Tackle Twelve - Spotlight on Oprah Book Club Selections

As part of BPL’s Tackle Twelve promotion, 16 reading challenges have been issued. This week’s blog takes a closer look at ‘Read an Oprah Book Club Selection' and offers up recommendations.

She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb

Spending the years between the age of thirteen and womanhood watching television and eating the junk food her mother provides, wise mouthed and wounded Dolores Price finally decides to give her life a chance.

The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard

The disappearance of her three-year-old son Ben threatens to drive a wedge between Beth Cappadora and her husband, Pat, and transforms her older son into a troubled delinquent. Until one day, nine years later, when Ben comes back into their lives.

Songs in Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris

It’s the summer of 1960 in Atkinson, Vermont. Maria Fermoyle is a strong, yet vulnerable, divorced woman whose loneliness and ambition for her children make her easy prey for dangerous con man Omar Duvall.

Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons

Winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation’s Citation for Fiction. An eleven-year-old heroine tells her unforgettable story with honesty, perceptivity, humor, and unselfconscious heroism.

The Meanest Thing to Say by Bill Cosby

When a new boy in his second grade class tries to get the other students to play a game that involves saying the meanest things possible to one another, Little Bill shows him a better way to make friends.

Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman

A middle-aged woman, along with her fifteen-year-old daughter, returns to her small Massachusetts hometown for the funeral of the housekeeper who raised her and finds herself thrust into the lives of the people she left behind.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

The idyllic lives of civic-minded environmentalists Patty and Walter Berglund come into question when their son moves in with aggressive Republican neighbors. Green lawyer Walter takes a job in the coal industry and go-getter Patty becomes increasingly unstable and enraged.

A Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons

Two unforgettable characters, Jack Ernest Stokes, known as Blinking Jack, and his wife, Ruby Pitt Woodrow Stokes, tell the story of their years together. Jack was forty and Ruby only twenty when they were married. For twenty-five years they lived together, man and wife, until Ruby died of lung cancer.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape, save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food, and each other.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Set in twelfth-century England, this epic of kings and peasants juxtaposes the building of a magnificent church with the violence and treachery that often characterized the Middle Ages.

This readers advisory brought to you by YA Librarian, Chris.

Johanna's Picks -- Music

Looking for some toe-tapping music recommendations? YA volunteer Johanna has you covered.

Here are 5 selections that make the top of her list and why they deserve such high accolades.

Ultraviolence by Lana Del Rey

If you can imagine a character in a post-apocalyptic world (much like Katniss Everdeen), then you can imagine these songs playing all the time in the background. I wouldn’t say these songs are depressing. I would use “melancholy” for a description – they tell of a teenage summer that gives people nostalgia.

21 by Adele

These songs resonate, especially with a strong bass stereo. My favorite is song #1, Rolling in the Deep. You can see why this description is so short – there doesn’t have to be an explanation. It’s Adele.

Greatest Hits by ABBA

These songs give nostalgia, too, but it’s not the normal kind of nostalgia where it’s fun for 4 seconds and then you’re sad. It’s the Happy, Fun Times, Oh It’s Gone But That’s Okay, type of nostalgia. 5/5 stars.

Boston by Boston

The old songs all have a special place in my heart. I was so excited when The Guardians of the Galaxy came out, so my friends could get into my music.

Blown Away by Carrie Underwood

Not a lot of people enjoy songs that give story, and usually I'm one of those people. However, this album is strong with story, and it works! My favorites are "Good Girl", "Two Black Cadillacs," and – of course – "Blown Away."

Recently Added to the YA Bookshelf

Taking a look at some of the most recent additions gracing the shelves of our YA department:

The Upside of Falling Down by Rebekah Crane

When Clementine wakes up in a hospital after being the only survivor in an airplane crash, she discovers she has complete amnesia. She cannot remember anything, and doesn’t even recognize the man who says he’s her father and wants to take her home to America. With the Irish press bearing down on her, Clementine assumes a new identity and runs off with Kieran O’Connell to avoid dealing with this inexplicable situation.

To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. That is, until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most – a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever.

Hooper by Geoff Herbach

For Adam Reed, basketball is a passport. Adam’s basketball skills have taken him from an orphanage in Poland to a loving adoptive mother in Minnesota. When he’s tapped to play on a select AAU team along with some of the best players in the state, it just confirms that basketball is his ticket to the good life. But life is more complicated off the court. When an incident with the police threatens to break apart the bonds Adam’s finally formed, he must make an impossible choice between his new family and the sport that’s given him everything.

This Tiny Perfect World by Lauren Gibaldi

Penny loves her small-town Florida life, and she has her future mapped out. She’s going to community college after graduation to stay close to home and her best friend, Faye. She’ll take over the family diner that her dad has been managing since her mother died. And one day, she’ll marry her high school sweetheart, Logan. But when she unexpectedly lands a scholarship to a prestigious summer theater camp, she is thrust into a world of competition and self-doubt.

Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston

Seventeen-year-old Ana is a scoundrel by nature and an outlaw by trade. Found as a child drifting through space with a sentient android called D09, Ana was saved by a fearsome space captain and the grizzled crew she now calls family. But D09 – one of the last remaining illegal Metals – has been glitching, and Ana will stop at nothing to find a way to fix him.

Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi

Sixteen-year-old Scott Ferdowsi’s impromptu trip to a famous professor for advice about success turns into a summer of freedom that brings him answers in unexpected places.

The Final Six by Alexandra Monir

Drafted into the International Space Training Camp to train alongside other elites, a champion swimmer and a science genius become suspicious of the program’s actual purpose as their tests grow increasingly more dangerous.

The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord

When her perfectly planned summer of quality time with her parents, her serious boyfriend, and her Bible camp unravels and long-hidden family secrets emerge, Lucy must figure out what she is made of and what grace really means.

Where I Live by Brenda Rufener

Linden Rose has a big secret – she is homeless and living in the halls of her small-town high school. Her position as school blog editor, her best friends, and the promise of a future far away are what keep Linden under the radar and moving forward. However, when ‘cool girl’ Bea comes to school with a bloody lip, the damage hits too close to home. Linden begins looking at Bea’s life, and soon her investigation prompts people to pay more attention. And attention is the last thing she needs.

The Midnights by Sarah Nicole Smetana

Susannah Hayes has never been in the spotlight, though she dreams of following her father, a former rock star, onto the stage. As senior year begins, she’s more interested in composing impressive chord patterns than college essays, certain that if she writes the perfect song, her father might finally look up from the past long enough to see her. But when he dies unexpectedly, her dreams – and her reality – shatter.


This update brought to you by YA Librarian, Chris.

Getting to Know ... Braden

Introducing another valuable member of our YA Volunteer Team, Braden Unruh! A 13-year-old seventh grader, Braden has accumulated 69 volunteer hours since June 2017. 

FAVORITE BOOK GENRES:  Fiction and Fantasy

A TOPIC HE COULD DISCUSS FOR AN HOUR: The technicals of some devices 

AN INVENTION HE WOULD UNINVENT: Fidget spinner

ROLE MODEL: His dad

HAPPY PLACE: In an air-conditioned room

SPIRIT ANIMAL: Panda

INTERESTING FACT:  "I can do useless stuff like flipping my tongue upside-down and walking backwards."

DESERTED ISLAND FRIEND: Jackson Gilmer for support

FUTURE CAREER: Informational Technology

FAVORITE QUOTE: "Just do it." ~ Nike