Loup City Public Library

84 Charing Cross Road and Q’s Legacy by Helene Hanff. The holidays are stressful.  Sit down and pick up one of these two little gems.  84 Charing Cross Road is a compilation of very short letters written between an American writer and her very English rare bookseller in the late 1940’s/early 1950s. Companionship and humor abound. It is perfect for a quick read. Q’s Legacy should be read after “84” as it details Hanff’s literary career and the making of “84”. The perfect present to yourself this holiday season…a little rest and relaxation with friends.

Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt.  This is an emotional roller coaster ride of a novel.  Joseph is a troubled 13 year old who wants nothing more than to be able to find his baby daughter. An incredibly intense novel about the power and cost of love. This is an AR book with a reading level of 4.4; however, the content is definitely geared towards teen readers.

House Arrest by K.A. Holt. A twelve-year-old boy is placed on house arrest after stealing someone’s credit card to pay for his brother’s medication. Timothy takes care of his medically unstable baby brother while his mother works two jobs. Written in verse, this novel looks at the responsibilities and frustrations unique to his situation while he also deals with the “normal” twelve-year-old problems. Timothy is required to keep a diary during his probationary period and it is through this diary format that we follow his story.

I am Not a Chair by Ross Burach.  Nominated for the 2018-2019 Golden Sower Award. A giraffe is new to the area and would love to meet some new friends but everyone keeps mistaking him for a chair!  As giraffe struggles to find his voice, the reader laughs at all of the silly situations in which Giraffe finds himself. Great illustrations really help bring the story home.

All of the print books listed above are available at Loup City Library.

We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices by Cheryl Willis and Wade Hudson. Available on Libby/Overdrive digital system. A compilation of essays, poetry, and music by multiple diverse contributors. An audio book aimed at children feeling scared and frustrated in this time of political extremes.  Only two hours long, this is a wonderful way to encourage tolerance and support those who feel anxious about their own safety. Beautifully done. If you listen to nothing else (although that would be a shame), listen to Prayers of the Grandmothers by Sharon M. Draper, read by Adenrele Ojo. This book is available in print but the best format, in my opinion, is to listen to the wide range of voices saturated with experience as they say it is going to be ok.

What is this prejudice we have against Nonfiction?  Many people won’t read it because they feel it would be like reading a text book or it is just too boring.  It doesn’t have to be that way!  Below are a few nonfiction selections that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat….

“Killers of the Flower Moon” is an amazing book regarding events about which previously I knew nothing. ??. Written in almost mystery genre fashion, this is an intense read about a widespread evil conspiracy which caused many Osage deaths in the 1920s.  Why?  Mineral rights. The Osage never signed away their mineral rights and when oil was discovered on their land, they became among the wealthiest in the world. Greed and hatred brought about the demise of many. 

Louis Zamperini remained “Unbroken” following his experience as a WWII POW of the Japanese. Once an Olympic runner, Zamperini’s bomber crashed into the Pacific where he was stranded until “rescued” by the Japanese. Following his release from the POW internment camp, Zamperini finds a reason to have faith again. A very well researched and well written book.

26-year-old Beverly Deepe reported on the Vietnam War as a freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor. She reported from all over the country, moving freely and thinking independently of the military and diplomatic types. 

Ken Jennings’ Junior Genius Guide on the U.S. Presidents is a super fun way to share your love of history with your kids. Great illustrations and interesting blurbs of trivia make this a “go to” book. Did you know “George Washington almost missed the very first Inauguration Day?  He was short on cash and a friend had to loan him six hundred dollars so he could make the journey.” 

If you love true stories of spies, codes, and mayhem, this is the book for you!  Illustrations make learning about the Cold War fun and there are special projects throughout the book. Some of the information you will learn will be hair-raising!  For instance, “The Secret unlock code for the Minuteman missile during the Cold War was 00000000.” 

Now, please, go forth and read and enjoy Nonfiction!

A bunch of Middle School and Young Adult have been read and recommended.  Taxes have been paid.  Now to prove that I do actually read Adult books on occasion….

