Nights are getting cooler, apples are ripe for the picking and football season is in full swing.  Fall is on the way,  and with it comes one of my favorite holidays of the year: Halloween!   It’s never too early to start planning for Halloween, especially if you’ll be making new costumes or decorations.  ICPL has lots of books on Halloween costumes and decorating.  Let us help you make this a Halloween to remember.

“Big Book of Halloween: Creative & Creepy Project for Revellers of All Ages” by Laura Dover Doran has lots of great Halloween ideas.  From yard and party decorations, party food, costumes for both adults and kids, and some short ghost stories, this is a great guide for a fun Halloween.

“Halloween: a Grown-up’s Guide to Creative Costumes, Devilish Décor & Fabulous Festivities,” by Joanne O’Sullivan, contains a wealth of grown-up costume ideas.  From full costumes, to hands, horns, creature feet, accessories and and masks (including some great paper bag masks), this guide to a grown-up Halloween will help you create your perfect Halloween – especially if you’ve ever wanted to be a Jackson Pollock painting.

To take your Halloween decorating to a whole new level, try “How to Haunt Your House,” by Shawn and Lynne Mitchell.  This is the ultimate guide to creeping out the neighborhood.  Fill your yard with realistic creepy tombstones.  Make spooky, drippy candles that will “burn” all night long or fake poseable hands using your hot glue gun and LOTS of glue sticks.  Want to create your own special effects lighting or make your very own fog machine?  This book shows you how to create the spookiest haunted house on the block.

Tired of the basic smiley-face Jack-O-Lantern?  Create something spooky, scary or just truly shocking with help from Tom Nardone’s “Extreme Pumpkins: diabolical do-it-yourself designs to amuse your friends and scare your neighbors” This pumpkin carving guide is full of ideas for some extremely off-the-wall pumpkin creations.    And don’t pass up the sequel “Extreme pumpkins II: take back Halloween and freak out a few more neighbors.”

And if your Halloween revolves around kids who might enjoy creating their own costumes, try these:

• “Glue & Go Costumes for Kids,” by Holly Cleeland,
• “Cool Costumes,” by Karen Latchana Kenney,
• “Creative Costumes,” by Dawn Brend, and
• “The Dress-Up Book,”  or
• “The Halloween Book” by Jane Bull.

All have some great ideas for off-the-wall kids’ costumes that can be made with some help from mom or dad.  From a giant birthday presents, winged fairies, decked-out princesses, to sword-wielding pirates or dragons, there’s bound to be something to enchant even the most “too-old-for-Halloween” kid.

Visit the Iowa City Public Library soon and check the Library’s catalog for the subject Halloween or Halloween Costumes. to get a bigger list of books and a jump start on your Halloween planning.

I’m just about finished reading The Art Detective: Fakes, Frauds and Finds, and the Search for Lost Treasures by Philip Mould. The author is the host of BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, and also runs a showroom in London that specializes in British portraiture, among other things. Throughout his career, he’s had many encounters with obvious works of art; somewhat more interesting to the general public, however, are the times when he’s found a hidden gem, a carefully disguised fake, or an outright amazing piece of art in an unusual location. He recounts several of these in his book, in quick but detailed and thorough chapters that make for some nice, very interesting reading.

Two of my favorites: the middle-aged American collector (hoarder might be a better term) who has a hundreds of items stored pretty haphazardly in an unused church, one of which happens to be a work by Hogarth; and a full portrait of Queen Elizabeth (the first one, that is) that, once several layers of “repair” paint are removed, reveals itself to have been painted before she was made Queen, which is very rare indeed. In addition to the works of art, Mould profiles some of the individuals engaged in the various processes related to his work: buyers, researchers, restorers, experts, etc.

Of course, he also talks a bit about himself and his primary business partner, and part of the energy of this book comes from him relaying the excitement, doubt and nervousness that accompanies spending loads of money of a work of art that you are almost positive is something special, but you won’t know until you buy it and start taking it apart a bit. Sometimes it’s only thousands of dollars, sometimes it’s millions, but it’s always a risk. With Mould’s book you get to feel a little of the excitement, without the expense.