Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

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I’ve been participating in Joplin Public Library’s Adult Winter Reading Challenge, a reading challenge designed specifically for adults that runs December 1, 2024 through January 31, 2025. The goal of the challenge is to complete five of fifteen provided reading categories, which include choices such as Debut Novel, Small-Town Setting, Western, and Suspense/Thriller, to name a few. The reader participating in the challenge chooses which categories they would like to complete, and what books to read. Once a reader completes the challenge they receive a ceramic mug from the Library and three tickets to enter into a prize raffle drawing. This challenge is ideal for regular readers who are looking for a challenge to read different genres or read outside their comfort zone, as well as individuals that want to be more regular readers and need a little nudge in that direction. Any adult can participate, no library card necessary, and challenge forms can be picked up in the Reference Department of the Library and found on our website calendar, as can a link to participate electronically.

The category I most recently completed is Been Meaning to Read, and for this I read the novel Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. A whimsical epic adventure, Tress of the Emerald Sea feels like a chuckle and warm hug from a friend and turned out to be one of my favorite reads this year. 

Tress is an 18 year old girl who lives on a rocky island void of vegetation and many other resources. The Emerald Sea her island is located upon is not like our seas: it is not made of water, but of green verdant spores which transform into vines upon contact with water. This makes sailing the seas (of which her world has 12 of different colors) tricky and dangerous. As such, Tress has lived the entirety of her life with her family on her small island, looking out upon the Emerald Sea and maintaining her teacup collection, of which she is very fond. 

Tress has one very good friend who she would like to be more than friends with on the island: Charlie. Charlie is the Duke’s son, although he pretends to be the grounds keeper when Tress is around, despite her seeing right through his act. Charlie and Tress spend a great deal of time together until the day the Duke puts his son on a ship and sends him off to find a bride. Tress and Charlie are devastated. Months pass, Charlie sends letters and cups to Tress, detailing how he is purposefully boring his potential brides, until word is received that the Duke’s son will be returning with his new bride. Tress is inconsolable; that is, until the Duke’s “son” returns and it isn’t Charlie at all but a squared jawed rude imposter! Tress learns that the Duke has abandoned Charlie to the Sorceress of the Midnight Sea, who is reportedly very evil and very unstoppable, and has adopted this fake son in place of Charlie. 

Well, Tress cannot stand for that. Someone must save Charlie, and that someone is her. Thus begins Tress’s epic adventure to save the one she loves. With a setup similar to many epic adventures, Tress is the hero that tackles impossible obstacles to see her end goal complete, with many mishaps, lovable characters, and self-growth along the way. Tress transitions from a stowaway on a boat, to a captive of a pirate ship, to a beloved crew member of that same pirate ship, to someone that can truly conquer all she takes on. There’s a talking rat, a cannon master with horrible eyesight, a wise yet intimidating dragon, and more verdant spores than Tress knows what to do with. The novel is narrated by a humorous character that Tress eventually encounters, and this narrator often breaks the fourth wall with asides to the reader that range from helpful information about a plot point or character, to random facts about himself, to nonsensical ramblings that have nothing to do with the story whatsoever; it’s wonderful. 

Brandon Sanderson has stated that he pulled inspiration for this novel from The Princess Bride after his wife pointed out that for the title character, there isn’t a lot of focus on the princess bride herself. Sanderson wanted a novel that featured a heroic female lead and that had similar spunk and whimsy to The Princess Bride, and boy did he accomplish his goal. Tress of the Emerald Sea is a delight to read. I really liked Tress as a heroine; she is kind, brave, practical, loyal, and not annoying in the way some heroines can be. The writing is clever and could be enjoyed by readers of all ages. This novel is fun to read, and I might be crossing into gushing territory here, but I do not have one negative thing to say about it. I recommend Tress of the Emerald Sea to readers interested in a character-driven playful adventure novel that simultaneously manages to accomplish creative world building and smile-inducing writing. 

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Review by Sarah Turner-Hill, Adult Programming Coordinator

Christina’s Favorite Children’s Books of 2024

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Another year has come and gone, which means it’s time for my favorite tradition: the end-of-year round up. Every December, I reflect on the best books I read that year. I am not sure that my favorite books have any connecting thread aside from me loving them. In 2024, I loved picture books that had both art so beautiful I wanted to put it up in my home and a story that was fun to read aloud for my whole family. I loved chapter books told from the perspective of a character confronting the uncomfortable, in regards to both places and relationships. I also loved funny books. Without further ado, I present some of my favorite books of 2024. 

