Need Something to Read?

Hi All,

Its summertime and the reading is good!  What? you say?  Read in the summer? Absolutely - its a great time to dig in to a book that will enthrall you, excite you and just darn keep you entertained!

How can you beat that introduction?

Forthwith - a bunch of links to 'best' of type lists of books.  The only difference is that these will be books in various categories.

General Fiction - Modern Library 100 Best Novels 

Library Thing - Best Contemporary Literary Fiction - over the last 30 years  

Science Fiction - NPR - Your Picks - Top 100 Science-Fiction/Fantasy Books

Fantasy - Paste Magazine - 30 Best Fantasy Book Series of All Time

Fantasy - Fantasy Book Review- UK - Top 100 Fantasy Books

Mystery - BestMysteryBooks.com - Top 25 Best Mystery Books

Horror - Worlds Without End - Nightmare Magazine's Top 100 Horror Books

Romance - Bustle - 13 Romance Novels That Should Be On Every Woman's Bucket List

Western - Western Writers of America - Best Western Novels of the 20th Century

So now that you have an impressive list of books to choose from, where do you find these books? At the library of course.  Click on this link to go to the library card catalog to see if the book that you are interested in is on the shelf!

So...with that list I would think most people's interests would be piqued. If I missed a genre/style of writing that you would like to see, email me by clicking on this link!

Enjoy the books and writing!

Regards,
Stu

ConsumerWorld.org

 Hi All,

Today's blog entry is about the consumer.  As in a website called ConsumerWorld.org.

ConsumerWorld.org is a website that enables the consumer - which means you! - to compare prices at dozens of online stores instantly, find shopping bargains, link quickly to product reviews from Consumer Search, Consumer Review, Epinions, find best prices and sales prices at online stores and stores in your neighborhood.

Users can check store reputation via BizRate and the Better Business Bureau as well. The site has links to Consumer Agencies, Companies, Travel, Scam Alerts, Recalls and a place to sign up for the ConsumerWorld Newsletter as well. This link is for customers that want to send a complaint to a company online - the list is very, very comprehensive and useful! There are links to newly added consumer sites as well.

Links to Low Rate Credit Cards, Air Deals, Product Reviews,  Used Car Histories, Consumer Booklets and Consumer Rights.

Enjoy the site and go forth and shop and research and browse and look and review and save, save, save money!!!

Regards,
Stu

 

Funny Amazon.com Reviews

Hi All,

Amazon.com is - as many of you know - a huge online retailer. Of everything.  From books, to motorcycles to diapers to deodorant to car parts and much, much more. It sells everything - and fast. 

What's more, it allows customers to review products that they have purchased.

So, of course, people being people, some folks like to write funny, clever, interesting product or book reviews. It all makes for very interesting reading - if you have time.  So...here are a bunch of websites that combine 'funny Amazon.com product reviews'.  Enjoy the sites - but more to the point, enjoy the funny reviews from customers!

Funny Reviews - from the Amazon site
WordStream Version of Funniest Amazon.com Reviews
16 Hilariously Inappropriate Amazon Reviews 
The MarySue - 50 Funny Amazon Reviews 
TheKitchn - 5 Funniest Reviews 
Business Insider - 11 of the Most Hilarious Amazon Reviews

Enjoy the sites and the reviews.

Regards,
Stu

The Halfway Point in 2015: Mid-Year Reviews

Hi All,

I can't believe it.  The halfway point in 2015 is just about here.  Tonight is the halfway point - which means that we still have half a whole year left.

Mid-points are a good time to summarize where we've been - and where we're going to go in the next six months of the year...forthwith, a whole bunch of useful sites that will help you chart the future six months of 2015 on a whole host of personal topics!

The website Generation X Finance  (which bills itself as 'Helping a Unique Generation Achieve Financial Independence) has an article title, 'How to Do a Mid-Year Financial Checkup - Things to Think About This Summer'  Important parts of the article include reviewing goals, progress and your taxes and, believe it or not, saving for Christmas 2015...

Lifehack.org has an article titled, 'How to Do a Personal Mid-Year Review?'  Three parts of this article were notable: Making a list of everything that you feel proud of over the past six months, making a list of any new goals or challenges (and noting any progress) that you taken on over the last six months and identifying areas of your life that you'd like to focus on over the next six months seems particularly poignant, relevant and helpful. 

