So Long....And thanks for all the fish?

Greetings Blog-Readers!

Parting is such sweet sorrow and all that business, but the fact is, Herrick is moving on from the blogosphere. We've enjoyed our hours together, to be sure, but we believe we've found a better way to reach you, our faithful public.

In the meantime, keep an eye on our Twitter feed and our Facebook page for happenings at Herrick District Library and Herrick North Branch! 

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

 

 

From the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees, a magnificent novel about two unforgettable American women 
Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world—and it is now the newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection.

 Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.

As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.

Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.

This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.

Available as a Book Group to Go bag.

Attention Book Groups

The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

The one and only Fannie Flagg, beloved author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven, and I Still Dream About You, is at her hilarious and superb best in this new comic mystery novel about two women who are forced to reimagine who they are.

Mrs. Sookie Poole of Point Clear, Alabama, has just married off the last of her daughters and is looking forward to relaxing and perhaps traveling with her husband, Earle. The only thing left to contend with is her mother, the formidable Lenore Simmons Krackenberry. Lenore may be a lot of fun for other people, but is, for the most part, an overbearing presence for her daughter. Then one day, quite by accident, Sookie discovers a secret about her mother’s past that knocks her for a loop and suddenly calls into question everything she ever thought she knew about herself, her family, and her future.

Sookie begins a search for answers that takes her to California, the Midwest, and back in time, to the 1940s, when an irrepressible woman named Fritzi takes on the job of running her family’s filling station. Soon truck drivers are changing their routes to fill up at the All-Girl Filling Station. Then, Fritzi sees an opportunity for an even more groundbreaking adventure. As Sookie learns about the adventures of the girls at the All-Girl Filling Station, she finds herself with new inspiration for her own life.

Fabulous, fun-filled, spanning decades and generations, and centered on a little-known aspect of America’s twentieth-century story, The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion is another irresistible novel by the remarkable Fannie Flagg.

Available as a Book Group to Go bag.

Attention Book Groups

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

Available as a Book Group to Go Bag

Attention Book Groups

Empty Mansions: the mysterious life of Huguette Clark and the spending 

of a great American fortune 

by Bill Dedman

When Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money?

Dedman has collaborated with Huguette Clark’s cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have frequent conversations with her. Dedman and Newell tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter, born into a family of extreme wealth and privilege, who secrets herself away from the outside world.

Available as a Book Group To Go bag.  

What's Next for Lisbeth Salander?

Devoted fans around the world were devastated when Stieg Larsson, author of the Millenium series died suddenly after publishing only three books in a series projected for ten.  Hope was revived briefly when information surfaced that the manuscript for an unfinished fourth novel was being fought over by Larsson's partner, family and his publisher.

Today, the publisher, Norstedts Forlag (who own the rights to the series), announced (yes, it's in Swedish, but Google Translator will take care of that for you) that they have contracted author David Lagercrantz to write a fourth Millenium novel, due to be published in August 2015.

So What Do Librarians Read?

It's a question we get asked all the time and the truthful answer is that if you ask 5 librarians that question, you'll get 25 answers. This, then, makes the one and only list of the Best Books of 2013 I'm going to publish very unique.

Near the end of November, librarians around the country were challenged to tweet their favorite titles from 2013 with the hashtag #libfaves13. For ten days, librarians tweeted one title each day and now the results have been released!

ELEANOR & PARK	Rowell, Rainbow
FANGIRL	Rowell, Rainbow
ROSIE PROJECT, THE	Simsion, Graeme
LIFE AFTER LIFE	Atkinson, Kate
OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE	Gaiman, Neil
CUCKOO'S CALLING	Galbraith, Robert /Rowling
GOLDFINCH, THE	Tartt, Donna
HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN	Penny, Louise
INTERESTINGS, THE	Wolitzer, Meg
HUMAN DIVISION	Scalzi, John
LEXICON	Barry, Max
ME BEFORE YOU	Moyes, Jo Jo
NO GOOD DUKE GOES UNPUNISHED	MacLean, Sarah
WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES	Fowler, Karen Joy
BETTER NATE THAN EVER	Federle, Tim
DETROIT: AN AMERICAN AUTOPSY	LeDuff, Charlie
FLORA & ULYSSES: THE ILLUMINATED ADVENTURES	DiCamillo, Kate
GOLEM AND THE JINNI, THE	Wecker, Helene
LONGBOURN	Baker, Jo
BONE SEASON	Shannon, Samantha
CURTSIES AND CONSPIRACIES	Carriger, Gail
ETIQUETTE AND ESPIONAGE	Carriger, Gail
HELP FOR THE HAUNTED	Searles, John
RELISH: MY LIFE IN THE KITCHEN	Knisley, Lucy
SOMEONE	McDermott, Alice
STORYTELLER	Picoult, Jodi
TENTH OF DECEMBER	Saunders, George
THINKING WOMAN'S GUIDE TO REAL MAGIC, THE	Barker, Emily Croy
ANCILLARY JUSTICE	Leckie, Ann
COUNTING BY 7's	Sloan, Holly Goldberg
FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL	Fink, Sherri
GULP	Roach, Mary
HEIRESS EFFECT, THE	Milan, Courtney
HUSBAND'S SECRET, THE	Moriarty, Liane
JOURNEY	Becker, Aaron
P.S. BE ELEVEN	Williams-Garcia, Rita
RECONSTRUCTING AMELIA	McCreight, Kimberly
RETURNED, THE	Mott, Jason
SAGA	Vaughn, Brian K.
TALE FOR THE TIME BEING, A	Ozeki, Ruth
TELL THE WOLVES I'M HOME	Brunt, Carol Rifka
VAMPIRES IN THE LEMON GROVE	Russell, Karen
WORLD'S STRONGEST LIBRARIAN	Hanagarne, Josh
AMERICANAH	Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED	Hosseini, Khaled
BOXERS & SAINTS	Yang, Gene Luen
BOY ON THE PORCH	Creech, Sharon
CALLING DR. LAURA	Georges, Laura
CINNAMON AND GUNPOWDER	Brown, Eli
CODE NAME VERITY	Wein, Elizabeth
COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN	Black, Holly
CRAZY RICH ASIANS	Kwan, Kevin
DOCTOR SLEEP	King, Stephen
DOLL BONES	Black, Holly
DREAM THIEVES	Steifvater, Maggie
ENGAGEMENTS, THE	Sullivan, J. Courtney
FAULT IN OUR STARS , THE (2012 title	Green, John
FLORA AND THE FLAMINGO	Idle, Molly
FORGIVE ME, LEONARD PEACOCK	Quick, Matthew
LOST GIRLS	Kolker, Robert
NIGHT FILM	Pessl, Marisha
NOS4A2	Hill, Joe
OUT OF THE EASY	Sepetys, Ruta
REAL BOY, THE	Ursu, Anne
RIVER OF NO RETURN	Ridgway, Bee
ROSE UNDER FIRE	Wein, Elizabeth
S.	Dorst, Doug / Abrams, J.J.
SCARLET	Meyers, Marissa
SCREAMING STAIRCASE, THE	Stroud
SERAPHINA	Hartman, Rachel
VISITATION STREET	Pochoda, Ivy

Note that the list is in the order of the most votes received, and when multiple books received the same number of votes, they were then alphabetized.

Feel free to give us a call for help getting your hands on a copy of any of these titles!

Happy Holiday Reading!