For all you Wallace & Gromit fans

If you've never looked at bunnies quite the same way after watching "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," you just might enjoy checking out at this new book: Wallace & Gromit: Cracking Contraptions Manual.  In the style of a Haynes car manual, you'll find blueprints, cutaway drawings, and notes of some of Wallace's most creative inventions.  Remember the bed launcher?  Or the porridge cannon?  They're all here in cracking good detail.  

Getting away from it all ...

Feeling the need for a break from work/family/life?  A new book is out that just might help you escape all of that reality you have to face each and every day.

For your armchair traveling pleasure, I offer The Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will by Judith Schalansky.  The author, who grew up in East Germany, could not leave the country, so she traveled the world by atlas, and she became fascinated with islands - especially the remote kind.  Writing in a type of cartographic poetry, she delights the reader with her prose, as well as her own, beautifully drawn illustrations.  If you're unable to visit an island in person, you'll still experience "island time" by ambling through this charming book. 

A few titles for your viewing pleasure

Since it's going to be a while before Spring arrives, and many of us are staying indoors, this is a good time to check out dvds from the library.  We have a wide variety of subjects available, from how to install ceramic tile to how to play a ukulele, and many operas, plays and classic books made into films are just waiting to entertain you.  New titles come in all the time, and here are a few recent arrivals:

Colossal Squid (squid creep me out, but if you're fascinated by gigantic, tentacled sea creatures, go have fun with this one; personally, I prefer Squiddly Diddly, and if you remember this cartoon character, you definitely weren't born yesterday)

National Geographic's Great Migrations (narrated by Alec Baldwin, this amazing series aired recently on the National Geographic Channel, and when you hear the phrase "eye candy," I'm pretty sure this three volume set qualifies)

President's Photographer: Fifty Years Inside the Oval Office (another National Geographic title, this dvd offers a unique look into the presidency through the lens of Pete Souza, the chief White House photographer for President Obama)