Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2023 by Whitley Abell
The world is better with you and me!
“All Together Now” is the theme of the Daniel Boone Regional Library’s 2023 Summer Reading program, and it’s all about kindness and togetherness.
Summer Reading is free and open to all ages — babies through adults — and participants can earn prizes for reading and completing activities! Get a leg up on your reading with these books celebrating friendship, teamwork and community. Continue reading “Literary Links: Summer Reading 2023”
Posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2023 by Karena
Do you love fiction tinged with melancholy? Mysterious, irresistible protagonists with rich inner lives? Stories that leave you with a feeling of stillness, and hope? Here are four pieces of fiction I’ve enjoyed this year. Maybe there’s something here for you!
I picked up “Who You Might Be“off the first floor New Books display. I was drawn to the cover’s soft blue cityscape. The illuminated windows in the foreground intrigued me — what little lives might be unfolding within those frames? In her debut novel, Leigh N. Gallagher weaves together a story of astonishing breadth and dimension. If you’re in it for the character development (the growth and redemption, along with the occasional fall from grace), this is the book for you. Continue reading “Four Fiction Recommendations”
Posted on Monday, May 8, 2023 by Reading Addict
Of course, I read “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad” in high school (do they still cover those these days?) and I even got through a few others like “Antigone,” but to be honest, I was not much of a fan. It was all about men doing manly things and often horrible things. The women were all witches or victims or passive wives and slaves. I didn’t find much in it that I could relate to.
Posted on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 by Decimal Diver
Carl Kremer is a Fulton, MO writer who has co-authored and finished a novel started by the late O.T. Harris called “The Professor and the Spies.” Harris, a retired banker from Fulton, began writing the novel in his 80’s, but after he died his friend Kremer helped finish the novel. The fictional book starts with a professor researching the security measures behind Winston Churchill’s 1946 Iron Curtain speech in Fulton, MO, with the narrative bouncing to various international locales featuring spies, drinking, romance, intrigue and dark secrets. Kremer is a retired William Woods University English professor who has written essays and short stories but this is his first published novel. He was kind enough to take the time to be interviewed via email. Continue reading “Q&A With Carl Kremer, Co-author of “The Professor and the Spies””
Posted on Monday, May 1, 2023 by Liz
Below I’m highlighting some nonfiction books coming out in May. 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.
“The Power of Trees: How Ancient Forests Can Save Us if We Let Them” by Peter Wohlleben, Jane Billinghurst (translator) (May 2)
An illuminating manifesto on ancient forests and how they adapt to climate change by passing their wisdom through generations, and why our future lies in protecting them. In his beloved book “The Hidden Life of Trees,” Peter Wohlleben revealed astonishing discoveries about the social networks of trees and how they communicate. Now, in “The Power of Trees,” he turns to their future, with a searing critique of forestry management, tree planting, and the exploitation of old growth forests. As human-caused climate change devastates the planet, forests play a critical role in keeping it habitable. While politicians and business leaders would have us believe that cutting down forests can be offset by mass tree planting, Wohlleben offers a many tree planting schemes lead to ecological disaster. Not only are these trees more susceptible to disease, flooding, fires, and landslides, we need to understand that forests are more than simply a collection of trees. Instead, they are ecosystems that consist of thousands of species, from animals to fungi and bacteria. The way to save trees, and ourselves? Step aside and let forests — which are naturally better equipped to face environmental challenges — to heal themselves. With the warmth and wonder familiar to readers from his previous books, Wohlleben also shares emerging scientific research about how forests shape climates both locally and across continents; that trees adapt to changing environmental conditions through passing knowledge down to their offspring; and how old growth may in fact have the most survival strategies for climate change. At the heart of “The Power of Trees” lies Wohlleben’s passionate that our survival is dependent on trusting ancient forests, and allowing them to thrive. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: May 2023”
Posted on Monday, April 24, 2023 by Karena
The best stories are the convincing ones — the ones that feel real. The ones with living, breathing characters who contain constellations of motivations and fears, likes and dislikes. Characters who connect with each other in complex and sincere ways. The worst stories are the ones that make you feel like you’re being lied to, or being sold something you can’t quite buy. That’s how a lot of love stories make me feel: Why are these characters so drawn to each other? What do they even have in common? Have they had a single substantive conversation, or are we just going based on chemistry and vibes? Are they being themselves? Are they really interested in understanding, challenging, and considering each other?
