From Andy Gruse:

This the note on  the agenda bill for Monday’s budget hearing, 9-23-09 6pm at the convention center.
“A revised 2010 Preliminary Budget is expected to be distributed on November 19 as staff continues to process input from City Council, the public, and employees to balance the 2010 Preliminary Budget especially the 633,309 deficit in the General Fund 001 and the 686,616 deficit in the EMS Fund 104.
Copies of the revise 2010 Preliminary Budget will be posted on the City’s website and paper copies will be available at the Ocean Shores City Hall and the Ocean Shores Library.”
Citizens are looking to see if the amount budgeted for the Library and Interpretive Center will be zero.

The Friends of the Library will be selling “I Survived the Roundabout” t-shirts (officially endorsed by the Friends of the Roundabout).
Tots $6; Kids & Youth $8; Adult $10; Plus sizes $12.

They will be introduced “at our Giant Half-Yearly Sale at our storage, on Saturday, 14 Nov. from 9 am to 3 pm at 764 Sea Horse Ave NE (N of Alec’s Restaurant).” Click below to see one of the designs:

i survived roundabout

Another well-written review from the folks at the Friends of the Library.

“Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell (New book available at Ocean Shores Library).

By Andy Gruse

Outliers in statistics are so far out of the norm they are usually thrown away as data point mistakes. Outliers in this book are great successes or great failures. There are reasons and situations that enable people and events to be so phenomenally successful or unsuccessful compared to other outcomes.

An outlier is outside of normal experience. Pick a quality like being very, very rich or being very, very skillful. How did the Beatles become so proficient that they became one of the greatest rock bands?

(wish I had Friends like these:)

Spencer Christian. “Spencer Christian’s Weather Book.” Prentice Hall, New York, 1993. (Available through inter-library loan from our Library.)  Website: http://www.osgov.com/library.html

By John R. Clark

For anyone curious about weather happenings, Spencer Christian’s compact text is top of the line. It is as relevant today as when it was written sixteen years ago. In 216 pages the author covers major factors including air, water, clouds, thunder, tornadoes and hurricanes, and then explains how weather is recorded and predicted. He does this in a style that is friendly but not at all condescending, explaining that he is “…trying to put a human face on weather.”

“Children of Jihad A Young American’s Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East,” by Jared Cohen 

(New book available at our Library, Website: http://www.osgov.com/library.html)

By Marlene Penry 

A young American graduate student is sitting in McDonald’s, in Beirut, Lebanon.  He is waiting to interview several young members of the Hezbollah terrorist group. They arrive wearing designer clothes.  They don’t mind that he is American, or that he is Jewish.

That is a typical scene from this book that will make you question your perceptions of the Middle East.  

“Wild Trees: a Story of Passion and Daring” (Random House, 2007) by Richard Preston

Reviewed by Betty Smith

Those of us who have had the honor of walking through old growth forest know the feel of the place—the spongy duff beneath our feet, the heady odor of the foliage, the flitting movement of birds and insects in the undergrowth–all are part of our experience as we move along the forest floor.  

And if we tip our head way back and look up as high as we can, what can we tell of the world at the top of the forest?  

Getting caught up, don’t think I’ve posted this excellent John Clark review that was in last week’s paper.

Jim Webb. “A Time to Fight. Reclaiming a Fair and Just America.” Broadway Books/Doubleday, New York, 2008. 

By John Clark

If you would like to understand the complex economic, political, and military cross currents of our Nation as the new millennium begins, this book is for you. The author examines our national dilemma, including economic troubles, widening gaps among classes of citizens, our confused foreign policy, and other aspects of national life. All this in concise prose in a comfortably paced book of a modest 255 pages.  

 On February 24th, the Ocean Shores Friends of the Library will begin Raffling another original, signed Elton Bennett  serigraph. This gorgeous work of art, entitled, “They Speak by Silence,” has been cleaned and re-matted.  

Elton Bennett was a renowned Hoquiam artist who died in an airplane crash 1974. His works focused on the Northwest scene and are especially prized locally. This serigraph depicts a group of hikers (or, some say, Quinault) gathered at the edge of the ocean with a backdrop of sand cliffs.  An evocative mist slips across the scene.

this just in:Bring your sweetie – it’s Library Lovers Month.  The Friends of the Library 2^nd Saturday Used Book Sale will be from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Feb. 14, at 710 Point Brown Ave. NE.  FREE childrens’ books!  10 CENT SALE on all other books (except hardbacks published since yr 2000). Time to build up your winter reading stock.  Proceeds help support Ocean Shores Library special programs, unfunded needs, and future Library Expansion.