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Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors

2021 American Book Awards

Cover of Award Winners
Award Winners

"The American Book Awards were created to provide recognition for outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community. The purpose of the awards is to recognize literary excellence without limitations or restrictions. There are no categories, no nominees, and therefore no losers. The award winners range from well-known and established writers to under-recognized authors and first works.

Sep 3, 2021

Singing to the sky

Cover of I Sang You Down from the S
A review of I Sang You Down from the Stars by Tasha Spillett-Sumner

This is a beautiful book from an Indigenous author/illustrator collaboration.

Through heartfelt text the author shares the anticipation and joy of a mother waiting for the birth of a child. Through the course of the patient months, the mother gathers meaningful elements form nature to create a medicine bundle for her child. Following the birth, the mother recognizes that the new baby is a medicine bundle for herself and for the community.

Sep 1, 2021

Who is hanging out in the haunted Dells?

Cover of The Kindred Spirits Supper
A review of The Kindred Spirits Supper Club by Amy E. Reichert

Have you ever taken a haunted history tour of the Wisconsin Dells? Options include a haunted trolley, haunted canyon, haunted mansion and ghost boat tours to get you started. Now imagine that the Dells is also home to a family of ghost whisperers whose job it is to help spirits with unfinished business cross over. 

Aug 30, 2021

Getting lost and finding your true self

Cover of People We Meet on Vacation
A review of People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Poppy and Alex have been best friends since their freshman year at The University of Chicago. They share a ride back to Ohio for summer break and continue to take a trip every summer after for ten years. They visit Vancouver, Nashville, Sanibel Island, Tuscany and many other varied and beautiful places. Then something happens during the tenth trip, a trip to Croatia, and they are no longer on speaking terms. What happened to tear these two apart?  

Aug 24, 2021

Something in the shadows

Cover of Dark Roads
A review of Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens

In her latest standalone thriller Stevens uses the true story of murders of indigenous women along Highway 16 (aka the Highway of Tears) in British Columbia as a jumping off point. At the heart of this novel are two young women whose lives entwine and overlap within a dark and violent set of events in the small town of Cold Creek, BC. Hailey McBride is seventeen years old and has just lost her only remaining parent, her dad.

Aug 23, 2021

True life adventure

Cover of All Thirteen: The Incredib
A review of All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team by Cristina Soontornvat

On June 23, 2018 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach departed on what was to be an afternoon of cave exploration. However, due to sudden flooding rains, it became an ordeal for the team, their families, the rescuers and the people of Thailand. This ordeal lasted 17 days. Between the efforts of military members, civilians and volunteers from all over the globe, all 13 team members were rescued. It was a rescue that should not have been successful, but miraculously was.

Aug 20, 2021

Introducing Odessa Jones

Cover of A Glimmer of Death
A review of A Glimmer of Death by Valerie Wilson Wesley

Odessa Jones is an amateur crime investigator from Grovesville, New Jersey whose psychic abilities allow her to read the emotions or "glimmer" of those around her and foretell the future through the scents of spices. This first in a new series introduces "Dessa," a recently widowed caterer and reluctant real estate agent with an extraordinary talent for baking.

Aug 17, 2021

A Snapshot of history

Cover of Jazz Day
A review of Jazz Day by Roxane Orgill

Have you ever looked a group picture and wondered what was happening as the shot was captured? Well, Roxane Orgill’s Jazz Day does just that, and more. The photograph Harlem 1958 is now famous for picturing 57 jazz musicians in Harlem on August 12, 1958. Photographer Art Kane called for any and all jazz musicians to gather for the picture and Jazz Day places you in the midst of it all through 21 poems.

Aug 16, 2021

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