This is the Water

Annie watches her daughters at swim practice, while wondering why her husband doesn’t kiss her anymore. At the same time, a  killer watches the girls and imagines seeing the life leaving their eyes. In This is the Water, by Yannick Murphy, we see Annie’s harried life as a swim mom in rural Vermont, driving her daughters […]

Continue reading

Our Souls at Night

In this last novel before his death in 2014, acclaimed novelist Haruf (Benediction) captures small-town life to perfection in his signature spare style. Addie Moore and Louis Waters have been neighbors in the eastern Colorado farming town of Holt for over 40 years. Now, alone except for their grown children, Addie has asked Louis to […]

Continue reading

Book Review: The Poisoner’s Handbook

Last night the Kiva Book Club discussed The Poisoner’s Handbook, a non-fiction book by Deborah Blum. All in all, it was a successful selection. Some people found parts of the book slow, a little heavy on the technical/science side, or “gruesome,” but almost all of us agreed that we were kept interested by the true […]

Continue reading
Graphic: Mesa County Libraries logo

Online Biographies

It happens fairly often, students and their parents come to us in search of “library resources” on a particular topic or person. Currently, one of the topics is biographies on people involved with the American Revolution. Unfortunately, sometimes it is difficult getting materials into the hands of students as quickly as they need or want […]

Continue reading

Literary Western

A long list of American fiction shows that our large diverse American landscape and frontier mind-set wield strong influence on our narratives and stories. Current day writers in this tradition include Gregory Hill (East of Denver), Ron Carlson (Return to Oakpine), and other familiar names such as Kent Haruf, Ivan Doig, Cormac McCarthy, and William […]

Continue reading

Our One Book Committee Thanks You!

One Book 2015 wrapped up with our finale, a presentation by author Roz Chast, on Saturday night. Roz addressed nearly 400 audience members, who were certainly treated to an original, comical, and honest presentation. Roz shared with us insights about how she became interested in drawing, how she became involved with The New Yorker at […]

Continue reading

Subject Guides at Your Library

Did you know we have some great subject guides on our website?  With topics like Business, Crafts, Emergency Preparedness, Taxes, and so much more, you’re sure to find something useful and interesting.  Our Librarians are always on the lookout for great resources to share, and these guides are continuously updated.   To access our subject […]

Continue reading

Let’s Get Visual!

  The well-worn phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words” takes on new meaning with two recent books, The Doodle Revolution by Sunni Brown and The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam.  Both books make a compelling case for using visual representations – doodles or drawings – to communicate with others, describe complex […]

Continue reading