Author: Ann

Take a Road Trip this Summer!

- Ann Leave a comment

When I was growing up my family would take a vacation every August, visiting National Parks and historic sites. Road tripping is a great way to see and appreciate this country, its beauty and diversity. I have lots great memories of these trips and feel fortunate to have seen and traveled across so much of the United States and Canada.

As we (cautiously) come out of quarantine, you may be feeling the itch to travel again, but still not sure about flying yet. Why not take a road trip? These books will show you the way.

The Road Trip Survival Guide by Rob Taylor. This handy little book has all the essential information – planning, packing, food (there’s nothing quite like road trip snacks!) and safety with lots of practical tips. It’s filled with ideas such as figuring out how many days to take (always schedule some wiggle room), coming up with a theme for your trip – for instance, follow a Historic Trail such as Lewis and Clark or the US Civil Rights trails or go looking for Epic Tallest Trees (Washington, Oregon, California), recipes for snacks and ideas meals, and how to handle the inevitable problems (no vacation is without at least one!)

The second half of this book has several suggested itineraries which you can either follow or use as a jumping off point. There are ten for the United States, five for Canada and three for Mexico. They cover everything from rural to city, east coast to west. The emphasis is on exploring the outdoors and smaller cities and places that are a little off the beaten path. All of them are family friendly with recommendations for economical food (visit local supermarkets for snacks and lunches) and lodging (stay in smaller towns when possible) If you were hesitant about hitting the road, this book will get you out there with confidence!

If you’re stumped for where to go and what to do, check out Travel North America (and Avoid Being a Tourist) by Jeralyn Gerba and Pavia Rosati. This book is chock full of fun and off-beat travel ideas. The emphasis is on low-impact travel, slowing down and giving back. There’s a chapter on spas and retreats (“the woo-woo ways”), another on choosing a destination by season (wildflowers in spring, the Northern Lights in winter), several road trip itineraries based on a theme (American southwest for art pilgrims), exploring lesser known gems of several cities and practical ideas for traveling with others (“how to travel in a group – without being a jerk”), not just with kids but with elderly members of the family as well.  In addition, this book is loaded with great photos – you’ll be dreaming of and planning several trips in no time!

 

 

Online Reading Challenge – August

- Ann Leave a comment

Hello Fellow Readers!

New month, new author for our Reading Challenge. This month’s author is : David Baldacci!

There will be no shortage of authors that are similar to Baldacci and, for that matter, no shortage of David Baldacci books to read. He has written 40 novels for adults (and that number keeps growing). He has several different series with recurring main characters, but they all have some of the same elements in common – a gritty thriller with lots of action, a main character that is usually a loner and often an ex-cop or ex-CIA or ex-military.  There’s a mystery that needs to be solved, requiring the main characters special skills/persistence/past history. These make great “beach reads” that don’t require much deep thinking but are fun and quick to read.

If you’ve already read everything by David Baldacci and/or you’d like to branch out, here’s a list of similar authors – all of which are pretty popular in their own right.

James Patterson

Lee Child

Brad Thor

Michael Connelly

Tess Gerritsen

Patricia Cornwell

Walter Mosley

Brad Meltzer

Daniel Silva

Harlen Coben

Iris Johansen

Kathy Reichs

There will be displays at all three Library locations with lots of titles to choose from.

I’ve actually never read anything written by David Baldacci, so I’m going to try one of his books. There are almost too many to choose from and opinions on each title swing from “the best book ever” to “Baldacci has lost his touch, this was terrible”! I finally settled on The Innocent, the first in his series about Will Robie, who is a “master assassin”. Hmmmm. Not so sure about this, but I’ll give it a try.

What about you – what will you be reading this month?

Online Reading Challenge – July Wrap-Up

- Ann Leave a comment

Hello Challengers!

How did your reading go this month? Did you enjoy reading a Jodi Picoult book, or maybe one of the read-alikes?

For this month’s challenge I read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. It covers a difficult subject (which is typical of most of Picoult’s books) but it was also fascinating, engaging and thoughtful and it takes the time to look at the issues from both sides. I’m still thinking about this story days after finishing it.

