From One Book Lover

Temperatures are dropping in the Northern Hemisphere as Old Man Winter tries to settle in for a nice, long visit. (Okay, maybe it's not that long, but it feels like it.)  You know what that means, right? It's time to announce the selection of the 2017 Polar Book Club!  Make sure you have enough hot beverage and snacks, n ab the warmest blanket, carve out the comfiest spot with excellent lighting, charge your device, grab this year's tome and settle in for a long winter's read.  Uber-Reader Karen has chosen the book for the 2017 Polar Book Club:  The Bookman's Tale .  It sounds like a doozie! Hay-on-Wye, 1995. Peter Byerly isn’t sure what drew him into this particular bookshop. Nine months earlier, the death of his beloved wife, Amanda, had left him shattered. The young antiquarian bookseller relocated from North Carolina to the English countryside, hoping to rediscover the joy he once took in collecting and restoring rare books.    But upon openi

Any reader who loves books, adventure, libraries, librarians, and chaos is in for the best treat with The Invisible Library , the debut novel by Genevieve Cogman . When we first meet our intrepid hero, Irene, she is a servant at a posh boys school in — well, it feels like a British boarding school, but I'm not sure where. Or when. I don't know if Irene even knows. All she knows is that she must get her hands on a particular book, and it won't be easy. You see, Irene is a Librarian, and that is her job. She cannot fail. And this time, she doesn't.  Fast forward to — well, I'm not sure when. Irene is in The Library when she receives her assignment, as well as an assistant, a Librarian-in-training named Kai. There's something about him she just can't put her finger on... but an assignment is an assignment, and the only way a Librarian-in-training can truly train is on the job. There are other, older, and wiser minds at work, and they know what they

In Flanders Fields In Flanders fields the poppies blow       Between the crosses, row on row,    That mark our place; and in the sky    The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.   We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,          In Flanders fields.   Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw    The torch; be yours to hold it high.    If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow          In Flanders fields.

As the days get shorter and chillier, I decided to add up my summer reading — and I decided, "Not bad." Well, not bad for a slacker. I read one less book this year than last year, but I guess we can't all be  Karen . So, without further ado, I bring you... Chris' 2016 Summer Reading List Fates and Furies Summer House With Swimming Pool Between the World and Me Ghostly Echoes Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls  The Underground Railroad The Uninvited  Who Goes There? (The Thing) Big Magic Dorothy Parker Drank Here  A Spirited Tail  The Goodbyes Secondhand Souls Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Everything We Keep If Books Could Kill The Bookseller  Unlikely Friendships Homicide in Hardcover Ghostly Paws The Sleeper and the Spindle  The Body Reader Blackout Me and Earl and the Dying Girl  Vacations From Hell 168 Hours Farewell, Dorothy Parker When Breath Becomes Air In the Heights Crenshaw How Do You Sleep