Library Blog

Gold Mine Processing Associate, Brenda Cook, recommends Running with Sherman by Christopher McDougall.

The book, Running with Sherman: The Donkey With the Heart of a Hero, is based on a true story, and will appeal to many.  After taking in an abused donkey, the author, Christopher McDougall, is determined to compete in a grueling 10-mile burro race. While your donkey is tethered to you much like a dog on a leash,  you must endure the challenge up and down a mountainside in Colorado. 

The journey not only heals Sherman but everyone who connects with him, especially Zeke. Zeke suffered from depression so severely, he tried to take his own life. The bond created between Sherman, the donkey and Zeke gives an understanding of the impact animals can have on individuals.

Living in Pennsylvania, the team against all odds succeed in their journey to Colorado and the race of their dreams. 

This is a very relaxing read that encourages inspiration, determination, and gratitude. I highly recommend this book, it will leave you feeling good. 

Find it in print here.

Review by Gold Mine Processing Associate Eric Brown

Educated is a memoir by the American author Tara Westover. Tara recounts overcoming her survivalist Mormon family in order to go to college, and emphasizes the importance of education in enlarging her world.

She explores her struggle to reconcile her desire to learn with the world she inhabited with her father.

Tara details her journey from her isolated life in the mountains of Idaho to completing a PhD program in history at Cambridge University. She started college at the age of 17 having had no formal education. She explores her struggle to reconcile her desire to learn with the world she inhabited with her father.

Having grown up in rural southern Idaho, reading this memoir was more relatable and tangible than other memoirs I have read. Her story of resiliency, courage, and hope is inspiring for me, as well as many others.

Find it in print, ebook, eaudiobook, and CD here.

by Ali Hazelwood 

Reviewed by Sara Zagorski, Gold Mine Thrift Store Retail Manager

Now, I’m not generally one to (admit that I) like romance books or anything of the genre, but after the holidays I most definitely needed a bit of lighter fanfare than my usual sort. During the last bit of the year my stress level is generally at an all-time high and whatever book I find myself reading has no business adding to it. Queue: Love on the Brain. 

Two mortal nemeses find themselves paired together on a project for NASA that will either make or break Dr. Bee Königswasser’s career. Bee has devoted herself to neuroengineering and the simple question: What would Marie Curie do? From the very beginning the pushback from said nemesis, Levi Ward, is apparent and disheartening. The two had previously met in grad school where Ward made his feelings rather obnoxiously known—that life would be a heck of a lot easier if they stayed galaxies far, far away. (There’s a lot of Star Wars references sprinkled throughout, both a treat and an all-too-typical nerd trope. I digress.)  Bee is determined to overcome this and prove to Ward that, not only is she the best fit academically for the new technology they’re seeking to implement, but also a more than capable scientist overall.  

…life would be a heck of a lot easier if they stayed galaxies far, far away.

In addition to her workplace drama, she also finds herself the secret owner of a Twitter account that’s reached accidental fame, partially due to its questioning of the systems set into place concerning traditional testing and acceptance of new students into doctorate programs. She takes her real-life fight and that of her internet crusade on with an ardor that’s both admirable and exhausting to consider.  

My final thoughts are as follows. Entertaining? Certainly. Light-hearted? Yes, as long as you don’t actually sit and dwell on the practices and (still somehow) modern thoughts about women in science. Would I read it again? Probably, ask me around January 5^th next year. 

Find the ebook on Libby here.

By Kelley Moulton

The Sun Valley Ski Patrol has been a part of the Sun Valley story since the resort opened its doors in 1936. The image here shows a training drill from 1953 where the members of the ski patrol are practicing what they would do in the event of a plane crash. The seven visible members are being pulled across the snow by a CAT, ladened with various pieces of equipment. This drill included scaling a mountain and then possibly bringing down the plane crash victims.

The Sun Valley Ski Patrol has been a leader in the industry. Members of the Patrol would train the U.S. Army’s 10^th Mountain Division during World War II, and one of the original directors, Nelson Bennett, would help to revolutionize safety with his invention of the Sun Valley Ski Patrol Rescue Toboggan. The toboggan would become widely used by other Ski Patrols across the country and the technology would continue to be used to this day.

