National Library Week Staff Picks: Candess, Michelle, Taylor, Tonia

 In honor of National Library Week, we asked Staff members to pick out some of their favorite books from the past couple of years.  We'll be posting picks every day this week.  As a bonus, library director Tonia Kestner will have a brief review each day. Enjoy!

Tonia

The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister

 

I really enjoyed The Bog Wife, a haunting and beautifully written Appalachian tale set in the hills of West Virginia. The story has a dreamlike, fantastical quality that draws you in from the beginning, but what stuck with me most was how grounded it is in family—especially the complicated bond between siblings. The characters are so well-developed that I found myself deeply invested in each of them as they struggled to navigate the crumbling world around them.

The setting—a decaying family mansion near a mysterious bog—is rich with atmosphere, and the sense of desperation that builds as the expected “bog wife” fails to appear was both eerie and emotional. I loved how the book explored the tension between honoring a dark family legacy and trying to carve out your own path. It doesn’t offer easy answers, and by the end I had more questions than resolutions—but in a good way. It’s the kind of story that lingers and makes you think long after it’s over. I keep hoping there will be a sequel, but in the meantime, this is a great choice for book clubs. There’s so much to unpack and discuss, and it’s a story that really stays with you.

Candess

The Inmate by Freida McFadden 

The Burning by Linda Castillo 

Counting Miracles by Nicholas Sparks 

Demon Copperhead  by Barbara Kingsolver

Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

    

 

Michelle

Sound of Glass by Karen White

Flight Patterns by Karen White

 

Taylor N.

 Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir by Walela Nehanda  (YA)

Nevermore: Mama Makes Up Her Mind, The Water Is Wide, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Real Queer America

 

Reported by Garry

 

Mama Makes Up Her Mind: And Other Dangers of Southern Living by Bailey White is the hilarious and heartfelt collection of essays based on the author’s life in the South along with her eccentric relatives. First published in 1993, this memoir is a series of fifty short anecdotes about White’s experiences being a first-grade teacher (in the school she went to as a child), and living with her elderly mother in rural Georgia. This delightful book comes recommended by no less than three of our Nevermore readers, who agree that it is a lovely, easy, feel good book.  KN

 

The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy is another memoir set in the South. In this 1972 book, Conroy recalls his time as a teacher on the extremely poor and isolated Daufuskie Island (called Yamacraw in his writing) on the coast of South Carolina. The island was economically depressed and lacked much of what we take for granted as modern infrastructure – there are no bridges. Conroy found that many of his early-teen students were illiterate and innumerate, some not even knowing what country they lived in. Facing multiple hurdles, Conroy (or “Conrack” as his students called him) clashed with the authoritarian school board and utilized unconventional ways of teaching. Our reader says that while idealistic, Conroy has an honest voice in this book and that the resulting book is very authentic and moving.  PP

 

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is the classic psychological horror story by Shirley Jackson. Narrated by Merricat (Mary Katherine) Blackwood, this slim novel follows the remains of the Blackwood family, living in their immense estate after the deaths of several family members. The arrival of a far-flung relative sets in motion an explosive and harrowing series of events in this claustrophobic (and highly recommended) tale of family, murder and isolation.  CD

 

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from the Red States by Samantha Allen is a combination of memoir and reportage. Allen, a former Mormon missionary and now a transgender reporter on LGBT issues, has traveled the country stretching from Provo, Utah to the Rio Grande Valley and even to Bristol!  Traveling through many “Red” states, Allen found that queer people are everywhere and are actively creating change and lives for themselves even in those states often dismissed as “obviously unsafe” for the queer community. Our reader comments that this book is “quite uplifting” and highly recommends it for showing that America is a more accepting place than we are led to believe.  KM

 

The Thread Collectors by Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman

Riverman: An American Odyssey by Ben McGrath

The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

The Red Cotton Fields by Michael Strickland

The Jackaby Series by William Ritter

What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

By Hands Now Known:  Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners by Margaret A. Burnham

The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón

Queen of Our Times: The Life of Queen Elizabeth II by Robert Hardman

Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back by Chris Stirewalt