Author: berryvillelibrary

"Our library, our future"

Jo Harkin’s The Pretender

Thanks so much to Julie for kindly adding this book to the collection at my request! It is an unusual and compelling novel that I highly recommend for fans of historical fiction, particularly the early Tudor period! If you know your history, you probably see the word Tudor and think of Queen Elizabeth I or her father Henry VIII and his six wives. And you’d be right, but if you really know your history, you may also think of Henry’s father, Henry VII. This novel is set during Henry VII’s reign and the late War of the Roses and focuses on Lambeth Simnel, a little-known claimant to the throne.

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Book Buzz: Horror, Historical Fiction, Eleanor Roosevelt, Picasso, Montana, An Experimental Thriller, The Prairie, Hawaii, Spinach, and a Safari Gone Wrong

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For October, we’re looking at vampire horror, historical fiction spanning the 1800s and 1900s, literary fiction, a twisty new thriller with an unusual premise, ecologically themed nonfiction, a story of a spinach empire, and an audiobook about a safari that takes a murderous turn.

Continue reading “Book Buzz: Horror, Historical Fiction, Eleanor Roosevelt, Picasso, Montana, An Experimental Thriller, The Prairie, Hawaii, Spinach, and a Safari Gone Wrong”

Exploring Our Digital Tools: September

We have a lot of fantastic digital resources, many of them courtesy of the Arkansas State Library. Because we’re a library in Arkansas, we have access to their Traveler Database. For this entire year, every month, we’re going to look at the different features available on these databases. For this month, we’re going to focus on history databases and bibliographical indexes!

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Book Buzz: Espionage, Curses, Romance, Surreal Historical Mystery Sequels, Contemporary Mystery Debuts, Audiobooks, and Healthy Nonfiction Reads

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For September, we’re looking at a new-ish contemporary espionage thriller series, this year’s If All Arkansas Read the Same Book pick, romances and mysteries–both historical and contemporary, audiobooks in a range of genres, and nonfiction on healthy living.

Continue reading “Book Buzz: Espionage, Curses, Romance, Surreal Historical Mystery Sequels, Contemporary Mystery Debuts, Audiobooks, and Healthy Nonfiction Reads”

Celebrate Berryville: September

The year 2025 promises to be a historic one for the Berryville Public library and, by extension, for the town of Berryville. We broke ground on the new library in April, so the library should be finished in the spring of 2026. Preparation for the new building has made us at the Berryville Library nostalgic and reflective, not just about the library’s history but also about the town’s history. Other seminal moments in Berryville Library history occurred in 1938 and 1978, so we’ll be looking back this year on what Berryville was like then, as well as what it is like now, as we also look to the future.

For September, we are looking at how Berryville has stayed healthy over the years.

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Can You Judge a Book By Its Cover?–Summer Reading Findings

We asked our patrons who participated in summer reading if you can truly judge a book by its cover. A handful of researchers submitted their findings, which we have duly analyzed and are now sharing. It was a very scientific study–or not–but we had fun with it. We hope you do too!

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Exploring Our Digital Research Tools: August

We have a lot of fantastic digital resources, many of them courtesy of the Arkansas State Library. Because we’re a library in Arkansas, we have access to their Traveler Database. For this entire year, every month, we’re going to look at the different features available on these databases. For this month, we’re going to focus on education resources, just in time for back to school!

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Community Book Read: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic The Great Gatsby is the book for the CAMALS Foundation’s second annual Community Book Read. The novel was first released on April 10, 1925, so it is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Read more to find out how you can get a free copy and participate in the fun.

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Celebrate Berryville: August

The year 2025 promises to be a historic one for the Berryville Public library and, by extension, for the town of Berryville. We broke ground on the new library in April, so the library should be finished in the spring of 2026. Preparation for the new building has made us at the Berryville Library nostalgic and reflective, not just about the library’s history but also about the town’s history. Other seminal moments in Berryville Library history occurred in 1938 and 1978, so we’ll be looking back this year on what Berryville was like then, as well as what it is like now, as we also look to the future.

For August, we were looking at what Berryville listens to, past and present, and wanted to take some time to explore the history of KTHS, our local radio station.

Did you know that KTHS is one of the most historic call signals in Arkansas radio history?!

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Book Buzz: Local True Crime

Usually the Book Buzz posts are a round-up of new-ish books in the library, but today we’re doing something a little different!

A couple of weeks ago, Jason Harmon reached out to our library system to let us know he would be appearing on the new Ozarks-themed podcast Ozarkian Folk Chronicles.

Back in 2003, he worked with David McElyea on his memoir When Money Grew on Trees: The True Tale of a Marijuana Moonshiner and the Outlaw Sheriff of Madison County, Arkansas. Written under the pen name of David Mac, the book recounts how McElyea grew an illegal marijuana farm in Madison County in the 1980s and 1990s under the protection of the then-sheriff Ralph Baker. It recounts both McElyea’s and Baker’s rise and fall, and it is a perennial favorite with patrons in our library system.

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