The Downton Abbey Book Club Part 2

Last spring, we came up with some reading recommendations for our favorite (or least favorite) characters from the popular BBC series, Downton Abbey. With the recent premiere of the 5th season this past Sunday, we thought we'd look at a few more characters. (*Note: If you haven't caught up to the end of season 4, there will be spoilers ahead!)

Character: Tom Branson
Book: How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Tom Branson, the former chauffeur, married into the aristocracy and the Crawley family. He could never feel like he really belonged at Downton, especially after the death of his wife, Lady Sybil. Since he's agreed to stay at Downton for his daughter Sybbie, we felt he could use some advice on how to get along best with the family upstairs. Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People offers fundamental techniques in handling people and tips on making people like you.

Character: Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham

Book: We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates

As the mother figure of Downton, Cora has known disappointment, tragedy and loss. However, her love for her family is as fierce as it is strong.  We think she would relate well with the story of the large and fortunate American family in Joyce Carol Oates' We Were the Mulvaneys. The youngest son, Judd, tries to piece together the fragments of the Mulvaney's former glory and understand their downfall and estrangement. Ultimately, the family manages find a way back to each other through love and healing.

Character: Daisy Mason, Assistant Cook

Book: The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

If she were a modern girl, we could imagine the hopelessly romantic Daisy curling up with a good YA read. Daisy has harbored crushes on both Thomas and Alfred, and has attracted the attentions of William Mason and Ethan Slade. Humble but ambitious, she would relate well to Sarah Dessen's Emaline in The Moon and More. Emaline has been with Luke all through high school, but meets Theo in her prospects for an ivy league education. Like Daisy, Emaline yearns for something better, but still feels a connection to her past.

Character: Lady Mary Crawley

Book: Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham

Lady Mary may have a strong will and can be arrogant and cold at times, but we've learned that she too makes mistakes and has known heartbreak and disappointment. We think she would enjoy and benefit from Lena Dunham's collection of essays, Not That Kind of Girl. Falling in love, being alone, having to prove yourself in a room full of men - Lena has been there, and so, too, has Lady Mary. She may particularly relate to “Take My Virginity (No Really, Take It)” in which Dunham details her first time, and how the experience didn't quite match up to her expectations.

Blue Zones Power 9: Belong

This is the seventh post in a nine-part series in which we are sharing resources available at the library to help you get on track with the Blue Zones Project.

What is the meaning of life? Is there life after death? How should we live? Where do I belong? As human beings, we have a natural tendency to ponder such questions. On our own, it's a struggle to find answers that are satisfying, and that's one reason why many turn to religion. The Blue Zones website suggests that attending a faith-based service four times a month - no matter the denomination - could increase your life expectancy by up to 14 years.

Here are a few titles in the library's collection that may help you on your path to finding where you belong:

World Religions in America
edited by Jacob Neusner

World Religions in America looks at the various religions in the United States and how they shape American life. World-class contributors highlight the many religious traditions, both old and new, that are currently practiced in the United States.

The Story of Christianity
by Matthew Price and Michael Collins

From its Old Testament beginnings to present-day Christian worship, Christianity has a fascinating, complex, and controversial history. This book provides a truly global view of Christianity across all denominations.

Faith: Trusting Your Own Deeper Experience
by Sharon Salzberg

In this beautifully written work, one of America's most beloved meditation teachers offers discerning wisdom on understanding faith as a healing quality. Through the teachings of Buddha and insight gained from her lifelong spiritual quest, Salzberg provides us with a road map for cultivating a feeling of peace that can be practiced by anyone of any tradition.

One World, Many Religions
by Mary Pope Osborne

Mary Pope Osborne introduces readers to the six major religions of the world. One World, Many Religions covers the history, beliefs, and practices of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.

A Faith Like Mine
by Laura Buller

Sometimes the best understanding comes from seeing the world from a child's perspective. In A Faith Like Mine, children of different religious backgrounds tell about their faith and what it means to them. Information about each religious tradition is included.

All book descriptions adapted from book covers.

Mahaska Reads - Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation

On Tuesday, October 14, Dr. Ron Rietveld, Lincoln scholar and professor emeritus of History at University of California-Fullerton, visited the Book Vault and gave a fascinating presentation on Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation. Dr. Rietveld's presentation served as the closing event for this year's Mahaska Reads series of programs and discussions centered around Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave.

