Take flight with these virtual rides

Photo by C. Cagnin on Pexels.com

Do you feel like taking flight during these stay-at-home times? If you love the feel that the freedom of the skies offers, take a look at these virtual rides. Experience the cockpits and controls of the earliest airplanes, ride over Manhattan in a helicopter and join a fighter jet crew over the Swiss Alps.

Virtual Cockpit Tours from EAA Aviation Museum

Experience NYC by Helicopter from youvisit.com

360° cockpit view | Fighter Jet | Patrouille Suisse | Virtual Reality

And here are some eBooks for you to enjoy after you land – available now!

Fight or Flight by Samantha Young

First Flight Around the World by Tim Grove

The Flight Girls by Noah Salazar (audiobook also available)

Hornet Flight by Ken Follett

Star Flight by Phyllis A. Whitney

Parfait au chocolat

While the oldest recipe named “parfait” was published in an 1869 French cookbook (it was coffee flavored), the chocolate parfait was created in 1894 in France.  Parfait literally means perfect in French!  There are a couple of ways to make parfaits. The traditional French-style uses sugar syrup, eggs, and cream. The American style layers parfait cream, ice cream, and flavored gelatin in a tall, clear glass topped with whipped cream, fruit and liqueurs. The parfait has recently taken a healthier approach using yogurt layered with nuts and fresh fruits, instead of ice cream and sugary syrups.

Today is all about the chocolate parfait because it’s National Chocolate Parfait Day!  That doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with other flavors. Fruit and cream go quite well with chocolate as well as crunchy favorites like pretzels or cookie bits. A delicious chocolate parfait would be a perfect way to end (or start) your day. Try this versatile recipe at home today.

Read some chocolate mysteries while you indulge in your chocolate desert:

Chocolate Cream Pie            The chocolate thief

Also learn French !

Mango Languages User Guide

April 29th International Dance Day

Did you know today is International Dance Day? It is a day set aside by the International Dance Council to promote public awareness of the “art of dance”. The date was chosen because it is the birthday of famed French dance artist Jean-Georges Noverre, (1727-1810), creator of modern ballet.) The intention of the International Dance Day message is to celebrate dance, revel in the universality of this art form, cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers, and bring people together with a common language – DANCE!

International Dance Day is especially meant to get those not usually interested in professional dancing interested in it. It’s a time for promoters and practitioners of dance to reach out to a wider public.

So how about we take time to dance today, in our homes, in our yards? How about organizing a social distancing dance party with your neighbors? Have everyone come out at one time and dance in your front yards. Or set up a virtual dance party with friends and family on a video chat platform such as FaceTime, Zoom or Skype?

Let’s Get Moving!

Also check out these eBooks:

How do you dance    Pete the cat  Ballet stars

Explore nature’s creatures with, live feeds, books and magazines

There’s something both relaxing and fascinating about watching nature’s creatures in their native habitats. These livecams from explore.org give you a close up look at creatures from land and sea, without intruding on them.

Decorah Eagles – Decorah, Iowa USA

Mississippi River Flyway Cam – Brice Prairie, Wisconsin

Honey Bee Landing Zone – Buchloe, Germany

Alligator Swamp and Spoonbills – St. Augustine, Florida, USA

Oliphants River Emangusi, South Africa

Watching these scenes might make you want to read about animals and nature too. Here are some related books, available now for download to your device.

Grizzly Heart – Living Without Fear Among the Brown Bears of Kamchatka by Charlie Russell – download eBook here

H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald – download eAudiobook here or eBook here

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat – download eAudiobook here or eBook here

The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen – download eBook here

Voices in the Ocean – A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins by Susan Casey – download eBook here

And check out these magazines on Flipster for more about animals and nature. Sign in here with your library card.

From eBooks, eAudiobooks, newspapers, magazines to
subject databases, our online resources are here for you!

Virtual Program: Libby: Ask Me Anything

Maybe you’re finding yourself with more free time now that all of your social events and outings have been canceled. Maybe you just need a break from it all. Either way now might be a great time to pick up a good book, and we still have you covered with our digital collection on Libby.
If you’re new to Libby, need a refresher, or have a specific question, join us on Friday afternoons at 3 PM for virtual learning sessions.  Registration is required.
A Zoom link will be emailed to registrants 2 hours before the program starts.  Make sure to check the email address you registered with to receive the link.  You do not need a Zoom account to attend the virtual program.