When I was a kid, my dad sometimes took me to an indoor playground on the top floor of a movie theater that was decorated in the style of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. As a reader, this playground was a dream. The adjoining restaurant was modeled after In the Night Kitchen, another, much weirder Sendak title that I also loved. 

As I flipped through X. Fang’s picture book Dim Sum Palace, I realized it was an homage to the latter Sendak title, which I loved so much. However, Fang’s title is incredible in its own right, both in the beautiful (and slightly strange) illustrations and the imaginative, midnight romp in the restaurant. Liddy, the round-cheeked protagonist, is brave and curious, even after she gets wrapped into a bao by chefs several times larger than her. This is a fun, silly read aloud perfect for bedtime or anytime. Dim Sum Palace will make readers laugh, and it may also make them hungry. 

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The Prickletrims Go Wild by Marie Dorleans is a beautiful story about the buttoned-up Prickletrim family learning to let loose. The Prickletrims are prim and proper. They have a lovely, well-curated garden where everything is just so. Their insistence on such a garden, however, leads to their exasperated gardener quitting in a huff. In his absence, their perfect yard becomes a bit, well, wild. As flowers bloom and color enters their lives and eventually their home, they realize they could stand to be a bit less straightlaced. They spend the whole summer smelling flowers, exploring, touching plants, and watching wildlife. The juxtaposition of the black and white line drawings of the family and their house with the full-color, full-page illustrations of flora and fauna is especially striking. The Prickletrims Go Wild is a delight to read and look at. 

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Other favorites from 2024, which I have written about in other reviews, include the uproariously funny The First Cat in Space and the Wrath of the Paperclip by Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris, and the illuminating historical fiction novel The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh. It was a good year of reading, and I’m looking forward to more good books in 2025. Happy reading!

The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne

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The celebrity memoir. The decision to read one is subject to a big-time conditional: the celebrity in question. Fairly obvious condition, I know. Until recently, I don’t believe I had read a single celebrity memoir, deeming them somewhat akin to “royal watching,” a waste of one’s fine time. This opinion, however, evidenced my own limited thinking, for I just devoured a celebrity memoir. And it turns out the big-time conditional was that it be written by a celebrity I had never heard of.

While I may not have heard of Griffin Dunne, I certainly knew of his aunt, the late author Joan Didion. She was the hook that led me to giving The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir a go. There she is on the cover, along with other recognizable faces: her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, and his brother—and Griffin’s father—Dominick Dunne. The whole lot of them look sufficiently WASPy. The Dunnes, however, were Catholic. It didn’t matter that Dominick grew up across the street from the Hepburns (both Katherine and Dominick’s respective fathers were noted physicians) in a moneyed Connecticut neighborhood. The Protestant Hepburns didn’t speak to the Catholic Dunnes.

Griffin’s mother, Ellen Griffin, was born to an even wealthier family, and Griffin’s retelling of her family history had me beguiled right from the jump. Griffin and his two siblings also grow up (surprise) quite privileged. There’s still plenty of loss and tragedy along the way, with Dunne writing an affecting account of what transpired. He’s a natural storyteller who does justice to his family, even as he lays it all out there. Still, I’m not ashamed to admit that what had me flying through the pages was the sheer volume of famous names that roll out in story after story.

Dominick grew up enthralled with movies. He also had a natural inclination to be a gadfly around famous people; so it’s not surprising he ended up in the entertainment industry. In New York City, Griffin’s first babysitter was Elizabeth Montgomery. Humphrey Bogart persuaded Dominick to relocate to Hollywood and stage-manage a show, ushering the Dunnes into the Beverly Hills set. Peter Lawford was a next door neighbor. When dining out, it was not unusual to see Jimmy Stewart at one table and Alfred Hitchcock at another.

It’s a reminder that Hollywood is, after all, a business. With Dominick working as a television and film producer, it meant his colleagues were some of the most famous names from the Hollywood of yesteryear. At one pool party, a young and overeager Griffin jumps into the deep end and promptly sinks to the bottom. A hand grabs him and places him at the pool’s edge. “A wee bit early for the deep end, sonny,” says Sean Connery, his rescuer.

But growing up around the entertainment industry also means you behold the reality behind the camera. When Griffin visits the Gilligan’s Island soundstage, he sees Bob Denver—Gilligan himself—fly into a rage over a “last-minute rewrite and upend a watercooler onto the floor.” And it also means that the famous will see you. In the case with the Dunnes, Dominick’s appetite to be around and impress celebrities was clearly too voracious. When entertaining guests, the Dunne children were often called upon to make an appearance before going to bed, the brothers bowing—replete with matching robes— and their sister curtsying. Years later, Dennis Hopper would tell Griffin that it was the saddest thing he ever saw.

