New Music, 1.2.08

Check the catalog for more info about these cd's!


5 Stunna, Birdman
Birdman's long-awaited album has taken legions of hip-hop fans around the world as he has stepped up his lyrics with featured beats from Cash Money resident Hitman.



D-Sides, Gorillaz
One of music's most animated band's returns with a second collection of b-sides, remixes, demos, and other previously unreleased tracks.




Face Off, Bow Wow + Omarion
Superstars Bow Wow and Omarion showcase their rap and R&B repertoire on this 2007 collaborative effort. Includes the tight single Girlfriend.




Avenged Sevenfold
Avenged Sevenfold releases the self-titled follow-up to their breakthrough 2005 album City of Evil. Includes the tracks Almost Easy and Critical Acclaim.




Shine, Joni Mitchell
A very highly anticipated ten-track 2007 album from the iconic folk-rock singer and songwriter Joni Mitchell. The songs touch on issues like the environment, war, family, and the beauty of life. Herbie Hancock plays piano on the album's final tune, If.




Forever Cool, Dean Martin
Through the power of technology, Dean Martin returns to the music scene with an album that features new collaborations with artists such as Robbie Williams, Chris Botti, Joss Stone, Martina McBride, and more.



Mothership, Led Zeppelin
Highlights from all of Led Zeppelin's eight albums have been compiled into a new collection hand selected by the surviving members of the group. Featured tracks include Whole Lotta Love; Immigrant Song; and more.



Songs of Mass Destruction, Annie Lennox
A highly anticipated 11-track 2007 release from the successful and immensely talented alternative rock artist Annie Lennox. The highlight of the album is the tune Sing, which features 23 of the most prominent female solo artists in the world.


Growing Pains, Mary J. Blige
With the release of her eighth studio album, there is an uptempo party feel with a dance/disco sound, along with the album's first single, Just Fine.




B.A.R.S., Cassidy
A very highly anticipated 2007 release from the East Coast rapper Cassidy. Rapper Swizz Beatz helped produce the album, which features guest appearances from the likes of Tyrese, Eve, Jamie Foxx, Mya, John Legend, Krayzie Bone, Lil' Wayne, and more.


Check the catalog for more info about these cd's!

Happy New Year!

What's your resolution?

Read more? Learn to knit? Eat healthier? Exercise? Learn to use a computer?

Whatever it is, the library has resources to help you be successful! We have an excellent collection of how-to books, cookbooks, exercise videos and dvd's, as well as a ready and willing staff to help you find the best resources for you. All of our resources and services are free! So if your resolution is to save money, we can also help with that, too.

Check out our catalog for our full collection of magazines, books, movies, music, and more.


photo from flickr

new movies! 12.28.07

Check the catalog for more info!

The Simpsons Movie: When Homer accidentally causes a catastrophe that could wipe out all of Springfield, he must save the city and rescue his family. Bonus features include deleted scenes, commentary, and more. Rated pg13.




Balls of Fury: A former ping-pong professional is sucked back into the game when an FBI agent recruits him to infiltrate a ping-pong death match tournament. Now he wants to win, and find his father's killer, who is the master of the tournament. Rated pg13.





Mr. Bean's Holiday: Mr. Bean wins a camcorder and an all-expense paid vacation to the French Riviera, and along the way falls into a series of mishaps that are all caught on camera and entered into the Cannes Film Festival! Includes deleted scenes, featurettes, and more.





Shrek the Third: When Fiona's father, the King, croaks, it's up to Shrek and his friends Donkey and Puss in Boots to find a suitable heir to the throne before Shrek becomes King of Far Far Away. Bonus features include featurettes, bloopers, cast interviews, and more.






Sicko: Michael Moore interviews Americans who have been denied treatment by the United States health care insurance companies -- companies who sacrifice essential health services in order to maximize profits. Sheds light on the how complicated it can become for communities and individuals, and the sacrifices they have made when they are denied health care coverage.




The Bounty: A remake of the story that claims to expose "the truth behind the legend" of the Bounty mutiny. In doing so it provides a stirring and dramatic portrait of the delicately balanced friendship between Christian and Bligh.

The Incredibles: Fifteen years after ex-superhero Bob Par is forced to assume a civilian identity with his family, he takes an assignment from a mysterious agency that turns out to be a trap, leaving it up to his family to save him and the world.

Happy Feet: A young penguin named Mumbles cannot sing like the other penguins but can he can tap dance and he learns that being different can be good.

School for Scoundrels: Dr. P runs a school where he teaches losers how to be virile studs, but when an awkward, kind student easily wins the girl of his dreams, Dr. P sees it as a competition and goes for the same girl.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles: An uptight businessman faces disaster after disaster as he tries to get back home in time for his family's Thanksgiving dinner, and along the way is joined by an insane traveling salesman that will not leave him alone.






