Lots of events are coming up: Easter, graduations, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthdays and many more. And what do we usually do at these events? Take pictures, loads of pictures. Our kit this month shows how to make a photo wall hanging of these pictures in black and white. You can certainly do this in color, but we wanted to highlight the black and white photo look.
These kits will be available while they last in all of our branches on Friday, April 15. You may pick them up at the reference desk at the Columbia library and near the service desks at our other branches. For other photo craft ideas, try this list.
Join us on May 5 at 12 p.m. for “The Dutch House” by Anne Patchett. Patchett, the New York Times bestselling author of “Commonwealth” and “State of Wonder,” returns with her most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood and a past that will not let them go. “The Dutch House” is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and who we really are. For a list of similarly themed books, try this list.
This zoom discussion is for adults: register here.
Unlike climate change itself, the propensity for writers to gravitate to the subject is natural. Among the seemingly endless range of problems the world must address, it is the one that towers over all others, the one that will, barring dramatic changes in how the world operates, render all others insignificant in the face of rising seas, prolific wet-bulb temperatures (a combination of temperature and humidity that renders the body unable to cool down and therefore unable to not die), mass extinction, food chain collapse, etc.
It’s easy to understand why so many writers are compelled to address the subject, but perhaps it’s not as intuitive why a reader would want to read fiction about it. Perhaps reading such novels will inspire action, and perhaps those actions will help. But also, most of us read fiction for pleasure, and these books, while often horrifying, are also massively entertaining. If something’s going to render massive swaths of our planet uninhabitable, the least it could do is inspire some entertaining fiction. Continue reading “Literary Links: Climate Lit”
Here are a few of the most notable adult fiction debuts coming out in April. These have all received positive reviews in library journals. For a longer list, please visit our catalog.
“Four Treasures of the Sky” by Jenny Tinghui Zhang
Daiyu never wanted to be like the tragic heroine for whom she was named, revered for her beauty and cursed with heartbreak. But when she is kidnapped and smuggled across an ocean from China to America, Daiyu must relinquish the home and future she imagined for herself. Over the years that follow, she is forced to keep reinventing herself to survive. From a calligraphy school, to a San Francisco brothel, to a shop tucked into the Idaho mountains, we follow Daiyu on a desperate quest to outrun the tragedy that chases her. As anti-Chinese sentiment sweeps across the country in a wave of unimaginable violence, Daiyu must draw on each of the selves she has been — including the ones she most wants to leave behind — in order to finally claim her own name and story.
Continue reading “Debut Author Spotlight: April 2022”
Baseball is happening folks! We can all exhale now. Let’s celebrate by checking out what our library has to offer on the topic of this great national pastime.
Missouri is blessed with two teams who have won the World Series in dramatic, wilder-than-fiction fashion. Relive those days of triumph with one or more of these DVDs:
“2015 World Series”
“2011 World Series Champions: STL”
“St. Louis Cardinals Vintage World Series Film, 1982, 1985, 1987” Continue reading “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”
Below I’m highlighting some nonfiction books coming out in April. All of the mentioned titles are available to put on hold in our catalog and will also be made available via the library’s Overdrive website on the day of publication in eBook and downloadable audiobook format (as available). For a more extensive list of new nonfiction books coming out this month, check our online catalog. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: April 2022”
Perhaps ideally I’d only wield my immeasurable influence in service of bringing attention to lesser known writers and compelling people to mail me treats, but often a famous writer’s work will insist that I type about it instead. In this case, while Oprah and the Pulitzer committee and the world of literary critics may have done the heavy lifting, I’m here to gently tug and encourage those that have yet to read Colson Whitehead to remedy this. Continue reading “The Gentleman Recommends: Colson Whitehead”
“Frontier
Follies” is written by the author, blogger, and chef Ree Drummond. She talks about life, marriage, motherhood and her adventures in the book. I love how down-to-earth and relatable it is. There were moments that had me laughing and a couple times tearing up. She seems so genuine and I loved hearing stories about her husband, their four kids and their adventures on the ranch. She shared some yummy recipes that were fun to try as well!
Three words that describe this book: Geniune, light-hearted, comical
You might want to pick this book up if: You are a wife or mother looking for a quick, easy read that is relatable. You wont want to put it down!
-Anonymous
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading 2021. We will continue to share these throughout the year.
The subject of this blog was initially inspired by reading a coworker’s work. I wanted to find books that combined two of my loves: music and cooking. So, I searched the catalog for “cookbook” and “music.” The first result was “That Sounds So Good” by Carla Lalli Music. What did I expect, right? Though it was clearly not what I was looking for, the title did interest me. Sigh, the focus of the blog changed, again. There are musicians with their own cookbooks, here is a short list with some of those titles, which includes choices ranging from Sammy Hagar to Snoop Dogg. Continue reading “Read the Recipe! Vol. 7: “That Sounds So Good””
“Houses are really quite odd things. They have almost no universally defining qualities: they can be of practically any shape, incorporate virtually any material, be of almost any size. Yet wherever we go in the world we recognize domesticity the moment we see it.”
―
Bill Bryson, “At Home: A Short History of Private Life”
Continue reading “House Love”