     “There There” , a debut novel by Tommy Orange, is best read in 1-2 sittings.  There are multiple characters and back stories and it takes a bit of work to keep everyone straight but it is completely worth it.   I would have liked more resolution after coming to know the characters so well and there is one relationship in the book that I do not find realistic. The writing is devastation in molten form. It burns but it is so beautiful you keep going, keep getting closer, even as it hurts. I loved this book. I wanted to read it quickly and yet I wanted to slow down and savor it.

     “Among the Mad” is #6 in Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series.  Unfortunately, it is the only one left in the library’s catalog.  Apparently the others met an untimely end.  I hadn’t read any of the series before and decided to try it (yes, even though it was #6). It was wonderful.  Yes, now I am in that unenviable position of deciding whether to go back and start with the first in the series or continue from 6 on to the end. This book is so completely “of the time” of post WWI England that the sorrow and desperation just dripped off of every page. The mystery was intense and well plotted but I almost wished away the resolution. That never happens. Pick up the Maisie Dobbs’ series but for your own sake start at the beginning (like any sane person). 

Well, I have avoided it long enough.  It was necessary to read some teen fiction so I would have something to recommend. Don’t get me wrong. There are some very talented young adult writers; however, the genre seems to be in a “dark and dystopian” frame of “mind”. It just isn’t where I want to spend a lot of my time. Fortunately, I had some lovely folks recommend these books or authors to me, so I was able to pick up a few reads to pass along….

The best fantasy novel I have read all Summer (adult included).  Psychics, ley lines, and a hunt for a missing king.  I am a sucker for a good “treasure” hunt and this delivered.  It is a mystery/gothic romance and the first in a series so there will be more fun in the future. Thanks Mrs. D. for the rec.

“Imperfect Spiral” is a story of grief and guilt following a terrible accident and the scapegoating of “others”.  When a young boy is killed walking home from the park, a community plays the “blame game” and a young girl tries to deal with her own feelings of guilt and grief while deciding how involved she will become in the political aftermath. Thanks to Taylor for the recommendation (actually she gave me a two page list of books to read and this was one of them).

The rich and middle class live in a compound to protect them from the monsters that roam the earth following a catastrophe that changed the earth’s social structures.  Hunters track down and kill the monsters trying to break into the compound and have a huge, ranked social media presence. The monsters are getting smarter and the hunters fewer. Suddenly, the hunters realize they may be fighting more than monsters…..Thanks to Jaida for the rec.

Amy’s father died in a car wreck. Her mother moved from California to the East Coast, leaving Amy to come after the school year finished.  Amy’s brother is in rehab. Now she must travel cross country with a young man she doesn’t know.

Roger’s girlfriend dumped him with no warning. His mother’s old friend wants him to drive a young girl across the country.  She didn’t mention the reason Amy doesn’t drive anymore….

A melancholy look at two souls dealing with different types of loss and grief and the friendship and romance that result.  Morgan Matson knows how to write a good book!

“Heartless”.  The Queen of Hearts lost her heart.  This is the tale of how that happened and why this book couldn’t have a happy ending. It is very atmospheric. The first part was a 5  read; however, the drama drama got to be a bit much.

At thirty-two Kimberly Rossi, a finance officer at a Lexus car dealership, has had her heart broken more times than she wants to remember. With two failed engagements, a divorce and again alone with no prospects, she hardly seems the type to dream of being a published romance author. Dreading another holiday alone, she signs up for The Mistletoe Retreat, a nine-day writing retreat in Burlington, VT. Deep inside Kimberly knows she’s at a junction in her life and it’s time to either fulfill her dream or let it go. The other reason she decides to attend the conference is because famed romance writer, H.T. Cowell, once the best selling romance writer in America, and the author whose books instilled in her the desire to be a writer, will be speaking in public for the first time in more than a decade.

In one of her breakout sessions Kimberly meets another aspiring writer, and one of the few men at the conference, Zeke, an intelligent man with a wry wit who seems as interested in Kimberly as he is in the retreat. As Kimberly begins to open up to him about her stories and dreams, she inadvertently reveals her own troubled past. As Zeke helps her to discover why her books fail to live up to their potential she begins to wonder if he’s really talking more about her life than her literature. But as she grows closer to him, she realizes that Zeke has his own darkness, a past he’s unwilling to talk about.