Staff Picks for National Library Week: Madison & Keelan

 

Madison

Billy Summers by Stephen King - King does an excellent job at exploring inner conflicts, and the struggle between good and evil that we all face. This book is extremely introspective, centering around love, loss, grief, and of course, King’s signature mix of thriller and suspense. There is never a dull moment, and the more Summers’ past comes to light, the more attached you become to his character, making for an immersive experience throughout.

 

Fairy Tale by Stephen King - This book is not in King’s usual writing style, but it is by far one of the best! King takes on a fantasy style, delving into an underground world, once full of mystical creatures, but now plagued by a curse only a prince can break. Again, this novel explores love, loss, adventure, and coming-of-age, in the most encapsulating way possible.

 

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - Rather than the usual “self-help” book, this work is a collection of Aurelius’ private notes, which he centered his entire existence around. Not only is this work a guide on how to live life to the fullest, while maintaining motivation and peace, but it still holds true nearly 2000 years later.

 

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - There is not much else to say, other than Bradbury has done it again! This book follows a sci-fi layout, exploring the dangers technology may pose—specifically regarding books. Considering I love books (and work in a library!), I highly enjoyed Bradbury’s twist on firemen, and the altered reality in which they start fires, rather than extinguish them.

 

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka - Kafka, in his usual fashion, writes a story about life’s tragedies and the devastations that occur. In this work, he explores co-dependency and the toll it takes on both parties, especially considering Gregor, the family’s provider, mysteriously wakes up as a human-sized bug and can no longer work. I absolutely love the way Kafka explores human emotions, including worry, grief, anger, and fear, and the way that love fades given dire situations.

 

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens - This book is a combination of romance, mystery, and thriller, which I greatly enjoyed, especially considering this book is the first of its kind from Owens. I loved the way that she expressed the ability of those to rise above hardship, even when all odd stand against them, just as with Kya Clark. Her father an abusive alcoholic, her mother and siblings runaways, and her classmates judgmental of it all, this novel is dark, messy, real, and raw, which is what made me love it most.

 

Keelan

The Second Death of Locke by V. L. Bovalino - The girl is the knight and the hero. The found family is so lovely and their journey is ever-evolving, making it feel like you're getting several books/stories in one big quest. 

 

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas -  The journey Nesta goes on in this book is so raw and blows the rest of the series out of the water.

 

Funny Story by Emily Henry - Light-hearted and funny following the aftermath of a terrible breakup featuring a librarian for a lead character and gaggle of found family.

 

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune - Nostalgic, warm, summer second-chance romance coming to a head in the wake of a major loss.

 

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith - This is my all-time favorite book. You follow Francie and her family as she grows up in poverty in Brooklyn in the early 1900s. It is a brilliant coming-of-age story.

Nevermore: The Art of Power, Endurance, Last Day the Dogbushes Bloomed

 

Nevermore 4-22-25

Reported by Rita

 

The Art of Power by Nancy Pelosi

The first woman to ascend to the most powerful legislative role in our nation, passing laws that save lives and livelihoods, tells the story of her transformation from housewife to House Speaker, becoming a prophetic voice on the major moral issues of the day who's not afraid of a good fight.

I found it to be very informative and interesting.     -  KM     5 stars

 

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

Describes how polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's ship became immobilized in ice for ten months on his 1914 expedition to Antarctica, resulting in an 850-mile journey back to civilization with only a skeleton crew remaining.

Incredibly tedious, but fascinating and enjoyable.    - CD     4 stars

 

The Last Day the Dogbushes Bloomed by Lee Smith

Recounts the last summer of innocence for nine-year-old Susan, who witnesses the disintegration of her parents' marriage, and learns of people's cruelty from the visiting nephew of a neighbor.

Lee Smith is an extraordinary writer, and this book is absolutely amazing!    - MD    5 stars

 

Other Books Mentioned

 

Kills Well With Others by Deanna Raybourn

The Sunflower House by Adriana Allegri

The Shadow Girls by Henning Mankell

Wreck of the Whale Ship Essex: The Extraordinary and Distressing Memoir That Inspired Herman Melville's Moby-Dick by Owen Chase

The Thread That Runs So True by Jesse Stuart

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

1984 by George Orwell

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Mathieu

Afterward by Jennifer Mathieu

The Girl on Legare Street by Karen White

The Third Girl by Nell Goddin

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabella Wilkerson

Ernie's War by Ernie Pyle

 

New Books

 

Kate & Frida by Kim Fay

The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue

Penitence by Kristin Koval

Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Nevermore: How to Stand Up to a Dictator, On Beauty, Knife

 

Nevermore 2-18-25

Reported by Rita

How to Stand Up to a Dictator: the Fight for Our Future by Maria Ressa

A Philippine Journalist who received the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize presents strategies for speaking truth to power, challenging corruption and standing up against authoritarians to battle information and lies.

