Recent Additions to our Biographies!

The following biographies have been added to our collection and can currently be found on our New Adult Nonfiction shelves.

My Days : Happy and Otherwise by Marion Ross

A warm and candid memoir, filled with loving recollections from the award-winning Happy Days team—from break-out star Henry Winkler to Cunningham “wild child” Erin Moran—Ross shares what it was like to be a starry-eyed young girl with dreams in poor, rural Minnesota, and the resilience, sacrifices, and determination it took to make them come true. She recalls her early years in the business, being in the company of such luminaries as Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Noel Coward, yet always feeling the Hollywood outsider—a painful invisibility that mirrored her own childhood. She reveals the absolute joys of playing a wife and mother on TV, and the struggles of maintaining those roles in real life. But among Ross’s most heart-rending recollections are those of finally finding a soulmate—another secret hope of hers made true well beyond her expectations.

Featuring Garry Marshall’s final illuminating interview as well as a touching foreword from her “TV son” Ron Howard.

 Have Dog, Will Travel : A Poet's Journey by Stephen   Kuusisto

Stephen Kuusisto was born legally blind—but he was also raised in the 1950s and taught to deny his blindness in order to "pass" as sighted. Stephen attended public school, rode a bike, and read books pressed right up against his nose. As an adult, he coped with his limited vision by becoming a professor in a small college town, memorizing routes for all of the places he needed to be. Then, at the age of 38, he was laid off. With no other job opportunities in his vicinity, he would have to travel to find work. 

This is how he found himself at Guiding Eyes paired with a Labrador named Corky. In this vivid and lyrical memoir, Stephen Kuusisto recounts how an incredible partnership with a guide dog changed his life and the heart-stopping, wondrous adventure that began for him in midlife. Profound and deeply moving, this is a spiritual journey, the story of discovering that life with a guide dog is both a method and a state of mind.





Everything is Horrible and Wonderful by Stephanie Wittels Wachs

One phone call was all it took to change Stephanie Wittels Wachs' life forever..

Her younger brother Harris, a star in the comedy world known for his work on shows like Parks and Recreation, had died of a heroin overdose. How do you make sense of such a tragic end to a life of so much hilarious brilliance?

In beautiful, unsentimental, and surprisingly funny prose, Stephanie Wittels Wachs alternates between her brother's struggle with addiction, which she learned about three days before her wedding, and the first year after his death, in all its emotional devastation. A heartbreaking but hopeful memoir of addiction, grief, and family, that might make you wonder if that possum on the fence is really your brother's spirit animal. 

Large Print Historical Fiction

Elinor and Lucy Sutherland are sisters, friends, and rivals in The It Girls by Karen Harper. Lucy has reshaped herself into the revolutionary fashion designer Lucile. When she marries Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, her life seems to be right out of a fairy tale, but then comes the night of April 14, 1912 which brings shame and scandal to Lucy's world. Elinor, on the other hand, has built a career of writing titillating popular novels and has even dabbled in the world of Hollywood. Elinor's books are filled with stories of passion, however, true love eludes her. Arguments, distance, and destiny fail to break the bonds of these two "It Girls" of their day.

New York City in 1914 is brought to life through the lives of Suzanne and Jada in Ziegfeld Girls by Sarah Barthel. Both are talented and resourceful and as close as sisters, but Jada is the black maid of wealthy Suzanne. As the latter begins to gain recognition as the new rising star of the Ziegfeld Follies, Jada is discovered and her superb voice and dance skills bring her own success and a new life. When a jealous Suzanne reveals a shocking secret, the two become bitter rivals. They must form an uneasy alliance in the face of relentless racism and as someone targets the Ziegfeld girls with vicious threats. They will put their careers on the line and it could even cost them their pursuit of love, success, and equality.

In Bachelor Girl by Kim van Alkemade, young actress Helen Winthrope is taken under the wing of Colonel Jacob Ruppert--eccentric owner of the New York Yankees baseball team. Helen thinks Ruppert is feeling guilty over the accident that killed her father, but she welcomes the chance to better herself and embraces her status as a "bachelor girl." She finds herself falling in love with Ruppert's personal secretary, Albert Kramer, even as he confesses a dark secret to her. When Ruppert dies, rumors start swirling about his true connection with Helen after the stunning revelation that he has left her most of his fortune, including Yankee Stadium.

