Audiobook Recommendations

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Many of the books I read are in audiobook form; I enjoy the ease of always having a book with me that I can listen to at various times of my day. Two reasons I’m so glad to have a library card are Libby and hoopla, audiobook borrowing services my Joplin Public Library card provides access to, and where I borrowed the below audiobook titles. I also enjoy receiving audiobook recommendations from fellow readers. For that reason I thought I would provide some of my own recommendations of audiobooks I have particularly enjoyed this year.

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

This memoir by superstar Britney Spears was hard to listen to because Spears has written such a deeply personal, brutally honest look into her complex rise to fame and the way it molded and challenged her life. Chronicling her life from childhood to adulthood, Spears touches on personal relationships with family, boyfriends, husbands, individuals in the music industry, and her own reflections. A common thread is Spears’ recognition of the lack of control and choices she had in her own life, everyone from the media to her own family deciding things for the star, oftentimes without her knowledge. A large part of the memoir is dedicated to the conservatorship Spears was placed under with her father and an attorney serving as conservators. As a Britney Spears fan since her first album release in 1999, I, like many others, was anxious to read her memoir. I found myself laughing with her at times, sympathizing and feeling angry with her, and generally feeling horrible about everything Spears endured because of fame. The audiobook is narrated by actress Michelle Williams; Spears notes in the opening of the memoir that it was too difficult for her to write, let alone narrate. Williams does a fantastic job, transforming her voice to sound like Spears and invoking the emotions on the page; I often forgot I wasn’t actually listening to Britney Spears. I would highly recommend this book to fans of celebrity memoirs; it is brave and heart wrenching, showing the dark side of how toxic fame can be.

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What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez

The description of this book includes the comparison “The Mummy meets Death on the Nile” – I’ve read few descriptions that had me borrowing a book faster. What the River Knows is a historical fantasy following protagonist Inez on a life changing journey to find out what happened to her parents after they disappear in the Egyptian desert, pronounced dead. Inez is sharp and persistent, raised in the upper society of nineteenth century Buenos Aires. Her parents spend half of their year in Egypt, searching for lost tombs and artifacts, leaving Inez behind. When Inez receives word of her parent’s death she takes on the task of discovering what happened. Along the way there is danger, history, excitement, and love. The audiobook I listened to is primarily narrated by Ana Osorio with some sections narrated by Ahmed Hamad. I particularly liked Ana Osorio as a narrator. This was a fun and turbulent read that really kept my interest. 

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All the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life’s Work by Hayley Campbell

Death affects us all; it is a part of life and surrounds the living. There are many reactions to death, one of which is curiosity. Journalist Hayley Campbell became familiar with death at a young age, peering at detailed drawings her father created as part of a Jack the Ripper comic book he was writing. Since then Campbell has wondered about the logistics of death, specifically the death industry and those that make their living working with the dead. In this close look at the death industry Campbell interviews the invisible laborers that have jobs many would never consider for themselves: executioners, embalmers, morticians, homicide detectives, and crime scene cleaners, as well as mass fatality investigators, a bereavement midwife, gravediggers, a cryonics facility, a crematorium operator, an anatomical pathology technologist, a Mayo Clinic director of anatomical services, and a death mask sculptor. By way of these interviews Campbell provides a deep dive into these professions, presents the question of what working with the dead does to the living, and explores various approaches and attitudes to death. In all instances Campbell goes to the interviewee, often at their place of work. This was a really interesting read, and listening to the author herself narrate the audiobook was awesome; I really felt the passion she had for her subject. Campbell respects the death industry and the dead and sheds light on dedicated people whose work is often left unknown and unappreciated.

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The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

This is a young adult coming of age novel that tells of Dill and his friends Travis and Lydia. The group are high school outcasts, leaning on one another for friendship and support. Dill lives with his mom who struggles to make ends meet; his dad is in prison. The main reason for Dill’s outcast status is his fathers very public fall from grace as a minister who handles poisonous snakes and speaks in tongues. Dill receives pressure from his dad to follow in his footsteps and handle snakes. Dill’s mom parrots his dad, urging Dill to go into preaching and discouraging him from applying to college. Tragic events unfold in the novel, ultimately forcing Dill to choose between what his parents want and what he wants. All the while his fierce friendships with Travis and Lydia remain the brightness in his otherwise bleak situation. I was not expecting to love this book like I did; it really stomped on my heart and felt very relatable to teenage and adult readers alike. Zentner’s character building is well done and his writing propelling. The audiobook had three narrators for the parts of Dill, Travis, and Lydia, the chapters fluctuating between the three. I like audiobooks that provide different narrators for different characters, so that was a highlight for me. I would recommend this book to someone looking for a true to life young adult read. 

