Adults

Preston Banks returns to Troy Library on Friday February 19, at 2 pm to share with you tips for improving your job interview techniques. He will discuss: How to Prepare for an Interview; When Does Your Interview Begin; Dress for Success; Interview Don'ts; How to Close an Interview; Types of Interviews; and How to Handle an Interview Conducted with a Meal.

Banks, the son of a factory worker and a teacher, is a graduate of Mumford High School and Marygrove College, where he earned a Bachelors of Business Administration. In 2007, he saw a need to support job seekers in the Detroit area. He founded Resume Solutions, LLC, to help individuals create and enhance their resume and job searching skills through career workshops.

Registration is required. Click on the date above to register. For information, contact Kay McFarland at mcfarlanct@troymi.gov.

The Smothers Brothers were and are far more than their famous catchphrase from the 1960s. Television critic and NPR contributor David Bianculli chronicles their rise from satiric folk duo to controversial television team in his new book, Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

The show, which ran on CBS for three seasons from 1967 to 1969, was a groundbreaking mix of old and new entertainment (Jimmy Durante and The Doors, for instance) and daring political and social commentary sewn into standard sketch comedy. Before the show could begin its fourth season, CBS fired the brothers after years of battling Tom (much more than Dick) on countless censorship issues, some of which, 40+ years later, seem pretty tame.   

To witness the material that never aired (and also did), there is a 2008 DVD, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour: The Best of Season 3, available in the Troy Library's extensive collection of television series on DVD. For more background, the DVD of the 2002 documentary, Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, is well worth a checkout, too.

Mystery lovers: add to your resolutions for 2010 to expand your reading horizons with suggestions from the Troy Library's Mysteries Not to Miss electronic newsletter. The newsletter, updated monthly, has reviews for titles of newly published books as well as worthwhile titles you may have missed.

To see all the electronic newsletters that are available, go to the Library's home page and click on Browse Reviews under Library Links. You can sign up for as many lists as you like, on such topics as cooking, technology, life stories, arts, hobbies, books for boys, audio books, and DVDs. There is also an option to recieve RSS feeds instead of emails.

In these hard economic times, we all need a good laugh. What better way than with a funny book?

Next time you're in the Troy Library, stop in Adult Services Department and catch the Laughter: The Best Medicine display near the Reference Desk.