For the month of April, the library’s book club members have selected the book “Still Alice” by author Lisa Genova.  “Still Alice” is a novel about a 50-year old woman who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease.  Alice experiences what most of us do as we get older — we start to forget things.  Alice begins to wonder: Is it just aging? Stress? Not enough sleep? Menopause? When Alice gets lost during a routine jog in her neighborhood, she recognizes there is something more going on and decides to see her doctor.  Alzheimer’s was clearly not her first guess.  As tragic as this story is and as horrible as the disease is, the author Lisa Genova, presents some beautiful moments as well.  As the disease progresses, Alice lets go of many of the things that kept her separated from her family–healing her relationship with her estranged daughter and allowing her to realize what is truly important to her. This story reminds the reader that love can still be alive despite the ravages of the disease.  The book itself was given the “stamp of approval” by the National Alzheimer’s Association.  Ms. Genova writes for the organization in a professional capacity.  In addition, she holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University.   Stop by the library and check out this month’s selected book!!

The Meridian Library System and The Republican Valley Library System recently merged to form the Central Plains Library System (CPLS) of which our library is a member. CPLS owns over 500 circulating audiobook titles. System member libraries may borrow audiobooks (CD, MP3, and Playaway formats) for a loan period of 90 days. There is no charge for this service, other than the return postage fee. Anyone interested in these audiobooks are encouraged to visit Central Plains Library System’s “LibraryThing” website at: https://www.librarything.com/catalog/RepValleLibrarySys and scroll down to “audiobooks” to view their list of audiobooks to be reserved and sent to our library.   Or, visit your library to see this online list of 534 audiobooks using the library’s computers. Let your library director know your list of requested audio books so that we may borrow or reserve these titles, which will be then sent to the library when available.   Audiobooks we currently have at the library this month include:

Ayana Mathis- “The Twelve Tribes of Hattie”

Markus Zusak- “The Book Thief”

Dave Barry- “Lunatics”

Elizabeth Berg- “Once Upon A Time, There Was You”

David McCullough- “1776”

Eleanor Brown- “The Weird Sisters”

Fern Michaels- “Under The Radar”

Debbie Macomber- “A Turn In The Road”

Nicholas Sparks- “Safe Haven”

Mitch Albom- “Tuesdays With Morrie”

Michael Connelly- “The Black Box”

Michael Crichton- “Micro”

Lisa Gardner- “Touch & Go”

Jeannette Walls- “The Silver Star”

Sherryl Woods- “Sand Castle Bay”

Linda Howard- “Running Wild”

A group of friends and a thought-provoking book… doesn’t this sound like the perfect evening to you? If so, join the Spalding Public Library’s Book Club, the first Monday of each month at 5:00 pm. On Monday, April 6th, we will be discussing the book entitled “The Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet” by Jamie Ford. A tender and satisfying novel set in a time and a place lost forever, “Hotel On The Corner of Bitter and Sweet” gives us a glimpse of the damage that is caused by war- not the sweeping damage of the battlefield but the cold, cruel damage to the hearts and humanity of individual people. We hope you can come to discuss this book and enjoy the evening with us!!

Stop by the library and check out these Easter themed books:

Norman Bridwell- “Clifford’s Happy Easter”

Tomie dePaola- “My First Easter”

Steven Kroll- “The Biggest Easter Basket Ever”

Mercer Mayer- “Happy Easter, Little Critter”

Kathrin Siegenthaler- “Hopper’s Easter Surprise”

Rosemary Wells- “Max Counts His Chicken”

Stan Berenstain- “The Berenstain Bears’ Easter Surprise”

Plus there are many other Easter themed ebooks available to borrow through the library’s website at http://libraries.ne.gov/spalding/.   Stop by the library and learn how you can easily access these ebooks using your personal digital device and a library card number.

Happy Easter!!

