C-SPL Reader of the Month Updates, part 1

With the library being temporarily closed, I've taken a hiatus with any new C-SPL Readers of the month until we reopen. Instead, now seems like the perfect time to check in on some of the past Readers of the Month. For some, it's been quite some time since they've shared their reading interests. All have plenty of new things to share since they were the featured reader. Today, Evan and Cynthia will share what they've been reading. More will follow in the next couple of days.

~Ben, Adult Services

Evan Quade

Lately I have been reading the Silo series by Hugh Howey. I chose the post-apocalyptic series because it reminds me of what we are dealing with. Imagine living in a civilization in a silo underground, taking shelter from a lethally toxic outside world. Just don't ever say you want out, because you will get your wish.

I have also been reading A Time to Kill by John Grisham. I love thrillers, but this is a new kind of thriller to me. Grisham is the man who owns the term "legal thriller." Check him out for the experience of what it is really like in a firm or courtroom.

If there is something as essential as food and cleaning supplies, it's our shelves full of books. In this unfortunate event, we seek the opportunity to elude this and read a book when we are overwhelmed or anxious. I find it interesting to read apocalyptic stories. If those characters can survive, so can we. Believe in yourself and be vigilant. Be safe everyone!

Cynthia Nelms-Byrne

The Library Book by Susan Orlean: If you want to know truly how valuable libraries are, read this one about the terrible fire that destroyed Los Angeles’ main library and the efforts to bring it back. The author is a specialist at writing about unusual subjects and making them fascinating. If you haven’t read The Orchid Thief by Orlean, that is also incredible.

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich: I was sort of snoozing through the first half (probably because I don’t like boxing), but after that things really got exciting. This is a novelization based on the life of Erdrich’s grandfather (Thomas in the book), who is the night watchman in an odd factory, so based on some true happenings.

The Returned by Jason Mott: A futuristic/dystopian novel about people who were dead who now mysteriously come back to life many years (usually) later and disrupt the living. Just the kind of thing we need now to remind us that things could be worse.

Wake, Siren by Nina McLaughlin: This contains the stories of the women in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in their own words - both mythic and modern. I thought it was amazing and it reacquainted me with such mythical creatures such as Medussa. I don’t know much about these storied women, so it was informative as well as fantastical.

The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff: A film was made from this, with Eddie Redmayne in the title role! I like the book every bit as much as the film, because it got more deeply into the characters’ feelings and thoughts, which is what a book usually has over a film. It is loosely based on real people.


Apply to be the next C-SPL Reader of the Month!