Caldecott Honor Favorites with Ambrea

Recently, I took a class on children’s picture books.  It was a delightful class and I learned so much about children’s literature, picture books, popular illustrators, important literary awards, and more.  I enjoyed it immensely!  However, over the course of 10 weeks I was tasked with reading over 240 children’s books.

 

Yep, you read correctly:  I read 240 children’s books in just under two months.

 

Which means I have a lot of books to share.

 

I decided to dive in to some of the Caldecott Honor Award winners.  (If you’ve never heard of the Caldecott Medal, it’s like the Major Leagues in baseball – it’s like winning the series.  It’s also awarded to the illustrator.)  Here were some of my favorite Caldecott Honor Award winners:

 

John Henry by Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney (1995)

This book is a reimagining of the legend of John Henry, an African American folk hero who raced against a steam-powered rock-drilling machine and won.  It was a delight to read aloud.  Lester creates a fantastic narrator, who tells the story with great aplomb and a delightful Southern drawl, while Pinkney supplies brilliant illustrations full of depth, detail, and vibrancy.  It’s a particularly wonderful rendition of a beloved folktale.

 

The Gardener by Sarah Stewart and David Small (1998)

Lydia Grace Finch is sent to the city to live with her unsmiling Uncle Jim.  The city is dim, drab, and gray, but Lydia Grace is undeterred and works to create a bright, welcoming spot all her own.  Told completely through Lydia Grace’s letters, this book fashions a sweet story about one girl’s journey and her mission to get her uncle to smile.  It’s really the artwork that won me over, especially as Lydia Grace brightens the pages bit by bit with her determination and her flowers.

Click, Clack, Moo:  Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin (2001)

Farmer Brown has a problem:  His cows have learned to type—and they have more than a few demands to make.  This book was so much fun to read!  The narrative is humorous, while the illustrations are wonderful, colorful, and fun.  I found the cows antics hilarious.  They’re so mischievous and they actually manage to convince the other barnyard animals to join them in their rebellion.

 

Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein (2011)

When it’s time for bed, little red chicken asks if Papa can read her a story.  He agrees, but only if she promises to interrupt—except little red chicken can’t quite help herself!  This is such a joyous bedtime story.  It’s full of humor and heart:  little red chicken and her Papa have a wonderful relationship, but Papa can get a little exasperated with her antics.  I loved how little red chicken would break into the story, and I often found myself laughing at her rendition of classic fairy tales.

 

The Rough Patch by Brian Lies (2019) 

Evan and his dog do everything together, but, one day, the unthinkable happens and Evan loses his best friend.  Admittedly, I cried a little over this book, because it’s such a deeply affecting story.  It’s about heartbreak and loss, particularly the loss of a beloved pet, but it’s also about healing and friendship.  It’s a simultaneously heart-wrenching and heart-warming story.  Not only does it have a fantastic narrative, it has illustrations that are bright, brilliant, detailed, and warm.  It’s an all-around wonderful book.

 

Bear Came Along by Richard T. Morris and LeUyen Pham (2020)

Once upon a time, a river flowed through a forest.  It didn’t know it was capable of grand adventures—until bear came along.  I’m actually a big fan of LeUyen Pham, so I was very excited to dive into this book.  Luckily, it didn’t disappoint!  The narrative is fun and whimsical, while the artwork is bright and vibrant.  I particularly love how the art and the story develop in tandem:  as bear and his friends continue on their adventure, more of the forest is illuminated.  It’s a brilliant book and simply cemented my love for LeUyen Pham’s artwork.

 

Knight Owl by Christopher Denise (2023)

Owl has long dreamed of becoming a knight.  When knights begin disappear from the Knight Night Watch, Owl is soon faced with a daunting trial.  This book is a delight to read.  I personally adored the element of fantasy laced throughout this book, and I loved the illustrations.  Owl is positively adorable and his journey to become a knight is heartening.  It’s fun, funny, whimsical, and lovely, and it’s one of my favorites published from this year. 

Always, in December by Emily Stone

 

Always, in December by Emily Stone

Reviewed by Kristin

This review contains spoilers.