The presentation began with a fact that many people do not realize today about Abraham Lincoln and his involvement in ending slavery in the United States: initially, Abraham Lincoln had no intention of interfering with the system because, under the current constitution, he could not do so legally. Dr. Rietveld then explained the series of events that led to the drafting and signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Dr. Rietveld also shared about his experiences as a Lincoln scholar, including when he discovered a long-lost picture of Abraham Lincoln, believed to be the last taken before his assassination. Knowledgeable and enlightening, Dr. Rietveld captured the attention of everyone in attendance and entertained several questions at the close of his presentation.

If you'd like to read more about Abraham Lincoln, here are a few titles in our collection:

Abrham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years
by Carl Sandburg

Growing up in an Illinois prairie town, Sandburg listened to stories of old-timers who had known Lincoln. His extraordinary portrait brings fully to life the country lawyer who would become one of the most influential and beloved presidents of the American republic.

Lincoln: A Foreigner's Quest
by Jan Morris

Renowned on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the finest writers on history and travel in this century, Morris is part of the long tradition of foreigner observers who are able to illuminate America for Americans. In Lincoln: A Foreigner's Quest, she looks at Lincoln with her singular perspective, and the result is a historical journey free of sentiment and nostalgia.

Killing Lincoln
by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

The anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history - how one gunshot changed the country forever. Featuring some of history's most remarkable figures, vivid detail, and page-turning action, Killing Lincoln is history that reads like a thriller.

What Lincoln Believed
by Michael Lind

The most comprehensive study ever written of the thought of America's most revered president. Michael Lind provides a resource to the public philosophy that guided Lincoln as a statesman and shaped the United States.

Stealing Lincoln's Body
by Thomas Craughwell

On the night of the presidential election in 1876, a gang of counterfeiters out of Chicago attempted to steal the entombed embalmed body of Abraham Lincoln and hold it for ransom. Craughwell returns to this bizarre, and largely forgotten, event with the first book to place the grave robbery in historical context.

All book descriptions adapted from the book covers.

Orange is the New Black Book Club

Orange is the New Black is the popular comedy/drama about a woman's experience in a women's federal prison. The series was originally aired only on Netflix, and all episodes of season two recently became available. We came up with some reading recommendations for a few of our favorite characters - books you should check out too! See the infographics below:

Shakespeare Saved My Life by Dr. Laura Bates

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman

Party Monster by James St. James

Burned by Ellen Hopkins

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

Beyond Fundamentalism by Reza Aslan

Carrie by Stephen King

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff

Oskaloosa Picks - June 13, 2014

Curious about what others in Oskaloosa are reading? We asked over on Facebook! From classics to zombie lit, our community's reading tastes proved to be diverse. Here's a look at what Oskaloosa picked this past week:

Bleak House
by Charles Dickens

From London's slums to the Court of Chancery, where the endless case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce devours the future of several generations, the author's canvas of Victorian society vividly conveys an indictment of legal corruption, a riveting tale of detection, and a compelling emotional drama.

Love Does
by Bob Goff

In this book of compelling stories coupled with eye-opening truths, Goff shows a new way to live, a way that's drenched with the whimsy of God's love and the spontaneity of following where he leads.

Lost Lake
by Sarah Addison Allen

Suley, Georgia, is home to Lost Lake Cottages and not much else. Which is why it's the perfect place for newly-widowed Kate and her eccentric eight-year-old daughter Devin to heal. Kate spent one memorable childhood summer, had her first almost-kiss, and met a boy named Wes at Lost Lake. It was a place for dreaming. But Kate doesn't believe in dreams anymore, and her Aunt Eby, Lost Lake's owner, wants to sell the place and move on.

Flesh & Bone*
by Jonathan Maberry

Benny, Nix, Lou, and Lilah journey through a fierce wilderness that was once America searching for the jet they saw months ago, while evading fierce animals and a new kind of zombie.

A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Khaled Hosseini

A breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years-from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding-that puts the violence, fear, hope and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

The Snow Child
by Eowyn Ivey

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart - he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone - but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

Second Chance Summer
by Morgan Matson

Taylor Edwards' family might not be the closest-knit - everyone is a little too busy and over-scheduled - but for the most part, they get along just fine. Then Taylor's dad gets devastating news, and her parents decide that the family will spend one last summer all together at their old lake house in the Pocono Mountains. Crammed into a place much smaller and more rustic than they are used to, they begin to get to know each other again.

Words of Radiance
by Brandon Sanderson

Book 2 in Sanderson's Starlight Archive series. The war with the Parshendi moves into a new, dangerous phase, as Dalinar leads the human armies deep into the heart of the Shattered Plains. Meanwhile Shallan searches for the legendary city of Urithuru, and Kaladin, leader of the restored Knights Radiant, masters the powers of a Windrunner.



If you would like to read any of these books too, you can click on the title and place a hold with your library card number in our online catalog.

Titles marked with a * are not currently available in our catalog. If you would like to request that the library purchase one, you can fill out a suggestion for purchase form on our website.

All book descriptions taken from our online catalog or Worldcat.org.

If You Like The Fault In Our Stars...

If you're like some of us here at the library - huge John Green fans - you'll already know that the film adaptation of one of his biggest titles, The Fault in Our Stars, hits theaters June 6. If you're also like us, you've probably read every single John Green title on the shelf. If you're waiting for the film and looking for something similar to tide you over in the meantime, we've got you covered! Here are a few titles you might like too:

Eleanor & Park
by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor is the new girl on the bus, and with her wild red hair and unique wardrobe, she can't help but stand out. Park's the quiet guy who just wants to blend in. Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits - smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

Wonder
by R.J. Palacio

Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student.

Butter
by Erin Jode Longe

Unable to control his binge eating, a morbidly obese teenager nicknamed Butter decides to make live webcast of his last meal as he attempts to eat himself to death.
 

Winger
by Andrew Smith

Two years younger than his classmates at a prestigious boarding school, fourteen-year-old Ryan Dean West grapples with living in the dorm for troublemakers, falling for his female best friend who thinks of him as just a kid, and playing wing on the Varsity rugby team with some of his frightening new dorm-mates.

The Spectacular Now
by Tim Tharp

In the last months of high school, charismatic eighteen-year-old Sutter Keely lives in the present, staying drunk or high most of the time, but that could change when he starts working to boost the self-confidence of a classmate, Aimee.

Wintergirls
by Laurie Halse Anderson

Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend's death from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder.

Where Things Come Back
by John Corey Whaley

Seventeen-year-old Cullen's summer in Lily, Arkansas, is marked by his cousin's death by overdose, an alleged spotting of a woodpecker thought to be extinct, failed romances, and his younger brother's sudden disappearance.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky

A coming of age novel about Charlie, a freshman in high school who is a wallflower, shy and introspective, and very intelligent. He deals with the usual teen problems, but also with the suicide of his best friend.





If you'd like to check out any of these books, just click on the title to be taken to the book in our online catalog. You can place a hold by using your library card number and PIN.

All book descriptions taken from our catalog or Worldcat.org.

Oskaloosa Picks - April 27, 2014

Over on Facebook, we asked "What are you reading?" Here's a look at some of Oskaloosa's picks this week:

NOS4A2
by Joe Hill

Charles Talent Manx likes to take kids for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4A2 vanity plate. He can slip onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing - and terrifying - playground of amusements he calls "Christmasland." Now, Victoria McQueen, the only kid to ever escape Manx's evil, is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx never stopped thinking about her. He's on the road again and he's picked up a new passenger: Vic's own son.

Five Days at Memorial*
by Sheri Fink

Physician and reporter Sheri Fink provides a landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, and a suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice. She reconstructs 5 days at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amid chaos.

Critical Mass
by Sara Paretsky

V.I. Warshawski's closest friend in Chicago is the Viennese-born doctor Lotty Herschel, who lost most of her family in the Holocaust. Lotty escaped to London in 1939 on the Kindertransport with a childhood playmate, Kitty Saginor Binder. When Kitty's daughter finds her life is in danger, she calls Lotty, who, in turn, summons V.I. to help.

Joyland
by Stephen King

Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever.

Grasshopper Jungle
by Andrew Smith

Austin Szerba narrates the end of humanity as he and his best friend Robby accidentally unleash an army of giant, unstoppable bugs and uncover the secrets of a decades-old experiment gone terribly wrong.

Look Me in the Eye
by John Elder Robison

John Robison longed to connect with other people, but by the time he was a teenager, his odd habits had earned him the label "social deviant." No guidance came from his mother, who conversed with light fixtures, or his father, who spent evenings drunk. No wonder he gravitated to machines, which could be counted on. His savant-like ability to visualize electronic circuits landed him a gig with KISS, for whom he created their legendary fire-breathing guitars.

