Daniel Boone Regional Library

Earlier this spring we asked area young adults to help us prepare for Summer Reading by designing an original bookmark based on the teen theme, “Beneath the Surface.” Using colored pencils and a great deal of imagination, this year’s teen winners artfully presented their interpretation of what this meant to them. Congratulations goes to Garett Ballard, Hayden Ballard and Victoria Salerno! You can pick up your own copies of these bookmarks at any of our three branch locations or bookmobile stops.

We recently added “The Story Of Film: An Odyssey” to the DBRL collection. The DVD set that includes 15 hour long episodes currently has a rating of 93% from audiences at Rotten Tomatoes. Here’s a synopsis from our catalog:

The story of film: an odyssey, written and directed by award-winning film-maker Mark Cousins, is the story of international cinema told through the history of cinematic innovation. Five years in the making, The Story of Film: An Odyssey covers six continents and 12 decades, showing how film-makers are influenced both by the historical events of their times, and by each other. It provides worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made; an epic tale that starts in nickelodeons and ends as a multi-billion dollar globalised digital industry. Described as a ‘love letter’ to the movies, Cousins visits the key sites in the history of cinemal from Hollywood to Mumbai; from Hitchcock’s London to the village where Pather Panchali was shot, and features interviews with legendary filmmakers and actors including Stanley Donen, Kyoko Kagawa, Gus van Sant, Lars Von Trier, Claire Denis, Bernardo Bertolucci, Robert Towne, Jane Campion and Claudia Cardinale.

Check out the film trailer or the official film site for more info.

The 2013 One Read book is “The Ruins of Us” by local author Keija Parssinen! Each year as part of this community-wide reading program, the public helps choose a single book that we then invite everyone to read. Pick up your copy today, and join us in September to explore the novel’s themes through discussions, art, film, presentations and more. Sign up to let the library know you are reading “The Ruins of Us,” and you will be entered into a drawing for a free autographed copy of the book.

To learn more about this gripping and well-crafted novel, visit www.oneread.org.

The 2013 One Read book is “The Ruins of Us” by local author Keija Parssinen! Each year as part of this community-wide reading program, the public helps choose a single book that we then invite everyone to read. Pick up your copy today, and join us in September to explore the novel’s themes through discussions, art, film, presentations and more. Sign up to let the library know you are reading “The Ruins of Us,” and you will be entered into a drawing for a free autographed copy of the book.

To learn more about this gripping and well-crafted novel, visit www.oneread.org.

About the Book

“The Ruins of Us” is a fast-paced work of contemporary fiction that explores the terrain of family relationships complicated by cultural conflict.

After more than 20 years of marriage to wealthy Saudi Abdullah al-Baylani, Rosalie, an American expatriate, discovers that her husband has taken a Palestinian second wife, which makes her contemplate escaping both the marriage and the country she has grown to love. Leaving will not be easy, however, given the country’s restrictions on women and the needs of her teenage children – a headstrong daughter becoming increasingly westernized and a son succumbing to radicalism.

The book’s publisher describes “The Ruins of Us” as  “a timely story about intolerance, family and the injustices we endure for love.”

About the Author

Keija Parssinen was born in Saudi Arabia and lived there for 12 years as a third-generation expatriate. She earned a degree in English literature from Princeton University and received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she held a Truman Capote Fellowship and a Teaching-Writing Fellowship. “The Ruins of Us” is her first novel. Parssinen lives in Columbia, Missouri, where she is the Director of the Quarry Heights Writers’ Workshop, a community for Columbia’s creative writers.

Biographical information from www.keijaparssinen.com and www.harpercollins.com

More information:

• Author’s Website
• Publisher’s Page
• Publisher’s Reading Group Guide
• The Guardian Review
• Publisher’s Weekly Review
• Author Interview With The Missouri Review

• Books & Authors Database
• Google Books
• Goodreads
• LibraryThing
• Shelfari

Each winter, the public submits suggestions for next year’s One Read book. In January, a panel of community members reviews the suggestions, narrowing that list down to 10 titles, and then chooses two or three books to present for a public vote.

