On June 19, 1846, the Knickerbocker club of New York City played the New York Nine in the first officially recorded game of baseball. They played on Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey due to the fact that there were no suitable grounds in Manhattan.

WhatWasThere.com, a site that features historical photos overlaid on contemporary street views, shows how the site looks today in comparison to the Currer and Ives lithograph of the famous Knickerbocker vs. Nines game.

Chelsea’s own vintage team, the Monitor Base Ball Club, will be playing the game according to the rules of the 1860s at TimberTown on Sunday, June 23 at 2 pm.

Come early at 12:30 to see a team of local celebrities take on the Monitors! The challengers include Bill “Maverick Librarian” Harmer, the library director – so stop in to cheer him on!

Though the name Stephen Tobolowsky probably doesn’t ring any bells, chances are good you’ve seen him before.  Tobolowsky has appeared in numerous movies and TV shows (His IMDB page lists a whopping 218 titles, including Momento, Glee, and Groundhog Day) proving himself a talented character actor– it turns out that he’s also a talented writer!

In The Dangerous Animals Club, Tobolowsky presents a series of well-crafted autobiographical essays that will engage even those not familiar with his career.  A combination of relatable childhood stories and Hollywood inside, The Dangerous Animals Club manages to avoid the problem of “sameness” that plagues many other essay collections.  Though Tobolowsky is arguably famous, his essays avoid pretension and name-dropping; instead, they are all about telling the story.  Oh, and they’re funny too!                         –Emily

Photo: Dave Brenner

Don’t want to wait until June 23 for the Monitor Base Ball Club’s next home match?  Want to learn a little more about historic base ball?  Come to the library this Thursday, May 23 at 7pm and join Captain “Honest Jon” Van Hoek and other members of the Monitor Base Ball Club of Chelsea for a fun look at old-time base ball. Part of the Chelsea Area Historical Society, the Monitors are an amateur community club playing base ball by the rules of 1860.

Monitor’s 2013 schedule: (Home matches are at Timbertown)
May 27: 12pm at Royal Oak
June 9: 1pm at Gordon Hall, Dexter
June 15: 10am, 12pm, 2pm at Sylvania
June 23: 2pm vs. Flint
July 4: 12pm at Northville
July 14: 1:30 at Greenfield Village
July 20: TBA at Fort Wayne Detroit
July 27: 2 pm vs. Royal Oak
Aug 4: 1pm vs. Port Huron & Dexter
Aug 24: 2:30 pm vs. Northville
Aug 31/Sept 1: TBA at Ohio Cup, Columbus
Sept 15: 2 pm at Walker Tavern
Sept 21: 12pm at Okemos (Meridian Twp)

For anyone wanting to get fit this summer, but find their budget is the leanest part of their lifestyle, a quick trip to the Chelsea District Library for a free pass into MI Big Green Gym is the first step to getting started.

MI Big Green Gym is a partnership with Michigan Recreation and Park Association, the Department of Natural Resources, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. It is designed to show just how easy it is to get out, get active and get healthier.

The DNR started the Park & Read program in 2010 as a way to provide free passes to state parks.  Now, with support from Blue Cross, the program has been rebranded to promote outdoor fitness and provides free one-day passes into any state park, state forest campground or pathway, as well as includes family-friendly destinations at select community recreation facilities.

MI Big Green Gym encourages Michigan residents to take advantage of the state’s extensive network of quality parks and recreation options. With 101 state parks and hundreds of community recreation agencies that offer a wide variety of physical activities, people can easily pursue fitness interests year-round, from yoga and swimming to hiking and paddling.

No matter their fitness level – from beginner to enthusiast – Michigan residents will be able to find the right fit through MPRA member agencies, which offer plenty of affordable activities, classes and programs. Contact your local parks and recreation department for programs near you, or visit www.michigan.gov/stateparks for a complete list of state park activities.

Passes allow one vehicle into a state park for one day, and with many parks offering free, intro-to programs with all the gear and expertise provided through the
Rec 101 program, that one day can lead to lifelong memories.

Passes will be available at the Chelsea District Library Check Out Desk starting June 1, are valid for seven days from check-out and can be used for day-use only, not for use at prearranged/ multiple person private gatherings, or overnight camping.The program is available June 1 to October 1.

