A random find on a library shelf can draw you in and show you wonders, or it can send you down an incredible research path. In this instance, I learned just how gullible people can be.
While researching foodways of Missouri, I came across Kimberly Harper’s book “Men of No Reputation: Robert Boatright, the Buckfoot Gang, and the Fleecing of the Middle West.” The author is an editor at the Missouri Historical Review at the State Historical Society of Missouri. Working primarily in Jasper County and extending throughout the midwest, Robert Boatright is considered one of the greatest confidence men of the early 20th century. He and the Buckfoot Gang, working with a local bank and an influential Democratic leader, fleeced possibly millions of dollars from their victims in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Harper says, “While it would be easy to romanticize their exploits, Boatright and Mabray were criminals who wrecked people’s lives. They capitalized on technological innovations – the railroad, the telegraph, the telephone — to further their schemes.” Continue reading “Literary Links: Con Men, Cheats and Crooks”
“The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught In Between,” by Michael Dobbs will be the subject of the March First Thursday Book Discussion. This event is part of the programming related to “Americans and the Holocaust,” a traveling exhibition that examines the motives, pressures and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war and genocide in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. This exhibit is an educational initiative of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association and will be on display at the Columbia Public Library from February 9 through March 16.
Dobbs’ account of Jewish families’ desperate efforts to leave Germany and the American response is chilling and accurate. He deftly teases apart the strands of American politics, culture and current events, explaining not only what actions were taken (or not taken) by the U.S. government and citizens, but also the strategies and arguments leading up to them. That analysis is juxtaposed with a detailed account of the Jewish residents’ of the German town of Kippenheim attempts to flee the Nazi regime, as well as a recounting of the escalation of violence against them.
Artfully including primary sources and narratives, Dobbs brings life to the horrifying bind German Jews faced. On the one side was rapidly escalating persecution and terror, on the other a nearly impassible bureaucratic maze. From a perspective that condemns the Holocaust, Dobbs objectively analyzes the U.S. response, what happened and why, leaving readers to make their own judgments on the history and its implications for today.
Join us to share your thoughts on the book and hear from other community members on Thursday, March 5 at noon in the Quiet Reading Room.
The Holocaust was so horrible, why would we ever want to read a story about it? Why, in fact would we want to read about any genocide? There are so many valid answers to that question.
I was privileged to be able to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial and Museum when I was in my twenties, which allowed me to imagine being in the shoes of those who passed through that nightmare. But not everyone has that luxury.
At Dachau, there’s a startling memorial sculpture that depicts the stacked bodies of prisoners as designed by Jewish artist Nandor Glid, who was persecuted by the Nazis in his home country of Yugoslavia. A path leads to a tomb containing the ashes of a prisoner with the inscription, “Never Again.” When I was there, I felt those words deep in my being. Continue reading “Literary Links: The Holocaust and Other Genocides in Fiction”
Below I’m highlighting some nonfiction books coming out in February. 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
“Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives” by Daisy Fancourt (Feb 3)
From cradle to grave, engaging in the arts has remarkable effects on our health and well-being. Music supports the architectural development of children’s brains. Artistic hobbies help our brains to stay resilient against dementia. Dance and magic tricks build new neural pathways for people with brain injuries. Arts and music act just like drugs to decrease depression, stress and pain, reducing our dependence on medication. Going to live music events, museums, exhibitions, and the theater decreases our risk of future loneliness and frailty. Engaging in the arts improves the functioning of every major organ system in the body, even helping us to live longer. This isn’t sensationalism, it’s science: the results of decades of studies gathering data from neuroimaging, molecular biomarkers, wearable sensors, cognitive assessments, and electronic health records. From professor Daisy Fancourt, an award-winning scientist and science communicator and director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Centre for Arts and Health, this book will fundamentally change the way you value and engage with the arts in your daily life and give you the tools to optimize how, when, and what arts you engage in to achieve your health goals. The arts are not a luxury in our lives. They are essential. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: February 2026”
Some months I approach reading as a challenge or a project, hoping to end up somewhere new; to have made sense of something previously unintelligible to me. But in January my readings and viewings were more about settling the mind than stretching it. I gravitated toward rhythmic, reflective works that felt a bit like listening to a friend (warm, maybe a bit repetitive, with a feeling of goodwill at the core).
