Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For December, we’re looking at an unusual, animal-centric memoir; a pulse-stopping suspense thriller; and a hilarious ode to the quirks of families.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Featured Creatures, Suspense Thrillers, and Rake Thieves”
Voting for the Great Berryville Read continues this week with a new category!
Welcome to Bracket #4 – Great Berryville Read What We Do For Love Edition. Next week on Tuesday, October 9th, the Great American Read episode will focus on literary love stories.
This episode is all about love–romantic love, familial love, tragic love. We’ve assembled a bracket that requires you, gentle reader, to pick your favorites and decide which of these 16 books should advance to the next round of the Great Berryville Read voting.
We’re focusing on newer books, movies, and television shows for 2018, but that doesn’t mean we’re entirely ignoring old favorites! After all, what’s that saying–what’s old may just become new again (or something like that)?
This past week marked the 121st anniversary of a young man by the name of Jack London going north to Alaska to the Klondike Gold Rush. It was in Alaska that London first wrote his stories that would become famous. Since the heat and humidity here in Arkansas has been brutal this summer, you might want to follow Jack’s lead in spirit and seek some solace in his Alaskan adventures. 🙂
I’ve talked on here before about my hesitance concerning depressing animal books for children.
There are a lot of books/movies that could be added to the list of depressing animal stories for kids, and Old Yeller is definitely one of them.
However, even though it is the granddaddy of all depressing animal books for kids, it is a story that I have a soft spot for. In fact, I’ve reread it a few times and always enjoy it. I can’t deny that it is terribly sad, but I think it has a lot of good things to offer before it rips your heart out and depresses you for days.
Though the book is something I have revisited on numerous occasions as an adult, I have not watched the movie since I was a child. I remedied that this past weekend.
As always, beware–some spoilers do follow.
Bears, lions, and tigers, oh my!
Well, truthfully, it’s been more like dogs, cats, birds, and horses, oh my, here on the blog lately as we’ve been chatting about pet cozies and WWI stories about horses this month on Berryville Book Buzz. But that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
Joey is just a lovely, somewhat high-strung bay horse, living on a small Devon farm, with his beloved teenaged owner Alfred when World War I breaks out. He’s soon sold to the British military and, thus, begins Joey’s odyssey as a military horse for both the British and the Germans. Along the way, he meets several owners and finds himself doing everything from charging into battle to hauling artillery to pulling ambulance wagons.
There’s a mystery sub-genre for all occasions and tastes. Literally. You want to read a mystery with food in it? There’s an entire sub-genre devoted to it. You want to read a mystery that involves some hardcore knitting? There’s an entire sub-genre devoted to it. You want to read a mystery that involves cute dogs and cats? Well, this post is for you!
Personally, as much as I enjoy mysteries, I’ve never really delved into these types of mystery sub-genres.
I’ve already talked about my hopeless track record in regard to food and mysteries.
Knitting and needle-crafts in general are not my friends, so that’s just not even an option.
But it’s really kind of odd that I’ve never gotten into pet mysteries because I really do like pets, specifically dogs. I’m currently owned by a 3-lb. Chihuahua named after a Roman emperor.
Even beyond my own personal enjoyment of animals, one of the first books I remember loving as a child featured pet detectives (sort of)–Bunnicula. Granted, they were paranoid and not always terribly competent pet detectives, but that was a huge part of their charm.
So, if like me you’re a newbie to the world of pet cozy mysteries, here’s a roundup of introductory titles to this oddly-specific genre.
Continue reading “Oddly-Specific Genres: It’s Raining Cats and Dogs!”
As some of you know, in addition to managing the library’s blog, I also co-moderate our tween book club with my coworker Mary-Esther, which means we’re responsible for picking books, leading discussions about those books, and directing a related craft or activity for a group of 8-12 year olds.
This month marks my one year anniversary of working with the book club, and the experience has been a valuable one for me, not only because it’s fun but also because it’s given me some much-needed knowledge about the current scene of children’s books.
Confession: Before I started working with the tween book club, I always secretly dreaded when someone asked me to help them find books for kids this age. Not because I’m a monster but because I was so out of touch with what was current.
Every month at the Berryville Public Library, we celebrate a theme with our displays and programs. For February, our theme is “Home is where the heart is.” We have all sorts of displays highlighting this theme, ranging from home improvement/interior decorating books to music about romance and relationships.
I decided to blog about all of the challenges that seemed related to heart and home from the 2016 Library Book Challenge this month, as well, and “Read a book your mom or dad loved” seems like a perfect start. So far, we’ve been providing lists of suggestions to help you make selections, but this challenge is so uniquely personal for everybody that I decided to instead write a more reflective piece on the books that my parents–and grandparents, who helped raise me–shared with me.
Continue reading “2016 Library Challenge: A Book Your Mom or Dad Loves”
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