Category Archives: Books

CMLE Reads Across MN: History of Wolves

History of Wolves, by Emily Fridlund

Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, and it also has many  interesting books. In this series, we are sharing some of the books we like from Minnesota, or Minnesota authors.

We are mapping our literary journey around Minnesota, so you can see all the interesting places where our books are set. Follow our progress on our Google Map, accessible by clicking that link or searching for the title CMLE Reads Across Minnesota!

This was another reader suggestion – and another book I had not heard about until it was suggested. Thanks to everyone sending in Minnesota books!

From Amazon: “Teenage Linda lives with her parents in the austere woods of northern Minnesota, where their nearly abandoned commune stands as a last vestige of a lost counter-culture world. Isolated at home and an outsider at school, Linda is drawn to the enigmatic Lily and new history teacher Mr. Grierson. When Mr. Grierson is faced with child pornography charges, his arrest deeply affects Linda as she wrestles with her own fledgling desires and craving to belong. And then the young Gardner family moves in across the lake and Linda finds herself welcomed into their home as a babysitter for their little boy. But with this new sense of belonging comes expectations and secrets she doesn’t understand and, over the course of a summer, Linda makes a set of choices that reverberate throughout her life. One of the most daring literary debuts of the year and a national bestseller, History of Wolves is an agonizing and gorgeously written novel from an urgent, new voice in American fiction.”

Spotlight Program: 2018 Early Literacy Program: Libraries Rock!

“Just point me toward the books! I’m ready to read!”

At CMLE, we so enjoy all our different types of libraries, archives, and other members! Seeing all the work you are doing is so inspiring; and we want to return the favor by helping you to find some of the great programming going on around the profession.

Each week we will share an interesting program we find. It may inspire you to do exactly the same thing; or to try something related; or just to try out some different programming ideas. (Check out our podcast episode on Library Programming; you can tune in here! Or, of course, subscribe or stream to enjoy any of the episodes!)

This week we help you to start thinking about summer programming, especially focused on early literacy. This link to the Collaborative Summer Library Program gives you some ideas on building a great program for those early readers, complete with some great bibliographies for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. There is also material available in Spanish for you to provide resources to your Spanish-speaking patrons. (If you don’t have Spanish language patrons – why not? Take some time to start building these resources in your summer reading program!)

Let’s read! Join a CMLE 2018 Goodreads book challenge!

check out this reader! he’s on top of his TBR pile of books! great work Carson!!

We love to read books!

You love to read books!

Let’s all read books this year!!

Building on people’s interest in the books we suggest in our Books And Beverages podcast, we have started two book challenges for everyone in 2018.

Here are a few FAQs you might ask:

Are these high-pressure, high-volume challenges?? NO!

  • One challenge will read 25 books (50 if you get ambitious); the other reads 30. If you don’t get them all? *shrug* Read what you enjoy!

Will everyone point and laugh at me if I read books about vampires or YA books instead of The Important Classics?? NO!

  • Actually – we’ll look forward to your recommendations! We like fun books here, and that can include anything that sounds fun to you, including important classics AND vampires.

I never know what to read next. Can I get some recommendations? YES!

  • We want this to be easy, so one book challenge actually follows our book group podcast topics; you can listen to the suggestions everyone gives, then read a fun book for yourself.

I’m pumped up and ready to read!! Where do I find these so-fun book challenges?

  • CMLE Reading Challenge: Read through our 25 reading prompts for an interesting year in discovery of ideas; read two of each for 50 chances to try more new things and to hear what people have to say in different ways.
  • CMLE Book Group Podcast Reading Challenge: We have a book group podcast, Books And Beverages, and each week we talk about a different genre. For this challenge, you can read a book from each of the first 30 genres we are discussing. If you need book suggestions, you can listen to the handy podcast episode for all kinds of ideas! Join our book group podcast here.

 

Book Suggestions: Death Overdue (A Haunted Library Mystery)

We love to read books, and to talk about books. Check out our entire series here! Need more book chatting and suggestions in your life? Listen to our Books and Beverages podcast!

Is there anything more fun than reading a  book about a librarian solving a mystery? Well, add in the ghost of another librarian to help solve the mystery and you are really going to enjoy Death Ovedue, by Allison Brooks!

“Carrie Singleton is just about done with Clover Ridge, Connecticut until she’s offered a job as the head of programs and events at the spooky local library, complete with its own librarian ghost. Her first major event is a program presented by a retired homicide detective, Al Buckley, who claims he knows who murdered Laura Foster, a much-loved part-time library aide who was bludgeoned to death fifteen years earlier. As he invites members of the audience to share stories about Laura, he suddenly keels over and dies.

The medical examiner reveals that poison is what did him in and Carrie feels responsible for having surged forward with the program despite pushback from her director. Driven by guilt, Carrie’s determined to discover who murdered the detective, convinced it’s the same man who killed Laura all those years ago. Luckily for Carrie, she has a friendly, knowledgeable ghost by her side. But as she questions the shadows surrounding Laura’s case, disturbing secrets come to light and with each step Carrie takes, she gets closer to ending up like Al.

Now it’s due or die for Carrie in Death Overdue, the delightful first in a new cozy series by Allison Brook.”

Episode 112: Fantasy

Ariel, Mary, Angie

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Check out our full information page here, and get all the great drink recipes along with links to all kinds of useful resources!

Welcome, everyone, to Books and Beverages! This week we are discussing Fantasy books! Many of you who like this genre will also be SciFi fans; so check out Episode 102 if you have not already heard it.

This is our book group podcast, where we discuss different genres of books each week, while we all sit in our comfy chairs and drink our beverages. And you are, of course, an important part of this book group. So if you do not already have a nice beverage please go get one, so you can join the experience.

Who is joining our reading group this week? This week we welcome back frequent book group guest Ariel Krist, from St. Cloud Public Library!

Fantasy is one of those great genres that cross all kinds of boundaries in terms of other genres it can intersect with. Scifi can be defined as having a story that focuses on science; things in the story are possible (in theory at least) now or in the future. Items can be built, diseases can be unleashed or vanquished, robots walk among us. Fantasy books, in contrast, rely on magic or paranormal creatures or powers to advance the story.

These books easily lend themselves to big, sprawling world-building series. And those lend themselves to big-budget sprawling TV series and movies. So you see Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings being not only very successful book series, but also very successful visually. Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series is so epic Brandon Sanderson had to wrap it up – along with all of his Mistborne books! (Love his novellas in the Legion series!) Is Dune Fantasy? Sure…also some Scifi – but it’s undoubtedly epic! Think about the Marvel and DC comic universe – those Avengers can be thought of as scifi (sometimes), but could also fit pretty neatly into the Fantasy world. It’s a pretty fantastic time to be a Fantasy fan!!

We have a lot of suggestions for Fantasy books and series you might want to check out, if you don’t already know them. Because, as we said – this is a very diverse genre, and filled with all sorts of potentially great things to discover!