I’m not a shelver, but occasionally I get to do a bit of shelving or something similar. I like it. Some people don’t, and that’s okay. But I love the passage of books through my hands, books that I might not otherwise ever know.
Today’s finds include: “Jane’s Tank and Combat Vehicle Recognition Guide.” Who is Jane? I snapped a photo and sent it to my husband. It’s tempting to take this one home to him (he’s convalescing after a minor, but painful, surgery). I particularly admire the odd, tank-like size and shape of this one (especially compared to its neighbors), a short but thick spine and a long width, almost twice as wide as it’s tall. It’s well-loved, battered even. This book has been thumbed through many, many times, carried in school bags, and who knows what else. It specifically reminds me of a family friend of ours, who as a tween and teen (probably even still) eagerly devoured this sort of information — these might have been the only books he ever picked up.Continue reading “The Joys of Shelving”
It seems to be that time of year when we begin to think of clearing out our accumulated things, and that awful phrase “spring cleaning” enters my head. In lieu of cleaning out the garage, I chose to gather our leftover Crafternoon kits from previous months and have an “Available While They Last” January event. These kits will be available at the Columbia branch only on Friday, January 20. You may pick them up at the reference desk on the second floor. (Just a reminder that these kits are designed for adults and could have things unsafe for children, such as small beads and needles.)
Look for our next Crafternoon-To-Go Kit in February as we participate in the Winter Reading program!
The Daniel Boone Regional Library Winter Reading program runs January 16 through February 24 and is adopting the theme “Take Time To Take Care.” The National Day of Service, which takes place on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, is our inspiration. During this six-week period, we will partner with valuable providers of care in our community like the Food Bank of Central and Northeast Missouri, Serve, Inc., and many others. On January 16, we kick off with a food drive supporting food banks in our service area. One shelf-stable donation of food will enter you into a drawing to win a six-quart Instant Pot at any of our locations! The drawing for those winners will be held on January 31. Continue reading “The Winter Reading Program: Take Time To Take Care”
Posted on Wednesday, January 11, 2023 by patron reviewer
“Command and Control” tells the true story of a 1980 nuclear weapons incident in Damascus, Arkansas – during routine maintenance at a Titan II missile silo in Damascus, a technician dropped a socket wrench which led to a fire in the silo, and eventually an explosion. The book also splices in parts of nuclear history and the history of nuclear war, which eventually ties together into the story of Damascus. I liked it because it’s a subject I am interested in, and I liked the way that it all came together in the end, and gives you a really big picture of the subject, while focusing in on one specific incident.
Three words that describe this book: Nuclear, History, Tense
You might want to pick this book up if: You are interested in military history, or the history of nuclear war.
-Robbie
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading 2022. We will continue to share these throughout the year.
Posted on Monday, January 9, 2023 by patron reviewer
“Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania” is the true story of a large passenger ship on a trip across the Atlantic. In 1915, The Lusitania carried passengers from the US to England during the middle of World War I. The Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine, as she was completely without the protection of the Royal Navy. I really enjoyed this book because I like the history of submarine warfare, and I also liked all the details the author got into. I never knew anything about the Lusitania and I feel like by reading it that Larson was able to really let me know what it felt like to be on that ship, and start to understand the horror of its sinking.
Three words that describe this book: History, Tense, War
You might want to pick this book up if: You enjoy naval history, world war history, or anything taking place on the ocean with lots of details. Early submarine warfare is also described a lot.
-Robbie
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading 2022. We will continue to share these throughout the year.
I have long found birds to be fascinating creatures. I often find myself looking out the window and admiring murmurations of birds as they wheel through the sky. And I enjoy watching the birds that gather at the bird feeder along with my cats. In the last few years, there have been an abundance of books published about birds. Below are just a few that I would like to highlight. But before we dive in, you might be curious about the misspelling in the title of “Birbs” instead of “Birds.” I would direct you to this fantastic article by the National Audubon Society, “When Is a Bird a ‘Birb’? An Extremely Important Guide.” The basic rules, of course, are a bird must be small, round and cute to be considered a birb!