Today’s Ski Patrol features over 60 highly trained members, human and canine, who work to keep recreationists at Sun Valley out of harm’s way. To name just a few of their duties, the Sun Valley Ski Patrol arrange avalanche mitigation, rescue services, and share their invaluable knowledge with our community. Today, the Ski Patrol continues to provide world class service and safety to all who enjoy the mountains around Sun Valley.

Directed by Kim Bartly

Reviewed by Daniel Velasco, Gold Mine Processing Associate

Filmed over three years, Pure Grit explores the life of Sharmaine Weed, a ten-time Native American bareback horse racing champion living with her girlfriend, mother, two brothers, and paralyzed sister.

Filming took place in the Wind River reservation and in Denver, Colorado, where she and her girlfriend moved to start a life together. She never refused to let go of her dream of owning her own horse by taking jobs to raise money to buy one. She continued to become a champion in the dangerous sport that injured her brother and paralyzed her sister.

…no matter how hard life gets, you must get back on that horse and face the challenges that life gives you.

The documentary shows the difficulties of relationships, and the grief of losing a relationship and family members.

It also shows the real-life struggles of growing up within an unhealthy environment where there’s substance and physical abuse. That you sometimes must sacrifice the little good you have to start fresh and make your life better. What this film showed was that no matter how hard life gets, you must get back on that horse and face the challenges that life gives you.

This film hits a little too close to home being a part of the LGBTQ+ community in a small town as Sharmaine is in her hometown. I have great respect for her for going through all the struggles that she has been through all her entire life.

Watch the film on Kanopy here, free with your library card.

Information Systems Manager, Will Duke, recommends Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman.

I have never read a book of poetry before. Oh, I’ve read poems. Lots of poems. I’ve read poems from collections, from the Norton Anthology. I’ve read poems from the Internet. I’ve read poems from student poets.  I’ve read poems on splotchy xeroxed copies of copies. 

I have always thought of poems as standalone, self-contained things. In fact, I don’t know that I can “read” a poetry book.  I never get a poem in one pass. I study poems. I don’t start to “get it” until I’m 3 or 4 reads in, at least. The words fly by too quickly, and I start to think about rainbows and unicorns, or something else shiny, and the poem is finished and I’m reading the next one.   

Isn’t poetry the perfect literary medium for the modern age?  They can be read quickly, 15 seconds of attention, tik tok the time has passed and so has the poem. But maybe that’s nothing new. Led Zepplin famously didn’t release singles; the album was the work. Listen to the album, they said.   

It is at this moment I realize the secret truth of poetry: It must be read aloud. 

When I started to read Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman, I flipped through the pages, one poem after another. The poet was in a pandemic and struggling with all that meant. “It is easy to harp / harder to hope. … The glorious was not made to be piecemeal,” rises from the page and demands my attention. A quick read wasn’t going to work. I had to go back and read the whole poem again. Then I wanted to hear it. At this moment I realize the secret truth of poetry: It must be read aloud. 

I start again, supporting each poem with my voice. It slows me down. The sound of my voice resonates for me, and I start to feel the rhythm—not just of the individual words, or even the poem, but the ebb and flow of the book itself.

I turn the book sideways to read a poem shaped like a fish.  I read about people, demons’ gifts, and nature in a vase where we can “lay it down”. I find hope in the poems: “But there’s something different on this golden morning / Something magical in the sunlight, wide and warming.”   

Gorman uses any tool to make a poem work: form, meter, rhyme, figurative language, sound devices. She speaks to our conscience, our heart, our sadness, our hopes and our dreams. Her poetry is creative and huge and wonderful. 

I recommend Gorman without reservation. She deserves her title as the first National Youth Poet Laureate. Try reading this book out loud, or not, as you deem fit, but read it. And then talk about poetry. Share what you love with those you love. 

Which reminds me: Every Thursday I lead “Brown Bag Poetry” in the Library’s Learning Commons. How and why the Library IS Manager leads the poetry discussion is a collection of stories for another day.  Today, I wanted to invite you to come hang out with us on Thursdays at 11:30 a.m. right here at the library. You’re welcome to bring lunch, if you’d like. On January 19, 2023, we’ll be talking about Amanda Gorman. 

Find it in print, ebook, and eaudiobook here.

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Brown Bag Poetry

Bring your own lunch and nestle in for some great conversation, led by the Library’s information systems manager (who has the heart of a poet): Will Duke.

Thursdays at 11:30 a.m. in the Learning Commons.

In the words of C.S. Lewis: “Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.”

We couldn’t have said it better!