Christmas Jars by Jason Wright

Christmas Jars by Jason Wright

by | Aug 4, 2016 | 0 comments

Christmas Jars

by Jason Wright
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The Library Book Club meeting for this book was held November 17, 2016, at 6:30 in the entry foyer.

“Where had it come from? Whose money was it? Was I to spend it? Save it? Pass it on to someone more needy? Above all else, why was I chosen? Certainly there were others, countless others, more needy than me… “

Her reporter’s intuition insisted that a remarkable story was on the verge of the front page.

Newspaper reporter Hope Jensen uncovers the remarkable secret behind the “Christmas Jars”, glass jars filled with coins and bills anonymously left for people in need. But along the way, Hope discovers much more than the origin of the jars. When some unexpected news sets off a chain reaction of kindness, Hope’s greatest Christmas Eve wish comes true.

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Miranda rated it ★★★★★ and said “This was so much more than I was expecting. I thought it would be just another formulaic sappy Christmas story, and in a way it was. But it was also so much more. I loved how it brought all the characters together and showed how we all touch other people’s lives, even when we don’t know it.”

Library Book Club Selections

Christmasinspirationalfiction

A Break with Charity by Ann Rinaldi

A Break with Charity by Ann Rinaldi

by | Aug 4, 2016 | 0 comments

A Break With Charity: A Story About the Salem Witch Trials

by Ann Rinaldi
A Break with Charity: A Story About the Salem Witch Trials by Ann Rinaldi
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The Library Book Club meeting for this book was held October 20, 2016, at 6:30 in the entry foyer.

A limited number of book club reading copies were available for checkout from the circulation desk about a month prior to the meeting.

Susanna desperately wants to join the circle of girls who meet every week at the parsonage. What she doesn’t realize is that the girls are about to set off a torrent of false accusations leading to the imprisonment and execution of countless innocent people. Susanna faces a painful choice. Should she keep quiet and let the witch-hunt panic continue, or should she “break charity” with the group–and risk having her own family members named as witches?

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Miranda rated it ★★★★★.

Library Book Club Selections

historicalYAfiction

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

by | Aug 4, 2016 | 0 comments

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

by Timothy Egan
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The Library Book Club meeting for this book was held September 15, 2016, at 6:30 in the entry foyer.

A limited number of book club reading copies were available for checkout from the circulation desk about a month prior to the meeting.

The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Timothy Egan’s critically acclaimed account rescues this iconic chapter of American history from the shadows in a tour de force of historical reportage. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, Egan does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, “the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect” (New York Times).

In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, The Worst Hard Time is “arguably the best nonfiction book yet” (Austin Statesman Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of trifling with nature.

Library Book Club Selections

environmenthistoricalnon-fiction

Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

by | Aug 3, 2016

Flora and Ulysses

by Kate DiCamillo

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A Library Book Club meeting for this book was held January 19, 2017, at 6:30 in the entry foyer.

A Mother Daughter Book Club meeting for this book was held February 11, 2016.

A Books for Boys meeting for this book was held October 15, 2015.

It begins, as the best superhero stories do, with a tragic accident that has unexpected consequences. The squirrel never saw the vacuum cleaner coming, but self-described cynic Flora Belle Buckman, who has read every issue of the comic book Terrible Things Can Happen to You!, is the just the right person to step in and save him. What neither can predict is that Ulysses (the squirrel) has been born anew, with powers of strength, flight, and misspelled poetry—and that Flora will be changed too, as she discovers the possibility of hope and the promise of a capacious heart. From #1 New York Times best-selling author Kate DiCamillo comes a laugh-out-loud story filled with eccentric, endearing characters and featuring an exciting new format—a novel interspersed with comic-style graphic sequences and full-page illustrations, all rendered in black-and-white by up-and-coming artist K. G. Campbell.

Newbery Medal 2014

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Bekka rated it ★★★★★ and said, “What a great book this is! Its a totally worthy addition to the Newbery list. Right from the beginning with that great cartoon, this book had me interested and laughing. K.G. Campbell’s illustrations are so great throughout! They really add to the storyline in a very tangible way. The language in this book is so quirky and charming, it totally matches the illustrations. DiCamillo has a real talent in being able to portray very real people and situations in a way that is compelling and enjoyable. I loved Flora! And Ulysses is a character pretty much unique, at least in my reading! I think this is an excellent read for middle-school kids and older, as they will be able to relate to Flora’s situation. Grown-ups will love it for different reasons, but will love it equally. Highly Recommended!”

Miranda rated it ★★★ and said, “This was a cute read. It reminded me a bit of Beverly Cleary’s Ralph books. The illustrations were fun, and I think there was just enough to work and not get bogged down in that format for those who don’t enjoy it as much as the written word.”

Cathy rated it ★★★★★ and said, “Holy unanticipated occurrences! This is a fun, fast read with a lot of substance. I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.”

Lorna rated it ★★★★★ and said, “Many truths are exposed in this delightful tale.”

Books for BoysMother Daughter Book Club

Newbery Medalfantasytweenfiction

The River of Doubt by Candice Millard

The River of Doubt by Candice Millard

by | Jun 27, 2016 | 0 comments

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey

by Candice Millard

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The Library Book Club meeting for this book was on January 18, 2018, at 6:30 in the entry foyer.

