Still creepy after all these years

Published in 1963,  The Collector,  by John Fowles, gives readers one of the first, and still one of the best, psychological thrillers.  Frederick Clegg is a dull and colorless nobody whose only passion is for the butterflies he captures and mounts. That is, until he sees a beautiful girl. Miranda Grey, an art student, dazzling and full […]

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Writer’s Resources For NaNoWriMo and Beyond

During National Novel Writing Month, many people dedicate themselves to writing at least 50,000 words in a month (Mesa County Public Library is hosting a few NaNoWriMo meetups in November). Many other fiction writers, poets, and creative non-fiction writers maintain a writing practice year round. Still others would like to write, but don’t know how […]

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Visit A State Park With Your Library Card

With a Mesa County Libraries card you can now check out a backpack with binoculars, educational materials, and a pass to any of the 42 state parks in Colorado! Our library is participating in the brand new Check Out Colorado program. The backpacks can be checked out at the Central Library for 7 days. It is a […]

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A Ghost Town With an Alias

Quite a few residents of Western Colorado know about the ghost town called Carpenter. Some people might have actually visited the site of the old mining community. What is not as well-known is that Carpenter was officially named Poland Springs from 1892 to 1897. It was frequently misspelled Polen or Pollen Springs by locals and […]

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Cooking up a business

If you’re a good and enthusiastic cook or baker, you’ve probably been told “you should sell these!”  And maybe you’ve given it some thought.  We’ve got a new book, Good Food, Great Business, to provide you the know-how to make that thought a reality.  The subtitle, “How to take your artisan food idea from concept to […]

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Atlas of Columbus

In my next life I want to be a cartographer.  More specifically, a cartographer in the time of Columbus, Magellan and de Gama.  In 1992, to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage to what turned out to be the West Indies, Rand McNally published Atlas of Columbus.  This beautiful book is a collection […]

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“1,000 Books Before Kindergarten” to encourage love of reading in early childhood

Mesa County Libraries are launching “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten,” an ambitious effort to encourage a love of reading in young children. Because parents are their child’s first and best teachers, “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten” gives parents a framework for reading with their children. Children who read with their parents extensively in the years before kindergarten […]

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Wrapping up Banned Books Week

Libraries are a place with something to offend everyone. They are also places of discovery, wonder, enrichment, and understanding. Throughout this week dedicated to bringing Banned (and Challenged) Books to people’s attention, we have had some heart-warming moments: Listening to a mother tell her child the reasons given for banning Green Eggs and Ham, an […]

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Banned Book Review: Maus

I first read Maus when I was in 7th grade and I can recall the experience almost like it was yesterday. The book was created by Art Spiegelman and has been nominated for over 10 national and international book awards. In the graphic novel, Spiegelman retells the account of his father, Vladek Spiegelman, a Polish Jew who […]

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