is sponsoring a reading/booksigning party as well as a workshop by poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer on Sunday, November 8th from 6-8pm at the Mancos Public Library located at 211 W. First Street.  The evening will start off with a reading from Trommer and photographer Claude Steelman’s new book titled  “Intimate Landscape: The Four Corners in Poetry & Photography”.  The last hour and fifteen minutes will be dedicated to the workshop titled: Writing the Path.

Writing the Path:

A Workshop Where Nature Meets Human Nature lead by poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

What path are you on?

For thousands of years, the path has been a popular metaphor for understanding our journey through life. Cavafy advises us to “pray that the road is long.” Frost suggests we “take the road less traveled by.” A.R. Ammons advocates that we “hoist our burdens, get on down the road.” How we choose to walk on our path affects all we are connected to. And are we not connected to everything? Through the practices of writing, reading and paying attention—or as Rumi would say, opening the sail—we divine who we are in the world.

This reading and writing workshop will focus on exploring the use of images and how these are used to engage with the landscape, the imagination and the reader.

This workshop is Free and open to anyone ages 16 and older.  For more information please call the Mancos Public Library at 533-7600.

Photo Credit: Dawnhops

We have purchased several technology items and gadgets for patrons to be able to check out.  Some checkouts are in-house only, and others are available to check out and take home.  Following is a list of the new items:

Available for Regular Check Out:

• iPod Shuffle  
• 
  
• USB Storage Drives – 1 GB

Available for In-House Check Out Only:

MPL 10" Mini Laptop

For Parents and Caregivers to use in Children’s Room while Attending Children:

• 10″ Mini Laptop w/wireless internet

If you have any questions, please send an email to: info @ mancoslibrary.org, or call the library at 533-7600.  Enjoy!

Photo Credits: iPod – Peter Benbow,

We have changed our Internet address to make it a bit easier to remember!  This website is a work in progress; if you have any questions or suggestions, please email them to: info @ mancoslibrary.org.

Thanks, and enjoy the site!