Hi!  This is Rachel Malay, director at the Port Library in Beloit.  

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday! The library will be open today from 10 am – 2 pm, and regular hours again next week. Next Friday night the library is starting off the Christmas holiday season with our annual Aisle of Lites from 5-8 pm on December 2nd. Come stroll through the library lit only with Christmas lights, and pick up some cookies and cider in the Schafer Room.
           
If you need an escape in between holiday planning and house cleaning, this week’s Port Pick promises to whisk you away, at least for short periods of time. Dreams of Distant Shores by Patricia A. McKillip is a collection of seven fantasy stories, all set in different places, times, and with wildly different characters.  As with all short stories some characters may never be named or fully fleshed out, but the reader is left with an impactful plot point in a very short time. This genre of high fantasy is usually set in the 15th century with wizards, dragons, princesses, elves and such, but this collection breaks those rules. In the first one a contemporary couple are telling stories to each other while lying on towels on the floor inside a sealed bathroom. A storm rages outside, which is finally connected to the subject of the narration at the end of the story.  In the second a very sleepy witch is wakened too early and tries to seek refuge inside a mermaid figurehead on a ship with mixed success. This story starts in the ancient past and ends up somewhere near the present century.  Five of the seven stories can be read in 30 minutes or less.

You can get the book reviewed here, which was Dreams of Distant Shores by Patricia A. McKillip, and more great titles to watch, read, listen to, or play with at the Port Library at 1718 N. Hersey in Beloit. This is director Rachel Malay, saying “Thanks for checking us out!”

Hi!  This is Rachel Malay, director at the Port Library in Beloit.  

Thanksgiving is next week and the library will be closed Thursday the 24th for Thanksgiving Day and also Friday the 25th.  We’ll reopen at our normal time on Saturday.

To celebrate all the food that will be on the tables next week, this week’s review is of a cookbook new to the library shelves. The Farmette Cookbook: Recipes and Adventures from My Life on an Irish Farm  by Imen McDonnell follows a city gal turned Irish farm wife. After marrying and moving overseas to live on her in-laws farm with her new husband, Imen had trouble adjusting to rural life at first, until she starts trying out new foods and recipes. Out in rural Ireland there are no restaurants that deliver, but the simple Irish dishes she learns were put on her blog: I Married and Irish Farmer, which was changed to just Farmette.

The cookbook was a natural outgrowth of the blog, and each page is filled with beautiful color pictures of Irish countryside or gorgeous dishes with recipes accompanying. Measurements are listed in metric and the more familiar American measurements.  Sections include dairy, bread, fruit, and of course a whole section devoted to potatoes. Sunday lunch, better known as high tea, is still such a large part of life that an entire chapter covers recipes of small dishes that are regularly served. The recipes range from classic Irish dishes, to new influences with an Irish twist.  It is advised that you do not page through this book on an empty stomach, but if you want a photographic culinary tour of Ireland set yourself down in a comfy chair for a visual treat!
             
You can get the book reviewed here at the Port Library at 1718 N. Hersey in Beloit.  This is director Rachel Malay, saying “Thanks for checking us out!”

Hi!  This is Rachel Malay, director at the Port Library in Beloit. 

On Thursday November 17th at 6PM in the Schafer Room the library will have the next movie night in our classic movie series.  We’ll watch Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn and have free popcorn and soda.  Call the library by Thursday morning to sign up.

Titles in the library’s Christian Fiction section are always popular, but as this is a smaller section of books published each year, finding new authors can be difficult.  However, if you’ve read all our Karen Kingsbury and Janet Oke and are still looking for more, try Christine Johnson.  This week’s review is of the second in her series set in the later 1800s in Key West, Florida. The series doesn’t necessarily follow one character but people from the first novel do make an appearance in the second. Even so, feel free to read them out of order and they will still make sense.

Honor Redeemed by Christine Johnson features Prosperity Jones, a resident of Nantucket on the northeast coast. For two years she has stayed in Nantucket to nurse an ailing mother while her fiancé has been sent away to Key West with the army.  After her mother passes away she immediately boards a ship for Key West to restart her life with her fiancé.  What she doesn’t know is that her beloved David has found love in another woman’s arms, but neglected to inform Christine until after he had been married two months.  The letter he sent was too late to reach Christine before she sailed south.  Once in Key West, Christine discovers the betrayal, but with no family left up north she decides to find work in Key West, as a laundress in a hospital. Her gentle ways catch the eye and friendship of a local doctor. But all is not as finished with her fiancé as it seems to be, and before long Christine is caught between the attentions of two men while she tries to build a new life for herself.

You can get the book reviewed here at the Port Library at 1718 N. Hersey in Beloit.  This is director Rachel Malay, saying “Thanks for checking us out!”

​Hi!  This is Rachel Malay, director at the Port Library in Beloit.  The library would like to remind our patrons that we will be closed Friday, November 11th for Veteran’s Day.  We will reopen at our regular time on Saturday.

People love a good action or murder mystery movie. In years past the Oceans Eleven and Twelve movies told a heist story from the thief’s point of view. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a popular book made into movies twice now.  And the library’s true-crime section is usually well browsed.  If this tickles your fancy, I have a new true-crime novel for you: The Jolly Rodger Social Club by Nick Foster.

American citizens who semi permanently move to another country are called ex-patriots, or ex-pats for short.  Beginning in 2002 Panama saw an influx of American and other foreign nationals, eager to start over somewhere far removed from their home country.  The islands of Bocas del Toro near Panama saw a new group of English speaking people congregate around Bocas Town, the largest settlement in the islands.  It was a place where a person could party with bars and restaurants right on the water, buy land or a house, and in a year or two sell it and make money.

Into this scene came and American known as “Wild Bill” Cortez, whose real name was William Dathan Holbert.  Wild Bill financed the buying and selling of properties, advertising that he could buy hassle free and with fast closings.  He also owned a motor cycle repair shop, opened a dive bar called the Jolly Rodger Social Club, and is accused of murdering five fellow Americans.

​Author Nick Foster is a journalist, and in 2011 his editor asked him to write a feature about the bizarre real estate world in Panama.  While researching he came across the peculiar case of Wild Bill and decided to investigate.  The news stories and first-hand accounts are conflicting, but intriguing.  Foster has put together what he believes is the most real account of what happened, and it reads like a thriller.  This novel is the perfect exciting to read for the faster darkening evening hours this fall.
             
You can get the book reviewed here at the Port Library at 1718 N. Hersey in Beloit.  This is director Rachel Malay, saying “Thanks for checking us out!”