For more information, visit http://www.mrpaonline.org/Programs/MI-Big-Green-Gym of call the library at (734) 475-8732.

People judge books by their covers all of the time, and book marketers are aware of this trend and design covers accordingly.  Earlier this week, Young Adult author Maureen Johnson wrote an insightful article on the difference in the public’s perception of male and female authors– ending by highlighting book marketer’s tendency to design covers that convey a fluffier read for books written by women, even when the books have depth and substance.

Coverflip by Electric Sheep Comix

To further emphasize the difference a cover design makes on the reader’s perception of the book, Johnson encouraged her Twitter followers to submit “Cover Flips”–redesigns of book covers imagining that the author was of the opposite gender.  The results are worth the look.

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner dominated the best seller lists, has been read by millions of people and in 2007, became a major motion picture. His follow up, A Thousand Splendid Suns, also hit number one on the bestseller lists and has been widely read and admired.

Hosseini’s 3rd novel, And the Mountains Echoed, will be released on May 21.

Here’s a summary of the new novel:

Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.

If past performance is any indicator, this book will make a big splash! Place your holds early and keep your eye on our New Shelves to maybe catch a Lucky Day copy.

This tomorrow is CHS’s prom.  Ralph Guenther was hired to take pictures of couples in the 1963 Chelsea High School Prom; take a look at how the hair and dress styles have changed in the past 50 years.

Want to see more pictures from 1963′s prom?  Visit http://storiesofchelsea.org.

After the surprise of last year’s Pulitzer Prize committee opting not to honor a fiction book, the procedures returned to usual this year, awarding winners in Fiction, History, Biography, Nonfiction, and Poetry.

The Fiction Winner is Adam Johnson’s The Orphan Master’s Son.  Set in North Korea, this literary thriller follows its young protagonist from his beginning in an orphan work camp to work as a kidnapper.

The Embers of War by Fredrik Logevall, this year’s History winner, is a well-researched history of the lead-in to the Vietnam War.

Tom Reiss’ The Black Count, winner in the Biography category, covers the life of Alexandre Dumas’ father, the likely inspiration forThe Count of Monte Cristo.

Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King is the Nonfiction winner.  A story of the fight for civil rights, it shares Thurgood Marshall’s work in the 1949 “Groveland Boys” case.

Finally, this year’s poetry winner is Stag’s Leap by Sharon Olds.  This raw, open collection of free-verse poems chronicles the author’s divorce and its aftermath.

The 5th Annual Midwest Literary Walk is coming up on Saturday, April 27th and as always, we have a fantastic lineup planned!

Among the fiction authors, poets, playwrights and songwriters performing  that day will be poet and novelist Jack Driscoll.

Driscoll is the author of four poetry collections, four novels, and two collections of short stories, most recently The World of a Few Minutes Ago. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, the Pushcard Book Editors’ Award, the Barnes & Noble Discovery of Great New Writers Award, and more.

Driscoll’s most recent work of short stories, The World of a Few Minutes Ago made the  2013 Michigan Notable Author Award list.

This marks the author’s second time winning the Michigan Notable Author award – his 2005 book How Like An Angel also received the honor.

Driscoll will be reading with fellow Northern Michigan-based author Michael Delp at 2 pm at Back to the Roots. Be sure to drop in  and enjoy the performance!

April 15 is the 101st anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, a ship whose reputation and tragic story has captivated the world since its launch.

For those Titanic-philes out there, here are a few places to explore your fascination.

The website Encyclopedia Titanica bills itself as:

“…the foremost repository of facts, opinion and media relating to RMS Titanic. Featuring Titanic survivor stories, comprehensive Titanic passenger list and biographies, detailed Titanic research articles, in depth discussions and rich media including Titanic pictures, archive recordings and the Titanic movie player.”

Many books have been written on the subject, but here are a few recent nonfiction titles dealing with various aspects of the ship and its sinking:

There’s been an increase in fiction about the Titanic as well, inspired by the 2012 centennial of the disaster, ranging from Christian romances to zombie lit to alternative history. Here are a few fiction titles taking place on or around the Titanic:

And of course, no Titanic list is complete without James Cameron’s epic film, Titanic.