Ask the Blogger: Enemy Women

A couple of months ago at Books in Bloom, I was accepting suggestions for books/movies/topics to blog about, and I received a lot of intriguing suggestions. One of the recommendations was for Paulette Jiles’s Enemy Women. The woman who recommended it told me it was set during Civil War-era Missouri and that the author was a poet and her resulting writing style was lovely and evocative. We got so distracted discussing the book that I didn’t even think to ask her for her name until after she had left, but I recently read Enemy Women and really enjoyed it. (I really hope the lady who suggested it chimes in with a comment, so I can thank her properly. Until then, thanks so much for the great book recommendation!)

Discussion Thread: A Book With A Love Triangle

One of the challenges for this month is a book with a love triangle. I had contemplated doing book recommendations for this one, but most of the books I found to recommend were ones that people were likely to have either already read or at least be familiar with.

Instead, I decided to revive the “Discussion Thread” idea from when we covered Outlander.

2016 Library Challenge: A Memoir

Are you a fan of memoirs? They’re one of the categories on the reading challenge we’re doing this year, and one thing I’ve noticed from working in the library is people tend to either really enjoy reading them or they don’t. Personally, I like a good memoir, but I must confess, it’s not usually something I think to pick up on my own. I shared my own book for this challenge last week, but in researching selections for this post, I also found a wide range of memoirs that, hopefully, will appeal to readers who enjoy the genre and read widely in it and those who don’t. If you’re interested in learning more about any of the books mentioned below, please follow the link to our online catalog.

Julie Powell’s Julie and Julia

One of the prompts for the 2016 Library Challenge is to read a memoir. To that end, I’m reviewing the book I read for this challenge—Julie Powell’s Julie and Julia, which chronicles Powell’s year-long project of cooking every single recipe in Julia Child’s classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking. My boss Julie recommended the book to me, and I’m glad she did. (Thanks, Julie!) I had vaguely heard of Powell’s project—due to the buzz surrounding the blog Powell initially recounted her culinary adventures on—and upon reading the book, I realized that several years ago, I actually had read and enjoyed an excerpt of her chapter on cooking (and murdering) lobsters.

2016 Library Challenge: A Trilogy

Have you been looking for a new series lately? I don’t know about you, but I’ve always enjoyed reading a good trilogy. There’s something so appealing about finishing a book you really enjoyed and knowing that you still get to spend more time with the characters in subsequent adventures but also knowing that you’re not indefinitely tied to reading an unknown number of books because there is a definitive end in sight.

To that end, below is a listing of trilogies, both old and new, that you might enjoy reading. Don’t forget you can always learn more about any of the books mentioned on our online library catalog!

2016 Library Challenge: A Book with Nonhuman Characters

One of the library challenges is to read a book with nonhuman characters. So, when I was planning the sequence of posting stuff related to the challenge, I decided to schedule that one to coincide as closely as possible to World UFO Day–which was this past Saturday. (Yes, it’s a thing.)  Of course, that naturally lends itself to discussions of books with aliens in it, but I wanted a broader focus for this post. Therefore, below you’ll find a wide range of books with nonhuman characters, ranging from aliens to fantasy creatures to animals. As always, remember to check out our online catalog if you want to learn more about any of the featured books.