What Are We Reading At the Library?

June 24, 2011

Working at the library, we often get asked for book suggestions. While we're delighted to help you select the perfect summer read, we thought that we might also share some of the books that the staff here in Excelsior is currently reading. Are the following titles good? Most of us haven't finished reading them yet, but these books were certainly interesting enough to catch our attention.

The Art of Racing in the Rain
by Garth Stein

Nearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher's soul, tries to bring together the family, pulled apart by a three year custody battle between daughter Zoe's maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver.

All Your Base are Belong to Us
by Harold Goldberg

In the first narrative history of video games, Goldberg shows the people and forces that have made gaming an indelible part of pop culture--and an industry whose revenues now rival Hollywood's.

Fairly fairy tales
by Esme Raji Codell, Illustrated by Elisa Chavarri

This storybook offers a different look at some classic stories, as a parent and child read before bedtime.

The Thirty-Nine Steps
by John Buchan

In Scotland, Hannay realizes that the notebook he recovered from the dead man is worth far more than he first thought, no least of all to a gang of German spies who will apparently stop at nothing to retrieve it. He joins forces with Sir Walter Bullivan and they must unlock the notebook's secret of the thirty-nine steps to foil the Germans plans to attack the British fleet.

A Child Called "It" : One Child's Courage to Survive 
by David J. Pelzer

Dave was in first grade when his unstable alcoholic mother began attacking him.  Until he was in fifth grade, she starved, beat and psychologically ravaged her son.  Eventually denying even his identity, Dave's mother called him an "it" instead of using his name.  Relentlessly, she drove him to the brink of death before authorities finally stepped in.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson

The disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden, gnaws at her octogenarian uncle, Henrik Vanger. He is determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder. He hires journalist Mikael Blomkvist, recently at the wrong end of a libel case, to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance. Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old, pierced, tattooed genius hacker, possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age--assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, an astonishing corruption at the highest echelon of Swedish industrialism--and a surprising connection between themselves.

You can also check the Staff Suggestions section of our website if you're looking for a good book, or the Recommended Reading section as well.

Liesl C.
Excelsior Springs Branch