Armchair Travel Around the World


Sometimes it is difficult to getting away…except when reading a book! This month we asked our staff for suggestions of books that take place in a specific location, have a strong sense of place or contain travel. This is what they gave us.


Fiction



Forever
by Pete Hamill

Book




Less
By Andrew Sean Greer

Book/Audio CD/Overdrive eBook



Independent People
Halldór Laxness

Book










Kids


Maisy Goes to London
By Lucy Cousins

Book


Nonfiction


125 Wacky Roadside Attractions
National Geographics

Book






Perfect Poolside Perusals

Summer is here so we asked our staff what are some of their favorite books to read while soaking up the sun. Click on the title to find summaries and reviews on Goodreads.com.


All Grown Up
by Jami Attenberg

Book/Hoopla eBook







Tracy Flick Can’t Win
by Tom Perrotta

Book


Nightcrawling
by Leila Mottley

Book






Mel Fell
by Corey R. Tabor

Book

Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month and to celebrate we asked our staff to recommend their favorite poets. As a bonus we also have a few haikus written by our staff.

Librarian Haiku #1

Reading Sends You to
Faraway Places Even
When You Can’t Leave Home

Librarian Haiku #2

Words Crowd on the Page
“We’re Revolting” They Say As
They Form a New Draft

Librarian Haiku #3

Toss Waste onto Ground
Lazy Humans Trash Our Earth
Be Bold! Pick it Up!

TED Talks

Our Favorite TED Talks

TED is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world. They believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world. We asked our staff to share their favorite TED Talks and paired them a few books that may help you expand your understanding on the topic. This is what they came up with. (Click on the book covers to find the books in our catalog)


Matt Walker: Why Sleep Matters Now More Than Ever


Wim Hof: Standing the Ice with Our Minds


Amy Tan: Where Does Creativity Hide


Rita Pierson: Every Kid Needs a Champion


Dr. Mark Holder: Three Words That Will Change Your Life


Pamela Meyer: How to Spot a Liar


Temple Grandin: The World Needs All Kinds of Minds


Other TED Talks We Like (With Dewey Locations of Books on Similar Topics)

  1. Michael Sandel: What’s the Right Thing to do? / 172.2 and 301.417 and 320
  2. Mariana Atencio: What makes you special? / 155.4 and 158
  3. Simon Sinek : How great leaders inspire action / 303.34 and 658.4
  4. Brené Brown : The power of vulnerability / 158
  5. Tim Urban : Inside the mind of a master procrastinator / 155.2
  6. Julian Treasure : How to speak so that people will listen / 658.45 and 808.51
  7. Robert Waldinger : What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness / 158.1 and 170.44
  8. Chimamanda Adichie : The danger of a single story / 305.8 and 372.21
  9. Angela Lee Duckworth : Grit: The power of passion and perseverance / 179.9, 155.4 and 158.1
  10. Elif Shafak : The revolutionary power of diverse thought / 321.8 and 331.4133

January Staff Picks: Tsundoku

Tsundoku (積ん読): A Japanese word and characters that translate as “pile up” + “read”. We asked our staff what has been piling up on their to-be-read list. Here are their answers.


Nonfiction


Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall
By Helena Merriman

It’s summer, 1962, and Joachim Rudolph, a student, is digging a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Waiting on the other side in East Berlin – dozens of men, women and children; all willing to risk everything to escape.
Book


Hallucinations
by Oliver Sacks

Have you ever seen something that wasn’t really there? Heard someone call your name in an empty house? Sensed someone following you and turned around to find nothing?
Book/Audiobook CD/Overdrive eBook


Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside
by Nick Offerman

A humorous and rousing tour of America’s nature spots as well as a mission statement about loving, protecting, and truly experiencing the outdoors, inspired by three journeys undertaken by actor, humorist, and New York Times bestselling author Nick Offerman
Book/Overdrive eBook/Overdrive Audiobook


Fiction


Under the Whispering Door
by TJ Klune

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace Price from his own funeral, Wallace suspects he really might be dead.
Book/Overdrive eBook/Overdrive Audiobook


Get a Life, Chloe Brown
by Talia Hibbert

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. The next items?
Book/Overdrive eBook/Hoopla eBook/Hoopla Audiobook


The Library of the Dead
by T.L. Huchu

When a child goes missing in Edinburgh’s darkest streets, young Ropa investigates. She’ll need to call on Zimbabwean magic as well as her Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. But as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?
Books


One Last Stop
by Casey McQuiston

For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.