 

Final 10 Selections

• Arcadia
  Lauren Groff
• The Call (Runner-up)
  Yannick Murphy
• The Cat’s Table
  Michael Ondaatje
• Gone Girl
  Gillian Flynn
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
  Susan Cain

• The Ruins of Us (Winner)
  Keija Parssinen
• State of Wonder
  Ann Patchett
• Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
  Cheryl Strayed
• The World Without Us
  Alan Weisman
• The Yellow Birds
  Kevin Powers

Other Suggested Titles

• Abe
  Richard Slotkin
• The Alchemist
  Coelho, Paulo
• The Barbarian Nurseries
  Hector Tober
• Battle Royale
  Koushun Takami
• Battleborn
  Claire Baye Watkins
• Before I Forget
  Leonard Pitts
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in A Mumbai Undercity
  Katherine Boo
• Being Dead Is No Excuse
  Gayden Metcalf
• The Black Count
  Tom Reiss
• Black Water Rising
  Attica Locke
• The Book of Jonas
  Stephen Dau
• The Book Thief
  Markus Zusak,
• The Boys of My Youth
  Jo Ann Beard
• Bridge of Scarlet Leaves
  Kristina McMorris
• Caleb’s Crossing
  Geraldine Brooks
• Calligraphy of the Witch
  Alicia Gaspar de Alba
• Cat of the Century
  Rita Mae Brown
• The Chaperone
  Laura Moriarity
• City of Thieves
  David Benioff
• Civil War in the Ozarks
  Phillip Steele
• Cleaning House: A Mom’s 12-month Experiment to Rid Her Home of Youth Entitlement
  Kay Wills Wyma
• Cloud Atlas
  David Mitchell
• Cold Mountain
  Charles Frazier
• Complete Persepolis
  Marjane Satrapi
• Confessions of a Murder Suspect
  James Patterson
• Conquistadora
  Esmeralda Santiago
• Day After Night
  Anita Diamant
• Deadline Artists
  John P Avlon
• Deep and Dark and Dangerous
  Mary Dawning Haun
• Defending Jacob
  William Landay
• Destiny of the Republic
  Candice Millard
• Discovery of Witches
  Deborah Harkness
• A Dog’s Purpose
  W. Bruce Cameron
• The Doomsday Book
  Connie Willis
• The Dovekeepers
  Alice Hoffman
• Eat the Document
  Dana Spiotta
• Emergency : This Book Will save your Life
  Neil Strauss
• Enemy Women
  Paulette Jiles
• Evidence of Things Unseen
  Marianne Wiggins
• Fahrenheit 451
  Ray Bradbury
• The Fault In Our Stars
  John Green
• Fifty Shades of Grey
  E.L. James
• Freeman
  Leonard Pitts
• The Fresco
  Sheri Tepper
• Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café
  Fannie Flagg
• The Gardener
  S.A. Bodeen
• Girl in Translation
  Jean Kwok
• The Glass Castle
  Jeanette Walls
• God’s Hotel
  Victoria Sweet
• A Good American
  Alex George
• Gotcha Gas–Debacle Near Roswell
  M.A. Banak & Wm. Weimer
• The Grace of Silence
  Michele Norris
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
  Mary Ann Shaffer
• Half the Sky
  Nicholas Kristof
• The Handmaid’s Tale
  Margaret Atwood
• The Heart and the Fist
  Eric Greitens
• Heart in the Right Place
  Carolyn Jourdan
• The Help
  Kathryn Stocket
• The History of Love
  Nicole Krauss
• Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
  Jamie Ford
• How to Read the Air
  Dinaw Mengestu
• I Am the Messenger
  Markus Zusak
• I, Fatty
  Jerry Stahl
• In the Service of the King
  Naomi Novik
• In the Shadow of the Banyan
  Vaddey Ratner
• The Invisibles
  Hugh Sheehey