Career Realism (whose tagline is 'Because Every Job is Temporary') has an article titled, '10 Questions to Ask Yourself Today'.  This short article is divided into 2 sections, 'Look-Back Questions' and 'Look-Forward Questions'.  Some salient points from each include thinking about  key accomplishments, mistakes made, time management, top 3 personal goals, learning and knowledge and relationship development.  How did you do on the last point?

Finally, from the Huffington Post comes this article, titled, 'Time For a Personal Mid-Year
Review: This is How! (What We Can Learn From Business)' This article gives the writer in all of us something to do. For example, the article suggests that we:
1. Write down the goals that you had set yourself at the beginning of the year.
2. Write down how you have 'performed' in these categories.
3. For each category, write down one or two of the biggest challenges you have had...
5. Write down in a maximum of two sentences how you wish to achieve open goals on your list.

As you can see there is a lot of writing and thinking...but it will help you get more proactive and engaged in your mid-year life review.  

While we are at the half-way point in the year...there are 180 days left to achieve those goals that you've set down!  You can do it! (Click here for a list of motivational quotes from BrainyQuote.com.

Enjoy the links - and good luck on your goals, aspirations, hopes and dreams.

Regards,
Stu

Indeed.com (A Simple, Popular, Effective Job/Career Site)

Hi All,

I was listening to WCBS Radio earlier this morning and there was a discussion of Indeed.com on their Morning Business Report. I thought that this would be a great website to discuss on the blog!

Indeed.com is a job aggregator...what that means to you is that the site posts jobs on the site from various other job websites. Indeed.com is the world's #1 job site - it has over 150 million unique visitors every month from over 50 different countries!

Users can Post a Job, Find Resumes or, more likely, look for jobs.

Upon going to the site, users have two dialog boxes to work with.  The first one lets the user type in a job title, keywords, or a company name.  The second box lets the user enter the city, state or zip code of a prospective job location.  Simple - easy and very, very Google-like. 

In addition users can Post a Resume by clicking on this link.  (You'll have to create a free account with Indeed.com first before you post the resume though!)

Once a search term is put in the first box and a job search is completed, users are faced with a  results list.  This list can be further narrowed down by location, distance to travel, salary estimate, location, job type, and other ways to limit the search.

When a user clicks on a specific job description the following information (in many cases) is included: job responsibilities, location, organization name and job requirements.  In addition, on the search results page a link to reviews is included.  Click here for an example of that for a search for 'Accountants'.

In addition, when job postings are looked at, there is an option to 'Apply Now' for that position on the right side of the page. A very, very helpful feature for the site!

Also, when users look at job postings, the organization or company attributes are ranked by stars on the review page.  Examples of company attributes that are evaluated include:

* Job Work/Life Balance
* Compensation/Benefits
* Job Security/Advancement
* Management
* Job Culture

 There are also individual job seekers' reviews in the form of up to a paragraph length long narrative. In addition, the job title, whether or not the reviewer worked at the organization?, and the date the narrative was written are included in the Employer Reviews section.

Finally, once you complete a search, the next time you visit the site, a list of your recent searches appears at the bottom of the page.  There is also an option to clear the recent search history.

Enjoy the site - and good luck job hunting!

Regards,
Stu

Let's Get Cooking

Hi All,

Cookbooks are one of the most popular subjects that we order in the library.  With the prices of cookbooks averaging roughly $25-$35 readers can see why we order so many cookbook titles - it can be expensive for an armchair cook to buy all the cookbooks he/she would like to.

So....the library comes to the rescue.  Did you know that we have basic cookbooks and cookbooks on topics as varied as Italian cooking, Chinese cooking, German cooking, gluten free cooking, heart-healthy cooking, low calorie cooking, crockpot cooking and many, many other categories of cooking.

Yum.

Click on this link to help you evaluate whether or not the cookbook that you have in your hand is a good one (well written, unbiased, pictures, correct recipes, no typos...).  AKA,  click the link to figure out what makes for a good cookbook - at least according to professional cookbook readers. Notice that the link comes from Publishers Weekly - one of the best known book review journals in the world.

Click on this link for another viewpoint on what makes for a good cookbook.  Notice that this link comes from Gourmet.com!!!

Click on this link for a subject search in the library card catalog for the phrase 'cookbooks' - and limited to those cookbooks in the Farmingdale Public Library.  Books were sorted so that the newest cookbooks are shown at the top of the results - the oldest are at the bottom.

And finally, click on this link to learn more about our Laotian Summer Cooking program scheduled for Tuesday, June 17th at 7pm.  Online registration begins on June 3rd for Farmingdale residents. 

Enjoy the links and the cookbooks and the program!

Regards,
Stu