Why, out of all the possible, random pairings, is this one special? What makes this romance meaningful? Maybe you’re rolling your eyes at me — I am, too. Reader, I wish it was easier to believe in love stories. I wish I hadn’t found The Notebook completely nauseating (A woman catches a man’s eye at a carnival one summer night and he spends the rest of his life pining for her? Seems weird).
My disbelief doesn’t come from pessimism — it’s really the opposite. I believe in human connection. I believe it makes a life worth living. I believe in love’s ability to surprise us, enliven us, and restore us. So it’s frustrating to watch and read shallow representations of romance, when there is so much more to a love story than attraction and yearning. I don’t want to watch people meet each other, and chase each other. I want to watch them get to know each other, for real. Continue reading “Real Romance”
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2023 by Decimal Diver
Audrey Dae is a Columbia, MO author whose debut book is “What You’re In For.” The book is a young adult fiction adventure-thriller that follows a range of teens over a particularly explosive Fourth of July weekend in the Missouri Ozarks. Dae is currently completing a degree in English from the University of Missouri, where she interns for The Missouri Review literary magazine. She was kind enough to take the time to be interviewed via email. Continue reading “Q&A With Audrey Dae, Author of “What You’re In For””
Posted on Sunday, April 9, 2023 by The Biblio-Buckaroo
There are currently over 6 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease. According to the CDC, “Dementia is not a specific disease but is rather a general term for the impaired ability to remember, think, or make decisions that interferes with doing everyday activities. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. Though dementia mostly affects older adults, it is not a part of normal aging.” The Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Missouri is a local resource for anyone seeking information about Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. The Alzheimer’s Association says there are many conditions that can cause symptoms of dementia, including some that are reversible, such as thyroid problems and vitamin deficiencies. Alzheimer’s Disease is currently not curable. However, there are some medications and therapies that can slow cognitive decline or help with symptoms. It is good to weigh any medication’s benefits with its side effects. Continue reading “Literary Links: Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia”
Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 by Ida
Most of us learned something about haiku in school. It’s the tiny poem that packs a big punch. “Many think haiku is strictly a 5-7-5 syllable pattern ending in a 17-syllable poem, and it can be that, but more important is the image. A haiku is the fewest words, one to three lines, that appeal to the senses and focus on nature.” This explanation of the form comes from Missouri Poet Laureate, Maryfrances Wagner, who in conjunction with the Missouri Arts Council, is spearheading the Missouri Haiku Project. “I’m inviting all Missourians to create haiku poems that reflect nature in Missouri and share them, read them or turn them into art,” Wagner says.
The project runs through May 23, with events occurring throughout the state, including “Tea and Haiku” in the Columbia Public Library Friends Room, Tuesday, April 11 at 7-8 p.m. Haiku enthusiast Christine Boyle will be your guide for a fun and relaxed hour of writing and sharing short poems over tea. A selection of your poetry will be displayed in the library following the event! Tea and writing materials will be provided. This program is a part of the Missouri Poet Laureate Haiku Project and is for adults and teens. No registration is required and all skill levels are welcome.
For more haiku joy, take a look at one or more the following titles: Continue reading “Tea & Haiku: Missouri Haiku Project”
Posted on Monday, April 3, 2023 by Liz
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.
“A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them” by Timothy Egan (Apr 4)
A historical thriller by the Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author that tells the riveting story of the Klan’s rise to power in the 1920s, the cunning con man who drove that rise, and the woman who stopped them. The Roaring Twenties — the Jazz Age — has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson. Stephenson was a magnetic presence whose life story changed with every telling. Within two years of his arrival in Indiana, he’d become the Grand Dragon of the state and the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows — their message endorsed from the pulpits of local churches, spread at family picnics and town celebrations. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors and senators across the country all proudly proclaimed their membership. But at the peak of his influence, it was a seemingly powerless woman — Madge Oberholtzer — who would reveal his secret cruelties, and whose deathbed testimony finally brought the Klan to their knees. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: April 2023”