Monthly Archives: August 2022

Brecken Hill in upstate New York is an expensive place to live. You have to be rich to have a house there, and Fred and Sheila Merton certainly are rich. But even all their money can’t protect them when a killer comes to call. The Mertons are brutally murdered after a fraught Easter dinner with their three adult kids. Who, of course, are devastated. Or are they? 

They each stand to inherit millions. They were never a happy family, thanks to their vindictive father and neglectful mother, but perhaps one of the siblings is more disturbed than anyone knew. Did someone snap after that dreadful evening? Or did another person appear later that night with the worst of intentions? That must be what happened. After all, if one of the family were capable of something as gruesome as this, you’d know.

 Wouldn’t you?

I have not read anything by this author before, but after reading this book I will definitely read other books by her. It really kept me guessing until the end.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes suspense and a good mystery!

Recommended by Wendy Contini

I asked the staff to share their favorite Science Fiction and Fantasy movies. Did we pick some of your favorite movies? What movies would you add to this list?

Aeon Flux

Recommended by Mallory

Avatar

Recommended by Jen G.

Back to the Future

Recommended by Jan and Linda

The Chronicles of Narnia

Recommended by Jen G.

Dark City

Recommended by Mallory

Descendants

Recommended by Jen M.

Firefly

Recommended by Liz

Game of Thrones 

Recommended by Ellen

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Recommended by Kim

Ladyhawke

Recommended by Mallory

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Recommended by Syrena

Lost

Recommended by Jamie

Manifest

Recommended by Chris

Resident Alien

Recommended by Wendy

Serenity

Recommended by Liz

Star Trek

Recommended by Sherrel

Star Wars

Recommended by Paula, Syrena and Denise

Before We Were Yours is a book of fiction based on a true story, by Lisa Wingate.

The story is about a 12 year old Rill and her 4 siblings that live with their parents on a shanty boat, on the Mississippi River. That is until her mother goes into labor, and is having some problems, and her father takes her off the boat to a doctor. While the children are left alone on the boat, strangers come and they are taken to the Tennessee Children’s Home Society Orphanage.

It is also about the present day in Aiken, South Carolina, where born into wealth and privilege Avery comes home to help her ailing father. When a chance encounter leaves her uncomfortable and curious, she decides to dig into her family’s past.

I liked this book because it was well written and tugged at my heart. It was so hard to believe that things like this actually happened in our country.

I would recommend this book for anyone that likes to read books set in the depression era. Or anyone who wants to try something different, this is how I found this book.

Recommended by Linda Toohey

It feels like summer just began and here we are buying book bags, pencils, notebooks and crayons.  School is much different than back in the stone age when I was in school… we had paste and charcoal pencils.  Even though we may now buy different things to take to school, children getting ready for school have not changed.  There is still nervousness to enter a new grade or a new school building, excitement to see old friends and make new friendships and the dreaded getting up early again to start our days (for some kids).

We look forward to the change of the seasons at the library and new and exciting programs and items added for the school year.  The children’s department has a lot of fun things planned for the fall plus some great new additions to the children’s room. We have added two nice big trains that the kiddos can sit in to read their books and new books will be added in the train cars.  This was courtesy of our friends at Wayne County Public Library.  We will also add a nice talking globe that will teach us facts about all the different places in the world we want to visit.  Also being added are our virtual reality books.  These books come with a special holder where you can put a grown up’s phone to make these books come alive.  The books include The Sun, Polar Bears, Firefighters,Airplanes and India. We will add to the collection as the popularity grows.  

School time is not the time to stop reading but to read more.  We have a wonderful reading program for school age kids calling Reading Dragons.  Kids read 30 mins at a time and log it into their special tracker.  Once they have read for 2 hours they can collect Dragon cards which they can play games with and even trade with their friends.  There will be a special Dragon program also this fall.  It’s free to sign up and begins in September.  So as you can see there’s a lot of fun things happening as we go back to school this fall.  Goodbye summer, welcome fall!

Jen Gardner