Ellen and Dominick’s marriage ultimately failed. His excessive drinking was a contributor. And the fact that he was a closeted homosexual was certainly a factor. He may have been closeted in Hollywood but not to Ellen. As a child, Griffin was unaware of this dynamic within his parent’s marriage. But, looking back, he now understands why instead of receiving the German shepherd he asked for, his father gave him two poodles with pom-pom tails; one of which was named Wilde, after Oscar Wilde.

Griffin was sent to a few boarding schools. His father eventually blew up his career and left California. Griffin describes his brother, Alex, as extremely intelligent but whose only “ambition was to be cleansed of all ambition.” As a young adult, Alex is said to have had “a unique relationship with reality.” If Alex heard a particular song on the radio, he would become quite agitated that the artist hadn’t properly credited his contribution. He would write letters to the offending musician, detailing how he didn’t want royalties, just a simple “thank you.”

It was Dominique, their sister, who was the lodestar of the family. They all adored her. When Griffin and Dominique both began their acting careers, it was pretty much a given that she was the most talented of the two. And as their mother was losing her mobility from the effects of multiple sclerosis, it’s Dominique who did things like “steal” Robin Williams away from a party and have him perform some comedy for a bedridden Ellen.

In 1982, all the male Dunnes were living in New York City. Griffin pursued an acting/producing career as Dominick worked on a novel. Both were trying to keep Alex from sliding into madness. It was also the year they received word that Dominique had been placed on life support after having been strangled by an ex-boyfriend. They fly back to Los Angeles, and it’s beyond wrenching to read of this family reuniting only to take Dominique off life support. When it’s time to say goodbye to his daughter, a distraught Dominick whispers in her ear: “Give me your talent.”

The family attend the murder trial of Dominique’s attacker, and the whole thoroughfare is positively maddening to read about. But it did spur Dominick’s second career as a writer. His journal from the trial was published in Vanity Fair, where he would continue as a contributor.

Griffin seemingly had a good relationship with his aunt, Joan Didion. Dominique’s murder certainly put a strain on family relations, however. Didion’s literary reputation undoubtedly gave Griffin some reputational cachet in turn. As an example, when Griffin was a struggling actor, he took a bartending job at a private dinner party where he ended up being harassed by Tennessee Williams. When the hostess informed Williams that he was harassing Joan Didion’s nephew, a startled Williams immediately apologized. (Griffin writes that he didn’t really mind the harassment.)

Excluding Alex, most of the people in this outstanding memoir are gone now, including Carrie Fisher. She and Griffin met as teenagers and became best friends. Fisher absolutely comes across as a blast to hang out with, just flat-out cool and witty. Once, she called Griffin to complain that the film she was shooting was going to be a disaster. “I’m acting with an eight-foot yeti and a four-foot Brit in a rolling trash can.” When Griffin says that he doesn’t understand the movie’s title, Carrie responds, “Two words: ‘Star’ and then ‘Wars.’ Put’em together and still doesn’t make any sense.”

Oh, and Frank Sinatra once paid a maître d’ fifty dollars to slap Dominick across the face.

This book has it all.

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Review by Jason Sullivan

The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning by A.J. Jacobs

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We the People of the United State, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Thus begins the inspiration for A.J. Jacobs latest work, The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning.

The author has decided to live for a year following the original meaning of the U.S. Constitution with its grammar and spelling eccentricities (he spell-checked it). This concept is not new to Jacobs. The journalist also took a stab at living biblically for a year. The constitution is considerably shorter than the bible, a mere 4543 words, but provides multiple ways to interpret its content.

To get himself into the proper frame of mind Jacobs made some changes. As a journalist communication is very important to him so how did people communicate in 1787 and how was the constitution recorded? – quill and ink. So, communication, and this book, were written with his quill. Also, in keeping with the constitutional theme, the book doesn’t have chapters but articles and sections.

He established his rules for the year. To paraphrase he will express his constitutional rights using the technology and mindset of the time when it was ratified; he will follow all federal and state laws, past and present, under an ultra-originalist interpretation of the Constitution; he will only engage in activities that would be possible in ultra-originalist America; and he shall alert others when they do something not protected by that same ultra-originalist interpretation. This last rule may not go over well.

Jacobs donned a tricorne hat and joined a reenact group to fight in a revolutionary war battle. He also assembled a group of legal scholars from across the political spectrum. They help him understand the ways the constitution is interpreted and what the founders and amenders may have intended when they set our system of government.

