Move over, beach reads! The pandemic forced me to be a lot more outdoorsy than usual just to get out of the house. I’ve always enjoyed camping, but I definitely started doing it more frequently when it became my only vacation option. I know definitions of what can actually be considered “camping” vary widely from person to person. For some people, a cabin in the woods with AC and a functional toilet counts. For others, if it’s not in a tent with no access to running water, it’s not “real camping.” Some people are into yurts. I’m not here to gatekeep. Whatever the case, camping is prime reading time. You’re surrounded by nature, you’re disconnected from wifi and technology … what else is there to do? One of my favorite things about camping is picking out which books I’m going to bring along. Here are some suggestions for whatever genre you’re into. Continue reading “Camping Reads”
Our Summer Reading theme this year is “Tales & Tails,” so our next Crafternoon-To-Go kit is using the traditional art of origami to make a paper crane (with a tail, of course.) These kits are for adults and will be available while supplies last in all of our branches Friday, June 25. You may pick them up at the second-floor reference desk at the Columbia Library and by the service desks at our other branches.
There are instructions and supplies in your kit to make four cranes (or if you are like me, extra paper for mistakes). We also supplied some fishing line if you would like to hang them. If you find these difficult, here is an online video that provides step-by-step instructions. This is an inexpensive craft that can be done with friends, family and kids, so check our library collection for more resources.
In the cozy mystery “The Broken Spine,” the main character is a librarian whose small town leaders want to change the library to offering only digital resources. How can a library be a library without any books?! She has a plan, but will a murder stop it? What about the new man in town who doesn’t talk about his past, or the new police detective who broke her heart in high school? The likable characters and plausible story make this an enjoyable read.
Three words that describe this book: Cozy, library, cat
You might want to pick this book up if: If you like cozy mysteries. The setting is a library. The main character adopts a cat, or does the cat adopt her?
-Mary
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. Submit your own book review here for a chance to have it featured on the Adults Blog.
It is a truth universally out there that any discussion of UFOs must be in want of an “X-Files” reference. For several decades at least, humans have been fascinated by the idea of extraterrestrial life, which might explain why many television viewers were as obsessed with “The X-Files” as Agent Mulder was with finding aliens. Of course, that wasn’t the first or last TV show centered on the idea of otherworldly visitors to Earth. There’s been the ever-enduring “Doctor Who” and more recently, “Project Blue Book,” with dozens of others along the way.
Since the release of U.S. Department of Defense videos showing navy pilot encounters with unexplained aerial phenomena and the announcement of a forthcoming Pentagon report on the same subject, UFOs have become an even hotter topic. For folks trying to sort out fact from rumor and alien spacecraft from weather balloon, you have lots of company. Several authors have tackled the issue. Continue reading “UFOs”
In the book “The House in the Cerulean Sea,” a lonely middle aged bureaucrat is sent on a classified trip to inspect an orphanage of highly unusual magical children living on an isolated island. He finds himself being drawn in by these strange children and even more so by their enigmatic and protective headmaster as his objectivity is tested as it’s never been tested before. I loved this book so much even though it’s not my typical genre. It was such a wonderfully crafted story that made me laugh and cry and I didn’t want it to end.
Three words that describe this book: Endearing, fantastical, heartwarming
You might want to pick this book up if: You love Harry Potter.
-Anonymous
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. Submit your own book review here for a chance to have it featured on the Adults Blog.
I’m continuing my tour of the US and leaving the Rocky Mountains to travel the Great Plains. This part of the trip is a bit nostalgic for me because I have lived in two of the five states. Continue reading “Travel Through Story: The Great Plains”
I’ve recently devoured Christopher Buehlman’s oeuvre, and I hereby enthusiastically recommend all six of his novels. Here’s a quick rundown of the first five.
“Those Across the River” is about some bad things across a river. This book makes emphatically the case that if your town ritualistically sends a pig into the woods, it’s best that the ritual continues.
“Between Two Fires” is about a girl on a mission to save the world and the disgraced knight that accompanies her. The Black Plague is ravaging France. Also ravaging France are demons. On their travels they have a series of horrific encounters. Classic horror travelogue thing going on here. Continue reading “The Gentleman Recommends: Christopher Buehlman”
Join us to discuss the historical novel “Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague” by Maggie O’Farrell. The story is set in England during the Black Death of the late 16th century. A young Latin tutor (Shakespeare) falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman. Just as his career takes off, however, their young son dies of the plague. This novel was the winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle prize for fiction. This discussion is geared for adults.
More books about Shakespeare and the plague during this time period here.
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One Read, the community-wide reading program coordinated by the Daniel Boone Regional Library, celebrates its 20th anniversary this September with Casy Cep’s “Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee.” This gripping mashup of true crime and literary biography beat out the cleverly crafted dystopian novel “The Resisters” by Gish Jen.
Before the public vote on the 2021 title, a panel of community members considered a varied list of finalist books. Their themes run the gamut of timely topics from immunization and mental health to systemic racism and capitalist consumerism.
During COVID lockdowns, many of us spent more hours connected to the internet, scrolling, shopping and watching. In “Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion,” Jia Tolentino shares candid, sharp, sometimes wry, often bleak personal essays examining and skewering our self-obsessed consumer culture and the pressures — particularly for women — of living online. Continue reading “Literary Links: One Read Final 10”
There’s something undeniably creepy about folk tales. Think of Bloody Mary, Krampus, the Big Bad Wolf and the Headless Horseman. Folktales are the kind of stories told at night around a fire, and they don’t start out written down as short stories or novels. These tales have always been transmitted among a people through oral tradition. Folklore, legends and myth are a boundless topic, and found in almost every aspect of human culture, but here we’re looking specifically at Gothic horror novels that take their inspiration from tales that once propagated exclusively through oral traditions. Continue reading “Frightened Folk: Where Folktales and Horror Intersect”
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