A limited number of book club reading copies were available for checkout from the circulation desk about a month prior to the meeting.

At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.

The River of Doubt—it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its shadows; piranhas glide through its waters; boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling cauldron.

After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever.

Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful non-fiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived.

From the soaring beauty of the Amazon rain forest to the darkest night of Theodore Roosevelt’s life, here is Candice Millard’s dazzling debut.

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Cathy rated it ★★★★★.

Library Book Club SelectionsExercise Your Mind: Brazil & Greece

traveladventurebiographyhistorynon-fiction

The Innocent Man by John Grisham

The Innocent Man by John Grisham

by | Jun 1, 2016 | 0 comments

The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town

by John Grisham
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The Library Book Club meeting for this book was held October 18, 2018, at 6:30 in the entry foyer.

A limited number of book club reading copies were available for checkout from the circulation desk about a month prior to the meeting.

In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the big leagues, Ron stumbled, his dream broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ron’s home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation led nowhere. Until, on the flimsiest evidence, it led to Ron Williamson. The washed-up small-town hero was charged, tried, and sentenced to death—in a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that would shatter a man’s already broken life…and let a true killer go free.

Impeccably researched, grippingly told, filled with eleventh-hour drama, John Grisham’s first work of non-fiction reads like a page-turning legal thriller. It is a book that will terrify anyone who believes in the presumption of innocence—a book that no American can afford to miss.

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Miranda rated it ★★★.

Library Book Club SelectionsExercise Your Mind: Narrative Non-Fiction
true crimebiographyhistorynon-fiction

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

by | Nov 2, 2015 | 0 comments

A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens

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A Library Book Club meeting for this book was held January 21, 2016.

It was the time of the French Revolution—a time of great change and great danger. It was a time when injustice was met by a lust for vengeance, and rarely was a distinction made between the innocent and the guilty. Against this tumultuous historical backdrop, Dickens’ great story of unsurpassed adventure and courage unfolds.

Unjustly imprisoned for 18 years in the Bastille, Dr. Alexandre Manette is reunited with his daughter, Lucie, and safely transported from France to England. It would seem that they could take up the threads of their lives in peace. As fate would have it though, the pair are summoned to the Old Bailey to testify against a young Frenchman—Charles Darnay—falsely accused of treason. Strangely enough, Darnay bears an uncanny resemblance to another man in the courtroom, the dissolute lawyer’s clerk Sydney Carton. It is a coincidence that saves Darnay from certain doom more than once. Brilliantly plotted, the novel is rich in drama, romance, and heroics that culminate in a daring prison escape in the shadow of the guillotine.

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Cathy rated it ★★★★★.

Rebekah rated it ★★★★★.

Library Book Club Selections

classicsfiction

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

by | Jul 18, 2015 | 0 comments

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

by Kim Edwards
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A Library Book Club meeting for this book was held September 17, 2015.

On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down’s Syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split-second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this story that unfolds over a quarter of a century – in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by the fateful decision made that long-ago winter night. Norah Henry, who knows only that her daughter died at birth, remains inconsolable; her grief weighs heavily on their marriage. And Paul, their son, raises himself as best he can, in a house grown cold with mourning. Meanwhile, Phoebe, the lost daughter, grows from a sunny child to a vibrant young woman whose mother loves her as fiercely as if she were her own.

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Betsy rated it ★★★★★.

Library Book Club Selections
fiction

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Matilda by Roald Dahl

by | Jul 17, 2015 | 0 comments

Matilda

by Roald Dahl
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A Books for Boys Book Club meeting for this book will be March 8, 2018, at 6:30 in the Community Room. Book club reading copies will be available for checkout from the circulation desk about a month prior to the meeting.

A Mother Daughter Book Club meeting for this book was held March 10, 2016.

A Library Book Club meeting for this book was held October 15, 2015.

Matilda is a little girl who is far too good to be true. At age five-and-a-half she’s knocking off double-digit multiplication problems and blitz-reading Dickens. Even more remarkably, her classmates love her even though she’s a super-nerd and the teacher’s pet. But everything is not perfect in Matilda’s world. For starters she has two of the most idiotic, self-centered parents who ever lived. Then there’s the large, busty nightmare of a school principal, Mrs. (“The”) Trunchbull, a former hammer-throwing champion who flings children at will and is approximately as sympathetic as a bulldozer. Fortunately for Matilda, she has the inner resources to deal with such annoyances: astonishing intelligence, saintly patience, and an innate predilection for revenge.

She warms up with some practical jokes aimed at her hapless parents, but the true test comes when she rallies in defense of her teacher, the sweet Miss Honey, against the diabolical Trunchbull. There is never any doubt that Matilda will carry the day. Even so, this wonderful story is far from predictable. Roald Dahl, while keeping the plot moving imaginatively, also has an unerring ear for emotional truth. The reader cares about Matilda because in addition to all her other gifts, she has real feelings.

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Cathy rated it ★★★★.

Tamara rated it ★★★★.

Mother Daughter Book ClubLibrary Book Club Selections
fantasyclassicsjunior fictionfiction

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