Jac Jemc is the author of The Grip of It, a deftly told story about a couple who purchase what turns out to be a haunted house. You may think you've read haunted house stories before, but you've never read any told this well or that does the creepiness so well. The Grip of It is featured in…
This book left me speechless. At the same time, it made me feel a whole lot. I’m not sure I can find words to describe it, but I’ll try. I made a list of adjectives: sad, angry, profane, funny, shocking, relatable. Alexie is a genius with language, and I could feel his pain coming so…
Our One Book, One Community program kicked off Saturday at both Cook and Aspen Libraries, where we gave out 150 copies of Stolen Beauty by Laurie Lico Albanese. This is the second year we joined forces with Vernon Area Public Library and Indian Trails Public Library to invite our patrons to read the same book.…
Every year I dedicate the month of December to reading Christmas books, and to watching a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies. It's the time of year when sentimentality is just what the doctor ordered. So here's my annual list of Christmas reads. Join me in devouring some holiday fiction! Last Christmas in Paris: A Novel of…
It’s hard to imagine the Christmas season without Scrooge, Tiny Tim and the ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future. My introduction to A Christmas Carol was when my Dad read it to me as a child and I’ve been a huge fan of it in all its iterations ever since. In the prologue of…
While we like to discuss books, movies and music on our podcast, we also like to share with you all the other great stuff we do here at the library. In this episode we talk with our genealogy librarian, Sonia, and find out how to get started using the library to do family history research.…
Seventeen years. SEVENTEEN YEARS. That's how long I've been waiting for The Book of Dust, Book One: La Belle Sauvage, the newest book by Philip Pullman. La Belle Sauvage is set in the same world as Pullman's acclaimed fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials. That series followed the adventures of Lyra Belaqua, a brave, impulsive girl from an alternate-world version of Oxford, England and her daemon Pantalaimon, a shapeshifting animal connected…
It's the most wonderful time of the year... when my guilty pleasure of watching my favorite Christmas movies over and over actually passes as normal behavior. What is it about certain Christmas movies that creates such devotion among viewers? I've lost count of how many times I've watched It's a Wonderful Life all the way through.…
Elizabeth Berg during her visit at Cook Memorial Public Library this summer. Heartfelt and beautiful, The Story of Arthur Truluv is novelist Elizabeth Berg at her best. Maddy Harris is a sad, isolated teenager who is ignored by her father at home and bullied by her classmates at school. Her mother died two weeks after Maddie…
This Thanksgiving, after everyone has caught up on the latest family doings, why not turn the conversation around to family history? If you will be dining with older family members, now is the time to ask them about their lives. Have a few open-ended questions ready to start the conversation and be ready to listen.…
