Our next
series of monthly blogs will be staff reads! Looking for some new book
recommendations? Check out what the library staff are reading lately!
Carlia read: The Song of Achilles
This book intrigued me right from the cover
on. If you’re like me and enjoy Greek mythology and diving into the stories and
legends than this is a great read. If you are interested in a more storied
version of Achilles and the Iliad, or you like the movie Troy, maybe you just
liked watching a shirtless Brad Pitt take on the iconic Achilles role and want
to imagine him as the main character is this book, go for it – check this book
out!
An easy read, entertaining, emotional, and
enthralling. Doesn’t weigh you down with lengthy details or go on rambling for
pages, everything fit nicely together. Recommend!!
Barbara Kingsolver’s
The Poisonwood Bible is all about communication (and
miscommunication). Following the lives of four girls and their mother
who arrive as missionaries in the Congo in the 1960s, the book calls us
out for being set in our ways, thinking there is always
only one right answer and not realizing that we may not be asking the
right question in the first place.
The
central characters take turns narrating the book, and the way the tone
and the language changes for each character leads to a sense of realism
and connection. I felt
deeply for and with each of them, regardless of how different they were
from myself.
The
book also comments on our North American culture of consumption. I find
after reading it I am much more conscious of what is important to me.
Do I need to buy this?
Do I need to throw this away?
I love when a book makes me think AND feel.
The Poisonwood Bible absolutely gets a five star rating from me!
Jeri read: We Are Displaced: My journey and stories from refugee girls around the world
This book begins with Malala’s
own story, then is followed by the personal stories of a number of women that
she has met while travelling. Many of them are heart-wrenching stories that
bring home how lucky we are to live in Canada. These young women display
courage while being displaced from homes and countries that they love.
I feel that everyone should
read this book. The chapters are short and it is a quick read despite the
disturbing topic.
Shooter, by Caroline Pignat, is a modern day take on The Breakfast Club - and what's more modern than teenagers locked down in a school bathroom with an active shooter on the loose? 5 grade 12 students, each with their own personal and family issues, are trapped together waiting for the situation with the shooter to resolve itself. One of the girls has a phone, which gives us insight to the shooter's movements and police activity, so you don't feel "trapped" in the bathroom as much as they are. Things take a turn when they find out there might be a second shooter, and that person might even be one of them.
I've been reading a series of these books following this same theme lately, one of which I'll discuss below. This one didn't pack the same emotional power as some of the others, but I liked the diversity in the characters. one character is overtly and diagnosed autistic, while another exhibits traits of being on the spectrum. One character was adopted from China to white parents who have extremely high expectations for her, who following a volunteer trip to an orphanage is reconsidering her life goals. Another character is mourning the loss of his brother, whom he accidentally killed while wrestling. The last of the five characters has forgone any hope for her future outside of taking care of her brother, as their mother abandoned her and her autistic brother as young children.
There aren't often happy endings when reading books about school shootings, but this one had about as happy of an ending as you could get, while also dealing with school drama, life drama, school pranks gone wrong, misunderstanding principals, and kids who've fallen under the radar.
This is a book I would classify as an important read. Check it out for yourself, and tell me what you think.
Corrie also read: This is Where is Ends
I've only recently discovered Marieke Nijkamp, but she's an author I'm excited to read more from. Which is not to say that
This is Where it Ends was a happy book. Far from it. This book made me so angry. The best ones do.
The story places place over just 54 minutes, with an - almost - entire school trapped inside the gymnasium with a kid armed with a gun and a vendetta. It flashes between perspectives of characters inside and outside the school, as well as a series of tweets, some from the characters you see in the story, and others who are following the story as it happens.
This story is full of rage and heartache and heroism and terror and frustration. It's one of the best books I've read lately, and holds a close second to Ellen Hopkin's
People Kill People for one of the "best" books about gun violence I've read lately.
If you have a strong heart and have something soft to throw this book at when you're done, I definitely recommend reading this. Definitely not a light read, but worthwhile and oh so relevant in today's world.
Stay tuned for next month's Staff Reads! Tell us what you're reading!