I rarely review books that I do not like. However, sometimes they are so bad that they need a review, or maybe a big warning sign. Beware, all ye who enter here, or something along those lines.

Josie is a young 30-ish Londoner whose boyfriend Oliver made the decision just days before Christmas to cheat on her with one of their officemates. Yeah, the Christmas Eve office party is going to be a blast this year.

Josie lost her parents on Christmas Eve when she was aged nine. Her paternal grandparents Memo (pronounced Mee-Mo) and Grandad raised her lovingly. But since Josie has been an adult, she always finds ways to avoid being with her family over Christmas in an attempt to remove herself from the sadness which surrounds her holidays. FaceTime, yes. In person, no.

Best friend and roommate Bia is off to Argentina for the holidays, and Oliver’s cheating departure leaves Josie alone. She’s fine with that, until a chance encounter leads her to….

Max.

Josie literally runs into Max on her bicycle as he is departing a taxi. She knocks him down, and awkwardly offers to buy him a drink to make up for the inconvenience she has caused him.

                                                   WARNING

Spoilers may or may not start here. 

So that all sounds like your typical rom-com and maybe even interesting if you’re into that kind of thing, right? Everything above is disclosed in the jacket copy and/or the first couple of chapters. What happens next is an overly stereotypical breakdown of communication.

Josie ends up telling Max way more about her life than she would usually tell a stranger. Max tells her a few things about his job as an architect and his family. He is on the way to New York to visit them but of course a storm over the Atlantic has delayed his flight. (For days? Really?) Josie and Max become just close enough that they feel a spark of something real, and then Max slips out of her apartment leaving only a note. No phone number, no social media contacts, just a “thanks for a few great days” note.

Josie and Max continue to run into each other over the course of the next year or so. New York City, Edinburgh, where else do you bump into brief acquaintances in such big cities except in books? They constantly misunderstand each other—Josie assumes Max is back with his ex-girlfriend Erin. Is he? Isn’t he? Nothing is clear.

I was okay with taking this light romance at face value until it came to the point where a major character has a catastrophic event. Very little foreshadowing, and so abrupt as to make it seem unrealistic. As I was sharing my frustrations over this book with Jeanne, she said it reminded her of the books by Lurlene McDaniel. Those young adult novels seemed to be solely for the purpose of showing how the main character went through heartbreak. Someone always died, or at least as far as both of us remember.

After the catastrophic event, some of the hidden backstory was revealed. But for me, it was a case of too little and too late. Do you disagree? Am I just too cynical? I welcome opposing viewpoints. If you have read Always, in December and loved it, please let me know.

Nevermore: Mrs. Chippy, As Husbands Go, Forgotten Bookshop in Paris, Black Bart

 

Reported by Rita

Mrs. Chippy’s Last Expedition: The Remarkable Journal of Shackleton’s Polar-Bound Cat by Caroline Alexander tells the ill-fated true tale of the wooden three-masted ship, Endurance, and its crew of 27 men led by Sir Ernest Shackleton on the 1914 – 1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition as told from the perspective of the ship’s cat. Our reader said there was so much to learn about patience, endurance, and optimism from the daily routine of the cat. She said it was a very good read. AH 

As Husbands Go by Susan Isaacs is about Susie Gertsen, suburban floral designer, mother of 4-year-old triplets, and wife of a Park Avenue plastic surgeon living the perfect life. That is, until her husband is found dead in the apartment of a second-rate “escort”. Our reader said it was a good mystery and she enjoyed following Susie as she does her own investigating to find the truth about her husband’s murder. BM

The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris by Daisy Wood is a dual timeline historical fiction that follows modern day Juliette as she learns about the life her recently deceased grandmother who lived in 1940s Paris. Our reader loved it. MP

Gentleman Bandit: The True Story of Black Bart, the Old West’s Most Infamous Stagecoach Robber by John Boessenecker is filled with hard to believe stories of the famed bandit Black Bart, and his unique style of criminal behavior. He held up at least 29 stagecoaches in California and Oregon but never robbed any passengers or hurt anyone. Described by our reader as “quite the chameleon”, Black Bart has a fascinating story connected to U.S. Western history, and she’s glad she read it. NH

