Input, please

As part of my preparation for submitting my yearly magazine order, I've been looking at our circulation statistics.  And, as usual, the results have been absolutely fascinating (for me at least...I'm a bibliometrics geek).  The top 5 magazines for 2010 (based on average circulations per issue):

• National Geographic (17)
• Military History (15.2)
• Guns & Ammo (14.9)
• Mother Earth News (12)
• Discover (11.3)

Don't believe it when people tell you that guys don't read.
The big shocker for me though is how unpopular Sports Illustrated is:  1.75 checkouts per issue.  That's a worse rate than Alaska Business Monthly!  Why don't people read our copies of Sports Illustrated?  Are they already subscribers?  Does the magazine take too long to arrive here in the library's mail?  Do people prefer to get their sports news from television or the Internet?  Is there a better sports magazine?
I ask these questions because we have already cancelled subscriptions to The Sporting News and ESPN Magazine due to lack of patron interest...I would love to hear from blog readers why sports magazines seem to be so wildly unpopular.  Please take a second to complete our little survey off to the right. 
Thanks!

Cook-o-rama

If you ever wondered just what types of cookbooks the library has on the shelves, our recent selection of NEW cookbooks will give you a pretty good overview of the cookery collection.
Ethnic:  Authentic Cuban Cuisine, by Martha Cortina.  Not gourmet, fusion cuisine...this is real family cooking from a Cuban expatriate.
Scandinavian Classic Baking by Patricia Sinclair.  Traditional Scandinavian favorites, dressed up with lots of nuts and fruit.
Healthy: The Essential Diabetes Cookbook, by Antony Worrall Thompson.  Pulls in flavors from around the world, for a new take on diabetic recipes.
Gluten-free cookies : from shortbreads to Snickerdoodles, brownies to biscotti : 50 recipes for cookies you crave, by Luane Kohnke.  She provides a gluten-free flour recipe and helpful information for those new to gluten-free cooking.
Trendy: In the green kitchen : techniques to learn by heart, by Alice Waters.  Chef Waters has been around so long I hate to call her 'trendy', but this cookbook is all about appreciating the new slow-food movement.
Specialty: Serve yourself : nightly adventures in cooking for one, by Joe Yonan.  Just because you're single, that doesn't mean you have to eat Top Ramen while you're standing in front of the sink.
Easy: Almost Homemade, by Catherine Cassidy.  Make interesting and elaborate meals using a base of convenience and processed foods.

Your Playaway fix

Our latest quarterly shipment of Playaway audiobooks is here and on the shelf!  For those of you who love these little grab-n-go gems, we have some of the biggest names in fiction to entertain you:

• Jasper Fforde has added to his fantasy/mystery/time travel/humorous fiction series with One of Our Thursdays is Missing.  There's trouble in BookWorld, but where is detective Thursday Next? 
• W.E.B. Griffin brings espionage adventure to the fore with The Outlaws, the latest Presidential Agent novel.  Covert agent Charlie Castillo has to track down biological agents and avert a worldwide catastrophe.
• Donna Leon's 20th Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery is Drawing Conclusions.  Fans of Leon will love this latest installment, which focuses on the death of a widow who was sheltering abused women in her home.
• Alexander McCall Smith finally celebrates the wedding of Grace Makutsi and Phuti Radiphuti in The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, the 12th book in the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series.
• Francine Pascal revisits her wildly popular Sweet Valley High series with Sweet Valley Confidential.  The Wakefield twins are all grown up now, but the angst keeps coming.
• Jodi Picoult blends themes of infertility, music, gay rights and evangelical Christianity into her latest novel, Sing You Home.  Picoult wrote the lyrics to the songs included in this recording.
• Stuart Woods is back with another Stone Barrington novel.  Strategic Moves sees Stone receiving a million dollar bonus from his admiring bosses at the law firm, but his clients soon involve him in murder, embezzlement and CIA intrigue.

More sneaky food

When I was a kid, the general parenting approach to unpopular foods was "I don't care if you like carrots, you're not leaving the table until you eat them!".  Perhaps we're more nonconfrontational these days (or too lazy to enforce strict rules), but the new trend with parents is to sneak healthy ingredients into meals.  I posted previously about Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious.  We have a new title in this underhanded cooking genre:  Ice Pop Joy: organic, healthy, fresh, delicious, by Anni Daulter.
Not content with pureeing up spinach, carrots, kale and squash into a form unrecognizable to children, Daulter has added the extra sneaky step of mixing these vegetables up with pureed pineapple, mango, strawberries and bananas, spiking them with sweetener and creamy liquids (cream, milk, yogurt, or soy milk) and freezing them into popsicles.
A far cry from the fluorescent-colored sticks of high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors, these homemade pops are packed with protein, calcium, vitamins and antioxidants.  The recipes are frequently livened up with ingredients such as peanut butter, lavender, chamomile tea, flax seed, quinoa, wheat germ and tofu.  The pops look delicious, the children are all smiling, and everything looks so easy.  In fact, many of these recipes sound interesting enough to appeal to adults:  pistachio tofu pop, spicy Italian pop, Rooibos red tea immunity pops and Mexican spiced fire pops.  The recipe I'm most likely to try?  The Green Machine pop, made with spinach, bananas, pineapple and flax seed.