Don't let your library card go to waste
Do you have a shiny new library card that you haven’t even used yet? Congratulations! If you’re like many folks in our area, you signed up for one during September, National Library Card Sign-Up Month. So don’t let it sit there behind your fishing license—take it to the SouthArk Library and see what’s new!
This fall, we’re excited to bring you some of the big books of the season: some of our favorite authors with long-awaited sequels, a father-son collaboration, and an exciting new Christian fiction series.
Fall’s most hotly anticipated book is “Origin” by Dan Brown. Once again, Professor Langdon has escaped his Harvard office. In this outing, he travels to Bilbao, Spain, to learn about an astonishing discovery that explains some basic questions of humankind. When the announcement event erupts into chaos, Professor Langdon must use his knowledge of hidden history and cryptology to uncover the all-important secrets.
True crime that reads like a novel and reveals secrets of another kind in “Ranger Games: A Story of Soldiers, Family and an Inexplicable Crime.” Ben Blum digs into the inexplicable story of an all-American kid: his cousin, Alex Blum. He succeeded at his goal to become an Army Ranger, was a hockey champ in high school and had a loving family… so why did he rob a bank with several of his buddies while home on leave, right before his final deployment?
Imagine an all-male world, where women become covered in cocoons while sleeping and it’s dangerous to wake them. Yes, it’s a world created by none other than the King of Horror, Stephen King and his son, Owen King, author of two books of his own. Now they’ve put their collective brand of creepiness on the horror-fantasy “Sleeping Beauties: A Novel.” Does it have a political slant? Read it and decide for yourself!
In “Rooster Bar” by John Grisham, a trio of third-year law students are shocked to realize they’ve been conned by the cheesy, for-profit law school that they’ve been attending. To make matters worse, they also owe buckets of money in student loans to the same shady company. Maybe if they put their heads together they could come up with a scheme—or revenge?
Sequels to some popular series are here, starting with “A Column of Fire” by Ken Follett. His fans have waited years for the third installment of the Kingsbridge saga that began way back in 1989 with “The Pillars of the Earth,” then later “World Without End.” Each one was an immense doorstopper of a book—but if you love historical fiction, they are a treat.
There’s something about the Swedes: If you’ve read one you’ll be hooked and ready for another sequel! In “The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye,” author David Lagercrantz takes up the story after the death of Steig Larssen, original author of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” This time, the brilliant-but-disturbed hacker and misfit Lisbeth Salander returns, more determined than ever to find out the truth about her mysterious childhood. Returning with his own agenda is the meddlesome journalist Mikael Blomkivist, back to make trouble of his own kind.
“Glass Houses” is the latest from Louise Penny in the Inspector Gamache series. It’s never business as usual in the charming town of Three Pines, when someone notices a mysterious figure lurking near the village. Yet Inspector Gamache can only watch and hope his worst fears won’t materialize. Readers keep returning to this series because they love the quirky characters. The same is true of William Kent Krueger with his popular character, former sheriff Cork O’Connor. In “Sulfur Springs,” events take him far from his stomping grounds of Minnesota to search for a missing friend in Arizona. The take-no-prisoners Irish-Indian O’Connor is always one step away from breaking the law.
Law enforcement is the focus again in a Christian fiction series by Irene Hannon, beginning with “Fatal Judgement.” U.S. Marshal and Iraq war vet Jake Taylor is assigned to guard a federal judge who was once married to his best friend and may have driven him to suicide. He can’t hold grudges for long, however, when he realizes enemies are closing in on them both.
Any of these titles will give you a good read this holiday season, and perhaps inspire you to take on a reading challenge with the coming new year! Either way, we’ve got you covered at the SouthArk Library, and we look forward to helping you. Stop by to see us and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!