This is an interesting little book that's quite quick to read. The author intersperses her own experiences with unemployment and financial hardship during this recession with her family's experiences during the Great Depression. She also discovers her grandmother's fully preserved recipe collection. Each chapter is accompanied by recipes that her family cooked during the Great Depression and those that she is cooking today.

This wonderful short story collection adds an unique sci-fi/fantasy twist to the typical holiday characters and legends. Even the book cover has a bright and detailed illustration to put you in a holiday mood. "The Yattering and Jack" by Clive Barker, "Miracle" by Connie Willis, "Nackles" by Donald E. Westlake and "Nicholas Was..." by Neil Gaiman were some of my favorite stories among others. I hope to revisit this book again each year; it's a new holiday classic.

I'm new to Nigella's cookbooks, so I'm glad I started with Nigella Christmas, a sumptuous British take on holiday cooking. There's lots of background information about each recipe, plenty of colorful photos, and just a general cheerful, festive feel. For those ambitious cooks, there are recipes for roasting goose and making fruitcakes and puddings. If you only check this out to dream, it's still sure to put you in the holiday spirit!

Highly recommended - a very quick read. Written by a University of Chicago economist, this book examines how economics can be used to understand the mysteries of everyday life. It's a prequel to the recently released SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance

If you are looking for some new and exciting ideas for Halloween, check out Extreme Halloween by Tom Nardone, the author of the Extreme Pumpkins series. He includes a variety of projects that are not your typical Halloween crafts, but are sure to scare. Check out the pumpkin sculptures (millipede, scorpion, sea monster), the unearthed grave, pumpkin tiki torches, and more. His other books will teach you some very creative ways in which to carve pumpkins.

If you are looking for more conventional ideas, we have plenty of fantastic resources, including DVDs on face painting, party decorations and pumpkin carving and even Halloween CDs to help set the mood. Look for our Fall Fun display by the Circulation Services Desk or ask a librarian for help.

This week marks the deaths of three well-known authors: Michael Crichton, Tony Hillerman, and Studs Terkel.

Michael Crichton was a best-selling author known for his sci-fi thrillers such as Jurassic Park. Many of his books were turned into movies.

Tony Hillerman was most famous for his Navajo Tribal Police mystery series. A handful of his books were made into movies.

Studs Terkel was known for his oral histories, many which were about the Chicago area. He also hosted a radio show on WFMT for many years.

The works of all three authors are on display @ your library. Just give us a call (847-455-6016 ext. 2), and we can set a book aside for you, too.

Strike TV is a new website where comedy writers are posting their own TV series online. The site originated during the Hollywood writers’ strike, and now it poses to give comedy writers more creative control by being independent of the TV networks. In addition, it'll also give you something else to watch just in case a strike happens again.

There are a variety of shows and collaborations such as SNL’s Kristen Wiig, The Daily Show’s Aasif Mandvi, and other writers contributing to Global Warming, a romantic comedy. Bob Newhart is in The Challenge, and writers from The Office created House Poor. Other shows to check out besides these are the suspenseful Unkown Sender and the horror series 5 or Die. Eventually there will be up to 40 online shows hosted on the site. You can also access the shows on YouTube.

If you're a fan of Dan Brown's books such as The Da Vinci Code, then you'll be pleased to hear that the movie version of his novel Angels and Demons will be coming out in May 2009.

Watch the movie trailer to get a taste of the new film, which features Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist who is trying to solve a murder that involves the Illuminati, terrorists, and the Vatican.

Get a head start on reading Angels and Demons, if you haven't already, or learn more about the novel.

Tingle your spine with these horror book and movie combinations:

Read The Amityville Horror + watch the original movie or the remake.
Read Dracula + watch a movie or two.
Read The Exorcist + watch various movies.
Read Frankenstein + watch an assortment of movies.
Read I am Legend + watch the movie.
Read The Shining + watch the movie.

American Wife is the newest novel by Curtis Sittenfeld, best known for the bestseller Prep. This fictional memoir traces the life of the main character, Alice Blackwell, from her childhood in a small town in Wisconsin to eventually becoming the First Lady when her husband is elected President. What's even more intriguing is that the book is very loosely based on the life of the current First Lady, Laura Bush. Sittenfeld has made some changes and taken some liberties, but there are many parallels between the fictional characters and the real life people that you may enjoy figuring out. The ups and downs in Alice's life are portrayed very vividly and honestly. Although a bit lengthy at 558 pages, this is an enjoyable and engrossing read.