Game of Thrones Season 6 is coming!

[Game of Thrones contains mature themes in all formats. Viewer and reader discretion is advised.]

Season 6 premieres on April 24!  If you haven’t already seen the official trailer, start here.

The internet abounds with fan analyses of the trailer's content. If you’re curious about the different interpretations, try this academic article from Time Magazine, this saucy British YouTube commentary, and this lite pop culture take.

The biggest question for this season is whether or not Jon Snow is actually dead. To voice your opinion, you can vote in The Hollywood Reporter’s poll. The cast members have been dodging this question with a variety of ways running the gamut from cryptic to confrontational.


In his most recent interview, the actor who plays Jon Snow insists that his character is dead and will not be resurrected in the upcoming episodes. But fan speculation dismisses this as mere subterfuge.

If you need a refresher for the television series, the Game of Thrones Wiki provides a season by season, episode by episode recap as does the Internet Movie Database. You can also check out the previous seasons on DVD for a binge-watching marathon.

Do you have trouble keeping the characters straight? There are several online character encyclopedias that can help you keep track of who is who and their complex series of interrelationships.

The fan site Westeros breaks down characters by television season, fictional region, and alphabetically by first name. The Game of Thrones wiki sorts character entries alphabetically and by popularity and includes a variety of subcategories by subject. The Tower of the Hand offers information on the different houses and provides handy family trees. 

If you’re interested in a character’s strictly literary life, a Wiki of Ice and Fire has entries categorized by point of view, affiliation, and region as well as organized alphabetically.

If you want to reread your favorite characters' story lines in anticipation of the sixth season or sixth book, a Wiki of Ice and Fire has created tables of contents for all five published novels. For each book, there is a list the point of view characters along with the corresponding page numbers for the hardcover, paperback, and eBook formats. And don't forget KHCPL has the entire series available in print, on eBook, on audio CD, and on audio download.

George R. R. Martin announced that The Winds of Winter, the upcoming book in the series, will not be finished before Season 6 airs as he had previously hoped. Disappointed fans who are tempted to lash out in anger over this turn of events may want to revisit Neil Gaiman’s legendary blog post on this very subject. But not to despair, Martin has promised readers that he is working exclusively on The Winds of Winter and will not write anything else until he has finished it. He even released a chapter excerpt as a teaser. 

Following up on his word of warning about the divergence between the novels and the television series, Martin revealed that the plot twist in The Winds of Winter will involve a character who, while still alive in the books, had been killed off in the television show. 

See who wins and who dies as they play the game of thrones!

Time to Think about SPRING!

Time to Think about SPRING!
 

The first official day of spring for the Northern Hemisphere falls on March 20th with the vernal equinox, which will occur at 12:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time. With the vernal equinox, the days will continue to gradually lengthen until the longest day of the year on summer solstice.

The term "equinox" means "equal night" in Latin. During an equinox, the sun is directly above the earth's celestial equator. As a result, day and night are of equal length nearly everywhere on the planet.

You can keep up with changes in the sky with NASA Earth Observatory, the national weather at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the local forecast at the National Weather Service for Northern Indiana.

For many, the start of spring is the time to bring their gardens back to life. KHCPL carries a variety of gardening magazines, such as Fine Gardening and Indiana Gardening, both in print and online through Zinio and Overdrive.

 

If you’ve never gardened before, a good book to start with would be with The First-time Gardener by Pattie Barron. Expand your knowledge with The Anxious Gardener’s Book of Answers by Teri Dunn Chace or The Backyard Problem Solver by Jerry Baker.

If your landscaping is looking scruffy, check out Pruning Plant By Plant by Andrew Mikolajski. Does your vegetable patch need a facelift? Building Raised Beds will take your garden to the next level. To add more bloom to your flowerbeds, some favorite flower guides include Daylilies for the Garden by Graeme Grosvenor, Peonies by Allan Rogers and, for advice on everyone’s favorite flower, Foolproof Guide to Growing Roses by Field Roebuck. For advice on the go-to shade perennial, try Hostas by Andrew Mikolajski.

If last year’s dream garden didn’t materialize, you may need to check out Improving Your Soil by Keith Reid before you plant. If you want to recreate this year's masterpiece, The Seed Garden by Micaela Colley will tell you how to save seeds for the years to come.

KHCPL has a gardening collection geared specifically towards our local climate. To find out what would grow best here, check out Midwest Fruit and Vegetable Gardening by Katie Etzer-Peters, The Midwestern Native Garden by Charlotte Adelman and Bernard L. Schwartz, and Growing the Midwest Garden by Edward Lyon.

Get your kids involved with Kid’s Garden Adventure by Don Burke and The Book of Gardening Projects for Kids by Whitney Cohen. And don’t forget your pets! Check out Dog Friendly Gardening by Karen Bush.

If you want to share your expertise with others through a community garden, Start a Community Food Garden by LaManda Joy provides a step-by-step guide.

Whatever your SPRING interests are, explore your opportunities at KHCPL!