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Audiobooks can be checked out from the Joplin Public Library in CD and MP3 format, as well as electronically from the digital borrowing platforms Libby and hoopla. 

Loose Threads by Isol

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Every so often, an adult will sheepishly tell me that they “still read picture books.” To that I say: a good book is a good book! Read with abandon! You can find some of the most beautiful art and the most touching stories in picture books. I am hoping my review this month will aid in the unabashed search for great picture books.

Loose Threads is a book unlike any other that I have read. Isol Misenta (listed as Isol on the book jacket) was inspired by a gifted scarf to create an imaginative picture book about a seemingly forgetful little girl named Leila. Originally written in Spanish and translated by Lawrence Schimel, Loose Threads follows Leila, a girl who is always losing things. When her mother admonishes her to take better care of her belongings, Leila insists that it’s not her fault. On the other side of her beautiful village, there is another village. This other village is home to all her lost items. This reverse village is similar to hers, but everything is all jumbled and knotted up. Of course, no one has ever seen this place so the stories could be fictional, but Leila is convinced it’s real. What else could explain the sudden disappearance of so many of her things? Eventually, Leila decides to find this other world and solve the mystery of her lost things once and for all. But will she find what she is looking for? Will her attempts to solve a problem actually make things better?

The story itself is fun, but the illustration style is where Loose Threads really shines. Author/illustrator Isol photographed the gifted scarf, using the finished side as the backdrop of Leila’s world and the messy, back side as the Other Side that she goes in search of. When she seeks to repair the holes between worlds to stop losing her things, Isol uses stitched embroidery thread. Aside from Leila, her mother, and her grandmother, who are sketched directly onto the photo of the scarf, other characters are scribbled onto beige bits of paper and placed on top of the scarf.

This story reads like a fable, both in its off kilter explanation of everyday occurrences and in its creative explanation of an everyday phenomenon and its plucky and curious young hero. Loose Threads can be found in the fairy tale and fable section of the Children’s department and will find its most captive audience in elementary-aged readers and their families. Isol’s unique multimedia illustrations will likely encourage other similar art projects with the reader’s own beloved objects. I’ll see you in the Children’s Department–happy reading!

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The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis by George Stephanopoulos

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We arrive, fellow citizens, at the fleeting moments of a presidential campaign. Soon (hopefully) we’ll know whether it’s Kamala Harris or Donald Trump who will become the next commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces. Of all the enumerated powers under Article II of the U.S. Constitution, “commander in chief” is probably the weightiest. It’s definitely a 24/7 gig. To assist with decision-making, a vast array of national security information is available to each president. And most of it emanates from one centralized location: the White House’s Situation Room.

In The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis by George Stephanopoulos, we learn not only of the Situation Room’s inception (there is actually more than one room) but also of how its use is a commentary on a president’s management style. Stephanopoulos notes that the Situation Room (or Sit Room) has been called “the best filter in the world” and the “most important crisis management center in the entire world.” He does capital work introducing the apolitical Sit Room duty officers who staff and diligently serve each president, regardless of political party affiliation. But what makes this book really pop are the high-level interviews and stories from the archives. Even if you have a broad understanding of the events presented in this book, I posit you will still find many details in those events just flat-out wild and alarming.

The Bay of Pigs debacle was the impetus to create the Situation Room. President Kennedy wanted a centralized location in the West Wing that would hasten direct access to sensitive information. The actual physical space was utilitarian, having “all the charm of a cardboard box.” When Stephanopoulos arrived as a White House staffer in the Clinton administration, conditions apparently had not improved much. When he first saw the Sit Room, his first thought was “underwhelming.” It didn’t resemble the sleek movie depictions that go all the way back to the war room in Dr. Strangelove. (Stephanopoulos does take us through the more recent modernizations.)

President Johnson, bedeviled with the conflict in Vietnam, was a constant visitor to the Sit Room. Ever the micromanager, he would constantly call down to the duty officers. It was not uncommon for Johnson to ring the Sit Room in the middle of the night to inquire if there were any new developments coming out of Vietnam. He desperately wanted some piece of information that might take the U.S. out of what he privately remarked was a hopeless endeavor.

