It’s that official time of year to celebrate Earth, the spectacular spinning ball of gases, rocks, and minerals which we call home. Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 of each year. According to earthday.org, this celebratory tradition was originally conceived in 1970 by a man named Gaylord Nelson. Nelson was a Wisconsin U.S. Senator […]
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The Terror
Supernatural horror and historical fiction may sound like an unlikely combination. But The Terror, by Dan Simmons, is a brooding, bone-crunching thriller and a complex survival tale. Based on the events of the lost Franklin Expedition of the 1840s, which sought the elusive Northwest Passage in the Arctic, The Terror tells the story of the HMS Erebus and […]
Continue readingA mystery so good I thought I’d died and gone to heaven
Whodunit heaven, that is. I like them hard-boiled and full of creeps, weirdos, and cruds, and Crimson Lake, by Candice Fox, is the ideal pick. Ted Conkaffey, a former cop, accused but not convicted of the brutal rape and attempted murder of a young girl, has been released from prison due to insufficient evidence. Broken […]
Continue readingHave You Listened to a Good Biography Lately?
It seems to be the time of the year that classroom assignments turn to thoughts of biography. Yes, those books that tell the stories of real people. Fortunately, fans of fiction and nonfiction agree: biographies are fun to read, whether you use your eyes or ears to do so. Basing engrossing narratives on interesting facts, […]
Continue readingThe Woman in the Window
In the The Woman in the Window, by A.J. Finn, Anna Fox is in desperate trouble, although she doesn’t seem to know it yet. Separated from her husband and child and mortally afraid to leave her house, she spends too much time drinking Merlot and mixing up her medications. She keeps close tabs on her neighbors, […]
Continue readingColorado State Recreation Guides
Can you feel it? Spring is, in fact, springing! Green things are growing, and the air is tingling with warmth. It’s time for us to crawl out of our winter dens, rub our eyes, and stare wide-eyed at the sun-dappled world around us. If you’re feeling the urge to wander outside and partake in one […]
Continue readingGutsy nonfiction
What could be better than cozying up to a stack of grisly medical histories and wincing at the misdeeds of the dirty-fingered, germ-denying butchers that made life in the old days so dangerous? Much to my delight, I found a new book to add to my beloved genre, “the frightful facts about medical history.” In The […]
Continue readingWomen’s history month: Books for kids (and grown-ups)
In honor of Women’s History Month I’d like to highlight a few great books about awesome women throughout history. Although you’ll find these books in the children’s area of the library, anyone can enjoy reading them. You can check them all out at Mesa County Libraries. Rad American Women A-Z and Rad Women Worldwide […]
Continue readingPoetic Celebration of National Women’s History Month
“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” -Mary Oliver March is National Women’s History Month. To further celebrate the abundance of fantastic female masterminds who have roamed this earth, I’ve compiled a short list of American lady poets whose words have inspired throughout the years. The following authors […]
Continue readingThe Weird Tales of Seabury Quinn
The cover of The Horror on the Links, by Seabury Quinn, is obviously what compelled me to check out this book. The howling man-beast (what kind of beast though?) carrying on in front a gloomy mansion is just the best thing I’ve seen in a while, and when I read the description inside, “Seabury Quinn’s . […]
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