Interesting and informative look at the efforts of grassroots groups.     –KM     4 stars     

 

On Beauty: a  Novel by Zadie Smith

Struggling with a stale marriage and the misguided passions of his three adult children, long-suffering art professor Howard Belsey finds his family life thrown into turmoil by his son's engagement to the socially prominent daughter of a right-wing icon. By the author of White Teeth.

The writing was beautiful, but I had trouble getting into the story.       –VC      3 stars

 

Knife by Jo Nesbø

Harry Hole is working cold cases, but he is more worried about the rapist and murderer, Svein Finne, who will soon be out of prison, and when he wakes up from a drunken blackout with blood on his hands, it marks the start of a waking nightmare.

Filled with twists and turns. It was good escapism.    –FE      4 stars

 

Other Books Mentioned

Ardennes 1944: Hitler's last gamble by Antony Beevor

Ellie Dwyer's Olympic Moment by Diane Winger

This is Happiness by Niall Williams

122 Surprising Movie Star Stories by Paul Kyriazi

Invisible Kitties: a Feline Study of Fluid Mechanics or the Spurious Incidents of the Cats in the Night-Time by Youyou Yu

The Farmer's Wife: My Life in Days by Helen Rebanks

Rodchenko and the Arts of Revolutionary Russia by David Elliot

Miss Morton and the Deadly Inheritance by Catherine Lloyd

Never Change by Elizabeth Berg

Canada by Andrew Hempstead

The Prepper's Water Survival Guide: Harvest, Treat, and Store Your Most Vital Resource by Daisy Luther

Disaster Preparedness: Urban Preppers With Kids, Pets & Parents: Disaster Survival for the Family by James Mushen

The Anxiety First Aid Kit: Quick Tools for Extreme, Uncertain Times by Rick Hanson

Locked In by Jussi Adler-Olsen

The Screwtape Letters: with, Screwtape Proposes a Toast by C. S. Lewis

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Displeasure Island by Alice Bell

Furever After by Sofie Kelly

 

New Books

A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks by David Gibbins

Nevermore: Fair and Tender Ladies, Boy Who Talked to Dogs, Dollbaby, Librarian of Burned Books

 Reported by Garry

 

Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith. “I used to be a scandal myself. Now I am an institution.” Ivy Crow is a firecracker - raised in the mountains of Appalachia at the turn of the last century, she is the daughter of a down-on-their-luck family and one of nine siblings whose lives are upended when their father dies. Ivy and her family scrape by through the years, documented by Ivy in a series of letters that recount a life of adventure, poverty, struggles, opportunity, and love. First published in 1988, this novel is now considered one of Smith’s best, and holds a place in the heart of many of our Nevermore readers.  MH

 

The Boy Who Talked to Dogs: A Memoir by Martin McKenna. Part memoir, part guide to the strange inner world of dogs, this non-fiction book tells McKenna’s story from the time he was growing up bullied and alone in Garryowen, Ireland. Living with ADHD that was poorly (at best) understood by those around him, at age thirteen he ran away from home and lived on the streets (and in barns, fields, etc.) with a gang of six dogs who taught him self-reliance, the value of family, and self-respect. Touching and eye-opening, this comes highly recommended by our reader, especially to anyone who has known the love of a dog.  CD

 

Dollbaby by Laura Lane McNeal. Ibby Bell’s father has just died unexpectedly. Her mother can’t cope, and drops off Ibby and her father’s urn with her eccentric grandmother in New Orleans, thousands of miles and an entire world away from her home in Olympia, Washington. Grandma Fannie is one who ends up in the nearby mental institution on a semi-regular basis, and so Ibby is taken under the wing of Queenie and Dollbaby – Fannie’s Black household helpers. Queenie and Dollbaby educate Ibby on the ways of the South in the era of Civil Rights struggles. Our reader, who grew up in the deep South, found this to be an uplifting, funny, and poignant historical novel and absolutely loved it, recommending it to anyone who has a love for Southern culture.  KN

 