Nineteen minutes is all it takes for Peter Houghton to walk into his small town high school, kill 10 students, wound many others and completely change the course of hundreds of lives. Why did Peter go on this rampage, what was the trigger that sent him to the school that day with loaded guns and how do those left behind move on?

Always sensitive and nerdy, Peter has been relentlessly bullied throughout school. At home he lives in his recently deceased brother’s shadow who was everything he is not – athletic and popular. His best friend abandons him to join the popular crowd, the cruelty of the bullying escalates and the school administration is unwilling/unable to help beyond platitudes. Humiliated in front of the entire school, Peter sees no way out.

So, who is at fault? Is Peter a monster or misunderstood? Are his parents at fault – did they give him too much attention or not enough? Was it the school that stated no tolerance for bullying, but tended to look the other way when it involved popular kids or jocks? Was it Peter’s fellow students who, even if they didn’t condone the bullying, did nothing to discourage it and even participated?

This book is often difficult to read. While descriptions of the actual shooting are not graphic and are scattered in small bits throughout the book, Picoult does not mince on the horror and fear. Peter is sometimes a sympathetic character – the constant bullying is very difficult to read – but he is also  sullen and withdrawn and unpleasant. Many people in the town blame Peter’s parents and yet, they’re as confused and grief stricken as everyone else, blaming themselves and yet not know what they could have done to prevent the shooting. The court trial is tense and dramatic as more and more evidence is presented and people are forced to confront the fact that their small, quiet town is far from perfect or safe.

Well written and with multiple point-of-views, Nineteen Minutes would make an ideal book club book with lots of discussion points. Because there has been so many of similar school shootings in the news over the past decade, I would recommend that you read this with caution. It is, however, well worth reading.

Now it’s your turn – what did you read this month?

 

PGA Tour 2K21 Video Game

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guest post by Anthony

When I was a kid I loved playing the Tiger Woods PGA Tour golf games but it has been quite a while since I last played one. I’ve been an avid golfer for most of my life though I’ve fallen off a little bit over the last couple of years. This summer I’ve been making an effort to get out on the course a lot more often and it’s been fun to get back into one of my favorite hobbies. It has been so much fun in fact than in addition to playing golf in real life I’ve also been eager to get back into playing virtual golf as well. PGA Tour 2K21 is the more recent golf simulation game that has come out and I’ve been really enjoying my time with it.

The game looks amazing with a multitude of real life PGA Tour courses on offer, including our local TPC Deere Run which hosts the John Deere Classic over in Silvis, Illinois.  The team behind the game scanned all 15 of the real courses from the game so all the bunkers, water hazards, and fairways match their real life counterparts. The visuals and sound effects do a lot to showcase the beautiful courses and the gameplay mechanics make it almost as much fun to play as real golf. Swinging a golf club in the game is intuitive and when you make mistakes it is easy to see what you did wrong, something that is not quite as easy to figure out in real life.

The game has a couple of main modes. The two biggest are the PGA Tour mode were you create a golfer than work your way up from the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA Tour, while unlocking new gear, clothes, and sponsors along the way. This is the main mode that I’ve been playing and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. The other main mode is multiplayer. I’ve played a couple of games online with friends and it plays just like single player does, just with other humans instead of the computer. It’s fun to be able to play on a bunch of tournament level courses that I will likely never have the opportunity to play on in real life. I can play them a lot better in PGA Tour 2K21 than I probably could in real life as well.

PGA Tour 2K21 is available on Nintendo Switch and XBox One.

Online Reading Challenge – July

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Greetings Challenge Readers!

It’s time for a new Author in our Challenge and this month it’s: Jodi Picoult!

A popular and prolific writer, Picoult will be on many favorite author lists. Picoult is a good storyteller, easily drawing the reader into her books which usually tackle difficult ethical dilemmas that throw ordinary families into extraordinary situations. A prolific author, some of her most popular titles include My Sister’s Keeper (organ donation), Nineteen Minutes (a school shooting), Small Great Things (racism), A Spark of Light (hostage situation) and Vanishing Acts (parental kidnapping). In each, Picoult is able to present a balanced view, trying to understand various points-of-view which lift them beyond good vs evil. They provide a great insight into some of the most troubling issues of our time.

