AliceBakerBlog

An American cultural icon

Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and the game of SCRABBLE all enjoy cultural icon status in America. Alfred Mosher Butts invented a board game that combined anagrams and the crossword puzzle. The game was first called LEXIKO and then later CRISS CROSS WORDS. Butts partnered with James Brunot to change the rules and design of the game and they came up with the name SCRABBLE. Did you know SCRABBLE is a real word that means "to grope frantically?" The game was very popular in the 1950s and has been enjoyed by people of all ages.

Libraries and Restaurants

I recently read Danny Meyer's Setting the table: the transforming power of hospitality in business. I read about restaurants and customer service while thinking about librarians and customer service.  What can librarians learn from restaurants?

There are many similarities between libraries and restaurants. In both settings it is very important to make a good first impression and both are dependent upon repeat customers. Servers in a restaurant need to have strong technical skills as well as strong customer service skills and so do librarians.

Debut Fiction

"Emily Haxby is an up-and-coming attorney at a big firm in Manhattan. From the outside, she seems to have her life tied up flawlessly with a big red bow; however, the package is coming unraveled." So begins The Opposite of Love*

Then comes the break-up with the perfect guy, an assignment from hell, and Grandpa Jack slipping away in an Alzheimer's haze. Can Emily pull it together — work, family, love life, and all?* You'll be turning pages until you find out!

First-time novelist and Harvard Law alum Julie Buxbaum handles Emily's tale "with notable intelligence and grace" (Booklist).

* = Starred Review, Library Journal

Mystery book talk

Lynette Carpenter will facilitate a discussion of Brookfield author Sandra Balzo's novel "Grounds for Murder" on Friday, March 7 at 7 p.m. Copies of the book are available at the library. Starbucks of Delafield will provide coffee, tea, and pastries.