Continue reading “Recommendations for and From the Heart: Thich Nhat Hanh, Pema Chödrön and Other Teachers ♥️”
“Victorian Treasures: An Album and Historical Guide for Collectors” has a unique format takes curious readers on a tour through an upper-class Victorian home. Each page features furniture, art, and objects of daily life — some common, some truly one-of-a-kind, but each with a story to tell.
I love picking up temporary coffee table books at the library, and this one is certainly a hidden gem! If you’re a collector or a thrifter like me, you’ll love gaining context for your next trip to the antique mall and finding new treasures to add to your wish list.
Three words that describe this book: antiques, Victorian, detailed
You might want to pick this book up if: You love getting lost in an antique store.
-Laura
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year.
The weather might be chilly, but it’s definitely heating up at the boy (and girl!) aquarium. Hockey romances aren’t new, but with the runaway success of “Heated Rivalry” and the book series the show is based on, they are definitely a hot topic. So pick up a winter sport romance to warm your heart during these cold months!
“Winging It” by Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James
“Hockey Ever After” series #1
This season isn’t going the way Dante thought it would. Gabe’s sexuality doesn’t faze him, but his own does. And he doesn’t mean to fall in love with the guy. Dante’s always been a “what you see is what you get” kind of guy, and having to hide his attraction to Gabe sucks. But so does losing, and his teammate needs him, so he puts in the effort to snap Gabe out of his funk. Getting involved with a teammate is a bad idea, but Dante is shameless, funny, and brilliant at hockey. Unfortunately, Gabe struggles to share part of himself that he’s hidden for years, and Dante chafes at hiding their relationship. Can they find their footing before the ice slips out from under them?
Continue reading “Warm Up with a Hockey Romance”
portrait
noun
por·trait ˈpȯr-trət -ˌtrāt
1: picture
especially : a pictorial representation of a person usually showing the face
2: a sculptured figure : bust
3: a graphic portrayal in words
From the “Merriam-Webster Dictionary”
There are different kinds of portraits: there are realistic representations painted on canvases, photographs collected in albums and descriptions written in books; some portraits are of famous people and some are of complete strangers. Here is a delightful conglomeration. Included are some interviews and various other ways to get a glimpse at who a person is, or was, with a special focus on relative unknowns. Continue reading “Portraits of Humans”
“How to Think About AI,” by Richard Susskind will be the subject of the February First Thursday book discussion, and it’s not a moment too soon.
Maybe, if you are a literal hermit, as in living by yourself in a cave or some other hermitage, you can avoid AI seeping into your life — for the rest of us AI is here and it’s not going away. Even if you avoid using it personally, you’re almost certainly only one degree removed from its use. Continue reading “February First Thursday Book Discussion: “How to Think About AI””
“I keep putting off beginning this journal because the things I must write, must admit by writing them, are hard, even threatening to me,” Alice Walker wrote on July 8, 1977. “But, to begin.”
This confession came from a courageous young woman, already an established writer and activist. Yet putting pen to paper still stirred fear in Walker, a diarist familiar with that strange truth — that the hardest conversations to start are often the ones within ourselves.
As you begin the journey through this new year, I hope the conversation between your heart and the page feels lively, honest and hopeful. Here are seven titles exploring the tender art and practice of journaling.
Continue reading “Literary Links: Journals”
While researching foodways of Missouri, I came across Kimberly Harper’s book “Men of No Reputation: Robert Boatright, the Buckfoot Gang, and the Fleecing of the Middle West.” The author is an editor at the Missouri Historical Review at the State Historical Society of Missouri. Working primarily in Jasper County and extending throughout the midwest, Robert Boatright is considered one of the greatest confidence men of the early 20th century. He and the Buckfoot Gang, working with a local bank and an influential Democratic leader, fleeced possibly millions of dollars from their victims in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Harper says, “While it would be easy to romanticize their exploits, Boatright and Mabray were criminals who wrecked people’s lives. They capitalized on technological innovations – the railroad, the telegraph, the telephone — to further their schemes.” Continue reading “Literary Links: Con Men, Cheats and Crooks”
