New Database

Lynda.com

The Freeport Memorial Library is pleased to offer its cardholders access to Linda.com's library of instructional videos. Normally, using lynda.com requires a paid subscription, but as a Freeport library cardholder you can access Lynda.com content from any computer with an Internet connection simply by entering your 14-digit BPL library card barcode.

What is lynda.com?

Lynda.com is an online learning site that hosts a constantly growing library of over 3,000 courses that include over 130,000 videos. Courses cover a variety of topics (including business, design, web development and multimedia skills) and software (Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite and open source applications) that can help you pursue personal and professional goals. These courses are delivered by expert instructors and feature searchable transcripts that make it easy to find quick answers to questions. They also feature Certificates of Completion that can be uploaded to a LinkedIn profile.

Readers' Advisory

Farewell Colleen McCullough 

Author

1937-2015

 

      McCullough was born in the late 1930s in Wellington, a large city in the Australian state of New South Wales. Her father was a relatively recent Irish immigrant to the continent, while her mother came from neighboring New Zealand. As a child, McCullough lived with her family for a time in the Outback, Australia's rough, arid region, but spent most of her formative years in the large city of Sydney. A voracious reader from an early age, she excelled in academic pursuits, especially the sciences, and pinned her hopes upon becoming a doctor.

      The Thorn Birds, became an international publishing sensation as its sales climbed past the seven-million mark. This saga of three generations in an Irish Catholic family in Australia seemed to pique interest in the history and culture of the continent, as witnessed by a spate of books and films set "Down Under" that entered into the annals of pop culture in the years following The Thorn Birds success.

Source: "Colleen McCullough." Authors and Artists for Young Adults. Vol. 36. Detroit: Gale, 2000. Biography in Context. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

Click here her books by Colleen McCullough.

 

Readers' Advisory

All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr (2014)

Blind since six, Marie-Laure flees Paris with her father during World War II; they end up in Brittany's Saint-Malo. Meanwhile, orphaned German boy Werner proves to be a whiz with radios, which leads him to military school and, eventually, to tracking the Resistance. Soon he's in Saint-Malo, too. (Library Journal)

Readers' Advisory

Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York
By Kenneth Ackerman (2005)

A lively account of the life of a New York legend traces the rise of Boss Tweed, the corrupt party boss who controlled New York politics through a combination of corruption, bribery, and coercion until his own over-reaching destroyed him. (Publisher)

Music

Farewell Joe Cocker

Musician

1944-2014

Joe Cocker's voice was perfectly suited to sing the blues.  He became well known in the late 1960 and early 1970s. Personal and professional problems rivaling those described in blues songs plagued him over the years, and at times it seemed that his career was finished. In recent years, however, Cocker returned to music, expanded his range, and established a presence as a romantic balladeer.

Cocker began his musical career playing harmonica with The Cavaliers.  The band reorganized in the early 1960s as Vance Arnold and the Avengers with Cocker singing lead.  Between 1966-1970 Cocker was the leader of The Grease Band.  Cocker became as solo artist in 1972.

Click here for music by Joe Cocker.

Readers' Advisory

Farewell P. D. James

Author

1920-2014

 

 

 

Phyllis Dorothy James died Thursday at the age of 94. She was a best-selling author who didn't publish her first novel until she was 42. When she started writing mysteries in the early 1960s, she was holding down a full-time job, raising two daughters and supporting her ill husband, who died in 1964.  The enormous popularity of her novels — and of her detective hero, Adam Dalgliesh — eventually allowed her to devote herself full time to writing. Seven of her books were adapted for the public television series Mystery. And her novel The Children of Men was adapted into a 2006 film.

In 1991, Queen Elizabeth made P.D. James a baroness. (NPR)

Click here for books by P. D. James.

Readers' Advisory

Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight
By Jay Barbree with Forward by John Glenn (2014)

 

To date, everything written about Armstong's life and flights has been written from the outside looking in; Barbree is the only person whom Neil Armstrong trusted to share close personal details about his inspiring life story. Working from his years of notes, and with the full cooperation of the Armstrong family, Barbree has written the definitive biography of America's most famous astronaut and one of our greatest modern heroes. Much has already been written about Armstrong and the major players who helped him fly to the moon, but he wanted this book to emphasize his two passions--family and flight. Barbree and Armstrong discussed everything, from his two marriages and the death of his baby daughter, to his love of flying, the war years and of course, his time in space. The book, timed to coincide with the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch and full of never-before-seen photos, includes many personal details that have never before been written, such as what Armstrong really felt when he took that first step on the moon, what life in NASA was like, his relationships with the other astronauts, and what he felt the future of space exploration should be. (Publisher)