This September, our community will hit the road with a group of resilient and resourceful “houseless” Americans traveling from one temporary job to another to make ends meet. “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century,” a work of immersive journalism by Jessica Bruder, beat out the novel “Sourdough” by Robin Sloan to be named this year’s One Read title.
Before the public vote, a panel of community members considered ten finalist books. This year’s titles sharply reflect current social consciousness and the political issues we are grappling with both locally and nationally.
One issue dominating news headlines is immigration. Lauren Markham’s “The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life” makes intimate and immediate the difficulties of undocumented minors in the Unites States by telling the story of twin brothers who left El Salvador to escape deadly gang violence. The novel “The House of Broken Angels” by Luis Alberto Urrea reflects the immigrant experience with a vibrant family drama. The extended family of patriarch Big Angel de la Cruz gathers in San Diego to mourn the passing of his mother and celebrate one last birthday before Big Angel succumbs to cancer. Sprawling and bittersweet, the story portrays the difficulties of living between cultures and explores a wide range of issues confronted by many American families, including PTSD, opioid addiction, mortality and the glorious mess love can leave in its wake. Continue reading “Literary Links: One Read Finalists 2019”
Cast 75 sts onto size 2 needle; row 1: p1, *k2, p1: repeat from * to end of row; row 2: p1, *p2, k1: repeat from * to end of row; repeat rows 1 and 2 until work measures 10”, bind off, weave in ends.
Are these words, letters, numbers and symbols cryptic to you? Well, if you take up knitting, you’ll be able to decode this set of instructions and turn them into a tangible thing, in this case a pretty dishcloth—a simple and gratifyingly quick project for a new knitter.
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
June 7th is National Donut Day and what better way to celebrate than with your favorite frosted, jellied, powdered or glazed confection! One of my favorite memories as a kid was our weekly grocery shopping ritual. Every Saturday, my mom, sister and I would head to the grocery store. After the groceries were bought and the car was loaded up, we would walk next door to the stand-alone bakery and pick out a dozen donuts to bring back to the house. It was a small, family-owned bakery full of glass cases filled with delicious donuts, perfect pastries, and cakes for all occasions. I have always loved baking and seeing those perfect donuts all lined up in neat rows always delighted me.
If you are a donut enthusiast like myself, there are many ways that you can show your appreciation on National Donut Day. Perhaps you want to dust off your baking skills and make your own donuts. If you are looking for inspiration, there are a number of books you can check out to explore new donut recipes. “Donuts” by Elinor Klivans is a good place to start. This book covers the basics with recipes for glazed, jelly-filled, and sprinkled donuts. Or you could also try “Doughnuts: 90 Simple and Delicious Recipes to Make at Home” by Lara Ferroni which includes a variety of donut recipes like rainbow cake, maple-bacon bars, red velvet, and classics like old-fashioned sour cream. Continue reading “National Donut Day!”
With the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission coming up in July, I thought I’d highlight some books about Apollo 11 released this month. Visit our catalog for a list of additional titles being released this month.
“One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon” by Charles Fishman
President John F. Kennedy astonished the world on May 25, 1961, when he announced to Congress that the United States should land a man on the Moon by 1970. No group was more surprised than the scientists and engineers at NASA, who suddenly had less than a decade to invent space travel. When Kennedy announced that goal, no one knew how to navigate to the Moon. No one knew how to build a rocket big enough to reach the Moon, or how to build a computer small enough (and powerful enough) to fly a spaceship there. Charles Fishman introduces readers to the men and women who had to solve 10,000 problems before astronauts could reach the Moon. From the research labs of MIT, where the eccentric and legendary pioneer Charles Draper created the tools to fly the Apollo spaceships, to the factories where dozens of women sewed spacesuits, parachutes and even computer hardware by hand, Fishman captures the exceptional feats of these ordinary Americans. “One Giant Leap” is the captivating story of men and women charged with changing the world as we knew it. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: June 2019”
Why I Checked It Out: On a recent trip, I had the chance to drive through the Colorado mountains during the Winter. My experience went quite smoothly, but it was certainly easy to imagine the horror of being isolated in such a remote place during a blinding snowstorm. So when I came across “No Exit,” which has this very premise I had to check it out.