Ocean's Thirteen: Ruthless casino owner Willy Bank never imagined that the odds were against him when he double-crossed Danny Ocean's friend and mentor Reuben Tishkoff. But the gang's going to need more than luck to pull off their most ambitious and riskiest casino heist.






Arctic Tale: Follow Nanu the polar bear cub and Seela the walrus pup through exciting and often dangerous struggles for survival, with only their natural instincts and mothers' guidance to help them face the challenges of a world that is melting around them.

New Comics + Manga, 12.27.07

Check the catalog for more information!

Monster, Naoki Urasawa - volumes 2, 3, 4, 5, + 6

volume 2 description: An ice-cold killer is on the loose, and brilliant Dr. Kenzo Tenma is the only one who can stop him! Conspiracies, serial murders, and a scathing indictment of hospital politics are all masterfully woven together in this compelling manga thriller. Tenma springs to action when he discovers that Johan, the boy whose life he saved nine years ago, has grown up to become a serial murderer. Attempting to track down Johan's twin sister Anna, Tenma discovers that Johan's connections to government officials run just as deep as his connection to Anna. Now Tenma realizes that this monster is far more powerful than he could have ever imagined.


Batman: Year One
Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli

Even Batman was an inexperienced novice once. In an essential story from the Dark Knight's early days, Batman struggles to instill fear in Gotham City's criminals, while expatriate Chicago cop James Gordon discovers that he may be the only honest cop in town.






Kampung Boy is a favorite of millions of readers in Southeast Asia. With masterful economy worthy of Charles Schultz, Lat recounts the life of Mat, a Muslim boy growing up in rural Malaysia in the 1950s: his adventures and mischief-making, fishing trips, religious study, and work on his family’s rubber plantation. Meanwhile, the traditional way of life in his village (or kampung) is steadily disappearing, with tin mines and factory jobs gradually replacing family farms and rubber small-holders. When Mat himself leaves for boarding school, he can only hope that his familiar kampung will still be there when he returns.


Malaysian teenager Mat makes a life-changing move from the quiet kampung where he was born to Ipoh, the rapidly industrializing nearby town. Living far from his rural roots at a boarding school, he discovers bustling streets, modern music, heady literature, budding romance, and through it all his growing passion for art.


Aya: Ivory Coast, 1978. Family and friends gather at Aya's house every evening to watch the country's first television ad campaign promoting the fortifying effects of Solibra, "the strong man's beer." It's a golden time, and the nation, too — an oasis of affluence and stability in West Africa — seems fueled by something wondrous.

Who's to know that the Ivorian miracle is nearing its end? In the sun-warmed streets of working-class Yopougon, aka Yop City, holidays are around the corner, the open-air bars and discos are starting to fill up, and trouble of a different kind is about to raise eyebrows. At night, an empty table in the market square under the stars is all the privacy young lovers can hope for, and what happens there is soon everybody's business.

Aya tells the story of its nineteen-year-old heroine, the studious and clear-sighted Aya, her easygoing friends Adjoua and Bintou, and their meddling relatives and neighbors. It's a breezy and wryly funny account of the desire for joy and freedom, and of the simple pleasures and private troubles of everyday life in Yop City. An unpretentious and gently humorous story of an Africa we rarely see-spirited, hopeful, and resilient — Aya won the 2006 award for Best First Album at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. Clément Oubrerie's warm colors and energetic, playful lines connect expressively with Marguerite Abouet's vibrant writing.

Check the catalog for more information!

Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List, Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

From the writing duo that brought us Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist comes another just as fun, just as witty, just as interesting story.

Naomi and Ely live across the hall from each other in New York City. They've been bff forever, and they've grown into each other's impossible eccentricities. Thing is, Naomi wants it to be more, but Ely is gay. Which she knows, but deep deep deep down she is in denial.

So their bff status is in jeopardy anyway, but then Ely goes and kisses the person on their No Kiss List that makes the most "in your face" statement - Naomi's boyfriend.

More than anything, I love the fun and fast writing of Rachel Cohn and David Levithan - they work well together, complement each other, keep the different voices fresh, funny, and real.

What would your daemon be?

If you've been in the library lately it is no secret to you that I *heart* The Golden Compass and the rest of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy.

I also really liked the movie - unlike a lot of other librarians, it seems. I thought they got the characters right and the whole look and feel right - which seems the hardest thing. A few *ahem* plot points aren't quite . . . right . . . but I still liked it a lot.