Let’s welcome in the new year with a few of the most notable adult fiction debut titles for January 2023, according to library journals. Oddly enough, this list ended up a bit on the dark side. But if you’re in the mood for a different kind of chill than the one in the air, or need something to counteract the sweetness of the holidays, give one of these a try. If you’re in the mood for something a little cheerier, there are a few happier options on this month’s list of debuts in our catalog.
A tenacious Māori detective, Hana Westerman juggles single motherhood, endemic prejudice, and the pressures of her career in Auckland CIB. Led to a crime scene by a mysterious video, she discovers a man ritualistically hanging in a secret room and a puzzling inward-curving inscription. Delving into the investigation after a second, apparently unrelated, death, she uncovers a chilling connection to an historic crime: 160 years before, during the brutal and bloody British colonization of New Zealand, a troop of colonial soldiers unjustly executed a Māori Chief.
Hana realizes that the murders are utu — the Māori tradition of rebalancing for the crime committed eight generations ago. There were six soldiers in the British troop, and since descendants of two of the soldiers have been killed, four more potential murders remain. Hana is thus hunting New Zealand’s first serial killer.
The pursuit soon becomes frighteningly personal, recalling the painful event, two decades before, when Hana, then a new cop, was part of a police team sent to end by force a land rights occupation by indigenous peoples on the same ancestral mountain where the Chief was killed, calling once more into question her loyalty to her roots. Worse still, a genealogical link to the British soldiers brings the case terrifyingly close to Hana’s own family.
New Year, new books! Below I’m highlighting some nonfiction books coming out in January. 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.
Top Picks
“Koala: A Natural History and an Uncertain Future” by Danielle Clode (Jan 17)
Koalas regularly appeared in Australian biologist Danielle Clode’s backyard, but it was only when a bushfire threatened that she truly paid them attention. She soon realized how much she had to learn about these complex and mysterious animals. In vivid, descriptive prose, Clode embarks on a delightful and surprising journey through evolutionary biology, natural history and ecology to understand where these enigmatic animals came from and what their future may hold. She begins her search with the fossils of ancient giant koalas, delving into why the modern koala has become the lone survivor of a once-diverse family of uniquely Australian marsupials. “Koala” investigates the remarkable physiology of these charismatic creatures. Born the size of tiny “jellybeans,” joeys face an uphill battle, from crawling into their mother’s pouch to being weaned onto a toxic diet of gum-tree leaves, the koalas’ single source of food. Clode explores the complex relationship and unexpected connections between this endearing species and humans. She explains how koalas are simultaneously threatened with extinction in some areas due to disease, climate change, and increasing wildfires, while overpopulating forests in other parts of the country. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: January 2023”
As someone who has attempted both novel writing and earning a spot on survival-based reality shows, a novel about a survival-based reality show gone wrong is certainly something a fiction writing AI would’ve eventually generated for me. Fortunately for literature, me, and the real human that wrote it, a real human wrote a novel about a survival-based reality show gone wrong. While I am inevitably rejected during the audition process as apparently everyone that hosts auditions finds it at best distasteful when the auditioner weeps upon being denied a snack break or a quick nap, and my novel submissions are generally returned with little more than a note asking how I managed to get so much marinara sauce on it, I am still pleased when other people succeed in these endeavors.
I’m currently pleased because I’m thinking about how successful Blair Braverman’s first novel, “Small Game,” is. Mara, an instructor for a school intended to let the wealthy cosplay as competent survivalists for a weekend, is approached to take part in a reality game show in which the winner gets a cash prize. The cash is enough to change her life, so she agrees. Another contestant is there to get famous, one to get the attention of an estranged daughter, another to get enough cash to follow his dreams, and one other is there to leave almost immediately once sensing that things are maybe not up to snuff with this production. Continue reading “The Gentleman Recommends: Blair Braverman”
