Shelf Life
Once again it’s time to make those resolutions: dieting, exercising, time management and all the other promises we make to ourselves.
Do your selfimprovement plans ever include more reading? If so, then you’ve come to the right place: the SouthArk Library. Read on for recommendations from several different genres. And if you register with Hoopla, our streaming service, you can access ebooks and audiobooks anywhere.
Looking for something different? We’re ready for that! Call us or come by the library and browse— we might even have your own suggestion. You even can have your own support group by joining the Boom Town Book Club!
But if you’re looking for a hero, don’t knock at the door of Cormoran Strike, private investigator. Grumpy, disagreeable and hindered by a prosthetic leg from a war injury, he’s no typical leading man. In his own off-beat way, he’s one of the most interesting characters in recent fiction. When someone stumbles into his office with a confused tale of a crime he might have witnessed years ago, Cormoran wants to learn more. Especially when the man has a connection to Strike’s newest case, an alleged blackmail of a government official. And that’s just one of the many plotlines that make up this wonderfully-convoluted mystery. It’s the fourth in a series that keeps getting better, “Lethal White” by Robert Galbraith.
The spangled cotinga. The resplendent quetzal. Obscure and exotic names to us, but they’re really rare birds—birds whose feathers are coveted by fly-tiers around the world. They’ve inspired devotees to break into museums, explore the jungle, and risk everything in search of valuable feathers. This is a true crime story that you never heard. It also tells us a lot about human obsession, greed and the impact of both on the natural world. If you’re looking for a fascinating non-fiction that reads like a novel, try “The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession and the Natural History Heist of the Century” by Kirk Wallace Johnson.
Our book club likes him, and our staff likes him, so you can bet that Paul Tremblay tells a good ghost story. Like Stephen King and Peter Straub, he can take ordinary occurrences and make them surreal, like the strange disappearance of teenager Tommy Sanderson. His family and friends, and the police, have no clues to his whereabouts. Then bizarre events begin happening, like his mother Elizabeth’s seeing his ghost, or Tommy’s journal pages appearing at odd times, all adding up to a shocking conclusion about what happened at the “Disappearance at Devil’s Rock.”
If you have young readers, you might have discovered the fun of reading their books. There are so many that everyone can enjoy, and one of them is “Peak”— both the title of the book, and the name of the 14-year-old character Peak Marcello, who has a chance to summit Mount Everest. If he makes it before his birthday, he’ll set a record as the youngest person to ever make it to the top. The series continues with “Edge,” as Peak attempts another summit and runs into trouble from international terrorists. Another series for young readers begins with “Storm Runners” and continues with “The Surge” and “Eruption.” Travel with Chase Masters and his father as they pursue hurricanes, tornadoes and floods— and are ready to rebuild and help out with their shop on wheels. Both these series are by Roland Smith.
Grand Central Station is the subject for author Fiona Davis this time. New York’s landmark buildings were her topics in earlier novels, and once again she draws us into a world that few have seen. In 1928, the terminal was the home of the Grand Central School of Art, and art teacher Clara Darden struggles with the stigma of being a “woman artist” while trying to build her own creative reputation. Fastforward to 1974, when newly-divorced Virginia Clay takes a new job in the information booth at the terminal, now rundown and seedy. She accidently discovers the abandoned art school at the terminal and more secrets than she ever imagined, including “The Masterpiece.”
This is just a sample of what the SouthArk Library has to help you get more books in your life in 2019. Explore the possibilities by visiting the library and you’ll see we have many more. Just come by the library and you’ll discover a future of reading!