Long Knives*
by Charles Rosenberg

Jenna James' life has been smooth-sailing since she left the high-powered law firm of Marbury Marfan to become a professor at a prestigious law school. But things take a shocking turn one morning when a student, Primo, comes to Jenna's office seeking her advice about a treasure map he recently inherited. When Primo turns up dead and Jenna is suddenly the prime suspect in a murder investigation, everyone turns on her.

What Remains
by Carole Radziwill

A memoir about a girl from a working class town who becomes an award-winning television producer and marries a prince, Anthony Radziwill, nephew of John F. Kennedy. Carole DiFalco Radziwill grew up in a suburb with a large, eccentric cast of characters. At the age of nineteen, she struck out for New York.





If you would like to read any of these books too, you can click on the title and place a hold with your library card number in our online catalog.

Titles marked with a * are not currently available in our catalog. If you would like to request that the library purchase one, you can fill out a suggestion for purchase form on our website.

All book descriptions taken from WorldCat or our online catalog.

Blue Zones Power 9: Move Naturally

The Blue Zones Project officially kicked off in Oskaloosa on April 14, 2014. Centered around nine common denominators, The Power 9, Blue Zones promotes a lifestyle for longer, healthier, better lives. This is the first post in a nine-part series in which we'll discuss resources available at the library to help you get on track with the Blue Zones Project.

#1. Move Naturally From the Blue Zones website: "The world’s longest-lived people don’t pump iron or run marathons. Instead, their environments nudge them into moving without thinking about it." As simple as taking walking breaks at work to adopting a dog, we can increase the amount of natural movement in our lives. Here are a few titles in our collection to help get you started:

Breathwalk
Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, Ph.D. and Yogi Bhajan, Ph.D.

Breathwalk presents a series of easy to follow, transformational exercises that combine breathing and walking in very specific ways for specific benefits. You'll learn how to alleviate exhaustion, anxiety, sadness and other problems; heal physical, mental and spiritual conflict in your life; and enter a zone of total fitness within your own body and mind.

Walking Magazine's The Complete Guide to Walking
Mark Fenton

An interactive handbook that can make the difference for millions of Americans who struggle with weight loss, health and dietary concerns, stress and chronic fatigue. Fenton offers dozens of realistic solutions to help readers overcome their individual barriers to regular daily activity.

Active Living Every Day
Steven N. Blair, et al.

A 20-step program developed to help get you off the couch and onto your feet! Active Living Every Day is a self-paced program that uses checklists, charts, and four-color illustrations and photos to make the information clear and easy for you to use anytime, anywhere.

The Healthy Heart Walking Book
American Heart Association

Walk your way to health and well-being! Regardless of your level of fitness, you can improve your cardiovascular health, weight control, stress management, and overall well-being through a simple walking program.

Dogs for Dummies
Gina Spadafori

From mixes to purebreds, puppies to seniors, this friendly guide tells you what you need to know to choose, train and enjoy living with a dog.






If you'd like to check out any of these resources, click on the title to be taken to our online catalog. You can place a hold on the item using your library card number and your PIN.

Book descriptions borrowed from those printed on the books.

If you like Divergent...

Another young adult series that has wildly gained success, Veronica Roth's Divergent series is an action packed dystopian tale that takes place in post-apocalyptic Chicago. The population is divided into five factions based on a dedicated virtue. Beatrice - or Tris - discovers she doesn't quite fit into the molds this new society has developed, and her divergence is seen as a threat.

If you've read and loved the Divergent series, you should definitely check out some of these titles:

In the After
by Demetria Lunetta

In a post-apocalyptic world where nothing is as it seems, seventeen-year-old Amy and Baby, a child she found while scavenging, struggle to survive while vicious, predatory creatures from another planet roam the Earth.

The Program
by Suzanne Young

When suicide becomes a worldwide epidemic, the only known cure is The Program, a treatment in which painful memories are erased, a fate worse than death to seventeen-year-old Sloane who knows that The Program will steal memories of her dead brother and boyfriend.

Legend
by Marie Lu

In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-old Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy. This is the first book in Lu's Legend trilogy.

The Giver
by Lois Lowry

Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.

The City of Ember
by Jeanne DuPrau

In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina lives in an underground community whose infrastructure is deteriorating. She trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.




If you would like to read any of these books, you can click on the title and place a hold with your library card number in our online catalog.

(All book descriptions taken from our online catalog.)