• Jesse James and the Civil War in Missouri
  Robert Dyer
• Juno’s Daughters
  Lise Saffran
• The Kite Runner
  Khaled Hossenini
• The Koran
• The Language of Flowers
  Vanessa Diffenbaugh
• The Last Kind Words
  Tom Piccirilli
• Light Between Oceans
  M.L. Stedman
• The Marriage Plot
  Jeffrey Eugenides
• May the Road Rise Up to Meet You
  Peter Troy
• Memoirs
  Pablo Neruda
• Mercury 13
  Martha Ackmann
• Middlesex
  Jeffrey Eugenides
• Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War
  Tony Horwitz
• Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace
  Kate Summerscale
• Neicy
  Akasha Hull
• Never Say Die
  Susan Jacoby
• Neverwhere
  Neil Gaiman
• New Moon
  Stephenie Meyer
• Night Circus
  Erin Morgenstern
• Not so Dolce Vita: Reflections in a Read Convertible
  Julia Falkner-Tompkins
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma
  Michael Pollan
• The Other Wes Moore
  Wes Moore
• Paper Angels: A Novel
  Jimmy Wayne
• Paper Towns
  John Green
• The People of the Book
  Geraldine Brooks
• Perfect Chemistry
  Simone Elkes
• A Place in Time
  Wendell Berry
• The Poisonwood Bible
  Barbara Kingsolver
• Polio: an American Story
  David Oshinsky
• The Postmistress
  Sarah Blake
• A Prayer for Owen Meany
  John Irving
• The Presidents Club
  Nancy Gibbs & Michael Duffy
• Pulphead
  John Jeremiah Sullivan
• The Reading Promise
  Alice Ozma
• Ready Player One
  Ernest Cline
• The Road
  Cormac McCarthy
• Saints at the River
  Ron Rash
• Say You’re One of Them
  Uwem Akpan
• The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain
  Barbara Strauch
• Shame the Devil
  Debra Brenegan
• Silent Spring
  Rachel Carson
• Slant of Light
  Steve Wiegenstein
• The Snake Eaters
  Owen West
• The Snow Child
  Eowyn Ivey
• Start Something That Matters
  Blake Mycoskie
• Still Alice
  Lisa Genova
• Story of Charlotte’s Web: E. B. White’s Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic
  Michael Sims
• The Stranger (L’Etranger)
  Albert Camus
• The Street of a Thousand Blossoms
  Gail Tsukiyama
• Teen Titans
  Scott Lobdell
• Tell the Wolves I’m Home
  Carol Brunt
• Thorn
  Intisar Khanani
• The Tiger’s Wife
  Obreht, Téa
• Torch
  Cheryl Strayed
• Tropic of Cancer
  Henry Miller
• The Turtle Catcher
  Nicole Lea Helget
• Twilight
  Stephenie Meyer
• Unbroken
  Laura Hillenbrand
• Watchman’s Rattle
  Rebecca Costa
• What is the What?
  Dave Eggers
• When Women Were Birds
  Terry Tempest-Williams
• Why We Make Mistakes
  Joseph T. Hallinan
• Winter’s Tale
  Mark Helprin
• Year of Wonders
  Geraldine Brooks
• Zeitoun
  Dave Eggers

Hey, y’all! Spring has FINALLY arrived, and this is the perfect time of year for a Mid-Missouri day trip. Get out your light jacket and some good walking shoes and head to one of these outdoor destinations not far from our own backyard!

Foremost Dairy Center
Located just 6.5 miles west of Columbia off old Highway 40 is the University of Missouri’s research and teaching dairy farm. You can arrange for a tour of the facility, which includes plenty of hands-on fun. You might see a baby calf, and you just might get to help milk its mama! You’ll also get to learn how the milk goes from the cows to the bottle factory to your dinner table. Visiting a working dairy farm is a great adventure for young and old alike. To arrange a tour, visit their  website.

