CHESHIRE PUBLIC LIBRARY

Reader's Advisory with a Tumbly twist - book lists, book news, recommended reads, and other stuff that warms our bookish hearts... Visit us at 104 Main St. Cheshire, CT 06410 www.cheshirelibrary.org [phone]

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“The library is a safe place.”

Wil Wheaton's keynote address from the Southern Kentucky Book Festival speaks to the importance of libraries. Bravo!

The earliest memories of my life are of my grandmother teaching me to read, in the kitchen of the farmhouse she lived in with my great grandparents and my great aunt. I still have the first book I was able to read all the way through on my own, without any help. It’s called Willie and the Whale. The story goes: a boy named Willie goes swimming with a whale and they have fun together. At the end of the book, they agree to do it all again tomorrow. A simple, tight narrative that five year-old me had no trouble following. I loved it. I loved the special time that was just me and my grandmother. I loved that the main character and I had the same name. I loved how reading it made me feel … accomplished. 

My dad didn’t want me to go to public school, because too many of “those people” were being bussed in. My mom didn’t want me to go to public school because taking me out of class all the time [for acting roles] was becoming an issue with the district. So they put me into a private religious school that didn’t care if I was in class or not. I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but looking back on it now, that school treated education as an afterthought.

I didn’t feel safe at school. I didn’t feel seen or heard at home. I was scared and lonely all the time. More than anything, I needed a safe place to just be me. I needed a safe person to see me, not Wil the Pill, or the actor who didn’t want to be an actor, or the easy target for a bully. About halfway through the school year, I found that place and that person, at the public library.

Once a month, our entire class would ride the bus to the public library in Tujunga, California. It was one of those mid-century, post war government buildings, sturdy, but not exactly warm and welcoming. It was pretty much one long, narrow room with a couple dozen stacks and the biggest card catalog I’d ever seen. Near the front, there was a rug with some chairs around it, where we’d gather for a reading from one of the librarians. On one side of the rug, about two dozen books were laid out on a table. Every visit, we got to pick out a book to take home and keep, in addition to the three books we were allowed to borrow.

In order to survive, I disassociated for much of my childhood, but I clearly remember the books. That’s where I found comfort, companionship, inspiration and validation. It’s where the imagination that powers everything I do creatively in my life today was born. And it all started in that library, with that librarian. She was one of the first people I can remember asking me, “What do you like? What’s important to you? What do you want to know more about? How can I help you find it?”

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Click through to read the full speech.

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I'm with the Band: Musical Novels

[via GoodReads]

In 2019, author Taylor Jenkins Reid stomped over the fields of publishing like a kaiju with her wildly popular rock and roll novel Daisy Jones & the Six. The long-awaited TV adaptation—just out on Amazon Prime—is expected go kaiju all over again. In honor of this development, we’ve gathered here a spirited and unruly list of novels with a musical heart.

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

The Commitments by Roddy Doyle

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau

The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex  Jennings

The Ensemble by Aja Gabel

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Click through to see more titles.

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What was the best book you read in 2022? I recently asked staff members this question and have compiled their answers here. Interestingly, there were no duplications, everyone had a different favorite. Some books were published in 2022, some were many years older, some were fiction, some were nonfiction. Without further ado, here's a selection of 10 recent favorites from our library staff:

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Read more at The Cheshire Library Blog.

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6 New Mysteries Featuring Deadly Games and Puzzles 

[via BookBub Blog]

You can’t beat a mystery where the stakes are sky-high — and in these thrilling books, characters race through all kinds of deadly games and puzzles just to stay alive.

The Escape Room by Megan Goldin

Hide by Kiersten White

The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes

The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell

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Click through to see more titles.

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Poetic pun.

#mondaypun

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Comic: @martin_rosner

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6 Vengeful Books Like John Wick

[via Book Riot]

Hollywood’s favorite revenge franchise, John Wick, continues with John Wick: Chapter 4 this month. Full of over-the-top violence, great fight choreography, and he’s-so-wholesome-we-don’t-deserve-him Keanu Reaves, this franchise is huge. But when the credits roll, what if you want more vengeful tales? Why, there are books like John Wick, of course.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian

The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

Three Assassins by Kōtarō Isaka

When the Reckoning Comes by Latanya McQueen

Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz

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Click through to see more titles.

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