Communications Manager Kyla Merwin recommends The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Of the zillion books I’ve read – from Go Spot Go to my current obsession, The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus – I only closed the cover of two books with tears spilling down my cheeks. One of them was Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. (Spoiler alert: Inman dies at the end. I read this book twenty-five years ago, and I’m still upset about it.) The other was The Kite Runner—a book that refuses to let go … [Read more...] about Book Review: The Kite Runner
Library Book Club Reviews
Review: In the Woods
Librarian Andrea Nelson recommends In the Woods by Tana French. Back in December of 2023, I wrote a Library recommendation that deviated from the typical book review. I recommended everything Tana French has ever written. I wasn’t mocking the time-honored tradition of librarian book reviews; I simply could not decide which was my favorite. Since then, my husband Rod has urged me to pick a Tana French novel for the Community Library Book Club. Those of you who regularly attend our … [Read more...] about Review: In the Woods
Books Review: Twist
Director of Library Operations Pamela Parker recommends Twist: A Novel by Colum McCann. Irish author Colum McCann grapples with human disconnections in his most recent novel, Twist (2025). He does so by taking us on a sea-faring adventure off the coast of Africa aboard a vessel that repairs underwater fiber-optic cables. Periodic damage to these lines threatens global communications and … [Read more...] about Books Review: Twist
Book Review: The Antidote
Director of Programs and Education Martha Williams recommends The Antidote by Karen Russell. I have long been a fan of Karen Russell and her zany hyper-realism. But even if you didn’t love Swamplandia (her first novel set in a gator-wrestling theme park in the Everglades) or short stories like “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” where fifteen girls are painstakingly reeducated by nuns, I hope you’ll be intrigued by The Antidote—Russell’s most sweeping narrative yet. Set during … [Read more...] about Book Review: The Antidote
Book Review: Here Beside the Rising Tide
Information Systems Manager Will Duke recommends Here Beside the Rising Tide by Emily Jane. At first glance it might seem trite that Emily Jane creates a heroine, Jenn, who is a wildly successful author of “action smut,” her term, not mine; flowing hair, deep kisses, and washboard abs do have cameos in this novel. There is also, of course, a pushy editor who loves Jenn, not romantically but in a “You go girl!” way. But do any of us want to read another book about an … [Read more...] about Book Review: Here Beside the Rising Tide
Book Review: Careless People:
A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism Librarian Andrea Nelson recommends "Careless People" by Sarah Wynn-Williams. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Back when Facebook (now Meta) was young, a sign hung on the wall of … [Read more...] about Book Review: Careless People:
