Staff Picks

This book beautifully illustrates a child's love of snow, and snow angels.

 

Publisher description:

In 1962, a little boy named Peter put on his snowsuit and stepped out of his house and into the hearts of millions of readers. Universal in its appeal, this story beautifully depicts a child's wonder at a new world, and the hope of capturing and keeping that wonder forever. The quiet fun and sweetness of Peter's small adventures in the deep, deep snow is perfect for reading together on a cozy winter day.

 

What a great book! The author has the ability to spin a wonderful nonfiction yarn! The characters are so endearing and uplifting. If you like to run...at all, you will like this book. If you like to read fun and lively nonfiction...you will like this book. If you are fascinated by indigenous cultures...you will like this book. History of ultra running, the running shoe, Leadville 100, Tarahumara Tribe, and a crazy gringo named Caballo Blanco. Yippeeeeeeeeeee!

 

Publisher Description:

An epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? Isolated by Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America's best ultra-runners against the tribe. McDougall's incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.

 

I really enjoyed the author's style as a teenager, and I found that this book still went down easy for me. I had forgotten how desperate her characters often are, and this is no different. This book would be great for a reluctant reader, great for adolescent boys too.

 

Publisher Description:

Rusty-James is the number one tough guy among the junior high kids who hang out and shoot pool at Benny's. He's proud of his reputation, but what he wants most of all is to be just like his older brother, the Motorcycle Boy. Whenever Rusty-James gets in over his head, the Motorcycle Boy has always been there to bail him out. Then one day Rusty-James' world comes apart, and the Motorcycle boy isn't around to pick up the pieces. What now?

Like Hinton's groundbreaking classic The Outsiders, Rumble Fish was adapted into a movie by Francis Ford Coppola and remains as relevant as ever in its exploration of sibling relationships, the importance of role models, and the courage to think independently.

 

Find Rumble Fish in our online catalog.

 

One of those books you read until the end, and read quickly...yet by the end of the book you realize you hate everyone in it.

 

Publisher Description:

An internationally bestselling phenomenon: the darkly suspenseful, highly controversial tale of two families struggling to make the hardest decision of their lives -- all over the course of one meal. It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse -- the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened. Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love. Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator, The Dinner promises to be the topic of countless dinner party debates. Skewering everything from parenting values to pretentious menus to political convictions, this novel reveals the dark side of genteel society and asks what each of us would do in the face of unimaginable tragedy.

 

I always enjoy books with a music undertone, and this is no different. The book is set primarily in the 1970's. Two young and hip songwriters, who almost seem tortured and star-crossed at points in the novel, meet in California because of their shared record label. They are antagonistic and easily hurt in dealings with each other. The main characters are Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne, of whom one is sober and one is definitely not. She's beautiful and he's brooding. Hoop earrings, bangles up the arm, denim-on-denim outfits, Halston jumpsuits, and a lot of partying. It's a good little book that clips along at a nice pace. In the early part of the novel, when you meet the brothers who make up part of the band, "Daisy Jones and the Six" feels a bit like the Allman Brothers' early story. So if you like rock and roll stories with a "Behind the Music" sort of interview feel and you don't mind a bit of angst and a bunch of 1970's pills and booze thrown in, this book is for you. It has a surprisingly satisfying ending. I keep thinking about it. I hope he calls.