SUMMERTIME AND THE GRILLING IS EASY

With Memorial Day, the Summer season really began as backyard grills were unearthed, polished up, and fired up. A week from this coming Tuesday, the next big family grilling holiday will occur, the Fourth of July. Need some fresh ideas? Tired of the same old hamburgers and hot dogs? DMOZ has some on-line links to grilling related websites. But don't forget to check out some of the recent books on backyard grilling available at the Elk Grove Library:

Basics
Taming the Flame: Secrets for Hot-and-Quick Grilling and Low-and-Slow BBQ (2005) by Elizabeth Karmel (641.5784 KAM)

Weber's Real Grilling (2005) by Jamie Purviance (641.5784 PUR)

Get Grilling (2005) Food Network Kitchens (641.76 GET)

The Essentials of Grilling: Recipes and Techniques for Successful Outdoor Cooking (2003) (641.5784 ESS)

High Heat: Grilling & Roasting Year-Round with Master Chef Waldy Malouf (2003) by Waldy Malouf & Melissa Clark (641.5784 MAL)

Al Roker's Big Bad Book of Barbecue: 100 Easy Recipes for Backyard Barbecue and Grilling (2002) by Al Roker (641.578 ROK)

Smoke & Spice: Cooking with Smoke, the Real Way to Barbecue (2003) by Cheryl and Bill Jamison (641.76 JAM)

Regional Styles

Grilling America (2003) by Rick Browne (641.5784 BRO)

Steven Raichlen's BBQ USA: 425 Fiery Recipes from All across America (2003) (641.5784 RAI)

Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook: Recipes and Recollections from the Pit Bosses (2002) by Robb Walsh (641.5784 WAL)

The Barbecue America Cookbook: America's Best Barbecue Recipes from Coast to Coast (2002) (YA 641.5784 BRO)

Celebrating Barbecue: The Ultimate Guide to America's Four Regional Styles of 'Cue (2002) by Dotty Griffith (641.5784 GRI)

And, even though Tailgating season won't officially start for a few more months, these new cookbooks do have recipes made on grills:

The Tailgating Cookbook: Recipes for the Big Game (2005) by Bob Sloan (NEW 641.578 SLO)

The Tailgater's Cookbook (2005) by David Joachim (NEW 641.578 JOA)

FATHER'S DAY READING

Some recent books on Fathers, available at the Elk Grove Library, include:

Falling through the Earth: A Memoir by Danielle Trussoni--growing up with a divorced Vietnam-veteran father in small-town Wisconsin (NEW 306.874 TRU)

The Bill from My Father: A Memoir by Bernard Cooper--reviews the tense relationship between the author and his highly-successful divorce-lawyer father (who once sent him a bill of 2 million dollars for his upbringing) (NEW 813.54 COO)

Six Lessons for Six Sons: An Extraordinary Father, a Simple Formula for Success by Joe Massengale and David Clow--Massengale recounts how he and his six sons use basic moral principles (fortitude, pride, persistence, fearlessness, and focus) in their successful daily lives (NEW 650.1089 MAS)

A Legacy of Faith: Things I Learned from My Father by Ruth Graham--in this companion book to her earlier A Legacy of Love: Things I Learned from My Mother, Ruth Graham recalls her childhood, happy even though her father was away a lot of the time (NEW 248.4 GRA)

My Father Is a Book: A Memoir of Bernard Malamud by Janna Malamud Smith--using letters and journal entries Janna remembers her novelist father (NEW 813.54 SMI)

A Twist of Lemmon: A Tribute to My Father by Chris Lemmon--"warm" memories of a father who was often absent, but very attentive and fun when he was around (NEW BIO LEMMON, J.)