Full of self-pity and feeling persecuted from the Watergate scandal, President Nixon had all but retired to the White House residence where he would start drinking early in the day. As a result, Nixon was often too drunk to make immediate decisions. This created a power vacuum that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was more than happy to fill. Famously known as a realpolitik operator, Kissinger was quick to argue the value of the world viewing the United States as a “trigger-happy” military power. Other national security staff often pushed back, arguing that such force was not always a net positive. And—half a world away—it turns out that Nixon’s counterpart, Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, was also often too drunk to make decisions.

We read how President Carter used a psychic to try and locate the U.S. hostages being held in Iran. When Carter gives the order for a military rescue of the hostages (which failed miserably), Stephanopoulos is excellent in its retelling. The same is true when detailing President Obama’s order to send a Navy SEAL team into Pakistan for Osama bin Laden. Stephanopoulos places the reader right in the Sit Room, and it’s riveting.

In 1981, President Reagan was shot and rushed to a hospital. Thanks to National Security Advisor Richard Allen placing a tape recorder on the Sit Room conference table, we know how various aides and cabinet officials decided to handle the dilemma. And it’s rather shocking. During these tense moments, Vice President Bush was en route to Washington D.C. from Texas. There was a communication problem on his plane, rendering him unreachable. The transcript of the tape recording reads almost like a tragicomedy. Constitutionally, none of the men in that room were in control of the executive branch. But that didn’t stop Secretary of State Al Haig from going to the press and declaring, “As of now, I’m in control here.” Later, Allen would reply that it was an “imminently stupid” thing for Haig to say.

President George H.W. Bush appears both knowledgeable and unfailingly polite. He often invited Sit Room staff to watch movies in the White House’s theater room. A former Sit Room secretary recounts how on one Saturday morning she picked up the phone to hear President Bush actually asking for permission to enter the Sit Room. “This is the president. May I come in?”

He was also shrewd in dealing with military generals who often had their own agendas. This power play with military brass was something Secretary of State Madeleine Albright experienced in the Clinton administration. And the fact that she was the first woman to hold her position meant that it was decidedly a new experience for the generals as well.

Throughout the book, history is threaded together by those who served under multiple presidents. For instance, John Bolton assumed “high-level positions under presidents Reagan, Bush 41, Bush 43 and Trump.” Regarding Bush 43, Bolton notes that the president knew he had much to learn, so “he learned it.” Bolton doesn’t have the same take on President Trump: “He had no idea what the issues were. He never learned anything.” This observance is underscored by Trump asking if Puerto Rico—where the inhabitants are U.S. citizens—could be traded for Greenland.

Ultimately, this book is a homage to the resolute Sit Room duty officers. Career government employees are often much maligned. However, as Stephanopoulos describes, these are the people who stayed at their White House posts during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. They ignored evacuation orders so that they could do their work. They are the ones who must decide when to move information up the chain of command, knowing that a misstep could cost lives. They also understand that for a democracy to endure there must be a continuity of government among presidents. They serve in the same spirit as President Kennedy’s call to service, a “commitment to others” that rises above one’s own self-interest.

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Review by Jason Sullivan

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When you are a single woman in her twenties and starting a career, saying yes to new adventures and possibilities is fun and thrilling. Saying yes when you are 20-25 years older with an established career and a family can be exhausting. And, as the four ladies in Gretchen Anthony’s new novel find, it can also jeopardize a friendship.

Tired Ladies Take a Stand introduces us to Emma, Fern, Carolina, and Andi. Emma, a teacher recently divorced from an unfaithful husband, has a daughter getting married in six short months. Fern is a writer who can’t find anything she wants to write about. She and her husband have two sons in college and a daughter ready to graduate and head to a university on the east coast. Carolina, a corporate executive with an exercise fetish, has an understanding partner. And Andi is a human rights attorney currently handling way too many cases, leaving her husband to parent their teenage son.

These four ladies became fast friends after they formed a book club. They encouraged each other to try new things and were there with support when life didn’t go as planned. After her writing career started Fern wrote essays about some of their adventures and lessons learned. She pulled those together into a book called “Smart Girls Say Yes”. She didn’t use full names but anyone who know Fern can identify them. She also didn’t ask or inform her friends about the stories she was sharing.