 

Also Mentioned:

All the Forgiveness by Elizabeth Hardinger

My Daughter’s Boyfriend by Daniel Hurst

A Case of Need by Michael Crichton

New Stories from the South 2004: The Year’s Best by Shannon Ravenel

Band of Brothers: E. Company, 506^th Regiment, 101^st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose

Quicksand Pond by Janet Taylor Lisle

The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration by Jake Bittle

Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Immigrant Women Who Changed the World by Elena Favilli

After This by Alice McDermott

Paper Gods: A Novel of Money, Race, and Politics by Goldie Taylor

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

My Antonia by Willa Cather

A Lost Lady by Willa Cather

Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier

Caldecott Award Winners by Ambrea

 

Recently, I took a class on children’s picture books.  It was a delightful class and I learned so much about children’s literature, picture books, popular illustrators, important literary awards, and more.  I enjoyed it immensely!  However, over the course of 10 weeks I was tasked with reading over 240 children’s books.

Yep, you read correctly:  I read 240 children’s books in just under two months.

Which means I have a lot of books to share.

I decided to start with some Caldecott Medal winners.  (If you’ve never heard of the Caldecott Medal, it’s like the Major Leagues in baseball – it’s like winning the series.  It’s also awarded to the illustrator.)  Here were some of my favorite Caldecott Medal winners:

The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney (2010) 

This book is an adaptation of the classic fable by Aesop, in which a lion spares a mouse and, soon, the little mouse has the opportunity to return the favor.  Although it’s completely wordless, it isn’t soundless and it certainly isn’t dull.  It’s a fascinating, delightful, and beautiful rendition of a familiar fable.  It’s well worth checking out, because the artwork is simply magnificent.

 

A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead and Erin E. Stead (2011) 

Amos McGee spends every day at the zoo with his animal friends, but, when he finds himself under the weather, his friends decide to pay him a visit and cheer him up.  This particular book has quickly become one of my all-time favorite picture books.  The artwork is lovely and soft, while the narrative is wonderfully sweet.  It has become near and dear to my heart, because Amos McGee is unwaveringly kind:  he always has tissues for the rhinoceros, he treats the painfully shy penguin with extra gentleness, and he always lets the tortoise win the race.  Amos McGee is the best, and no one can tell me otherwise.

 

This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen (2013)

A little fish admits his hat doesn’t belong to him.  It fits him perfectly, it clearly should have belonged to him, and it surely won’t be missed—well, probably.  This book is brilliantly illustrated and wholly humorous.  Not only is it thick with irony, it’s delightfully suspenseful.  Will the fish get away with his theft?  Will he make it to the kelp fields and thwart any pursuit?  Probably, maybe, somewhat.

 

The Adventures of Beekle:  The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat (2015)

After an imaginary friend is born on a faraway island, he patiently awaits the arrival of his best friend.  He waits and waits and waits—and then he decides to go out and find them on his own.  This book is wildly imaginative, beautifully illustrated, wonderfully colorful, and fantastically executed.  Honestly, there’s just so much to love about Beekle and his journey.  It’s a classic tale of friendship and finding a place to call home, and it’s an adventure worth taking.

 

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson (2020)

 An ode to the movers and dreamers and achievers and heroes, this book was originally conceived as a poem and quickly became a story of grit, determination, passion, and perseverance.  Written by Alexander, a Newbery Award-winning author, and illustrated by Nelson, a Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Award-winning illustrator, this book crafts a beautiful and heartbreaking narrative about black history in the United States.  It has some of the most magnificent artwork I’ve ever seen.  Each page is an oil painting, each image carefully crafted to match the original poem.  It’s absolutely exquisite.

 

Watercress by Andrea Wang and Jason Chin (2022)

 A young girl is embarrassed when her parents forage for watercress growing on the side of the road; however, she soon learns more about her parents’ history in China and grows to understand the importance of watercress.  This book is a moving story about familial ties and shared history.  The watercolor illustrations are simply beautiful, expressive and lush.  It’s a lovely, heart-wrenching book that brought a few tears to my eyes.

