Winnetka-Northfield Public Library District

Program description: For children ages 0-17 months with a parent/caregiver.Location: Winnetka Library - Lloyd RoomAddress: 768 Oak Street, Winnetka, IL 60093

Reviewer: RayReview: I found this exceptional new book appropriately enough sitting on the library's non-fiction New Book shelf (949.5) and decided to give it a spin. It purred. It's the story of the Eastern Roman Empire whose capital was consecrated 11 May, 330 AD by... Emperor "Milvian Bridge" Constantine as Nova Roma (New Rome) but which was known as Constantinople until the Turks finally conquered it in 1453 whereafter it came to known, as it is today, as Istanbul. Lars Brownworth, podcaster and featured on NPR, is a former high school history teacher who gives us a wonderfully readable 1000+ year history of what was inappropriately called the Byzantine Empire in the Enlightenment and beyond. Okay, there are a lot of generals and emperors in the space of a 1000 years and remembering what one read isn't always easy. There is however an appendix with a list of Emperors and dynasties. The story is never dull, and we come upon the forementioned Constantine and his mother, St. Helen, Justinian, Crusaders, a blind Venetian doge, innumerable imperial assassins, amazing generals, empresses, patriarchs, popes, and hordes of Moslems, Turks, and Mongols. With a dust-jacket paying tribute to Planet of the Apes and a half-dozen "Maps of the empire" to help assist the reader, Brownworth's thesis is that not only did, as Thomas Cahill taught us, Ireland save Western Civilization, but the Eastern Empire also helped rescue Western Civilizations. Constantinople was responsible for saving many irreplaceable Greek texts (of pagans and Christians),and their holding on to eastern defenses for hundreds and hundreds of years after "Rome fell," delayed the Moslem/Turkish invasion of Western Europe until the west was again sufficiently able to beat back the terrible tide. Had it not been for Nova Roma, there would be a lot more Minarets in Europe and probably a lot less Swiss bankers. Very entertaining — and educational. Recommended for a cold winter’s night.

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Program description: Learn the basics of Microsoft Excel 2007 including a description of what a spreadsheet program does and different ways to use a spreadsheet for work and home.Location: Winnetka Library - Lloyd RoomAddress: 768 Oak Street, Winnetka, IL 60093