The Golden Compass website offers a 20 question daemon quiz! This certainly was the question most on my mind and most everyone else's mind, too, in the immediate aftermath of reading Golden Compass - so, what would your daemon be?

Before I Die, Jenny Downham

This book is sooooooooooo saaaaaaaaad. I think I cried through at least 1/2 of it. But somehow, and I can't exactly describe it, it is not depressing. Sad but not depressing. Reviewers called it "uplifting" and I wouldn't go that far, but I think we can all learn something - about grace, forgiveness, peace, and all that jazz - from Tess.

Tess is dying. She's got lukemia, and she is going to die. It is only a matter of time, and before she does die, there's a few things Tess wants to experience. So she makes a list - a really really daring list, enlists the help of the only real friend she has left (everyone else treats her like she needs to be pitied, or handled like glass, or is contagious), and goes to it.

Along the way, Tess is still a teenager - by no means a perfect girl. But she is honest and open and lets us know how it is, how it might be, and how to go through it.

New Movies!

Check the library's catalog for more information.



Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior
When the head of his village's sacred Buddha statue is stolen, simple country boy Ting is sent to Bangkok to retrieve it. He is trained in Muay Thai, but vowed never to use it. Once he arrives in the big city, however, he is forced to fight.





Flags of Our Fathers
The life stories of the five Marines and one Naval officer that were forever immortalized as a symbol of WWII by raising the American flag at the battle of Iwo Jima.






Millennium Actress
Past and present collide as a documentary filmmaker obsessed with classic movies discovers a mysterious key that unlocks the secrets of a legendary actress who vanished at the height of her brilliant career over 30 years ago.






Victory at Sea (4 discs): The most famous historical war series ever made. A sweeping record of the naval battles of World War II.










Air Gear v. 6: In a world where street gangs zip around on super-fast motorized skates, Minami Itsuki has the need for speed! He will do anything to master the Air Treck skates and become a Storm Rider himself.









Ken Burns' The War: Examine the ways World War II touched the lives of every family on every street in every town in America, through stories shared from families across the country. Includes featurettes, commentary, deleted scenes, and additional interviews.





High School Musical 2










Bridge to Terabithia: An 11-year-old boy's life is changed forever when he befriends the class outsider, a girl. Together they create the world of Terabithia, an imaginary kingdom filled with giants, trolls, and other magical beings.






Air Gear, volumes 1 - 6
Ikki's sudden popularity is attracting some unwanted attention from the leader of the Skull Saders, still bitter over his crushing defeat at the hands of a rookie. Ikki faces his rival in a gravity-defying race.





Ghost Stories, volumes 1 - 4:
When Hajime volunteers Satsuki for pet duty at school, she raises the ire of a fellow student--who, in turn, raises a certain rabid rabbit from the grave. Good thing there's a cabbie to get them out of there! (Though, it'd be even better if that cabbie wasn't some life-sucking ghoul with a nasty skin condition.) Add to these elementary menaces, demonic dolls with a really perverted idea of playtime and a ghost nurse with a disturbing bedside manner, and you've got a pretty good idea of the insane, spooky, and hysterical hijinks that await you in the most gleefully controversial and gut-bustingly funny anime you've ever seen.



Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are taken in by a series of oddball relatives and others after their wealthy parents are killed in a fire. The first to take them in is the dastardly and cunning Count Olaf, who is only interested in their inheritance.



Check the library's catalog for more information.

Get audiobooks straight to your computer!

The Seabrook Library is now part of the NH Overdrive program. Everyone who has a Seabrook Library card (in your hand! you are going to need the number!) can go to nh.lib.overdrive.com and download audiobooks. First you need to download the free software, then you can get clicking! This works will almost all mp3 players (but not the ipod). All you need is a Seabrook Library card, a computer, and an Internet connection. Call the library (474-2044) or email (szpatterson AT sealib.org) if you have any questions or need any help. Happy listening!

The Road of the Dead, Kevin Brooks

First I have to say - - -- - finally!!! Finally there is a book that is like I am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak. When I say like, I don't mean that the plots are exactly the same, or the way things go down is the same, but the overall style and . . . well, those intangibles that make a book enough like another in theme, etc., without it being a copycat kinda thing. I can, without reservation, say that if you liked I am the Messenger, The Road of the Dead will be good to you.

Ruben's sister Rachel is killed, and Ruben . . feels it. Like he feels his brother's emotions, although Cole tries to keep himself distant. Cole goes off in search of Rachel's killer only because their mother wants to bring her body home and bury her. But of course, no one is talking but everyone knows more than they want to say. Add in the fact that Ruben and Cole are half-gypsy, the villages and rural places of England, and some other . . . shall we say, interesting characters and you've got a book that is really and truly good.