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Community Book Read
Friends of the Ponca Carnegie Library invite the community to join in reading:
The Girls of Atomic City:
The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II.
At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents and was using as much power as New York City … but to most of the world, it was as if the town didn’t exist. Thousands of workers (many of them young women from small towns across the South) were recruited to work in this secret city, enticed by good wages and the promise of war-ending work. But most of them never guessed what was really being made in those enormous factories in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains – until the end of the war, when Oak Ridge’s secret was revealed. In The Girls of Atomic City, Denise Kiernan traces the astonishing story of these unsung World War II workers through interviews with dozens of surviving women workers and other Oak Ridge residents. Like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, this is history and science made fresh and vibrant – a beautifully told, deeply researched story that unfolds in a suspenseful and exciting way.
Click the link below to get an in-depth view of this extraordinary time in our history:
Novel Notes
Uncommon Type: Some Stories by Tom Hanks
As an actor, Tom Hanks has an understated performance style; the hard work seems to get done under the surface, where we can’t see it. All we see is the truth of the character. The same goes for the 17 short stories in this thoroughly engaging book , Hanks’ fiction debut. Here are stories about friends who become lovers and then decide that wasn’t a good idea; about old war buddies whose Christmas Eve conversation sparks some powerful memories; about a movie star enduring a press junket; about a billionaire and his assistant on the trail of acquisitions who find in America’s heartland a humanity very different from their glass-tower world. The stories are brief and sometimes seem abbreviated, but they possess a real feel for character and a slice-of-life realism that combine to deliver considerable depth beneath the surface. A surprising and satisfying book from a first-time fiction writer.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Hanks is both much loved and often criticized as an actor; his writing, however, may well cross that divide with its undeniable craft and plainspoken insight. — Pitt, David (Reviewed 8/1/2017) (Booklist, vol 113, number 22, p27)
Novel Notes
What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism by Dan Rather & Elliot Kirschner
Longtime newsman Rather (Rather Outspoken) partners with Kirschner, senior producer of Rather’s show Dan Rather Reports, to explore the core components of patriotism during the current period of political tumult, offering essays titled “Inclusion,” “The Arts,” and “The Environment,” along with “The Vote,” “The Press,” and “Service.” Rather employs an earnest and optimistic tone (“I remind myself and others that we have been through big challenges in the past, that it often seems darkest in the present”) that provides a pleasant alternative to the reliance on vitriol and irony in modern political discourse, but the deliberate tone also gives the individual essays a feeling of sameness and diminishes their power when read successively. Nevertheless, the book inspires. Rather draws on memories from his Texas boyhood and from a storied news career spanning more than 60 years in order to explore the core of the American project. These recollections are bolstered with firsthand accounts of historical events including the civil rights movement, the McCarthy hearings, and the Watergate scandal. Rather has issued a stirring call for overcoming today’s strident partisanship. (Nov.) –Staff (Reviewed 09/04/2017) (Publishers Weekly, vol 264, issue 36, p)
One Book for Nebraska Teens
One Book for Nebraska Teens
Killer of Enemies by Joseph Bruchac
Named for a legendary Apache heroine, Lozen, 17, is skilled in killing the giant, genetically engineered monsters that roam the countryside. Now that the Cloud has caused most machinery to quit, the world is a different place. Her mother, brother and sister are being held by the four heads of Haven, the former prison now being used to keep the monsters out and the slaves in. If Lozen can continue to survive, she plans to eventually free her family.
One Book for Nebraska Kids
Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading
By Tommy Greenwald
Charlie Joe Jackson is in middle school and hates to read. He prides himself on never having read a book. Ever. While he tells of his experiences in class and with his friends, he also gives the reader 25 hints and explains how his approach has worked for him. But there are some humorous situations and circumstances that begin to get in the way of his continuing his record.
Book Discussion
Join the Friends of the Library, Thursday Feb 1, 2018 at 7 pm to discuss the book “Into the Woods” by Tana French.
Everyone is welcome to attend, even if you haven’t read or finished the book.
The Books Have Arrived!
Community Book Discussion
Friends of the Library invite the community to join in reading “In The Woods” By Tana French.
The books are currently available at the library for checkout.
INTRODUCTION
Much more than a gripping police procedural, Tana French’s debut novel offers readers a stunning look into the dark recesses of the human heart and a brooding reflection on the evils that are sometimes just a breath away. As a newly anointed murder-squad detective in Dublin, Ireland, Rob Ryan solves mysteries for a living. Yet only a handful of people know that a generation earlier Ryan himself stood at the center of one of the most tantalizing unsolved cases in the recent annals of Irish crime. At the age of twelve, then known as Adam Ryan, he and two playmates wandered into a wood near his home in the town of Knocknaree. Hours after being reported missing, Adam was found unhurt but standing in a pair of blood-soaked sneakers, so deeply traumatized that he could not recall a single detail of what had happened. The two other children were never found.
A first-time author who writes like a seasoned veteran, Tana French populates her psychological thriller with deftly drawn, unforgettable characters, from Rob’s brilliant and magnetic partner, Cassie, to Katy’s overprotective and evasive parents to Mark Hanly, the passionate young archaeologist whose very life is devoted to buried truths. Always at the center of the story, however, is Rob Ryan himself—keenly intelligent, outwardly brash and confident, but far more fundamentally wounded and incomplete than appearances reveal. In the dark, deceptive world of In the Woods, many of the hardest questions depend upon a single query: will Rob’s attempts to regain his inner equilibrium finally throw his life, his friends, and the Devlin investigation out of balance forever?
ABOUT TANA FRENCH
Born in Vermont, Tana French had a peripatetic childhood that took her to Florence and Rome, as well as the African nation of Malawi. A resident of Dublin since 1990, she has a degree in drama and English from Trinity College. Prior to writing In the Woods, she was best known as an actor in a wide variety of theatrical productions in Dublin.
Christmas Movies at the Library
Christmas Movies at the Library
Saturday December 16, 2017 Starting at 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm
Join us at your library for a delightful afternoon of Christmas movies, crafts and snacks.
This program is free and open to the public.
Children under five years old should have a parent or caregiver present.
For more information contact
Ponca Carnegie Library 402-755-2118 or poncalib@gpcom.net
Muse
Saturday Dec. 9, 2017
7:30 pm to 8:30 pm
At B&S Trading Post Coffee Shop
Open-Mic Community Storytelling
Theme: Merriment & Mayhem
Share a story about holiday family traditions,
hilarious events, or holidays just gone wrong.
Open to community members 14 & older.
For more information contact
Ponca Carnegie Library 402-755-2118 or poncalib@gpcom.net