Yearbook | Seth Rogan Summary: This memoir is not a ‘tell-all’, but perhaps a tell-much. Seth Rogan began professional joke writing as a kid and his stand-up experience is exactly the way we remember him sounding and speaking from film. His relaxed and casual style isn’t too far from the truth. He does make one …

Curious George | Margret and H.A. Rey Summary: First published in 1941, Curious George is an orphaned monkey in Africa. It tells of his many adventures with the man with a yellow hat who brings him back to America. As is name suggests his curiosity gets him into a lot of trouble. There has been …

The Final Girl Support Group | Grady Hendrix Summary: There’s a trope commonly used in horror movies, specifically those fitting the slasher genre, called the ‘final girl’. This is an unassuming main character that eventually triumphs over her attacker, most likely causing their death. What if the final girl character became so common, they collected …

A Pig Parade is a Terrible Idea | Michael Black Summary: Summer is all about parades and fun! Could anything possibly be more fun than a pig parade!? You wouldn’t think so. But you’d be wrong. A pig parade is a terrible idea.  Recommendation: Oh dear!  It sounded like such a good idea!  But what …

I thought I was pulling together a selection of works not at all alike each other… but no, I really do like my adventure stories with moral or ethical consequences. Read The Count of Monte Cristo aloud – the language is musical. Island of the Blue Dolphins might need note taking or drawings of the …

The Stranger in the Lifeboat | Mitch Albom Summary: A story of beliefs and actions of 10 ten in a lifeboat trying to survive. A stranger is pulled from the sea claiming to be God. After praying for a miracle do they accept this stranger to be their savior. It is narrated by one passenger …

Each of the following suggestions is an inventive and original concept with lots of running, hiding, seeking, fighting, and sometimes a little magic. Every Day in particular starts a series with amazing implications for our understanding of time and consciousness. -Cinda The City of Bones | Cassandra Clare Summary: Suddenly able to see demons and …

Remembering my favorite go-to books of childhood, I was fortunate to have a lot of reading time when visiting my grandparents who had amazing ‘old’ collections of work I’d never heard of. They loved providing animal stories like Riki-Tiki-Tavi and the following. I was well acquainted with the Disney movies of these first two before …

Library Director Jenna Dauer remembers Junior Fiction chapter books from her childhood. Witch of Blackbird Pond | Elizabeth George Speare Summary: Kit Tyler must leave behind shimmering Caribbean islands to join the stern Puritan community of her relatives. She soon feels caged, until she meets the old woman known as the Witch of Blackbird Pond. …

Michael Collins | Neil Jordan – Director Summary: Ireland, 1916. His dreams inspired hope. His words inspired passion. His courage forged a nation’s destiny. A Biographical film depicting the life of Michael Collins, head of the early version of the IRA. Recommendation: I recently visited the GPO in Dublin where portions of this movie was filmed.  …

Library Director Jenna Dauer reminisces about five memorable books from her childhood. Giving Tree | Shel Silverstein Summary: A young boy grows to manhood and old age experiencing the love and generosity of a tree which gives to him without thought of return. Reminisce: I tested on this book for Accelerated Reader and I remember …

The Elephant to Hollywood | Michael Caine Summary: There’s a generous helping of curses throughout this work so be wary around the kids/public. – Caine shares the spectacular story of his life, from his humble upbringing in London’s poverty-stricken Elephant and Castle to his military service and lively adventures to legendary meetings with fellow stars …

The Garden of Abdul Gasazi | Chris van Allsburg Summary: When the dog he is caring for runs away from Alan into the forbidden garden of a retired dog-hating magician, a spell seems to be cast over the contrary dog. Recommendation: I forget to read the words, I’m so captivated by the art! See more …

I am the Messenger | MarKus Zusak Summary: Meet Ed Kennedy – underage cabdriver, pathetic card player, and useless at romance. He lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog, the Doorman, and he’s hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops …

A Princess of Mars | Edgar Rice Burroughs Summary: In the spring of 1866, John Carter, a former Confederate captain prospecting for gold in the Arizona hills, slips into a cave and is overcome by mysterious vapors. He awakes to find himself naked, alone, and forty-eight million miles from Earth a castaway on the dying …

A Man Called Ove | Fredrik Backman Summary: Ove is a recently widowed grumpy old man who doesn’t feel the need to keep on living. This is his story of why he feels this way and the road he takes and the people and animals he lets into his world that he so desperately wants …

Cyrano |2021 Summary: This is a romantic historical musical version of the same classic story made completely attainable by Steve Martin’s modern take with Roxanne (1987). Whether or not the music is part of what you enjoy about this version, that’s up to you. I don’t want to talk it down just because I found …

The Disasters | M. K. England Summary: Like many science fiction stories, this one has the main character facing an explosive crisis from which only his perspective tells the ‘truth’. Nax and his crew of survivors must get a message to those authorities who are not teaming up to sabotage the station themselves (for fun …

Etiquette & Espionage | Gail Carriger Summary: Sophronia is 14, a member of the gentry, and “a cracking bother” as she displays all the hallmarks of an under-stimulated overeager puppy. She wants to know how things work, is willing to take systems apart to study them, and can’t help but eavesdrop on interesting conversations. What’s …

Still Life | Sarah Winman Summary: Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings …