Reviews

Staff Review

Me Before You

By Jojo Moyes
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Lisa J.
Nov 19, 2013

What makes life worth living?  Will Traynor is struggling with this very question since an accident left him paralyzed from the shoulders down and often in excruciating pain.  Confined to a wheelchair and dependent on others to assist with even the most basic tasks of daily life, Will isn't sure life is worth living.  Then his mother hires Louisa (Lou) Clark as his daytime assistant/caregiver.  Two very different personalities, Will and Lou get off to a rocky and stilted start.

Staff Review

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

By Jeff Kinney
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Becky C.
Nov 16, 2013

Parents: if you’re looking for a few hours of uninterrupted time to yourself, check out Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney--for your kid.  NoveList, an online database the Library subscribes to, is a great resource for books.  It lists the minimum reading level for this book at 2nd grade and the maximum reading level at 8th grade.  I’d agree that’s about right.  If you’ve got a 7-year-old Human Reading Vacuum, a 14-year-old reluctant reader, or anyone in between, it’s a good bet they

Teen Review

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

By Holly Black

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Nov 16, 2013

When seventeen-year-old Tana wakes up hungover from a wild party at a remote farmhouse, surrounded by dead classmates, she thinks things can't get any worse...until she discovers a mysterious vampire named Gavriel chained up in the same room as her bitten ex-boyfriend Aiden, who is about to turn into a full-fledged bloodsucker at any moment.

Staff Review

The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows

By G. S. Borrit
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Jared H.
Nov 15, 2013

Almost seven score and ten years ago on November 19th, the National Cemetery in Gettysburg, PA was dedicated to those Union soldiers who fought and died during the three day battle there. It was at this event that President Abraham Lincoln gave perhaps his most well-known speech of his political career: the Gettysburg Address. At less than 280 words long, it is a speech that many Americans have had to memorize at one time or another in the years since. 

Staff Review

Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise

By David Rothenberg
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Bryan V.
Nov 7, 2013

David Rothenberg's Bug Music is a highly readable  and eccentric investigation into an aspect of nature too easily taken for granted. Bugs produce very mathematical sounds based on natural cycles. What human ears are able to delineate is really only the tip of a very large iceberg connected to other icebergs. Delving deeply into the sounds of cicadas, crickets and katydids, Rothenberg is not afraid to suddenly go big-picture on his readers. He aims for nothing less than a direct connection between  a cricket’s chirp and jazz band’s rhythm section.

Staff Review

This Is Spinal Tap

By Rob Reiner
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Becky C.
Nov 6, 2013

When This Is Spinal Tap was released in theaters in 1984, many audience members were convinced they were seeing a documentary of an actual British rock group, Spinal Tap, fumbling its way through one last tour across America despite the fact they hadn’t had a hit song in nearly two decades.   In reality, the film is a mockumentary directed by the great Rob Reiner, and Spinal Tap is a fake band made up of three brilliant American actors.  Christopher Guest, who went on to direct and star in other hilarious mockumentaries such as Waiting for

Staff Review

Covet

By Tracey Garvis Graves
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Lisa J.
Nov 6, 2013

Claire and Chris Canton are living the quintessential suburban life in Johnson County Kansas when the recession hits and Chris gets laid off from his job.  With a generous severance package Chris is sure that he will be able to find a job with no problem.  However, as the months go on with no job prospects in sight Chris retreats both physically and emotionally from Claire, their two kids and life in general.  Meanwhile, Claire is left to keep things going the way they always have to minimize the impact on their children, Josh and Jordan, while working part time from hom

Staff Review Oct 30, 2013

I need to confess that I gave up reading this book.  I thought it was because my science knowledge was so abysmal and this theory was bolstered by numerous reviewers praising Kean for his accessible writing.  But I kept having these niggling thoughts that it wasn't all my fault.  And in my defense I do like science writing.  Each year I devour The Best American Science Writing.  This series gets me excited about science which is what science books for the lay person should do.  Kean was just too disjointed for me.

Staff Review

The Signature of All Things

By Elizabeth Gilbert
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Colleen O.
Oct 23, 2013

In Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest work of fiction, Alma Whittaker is born in 1800 to her parents, Henry and Beatrix, who are themselves interesting characters. Henry grew up poor and very resentful of this fact, although his father did teach him the one thing that changed his life, which was botany. Henry is a self-made man and is now one of the wealthiest men in America. Both he and Beatrix are very unconventional parents.  Scientific in nature, they encourage their daughter to explore their large estate—as long as she is doing something to further her intellect.

Staff Review

The Girl You Left Behind

By Jojo Moyes
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Colleen O.
Oct 23, 2013

The Girl You Left Behind is broken into two time periods: the first in 1916 with Sophie Lefevre struggling to keep herself and her family alive in a German-occupied town in France. Her beloved husband Edouard, a French artist who studied under Matisse, is fighting at the Front.