There is no shortage of great books that tackle difficult topics. If you’ve already read everything by Picoult and/or would like to try a similar author, check out one of these titles. There will also be displays at all three buildings with these titles and more to consider.

This is How It Always Is by Frankel (transgender child)

Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center (aging parents)

Dear Edward by Ann Napoliano (lone plane crash survivor)

Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen (domestic abuse)

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes (widowhood)

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian (medical trial)

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff (polygamy)

All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner (addiction recovery)

Summerland by Elin Hilderbrand (fatal car crash)

While these may seem to all be very depressing, in fact all of them offer hope and are a great way to understand a situation you may never encounter, but has affected others deeply.

I am planning on reading Nineteen Minutes about a school shooting, an event that has become far too common in the last few years. It was a hard decision though, as many of Picoult’s books are intriguing.

What about you, what will you be reading this month?

Online Reading Challenge – June Wrap-Up

- Ann Leave a comment

Hello Fellow Readers!

We’re halfway through the year – how is your Challenge going? Did you find something good to read during this month of Alice Hoffman?

I chose to read The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman. Although it was written after Practical Magic (one of Hoffman’s most popular books) this one actually takes place chronologically  before Practical Magic begins. In The Rules of Magic we learn a little more about the curse that haunts the Owens family, about the aunt that helped raise Jet and Franny (and their brother Vincent) who in turn one day will be tasked with raising Gillian and Sally whose story will unfold in Practical Magic.

Members of the Owens family possess magic and trying to deny it or hide from it will not save them from the family curse, that everything they love will leave them. Jet and Franny and Vincent’s parents work hard to make the siblings hide their magic, but it persists in each of them, just below the surface. One summer, when they’re young teens, their mother allows them to spend the summer with their Aunt Isabelle at the family home place in a rural town. At first they miss Manhattan, but they soon discover that their magic is growing stronger and that their aunt is happy to encourage them. It becomes a summer of rebellion and revelation as they each begin to find how to live with their legacy.

In time, despite their best efforts, each sibling falls in love and for each one, in one way or another, the family curse prevails. But isn’t that part of everyone’s life, that we seek out love, that we love recklessly and without regret and that someday, maybe today, maybe years from now, that love will no longer be with us.

It has been several years since I read Practical Magic and I wasn’t sure I would be able to make a connection, but I found this book can stand pretty much on it’s own. The writing is lyrical, which sounds kind of pretentious, but describes it best – Hoffman evokes the mysterious, tangled atmosphere of Isabelle’s house as well as the depth of emotions the characters feel with the same delicate touch, never maudlin but always real. In many ways, I found this book to be sad with so much heartbreak and sacrifice but also, ultimately, hopeful that the legacy of the past passes on to the next generation and the sacrifices made were worth the pain. As Hoffman concludes, “the only remedy for love is to love more”. A beautiful book.

Now it’s your turn – what did you read this month?

Before I Saw You by Emily Houghton

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Can love blossom even under the worst circumstances? Is it possible to fall in love with a voice and quiet conversations in the dead of night? Or does the bond from shared physical and emotional injuries fade when you recover? Before I Saw You by Emily Houghton tackles those questions by showing two people navigating seemingly unsurmountable problems.

Alice has been seriously burned in a fire at her office. As well as struggling to recover from serious injuries, she must face the fact that she is permanently disfigured. Deeply depressed, she retreats into silence, refusing to talk or to allow anyone to visit her.

When she has begun to recover from the worst of her burns, Alice is transferred to a rehabilitation ward where her bed, surrounded by curtains, is placed next to Alfie whose leg had to be amputated after a horrific car accident. Alfie is talkative, always bantering with the other patients and nurses, always optimistic. That he has been told to respect Alice’s wishes and not talk to her or engage her in his pranks is just about killing him. Slowly, the comradery of the ward begins to tug at Alice and one day she begins talking again, to Alfie. From behind the privacy of her curtain she makes a connection with Alfie and they become friends and maybe more.

The bubble of the rehab ward cannot last forever and first Alfie and then Alice must reenter the outside world, a world that has moved on while each of them has been changed drastically, physically and emotionally. Will they be able to begin again, and is there a possibility for the two of them to be together?