The author has a little leeway in that he is also following the changes made through amendment. As noble as the founders were, they were all free white men and wrote the document as such. They recognized “Person held to Service or Labour” and of course only white men could vote.

He stated his year on Election Day in 2022 and since he is honoring the amendments his wife could accompany him to vote. While his intent to vote aloud was thwarted they did get to exercise their constitutional right. Besides voting being vocal it was also a festive occasion with music, parades, adult beverages and cake!

The election cake according to a 1796 recipe contained cinnamon, cloves, raisins, and nutmeg. He and his son baked it and got a surprising number of voters to eat cake. His goal for the 2023 election is to get election cake served in all 50 states. This goal is going to be tough to accomplish with quill and ink. His cousin is a baker and offers to take over the search for bakers with the caveat that cloves is optional.

One of the amendments he is eager to explore is the third. British soldiers quartered in your home whether you wanted them there or not. This amendment says you have the right to consent or not. It probably wasn’t near as hard in the eighteenth century to find a soldier willing to accept free lodging from a stranger.

A trip to observe the Supreme Court in action leads to thoughts on the power the court has and is a theme that will reoccur. In interpreting laws and the constitution does and should the court follow originalism or living constitutionalism. Should we hold to the original intent of the document or is the constitution a living document that adapts to current values and circumstances?

One of the more archaic parts of the constitution is the right to have Congress issue you a letter of Marque and Reprisal. Jacobs doesn’t own a boat but can borrow one so he submits his application to become a privateer to Congressman Khanna. He promises to detain and seize any seafaring vessel believed to be operated by an enemy of the United States.

Muskets, pillories, the right to assemble, and amending the constitution are among other topics explored. Jacobs is an amusing writer and not afraid to poke fun at himself. He is also well informed and gives you a lot to ponder whether you are an originalist, a living constitutionalist or somewhere in between.

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Review by Patty Crane, Reference Librarian

 

How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley

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When Constable Penny Martin pulled over the minibus she didn’t know what to expect having followed it with flashing lights for quite a while. On boarding Penny is met by a mixture of mostly septuagenarians and children. Lydia, the 53 year old driver, didn’t stop because they urgently need a bathroom and she was hopeful the police were clearing the way.

When they hear Penny stopped them to apprehend someone from the bus, the confessions begin. First Lydia, then an elderly man confessing to an unnamed crime, a teen with a baby promising to not do it again, followed by two elderly women – one declaring its art not crime, the other saying they all died of natural causes. But the one Penny is looking for just crossed the highway. Who knew someone that old could move so well?

Thus begins How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley. Pooley’s beginning prologue is actually almost the end of her story and we have to go back three months to find what transpired to have this mismatched crew on a bus ready to confess.

Lydia, an empty-nester with a dismissive husband, needs to fill her time. She takes a job running the Senior Citizens Social Club at the community center. Her advertisements nets her six members to begin the club.

Art is an out of work actor who is estranged from his family and a kleptomaniac. William Is retired paparazzo and Art’s best friend. Ruby is an avid knitter but seems to have trouble with proportion as everything she works on seems three sizes too large.

Anna is a retired driver with a love of vivid hair color. She is widowed five times over and uses her walker like a plow to clear her path. Pauline, a retired headmistress, seems to bully her way through life. She brought her dog, Margaret Thatcher, and defies Lydia’s reminder that dogs aren’t allowed.

Then there is Daphne. Daphne carries an air of superiority and dresses like she is having tea at the Ritz. She has lived as a recluse for the last fifteen years and the Social Club is step one in her quest to change.

Lydia has a stereotypical vision of those over seventy and thinks they’ll be working puzzles and playing bingo. The members however have other ideas – skydiving, target practice, speed dating and karate to name a few.

Before they can make any plans, Pauline has shared her opinions on several things including Lydia’s capabilities as a leader. Lydia has barely completed her silent thoughts on where Pauline can go when there is a loud crack and the ceiling falls – right on top of Pauline.

Everyone is ok including Margaret Thatcher but Pauline is dead – from a stroke not the ceiling collapse. Feeling responsible, Lydia takes Pauline’s dog home with her. To make the dog more acceptable to her husband she declares “Maggie” is a bichon frise not the mongrel she obviously is. Her husband still objects so she devises a plan to have other members of the Social Club share dog ownership with her.

Art needs a dog to perform in a talent show so he readily agrees. Daphne, surprisingly, also agrees to help. But dog ownership is secondary to the notice they find on the community center door. The town council is holding a meeting to decide the fate of the building. The town has not kept up maintenance and the collapse is a small part of larger issues plus a development company is keen to own the site.