Lindsay Jayne Ashford puts famed writer Agatha Christie in the middle of it all in The Woman on the Orient Express. Having just divorced her husband, Agatha boards the famed train in disguise to find her own way in life. She isn't the only passenger with secrets to board the train, however. Her cabin mate Katharine Keeling is running from a second relationship mired in lies after her first marriage ended tragically. Nancy Nelson is on the precipice of despair as she tries to conceal her pregnancy. She is newly married, but carrying another man's child. These women hide their pain and guard their secrets with a fervor, but as the train makes its way to the Middle East, they form a bond of sisterhood as the parallel courses of their lives are revealed.

Summer Library Program Fun!

Here are the events scheduled for the remainder of June!

Wednesday, June 13 - 10:30 AM - Toddler/Preschool Storytime

Thursday, June 14 - 10 AM - Rainsticks craft (ages 6 and up)

Tuesday, June 19 - 10 AM - Dulcimer performance (all ages)

Wednesday, June 20 - 10:30 AM - Toddler/Preschool Storytime

Thursday, June 21 - 10 AM - Movie Event! (family friendly)

Wednesday, June 27 - 10:30 AM - Toddler/Preschool Storytime

Thursday, June 28 - 10 AM - Karoake Party (ages 12 and up)

Don't miss out!  See you here!

Short Story Collections

With the long, hot summer ahead of us, I thought it would be nice to have a few quick, easy reads on our list. "What's a quicker read than a short story?," I thought, so here are a few new collections for your enjoyment.

Carmen Maria Machado is happy to obliterate the borders between genres in Her Body and Other Parties: Stories. These 8 stories relate the verisimilitude of women's lives and the violence that is often thrust upon them externally and internally. A wife refuses her husband's pleadings to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. Another woman recounts her sexual exploits as a plague sweeps through the world around her. A clerk in a mall makes a shocking discovery when she inspects seams of the prom dresses she has been selling. The included novella, "Especially Heinous," was inspired by Law & Order: SVU, but it smears the police procedural with all the hallmarks of a horror novel; including doppelgangers, ghosts, and girls with bells-for-eyes. If you lean toward the sci-fi/fantasy/horror novels, then this collection may be for you.

If you lean toward political intrigue, spy/war thrillers, and the like, then Will Mackin's Bring Out the Dog: Stories may be right up your alley. These 11 stories draw from Mackin's many deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. He would scribble notes in grease pencil on the inner side of his arm and make lists on the flaps torn from MRE kits. He used these notes in his journals and, years later, those journals became this book. The world he relates is one of intense bonds, archaic tenets, and unexpected compassion. These stories are set at home and abroad and reflect the dual reality of war--victory and loss. There is not an ounce of grandiosity to these stories, they are told with the keen eye of someone who has lived each scenario.

Nine stories comprise Kelly Barnhill's collection entitled Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories. This is another collection of stories that bend reality and drift toward the bizarre. In "Mrs. Sorensen and the Sasquatch," the titular widow decides to rekindle a long dormant relationship with a most unsuitable mate. The title story illustrates the strength and power--both known and unknown--of the imagination. In "Open the Door and the Light Pours Through," a young man struggles with intense grief and his sexuality in his letters to his long-distance love. Included in this collection is her award-winning novella "The Unlicensed Magician" which introduces the secret and magical life of an invisible girl who was once left for dead.

Finally, in Back Talk: Stories by Danielle Lazarin, women don't hate themselves, don't hate each other, not their mothers or sisters, their fathers, husbands, ex-husbands, and certainly not their children. Sound boring? Don't be so quick to judge. These women are just like you and I in that they are just trying to navigate the world without losing their minds. These 16 fresh, witty stories relate the ups and downs of strong, capable women and girls who still manage to be compassionate and tender.