Each Saturday I tell you about great items available for check out at the library. Merry (early) Christmas everyone! We’d like to wish all our patrons a very peaceful and relaxing time this holiday season. The library will be closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We’ll reopen at our normal time on Saturday, December 26th.
0 Comments
If you’re the type of reader who likes to read books in a series back-to-back, this week’s review will be helpful. Wild West Brides by Lori Copeland collects three stories previously published by the author in one volume. The library previously had the first story in the book, but the proceeding two add to the series. All the stories are set in the mid-1800s in the Midwest.
First up is The Peacemaker. Wynne Elliott is furious at Cass Claxton for leaving her at the altar and is bent on revenge. But when Cass’ older brother appears and seemingly tries to rob Wynn’s stagecoach, she may not have the restraint to keep her hand off her gun. The second story is titled The Drifter. Another Claxton brother, Beau, is at death’s door after a tragedy in life makes him a drifter. After riding for days a fight with a wolf leaves him injured and in the care of Charity, a young widow with a Kansas farm claim to work all alone. The third in the series revisits Cass Claxton from the first story. He had a good reason for leaving a woman at the altar – he was already married to another woman in a shotgun ceremony years before. But now his wife is back with more sneaky plans that leave Cass and his wife on the wagon trail to Kansas, with nine orphans in tow! Lori Copeland is a well-known Christian fiction author, and this book will be shelved in the Christian fiction section after its time on the regular library shelves. Although each story is a light read, they are each full-length novels. You can get more great titles to watch, read, listen to, or play with at the Port Library at 1718 N. Hersey in Beloit. This Friday the library will host its second annual “Aisle of Lights” – a smaller indoor version of the display at Chautauqua Park. Come stroll through the bookshelves lighted with Christmas lights only, enjoy some cookies and hot cider, and even listen to a story in the children’s department. We’ll close the library early at 4 pm to set up, then the Aisles of Lights will be available from 6:00 – 9:00 pm.
For fans of historical fiction and dramas, this review is for you. Naked: A Novel of Lady Godiva by Eliza Redgold retells the famous story of Lady Godiva and her ride. The tale says that Lady Godiva was forced by her husband to ride through the English town of Coventry with nothing covering her but her hair. However, one person looked, which is where we get the term “peeping Tom.” Instead of making Lady Godiva’s husband a villain, Lord Leofric plays an important counterpoint to the lady. The story starts right before Godiva’s famous ride and then fills in the reader on the dramatic events leading up to it. Set in 1023 in the Middle Ages, this book immerses you with period descriptions and a few vocabulary words, but is easy to catch on to. The author has carefully researched the real story and fills the readers in with a short introduction. This story is a full novel with passion, adventure, battles, obsession, greed, and mercy. It’s not easy to put down once you start it – but a quick warning to readers of cozy mysteries and soft romances – this is more the book form of an HBO drama than a Hallmark channel movie. You can get more great titles to watch, read, listen to, or play with at the Port Library at 1718 N. Hersey in Beloit. If you can rouse yourself out of that turkey leftovers stupor, come on down to the library. We have a new activity room set up in the previous book sale room. Don’t worry – we just moved the books for sale to a cart right outside the room. Meanwhile through the month of December you can come sit for a quiet moment and help us put together a jigsaw puzzle. We’ll have another activity in that room in January, all free of charge and open to anyone when the library doors are open.
Ragweed is a dog who lives on a farm and in his book Ragweed’s Farm Dog Handbook written and illustrated by Anne Vittur Kennedy, Ragweed will tell you all about how to be the best farm dog. The first lesson is that it is the rooster’s job to wake up the farmer, not the dog’s job. But if you do happen to wake up the farmer you may just get a dog biscuit to go away. And it’s the pig’s job to lie in the mud, but if you lie in the mud you’ll just get a bath. But after the bath is a biscuit! Don’t try to roost with the hens, but if you do just pretend you’re chasing off a fox and (can you guess?) you’ll get a biscuit! It may be pretty obvious that underlying all these farm activities is one goal: the real job of a farm dog is to get biscuits! In this cute picture book Ragweed is drawn as a medium sized black and white fuzzy mutt with a hilarious narrator’s voice. Any kid on a farm or who visits a relative’s farm is sure to relate to Ragweed, and families with dogs are sure to understand the constant job of getting biscuits into the dog’s mouth! You can get more great titles to watch, read, listen to, or play with at the Port Library at 1718 N. Hersey in Beloit. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone this upcoming Thursday! I hope you are making plans for some tasty turkey. I know I can’t wait for some pecan pie myself. We’ll be closed Thursday, November 26th and 27th for the holiday, and reopen on Saturday, November 28th for our regular hours.
Ask a little kid and they’ll tell you lots of things monsters love, such as the dark, scaring people, and maybe even the undersides of beds. But did you know that monsters also absolutely love Hanes and Fruit of the Loom? Claire Freedman and illustrator Ben Cort are here to tell you so in their new book Monsters Love Underpants. This children’s picture book certainly starts out with big, hairy monsters creeping down a dark street, scaring a little orange cat, but the gang all shows up to show off their colorful underwear by page two. All sorts of monsters are in this book, which means all sorts of underwear is shown off, from squeaky armor pants, frozen underwear for yetis, to slimy swamp monster pants that slide right off! The end of the book reminds kids that lost pairs of underwear under the bed may get a new owner. And if the concept of this book sounds just a little familiar it is because the writer and illustrator also wrote Dinosaurs Love Underpants too. Your young kids are sure to have a giggly fun time picking out these colorfully painted monsters on each page, and this may even be a good book to introduce the idea of fun underwear to that potty training toddler. You can get more great titles to watch, read, listen to, or play with at the Port Library at 1718 N. Hersey in Beloit. |
Port LibrariansWe like books, movies, music, games, and more and would like to tell you what you can get FOR FREE at our library! Archives
August 2020
|