 

Hot Dog by Doug Salati (2023)

 In the city, it’s too hot, too noisy, too crowded, too much!  One little dog and his owner have had enough.  The artwork is bright and colorful and rather unique.  It has a certain style to it that reminded me of my favorite childhood cartoons, but it also has some lovely formatting.  I particularly loved the depictions of the city, feeling boxed in crowded, while the beach was open and bright and blissfully cool.  It’s the perfect summertime read.

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado

 

Reviewed by Kristin

Being part Puerto Rican, Charlie Vega sometimes she feels as if she sticks out in her Connecticut community. It’s not just her skin tone—Charlie has a larger body, something she and her white mom used to have in common, but now her mom has lost a great deal of weight. Mom thinks she is being encouraging by leaving weight loss shakes for Charlie, and just does not understand that her actions make Charlie feel anxious and uncomfortable. Charlie is athletic and at ease in her own body, and wishes her mom would let her be.

Charlie is totally into a boy in her class—Cal. Her best friend Amelia thinks that Charlie shouldn’t waste her time, and that is all the more complicated because it turns out that Cal is talking to Charlie just to get closer to Amelia—oh what a teenage mess!

School is easy for Charlie, especially her writing class. She is also artistic, and enjoys her art class even if it takes her weeks to get through one project. She manages to complete all her schoolwork on top of a part time job. Moreover, it just so happens that her art classmate Brian works for the same company. Now that Charlie has noticed him, she feels a spark of attraction to him as a handsome and kind human being.

This is a modern coming of age story where the teenagers do seem to be more self-aware than I was at that age. Or admittedly, maybe it just takes a little time and distance to be able to look back at your own teenage self and body image. I remember having a health teacher who was also the swim coach. She said that when she was a teenager she was “so fat”. She talked about her binges at fast food restaurants, and said that she was a size (gasp) 16.

Reading how Charlie feels at her mom’s urges to diet and work out, I was taken back to my own size 16 teenage self listening to that teacher. Seeing Charlie’s insecurities about boys and friends made me recall those years in my own life. I am glad there are more books these days stressing health and body positivity.

I also really liked the diverse characters. Even Charlie’s mom was a complex person who was dealing with the loss of her husband and her new reality as a single mom. I enjoyed this as a pleasant audiobook taking me through my daily drives to work. Fat Chance, Charlie Vega can be borrowed in print from other libraries in the OWL consortium, or checked out in e-book or audiobook format via Tennessee READS.

Nevermore: Soul of an Octopus, Birdwatcher's Daily Companion, Silver Alert, On Time

 

Reported by Rita

The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery tells of the time spent by the author studying octopuses and the relationships she developed with each magnificent creature. The book is full of interesting facts and amazing discoveries about the consciousness of the octopus and their interactions with humans as well as other creatures. Several book club members have passed this book around happily. Our current reader said it touched her soul. KM

Birdwatcher’s Daily Companion: 365 Days of Advice, Insight, and Information for Enthusiastic Birders by Marcus H. Schneck and Tom Warhol is a great source of interesting bird facts and identifications. It also includes projects you can do at home to help birds. This is a very handy guide for anyone interested in birds, according to our reader. MS

Silver Alert by Lee Smith is about a young woman who moves to Key West to flee a dark past and start over as a manicurist. After developing a relationship with an elderly client, things get complicated. While our reader thought it was kind of cute and a quick read, she didn’t find it very relatable. MH

On Time: How America Has Learned to Live Life by the Clock by Carlene E. Stephens tells the story of the beginning of time keeping. This Smithsonian Institution work is beautifully illustrated with old time pieces, includes many interesting facts on this history of clocks, and was very much enjoyed by our reader. WJ

 

Also Mentioned:

Hummingbird Gifts by Sy Montgomery

Leaning Into the Wind: Women Write from the Heart of the West by Elinda M. Hasselstrom (Editor), Gaydell Collier (Editor), Nancy Curtis (Editor)