Dairy Farm Lake No. 1
Located next to the Foremost Dairy Center is Dairy Farm Lake No. 1, owned and maintained by the University of Missouri. Take the family (or escape by yourself!) for a day of fishing, canoeing or bird watching. The lake is 15 acres and has boat access. Don’t forget to purchase a fishing license if you are going to fish. You can buy a permit online through the Missouri Department of Conservation’s website. The MDC also has a handy online tool for finding other public fishing areas in Missouri.

Warm Springs Ranch
How about heading just farther west and visiting those beautiful ponies before they become the full-grown Clydesdales you see at Grant’s Farm in St. Louis? Yes, these horses – over 100 of them – are born and trained right here in our own backyard. You can schedule a tour through the Warm Springs Ranch website or call them at 1-888-WS-CLYDE. (Note: there is a fee for touring the ranch.)

Get outdoors while the weather is nice. Then, if you are feeling inspired to learn and explore some more, check out our Travel subject guide, or come to the library and get some good books on dairy farms, fishing or horses. We also have Missouri travel guidebooks aplenty, so get day-trippin’!

Why I checked it out: This book was introduced to me through my wonderful book club.

Why I liked it: This book is one of those rare gems in which you want to be friends with all the characters (not just the three main characters, but also parents, school staff, etc.). The clever narration is delivered through school papers, e-mails, diary entries, instant messages and class notes. While I was skeptical of the format at first, I soon eagerly followed the three main characters journeys through high school. If you want an intelligent and fun read that covers a variety of seemingly unconnected topics such as love, identity, sign language, high school divas, baseball, Mary Poppins and more, then read this book.

Three words that describe this book: heartwarming, romantic, hilarious.

Similar books include: “Seth Baumgartner’s Love Manifesto” by Eric Luper and “Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares” by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

May 22: “Buck” 6:30 p.m. at Columbia Public Library, free. (via)
May 22: ”Titicut Follies” 6:30 p.m. at Ragtag. (via)

We recently added “They Call It Myanmar” to the DBRL collection. The film currently has a rating of 100% from critics at Rotten Tomatoes. Here’s a synopsis from our catalog:

Shot clandestinely over three years by best-selling novelist and filmmaker Robert H. Lieberman, this film with its stunning footage provides an astonishing and intimate look inside what has been one of the most isolated countries on the planet With an exclusive perspective provided by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, this film brings a human dimension to a country that remains a mystery to much of the world.

Check out the film trailer or the official film site for more info.

My daughter and I learned how to bike in the summer of 1984. She was 7 and I was 32, so I learned first, and then I spent another month pushing her bike and catching her (and her bike) when she lost her balance. My quick biking progress made me sure of my athletic abilities, and despite the fact that I didn’t do any biking between that summer and the time I moved to Columbia in the summer of 1991, I began my new American life by buying a used bike and riding along the MKT trail.

I did a lot of walking, too: for one thing, I never drove a car in my hometown Moscow, Russia, so passing a driver’s exam with very little driving practice – and my broken English – was extremely difficult. Well, it would have been difficult had I actually attempted to listen to my examiner. Instead, I somehow persuaded him that it was not my English that mattered, but my driving ability, so if he just showed me which way to turn, I would be fine. Amazingly, he did just that, and I passed my driver exam on the first try (little did he know that even today I have problems distinguishing right from left ).

In any case, between biking and walking I got myself in pretty good shape, and I even began passing some people on the trail. I did so well that when I began dating my American husband-to-be, the very first time we biked together, I quickly left him behind in the dust. Not for long, mind you, just for five minutes or so. Still, those five minutes impressed him so much that he quickly decided to marry me, and we soon found ourselves biking together along Katy Trail.

