Staff Picks

If you enjoyed the 2012 Newbery Award winner Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos, you may like the sequel: From Norvelt to Nowhere. The author draws on his own childhood experiences in western Pennsylvania in these books, which are full of dark humor, mystery, adventure, a bit of history, and an appreciation for the absurd.

You may also enjoy some of his earlier works, such as Jack's New Power, based on the journal Gantos kept when his family moved to the Caribbean during his middle school years. Although his books are sometimes recommended as "guy reads" or good for reluctant readers, they could be fun for anyone from older elementary to adult.

Virginia McCurry

Information Specialist 

Coffee Talk Book Discussion for May

The Girls of Atomic City tells the true story of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a secret city founded during World War II to help create fuel for the atomic bomb. Oak Ridge didn’t appear on any maps, but thousands of workers moved there during the war. Most of them didn’t know what they were working on until the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima, Japan.  Based on extensive research and interviews with the actual workers, Denise Kiernan puts together the intriguing story of the secret workings within this secret city.  Join us on Tuesday, May 13th at 1:30 for Coffee Talk Book Discussion of this fascinating book.  No registration necessary.

Joyce Jacobs
Information Specialist

Staff Picks

The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison

The Dinner by Herman Koch

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Mother, Mother by Koren Zailckas







All of these books have a few traits in common: they are dark, unfold slowly to reveal disturbing acts, and have very unlikable characters.

Mendy Gunter
Branch Manager
Sharon Forks Library

Staff Pick

Set during WWII,  The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer Page, is a work of historical fiction highlighting the lives of three Jewish brothers and their experiences during the war. The story begins before the war breaks out and each brother's circumstances are very promising.  Once war breaks out life changes dramatically for the brothers.  This is a very interesting and emotional read with lots of history.



Lynne Jackson
Information Specialist

Staff Picks

The Husband's Secret  by Liane Moriarty

Cecelia finds a letter from her husband that she is meant to read after he has died. She eventually opens the letter and what she learns impacts not only her life but also the lives of others around her.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Alice wakes up on the floor of a gym bathroom, having forgotten the last ten years of her life. Over the course of the story, Alice learns the details of her own life that hardly resembles the life she was living ten years earlier.



Trina Schlecht
Information Specialist

Staff Picks

Ralph Waldo Emerson has made an impression on adults worldwide, but how should his writings be introduced to a child?  In this biography for young readers, A Home for Mr. Emerson,  Barbary Kerley focuses on the dramatic house fire that Emerson suffered through in his old age.  Adult fans of Emerson will enjoy his quotes sprinkled throughout the text.  Children will be fascinated by the imaginative and colorful illustrations on every page.

Kim Ottesen
Information Specialist - Youth Services

Book Sleuths

Louise Erdrich’s The Round House is an unforgettable coming of age story set on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota.  In this prize-winning novel, narrator Joe Coutz recalls his transformative 13th summer, a summer spent searching for the rapist who attacked his mother and shattered the stable life he’d always known.  Joe’s best friends Cappy, Zack and Angus join the quest, but finding the attacker is only half the battle, even for the son of a respected tribal judge.

Colorful characters like the aged Mooshu, enigmatic Father Travis and racy Aunt Sonja --a trashy trophy wife who holds sheer fascination for the boys-- give the story humanity and humor.   On the serious side the novel explores the nature of evil, the depths of loyalty, the bonds of family and the price of justice and injustice.

We’ll discuss all the angles of this mesmerizing novel at our Book Sleuths meeting Tuesday, April 22nd at 2pm at the Post Road Library.  Newcomers are welcome so please join us for a fascinating discussion.

Alicia Cavitt
Information Specialist

April Bookworms Selection

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt  is the April selection for the Bookworms book club for grades K-2.  Abused and upset crayons decide to tell their owner how they really feel in this hilarious picture book told through a series of letters. Kids will love the funny letters and childlike illustrations drawn to perfection by illustrator Oliver Jeffers. You'll never look at a box of crayons the same way again!  Staff will read this fun book in the program and kids will have fun answering questions about the story and creating crafts based on the book. Register now for the Sharon Forks location on April 17th or the Cumming location on April 24th!

Staff Picks

With Lost and Found Oliver Jeffers has written a sweet little story about a boy who finds a penguin on his doorstep and decides to return it home to Antarctica. Entertainment One and Studio A.K.A. turned it into a beautifully animated film that retains the simplicity of the story.

But where did Oliver Jeffers find his original inspiration?  One can't help but think that   he must have seen Bugs Bunny in the Looney Tunes Short 8 Ball Bunny, where Bugs Bunny meets with mishaps as he tries to return a pen-gu-ine to the Antarctic.
                     
Why not check all three out for a compare and contrast session?

Staff Picks

There are several popular young adult novels that capture the perils of the dystopian society.  The more mature reader will appreciate the same genre in Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.  Set in the not distant future, Offred is  valued for her potential to produce a child in a diminishing population.  Note the interesting name:  Offred = Of Fred, and it is the pattern used to rename women who are identified as handmaids.  Get ready for parallels with George Orwell's Animal Farm because in Handmaid's Tale, some  generals are more equal than the people they serve.

Staff Picks

Extreme Medicine:How Exploration Transformed Medicine in the Twentieth Century
by Kevin Fong, M.D.

If you want a layman’s overview of many of medicine’s advances of the 20th century, this book does so in an interesting manner.  It brings to life tales of ordinary people in the throes of severe burns, freezing temperatures, helpless against polio, and many other afflictions.  It covers how courageous doctors risk their reputations, and the lives of their patients, to save the lives of many.

This book cover is slightly deceiving at first as many of the first examples are of war and violent incidents.  However, he does mix these with many of man’s amazing explorations of the world around us.

There is also an eVideo by Dr.Fong on the same subject, produced by the BBC titled Life, Death, and Mistakes. Dr. Kevin Fong investigates how doctors can avoid making mistakes in the high-pressure, high-stakes world of the operating theater. He sets out to learn how other professionals make life and death decisions under pressure- from airline pilots facing emergencies, to the Fire Service dealing with lethal blazes, to the world of Formula One pit crews. Kevin discovers how all these fields are helping to make surgery safer. (49 minutes)

Joan Dudzinski
Collection Support Supervisor