If they close the center where will the club, the Lamaze class and Alcoholic Anonymous go? Not to mention the nursery across the hall. A lot of people depend on the council nursery, including Ziggy.

Ziggy is finishing school and had plans to study computer science at the university. An ill-considered tryst at a school dance resulted in the birth of Kylie. Saying no to adoption, Ziggy and his mom are raising his daughter alone. He already has to navigate being a single father at school and the gangs in his neighborhood, losing the nursery may be the last straw.

But this group of seniors is not willing to accept what may be fate. Art has the initial idea to partner with the nursey on their mandatory nativity program. Then Daphne, the master planner, steps in.

Together they will deal with Lydia’s philandering husband and Art’s addiction to liberating things from store shelves; protect the yarn bomber whose public yarn pieces are creating a stir; help Ziggy; and try to save the community center.

Daphne is a woman with a past and was a recluse for a reason. With the publicity they generate, can she see all her plans through before the past catches up with her?

Filled with interesting characters this is a humorous read with heart. You’ll find it in the large print section at Joplin Public Library.

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Review by Patty Crane, Reference Librarian

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

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Adina Giorno is born in September 1977 at the moment that the Voyager 1 spacecraft is launched into space. Voyager 1 is a probe designed to record data about the outer Solar System and transmit that data back to Earth. Adina has been sent to Earth with the opposite mission.

When Adina is four years old, three important things happen to her. First, her mother discovers an abandoned fax machine in a neighbor’s trash can. Second, her parents separate — leaving Adina with her single mother and only a vague impression of her father. And third, she is activated.

Adina is an extraterrestrial, she was sent to Earth to gather information for her alien species. Upon her activation, she begins to dream of a classroom where these aliens can teach her things and request information from her. Adina also begins sending and receiving faxes from her alien superiors.

They want information about Earth; about the ways that humans behave and interact. They tell Adina that she was designed to appear as normal as possible and that she should report to them all of her observations about life.

Adina has an unusual way of looking at the world. She thinks deeply about the things that many humans ignore: the fish at the aquarium, the reasons humans have for smiling at one another, the volume of popcorn chewing in a movie theater. She relays all of these observations to her superiors.

As she grows, she continues to send these faxes back and forth. Giving information and receiving cryptic messages or non-answers back. Especially when she asks about the planet that she is from. She keeps her mission a secret from everyone.

When she graduates high school, Adina gets a part-time job working at a diner. She loves the repetitive work and her coworkers. She stays at the diner for years, continuing to live at home with her mother and sending observations through her fax machine.

When she suddenly gets the urge to change her life and move to New York City, her supervisors’ only response is “oh Nelly.”

Adina spends most of her twenties and thirties living in New York. She gets a job in an office and adopts a dog. It being the nineties, she also joins a workout studio with a high-intensity, motivational-phrase-using coach named Yolanda K.

Adina is working in her Manhattan office during the September 11 terrorist attacks. She gets off the island without incident, but it makes her reevaluate all of the relationships in her life. Afterward she reconnects with her high school friend, Toni, who has also been living in New York.

Toni is the only person who has ever seen Adina’s faxes. She now works at a publishing company and believes that Adina would have an audience for her unusual takes on human behavior if she would be willing to publish.

The book is a remarkable success, much to Adina’s dismay. The publishers ask her to do public readings of increasing size and the book goes through multiple print runs. As Toni suspected, Adina’s views on the world resonate with a lot of people.

For her book, Adina goes public with her alien identity. Although her audience likes the book, they are divided about whether or not they believe she is an alien.

Marie-Helene Bertino’s BEAUTYLAND refuses to make it clear if Adina is an alien or not. Readers debate the point, mirroring Adina’s audience in the book. A friend of mine recommended this book to me; she is convinced that Adina is a human who falls somewhere on the autism spectrum. While I do see that many of her quirks could be explained with an autism diagnosis, Adina never wavers from her certainty about her extraterrestrial origins. So I choose to believe her.

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

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Emma Wheeler has been the full-time caretaker for her father, who suffers from a traumatic brain injury, for a decade, while her younger sister Sylvia finished high school and college. On the day her sister is due to arrive home, after graduating from college, Emma gets an unexpected call from her manager Logan.

Typically Logan passes along writing opportunities like movie reviews and magazine articles so that Emma can support herself while also having the time to work on other writing projects that she enjoys in her downtime. But Logan’s phone call is not typical. He makes Emma an offer that she can hardly refuse – real writing work, doing what she loves – writing a romantic comedy.