I was already working at the library then, so I had a library copy of Brett Dufur’s “The Complete Katy Trail Guidebook,” and, for a while, we spent every weekend biking a different stretch of the trail – from Rocheport to Weldon Spring. This boosted my self-esteem even more, so when one summer we drove to Colorado, I talked my husband into taking our bikes with us and doing some mountain biking there. “How hard can that be?” I said to my husband when he raised objections. Well, I was right. It wasn’t hard. It was absolutely terrifying! Because during those three minutes I spent bouncing on rough mountain terrain before plunging to what could’ve been my imminent death, I felt like I was riding a wild mustang! (Not that I ever rode one, mind you, but it must be very similar, I’m sure of it!)

Anyway, after my mountain fiasco, we decided to stick to the Katy trail, especially to the part described in another of Brett Dufur’s books – “Exploring Missouri Wine Country.”
From Marthasville to Defiance, the Katy Trail runs very close to several Missouri wineries (not to mention Rocheport and Hermann!), so one can bike along the trail and stop for wine tasting, too .

Of course, wine tasting is not the main reason for bicycling. Many people choose to do it to get around town and even go to work – including some of my colleagues. In fact, during the time I’ve lived in Columbia, bicycling has been gaining popularity, and from what I hear, this has been happening in other U.S. towns, too, not to mention abroad. Have you ever been to Amsterdam? There more bikes there than cars, and when you cross the road, you must watch for bikes more attentively than for cars!

Going back to Columbia, the city’s 12th annual Bike, Walk and Wheel Week is upon us. So, let us join its challenge in becoming more active, less sedentary and more philosophical. After all,

“Life is like riding a bicycle – in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
~ Albert Einstein

With the end of the school year fast approaching, I wanted to share all the ways the library helps you stay connected to the books and services you love most. All you need is an internet connection, an email address and a library card.

Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/YourDBRL.

Download an eBook or audiobook.
Get the most popular teen titles on your iPod Touch, iPhone, Android, Nook, Kindle, or other device. Check out our Quick Start Guides or watch our online video tutorials to get started.

Submit a book rave or rant.
We love to hear about what teens are reading! Using this form, share your thoughts on the the books you love… and loathe. Select reviews will be highlighted on DBRLTeen.

Subscribe to our teen book eNewsletter.
Get a monthly email newsletter focusing on the most popular new releases in young adult fiction.

Join an online book club.
Each weekday you will receive successive five-minute selections from the beginning of a current teen book. By the end of the week, you’ll have read 2-3 chapters.

Register for our monthly teen program update.
Receive an email each month with a listing of our upcoming programs like writing workshops, book giveaways, art contests and teen gaming nights.

Sign up for DBRLTeen’s blog updates.
Get library program reminders, contest announcements, as well as book reviews and recommendations delivered directly to your inbox.

We recently added “Side by Side” to the DBRL collection. This film currently has a rating of 95% from critics at Rotten Tomatoes.  Here’s a synopsis from our catalog:

Join Keanu Reeves on a tour of the past and the future of filmmaking in Side by side. Since the invention of cinema, the standard format for recording moving images has been film. Over the past two decades, a new form of digital filmmaking has emerged, creating a groundbreaking evolution in the medium. Reeves explores the development of cinema and the impact of digital filmmaking via in-depth interviews with Hollywood masters.

Check out the film trailer or the official film site for more info.

Welcome to the first installment of THE GENTLEMAN RECOMMENDS. This series is intended to get people (especially gentlemen) excited about the books/authors/eating-contests I’m excited about. I’m an ideal person to represent and recommend things to gentlemen and I’ll prove it: in the last hour alone I’ve: 1) removed my trousers and draped them over a puddle so that a particularly well-coiffed golden retriever could avoid soiling her paws, 2) not sneezed into anyone’s face and 3) responded with the gentlemanly phrase “No, thank you” when asked to please put some pants on. Credentials established.

I can think of no better inaugural recommendation than pizza, but, after that, I think George Saunders is pretty spiffy. Not only is he a Great Writer, but reading everything about the fellow I could find convinced me he’s one of this world’s premier gentlemen. Mr. Saunders’ short stories have been sending readers raving since 1996 with the publication of “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline,” but this year the adoration has skyrocketed, beginning in January with a lengthy profile published in some magazine claiming that Saunders has written the best book you’ll read this year and culminating in May with a much briefer, if more prestigious, post from what may very well be the greatest blog in the world.

