Library Column for July 19, 2024

@ Your Library

I hope your summer reading has been peachy and plentiful! There are so many books to choose from it can be difficult to know what to read next. It can be especially hard to find a new book or author if you just finished something you really liked. You want to continue living in the world created by the author and the thought of getting to know a new world is just too much. But the library can help you find similar or completely different titles to explore. Stop by and let us recommend some new, old, classic, popular or maybe just different titles.

Stories of heroism can help us be courageous ourselves and The Counterfeit Countess by Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa provides the details of Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg, a Jewish mathematician who saved lives in Nazi-occupied Poland by pretending to be a Polish countess. She used the identity papers of a Polish aristocrat, worked as a welfare official and served in the Polish resistance eventually saving the lives of over 10,000 individuals. Another new title that explores parts of WWII you don’t often read about is Skies of Thunder by Caroline Alexander which details the China-Burma-India war theater as the various countries tested their allies and the men on the field worked with inadequate equipment over treacherous terrain leading to both deadly crashes and astonishing feats.

Move forward a couple of decades and navigate the stormy seas of the 1960’s in Vietnam through a highly recommended book Cheerful Obedience by Patrick McLaughlin. Conor Patrick McKall volunteers for the draft, ignoring his 2-S selective service deferment and is swept up into war, living day to day and trying to keep the grunts under him alive as well.

Tim O’Brien published America Fantastica two decades after his last title. This book is an odyssey across the country as a disgraced journalist robs a bank, takes a hostage and goes on the run trying to settle the score with the man who destroyed his life. America Fantastica is a witty and entertaining look about our country today and its foibles and issues.

15 Summers Later by RaeAnne Thayne explores family secrets, fallouts and reunions. Can you ever start over and leave your past behind? Jenny Colgan continues her School by the Sea novels with the fourth title being Studies at the School by the Sea. Will Maggie stay at the school another year or return to her hometown and what will the girls getting ready to graduate do next?

Next week at the library will include Crafters’ Café on Tuesday from 11 – 1pm, Libratory at 11am on Wednesday, Storytime at 10:30 am on Thursday and Big Play on Friday from 10:30 – noon. We’ll also offer a history walk on Monday, July 22 at noon for anyone interested in learning some of the stories about older buildings (present and gone) around downtown. Call or otherwise message if you have questions or want more details about any of the above programs.

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