Okay, maybe not writing it from scratch, but re-writing it. And the best part is that it is a re-write for (and with) her favorite screenwriter, Charlie Yates. He is legendary in the writing/television world and has won numerous awards for his writing. Emma is a super fan that has followed him and his work for years.

She cannot believe that she has been offered the chance to work with Charlie Yates. The CHARLIE YATES! After the initial shock and excitement, reality sets in and Emma realizes there is no way she can leave her father and spend six weeks in Los Angeles. She is resigned to turning down the offer; however, after she tells her sister about the opportunity, Sylvia insists that she go. She assures Emma she will stay and take care of their father. After all, it is her turn to help.

After some convincing, Emma is soon headed to Los Angeles, but after Logan picks her up from the airport and takes her to meet Charlie, she realizes that not all the things Logan told her are true. Instead of her dream writing experience she is soon playing a starring role in a drama where Charlie Yates, who turns out to be a grump, is refusing to work with her.

Little does Charlie know that Emma is not one to give up so easily on her dreams. Based on her conviction that love matters and that it is her duty to stand up for rom-coms she devises a plan for getting the script rewritten and if she can change Charlie’s mind about love, all the better.

Bestselling author Katherine Center has outdone herself with her newest book. It is funny, clever, sassy and relatable. Her character development with Emma and Charlie is superb and they both feel like real people. Both have their insecurities and flaws, but they are also likable, well–round characters. Even the secondary characters are well done.

This book was a delicious treat to read and I would recommend it to those looking for a romantic comedy without any spice. Emma and Charlie’s relationship is sweet and the witty banter and humor they have with each other is spot on. I would give Center’s latest addition to the rom-com genre a perfect ten.

Review written by: Jeana Gockley, Joplin Public Library Director

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Audiobook Recommendations

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Many of the books I read are in audiobook form; I enjoy the ease of always having a book with me that I can listen to at various times of my day. Two reasons I’m so glad to have a library card are Libby and hoopla, audiobook borrowing services my Joplin Public Library card provides access to, and where I borrowed the below audiobook titles. I also enjoy receiving audiobook recommendations from fellow readers. For that reason I thought I would provide some of my own recommendations of audiobooks I have particularly enjoyed this year.

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

This memoir by superstar Britney Spears was hard to listen to because Spears has written such a deeply personal, brutally honest look into her complex rise to fame and the way it molded and challenged her life. Chronicling her life from childhood to adulthood, Spears touches on personal relationships with family, boyfriends, husbands, individuals in the music industry, and her own reflections. A common thread is Spears’ recognition of the lack of control and choices she had in her own life, everyone from the media to her own family deciding things for the star, oftentimes without her knowledge. A large part of the memoir is dedicated to the conservatorship Spears was placed under with her father and an attorney serving as conservators. As a Britney Spears fan since her first album release in 1999, I, like many others, was anxious to read her memoir. I found myself laughing with her at times, sympathizing and feeling angry with her, and generally feeling horrible about everything Spears endured because of fame. The audiobook is narrated by actress Michelle Williams; Spears notes in the opening of the memoir that it was too difficult for her to write, let alone narrate. Williams does a fantastic job, transforming her voice to sound like Spears and invoking the emotions on the page; I often forgot I wasn’t actually listening to Britney Spears. I would highly recommend this book to fans of celebrity memoirs; it is brave and heart wrenching, showing the dark side of how toxic fame can be.

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What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez

The description of this book includes the comparison “The Mummy meets Death on the Nile” – I’ve read few descriptions that had me borrowing a book faster. What the River Knows is a historical fantasy following protagonist Inez on a life changing journey to find out what happened to her parents after they disappear in the Egyptian desert, pronounced dead. Inez is sharp and persistent, raised in the upper society of nineteenth century Buenos Aires. Her parents spend half of their year in Egypt, searching for lost tombs and artifacts, leaving Inez behind. When Inez receives word of her parent’s death she takes on the task of discovering what happened. Along the way there is danger, history, excitement, and love. The audiobook I listened to is primarily narrated by Ana Osorio with some sections narrated by Ahmed Hamad. I particularly liked Ana Osorio as a narrator. This was a fun and turbulent read that really kept my interest. 

