Listen Up........and READ!

Gas prices may be high, but many of us will still take that one vacation we've planned for all year long! Maybe you won't have time to read when you arrive at your destination, but as the saying goes, "Getting there is half the fun!"

Why not double your fun by checking out some of the audio-books the Library owns. As you drive, listen.........and READ!

Popular authors, non-fiction, comedy, mystery, romance, intrigue.......we've got it all! Some audio-books are on cassette tapes, but many are on CD.

AND, UNLIKE GAS PRICES.........

AUDIO-BOOKS FROM THE LIBRARY@OCtech ARE FREE!

It's almost beach time....check out some of these fiction writers!

We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate.

-Henry Miller-

Nicholas Charles Sparks (born December 31, 1965) is an internationally bestselling American author. He writes novels with themes that include Christianity, love, tragedy and fate. He has 13 published novels and lives in New Bern, North Carolina, with his wife Cathy and their five children.


Jodi Picoult received a degree in creative writing from Princeton and a Master's degree in education from Harvard. Jodi lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children. Jodi Picoult's novels centre on family, relationships, and the balance of love. Riveting plots bring to light questions and issues that remain with a reader long after the last page is turned.



Alexander McCall Smith is best known for his internationally acclaimed No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which rapidly rose to the top of bestseller lists throughout the world. Another series, beginning with The Sunday Philosophy Club, about a female sleuth named Isabel Dalhousie, appeared in 2004 and immediately leapt onto national bestseller lists, as did the second and third books, Friends, Lovers, Chocolate and The Right Attitude to Rain with the fourth mystery being, The Careful Use of Compliments.

Cowboy up!

“Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway”....John Wayne

So what is the appeal of the Western Novel?

A good western captures the spirit of freedom and adventure. It allows the reader to explore unspoiled nature and to plunge themselves into the wilderness where the characters are on their own. And of course it always includes the classic confrontation of good and evil.....with the hero riding off into the sunset.

Check out the library's Western Book Display. If we don't have a particular book or author in our collection you can request one through PASCAL http://www.pascalsc.org/

April Showers Bring May Flowers!

Well maybe not for all of us. Especially if you live in an apartment, condo or just have a very small yard. There is a way to have those May flowers though. Have you tried container gardening? Putting combinations of plants into pots, buckets, old chairs or terra-cotter pots is an easy way to bring more color into your life.

Gardening in Containers: Creative Ideas from America's Best Gardeners is full of useful articles culled from Fine Gardening magazine. These articles are written by well known garden writers and designers who share their expertise and suggest creative ways to pair eye-catching plant combinations with pots of all kinds.

You can locate this book and many others by going to the library's online catalog and typing "gardening" in as a keyword.



Check out some of these gardening sites:

Clemson Extension: http://hgic.clemson.edu/index.htm

Carolina Gardener Online: http://www.carolinagardener.com/

South Carolina Midland Master Gardeners Assoc.: http://www.scmmga.org/

Can't find the book you need?

Try PASCAL. Ask one of the librarians to help you.

PASCAL is the Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries, a consortium of South Carolina's academic libraries together with their parent institutions and state agency partners. PASCAL fosters cooperation on a broad range of issues including shared licensing of electronic resources, universal borrowing, and ILS hosting.
Members & Partners

National Library Week

National Library Week is April 16-23.

Let us know your favorite book and why you enjoyed it. Simply click on "Comments" under this post and send us your information. Be sure to include your name!

Check out this National Library Week video:
http://alfocus.ala.org/videos/national-library-week-reference-desk