Check out "Mighty Uke" a Canadian documentary“Shhhhh! - Don’t you know this is a library?” - aren’t really words you have to worry about anymore. Especially when you know that the librarians have a secret ukulele club.

Whoops.

People keep telling me that the first rule of ukulele club should be “don’t talk about ukulele club,” and the second rule should be, “why are you talking about ukulele club?!” I totally don’t agree! Ukuleles are too awesome to not talk about. They are small simple unassuming instruments that you can take anywhere. Children are fascinated with them because they are ‘just the right size’ and they make adults giggle, grin and sometimes groan – but it’s usually in good humour!

We’re all still pretty new at this and getting to know our ukes, but – we’ve pretty much mastered ‘London Bridge is Falling Down’ (new achievement unlocked!) which coincidentally has the exact same chords as two other songs (Woo! Three with one blow! We’re doing awesome!) Now we’re working on ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ and there’s a few more chords in it (five instead of two) and singing, strumming and counting is sure tough to do at the same time, but what a lot of fun!

So now some nights, after dark, when the library should be quiet and calm, if you hear the odd strumming and buzzing of strings and a few stray stanzas being caterwauled… don’t be alarmed, it’s just your local librarians ‘rocking out’ on their ukes. AWESOME.

We still need a little encouragement though; we’d love to know,

Who else is out there in a secret ukulele club?

What was the first song that you learned and

What do you think we should we tackle next?

RILEY LIBRARY TEEN

Book of the Month

Across the Universe, by Beth Revis

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship
Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years
in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber
would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be
thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction.
Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her.
And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder
suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship
and the love she could never have seen coming.

The Lazy Reader claims to ski. She gets up and goes to the slopes, but secretly there is a novel in that backpack hiding under the goggles and mitts. After 10 runs, the lazy reader can be found curled up drinking tea and reading in the ski lounge.

The Hotlist is a list of upcoming bestsellers. You can take a look at it on the top of the Readers' Nooks stand at Riley, right beside the Lazy reader recommendations. Here are some holds to place now before the queue builds!

Alan Bradley has a new Flavia de Luce mystery called Speaking From Among the Bones. (Feb. 2013)

Tracy Chevalier, who wrote The Girl With the Pearl Earring, has written The Last Runaway about the Underground Railroad. (Jan. 2013)

Edward Rutherfurd, who writes big thick novels about the history of families over time in famous cities, has set his sights on Paris. (April 2013)

For non fiction, Anne Lamott has written Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers, due in November 2012.

Michael Pollan, who wrote The Omnivore's Dilemma, is back in April 2013 with Cooked: Finding Ourselves in the Kitchen.

I'm also going to try Julia Sweeney's If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother about parenting, because I just finished Ali in Wonderland, and need another funny take on the balancing act of women.

Happy couch time!

RILEY LIBRARY CHILDREN'S

Book of the Month

Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs, by Mo Willems

Three Dinosaurs - Poppa Dinosaur, Momma Dinosaur, and
some other dinosaur who just happened to be visiting from
Norway - plan to trick a poorly supervised youngster
traipsing through the woods. Hilarity ensues!

Are you between thirteen and seventeen years old and are interested in writing? Do you already write and would like to learn more about the world of professional writers? If you have answered yes to either of these questions, then you should not miss this unique opportunity!

Teens: Write Now! will be held at the Louise Riley Library Program Centre on Sunday November 18th, from 1:00-4:00 p.m. Local authors will discuss the business of writing, specifically blogging and self-publishing. Authors include Aviva Bel'Harold, author of Chip and Blood Matters, and Clare Marshall, author of Within and Violet Fox. Also in attendance will teen bloggers who will share their tips and experiences and some snacks will be provided.

Registration is limited to ages 13 to 17. You can register on-line, in person at any library branch, or by calling 403-260-2620.

RILEY LIBRARY ADULT

Book of the Month

Bill Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain

A ferocious firefight with Iraqi insurgents at "the battle of Al-Ansakar Canal"--
three minutes and forty-three seconds of intense warfare caught on tape by
an embedded Fox News crew--has transformed the eight surviving men of
Bravo Squad into America's most sought-after heroes. For the past two weeks,
the Bush administration has sent them on a media-intensive nationwide
"Victory Tour" to reinvigorate public support for the war. Now, on this chilly
Thanksgiving, the Bravos are guests of America's Team, the Dallas Cowboys,
slated to be part of the halftime show alongside the pop group Destiny's Child.

Among the Bravos is the Silver Star-winning hero of Al-Ansakar Canal, Specialist
William Lynn, a nineteen-year-old Texas native. Over the course of this day, Billy
will begin to understand difficult truths about himself, his country, his struggling
family, and his brothers-in-arms--soldiers both dead and alive. In the final
few hours before returning to Iraq, Billy will drink and brawl, yearn for
home and mourn those missing, face a heart-wrenching decision, and discover
pure love and a bitter wisdom far beyond his years.