Ripper by Isabel Allende

The Questions That Matter Most: Reading, Writing, and the Exercise of Freedom by Jane Smiley

Wish You Well by David Baldacci

Subpar Parks by Amber Shore (E-book only on TN READS)

How the Post Office Created America: A History by Winifred Gallagher

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky

Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon

 

New Book:

The Story of Becoming Piney Flats by Robert Sorrell

Fred Sauceman and the Food of Appalachia

 

An Appreciation by Jeanne

 

I can’t remember exactly when I became aware of Fred Sauceman.  My best guess is that it was in 2009, when his video Red Hot Dog Digest was added to the library’s collection.  I had never realized that the red hot dog was unusual: growing up, I thought all hot dogs were red.  In that video, Sauceman introduces the audience to some iconic local hot dog vendors, including Bristol’s Corner Dog House and Marion’s Dip Dog. 

From there I moved on to reading some of his Place Setting books.  There are three volumes, and each one has stories of Appalachian food and its makers. Pepperoni rolls, ham biscuits, pimento cheese, and more foods take center stage in his stories of places and people.  I delighted in reading about the places I knew and enjoyed learning of those new to me. He moved a bit farther afield in the wonderful Buttermilk and Bible Burgers: More Stories from the Kitchens of Appalachia, which includes entries from Alabama and Pennsylvania.

Since then, I’ve also seen two other short films, Beans All the Way (about the Bean Barn in Greeneville) and Smoke in the Holler, about Ridgewood Barbecue.  He has also written a book entitled The Proffitts of Ridgewood which recounts the story of the restaurant and the family behind it.  Inspired by the book, I made my first trip to Ridgewood and took family members who had never heard of the place.  We were wondering if we were lost at first, and then we started seeing cars parked along the road, some almost in the ditch.

If you’re interested in local food and local food traditions, by all means check out a book or watch a video by Fred Sauceman!

Community Board by Tara Conklin

 

Reviewed by Kristin

At the ripe old age of twenty-nine, Darcy Clipper hits a roadblock. Or rather, her husband Skip throws a roadblock directly at her head by telling her that he is leaving her for Bianca, a skydiver. Darcy tries to continue her routine of commuting to her job as an actuary at an insurance agency outside of Boston, but the weeping gets in the way. When her boss Mr. Castro offers her a six-month sabbatical to recover, Darcy thinks about it for three or four seconds before accepting.

Darcy sublets the apartment and goes home to her parents. A few hours later she arrives in Murbridge, where she is startled to find the house silent, her favorite fern “Fred” missing, and her parents in Arizona. Oh sorry Darcy, they say, we just wanted to see if like this retirement community before telling you our intentions. Yes, dear, feel free to stay, we won’t sell the house immediately…

Darcy holes up in the house with its abundant supply of canned emergency rations and becomes something of a hermit. Neighbor Mrs. Pevzner leaves blondies on the front porch, but does seem to get a little cranky when Darcy doesn’t immediately return her Tupperware. Darcy doesn’t have the emotional energy to engage with anyone face to face, not even for more sweet treats.

Murbridge has changed, obviously, and Darcy really misses Fred. But now she can find all she needs to know on the local online community board. Small town living at its finest, now with high speed internet.

Darcy’s anxiety and depression do not hamper the story, but rather show her to be a real person driven to somewhat extreme circumstances as she decides how and when to re-enter the outside world. Darcy does make some connections. When her stock of canned food grows low and she needs money to buy more meals, she discovers she’s excellent at finding lost pets (posted on the community board, of course) and she sometimes collects a cash reward. She finds people in need, and people who have things to fill her needs as well.

Other quirky characters also populate small-town Murbridge: the person who mysteriously leaves soup; Jake Zdzynzky, chair of the town select board and general pain in the rear; an elderly woman who really wants to escape her assisted living facility run by nuns; the tulip lady posting of her lost love; Marcus—oh, you just have to get to know the kind and idealistic Marcus.

Tara Conklin has written two other excellent novels: The House Girl and The Last Romantics. I recommend both, as well as this, her most recent novel.

