This year’s Summer Reading theme is Make It Happen and the library is bursting with materials to help you achieve whatever goals you have set for yourself. Do you want to hone your gardening skills, better utilize your woodworking tools, plan an awesome trip to Disney World, take up ballroom dancing, learn to play the guitar, or create jewelry? Cook’s staff includes folks who already “make it happen” in all those areas! I have persuaded a few of them to share their recommendations of library materials that can help you pursue those interests. Here’s the scoop on the first three:

Reference Manager Mary Andrew’s delightful carved and painted wooden figures are much admired by our staff. She traces her interest in carving to using her grandfather’s jigsaw as a child. About ten years ago she took up the band saw and graduated to 3-D. She finds working with wood relaxing and a fun way to be creative. She recommends Carving Flat-Plane Style Caricatures by Harvey Refsal and Mark Duginske’s book New Complete Guide to Band Saws and his video Mastering Your Bandsaw.

Andrea Larson is our new Fiction, Movies and Music Manager.  Her family has spent eleven wonderful vacations at Disney World. Here are her recommendations of sources that will help you make your family’s trip equally memorable:

• The “bible” travel guide for our family is the annual: The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World by Bob Sehlinger and Len Testa
• If a male in your family is reluctant to go: Ears of Steel: The Real Man’s Guide to Walt Disney World by Bart Scott
• For trivia your kids will love: Secrets of Walt Disney World by Dinah Williams
• For great crowdsourced info about everything Disney: The Disney Discussion Forums at www.disboards.com

Sarah Simpson of our Circulation staff has a second career as a professional gardener. You have seen her work outside the library and around downtown Libertyville. If you want to garden like a pro, check out her favorite books:

• The Well-tended Perennial Garden by Tracy DiSabato-Aust
• The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden by Roy Diblik.

Stay tuned for part 2, which will feature more library staffers who make it happen, with their advice for how you can too.