Lots has changed in the years the Berryville Library has been in our current building. We expect lots will change in the years the library will be housed in the new building we are hoping to break ground on soon. That’s why we think it is so important as we move towards this bigger, better future to remember our roots. To that end, we have created the Berryville Library Legacy Project, which lets donors highlight a piece of local history of their choice by selecting photographs to be displayed on the end of a shelving unit at the new library. We also remain committed to helping create a sense of place through our collection, so we are going to highlight our Arkansas section this year. Each month, we’ll look at some of the different books and resources in that collection that feature unique parts of the history and culture of Berryville, Carroll County, the Ozarks, and Arkansas. There’s lots to explore about this place we call home! For November, in honor of Family History Month, we’re looking at local history.
Continue reading “Local Roots: November”Category: Book Review
Crystal King’s In The Garden of Monsters
Julia Lombardi has no memories of her life before a couple of years ago. In the meantime, she has worked as a model for artists living in post-World War II Rome. When the famous surrealist Salvador Dalí offers her the chance to work as his model for Persephone in an eerie gothic garden called the Garden of Monsters, she jumps on the chance, despite her misgivings. Dalí is offering her a lot of money, and it will only be a week. No matter how bizarre the infamously eccentric artist is or how insufferable his domineering manager wife is, it will only be seven days. What could possibly go wrong?
However, as Julia soon sees, a lot can go wrong in seven days. The Dalís are even more strange and difficult than she had ever bargained for, Dalí himself begins to insist she is Persephone and forces her to eat pomegranate seeds, she hears unsettling whispers in the garden, and she can’t shake the feeling that their intense, mysterious, magnetic, handsome host Ignazio is someone she knows from somewhere. Amid the days of indulging Dalí’s increasingly tyrannical artistic whims and the nights of feasting on elaborate, sumptuous themed banquets in the historic palazzo attached to the garden, Julia herself starts to wonder if she is Persephone. . . .
Continue reading “Crystal King’s In The Garden of Monsters”Book Buzz: Acadians, Forgotten Names, Pirates, Irish Westerns, Dystopian Fiction, Alaskan Fishing, and Organ Transplants
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For November, we’re looking at historical fiction about the Acadians, World War II, pirates, and the American West; an outdoorsy new science fiction dystopia; a tale of commercial fishing in the Bering Sea; and nonfiction about how a heart transplant changed two families.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Acadians, Forgotten Names, Pirates, Irish Westerns, Dystopian Fiction, Alaskan Fishing, and Organ Transplants”Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of the Crusted Snow and Moon of the Turning Leaves
Thanks so much to Julie for ordering Moon of the Crusted Snow when I requested it earlier this year. I’d been curious about it since first hearing about it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I usually review horror for October to tie in with Halloween, and though the book isn’t overly horror, it is very eerie.
Continue reading “Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of the Crusted Snow and Moon of the Turning Leaves”Book Buzz: Fictional Kidnappings, New Harington, Generational Curses, Medieval Relic Heists, Soccer, Slashers, Space Disasters, and Cowboy Comfort Food
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For October, we’re looking at literary fiction about a summer camping gone wrong, relatively newly released Donald Harington stories, a jaunty tale of medieval relic heists, a story about a Tejano family throughout the decades, a novel about modern soccer, fiction and nonfiction audiobooks, and a cookbook.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Fictional Kidnappings, New Harington, Generational Curses, Medieval Relic Heists, Soccer, Slashers, Space Disasters, and Cowboy Comfort Food”Sean Fitzgibbon’s What Follows Is True
The Crescent Hotel is one of the most famous attractions in Eureka Springs, so it is also one of the most famous attractions in Carroll County. It has a long history and not just as a hotel. For a few infamous years in the 1930s, it was also a quack cancer hospital run by the infamous Norman Baker, who fleeced desperate patients and their families out of money.
Sean Fitzgibbon’s stunning graphic novel What Follows Is True: Crescent Hotel documents Baker’s rise and fall and his time at the Crescent while also contextualizing the story within the backdrop of the hotel and town’s more general history and the author’s time researching it all.
Continue reading “Sean Fitzgibbon’s What Follows Is True”Local Roots: September
Lots has changed in the years the Berryville Library has been in our current building. We expect lots will change in the years the library will be housed in the new building we are hoping to break ground on soon. That’s why we think it is so important as we move towards this bigger, better future to remember our roots. To that end, we have created the Berryville Library Legacy Project, which lets donors highlight a piece of local history of their choice by selecting photographs to be displayed on the end of a shelving unit at the new library. We also remain committed to helping create a sense of place through our collection, so we are going to highlight our Arkansas section this year. Each month, we’ll look at some of the different books and resources in that collection that feature unique parts of the history and culture of Berryville, Carroll County, the Ozarks, and Arkansas. There’s lots to explore about this place we call home! For September, we’re looking at sports.
Continue reading “Local Roots: September”Book Buzz: Sequels, Historical Thrillers Galore, Love Ice and Fire Style, and Experimentals Kits
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For September, we’re looking at a long-awaited follow-up, historical thrillers from a range of time periods, a new-ish contemporary romance series, and our very own Experimentals STEM and STEAM kits.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Sequels, Historical Thrillers Galore, Love Ice and Fire Style, and Experimentals Kits”Local Roots: August
Lots has changed in the years the Berryville Library has been in our current building. We expect lots will change in the years the library will be housed in the new building we are hoping to break ground on soon. That’s why we think it is so important as we move towards this bigger, better future to remember our roots. To that end, we have created the Berryville Library Legacy Project, which lets donors highlight a piece of local history of their choice by selecting photographs to be displayed on the end of a shelving unit at the new library. We also remain committed to helping create a sense of place through our collection, so we are going to highlight our Arkansas section this year. Each month, we’ll look at some of the different books and resources in that collection that feature unique parts of the history and culture of Berryville, Carroll County, the Ozarks, and Arkansas. There’s lots to explore about this place we call home! For August, we’re looking at literature.
Continue reading “Local Roots: August”Book Buzz: Jamaican Fiction, Historical Fiction, Social Satire, Funny Romances, Outlaws, and Midwives
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For August, we’re looking at a coming-of-age novel set in Jamaica, historical fiction that ranges from the Napoleonic Era to the mid-20th century, Kevin Kwan’s latest book, an amusing contemporary romance about cyclists, new Western reads, glamorous historic true crime, and a historical romance audiobook set in the American West.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Jamaican Fiction, Historical Fiction, Social Satire, Funny Romances, Outlaws, and Midwives”
Berryville Book Buzz 