Whether you're in the market for a new car or a used car, Autotropolis is a good place to begin your search. This new site is full of great features for both the first-time or experienced car shopper, including the latest car reviews, videos of the latest models, auto industry news, access to daily classified ads, and a list of the Top 10 used cars. Check it out!

Celebrated Canadian author Alice Munro has won the third Man Booker International Prize. One of the richest and most prestigious international literary awards, Munro will take home £60,000.

As part of our ongoing effort to make Canton Library an environmentally friendly building, our Housekeeping staff will be trained and certified in "green" cleaning procedures. It doesn't cost more to use safe effective cleaning products and procedures. In fact, in most cases, it costs less. The benefits are obvious. You get a clean , healthy building without using the products which are harmful to our environment. Using "green"  cleaning products is also much healthier for our Housekeeping staff. There is a wealth of information about "green buildings" available from the U.S. Green Building Council website.  We are also changing over our hand soap to a foaming cleanser and will be installing roll towel dispensers in our restrooms.

Today our first new Chinese books of 2009 go on the shelf. Look for great nonfiction titles, including: Ni gou pin ming ma? by Li Zhiying and Wu yue hua xiu dao yuan by Zheng Huajuan. You'll also find excellent fiction titles, including: Shan shan zuan zhi tang by Shenxue and Shi san ming de yue zui mei by Lu Zhaoqi.

Teach for America, the non-profit group who recruits outstanding recent college graduates to teach for 2 years in urban and rural schools, recently received over 35,000 applications and will place 4,100 mostly in Southern states. Wendy Kopp, the group's founder and chief executive officer, said the surge in applicants is unprecedented and the bad economy is the cause. The Corp began its existence in 1990 and began as an undergraduate thesis topic.

If you are interested in a variety of subjects, including travel, food, fashion, humor and personal narratives then you may also be interested in the following book list that we put together based on one of our patron's request:

If you like the humor found in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, may we suggest:

• Murder Grins and Bears It: A Yooper Mystery by Deb Baker
• Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
• Bubbles Unbound by Sarah Strohmeyer
• Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen
• The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

On May 7, 2009, the federal government issued the first economic recovery payments to people receiving Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits.  The payments are being issued on a staggered basis throughout the month of May.  If you have not received your payment by June 4, 2009, contact the Social Security offices at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) or visit your local Social Security office (34010 Plymouth Road, Livonia, MI 48150) to report your payment has not arrived.

What do you get when you mix Craigslist with Google Maps? MapsKrieg.com! A nifty website that allows you to search visually for real estate, rental properties and sublets by region, neighborhood, even down to the street you'd like to live on. Don't you just love a good mash-up?

This is not a book about sports, though it is by the author of Moneyball and The Blind Side. In his memoir and based on his Slate Magazine column Dad Again, bestselling author Michael Lewis describes the huge disparity between what he expected to feel and what he was actually feeling when his children were born.

Memorial Day weekend is here and we have some beautiful weather! Seems like a good time to start grilling. If you're looking for some inspiration, take a look at some of our brand new titles such as: Serious Barbecue by Adam Perry Lang or Emeril at the Grill by Emeril Lagasse.

What better way to enjoy the Memorial Day weekend than to attend Movement 2009 (aka the Detroit Electronic Music Festival) in downtown Detroit's Hart Plaza.

I realize this is a blog about a blog, but if you are a reader of mysteries/crime fiction check out The Rap Sheet. It's a blog with reviews of new and forthcoming books,  interviews with authors, and crime-fiction-related Web sites. (Photo: Raymond Chandler/AP Images)

Wayne County parks are 90 years old this year and they are celebrating with a host of activities throughout the park system. From Movies at Dusk and Jazz on the River, to Pirate Palooza or Mud Day, there's something to appeal to all tastes. Pick up your copy of the 2009 Wayne County Parks Schedule of Events brochure in our lobby and find the event that's right for you.

Today is the birth anniversary of American Impressionist, Mary Cassatt.

In The Color of Lightning, her powerful and moving third novel, Paulette Jiles begins with a real person and, taking the little that is known from the historical record, creates a life for him that illuminates a morally complex time and place in American history--f

We recently launched many new features on the site that you should check out:

Community

In the Community section, you'll find the Community page, with all content made by Canton users. From there, you can go to our Forums, which are a great place to start a conversation with local people about whatever interests you.

We also revamped our local business and club database, Everything Canton. Now you can add your own entries and edit them at your leisure. If you look through the database and find something you like, you can add a star rating and comment.

May We Suggest?

The May We Suggest service provides you with personalized book recommendations. In the future, all such recommendations can be viewed at the May We Suggest blog.

Text This

From any item in the catalog, you can now send a text message to your phone with the Call Number and Title of the item you're viewing. This is useful if you want to look for it later.

Tweet This

All of our blog posts now have a 'Tweet This' icon, so you can quickly tweet about the blogs you like on Twitter. Learn more about Twitter here.

Please let us know how we can improve the site to better fit your needs!

Memorial Day was established in 1868 following the end of the American Civil War as General Orders No. 11, Grand Army of the Republic Headquarters:

II. It is the purpose of the Commander in Chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press to call attention to this Order, and lend its friendly aid in bringing it to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith.

Over the past two centuries, wars continue to be fought, and Hollywood has immortalized them on film:

 

ChiltonLibrary.com contains information for most of the popular vehicles of the past 30 years, plus some coverage of specialty models. Just select a year, a make, and a model, and you can find valuable repair tips, diagrams, etc. to help make the car repair job that much easier. This database is accessible from all the library computers. Canton residents can log in from home with their Canton Public Library card number.