Archives

We Are Not Free | Traci Chee Summary: This is a novel written by a single author; yet, like a collection of short stories in an anthology, this bound grouping of fictional memoirs and autobiographical experiences are linked by a theme, varied in their voices and messages. As the USA-born children of Japanese immigrants, these …

When No One Is Watching | Alyssa Cole Summary: Enamored with her hometown neighborhood, Sydney pays attention to the changes being introduced from outside forces. Not only are the businesses and buildings becoming more upscale, the tenants are moving away – sometimes suddenly. Is this area of Brooklyn getting gentrified or stolen piecemeal? Having her …

Movies/Books by the same name: AtonementThe Bridge Over the River KwaiThe Call of the WildThe Color PurpleCrazy Rich AsiansDivergentThe Fellowship of the RingForrest GumpThe GodfatherThe Great GatsbyThe HelpHidden FiguresThe Hunger GamesThe Last of the MohicansLittle WomenThe Lion, the Witch and the WardrobeThe MartianMe Before YouThe NotebookOne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s NestThe Perks of Being a …

The Last Thing He Told Me | Laura Dave Male: This husband and father takes off in a suspect manner when the business he works for goes under. Female: Wife and stepmom researches her husband’s activities when the public announcement is made that the business was a failure, leaving plenty of people without their investments. …

Birds of Prey | 2020, starring Margot Robbie Summary: If only criminals were more trustworthy… ehh! Harley Quinn is finally done with the Joker, so she claims her independence in a big (boom) noisy way. Anyone after her for retribution or payback now knows she’s without protection. Except there are these accidental teammates that keep …

Ophelia | (2019) starring Daisy Ridley, Naomi Watts, Clive Owen Summary: Based on the novel by Lisa Klein, this movie is the story of Hamlet shown from Ophelia’s point of view. There is so much more to her from beginning to end, you’ll feel like you’ve experienced a completely new Shakespeare play by watching it. …

Tenet (2021) with John David Washington, Robert Pattinson Summary: A CIA agent is forcibly recruited into the most hush-hush of special units. Their goal is to identify and minimize ‘inversion’, a catastrophically damaging element of entropy brought to the regular world on purpose by a megalomaniac. There are manipulations overlaid atop and across each other …

The Talk: Conversations about race, love & truth | Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson Summary: What are we teaching our young ones about race? Having ‘the talk’ might mean introducing a child to the perils of being different or discussing why “treating everyone the same” isn’t the ultimate solution under systemic racism. Gathering works …

Believe Me | Eddie Izzard Summary: I anticipated comedy in choosing Izzard’s memoir. I had no idea what I was in for! Izzard’s use of ‘footnotes’ had me screaming with laughter. Other reviews confirm that the audio version is the BEST method of listening to the rambling unapologetic style used by Izzard, so familiar from …

Chew: the Omnivore Edition, Vol 1 | John Layman Summary: Tony Chu is a good detective – but his particularly unusual ability to get impressions from what he eats is why he works for the Special Crimes Division of the FDA, the most powerful law enforcement agency on the planet (think near future or alternate …

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Cinda Leech, Project Director Smithton Public Library District 618-233-8057 cleech@smithtonpl.org SMITHTON PUBLIC LIBRARY DISTRICT RECEIVES NATIONAL GRANT FOR SMALL AND RURAL LIBRARIES$3,000 Grant Will Help the Library Work with Residents on Increasing Accessibility. Smithton, IL – The Smithton Public Library District has been selected as one of 300 libraries to participate in …

Much Ado About You | Samantha Young Summary: Visit a quaint English village bookstore after life kicks you when you’re down! That’s what one Chicagoan does when too many disappointments pile up at once. She’s attempting to rediscover herself and that means avoiding tangled relationships like new love. But her stay becomes more than melodrama …

I’ll Give You the Sun | Jandy Nelson Summary: Nelson’s work is a character study that skips not only through time but between points of view as the teen years of twins and the reasons for their enmity are revealed. Jude settles for her mother’s attention through standard teen-to-parent fights about how she is possibly …

Thumpy Feet | Betsy Lewin Summary: Preschoolers will celebrate a wondrous, energetic creature in this story. The only character shown is the playful, frisky ginger tabby so named Thumpy Feet. His behavior is that of a sprightly and easily engaged pet, made fully fleshed with eager use of brushed paint upon white pages with little …

Rain Reign | Ann M. Martin Summary: Rose Howard is obsessed with homonyms. She’s thrilled that her own name is a homonym, and she purposely gave her dog Rain a name with two homonyms (Reign, Rein), which, according to Rose’s rules of homonyms, is very special. Not everyone understands Rose’s obsessions, her rules, and the …

The Three Pigs| David Wiesner Summary: This Caldecott Medal-winning picture book begins placidly (and familiarly) enough, with three pigs collecting materials and going off to build houses of straw, sticks, and bricks. But the wolf’s huffing and puffing blows the first pig right out of the story . . . and into the realm of …

Dark Matter | by Blake Crouch Summary: In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers …

Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors Author: Curtis Craddock Summary: Born with a physical disability, no magical talent, and a precocious intellect, Princess Isabelle des Zephyrs has lived her life being underestimated by her family and her kingdom. All shall change, however, when an unlikely marriage proposal is offered, to the second son of a dying …