This was a very quick read and while overall it is mostly upbeat, it deals with some serious issues such as overcoming tragedy, rebuilding a life you hadn’t expected and trusting yourself. Ultimately, it is about hope and love and new beginnings.

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid is about the four Riva siblings, each famous in their own right, the children of a famous singer who abandoned them and their mother when they were children. This early trauma has created an unbreakable bond between them, a bond that is about to be tested.

Growing up near the beach in Malibu before it became a celebrity hotspot, the brothers and sisters spent as much time in the ocean as on land. They help their Mother run the family restaurant, an unassuming seafood shack that is popular with the locals. When their mother dies, Nina, the oldest, takes on the job of raising the other three, giving up her own dreams until one day she is “discovered” and is thrust into the spotlight when she becomes a model. Her older brother Jay becomes a champion surfer, Hud is a very successful sports photographer and the youngest, Kit, is just about to break through as a champion surfer herself. All of them carry secrets that will affect their lives and could break their family bond and it is all about to come together at Nina’s annual summer party.

The party quickly gets out of hand, with hoards of people (most uninvited), booze and drugs. In the midst of the chaos, the four Riva siblings struggle with their own demons, fight with each other and make up and, finally, come together to do what’s best for each of them.

Taylor Jenkins Reid has an amazing ability to seamlessly sweep the reader into another time and place and immerse them completely. Her most recent books, which include Daisy Jones and the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, focus on subjects and time periods I’m not usually drawn to but each time I quickly get caught up in the story. The same was true for this one. Beautifully atmospheric of the beach and the ocean and surfing, this is ultimately the story of family and how family can trap you but also set you free.

Online Reading Challenge – June

- Ann Leave a comment

Hello hello!

Time for a new author exploration in our Online Reading Challenge. This month our author is: Alice Hoffman!

A popular and prolific author, Hoffman books always include a bit of magic. It’s often understated, and sometimes doesn’t appear immediately, but it runs through each title like a vein of gold. Some of her best loved titles include Practical Magic, The World That We Knew, The Dovekeepers and The Marriage of Opposites.

If you would like to read something by a different author, look for books with some magical realism and/or female relationships. Some titles to consider include:

House of Spirits by Isabel Allende

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Amiee Bender

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by A.E. Schwab

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Chocolat by Joanne Harris

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Morena-Garcia

Lots of great choices! There will also be displays at both Fairmount and Eastern with titles to consider.

I am planning on reading The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman, which is a prequel to Practical Magic. It’s been a long time since I read Practical Magic, so I’m hoping this one can be read as a stand-alone. I will let you know how it goes!

 

Online Reading Challenge – May Wrap-Up

- Ann Leave a comment

Greetings Fellow Readers!

Here we are at the end of May already. How did your reading go this month? Did you find a Toni Morrison book or similar author to read this month?

I read Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi which turned out to be an excellent choice. It tells the story  of half-sisters Effia and Esi, born in Africa. Unknown to each other,  their lives take very different paths. Effia is married off to a white man, the British officer in charge of the Cape Coast Castle, the trading post where slaves were housed until sent West. While her life is relatively comfortable, she torn between two worlds – not entirely African anymore and not welcome in English society.

Meanwhile, Esi is captured, sold into slavery and sent to America, her life becoming a nightmare of constant hardship. After she is captured, Esi is held in the dungeons of the Cape Coast Castle with dozens of other women. She raped, beaten, nearly starved and lives in filthy conditions until a ship is ready to sail. Life as an enslaved person in America is no better.

Both women struggle to raise their children with a love and understanding of their African roots, passing along the oral history of their family and their people. Each generation that comes after these women must also struggle with the terrible legacy of slavery – of the responsibility for it (on Effia’s side) and the suffering, emotional and physical, of living it (on Esi’s side).

This is a powerful story, told by a bold and courageous voice. While the writing does not have the ethereal quality of Morrison’s, it is magical in it’s own way. The stories jump forward through time, describing a pivotal moment in the life of a member of each family each generation, then moving on to the next generation, creating a face-paced but vivid picture of struggles and triumphs. The long-lasting affects of slavery and racism are especially eye-opening and heartbreaking. A powerful story of tragedy and resilience. Highly recommended.

Now it’s your turn. What did you read this month?