Readers love George Saunders because he slakes our thirst for stories in which sword-wielding tortilla chips decapitate the elderly or the corpse of a previously chaste aunt reanimates and advises her nephew that he should be showing more skin at his stripper-waiter job because that’s how you make the big bucks. But he isn’t loved just because he’s a master of  stories that make curmudgeons’ eyes roll when they hear a terribly reductive description of them. He does what great writers do: write with huge-hearted empathy and humor about toe-less barbers or theme park exhibits or dystopian-reality-show contestants or tortilla chips, and he does so in voices that describe their perspectives perfectly.

If you’re more in the mood for nonfiction, Saunders writes essays that will make you chuckle and maybe improve your person. His collection, The Braindead Megaphone, is hard to put down and full of beautifully rendered wisdom like the lines that close the profile linked above and which I will reprint here because they should be reprinted everywhere:

“Don’t be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and then open up some more, until the day you die, world without end, amen.”

So, after you read some George Saunders and try some pizza, I hope you’ll join the pants-loving cashier at my local gas store in attesting: I’m the perfect gentleman to recommend stuff, and, also, I smell nice.

Welcome to the first installment of THE GENTLEMAN RECOMMENDS. This series is intended to get people (especially gentlemen) excited about the books/authors/eating-contests I’m excited about. I’m an ideal person to represent and recommend things to gentlemen and I’ll prove it: in the last hour alone I’ve: 1) removed my trousers and draped them over a puddle so that a particularly well-coiffed golden retriever could avoid soiling her paws, 2) not sneezed into anyone’s face and 3) responded with the gentlemanly phrase “No, thank you” when asked to please put some pants on. Credentials established.

I can think of no better inaugural recommendation than pizza, but, after that, I think George Saunders is pretty spiffy. Not only is he a Great Writer, but reading everything about the fellow I could find convinced me he’s one of this world’s premier gentlemen. Mr. Saunders’ short stories have been sending readers raving since 1996 with the publication of “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline,” but this year the adoration has skyrocketed, beginning in January with a lengthy profile published in some magazine claiming that Saunders has written the best book you’ll read this year and culminating in May with a much briefer, if more prestigious, post from what may very well be the greatest blog in the world.

Readers love George Saunders because he slakes our thirst for stories in which sword-wielding tortilla chips decapitate the elderly or the corpse of a previously chaste aunt reanimates and advises her nephew that he should be showing more skin at his stripper-waiter job because that’s how you make the big bucks. But he isn’t loved just because he’s a master of  stories that make curmudgeons’ eyes roll when they hear a terribly reductive description of them. He does what great writers do: write with huge-hearted empathy and humor about toe-less barbers or theme park exhibits or dystopian-reality-show contestants or tortilla chips, and he does so in voices that describe their perspectives perfectly.

If you’re more in the mood for nonfiction, Saunders writes essays that will make you chuckle and maybe improve your person. His collection, The Braindead Megaphone, is hard to put down and full of beautifully rendered wisdom like the lines that close the profile linked above and which I will reprint here because they should be reprinted everywhere:

“Don’t be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and then open up some more, until the day you die, world without end, amen.”

So, after you read some George Saunders and try some pizza, I hope you’ll join the pants-loving cashier at my local gas store in attesting: I’m the perfect gentleman to recommend stuff, and, also, I smell nice.

2013 Callaway Poetry Winners

Thanks to all the young poets who submitted entries in the 2013 Callaway County Youth Poetry Contest, sponsored by the Callaway County Public Library and the Auxvasse Creative Arts Program. These organizations honored the winners of the contest on Tuesday, April 25 at the Callaway County Public Library in Fulton. This year’s contest was judged by Anne-Marie Thompson, an instructor in the English Department at Westminster College. Garett Ballard, Beth Barnhart, Scott Strough and Bethany Smart were among those teens recognized for their exemplary work.