But these ladies have always had each other’s back, at least until the night of the engagement party. Emma has to make a toast at her daughter’s party. She really wants to do well and outshine her ex who brought the woman he was cheating with. She needs the support of her friends but when her moment comes only Carolina is there to cheer her on.

Andi left to find coffee so she can stay awake and Fern is in the bathroom hiding while she texts and makes phone calls. Smart Girls Say Yes has found a resurgence through TikTok and Fern just got an offer to option it. Fern, however, is the only one thrilled with the news.
Hurt and fed up, Emma tells them each what they are ignoring. They need a lesson in learning to say no. Andi’s humanitarian work is exhausting her, Carolina is a workaholic that exercises way too much, and Fern wrote a book about them without changing their names and included moments, one day in particular for Emma, that they didn’t want shared. Now she wants it made into a movie? Emma says no.

Anthony tells these ladies’ stories in chapters alternating with excerpts from Smart Girls Say Yes. So you get a glimpse of what they were like when young and relatively carefree and now when responsibilities weigh them down.

In the six months from the engagement party in March to the wedding in September, each lady will have decisions to make. Fern’s is a decision that will affect them all. If she says yes it will be a dream come true and give her family much needed financial support. But what are the consequences of that decision for her friends?

Andi’s clients need her and the number keeps growing. But what is the travel and workload doing to her son and husband? Carolina seems to be on top of everything at work but exercise is her stress reducer and her stress is off the charts. What happens when her body and her partner say enough?

Emma has said her no but can she stay the course? She has a wedding to make perfect and a single life to navigate. Plus she has tasked herself with being the buffer between her daughter and Doris, the passive-aggressive future mother-in-law. Then there’s that long ago day that Fern included in the book. The incident on that day is one that will do damage to someone with a lot to lose.

This book is a fun read. The characters are likable with issues a lot of working women recognize. I will admit that the format threw me at first because it was hard to keep everyone straight. Once I had the characters identified, I really enjoyed this story about strong women and friendship.

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Book review by Patty Crane, Reference Librarian

The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee

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Miye Lee’s THE DALLERGUT DREAM DEPARTMENT STORE imagines a world that our subconscious minds visit while we sleep. We do not remember this world when we wake up, but it is where we purchase our dreams every night.

The novel is set almost exclusively in this dream world. The main character, Penny, has just been hired at the Dallergut Dream Department Store – the most famous dream store in the world. She has some basic knowledge of dream production and sales, as do most citizens of this world. Penny is curious and diligent, and eager to get to work.

Dallergut himself is somewhat eccentric. He is the top name in dream sales and has personal relationships with many of the dream artists, but he also seems to be scatterbrained and flighty. His office is a mess, that Penny wants to clean up, but his ability to match dreams to dreamers is uncanny.

Each floor of Dallergut’s department store is dedicated to a different type of dreaming. From the generic dreams of hanging out with friends on the second floor to the dreams of swimming through the ocean as a whale – an extremely popular dream available only by special order.

Dreams are created by artists, who craft them much as an author does a novel. Dream artists usually specialize in a specific type of dream, even nightmares. There are many dream artists in the world, but the most famous are the Big Five, who the world treats as celebrities and Dallergut knows personally.

In this world, dreams manifest as small boxes. These boxes fill the various shelves of the department store where our unconscious selves can purchase them. Dream world citizens are also able to buy the dreams. They experience them as we do, the only difference is that they are aware of where the dreams come from.

Generally the dream world is very like our own: there are food vendors on the sidewalk, Penny lives in an apartment building, even the store is outwardly very normal. But there are also magical creatures roaming the streets, ready to give pajamas and robes to visitors from our world who arrive without them. Their world also trades in emotions distilled from the dream visitors.

When a person from our world buys a dream, they agree to a payment plan that will collect some of their feelings upon waking. These emotions can then be taken by the dream world citizens to feel calm or excited — or they can be taken to the bank and converted into money.

Each chapter of this relatively short novel explorers a different type of dreaming. There are brief glimpses into our world to show how the things we dream can affect our real lives.

It is easy to get lost in the world that Lee has built. Her deep interest in dreams is explored both in her author’s note at the beginning of the book and in the translator’s note at the end.

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

Family Family by Laurie Frankel

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India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actor. She was hooked from the age of ten when she saw the play Guys and Dolls with her mother. Her whole life was about making this dream come true.  She had to make a lot of tough choices along the way, but finally, decades later, her dream came true and she is one of the most well-known actors in America. 

