Stop by every month to see what materials a staff member has to recommend.

Staff Picks

1. Marmee by Sarah Miller
This book follows the story of Little Women but is told through their mother’s (Marmee) views, feelings, fears and experiences during the same events of the Little Women story. Her thoughts are presented as her diary entries. It was interesting to experience a different view of the family. 

2. The Women by Kristin Hannah
This seems to be one of the most popular books by Kristin Hannah since I started working at the library.  We added the book to our shelves in February 2024 and have checked it out 30 times with still 10 more who are waiting to read it.  It’s about a 20-year-old nursing student, Frankie McGrath. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets―and becomes one of―the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost. But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

3. Mind Games by Nora Roberts
As they do each June, the Foxes have driven the winding roads of Appalachia to drop off their children for a two-week stay at their grandmother’s. Here, twelve-year-old Thea can run free and breathe in the smells of pine and fresh bread and Grammie’s handmade candles. But as her parents head back to suburban Virginia, they have no idea they’re about to cross paths with a ticking time bomb. Back in Kentucky, Thea and her grandmother Lucy both awaken from the same nightmare. And though the two have never discussed the special kind of sight they share, they know as soon as their tearful eyes meet that something terrible has happened. The kids will be staying with Grammie now in Redbud Hollow, and thanks to Thea’s vision, their parents’ killer will spend his life in prison. Over time, Thea will make friends, build a career, find love. But that ability to see into minds and souls still lurks within her, and though Grammie calls it a gift, it feels more like a curse―because the inmate who shattered her childhood has the same ability. Thea can hear histwisted thoughts and witness his evil acts from miles away. He knows it, and hungers for vengeance. A long, silent battle will be waged between them―and eventually bring them face to face, and head to head. 

4. Educated by Tara Westover
Educated is a 2018 memoir by the author. She recounts overcoming her survivalist Mormon family in order to go to college, and emphasizes the importance of education in enlarging her world. It’s a raw, emotional, and at times, heartbreaking account of her life. Tara endured both physical andverbal abuse at the hands of family members and saw her education, as well as her overallwell-being, neglected by her parents. Throughout the book, she strives to deliver an unbiased account of events, going so far as to include footnotes that detail how her memory of a given event differed from that of another family member. She also does not shy away from discussing such personal subjects as the psychological toll of the abuse she withstood. 

5. Catching the Wind by Melanie Dobson
What happened to Brigitte Berthold? That question has haunted Daniel Knight since he was thirteen, when he and ten-year-old Brigitte escaped the Gestapo agents who arrested both their parents. They survived a harrowing journey from Germany to England, only to be separated upon their arrival. Daniel vowed to find Brigitte after the war, a promise he has fought to fulfill for more than seventy years. Now a wealthy old man, Daniel’s final hope in finding Brigitte rests with Quenby Vaughn, an American journalist working in London. He believes Quenby’s tenacity to find missing people and her personal investment in a related WWII espionage story will help her succeed where previous investigators have failed. Though Quenby is wrestling her own demons―and wary at the idea of teaming up with Daniel’s lawyer, Lucas Hough―the lure of Brigitte’s story is too much to resist. Together, Quenby and Lucas delve deep into the past, following a trail of deception, sacrifice, and healing that could change all of their futures.