Nevermore: Between the States, Gardens in the Dunes, Stringbean, Girl Forgotten

 

Reported by Rita

Between the States: Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia During the Civil War by V.N. Bud Phillips is an account of what daily life was like in the new town during a very difficult time. Phillips wrote several books of local history about Bristol, and relied heavily on oral stories from Bristol’s oldest citizens. Our reader liked the inclusion of documents and diary entries from the period as well as other information about the beginnings of Bristol. PP

Gardens in the Dunes by Leslie Marmon Silko is a historical novel about Indigo, a young Native American girl taken from the fictional Sand Lizard tribe by white soldiers. Indigo is forced into a government school to learn the ways of white children before being rescued by a kind woman and her husband. Our reader enjoyed it and said it is worth reading more than once. AH

Stringbean: The Life and Murder of a Country Legend by Taylor Hagood is the true story of David “Stringbean” Akeman, famed cast member of country music variety show Hee Haw, and his tragic murder along with his wife in 1973. Our read found this unsolved murder and courtroom drama to be sad but very interesting. DC

Girl Forgotten by Karin Slaughter is the suspense-filled tale of a new US Marshall who has a hidden connection to her first assigned case. Emily Vaughn was killed in a small town in 1982, but forty years later clues emerge to bring a killer to justice. Our reader enjoyed this recent standalone novel, as she enjoys most anything written by Slaughter. KP

 

Also Mentioned:

All Quite on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Violeta by Isabel Allende

The Questions That Matter Most: Reading, Writing, and the Exercise of Freedom by Jane Smiley

Wish You Well by David Baldacci

Ripper by Isabel Allende

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

Subpar Parks by Amber Shore (E-book only on TN READS)

With My Little Eye by Joshilyn Jackson

 

New Books:

Bloody Breathitt: Politics and Violence in the Appalachian South by T.R.C. Hutton

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

 

Reviewed by Kristin

Sam and Sadie met in a children’s hospital in California. Sam was a patient; Sadie wasn’t. Sadie was just there to visit her sister Alice, who had the fortunate misfortune of having childhood cancer, but a cancer that was almost always curable. Sam had been in a horrendous car accident which crushed his foot and thus he required many surgeries to try to fix it. Also, Sam wasn’t talking. Until Sadie.

Sam and Sadie spend hundreds of hours playing video games together in the game room of the hospital. Sam begins to recover, although his foot will never be the same as before the accident. Sam and Sadie become the best of friends, until they aren’t.

Several years later, Sam is a junior at Harvard when he runs into Sadie in Boston. She is a student at MIT learning how to program video games. The two begin a collaboration which will make them famous as developers of the worldwide sensation Ichigo. The title character is a young Japanese child swept out to sea who must make their way back to land and their family through a series of challenges and decision-making.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow takes Sam and Sadie from childhood to adulthood with all the expected fumbling and pains along the way. Sam has to deal with an ongoing disability due to the damage his foot sustained in that long ago accident, as well as his social awkwardness. He is half-Korean, half-Jewish, raised by his mother’s Korean parents. Sadie has grown up in privileged circumstances in her Jewish household. She is also one of a scarce handful of women in her advanced programming classes. Both are obviously brilliant (having landed at Harvard and MIT respectively) and care deeply for one another.

Gabrielle Zevin’s writing is compulsively readable, and I could barely pause while reading. She builds three-dimensional characters beautifully, making me want to immerse myself in their world just a little bit longer. Drawing from mythology and the woodblock print “The Great Wave at Kanagawa”, the game Ichigo reflects many aspects of Japanese culture. Even looking at the cover of this book, you can see the iconic waves drawn by Kokusai in 1829. Add in the video game style lettering with multiple trailing shadows, and I find this to be a cover worthy of the book within.

As soon as I finished this title, I began another of Zevin’s works: All These Things I’ve Done. This one is more of a young adult story and the first of a trilogy, but I am enjoying it as well. Zevin has written several other well-known novels including Elsewhere and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. By discovering this author, I definitely have added quite a few more books to my wishlist.