But now that she has realized her childhood dream, she feels in danger of losing it. Not because she is not a good actor, because she is the best, but all because she dared to tell the truth.

The situation is best described by India’s daughter, “It all started the way it all started.  There was a tiny matter. And then it exploded.”

India made a big screen movie, and she did her best with the script provided. While she agrees it was a good movie, she also admits that some parts of it could have been written differently. Thinking this is one thing, but she tells a journalist and now a tiny matter has exploded and turned into a media storm.  

Despite the ensuing drama and threat to her livelihood and career, India refuses to be ashamed. She admits that families are complicated, but she refuses to compromise hers for the sake of her career, the media, or really anything. She thinks that she is justified in defending her family and her livelihood, but outside forces are intent on convincing her otherwise.

Laurie Frankel’s writing speaks directly to my heart.  It is witty, clever and humorous. It is such a dry, smart humor that I am reading parts of the text over and over, even weeks after I have finished the book.

She is a master at character development.  India is self-assured and poised, especially as a young adult, which she is for half of the book. She is smart, opinionated, beautiful, caring and such a badass. I love the spark and spunky personality that Frankel has given her. 

Plus, the supporting characters, of which there are many, are drawn almost as beautifully as India.  Three dimensional and literally leaping off the page.  India’s boyfriend, Robby Brighton, her mother, even her best friend Dakota.  They all feel like real people. 

While the characters are enough to make me giddy, the plot is the real gem.  The way it is put together is superb.  The story alternates between the present day media blow up to flashbacks starting in 1999 and moving toward the present, until it eventually stays in the present day. To say it is compelling is an understatement.  It is also especially tender and raw. Frankel explores many themes in her newest offering – families, love, adoption, self-sacrifice, friendship and parenting. 

Reading this was an eye opening experience, but not in the way that I first expected when I checked the new title out.  There are many beautiful and unexpected turns along the way.  Not only is this a great addition to the category of contemporary fiction in 2024, Frankel’s latest would make an excellent book club selection thanks to the various themes it explores. Consider adding this one to your list today, it is excellent! 

Review written by: Jeana Gockley, Joplin Public Library Director

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Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

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Mercy Thompson works as a Volkswagen mechanic in the Tri-Cities area of Washington State. Mercy is an expert mechanic that does restorations on the side, owns and runs her auto shop, and is its sole employee. Mercy keeps to herself, her cat Medea her primary companion. Yet Mercy’s life is not as simple as it seems (because, of course not). Mercy is a magical being known as a walker – she can shift from human form to a coyote at will. Mercy is the only one of her kind, but she is not the only supernatural being in this first novel of the Mercy Thompson urban fantasy series by Patricia Briggs.

Despite her loner tendencies Mercy has connections in the four other supernatural groups of the novel: vampires (Mercy is helping vampire Stefan fix his Scooby-Doo mystery machine van), witches (witch Elizaveta enjoys switching up the strength of her Russian accent when certain moods strike her), fae (Mercy bought her auto shop from its previous owner and her teacher, Zee, who is a gremlin), and most of all werewolves, whom Mercy was raised with. The magical beings in the novel live among the human population, some hiding what they are and all attempting to maintain copacetic lives alongside humans. While the novel does contain many supernatural elements and characters, Briggs’ unfolding of the fantasy world she has built is easy to follow with basic concepts any regular fantasy reader or new fantasy reader alike can enjoy.

The plot of the novel is set in motion when Mercy agrees to let a lone teenage werewolf that wanders into her shop work part time. Mercy soon discovers that this werewolf, Mac, is a recently turned werewolf that does not know anything about being a werewolf, and is thus dangerous to himself and those around him. When Mac is confronted at Mercy’s shop by a mysterious werewolf and human from his past, Mercy learns that Mac has just escaped from being held captive and experimented on. The experiment objective: to create and perfect a serum that can immobilize werewolves. To help Mac and put a stop to these brutal experiments Mercy enlists the help of the local werewolf alpha, Adam, who also happens to be her neighbor.

Events unfold rapidly from here, the novel is not short on action or drama. Mercy throws herself into uncovering the group behind the dangerous serum, propelled by her kind nature and her status as the only walker . When Adam is attacked and his daughter is kidnapped by the group, Mercy is forced to turn to the werewolf pack from her past, the very one that raised her. Old friends (and romances) come back into Mercy’s life as she finds herself more and more entrenched in the mystery of the werewolf serum and its potential danger to all supernatural beings. With help from her magical friends Mercy intends to save Adam’s daughter, prevent any future harm to others, and stop the use of the serum – simple, right?