Stop by the library and check out a book with an Irish theme. The library has non-fiction books about Ireland and Irish themed books for kids and adults to enjoy. Here are some of the titles in the library’s collection:

Non-Fiction Adult Books:

Cyril A. Reilly- “An Irish Blessing”

Peter Sommerville-Large- “Ireland From The Air”

Sonya Newland- “Ireland”

Jill And Leon Uris- “Ireland: A Terrible Beauty”

Adult Fiction Books:

Marrie Walsh- “ An Irish Country Childhood: Memories Of A Bygone Age”

Leon Uris- “Trinity”

Frank Delaney- “Ireland: A Novel”

Patrick Taylor- “An Irish Country Doctor”

“An Irish Country Girl”

“An Irish Country Christmas”

“An Irish Country Courtship”

Juilene Osborne-McKnight- “I Am Of Irelaunde: A Novel Of Patrick And Osian”

Edward Rutherfurd- “The Princes Of Ireland: The Dublin Saga”

Bodie Thoene- “Only The River Runs Free” (Galway Chronicles, Book 1)

“Of Men And Angels” (Galway Chronicles, Book 2)

“Ashes Of Remembrance” (Galway Chronicles, Book 3)

“All Rivers To The Sea” (Galway Chronicles, Book 4)

Pamela Griffin- “Brides O’ The Emerald Isle”

Picture Books And K-4^th Grades Level Readers:

Rebecca Gomez-“It’s St. Patrick’s Day”

Tomie DePaola- “Jamie O’Rourke And The Big Potato”

Tomie De Paola- “Fin M’Coul: The Giant Of Knockmany Hill”

Linda Shute- “Clever Tom And The Leprechaun”

Leo Lionni- “Mr. McMouse”

Natasha Wing- “The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day”

Alice Schertle- “Jeremy Ban’s St. Patrick’s Day”

Teddy Slaer- “The Luckiest St. Patrick’s Day Ever!”

Marcia Thornton Jones- “Leprechaun On The Loose”

Stephen Kroll- “Mary McLean And The Saint Patrick’s Day Parade”

Justine Korman- “The Luckiest Leprechaun”

Debbie Dadey- “Leprechauns Don’t Play Basketball”

Mary Pope- “Leprechauns And Irish Folklore” (Magic Tree House Series)

Mary Pope Osborne- “Leprechaun In Late Winter” (Magic Tree House Series)

Stop by the library and pick up your copy of this month’s selected book entitled “Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet”, by author Jamie Ford.  This bestselling historical fiction novel is about the love and friendship between Henry Lee, a Chinese American boy, and Keiko Okabe, a Japanese American girl, during the internment in World War II.

The hotel is the Panama Hotel, an old dilapidated landmark in Seattle.  It’s 1986 and 56-year-old Henry Lee is among the onlookers who witness the unveiling of recently discovered belongings left in the basement of the hotel by Japanese families in the 1940s.  To Henry, however, the trunks, suitcases and crates and their contents are not just mere curiosities or historical artifacts.  For him, they bring remembrances of the World War II years, of being twelve years old and trying to fit in an all-white school while following Chinese cultural traditions at home; of being Asian and his father’s dread that he would be confused with the enemy, the Japanese.  Most importantly, they bring back memories of a special friendship with Keiko, the only other kid of Asian ethnicity in school.

The friendship theme plays a strong part in “Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet”.  There is the friendship of Sheldon, the mentor who provides a strong, sympathetic male character and father figure, and Henry.  There is the unlikely friendship of Mrs. Beatty, Henry’s work supervisor, who makes it possible for Henry to continue his relationship with Kieko.  Finally, there is the friendship and eventual romantic relationship of Henry and Kieko, two individuals from different cultures whose bonds, nevertheless, endure through time.  This is a very satisfying read for anyone with a sense of history, destiny, and family.  The library’s book club members will meet on Monday, April 6^th at 5:00p.m. to discuss this book.

Included in our library’s western collection are books about American history, the Old West, and the western frontier, as well as contemporary western fiction novels.  Here is a list of recently donated western book titles that have been added to the library’s collection:

The Kincaids Series by Taylor Brady:

“Prairie Thunder”- Book #2

“Mountain Fury”- Book #3

“Western Winds”- Book #4

Franklin Carter Book Series:

“Rails West”-Book #1

“Nebraska Crossing”-Book #2

“Wyoming Territory”- Book #3

“Sierra Passage”- Book #4

Jake Logan- “Nevada Gunmen”

Jake Logan- “Slocum’s Warpath”

Lucia St. Clair Robson- “Ride The Wind”

Judd Cole- “Vision Quest”

Elmer Kelton- “Dark Thicket”

Kerry Newcomb- “Scalpdancers”

The Australians Series by William Stuart Long:

“The Colonists”- Book #6

“The Gallant”- Book #8

Susan Tanner- “Winds Across Texas”

Win Blevins- “The High Missouri”-(Rivers West Series)

Suzann Ledbetter- “Pure Justice”

There are even more western books available to borrow as ebooks and audio books through the library’s website. Stop by the library and learn how you can easily access these books using your personal digital device and a library card number.

