BPL Blog
Posted by JGranatino on Mon, Jan 28
College student, Darby Thorne is en route to see her dying mother when a blizzard in the Colorado Rockies forces her to wait out the storm at a rest stop with just a coffee maker and a few vending machines. As luck will have it, she finds herself with no cell phone reception in the company of four strangers. While searching for cell reception outside, she spies a young girl in a cage hidden in the back of one of the other stranded vehicles. Realizing that she must carefully orchestrate her next...
Posted by JGranatino on Tue, Jan 22
After amassing $30,000 of credit card debt and developing compulsive eating, drinking, and shopping habits, author Flanders found herself moving back to her parents’ home. Deciding that the time had come for some radical changes, she adopted a shopping moratorium for one year. She only purchased necessary supplies or items that had to be replaced. During that year, she began to eliminate negative and wasteful lifestyle habits, focused on saving and reducing her debt load, and, in the process,...
Posted by JGranatino on Tue, Jan 22
Clinical studies demonstrate that reading aloud to children stimulates brain development, literacy, vocabulary, and social-emotional skills; however, research also indicates that too much passive “screen time” leads to underdevelopment of higher-order brain networks. Reading together offers an opportunity for strengthening parent/child bonds, for discussion, and for transmission of values. The benefits of reading aloud are not isolated to young children. For example, this activity can provide a...
Posted by JGranatino on Mon, Jan 14
Ninety-six-year old Doris has kept a red address book given to her by her father, and throughout her life she has recorded the names of all her friends, family and lovers. The book is now old and tattered and has nearly every name crossed off as she outlives them. Jenny, her grand-niece in America, Skypes with her every week and is her only family now. Doris is ill but still feisty, even in hospital, and wants to share her memories of her life as a model, the salons with intellectuals and...
Posted by BHanley on Fri, Jan 04
Sarah Winman creates a heartbreaker in just over 200 pages with her latest work, Tin Man. It follows the story of two men, Ellis and Michael, with an intense bond, forged in their teenage years, who are met with the unyielding complexities of adulthood. The story is told in three parts and is largely set in the 1990s and earlier: first from Ellis’ perspective, which lovingly meanders between the present and the past. Then, from the perspective of Michael through his journaling. Winman...
Posted by JGranatino on Wed, Dec 05
Elizabeth Berg has written a lovely sequel to her bestselling novel, The Story of Arthur Truluv. In the little town of Mason, Missouri, Lucille Howard has begun teaching baking classes to her enthusiastic followers. Her following has become so popular that she hires a newcomer, Iris, to be her assistant. Every night Lucille falls asleep hoping to dream of her lost love, Frank, but recently – to her irritation – an angel of death keeps appearing in her dreams and she keeps sending him...
Posted by JGranatino on Mon, Dec 03
Imagine an America in which women have been limited to speaking only 100 hundred words per day; otherwise the “bracelet” counter sends a jolt of electricity strong enough to scar. Even female children are subjected to this in a male-dominated society ruled by a crazed pastor and his flock, known as “The Pure”. Dr. Jean McLellan, a former eminent neuroscientist, has been released from her bonds because the president’s brother has suffered an injury to the brain which requires a serum she and her...
Posted by JGranatino on Mon, Nov 26
Local author and poet Peter Johnson has created a new collection of prose poetry, Old Man Howling at the Moon, which he describes as "complaints". Several pieces have previously appeared in literary magazines, and Peter seamlessly blends them with new poems infused with irony and humor. He portrays the milestones of life such as "Good Old Days" to "The One That Got Away" to "Last Will and Testament" with wit and, at times, veiled anger. His poetry reflects a man’s life, his role as...
Posted by JGranatino on Tue, Nov 20
Hugh McElroy has been called to negotiate a hostage situation at a local women’s reproductive health clinic where shots have already been fired. A SWAT team is ready to storm the gates, but Hugh has a particular reason for not wanting to chance any more casualties…his daughter is inside. The shooter has a “divine” purpose for murder relating to his own daughter’s decision to abort her pregnancy. Picoult progresses her story by counting the hours backward to the clinic’s early morning opening....
Posted by JGranatino on Mon, Nov 19
Joanna Gaines, former co-star of HGTV’s Fixer Upper and lead designer/co-owner of Magnolia Homes construction business with husband Chip, has plenty of good advice on making a living space truly one’s own. Her aim in writing the book was to “empower and motivate” readers “to create a home that communicates the soul and substance of the people who live within its walls." For Gaines, “it’s about story”: being surrounded by meaningful and memorable items that you and your family love,...
