The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

I was very excited about Louise Erdrich's new book,  The Night Watchman, and was not disappointed! The nuances of descriptive detail draw me in like few other authors that I know.  I never feel as though I know or can assume what is going to happen in her stories.  That ability to create intrigue in the daily life of her characters is, for me, what makes the story come to life.

This story did leave me wanting more at the end.  And I don't mean  a happy ending with all the bits tied up in nice little bow, it's that I felt the story ended too abruptly.  But then, that is, I suppose, an indication of how fondly I had grown of the characters.  I hope there will be more stories with these characters.

The Luck Library owns a copy of this book, it may be available for curbside pick-up soon!

Requesting LUCK items in the MORE catalog

Here's HOW to request items available IN the library right now:

Video Instructions:  https://youtu.be/JYolaIrIzEM

Instructions:

1. Go to the MORE Catalog: more.lib.wi.us and log in
2. Enter a search term (remember, “movies” and “books” are valid keyword search terms)
3. Select the “Available Now” filter on the left side to expand it
4. Select Luck as the pickup library
5. Search results will be limited to titles available and holdable at Luck
   Tip: to exclude ebooks and audiobooks, open the “Titles I can…” filter and select “Borrow and take home”
6. Select “Place a Hold” and verify your pickup library is Luck
   ***Tip: Turn on “Active Filters” so subsequent searches retain limits

NEW! Curbside Pick-up Hours and Info

The Candymakers by Wendy Mass

I recently reread this book and liked it just as much the second time as I did the first. The Candymakers by Wendy Mass is a book about friendship and adventure. It starts out with a boy named Logan. Logan’s father is the candymaker at the Life Is Sweet candy factory. Logan has lived there since he was born. During the period of time in which this book takes place, Logan Sweet, Miles O’Leary, Daisy Carpenter and Phillip Ransford all join the Confectionary Association's annual new candy contest. In the beginning, they are all against each other. All of them are trying to win the contest for a very specific reason. However, in the end of the book they all come together to do the right thing. This is a pretty easy reading level but it is a good story. If you read and like(d) the first book, read the second book! The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase!

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

This book has sat on my bookshelf for a few years. March, remember March? What a March! Well, that was a good month for me to finally check this book off my to-read list.
An intriguing story and, while I liked the understated nature of the writing, I constantly felt like I really wanted more details.  At first, I thought those details would come later in the story, but they never really did.  You understood that these were "different" children, and then you understand why it is that they are different, but the 10,000 questions and conflicts that I wanted to know more about were never addressed.   For me, this story was begging for so much more description than it ever got.  I would not reread.  I might recommend, but not to everyone. For a bit more summary, here's what the MORE catalog has to say...
MORE Catalogue summary:
Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it. Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it's only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.

Happy New Year!

I loved this book. I believe I gave it 5 stars on the Goodreads website, which is a rare occurrence for me.  It is just the right blend of fiction and history, with excellent detail on specific areas of life that I know little about-- book conservation (which I found fascinating) and Jewish history (also fascinating, but in a different way). I enjoy deeply developed characters and this book provided several, both in the protaganist and in the Haggadah itself .
Read more reviews about it at Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1379961.People_of_the_Book?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=9oXahGPKAS&rank=1

 Reviving the blog!  I hope to renew the library blog in 2020 and thought I'd start right here, with a nod to my books of 2019, thanks to Goodreads willingness to share.  I read some very very good books this year, along with the mediocre and the not-so-good, and look forward to sharing them with you.  Enjoy!       

     

         

           
         

         

           
         

         

            Sometimes I Lie
         

         

            by Alice Feeney
         

         

            it was ok...i'd recommend it to anyone who likes a domestic sort of suspense story, but it didn't grab me by the throat or create any lasting emotional response. It may just be that I'm on the tail end of suspense binge and they've start...
         

     

     

         

           
         

         

           
         

         

            The Golem and the Jinni
         

         

            by Helene Wecker
         

         

            Wonderful, detailed story filled with strongly developed characters whom I miss now that the story has ended.
         

     

     

         

           
         

         

           
         

         

            What is Not Yours is Not Yours
         

         

            by Helen Oyeyemi
         

     

     

         

           
         

         

           
         

         

            Les Misérables
         

         

            by Victor Hugo
         

         

            Well, I finished it!$#!%! by reading it in a variety of formats (including a graphic novel adaptation) and skipping loooooooooots of the several hundred pages of backstory (which i decided to do after reading several hundred pages detail...
         

     

     

         

           
         

         

           
         

         

            The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
         

         

            by Junot Díaz
         

         

            His ability to wind many intricate threads into one story reminds me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.