To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession by Dan Koeppel--Koeppel recalls his doctor father's extreme obsession with "listing" birds and its effect on his family (NEW LP 598.072 KOE)

Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life (2004) by Tim Russert--Meet the Press moderator Russert recalls the influence his blue-collar Dad had on his life (070.92 RUS)

Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons edited by Tim Russert--collection of letters selected from the thousands written to TV newsman Russert after his book Big Russ and Me came out telling about their own fathers (NEW 306.8742 WIS)

Two of Us: The Story of a Father, a Son, and the Beatles (2004) by Peter Smith--how a love of Beatles music brought a father and his seven year old son closer in friendship (306.8742 SMI)

FBI Girl: How I Learned to Crack My Father's Code (2004) by Maura Conlon-McIvor--memoir of growing up in the '60's in a Catholic family with a remote father she finally comes to know (306.8742 CON)

First Daughters: Letters between U.S. Presidents and Their Daughters (2004) edited by Gerard W. Gawalt and Ann G. Gawal--letters covering many topics written to their daughters by presidents from Adams to Clinton (973.099 FIR)

FATHERS' DAY

Here are some sites featuring Fathers Day--history, crafts, poems, and more:
Kids Domain--games, coloring pages, cards and gifts to make
DLTK Kids--games, crafts, recipes, cards
Billy Bear 4 Kids--color pages, games, cards
Enchanted Learning--crafts
Happy Fathers' Day--history, poems, stories
Twilight Bridge--history poetry, humor, recipes
Wikipedia--history, links, International Fathers Days
Factmonster--history, statistics, timeline, animal fathers
Quotegarden--quotes about fathers
Bella Online--quotes about fathers
Yahoo--even more links

ASRP 2005 STATISTICS (continued), Pt 2

Last summer the theme was "Movies" and there were 10 different categories to choose from for the 5 necessary to earn a T-shirt. Two of them could be an actual movie--Documentary (aka Non-fiction) and Foreign Film (aka "foreign author"). Nevertheless, the items still mostly grouped into the usual genres.

The general Fiction classification had the most reports, 672 (166 in 2004). The top 8 books were:
Lifeguard by James Patterson (12)
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (12)
Miracle by Danielle Steele (11)
The Broker by John Grisham (10)
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (8)
Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding (7)
Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich (7)
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares (7)

The next most popular genre was Mysteries with 351 reported (488 in 2004):
11 on Top by Janet Evanovich (13)
4th of July by James Patterson (12
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (12))
Honeymoon by James Patterson (10)
Fire Sale by Sara Paretsky (9)
Velocity by Dean R. Koontz (9)
Rage by Jonathan Kellerman (7)

Biography was the next most popular with 125 reports (155 in 2004):
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama (5)
Angela's Ashes by Frank Court (3)
John Adams by David McCullough (3)
Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art by Gene Wilder (3)
Lucky Man: A Memoir by Michael J. Fox (3)
Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn (3)

Next was Romances with 110 reports (323 in 2004):
Black Rose by Nora Roberts (6)
Lie by Moonlight by Amanda Quick (6)
Marriage Most Scandalous by Johanna Lindsey (5)

There were 24 reports for Science Fiction (111 in 2004--included Fantasy):
True Believer by Nicholas Sparks (10)
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (4)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (3)
The House of Thunder by Dean R. Koontz (2)

21 reports were Fantasy and the top 6 were all J.K. Rowlings':
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince(16)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban (8)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (6)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (6)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (5)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (4)

The fewest reported of the fictional genres was Westerns with 8 (112 in 2004):
Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker (7)
Lone Calder Star by Janet Dailey (4)
McKettrick's Choice by Linda Lael Miller (2)

In general Non-Fiction, the most popular in 2005 was the same as in 2004:
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson (6).
The next most-read were:
1776 by David McCullough (3)
Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris (3)
French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano (3)
The Rant Zone: An All-out Blitz against Bush-league Politics, Twisted Child Stars, Soul-sucking Jobs, and People Who Eat their Dogs by Dennis Miller (3)

The most reported Documentary Films were:
Fahrenheit 9/11 (9)
Super Size Me (4)
Winged Migration (4)
Go, Tigers! (3)

The most reported Foreign Films were:
Amelie (4)
The Passion of the Christ (4)
The Triplets of Belleville (3)
The most popular foreign film language was French (12)

Since only 5 of the books or films reported had to fit in the 10 categories, most items were not categorized. Also, the same title could be listed for several different categories by different readers. Where a film was an option, a book was the other option--i.e., documentary or non-fiction. So, the breakdown by category only reflects a small portion of the total reported:

Action/Adventure (95)--Evanovich's 11 on Top was most reported in this category
Based on the Book (71)--Spark's The Notebook was most reported in this category
Biography (79)--Obama's Dreams from My Father was most reported in this category
Comedy (96)--Evanovich's Metro Girl was most reported in this category
Documentary [film] (41)--Fahrenheit 9/11 was most reported in this category
Documentary [non-fiction book] (62)--Larson's The Devil in the White City was most reported in this category
Drama (100)--Patterson's Lifeguard and Brown's The Da Vinci Code were the most reported in this category [tied]
Foreign Film [film] (36)--The Passion of the Christ and Amelie were the most reported in this category [tied]
Foreign Film [foreign author] (29)--J.K. Rowling was most reported in this category
Horror (81)--Patterson's Honeymoon was most reported in this category
Travelogue [foreign locale] (51)--Grisham's The Broker was most reported in this category
War Stories (44)--Clancy's The Hunt for Red October was most reported in this category

ASRP 2005 STATS (continued), Pt 1

Since the new Summer Reading Program will begin in one week, I thought I'd finish reporting on some of the trivial statistics from last year's ASRP. I had done a brief general report on September 27, 2005 [check back in the Archives (sidebar) to see it].

[n.b. These stats do not include those items reported by our top two readers since they had taken their reporting sheets before I was able to record their information]

The TOP TWENTY works reported (number in parentheses is number of participants who reported the item):

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (16)
11 on Top by Janet Evanovich (13)
4th of July by James Patterson (12)
Lifeguard by James Patterson (12)
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (12)
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (12)
Miracle by Danielle Steel (11)
Honeymoon by James Patterson (10)
The Broker by John Grisham (10)
True Believer by Nicholas Sparks (10)
Fahrenheit 9/11 [documentary film](9)
Fire Sale by Sara Paretsky(9)
Velocity by Dean R. Koontz (9)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban by J.K. Rowling (8)
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (8)
Rage by Jonathan Kellerman(7)
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares (7)
Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich (7)
Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding(7)
Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker(7)

The Da Vinci Code was in the Top Twenty in 2004 as well--and probably will be this year, too--as was The Notebook. Also in 2004 these other authors had books in the Top Twenty: James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, Dean R. Koontz, and Danielle Steel.

As always, some authors are more popular than others. Last summer these authors had the most different books reported:
Stephen King (23)
Janet Evanovich (18)
Dean Koontz (17)
Elizabeth Peters (15)
Joan Hess (15)
James Patterson (14)
Patricia Cornwell (12)
Jill Churchill (12)
Nicholas Sparks (10)
Janette Oke (10)

In 2004, the top authors (most different books) were Nora Roberts and Danielle Steel. Only James Patterson and Elizabeth Peters are repeats on this list.

The authors with the most reports in 2005 were:
Janet Evanovich (51)
James Patterson (50)
J.K. Rowling (47)
Nicholas Sparks (42)
Dean Koontz (35)
Stephen King (34)
Elizabeth Peters (29)
Dan Brown (24)
John Grisham (20)
Danielle Steel (17)
Alexander McCall Smith (16)
Clive Cussler (15)
Nora Roberts (15)

[I'll have to check the master list the next time I'm at work (Wednesday) to see who was tops in this category in 2004
UPDATE: This information was not available any more]

SRP 2006

The 2006 Summer Reading Program will begin on Monday, June 12, this year. Both Adult and Youth Services have the same theme recognizing Elk Grove Village's 50 Year Anniversary: Elk-Grove-Opoly (based on the Parker Brothers/Hasbro's Monopoly game). Each department's version(s) of the game will be different--Youth Services will have separate versions for the various age groups, too--but each will have a gameboard (based on the traditional Monopoly gameboard) highlighting Elk Grove locations or areas in the Elk Grove Library.

And, as always, there will be a SPECIAL TREAT/AWARD for all who sign up in Youth services on the FIRST DAY ONLY as well as for the first 100 who sign up in Adult Services.