Happy New Year and welcome to 2024! As with past years I like to kick off the new year by reflecting on what I read during the previous year. And 2023 was a strange one, reading-wise for me. I kept starting books and not being able to get into them, so I would not finish […]
Thanks to being born with red eyes, a condition known as ocular albinism, life for Sam Hill has never been easy. Fortunately he grew up in a loving home, where his mother continually assured him that he was going to have an extraordinary life. However, his life at school and in public were much different. […]
The setting for Lisa See’s latest New York Times bestselling novel, LADY TAN’S CIRCLE OF WOMEN, is fifteenth century China. A place where women are encouraged to follow a traditional path, usually one dictated by their father or husband. Tan Yunxian, the novel’s narrator, is reminded of this by her mother as the book opens. […]
In April, the Library hosted bestselling author Shelby Van Pelt. Following her presentation, during the Q&A, an audience member asked what she was currently reading. She shared that she had just finished a new book by Steven Rowley called The Celebrants. She loved it and thought that it was a powerful, thought-provoking read. I am […]
With summer on the way, it is a good time to start thinking about what books to take on vacation. To me, vacation reading has become synonymous with a category of fiction called Beach Reads. These are some of my favorite books to read while sitting at the beach enjoying the sand, surf and summer […]
Sam Mazur and Sadie Green first met, at age 11, in a hospital game room in California. Sadie was at the hospital visiting her older sister, Alice, who was fighting cancer, and Sam was recovering from a horrific car accident that left his foot crushed. Sadie had upset her sister and been banished from the […]
Welcome to 2023! As we kick off a brand new year, I like to reflect on what I have read during the previous year. And 2022 was a good one, reading-wise for me. I love writing each title down and keeping track of the total I read; with this year’s grand total being 44. That […]
As Alice Stern approaches her fortieth birthday she feels unsatisfied with her life and is at a point where she is not sure why or how it happened. Her father, who she is immensely close with, is in the hospital with an unknown illness; her work keeps her busy, but the job does not utilize […]
Diana O’Toole has her life completely mapped out – educational aspirations, career goals, engagement and marriage plans, timeline for kids, when to move out of the city to the suburbs – but when the COVID-19 pandemic hits things start to become unpredictable and move far beyond Diana’s control. First, her new high-profile client decides to […]
I had the pleasure of getting to hear lawyer, criminal justice reform advocate, and author Brittany K. Barnett speak at the 2022 Public Library Association Conference in Portland, Oregon, in March. She was one of the conference’s “Big Ideas” speakers. Speakers that were invited to share information and ideas that would take the 4,000+ conference […]
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