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All the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life’s Work by Hayley Campbell

Death affects us all; it is a part of life and surrounds the living. There are many reactions to death, one of which is curiosity. Journalist Hayley Campbell became familiar with death at a young age, peering at detailed drawings her father created as part of a Jack the Ripper comic book he was writing. Since then Campbell has wondered about the logistics of death, specifically the death industry and those that make their living working with the dead. In this close look at the death industry Campbell interviews the invisible laborers that have jobs many would never consider for themselves: executioners, embalmers, morticians, homicide detectives, and crime scene cleaners, as well as mass fatality investigators, a bereavement midwife, gravediggers, a cryonics facility, a crematorium operator, an anatomical pathology technologist, a Mayo Clinic director of anatomical services, and a death mask sculptor. By way of these interviews Campbell provides a deep dive into these professions, presents the question of what working with the dead does to the living, and explores various approaches and attitudes to death. In all instances Campbell goes to the interviewee, often at their place of work. This was a really interesting read, and listening to the author herself narrate the audiobook was awesome; I really felt the passion she had for her subject. Campbell respects the death industry and the dead and sheds light on dedicated people whose work is often left unknown and unappreciated.

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The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

This is a young adult coming of age novel that tells of Dill and his friends Travis and Lydia. The group are high school outcasts, leaning on one another for friendship and support. Dill lives with his mom who struggles to make ends meet; his dad is in prison. The main reason for Dill’s outcast status is his fathers very public fall from grace as a minister who handles poisonous snakes and speaks in tongues. Dill receives pressure from his dad to follow in his footsteps and handle snakes. Dill’s mom parrots his dad, urging Dill to go into preaching and discouraging him from applying to college. Tragic events unfold in the novel, ultimately forcing Dill to choose between what his parents want and what he wants. All the while his fierce friendships with Travis and Lydia remain the brightness in his otherwise bleak situation. I was not expecting to love this book like I did; it really stomped on my heart and felt very relatable to teenage and adult readers alike. Zentner’s character building is well done and his writing propelling. The audiobook had three narrators for the parts of Dill, Travis, and Lydia, the chapters fluctuating between the three. I like audiobooks that provide different narrators for different characters, so that was a highlight for me. I would recommend this book to someone looking for a true to life young adult read. 

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Audiobooks can be checked out from the Joplin Public Library in CD and MP3 format, as well as electronically from the digital borrowing platforms Libby and hoopla. 

Loose Threads by Isol

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Every so often, an adult will sheepishly tell me that they “still read picture books.” To that I say: a good book is a good book! Read with abandon! You can find some of the most beautiful art and the most touching stories in picture books. I am hoping my review this month will aid in the unabashed search for great picture books.

Loose Threads is a book unlike any other that I have read. Isol Misenta (listed as Isol on the book jacket) was inspired by a gifted scarf to create an imaginative picture book about a seemingly forgetful little girl named Leila. Originally written in Spanish and translated by Lawrence Schimel, Loose Threads follows Leila, a girl who is always losing things. When her mother admonishes her to take better care of her belongings, Leila insists that it’s not her fault. On the other side of her beautiful village, there is another village. This other village is home to all her lost items. This reverse village is similar to hers, but everything is all jumbled and knotted up. Of course, no one has ever seen this place so the stories could be fictional, but Leila is convinced it’s real. What else could explain the sudden disappearance of so many of her things? Eventually, Leila decides to find this other world and solve the mystery of her lost things once and for all. But will she find what she is looking for? Will her attempts to solve a problem actually make things better?

The story itself is fun, but the illustration style is where Loose Threads really shines. Author/illustrator Isol photographed the gifted scarf, using the finished side as the backdrop of Leila’s world and the messy, back side as the Other Side that she goes in search of. When she seeks to repair the holes between worlds to stop losing her things, Isol uses stitched embroidery thread. Aside from Leila, her mother, and her grandmother, who are sketched directly onto the photo of the scarf, other characters are scribbled onto beige bits of paper and placed on top of the scarf.

This story reads like a fable, both in its off kilter explanation of everyday occurrences and in its creative explanation of an everyday phenomenon and its plucky and curious young hero. Loose Threads can be found in the fairy tale and fable section of the Children’s department and will find its most captive audience in elementary-aged readers and their families. Isol’s unique multimedia illustrations will likely encourage other similar art projects with the reader’s own beloved objects. I’ll see you in the Children’s Department–happy reading!

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The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis by George Stephanopoulos

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We arrive, fellow citizens, at the fleeting moments of a presidential campaign. Soon (hopefully) we’ll know whether it’s Kamala Harris or Donald Trump who will become the next commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces. Of all the enumerated powers under Article II of the U.S. Constitution, “commander in chief” is probably the weightiest. It’s definitely a 24/7 gig. To assist with decision-making, a vast array of national security information is available to each president. And most of it emanates from one centralized location: the White House’s Situation Room.