I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. While it is fairly tame as far as its fantasy world and plot goes, that was one of the things I ended up enjoying most. The characters are funny and interesting and there are many aspects to the novel: fantasy, mystery, action, romance, and a consistent humorous undertone, which helped lighten the mood of the story. Mercy is a cool protagonist with unique magical abilities. She’s equal parts independent, capable, and tough while simultaneously being funny and compassionate. This is the type of series where the characters remain the same, but each novel is its own independent story. The latest and fourteenth book in the series was published this year. Briggs has written a cozy urban fantasy that is perfect for the upcoming fall season.

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Review written by Sarah Turner-Hill, Adult Programming Coordinator

THE LOST YEAR by Katherine Marsh

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I try to make it a point to read a handful of the National Book Award winners and finalists each year. When Katherine Marsh’s newest novel The Lost Year came across my desk emblazoned with a silver finalist medal, I knew I had to add it to my to-read list.

The Lost Year begins, and is told through, Matthew, a preteen boy living in New Jersey at the start of COVID. His journalist father is stuck in France and his busy writer mother tasks him with organizing his great-grandmother’s boxes. GG, as she is affectionately called, recently moved in with Matthew and his mother after her 100th birthday. As Matthew reluctantly goes through the boxes, he uncovers a treasure trove of mementos, letters, and family history. He also unravels a secret his GG has been carrying with her for over 80 years.

The items in the boxes tell the story of three girls named Mila, Nadiya, and Helen, in the 1930s. Mila and Nadiya live in Soviet Ukraine, though under very different circumstances. Helen lives in Brooklyn with her brother and parents, who emigrated from Ukraine before she was born. Mila Lomachenko loves her father, who is a leader in the Soviet Union’s Communist Party. She also loves “Papa Stalin,” the USSR’s affectionate nickname for the dictator Joseph Stalin. She is steadfast in her commitment to the cause, attending youth Party meetings and parroting propaganda to anyone who will listen. She believes that the hungry people in the streets have brought it upon themselves. Everything changes when she meets Nadiya, a young girl who shows up at her front door late one night. Nadiya is frail, very hungry, and recently orphaned. Her entire family perished from the government-orchestrated famine after their farmland was seized. Meanwhile, Mila’s entire worldview and trust in authority begins to crumble. If Mila helps Nadiya, there could be dire consequences for her family. The decision she makes could alter the course of both their lives.

Across the Atlantic, Helen Lomachenko wishes there is more she could do to help her Papa, who recently suffered a heart attack. Unbeknownst to her, he has been trying to bring his family in the USSR to the United States. Helen’s mother is working two jobs, and her younger brother Peter is blissfully unaware of the situation or the famine in Ukraine. With some prodding from her school friend Ruth, Helen begins recording her neighbor’s stories of their families’ lives in the USSR. She becomes intent on setting the story straight and doing something about her family.

I hesitate to say more about this book because I don’t want to divulge too much. Matthew, Nadiya, Mila, and Helen are brave and tenacious. However, they aren’t perfect. They have to weigh comforts versus ethics. Such weighty decisions are difficult for adults, let alone young teenagers. Frankly, Matthew would rather play Switch than sit with his centenarian great grandmother. He misses school and he wishes his dad were there. Shy Helen is scared to speak up. A connecting thread amongst these characters is courage, belief in humanity, and devotion to family that is stronger than fear or a desire to maintain the status quo.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I enjoyed reading about Mila, Nadiya, Helen, and Matthew. I did not know much about the government-created famine (also known as the Holodomor) which, as the characters discover, was intentional on behalf of Stalin’s Communist Party. I appreciated the author’s note where Marsh tied the events and the characters to her family history. The Lost Year is a heavy read, but it’s an important one. Hand this to your upper elementary/middle school historical fiction readers (after you read it, of course).

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A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko

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Have you ever thought about hopping into the Grand Canyon and hiking its entire length? Neither have I. Not only did Kevin Fedarko, author of A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon, think about it, he actually did it. The subtitle of this compelling and thoughtful book very well could have been penned before the actual hike began. For how could an 800-mile trek by someone who is spectacularly unprepared be anything but a misadventure?

