Summer Reading Celebration

It was a great book and one of the first to actually surprise me!

This book filled me with despair, UNTIL the final page; then I was filled with relief. That I had when I read the final sentence...and could put this book down. I will never read another novel by this author.

This is considered an Young Adult book, but I enjoyed it. It is a dual memoir written by the 2 penpals. The letters change both their lives. It also gives an insight how different life is in other countiries, in this case Zimbabwe. I am sure that this book will have an impact for the better on anyone who reads it.

This was a great book if you like historical fiction, particularly WWII history. I have read many different historical novels set around the arena of WWII, but this one had a unique perspective. It is seen through the eyes of a young woman who goes to London with a friend after losing her own accommodations in the country. A good friend of her deceased mother puts her up and helps her land a job in a bookstore run by a crotchety old man (think, crotchety people are that way for a reason...but that is secondary to the story). She becomes very successful at what she does even though she is not a reader at the start of the book. The story unfolds against the backdrop of Hitler's blitz on London and England. So you get a front row seat to that harrowing year. I always learn new things and perspectives about the war when I read these books. This was a charming and generally heartwarming read based on real events including the impact of literature during the war.

Very good book.

Fiction based on an actual historical event. A young black nurse discoverers that 2 of her clients were sterilized without the knowing consent of their legal guardians. That is the true event. Many of the things she encounters in post-seregation Alabama give an accurate portrayal of what life was like for poor black families, and even well off families during that time. Her emotional struggles and character are completely fictionalized. Well written and very enlightening.

Mr Popper’s Penguins by Florence and Richard Atwater was a fun one to read to my children. The kids loved the absurdity of keeping a penguin in a refrigerator, and later loved comparing and contrasting it to the film.

This was a very insightful book focused on the QAnon cult and how/why people are susceptible to believing conspiracy theories. The author follows a number of individuals and their loved ones, documenting the destruction of the American family by those who've bought into QAnon and it's insane conspiracy theories.

I can see where the appeal is but I didn't much care for it. Girl meets girl, girl falls in love with girl and is forced apart by disapproving family. The historical significance of such a story, based on stories of lesbians in the Asian American community are important too and should be told I just didn't really care for this one. The main character Lily only showed strength of character once she found something she was passionate about and that was the sciences and Kath. Lily's friend Cheryl was not a very good friend and I personally dislike her from the get go but she was helpful in making her opinion, which was socially acceptable, very clear when it came to roles of women and what they should and shouldn't be doing. I appreciated what this book stands for and wh9 it was written for and it just wasnt for me.

I really liked the CLSC lecture and I really liked this. Very Temperance Brennan and the 300s.