By Carole Howard SUN columnist, and the library staff

Thanks to members of the Pagosa Bible Church, we have a wonderful new set of seven organic gardening books from Rodale Books that are here just in time for your summer gardening:

• “Seed-Starting Primer and Almanac” offers hundreds of tips and techniques from readers of Organic Gardening magazine on what to do month-by-month to keep your thumb green even during winter months. Organic gardeners reveal their secrets to creating healthy soil, tending the garden and stretching the growing season.
• “The Frugal Gardener” shows you how to have more garden for less money by saving money on retail purchases, recycling found objects into garden art and breathing new life into old tools.
• “Gardener to Gardener” carries 1,001 gardening tips – the best of all those featured in 60 years of Organic Gardening magazine. Inside these pages you’ll find time-tested advice on everything from renewing your soil and beating weeds to gardening in containers and cultivating a low-care lawn.
• “Lasagna Gardening” describes a new layering system for bountiful gardens that involves no digging, no tilling and no weeding.
• “Almanac & Pest-Control Primer” is a month-by-month guide for planning, planting and tending your organic garden. It’s filled with good ideas, nifty gadgets and secret shortcuts from the editors and readers of Organic Gardening magazine.
• “Backyard Problem Solver” provides 2,168 natural solutions for growing great grass, super shrubs, bright bulbs, vibrant vegetables, terrific trees and much more.
• “Rodale’s All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening” contains more than 400 entries of practical, up-to-date gardening information collected from garden experts and writers nationwide.
• In addition, the Pagosa Bible Church gift includes a Black & Decker Outdoor Home title, “Vegetable Gardening.” It offers step-by-step advice in pictures from planning to harvests, and includes an illustrated encyclopedia of vegetables and garden tools.

Free children’s program underway
Our free children’s summer reading program, which will run June 19 – July 27, has just started. Pre-school through second grade kids meet Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. Third through sixth grade meets Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. Seventh through 12 th grade meets once a month, on the third Thursday evening at 6 p.m. – or possible more often, depending on interest. Parents and adults also can participate as partners or as volunteers. For more details about the program and the themes for each reading session, in English and Spanish, please visit the Kids and Teens page.

Reagan’s own words
“Reagan: In His Own Hand” is a collection of the writings of President Ronald Reagan selected from throughout his life. They include his radio commentaries, short stories written in high school and college, a poem from his high school yearbook, newspaper articles, letters and speeches both before and during his presidency.

New fiction
“A Fine Dark Line” by award-winning author Joe R. Lansdale is a gothic thrillers set in a small Texas town in 1958. “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” by Mohsim Hamid is a novel about a Pakistani immigrant in New York facing immense changes in his life and relationships after September 11.

How-to for you and your dogs
“The Loved Dog: The Playful, Non-aggressive Way to Teach Your Dog Good Behavior” by Tamar Geller is a teaching system based on how wolves train their cubs with games, bonding and body language – not dominance or punishment. “The Fat Smash Diet” by Dr. Ian K. Smith details the 90-day diet program used on VH 1’s Celebrity Fit Club and includes 50 easy and tasty recipes.

New books in large-print
“Just Above a Whisper” is book 2 of the Tucker Mills Christian historical fiction trilogy by Lori Wick. “Scattered Leaves” is book 2 of the Early Spring series by V.C. Andrews. “Cover of Night”

Real-life stories
“The Reaper’s Line: Life and Death on the Mexican Border” is a memoir by Lee Morgan II, a U.S. Customs Service special agent on the U.S.-Mexican border. “Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America” is a memoir and warning from Lebanese Christian Brigitte Gabriel, who lost her childhood to militant Island in 1975.

Expanding your horizons
“Very Thai: Everyday Popular Culture” by Philip Cornwel-Smith and John Goss is a collection of more than 60 essays and 500 color photographs celebrating the Thai culture.

Thanks to our donors
Our thanks for books and materials this week to Larry Baisdon, Linda Bennett, Holly Bergon, Barbara Carlos, Cassandra Carney, Anthony and Ronnie Doctors, John Gabel, Susan McAdams, Jan Nicholls, Bill Wetzel and Codie Wilson.

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