But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.
Overdrive eBook


Walk on Earth a Stranger
by Rae Carson

Lee can sense gold in the world around her. Veins deep in the earth. Small nuggets in a stream. Even gold dust caught underneath a fingernail. She has kept her family safe and able to buy provisions, even through the harshest winters. But what would someone do to control a girl with that kind of power? A person might murder for it.
Book/Hoopla eBook/Hoopla Audiobook


Light from Uncommon Stars
by Ryka Aoki

Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.
Book


Little Fires Everywhere
by Celeste Ng

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood–and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.
Book/Audiobook CD/Overdrive eBook/Overdrive Audiobook


War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy

In Russia’s struggle with Napoleon, Tolstoy saw a tragedy that involved all mankind. Greater than a historical chronicle, War and Peace is an affirmation of life itself, `a complete picture’, as a contemporary reviewer put it, `of everything in which people find their happiness and greatness, their grief and humiliation’.
Book/Audiobook CD/Overdrive eBook/Hoopla eBook/Hoopla Audiobook


1Q84
by Haruki Murakami

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.
Book/Audiobook CD/Overdrive eBook


Les Miserables
by Victor Hugo

A thrilling tale of narrow escapes, romance in the midst of a revolution, and battlefield heroism, Victor Hugo’s sprawling 1862 novel focuses on the Parisian underworld.
Book/Overdrive eBook/Hoopla eBook/Hoopla Audiobook


Young Adult


We are Inevitable
by Gayle Forman

While his friends have gone to college and moved on with their lives, Aaron’s been left behind in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, running a failing bookshop with his dad, Ira. What he needs is a lucky break, the good kind of inevitable.

And then he meets Hannah. Incredible Hannah
Book


In the Wild Light
by Jeff Zentner

Life in a small Appalachian town is not easy. Cash lost his mother to an opioid addiction and his Papaw is dying slowly from emphysema. Dodging drug dealers and watching out for his best friend, Delaney, is second nature. He’s been spending his summer mowing lawns while she works at Dairy Queen.

But when Delaney manages to secure both of them full rides to an elite prep school in Connecticut, Cash will have to grapple with his need to protect and love Delaney, and his love for the grandparents who saved him and the town he would have to leave behind.
Book


Juvenile Fiction


The Girl Who Drank the Moon
by Kelly Barnhill

Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the forest, Xan, is kind and gentle. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster named Glerk and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, Fyrian. Xan rescues the abandoned children and deliver them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey. 

One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this enmagicked girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. To keep young Luna safe from her own unwieldy power, Xan locks her magic deep inside her. When Luna approaches her thirteenth birthday, her magic begins to emerge on schedule–but Xan is far away. Meanwhile, a young man from the Protectorate is determined to free his people by killing the witch. Soon, it is up to Luna to protect those who have protected her–even if it means the end of the loving, safe world she’s always known
Book/Overdrive eBook/Overdrive Audiobook/Hoopla eBook/Hoopla Audiobook


The Amelia Six
by Kristin L. Gray

Amelia Earhart’s famous aviator goggles go missing and eleven-year-old Millie has to find them before the night is over
Book


The Beatryce Prophecy
Kate DiCamillo

From two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo and two-time Caldecott Medalist Sophie Blackall comes a fantastical meditation on fate, love, and the power of words to spell the world.
Book/Overdrive eBook

National Hobby Month: Books, Books, Books

Books for Your New Hobby

Tired of being online? Want to cozy up with a book in your hand to learn a new hobby? Or get more info on a favorite pastime you already have? We’ve gathered some book suggestions for you. Whether you enjoy painting, photography, collecting, building, or crafting, the library has books for you!


