Adults

Learning Express Library (LEL) is free for all Troy residents; simply log in with your valid Troy library card for access to a number of courses on Microsoft Office. From beginner to advanced lessons, LEL has a course for you. The classes are listed under Popular Software Tutorials, on the left hand side of the screen. Simply click on the course in which you are interested, select your version, and start studying! 

Learning Express Library is available to you from home, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Log in today to start learning.

If you're a baseball history fan (and what Tigers' fan isn't!), be sure to catch this exciting program to be held in the Troy Library meeting room on Monday, May 20, from 7-8:30 pm. Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Rick Ferrell's daughter, Kerrie Ferrell, will narrate original photographs that trace her father's 64-year pro baseball career as an American League catcher and Detroit Tigers coach and executive.

Viewing Rick's old baseball photos and hearing humorous inside stories, viewers will take an entertaining journey through decades of 20th century professional baseball. Tales of the Detroit Tigers abound, as well as of great legends including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, and Rick's brother pitcher Wes Ferrell. Please sign up here.

Most people know someone who has either Type I or Type II diabetes. Twenty-six million children and adults in the United States have diabetes, and another 79 million Americans are pre-diabetic and don't know it.

If you feel that you are one of those at risk for the disease, or are looking for more ways to manage it, the Troy Public Library has a wealth of resources about diet, exercise, blood glucose monitoring, working with medications and more. And check out Diabetic Living magazine, a quarterly publication of recipes, meal plans, workouts, and resources for the newly diagnosed.  You CAN live well with diabetes! 

The Friends of the Troy Public Library, in association with Book Beat Bookstore, are pleased to welcome best-selling author and Troy-based entrepreneur Ryan Blair to the Troy Public Library at 12 noon, Saturday, May 4, to discus and sign his book, Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went From Gang Member to Millionaire Entrepreneur. This event is free and open to the public. Books will be for sale courtesy of Book Beat. To reserve a signed copy, please call Book Beat 248.968.1190.
 
Like many entrepreneurs, Ryan Blair had no formal business education. But he had great survival instincts, tenacity, and, above all, a "nothing to lose" mindset. His middle-class childhood ended abruptly when his abusive father succumbed to drug addiction and abandoned the family. Blair and his mother moved to a rough neighborhood, and soon he was in and out of juvenile detention, joining a gang just to survive.
 
Then his mother fell in love with a successful entrepreneur who took Ryan under his wing. With his mentor's guidance, Blair started his first company, 24/7 Tech, at age 21. He has since created and sold several companies for hundreds of millions of dollars. Blair is currently the CEO of the Troy-based company ViSalus.
 
This is an inspirational guide full of powerful stories and lessons and a road map for entrepreneurial success.

For a new take on familiar characters, you may wish to explore a sampling of these authors, who have taken both traditional and non-traditional mystery topics and characters and made them fresh.

Nicola Upson has come out with a series of mysteries featuring Josephine Tey as her detective. Josephine Tey was a bestselling British mystery writer and playwright in the 1940s and '50s. Upson skillfully crafts mystery stories around actual events and people from Tey's life.

Elliott Roosevelt has written 20 mystery stories with his mother, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, as the sleuth. The stories take place in the spheres of political power. Historical figures from FDR's presidency often take center stage, though the mysteries tend to revolve around the imaginary characters.

Finally, author Jill Paton Walsh in recent years has taken up the mantle of Golden Age mystery writer Dorothy Sayers and her upper class detective Lord Peter Wimsey, who was first introduced to the reading public in 1923 with Whose Body?  Walsh first completed an unfinished manuscript of Sayers called Thrones, Dominations. She has gone on to resume the series with the original characters.

Come to the Troy Library at 7 pm, April 30, to hear noted storyteller Maureen Esther unravel the discovery, excavation, and disposition of King Tut's Tomb, the most important archaeological find to date. Her lecture also includes a discussion of Egyptian culture at the time of the Pharaohs.

This program has been made possible through the generous support of the Friends of the Troy Public Library.

(Photo: One for the Road)