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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird

Usually, I try to highlight newer releases on the blog, but this year, the CAMALS Foundation is launching a new Community Book Read, and the first book selected for it is perennial favorite To Kill A Mockingbird. And I thought it was the perfect opportunity to revisit this classic.

Precocious Jean Louise Finch–or Scout as she’s affectionately called by her family and friends–has a comparatively idyllic life in Depression-era Alabama. The youngest child of a widowed lawyer, she enjoys playing with her older brother Jem and their quirky sometimes neighbor Dill in their small town and being read to by her father Atticus. But her carefree existence comes to a screeching halt when her father begins representing Tom Robinson, an African American accused of rape. Scout is too young to always follow what is happening, but she recognizes the palpable shift in public opinion toward her family.

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Local Roots: July

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 July, we’re looking at local folklore.

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Andrey Kurkov’s The Silver Bone

Samson Kolechko is an engineer by training, but in the chaos that is Kyiv, Ukraine, in the spring of 1919, he finds himself a police investigator. Only weeks after losing his ear and his father to a rogue Cossack’s saber, Samson also contends with the uncertainty of everyday life in a world where the government changes every few weeks, depending on which army is in control of the city, and power and supply shortages, forced requisitions, and sudden violence are the only constants. Still, in the middle of all that, he finds himself immersed in an unusual case involving a silver bone.

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