What It’s About: During an impromptu trip home to visit her dying mother, a young woman named Darby finds herself stranded at a remote highway rest stop during a blizzard in the Colorado mountains where she makes a horrific discovery — a young child is being held in a cage inside a van. She doesn’t know which of her fellow stranded travelers is the owner of the van, but she knows she must act. What follows are several tense hours as she attempts to save the child, even though she knows they are ultimately trapped with a very dangerous person.Continue reading “Staff Book Review: No Exit by Taylor Adams”
Posted on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 by Reading Addict
RCA Records [Public domain]There is a finite set of books that can fit this task because there are only so many awards given in a year. Hopefully this post will help to expand on some that you may have already seen. With so many people trying to expand their reading with audio books, I thought I would focus on the Audie Awards which are granted for outstanding audio books and spoken word entertainment by the Audio Publishers Association. Not all of these books won the 2018 Audie Award but if they didn’t then they also won another award within 2018.
Imagine you go to school one morning to go on a field trip. Suddenly, you and your classmates wake up on an island. Each of you has an ominous metal collar around your neck. You are told you have to fight each other until only one of you is left alive. If you all refuse to kill each other those collars will start exploding. Worst day of school ever?
That is the premise of “Battle Royal” by Koushun Takami. This violent, action-packed novel tinged with teen angst was a controversial and unexpected hit in Japan in 1999. It was even rejected in the final round of the 1997 Japan Horror Fiction Awards because of its controversial content. The book was later adapted into an equally controversial and commercially successful film in 2000. The controversy is understandable, as the subject matter can feel a bit exploitative. The story is a combination of fast-paced thriller and horror story, but there is a dystopian backdrop that also makes it a bit of an allegory, albeit one told with the subtlety of a hammer. Continue reading “Know Your Dystopias: Battle Royale”
Coming home after a long day of work at the public library, many of us find ourselves still surrounded by stacks on stacks of books that comprise our prized personal collections. (While you’d think we library workers needn’t own much given our livelihoods depend on an institution of sharing, few of us could boast of such self-restraint.) Mine had grown increasingly unwieldy through my college years, so naturally I caught the Dewey Decimal bug soon after starting my job here, feeling compelled to inventory and rearrange my own mismatch shelves (and milk crates). While sorting the nonfiction into subject areas, I wondered whether my coworkers brought the same organizational rigor to their home libraries as when on duty, so I decided to ask. The short answer is a resounding “yes,” but each has developed an idiosyncratic system for keeping it all straight, or at least off the floor.
Between their responses and those of public figures in books like “My Ideal Bookshelf,” Alberto Manguel’s “The Library at Night” and Jacques Bonnet’s “Phantoms on the Bookshelves,” I’ve seen some enviable displays and accrued techniques galore. Some are on Rory Gilmore‘s level: books on the shelves, books in the dresser drawers, books stowed under the bed. Others have adopted systems analogous to the Marie Kondō method* of painstakingly housing only the most gratifying. Some proudly have no scheme at all. Regardless, these libraries can reveal a lot about their owners; they not only represent our interests but also show our habits in negotiating space, how we assign value and how those values intersect with our conspicuous designs. For Kathryn Schulz writing in The New Yorker, a photograph of her father’s “Stack” exudes the parts of him “that normally defy a camera” like his “exuberant, expansive mind” and “the comic, necessary, generous-hearted compromises of my parents’ marriage.” Leah Price puts it concisely in the introduction to “Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books”: “To expose a bookshelf is to compose a self.” Continue reading “Personal Libraries: Taking Our Work Home With Us”
Posted on Wednesday, May 22, 2019 by Decimal Diver
Scene from “Art and Craft”
Some artists use their work as a springboard for playing tricks on their audience. These artists might have varying motivations, but their shenanigans can offer insight into the nature of art and the human condition itself. Check out these docs about artist trickers:
It follows the story of Mark Landis, one of the most prolific art forgers in U.S. history. His impressive body of work spans thirty years, covering a wide range of painting styles and periods. Posing as a philanthropic donor, Landis has given away hundreds of works over the years to a staggering list of institutions across the United States. Continue reading “Tricks Of The Trade: Docs about Artist Tricksters”
Why should kids have all the fun? Summer Reading is for grown-ups, too! The Daniel Boone Regional Library is challenging adults to read three books, submit three book reviews and do seven fun, library-related activities. Complete the challenge, and beginning July 1, you’ll receive a prize. You’ll also be entered into a drawing for other fun rewards including a telescope or a book store gift card.
Why should kids have all the fun?