Washoe County Library System

Its Christmas, 1934, and the citizens of Darling, Alabama, are unwrapping a big package of Christmas puzzles. Mildred Kilgore and Earlynne Biddle are planning to open a bakery on the squareif they can come up with the right recipes. Charlie Dickens faces two of the biggest puzzles of his career as an investigative reporter, and one of them involves his wife. Cute little Cupcakes talent as a singer and dancer makes her a tempting target for an unscrupulous...

The Dahlias become suspicious of the Depression-era town's newest visitors--rumored to be the Naughty and Nice Sisters from the Ziegfeld Frolic, who specialize in dancing nearly naked--and dig for the truth when one of the pair denies the association.

As the members of the garden club in Darling, Alabama, prepare to plant roses for their annual Confederate Day celebration, they find themselves distracted by a series of mysteries involving stolen funds, a secret code, and a local resident's odd behavior. Includes recipies.

When aviatrix Miss Lily Dare, the fastest woman in the world, is threatened and her plane sabotaged, the Darling Dahlias must weed through the rumors to find the truth to take down a saboteur who may be propelled by revenge.

"A fresh take on George Orwell as a far more nature-loving figure than is often portrayed, and a dazzlingly rich meditation on roses, gardens, and the value and use of beauty and pleasure in the face of brutality and horror. "In the spring of 1936 a man planted roses." That man was George Orwell, shortly before he went off to fight against fascism in Spain. Today, those rosebushes are still thriving. This is the starting point for Rebecca Solnit's...

As development and subsequent habitat destruction accelerate, there are increasing pressures on wildlife populations. But there is an important and simple step toward reversing this alarming trend: Everyone with access to a patch of earth can make a significant contribution toward sustaining biodiversity. There is an unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife-native insects cannot, or will not, eat alien plants. When native...

Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. InThe Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with...

Provides information on ways to strengthen and cultivate the soil food web to grow healthy plants without the use of chemicals.