In The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis by George Stephanopoulos, we learn not only of the Situation Room’s inception (there is actually more than one room) but also of how its use is a commentary on a president’s management style. Stephanopoulos notes that the Situation Room (or Sit Room) has been called “the best filter in the world” and the “most important crisis management center in the entire world.” He does capital work introducing the apolitical Sit Room duty officers who staff and diligently serve each president, regardless of political party affiliation. But what makes this book really pop are the high-level interviews and stories from the archives. Even if you have a broad understanding of the events presented in this book, I posit you will still find many details in those events just flat-out wild and alarming.

The Bay of Pigs debacle was the impetus to create the Situation Room. President Kennedy wanted a centralized location in the West Wing that would hasten direct access to sensitive information. The actual physical space was utilitarian, having “all the charm of a cardboard box.” When Stephanopoulos arrived as a White House staffer in the Clinton administration, conditions apparently had not improved much. When he first saw the Sit Room, his first thought was “underwhelming.” It didn’t resemble the sleek movie depictions that go all the way back to the war room in Dr. Strangelove. (Stephanopoulos does take us through the more recent modernizations.)

President Johnson, bedeviled with the conflict in Vietnam, was a constant visitor to the Sit Room. Ever the micromanager, he would constantly call down to the duty officers. It was not uncommon for Johnson to ring the Sit Room in the middle of the night to inquire if there were any new developments coming out of Vietnam. He desperately wanted some piece of information that might take the U.S. out of what he privately remarked was a hopeless endeavor.

Full of self-pity and feeling persecuted from the Watergate scandal, President Nixon had all but retired to the White House residence where he would start drinking early in the day. As a result, Nixon was often too drunk to make immediate decisions. This created a power vacuum that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was more than happy to fill. Famously known as a realpolitik operator, Kissinger was quick to argue the value of the world viewing the United States as a “trigger-happy” military power. Other national security staff often pushed back, arguing that such force was not always a net positive. And—half a world away—it turns out that Nixon’s counterpart, Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, was also often too drunk to make decisions.

We read how President Carter used a psychic to try and locate the U.S. hostages being held in Iran. When Carter gives the order for a military rescue of the hostages (which failed miserably), Stephanopoulos is excellent in its retelling. The same is true when detailing President Obama’s order to send a Navy SEAL team into Pakistan for Osama bin Laden. Stephanopoulos places the reader right in the Sit Room, and it’s riveting.

In 1981, President Reagan was shot and rushed to a hospital. Thanks to National Security Advisor Richard Allen placing a tape recorder on the Sit Room conference table, we know how various aides and cabinet officials decided to handle the dilemma. And it’s rather shocking. During these tense moments, Vice President Bush was en route to Washington D.C. from Texas. There was a communication problem on his plane, rendering him unreachable. The transcript of the tape recording reads almost like a tragicomedy. Constitutionally, none of the men in that room were in control of the executive branch. But that didn’t stop Secretary of State Al Haig from going to the press and declaring, “As of now, I’m in control here.” Later, Allen would reply that it was an “imminently stupid” thing for Haig to say.

President George H.W. Bush appears both knowledgeable and unfailingly polite. He often invited Sit Room staff to watch movies in the White House’s theater room. A former Sit Room secretary recounts how on one Saturday morning she picked up the phone to hear President Bush actually asking for permission to enter the Sit Room. “This is the president. May I come in?”

He was also shrewd in dealing with military generals who often had their own agendas. This power play with military brass was something Secretary of State Madeleine Albright experienced in the Clinton administration. And the fact that she was the first woman to hold her position meant that it was decidedly a new experience for the generals as well.

Throughout the book, history is threaded together by those who served under multiple presidents. For instance, John Bolton assumed “high-level positions under presidents Reagan, Bush 41, Bush 43 and Trump.” Regarding Bush 43, Bolton notes that the president knew he had much to learn, so “he learned it.” Bolton doesn’t have the same take on President Trump: “He had no idea what the issues were. He never learned anything.” This observance is underscored by Trump asking if Puerto Rico—where the inhabitants are U.S. citizens—could be traded for Greenland.

Ultimately, this book is a homage to the resolute Sit Room duty officers. Career government employees are often much maligned. However, as Stephanopoulos describes, these are the people who stayed at their White House posts during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. They ignored evacuation orders so that they could do their work. They are the ones who must decide when to move information up the chain of command, knowing that a misstep could cost lives. They also understand that for a democracy to endure there must be a continuity of government among presidents. They serve in the same spirit as President Kennedy’s call to service, a “commitment to others” that rises above one’s own self-interest.

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Review by Jason Sullivan