Fedarko made the excursion with photographer Pete McBride, his friend and sometimes nemesis (they bicker a lot). It’s not as though the duo were tenderfoots. Over the years, they have teamed up on numerous global adventures that became stories for publication. And prior to that, Fedarko spent many a summer within the canyon as a whitewater boatman for a Colorado River rafting company. Sounds impressive enough. However, he writes it as a marker of his inadequacies. The goal was to be a guide with a boat full of paying guests, not a boatman hauling supplies at the tail end of a rafting convoy. The fact that he was never good enough to be entrusted with piloting other humans down the river was “soul crushing.”

Over five million people a year visit the Grand Canyon. Most peer over the rim; some hike its trails or raft the Colorado. But there have been only a few dozen that we know of who have hiked its entirety. There’s no guidebook for this, of course. Such is the allure for dedicated thru-hikers who must rely on each other, from sharing route information to dropping in caches of supplies when a set of comrades are on the epic hike.

Obviously, this is not something novices just jump into. Enter Fedarko and McBride, two novices who do exactly that. They do have access to a small group of experts who will guide them. Again, they are not exactly just off-the-couch blokes. With this hike, however, they are not prepared. Not only is their gear all wrong, they are—most egregiously—commencing the hike with a “no problem” attitude.

Fedarko’s writing brings the wonders of the canyon to the reader. There are mile-deep walls where “nearly 40 percent of the planet’s chronology was etched directly into the stone.” It’s a place that has both tundra and desert conditions, where streams are almost sentient, retreating from the scorching sun and reemerging at night.

And, without a doubt, the canyon can be deadly. Aside from the dramatic cliffs that claim both casual tourists and experienced hikers alike, there’s the grinding heat. Ultimately, this is what ends Fedarko and McBride’s first attempt. Every day is a slog, notwithstanding the most breath-taking scenery imaginable. Fedarko’s feet are wrecked from all the sand that’s worked its way in. (He forgot to pack gaiters. McBride said it was for the best as he thinks wearing gaiters look goofy.) He quotes what another hiker said of such interminable days: “that hell might well consist of hiking like this for eternity.” McBride eventually experiences “water intoxication.” He’s drinking enough water, but he’s not taking in the requisite amount of electrolytes. His muscles seize and contort to the point where it looks as though there’s another living entity inside him trying to escape. It then becomes a race to escape the canyon before certain death.

Humiliated, they initially conclude that there’s no way they should try this again. But much to their surprise, another set of experienced hikers immediately reach out to educate (and scold) them. Fedarko and McBride had already learned the hard way that they just couldn’t mule their way through. They needed to (surprise) meticulously plan, become obsessive in weighing their gear so as to not schlep more than their daily exertion levels can manage.

Properly humbled, they return to the canyon with this new group of experts. The duo persevere, even tackling some segments of the canyon by themselves. At times it’s hard not to be envious of their experiences: dropping into cavernous slot canyons that very few people (if any) have explored; walking by the numerous artifacts and pictographs from prehistoric peoples; stargazing into a night sky that’s without a trace of light pollution and experiencing what astronomers call “celestial vaulting.” But then there are the recounted days where you think, “Nah, I’m good.” There are many weeks where the only water sources are various muddy potholes, some with such small apertures that the water must be extracted with a syringe. Then there are the snow-covered catwalks where one wrong step will send you to your death. And if you’re in the wrong place when a flash flood appears, forget it, you’re dead.

On the final leg of the hike, their guide made sure to take them through “Helicopter Alley.” At the western end of the canyon, helicopters ferry tourists up to the rim where they disembark for a few minutes (take a few selfies); and then they clamber aboard again, roaring back down the canyon. It’s nonstop and maddeningly loud. This, their guide tells them, is why he and the others agreed to lead these two on a thru-hike. A story about the canyon’s splendors must also include the commercial threats that undermine the canyon’s grandeur.

Towards the end of hike, McBride confesses to Fedarko that he believes he’s wasted his time snapping pictures along the way; for they can’t capture what’s probably the most powerful feature of the canyon: the quiet. I understand the sentiment. What makes the Southwest so enthralling is not just the landscape that changes hues throughout the day, but also the quiet that seems to emanate from it. It’s transcendent.

Fedarko grew up in the industrial regions of Pennsylvania, where chemical emissions poisoned both workers and residents. When he was a boy, his father gave him a copy of Colin Fletcher’s account of thru-hiking the Grand Canyon. So the Grand Canyon was—and is—the other much needed counterweight to having our way with the land. It’s both a message and a gift to future generations: There are some wild places that should remain just as they are because what they offer is already more than enough. While very few will ever undertake such a trek as Fedarko made, they should at least have the opportunity to do so and experience the same quiet and wonder.