 

Virtual Program

No holds eAudiobooks – ready for download!

We have a collection of no holds audiobooks ready for easy download to your device. To help you choose, here are three you may like.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante – download here

Now an HBO series: the first volume in the New York Times bestselling “enduring masterpiece” (The Atlantic) about a lifelong friendship between two women from Naples.

Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Elena Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its main characters, the fiery and unforgettable Lila and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflicted friendship.

This first novel in the series follows Lila and Elena from their fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between two women.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez – download here

One of the twentieth century’s enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career.

The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.

Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility, the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth—these universal themes dominate the novel. Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an account of the history of the human race.

The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman – download here

Jan and Antonina Zabinski were Polish Christian zookeepers horrified by Nazi racism, who managed to save over three hundred people. Yet their story has fallen between the seams of history.

Drawing on Antonina’s diary and other historical sources, bestselling naturalist Diane Ackerman vividly re-creates Antonina’s life as “the zookeeper’s wife,” responsible for her own family, the zoo animals, and their “guests”: resistance activists and refugee Jews, many of whom Jan had smuggled from the Warsaw Ghetto.

Jan led a cell of saboteurs, and the Zabinski’s young son risked his life carrying food to the guests, while also tending to an eccentric array of creatures in the house (pigs, hare, muskrat, foxes, and more). With hidden people having animal names, and pet animals having human names, it’s a small wonder the zoo’s code name became “The House under a Crazy Star.” Yet there is more to this story than a colorful cast. With her exquisite sensitivity to the natural world, Ackerman explores the role of nature in both kindness and savagery, and she unravels the fascinating and disturbing obsession at the core of Nazism: both a worship of nature and its violation, as humans sought to control the genome of the entire planet.

Want something different? Visit our full collection of No Holds Audiobooks here. And for more information, see our post on Simultaneous Use eAudiobooks here.

When is your favorite time to listen to an audiobook?
Leave a comment – we’d love to hear from you!

Earth Day is coming up – see what we have for you at our online library!

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Earth Day is coming up on Wednesday, April 22. Here are some ways you can observe the day and learn more about our planet. We have books and resources available now to download, read or discover!

These books about the earth are currently available on OverDrive.

50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth by John Javna and Sophie Javna – eBook

The Future We Choose by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac – eBook

Invisible Nature by Kenneth Worthy – eBook

Ready, Set, Green by Graham Hill and Meaghan O’Neill – eBook

The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells eBook and eAudiobook

You Can Save the Earth by Andrew Flach – eBook

On Flipster – sign in with your library card here to read National Geographic and Eco Parent magazines.

Our GreenFILE (POWER Library) database offers well-researched information covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. The database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 384,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 4,700 records. Sign in with your library card here.

Be sure to visit us again at Stay Connected with Chescolibraries for new virtual programs at our libraries, book suggestions, ideas and important community information.

Spanish eBooks and eAudiobooks!

Did you know that we have Spanish eBooks and eAudiobooks?  We have a whole bunch for a wide variety of ages and interests!  There are a lot of titles for kids and teens to choose from as well.  If you want to see only our Spanish titles when you browse or search in the Libby app, then follow these steps:

  1. Tap Preferences at the top of the library’s home screen or any list.
  2. Change the “Language” filter to Spanish.
  3. Tap Apply Preferences.

Libby Spanish

At-Home Yoga

Feeling stressed out? Stuck in a rut? Looking for ways to keep active and get your body moving in the comfort of your home? With a range of videos from guided meditations to advanced yoga sequences, Yoga with Adriene offers something for everyone, regardless of their level of experience! Now is a great time to begin your yoga practice or strengthen the foundation you may have already developed with Adriene’s easy-to-follow video collection. Make time for yourself to practice mindfulness, mental balance, and to get in touch with your body.   Check one of these recommended videos to get connected with your mind and body:

Yoga for Change and Drain

Meditation for Anxiety

Yoga for Beginners

Sunrise Yoga

Yoga for Transitions

Gentle, Relaxing, Cozy Flow

Meditation for Mental Balance and Grounding

Yoga for Seniors

Yoga for Nurses

Yoga for Manual Labor

Yoga for Loneliness

Yoga for Bedtime

Yoga for Stress Relief

Also Yoga eBooks on OverDrive.