Cold Storage by David Koepp

 

 

Reviewed by Andrew

 

Cold Storage by David Koepp is an exciting, fast-paced science-fiction thriller, with some elements of horror as well. The book starts with two government agents tasked with investigating some type of biological threat in Australia.  When they arrive at the site, they find a pod from a space shuttle that has crash-landed to Earth. In the pod is a type of fungus that scientists were attempting to experiment with while in outer space, and as a result, has mutated into something far more lethal than anyone could have imagined. The fungus has been released from the pod and has decimated an entire Australian village at an alarming rate. The government agents are able to contain the spread of the fungus, and manage to bring a sample back to the U.S., where it is sealed in an old nuclear bunker. Fast-forward several decades, and the nuclear bunker has been converted into a civilian storage facility, and everyone has all but forgotten about what is contained several stories below ground.  Now it has managed to break loose from its containment…

I quite enjoyed the fast-paced action in the book.  The author managed to keep the story accelerating at a break-neck pace. The characters are fun and memorable, but the book doesn’t get bogged down with too many details about them. The book is written well, and is surprisingly funny considering the subject matter. This was a relatively quick read, and it felt like the book equivalent of watching an action-packed summer blockbuster.

The main criticism I have about this book is that it felt very similar to certain other stories. Cold Storage seemed to borrow heavily from Michael Crichton, and certain plot points felt eerily similar to the well-known video game, The Last of Us. I also think the book could have been scarier, not holding a flame to Stephen King or Michael Crichton, the latter of whom I consider to be a master of science-fiction horror.

All in all, I still really enjoyed this book. While not on par with other similar stories that manage to do it better, this book still has a story of its own to tell, and is written in a way that is fun and engaging, making you want to keep reading to find out what could possibly happen in the next chapter. If you enjoy science-fiction or thrillers, I would definitely recommend this book.

Nevermore: Summer of 1876, Lock Every Door, Little Shoes

 

Reported by Rita

Summer of 1876: Outlaws, Lawmen, and Legends in the Season That Defined the American West by Chris Wimmer has it all, from infamous lawmen, presidents, bank robbers, and gun slingers to baseball players. Our reader described it as a very fascinating book that is very descriptive, painting a sometimes exhausting picture of life in the American West during that era.  NH

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager is a mystery thriller about young Jules Larson who is starting a new job as an apartment sitter in a mysterious, high-profile Manhattan building. When another sitter in the building goes missing, Jules starts looking into the building’s history and discovers others have gone missing before. This book was described as a real page turner, full of twists and turns. MP

Little Shoes: The Sensational Depression-Era Murders That Became My Family’s Secret by Pamela Everett is a true crime story about the murder of three young girls in 1937 in California, a wrongful conviction and execution, and the author uncovering family secrets that held the truth of an 80 year old criminal case. A very sad but incredibly interesting story. CD

Also Mentioned:

The Paris Deception by Bryn Turnbull

The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim

Come Sing, Jimmy Jo by Katherine Paterson

The Old Lion by Jeff Shaara

Micro by Michael Crichton, Richard Preston

Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

New Books:

Watch Us Shine by Marisa de los Santos

The Story of Becoming Piney Flats by Robert Sorrell

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

As we prepare to celebrate Independence Day, it’s a good time to also reflect on our local origins.  Piney Flats is at the center of some of that history: it was the first seat of government for the Southwest Territory in 1790 when Tennessee Governor William Blount had his headquarters here until moving to Knoxville in 1792.

Many may be familiar with Rocky Mount, where pioneer William Cobb built a house that is now a popular tourist site.  Other familiar names show up in Piney Flats history, including King, Masengill, and DeVault.  Less familiar to me was the name Wolfe, so I was intrigued to learn that about the furniture factory set up by the Wolfe Brothers. Their primary product was customized church furniture.

The book is entertainingly written as well as being a wealth of information, and well-illustrated with photographs. There are some brief family histories, as well as information about businesses, churches, schools, and other local attractions such as Bristol Motor Speedway and Boone Dam.  Sorrells received the “Project Excellence Award” from the East Tennessee Historical Society for this book, and it’s easy to see why.

If you have any interest in local history, this may be a book for you!