Best Books 2009

It's getting to be that time of year. The time for looking back. For deciding the best/worst of the year. This list is from about.com blogger Mark Flanagan, the best literature of 2009

1. Little Bee by Chris Cleave. The Story of a friendship between a Nigerian girl and a British magazine editor.


2. The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. Sparks is a favorite of our readers. This is the story of relationships between parents and children.


3. Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow This is the story of two eccentric bachelors from respected New York families who were found dead in their apartment amid a ton of trash. This is a fictionalized account of a story that captivated an audience of New Yorkers in 1947.


4. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenger This is about twins who have a supernatural encounter with their dead aunt in London

We have each of these books at the library. Best of 2009 books.

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

I have just finished my second Kristin Hannah novel, Firefly Lane. As soon as the story began I knew that it was going to be vaguely similar to the one I had just finished. While this one was several hundred pages longer and spanned a far larger time period I felt like I had somehow already read it. Girl from trouble home with drug addict, absent mother, meets girl from stable loving home. Troubled girl is enveloped into the warm loving home and thus begins a 30 year long friendship/relationship. This story covers the entire 30 year span rather endlessly. The book was very warm and mostly sweet and filled with tear jerking moments with the usual line up: men, careers, marriage, children....with one girl pursing a career, and one pursuing marriage and family. If you want a pretty stereotypical read, well this is the book for you. It wasn't that I would have called it a bad read, after all, I did finish it. It's just, well not too surprising. No unusual characters, or even very deep relationships despite a 30 year friendship between two women. The book doesn't really get going and I skim quite a bit of the middle. Will this ever end? I know this will be the last Hannah book that I read (unless I'm on a desert Island and it's the only book I can find) But I will probably recommend them to people who aren't looking for something too deep to fill their evenings, or beach days with. Very predictable.

Finding Friends at the Library

We had a visitor yesterday who was thrilled to find the turkey just waiting for him! In addition to finding plenty of fun books to read he joined Mr. Turkey in a comfortable pose!
Speaking of fun books for preschoolers, hurry down to try out some great new Thanksgiving titles. Jim Arnosky is an author of wildlife and nature for children. He has honors galore for his books. His newest one is "I'm a Turkey" Learn how to 'talk turkey' and some facts about this peculiarly special thanksgiving bird! It's not what you expect. Gobble gobble.
A second new Thanksgiving book is "Thanksgiving Rules" by Laurie Friedman. This story, written in rhyme gives 10 simple rules to follow so you can most enjoy a delicious holiday! After all there is more to thanksgiving than just the Turkey and sweet potatoes.
So Happy Thanksgiving! There's still time to enjoy these books before the holiday. If you hurry!

GEOCACHING FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

We have a big family event coming up on Monday. I'm excited to invite families in for this. It's a "Learn How To GeoCache" for everyone, young and old. We start here at the library at 6:30. GPS Systems are provided, so if you don't have one, come anyway!

I tried my first geocaching in October with some friends. Of course, I wasn't holding the GPS but I still got to tramp through the woods and have the thrill of discovery. It worked. We found a travelling geo tag-something you take with you and put in another location as you do more and more 'treasure hunting'. Part of the fun was just being with someone else who was enjoying themselves as much as you. The other part was using that GPS system. I love technology and it was great fun to figure out how it worked.
Kids of all ages are welcome to this. It will be a very hands on experience and you won't be sitting in the library for long. See you on Monday night!

Patty Jane's House of Curl takes place near Minneapolis in the 60's. The overall story is about the bonds of women in a very "Steel Magnolia-ish" style. I can't remember when I read a more tragic story than this one. Tragedies fall around every corner, from husbands to sisters. Though the Beauty parlor, the House of Curl, actually figures little in the overall story, it is offered as symbolic for family in general, though in one weird passage, The House of Curl holds an Art show movie that offends most of its patrons, and seems a bit out of place in the story overall. Characters abound, from outspoken Patty to a nearly unnoticeable Nora, to the mildly outrageous Clyde Chuka. I wish a lot of things about the story line of this book. Mostly, I wish I hadn't so highly recommended it before I'd even read it. Our monthly book Club will be discussing this book on Tuesday. I'm going to be interested in their opinion. Read it if you dare, but don't have high hopes for it.

The Things We Do for Love by Kristin Hannah

I just finished this wonderful book by Hannah. I know many others have discovered this author and really appreciate her family friendly stories. This book is scheduled to be a Book Club book in 2010 and I am quite confident that those reading it will thoroughly enjoy it. This is the story of Angie Malone and Lauren Riebadeau . Angie has just divorced her husband, Conlon after enduring the loss of a long desired child. Through much heartache and pain she heads back to her large and very loving Italian family to help out in the family business, and to heal from the pain of childless-ness. In the other part of town teen-ager Lauren Riebadeau lives with her alcoholic mothe. She has reminded Lauren her entire life that she was a mistake and that she will never really amount to anything. Lauren has spent her entire life trying to get her mother to love her just for herself and trying to be the perfect daughter, the perfect student, the perfect girlfriend. Her boyfriend David comes from a wealthy family and really has trouble relating to Lauren's poverty of love and self esteem. He only sees the smart image that she wants him to see. When he gets accepted to Standford and is prepared to head off to college without her, Lauren knows that life will never be the same...
You can probably guess at the rest of this story, it's exactly what you would think as you continue reading and Lauren ends up pregnant and her mother abandons her for yet another live in boyfriend. It held me to the end though. And it didn't end exactly the way I thought it would (hope that's not a spoiler) but it was most satisfying anyway.I think it's a lovely book and well worth the read. Pick it up at the library!