“Dreams” by Garett Ballard (1st place)

I am from the night of jazz swaying, blues playing
Nights in Louisiana.
I am from the world of vibrant colors and streaks of paint
Splashed across the canvas
I am from the twirls and dances of the dancer’s swirls
Around the stage
I am from long nights rehearsing my lines and character
During long hours of the day
I am from the runs tacked on as the ball flies from
The diamond
I am from the fancy parties and the penthouse
Bathing in my suite
I am from the years of educating and teaching
Young children of reading and math
I am from the laughter erupting from the people
In the crowd, joke by joke
Yes, I am from the goals and dreams made of nothing from
The men and women before me
Yes, I am from those nights of music, art, dance
Drama, sports, riches, teaching, comedy,
And the dreams of men and women, girl and boy
Anyone, everyone.

“I Am From” by Beth Barnhart (2nd place)

I am from Clint and Wendy, Clayton and Shirley, Don and Janice.
I am from the center of the great red, white and blue, where people are free, the weather often varies, and life is good.
I am from blacktop pavement, busy streets, traffic lights and the roar of passing vehicles.
I am from love, goals, kindness and morals, where hard work, determination and undying respect is as important as breathing.
I am from Saturday morning cartoons and a time where reality shows weren’t a trend and the lives of celebrities weren’t a part of life.
I am from long car rides as music radiates from the stereos, with your cares and worries blowing in the warm summer wind.
I am from laughter, hugs and smiles with a best friend who knows what you’re thinking before you even really know yourself.
I am from a special place and time that I am lucky to call all my own. It could never be duplicated nor imitated.

“Where I Am From” by Scott Strough (3rd place)

I am from the woods,
filled with natural life.
I am from the summer,
a kid’s favorite companion.
I am from freedom,
freedom to run and to play.
I am from the hay fields,
where the sun and dust dominates.

I come from a town where squirrels abound,
and the geese feel at home.
I come from a town,
a town were the people are friendly.
I come from a town where friends are made,
and where friends are friends for life.
I come from a town,
a town where families love and prosper.

I live in a world full of hate,
where despair seems king.
I live in a world where home is an idea.
an idea of days gone by.
I live in a world dominated by politics,
instead of dominated by common sense.
I live in a world where people stress about the lives of celebrities,
more than they stress about their won shortcomings.

I am from a family,
a family I love dearly.
I am from a passion,
a passion for doing what is right.
I am from an understanding,
an understanding of happiness and justice.
I am from a hope,
a hope that good will once again prevail.

“I don’t need easy; I just need possible!” by Bethany Smart (honorable mention)

I am from John and Corrine, Richard and Helen, and Donald and Sharon.
From the rivers, hills, valleys, and towns in the middle-of-no-where-my-GPS-can’t-locate-you Missouri.
From farmers and hard workers where you have to give it all, from herds of cattle that are chocolates in a creamy vanilla snow, from scorching hot days where 98degrees is considered (and called) “a cold front.”
I am from a place where you know you’re in the sticks if entertainment is considered to be watching the highway trucks paint the neon gold median stripes and lines on the road, from another form of entertainment of high school football games where we scream and jump out of our seats at ever touchdown to the final seconds of that basketball game to hear that sweet “swish!” of a perfect nothing-but-net. We put the “determine” in “determination.”
I am from a family of dedication and hard-workers where you take pride in what you do, from where it’s not 100%, but 120% that you give.
I am from a motto that sums me up in 8 simple words, “I don’t need easy; I just need possible!”
I am from a family who sticks together through thick and thin; perseverance is our middle name, from a family of whose get-togethers are as natural as the sun rising in the east; we are a close-knit family.
I am from a group of friends who are closer than 4 sisters could ever be.
I am from a place called home, where the sun sets and rises over clover-colored trees and casts every color in a Crayola box onto the crisp sky, from breathtaking beauty and laughs that occur each moment, or in simpler words, a place we call the country… home.