At hike’s end, Fedarko renters the park’s trails, where people are simply walking and smiling, completely oblivious to what he has accomplished. It’s a simple yet powerful pleasure. They, too, are enjoying a walk in the park.

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Reviewed by Jason Sullivan

The Library of Borrowed Hearts by Lucy Gilmore

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Chloe once dreamed of being a librarian, now her dreams are for a dishwasher or a new roof. She does work in a library but not as a librarian. She is a general city worker. She may be sent to work in another city office or she will shelve books, cover the desk, or discard the many decades of old books that have accumulated in the basement. It is during this task that she finds a copy of the scandalous banned book The Tropic of Cancer.

The discovery of this book and the story that unfolds around it are the subject of Lucy Gilmore’s latest novel, The Library of Borrowed Hearts.

Chloe’s quest to be a librarian was upended by her mother’s abandonment of Chloe’s siblings. Eleven year old Trixie (Beatrice) tried to care for her younger brothers (Theo and Noodle (Aloysius)) but CPS soon sent them to foster care. Chloe has them back home and is doing her best to raise them but money is tight. Selling this abandoned copy may net her a tidy sum as this version is a 1960 Mexico printing. The book was not allowed to be published and sold in the U.S.

She hopes to get enough for at least a down payment on the roof then discovers writing in the margins. At first disappointed that the value has now dropped she soon becomes intrigued. It appears C and J were corresponding with each other using passages in the book to further their flirtation/conversation.

But book values and flirtations have to wait for dinner, homework, and a new crisis. In a vain attempt to train their old dog to fetch, Noodle threw his Frisbee into the yard next door. Unlike the rest of the neighborhood Jasper Holmes has a beautiful yard and a bad disposition. Anything that comes into his yard never comes out. Knowing how much that Frisbee means to Noodle, Chloe heads next door. Her request for the toy is denied but with more conversation than usual.

Holmes doesn’t like the nickname Noodle then accuses her of wasting money. For Chloe that is the final straw and she tells him just how much $5.00 means to her family, even telling him about taking the book to sell. His response is to ask what book and appears stunned by her response. When he makes no move to bring her the Frisbee she leaves.

Once the kids are in bed she starts researching the book’s value but is soon caught up in the notes in the margins. Interrupted by someone at the door she opens it to Jasper Holmes on the doorstep with the Frisbee and an offer to buy the book. When she doesn’t name a price, he offers $5,000.00 then gives her a blank check. Handing over the book she realizes Jasper is J.

Chloe is now on a quest to discover any other volumes Jasper and C wrote in. One of the notes in The Tropic of Cancer referred to Hemingway novels. Chloe and her best friend Pepper are scouring all the Hemingway novels looking for notes when she is called to the hospital. Noodle is in the ER having fallen off a cliff!

Suffering a broken leg and bruised ribs, Noodle was found by Zach, a trainer at the survival camp. Zach teaches Air Force pilots how to survive after a crash. He is also a flirt as Chloe soon discovers. Dealing with the broken leg will be enough of a problem but the reason Noodle was running and fell worsens the situation. He hit a boy at school and was suspended for a month.

Forced to leave him home alone, Chloe is at work when Zach shows up. He wants an update on Aloysius, to invite Chloe out, and to return a Hemingway title. But, he emphasizes, he is not responsible for the writing in the margins. Thrilled to have another part of J and C’s story Chloe leaves to check on Noodle but he is gone. It seems Jasper has decided that Noodle should stay with him during the day. Could this be the beginning of a friendship with her grouchy neighbor?

Chloe has guessed that the C in the margins is a Catherine and she’s right. In chapters titled Catherine then later Jasper and 1960 the love story of J and C is told. As the novel flips between 1960 and present day we see how the past affects the future and the people we become. For Chloe J and C’s story is important because she sees some of herself in Jasper.

This novel is centered around a romance but it is so much more. It’s about love in all forms -for family, friends, community, books and each other. It’s also about sacrifice, forgiveness and learning to let go.

Gilmore’s characters have depth and with an intriguing story line this is a heartfelt read. You’ll find it in the new book section at the library.

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Review by Patty Crane, Reference Librarian