The Encyclopedia of Jewelry-making Techniques by Jinks McGrath

Book


Scrapbooking Techniques for Beginners by Rebekah Meier

Book


Watercolor is for Everyone:  Simple Lessons to Make Your Creative Practice a Daily Habit by Kateri Ewing

Book


Filmmaking for Dummies by Bryan Stoller

Book


iPhone Photography by Mark Hemmings

Book


Digital Photography by Julie Adair King

Book


Hand Lettering 101:  An Introduction to the Art of Creative Lettering by Chalkfulloflove

Book


Rosie O’Donnell’s Crafty U:  100 Easy Projects the Whole Family Can Enjoy All Year Long by Rosie O’Donnell

Book


Generation T:  108 Ways to Transform a T-shirt by Megan Nicolay

Book


Home Made, Best Made:  Hundreds of Ways to Make All Kinds of Useful Things by Reader’s Digest

Book


The Complete Guide to Drones:  Build & Choose & Fly & Photograph by Adam Juniper

Book


Playing with Trains:  a Passion Beyond Scale by Sam Posey

Book


Guitar All-in-One by Jon Chappell

Book


How to Bake Everything: Simple Recipes for the Best Baking by Mark Bittman

Book


Rocks and Minerals by Chris Pellant

Book


Would you prefer EBooks or Audio books?

The library has Overdrive (also known as Libby) for eBooks and audiobooks, and Hoopla which offers both eBooks and audiobooks, as well as streaming movies and television shows. So there’s always something to choose from wherever there’s internet access or when transporting a physical book is not possible. Look for these logos in your app store.

National Hobby Month on Hoopla

There are tons of streaming options available for all sorts of hobbies. Check out these which we found on Hoopla or look for some on your own!


Candle Making: From Beginner to Business by Rachel Larsen

Stream or download this eBook


A To Z How To Make Wine At Home For Total Beginners by Lisa Bond

Stream this eBook


The Complete Photo Guide to Jewelry Making by Tammy Powley

Stream this eBook


Beginner’s Guide To Making Mosaics by Delphine Lescuyer

Stream this eBook


Leathercraft As A Hobby by Clifford Pyle

Stream this eBook


Hobby Boss: Turn Your Passion Into Profits Online by Steve Mastroianni

Stream this eBook


Sketching as a Hobby by Arthur L. Guptill

Stream ebook


Hobby Farming for Dummies by Theresa Husarik

Stream Audio Book


Easy WordPress Blogging for Beginners by Rawee M.

Stream this eBook


Write That Book Tips for New Authors by Michelle G. Cameron

Stream this eBook


National Hobby Month

National Hobby Month

January is National Hobby month! Looking for new ideas for your hobby or planning to try a new one? The library has many resources for you!

Check out some of our favorite eBooks and eMagazines from OverDrive covering all sorts of hobbies, or links for fun stuff like How to be a Comedy Writer available when streaming on Hoopla. Plus, there we’ve gathered links right here for hardcover books and great crafting sites for ideas as well as step-by-step instructions. There is something for everyone!


Astronomy for Beginners 4th Edition

eMagazine


How to Cook Everything – Completely Revised Twentieth Anniversary Edition: Simple Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman

eBook


The Runner’s Bible by Mark Bloom

eBook


Spanish for Dummies by Jessica Langemeier

eBook


1000 Ideas for Decorating Cupcakes, Cookies, & Cakes by Sandra Salamony

eBook


Don’t see a hobby you would like to try from our staff-picked OverDrive selections? Check out Hoopla for more e-options or to stream movies. Or scroll for books and crafting sites.


Better Homes & Gardens 365 30-minute Meals

eBook


How to Paint and Draw

eMagazine


Minecraft Secrets

eMagazine


Got screen fatigue? Prefer a book you can hold?


3D Printing for Dummies by Kalani Kirk Hausman

eBook


Rodale’s Basic Organic Gardening by Deborah Martin

eBook


Get Started with a Craft

  • Hobsess find a new hobby, revisit an old hobby from your past, or even learn how to turn your hobby into a profitable business.
  • Discoverhobby  – online directory of hobbies listed by categories such as collecting, arts and crafts, games, model and electronic, food and drinks, sports and outdoors, and spiritual and mental.
  • eHow – extensive site covering about 30 different how-to categories, chock full of articles and tutorials.
  • APL library catalog – our online catalog will take you to a plethora of materials such as books, magazines, and DVDs, including in electronic format about your favorite things to do or make!