New Books Added To The Library’s Collections!!

Adult Non-fiction Books:

Ben Macintrye- “Double Cross: The True Story Of The D-Day Spies”

Benny Hochman- “From Hell To Here” (A World War II Autobiography)

Adult Fiction Books:

John Sanford- “Field Of Prey”

Barbara Taylor Bradford- “Cavendon Hall: A Novel”

Fannie Flagg- “The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion”

David Baldacci- “The Target”

David Baldacci- “The Escape”

Terry Hayes- “I Am Pilgrim: A Thriller”

Lee Child- “Personal” (A Jack Reacher Novel)

Sandra Brown- “Mean Streak”

Heather Graham- “The Hexed” (Krewe Of Hunters Book #)

Heather Graham- “The Betrayed (Krewe Of Hunters Book #)

Linda Castillo- “The Dead Will Tell: A Kate Burkholder Novel

Anne Hillerman- “Spider Woman’s Daughter” (Leaphorn and Chee)

M.C. Beaton- “Death Of A Policeman” (Hamish Macbeth Mystery)

Anne Perry-Blood On The Water: A William Monk Novel

Joanne Fluke- “Blackberry Pie Murder” (A Hannah Swensen Mystery)

Richard Paul Evans- “The Mistletoe Promise”

Patrick Taylor- “An Irish Country Christmas”

Carl Hiaasen- “Skink– No Surrender”

Stop by the library and check out one of these books!!

“The Homesman”, a novel by Glendon Swarthout, and now a movie, explores an aspect of American western migratory history that is seldom considered: what happened to those 1850s settlers who suffered mental breakdowns under the extreme conditions common to their new environment and lifestyle? This was especially the case for those women, already isolated from everything and everyone they left behind, who lost one or more children to disease or accident. Who would care for them if they could not care for themselves?

The research Swarthout conducted in Nebraska gave him the answers he sought. Mentally ill men are likely to have died of exposure, disease, or death at the hands of fellow settlers who felt threatened by their presence. Women suffering mental illness, on the other hand, were not treated so harshly. It was more likely that husbands made arrangements to have their wives transported back east to family or institutions that could care for them for the rest of their lives. The tragedy of four of these women having to be removed from their families and carried back across the Missouri River for care serves as the premise of “The Homesman” (“homesman” being the term for the man chosen to escort the women eastward).

In the case of these particular women, however, when no man, including their own husbands, is willing to make that dangerous trek, the job falls to a woman volunteer, one Mary Bee Cuddy. The determined Mary Bee is perhaps the only woman who would even have had a small chance to get the four women home safely on her own. But, despite the fact that the four husbands are perfectly content to see their wives set out without a male escort, Mary Bee knows that she needs help if she and the women are to survive the trip – and she finds that help in the person of a claim jumper she coerces into accompanying her.

When first published in 1988, “The Homesman” won both major awards annually given to the best western novels of the year: the Western Heritage Wrangler Award and the Spur Award granted by the Western Writers of America. It is easy to see why.

Stop by the library and check out this book. The library’s book club will be discussing this novel by Glendon Stouthart on Monday, March 2^nd. Everyone is welcome to join this discussion group.

The next Spalding Public Library book club meeting will be held on Monday, February 2, 2015 at 5:00 p.m. in the meeting room at the library. The group will be discussing the book “The Glass Castle: A Memoir” by author Jeannette Walls. Please join us as we discuss this saga of the restless, unshakable Walls family, led by a grand eccentric and his tempestuous artist wife. Jeannette Walls has survived poverty, fires, and near starvation to triumph. She has written this amazing tale with honesty and love. All are welcome to attend this book club meeting! Hope to see you there!!