“The Time Machine“ by H. G. Wells is a classic example of speculative fiction and has led some sci-fi fans to call Wells the father of steampunk. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this fast-growing science fiction sub-genre, it is, in short, Victorian alternative history. (Books in this genre also typically contain a lot of clockwork, goggles, airships and advanced technologies based on outdated power sources.) I’d say a scientist who builds a coal-powered bronze machine to fling himself from the 19th century to the year 802,701 A.D. is pretty alternative! This steampunk precursor is a great first step if you are thinking about exploring the genre; it’s short, but it reveals the potential of books written in this vein.

“The Time Machine“ centers around a genius on a quest for answers about the future of mankind. He is a man possessed by his desire to be a legend in his own time, to boldly go where no man has dared to go before, but he winds up experiencing much more than he bargained for.

H. G. Wells is a great plot writer. Every chapter holds something new to develop the characters further and to thrust the reader deeper into the tale of earth’s possible future. From the eerily calm story of the Eloi people to the lurking dangers of the unseen and hungry under-worlders, the Morlocks, Wells’ tale will keep you fascinated with the sickening possibilities of where humanity may be headed.

I highly recommend the album “This Delicate Thing We’ve Made” by Darren Hayes as background music for your journey. You may know Hayes from his pop career in the ’90s as front man for Savage Garden. In this album, Hayes explores the time machine as a concept to tell the story of his jaded past, using divine lyrics and super-sonic tones.

“The Time Machine“ by H. G. Wells is a classic example of speculative fiction and has led some sci-fi fans to call Wells the father of steampunk. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this fast-growing science fiction sub-genre, it is, in short, Victorian alternative history. (Books in this genre also typically contain a lot of clockwork, goggles, airships and advanced technologies based on outdated power sources.) I’d say a scientist who builds a coal-powered bronze machine to fling himself from the 19th century to the year 802,701 A.D. is pretty alternative! This steampunk precursor is a great first step if you are thinking about exploring the genre; it’s short, but it reveals the potential of books written in this vein.

“The Time Machine“ centers around a genius on a quest for answers about the future of mankind. He is a man possessed by his desire to be a legend in his own time, to boldly go where no man has dared to go before, but he winds up experiencing much more than he bargained for.

H. G. Wells is a great plot writer. Every chapter holds something new to develop the characters further and to thrust the reader deeper into the tale of earth’s possible future. From the eerily calm story of the Eloi people to the lurking dangers of the unseen and hungry under-worlders, the Morlocks, Wells’ tale will keep you fascinated with the sickening possibilities of where humanity may be headed.

I highly recommend the album “This Delicate Thing We’ve Made” by Darren Hayes as background music for your journey. You may know Hayes from his pop career in the ’90s as front man for Savage Garden. In this album, Hayes explores the time machine as a concept to tell the story of his jaded past, using divine lyrics and super-sonic tones.

Why I liked it: ”Abandon” was very loosely based on the Greek myth of Persephone which I’ve always found interesting. Also, the main character, Pierce Oliviera, was very likeable. Despite her dad being super-rich, she didn’t act spoiled, and her sense of humor helped her get through the very weird things that happened after her near-death experience.

What I didn’t like: The plot jumps around a lot, and sometimes I like that, but in this book it was a little too much. The narrator kept referring to things which hadn’t been explained yet, and that frustrating. Now that the scene is set, I hope this will happen less in the remaining books of the “Abandon” trilogy.

Three words that describe this book: complicated, foreboding, funny.

Similar books include: “Paranormalcy“ by Kiersten White, “Dead Beautiful“ by Yvonne Woon and “Starcrossed“ by Josephine Angelini.

May 13:  “The Waiting Room” 5:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m. Forum 8. (via)
May 14: “Scout’s Honor” 6:00 p.m. at Ragtag. (via)
May 15: “Town Bloody Hall” 6:30 p.m. at Ragtag. (via)