Meet Kaity—FCPL's Latest Library Limelight!

Stepping into the Limelight this month is Kaity who recently enjoyed her third anniversary with the Forsyth County Public Library family as a Youth Specialist at the Cumming Library. In a role she’s been preparing for since her early teens, Kaity finds satisfaction in helping both avid readers and reluctant ones discover the joy found between the pages of just the right book.

A Georgia girl from birth, Kaity has spent most of her life living not too far up the road from Forsyth County. “I've lived in many towns in the northeast of the state,” she says. “I spent the longest growing up in Commerce and Statham, near Athens.”

Staff Picks: Small Town Stories

I grew up in a midwestern suburb but spent each summer visiting my grandparent's rural home in Southern New Jersey.  Small towns are great for biking on country roads past picturesque farms and woodlands, exploring nature, buying farm-fresh corn at roadside vegetable stands, and spending long lazy days swimming or just enjoying the sunshine. When you aren't the one stacking hay and shucking corn, the relaxed pace of small town living offers extra time for my favorite pastime of all - reading. I still enjoy reading stories about the lives of people living in small towns. 

Stories set in small towns are on display this month at Sharon Forks Library but they don't all focus on the idyllic side. Check out Delilah S. Dawson's Bloom, a dark fantasy about a woman whose life takes a very strange turn when she makes a new friend at a local farmer's market, Jane Harper's Exiles, a mystery set in South Australia's wine country, Olga Tokarczuk's award-winning Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, or the Ray Bradbuy classic, Dandelion Wine. 

What are your favorite books set in small towns? 

Museum and Park Passes: The Computer Museum of America

Recently my family and I visited the Computer Museum of America in Roswell, Georgia. The museum houses one of the world’s largest collections of artifacts from the digital era including rotary photos, transistor radios, personal computers, a World War II cipher computer called the Enigma machine, and playable classic video games like Asteroids and Donkey Kong. If you enjoy old school technology like I do, you can even type up a letter on a typewriter. 

Literary Road Trips: The Savannah Book Festival

Last weekend I attended the Savannah Book Festival. The event is a real treat for book lovers, with over forty authors sharing their stories and signing books in Savannah’s beautiful historical district.

Marjan Kamali, Author 

In the beautiful sanctuary of the Lutheran Church of the Ascension on Wright Square, Marjan Kamali, author of The Lion Women of Tehran and The Stationery Shop, talked about her childhood in Iran and her love of books.

Historical fiction author Chanel Cleeton spoke about her family’s Cuban heritage and her books The House on Biscayne Bay, When We Left Cuba, and The Last Train to Key West.

Unreadable: Podcast Transcript - February 2025

In this episode of Unreadable, Ross speaks with Shelby Van Pelt about her novel Remarkably Bright Creatures, this year's Forsyth Reads Together selection. Van Pelt’s debut novel, published in 2022, remains a New York Times bestseller and features the unique perspective of Marcellus the octopus as a narrator. Van Pelt spoke with Ross about how she developed her characters, some based on true life and others based on people (and marine life) watching at the Georgia Aquarium, and she shared her excitement about the upcoming film adaptation.

An Evening with Shelby Van Pelt is Mar 11, 2025 at the Forsyth Conference Center. The event is ticketed and currently full; however, there are a plethora of events related to the book taking place at all the Forsyth County Public Library branches. You can find out more in our event calendar. 

Lunar New Year Celebration at Sharon Forks Library

 

Last month over 1,500 patrons attended Forsyth County’s 3rd annual Lunar New Year Celebration at Sharon Forks Library in partnership with OneForsyth. Lunar New Year is celebrated by many parts of Asia to welcome the arrival of Spring. The library's celebration highlighted various aspects of Asian culture and included thirteen performances of dancing, singing, instruments, stand-up comedy, youth coding presentations, martial arts, and more.