The Great American Read‘s most wide-ranging episode is undoubtedly its October 16th “Other Worlds” episode. The selections include historical fiction, fantasy, dystopian fiction, and science fiction.
In the process, it asks viewers what is their favorite type of “other world” to escape into through literature. Do you prefer to dive into the past with historical fiction or travel to foreign countries or venture into outer space or even transport yourself to other worlds entirely?
You may have heard, we’re Building a Better World at libraries all over the country this summer. We’re trying to build one here in Berryville too. But before you build it, you’ve got to dream it! So dreaming of new and better worlds is what we’re all about this June.
Fantasy authors have been building imaginary new worlds in their writing for years. Read on and you may just find a new world worth exploring! Or at least ideas of things we may want to start doing (or avoid doing) in our real world. . . .
Continue reading “Oddly-Specific Genres: Imagining a Better World”
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!
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.
Continue reading “2016 Library Challenge: A Book with Nonhuman Characters”
I had trouble picking books for this challenge because I kept second-guessing how the instructions define “an author under 30.” Are we talking about someone under 30 now? Or does it just mean someone who was under 30 when their book was published? Or maybe under 30 when it was written? It’s a veritable wormhole!
Anyway, I’ve decided to just include a sampler of books from people who are still under 30 and also those from people who are now in their 30s but were under 30 when the book was published.
Incidentally, in much the same way I realized that books over 500 pages tend to come from a couple of different genres, I realized that a lot of these authors write either speculative fiction or historical fiction. Make of that what you will.
As always, if you’re interested in learning more about one of the books, just follow the link to our online catalog.
Continue reading “2016 Library Challenge: A Book By An Author Under 30”
[We’re continuing our guest blogger posts, courtesy of our friends from the Green Forest Public Library. This one is from Green Forest’s director, Tiffany Newton. She also wrote about Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore a few weeks ago.]
“You can’t even look up tomorrow [on Google]. Who says the Internet is boundless?” (pg 129)
The Here and Now by Ann Brashares is a Young Adult book with some romance, science fiction, and dystopian themes. It was published in 2014, but it’s only been checked out from the Carroll and Madison County libraries less than 12 times. However, it’s a quick read that you won’t regret.
Continue reading “Guest Blogger: Tiffany Newton’s The Here and Now review”
Berryville Book Buzz 