The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes. Loosely based on the story behind the real-life Council of Books in Wartime, this historical novel follows the fates of three women whose professional and private lives are guided by the power of books. In 1933 Althea James receives an invitation from Joseph Goebbels to participate in a cultural exchange program. Once she is in Berlin, Althea begins to realize that the propaganda by her hosts does not match the reality of what is happening in Germany. Three years later in Paris, Hanna Brecht has escaped from Berlin, and is working at the German Library of Burned Books, only to find that there is no safe harbor in France. In 1944 Vivian Childs is fighting a powerful US senator over censorship and the banning of books. Vivian’s battle will bring the three women’s worlds together and expose the secrets of the recent past.  WJ

 

Also mentioned:

 

How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe by Thomas Cahill

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

The Inmate by Freida McFadden

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside by Nick Offerman

Last Things by C.P. Snow

My Dream of You by Nuala O’Faolain

Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals by Laurie Zaleski

The Girls in the Snow by Stacy Green

The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson

Africatown: America’s Last Slave Ship and the Community It Created by Nick Tabor

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

Empress of the Nile: The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt’s Ancient Temples from Destruction by Lynn Olson

Nevermore: Fears of a Setting Sun, Patron Saint of Second Chances, Left on Tenth, Unsinkable Greta James

 

Nevermore May 17, 2022

Reported by Garry

Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders by Dennis C. Rasmussen. One would think that the Founding Fathers would have been extremely proud and optimistic about their crowning glory, the United States Constitution. They weren’t. Partisan bickering and campaigns of misinformation threatened to tear the country apart from the very beginning and most of them did not believe that the U.S. would survive long. This very enlightening book outlines how and why the Fathers were both disappointed and pessimistic about the outcome of this country and the experiment in democracy that they started. Our reader loves this book so much that she has read it twice so far in just a few weeks, and was moved to tears by the dedication shown by the writers of the Constitution, who toiled for months to establish the world’s first democracy.  DC

 

The Patron Saint of Second Chances by Christine Simon is a sun-soaked summer read set in the extremely small fictional Italian town of Prometto (population 212). Faced with having the town shut down due to faulty and aging water pipes, the self-appointed mayor decides to start a rumor that a famous movie star is coming to town to film his latest blockbuster, in a hair-brained bid to bring tourists (and their money) to town. Best-laid plans go awry when the fictional film takes on a life of its own with nearly every member of the town (plus others) wanting to participate in one way or another, and Signor Speranza (the mayor) realizing he may have to make the movie himself.  This hilarious, heartfelt debut novel was a hit with our reader, who thought it was a perfect summer-getaway novel.  WJ

Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life is a memoir by Delia Ephron, sister to Nora Ephron. A best-selling and highly accomplished screenwriter in her own right, Delia recounts a horrific few years of dealing with not only the death of both her husband and sister within a short time but her own battle with a particularly aggressive form of leukemia. Against this backdrop of sorrow and trial, Delia unexpectedly falls in love with a man that she had very briefly dated fifty-four years previously. (So briefly that she had completely forgotten all about him and didn’t even recall dating him in the first place!) This touching and honest memoir was praised by our reader for the writing, but she did criticize how economically out of touch the author is when complaining about being “broke” and only being able to go to the South of France twice a year.  NH

 

The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith is a modern novel following Greta James, an up-and-coming musical artist. After the sudden death of her mother, Greta falls apart on stage during a performance. The footage goes viral and Greta, shocked and embarrassed, stops playing altogether. Her career on the precipice, she reluctantly agrees to accompany her father on a cruise meant to have been a celebration of her parent’s fortieth anniversary. On board, she meets Ben Wilder, a historian dealing with his own loss. Love, loss, healing, and the beautiful surroundings of Haynes, Alaska was a real hit with our reader, whose own son lives in Haynes.  MH

Also mentioned:

Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler

Winter Hero by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Never Simple by Liz Scheier

From the Hood to the Holler: A Story of Separate Worlds, Shared Dreams, and the Fight for America’s Future by Charles Booker

Junk Science and the American Criminal System by M. Chris Fabricant

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan

Paradise by Toni Morrison

Look For Me by Lisa Gardner

The Pact by Jodi Picoult

Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential by Caroline Myss

The Echoes by Jess Montgomery

Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan

Prairie Fever by Michael Parker

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig

On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

The Wise Ass by Tom McCaffrey

Playing Doctor - Part One:  Medical School: Stumbling through with Amnesia by John Lawrence

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline

The American Women’s Almanac by Deborah G. Felder

The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy

Hell and Other Destinations: A 21^st-Century Memoir by Madeleine Albright

There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important than Kindness: And Other Thoughts on Physics, Philosophy and the World by Carlo Rovelli