by Rebekka Hanson | Oct 4, 2017 |
The Library Book Club meeting for this book will be April 19, 2018, at 6:30 in the entry foyer.
A limited number of book club reading copies will be available for checkout from the circulation desk about a month prior to the meeting.
A recipe for happiness: four women, one medieval Italian castle, plenty of wisteria, and solitude as needed.
The women at the center of The Enchanted April are alike only in their dissatisfaction with their everyday lives. They find each other—and the castle of their dreams—through a classified ad in a London newspaper one rainy February afternoon. The ladies expect a pleasant holiday, but they don’t anticipate that the month they spend in Portofino will reintroduce them to their true natures and reacquaint them with joy. Now, if the same transformation can be worked on their husbands and lovers, the enchantment will be complete.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Patty rated it ★★★.
by Rebekka Hanson | Oct 3, 2017 |
The Library Book Club meeting for this book was on February 15, 2018, at 6:30 in the entry foyer.
This book was our chosen community reads book for the 2018 On the Same Page. Free copies were available at the library until supplies ran out.
One of the world’s greatest storytellers weaves together an unforgettable collection of animal tales, including how the camel got its hump, how the leopard got its spots, and how even a butterfly stamping his leg can change a man’s life.
Initially written for his own “best beloved,” Just So Stories was published in 1902. It has been a favorite for the past century and is certain to be cherished by generations to come.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Vivian rated it ★★★★★ and said “Imagine wondering what the crocodile has for dinner and being rewarded for your curiosity with a new, more versatile nose.
“This is just one of the many ingenious stories crafted by Kipling to explain why and how about animals humps, lumps, and so forth. He earns 5 stars for his inventive words, use of language, and imagination. I loved hearing these stories read to me when I was young. I now love sharing them with school classes and other story sharing events.”
Cathy rated it ★★★★.
Patty rated it ★★★.
by Rebekka Hanson | Jun 15, 2017 |
The Library Book Club meeting for this book was held Thursday, July 13th, 2017, at 6:30 in the entry foyer.
Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant is intrigued by a portrait of Richard III. Could such a sensitive face actually belong to a heinous villain — a king who killed his brother’s children to secure his crown? Grant seeks what kind of man Richard was and who in fact killed the princes in the tower.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Cathy rated it ★★★★.
by Rebekka Hanson | May 17, 2017 |
Anyone who has stayed in a hotel in Japan has probably seen a copy of The Teaching of Buddha. First published in 1925, the book was originally edited by Japanese scholars of Buddhism before WWII and distributed widely throughout Japan. The first English edition was published in 1934. The Reverend Dr. Yehan Numata brought out another English edition in 1962, and in 1966, after the establishment of the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK) (Society for the Promotion of Buddhism), Dr. Numata assembled a committee of Buddhist scholars to substantially revise and edit a new English-Japanese edition. The Teaching of Buddha has undergone minor revisions and numerous reprintings since. It is now available in more than forty-two languages and over 8 million copies have been distributed and placed in hotel rooms in over fifty countries throughout the world.
The Teaching of Buddha is a collection of writings on the essence of Buddhism, selected and edited from the vast Buddhist canon, presented in a concise, easy-to-read, and nonsectarian format. It also includes a brief history of Buddhism, a listing of the source texts, a glossary of Sanskrit terms, and an index.
by Rebekka Hanson | Feb 15, 2017 |
The Library Book Club meeting for this book will be Thursday, September 21, 2017, at 6:30 in the entry foyer.
A limited number of book club reading copies will be available for checkout from the circulation desk about a month prior to the meeting.
Young Jody adopts an orphaned fawn he calls Flag and makes it a part of his family and his best friend. But life in the Florida backwoods is harsh, and so, as his family fights off wolves, bears, and even alligators, and faces failure in their tenuous subsistence farming, Jody must finally part with his dear animal friend.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Cathy rated it ★★★★
by Rebekka Hanson | Feb 15, 2017 |
The Library Book Club meeting for this book was held Thursday, June 15, 2017, at 6:30 in the entry foyer.
Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading chivalric romances, that he determines to become a knight-errant himself. In the company of his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, his exploits blossom in all sorts of wonderful ways. While Quixote’s fancy often leads him astray – he tilts at windmills, imagining them to be giants – Sancho acquires cunning and a certain sagacity. Sane madman and wise fool, they roam the world together, and together they have haunted readers’ imaginations for nearly four hundred years.
by Rebekka Hanson | Feb 15, 2017 |
The Library Book Club meeting for this book was held Thursday, May 18, 2017, at 6:30 in the entry foyer.
Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor’s warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. Through their parallel experience of love—and its threatened loss—the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Cathy rated it ★★★★
Miranda rated it ★★★★
Patty rated it ★★★
by Rebekka Hanson | Feb 15, 2017 |
The Library Book Club meeting for this book was held Thursday, March 16, 2017, at 6:30 in the entry foyer.
Book club reading copies were available for checkout from the circulation desk about a month prior to the meeting.
Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now.
by Rebekka Hanson | Aug 4, 2016 |
A Library Book Club meeting for this book was held February 16, 2017, as part of On the Same Page, the Madison Library District’s annual community reading program.
Starting mid-January, free copies of the book were available at the library while supplies lasted.
“The murderer is with us–on the train now . . .”
Just after midnight, the famous Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. One of his fellow passengers must be the murderer.
Isolated by the storm, detective Hercule Poirot must find the killer among a dozen of the dead man’s enemies, before the murderer decides to strike again . . .
book 10 in the Hercule Poirot series
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Cathy rated it ★★★★1/2 and said “Why have I never read Agatha Christie before? I think she eventually turned into one of those authors that I was “supposed to read” that were “good for me” and subconsciously I equated her with a chore read. Honestly, much of the beginning felt a little that way as all the evidence was collected, hashed, and then rehashed, and then . . . Wow! As the locomotive picked up steam so to speak it really went barreling down the line right to the last page where I literally gasped, then laughed, then clapped. I got to get my hands on more Christie.”
