C-SPL Reader of the Month Updates, part 3

Since we aren't featuring any new C-SPL Readers of the Month while the library is closed, I've been checking in on past featured readers to see what books they've read recently.  The first post featured Evan Quade and Cynthia Nelms-Byrne and you can view that here. The second post featured Bill Carroll, Heather Gudenkauf, and Tori Stanley and you can see that post here. Today Mary, Abby, and Thea will share their recent reads. 

~Ben, Adult Services


Mary Potter Kenyon

I checked my Goodreads account and since I've been working from home for almost four weeks, I've read 12 books. Some have been spiritually uplifting and related to my job at a spirituality center, but I've also needed to escape into some good fiction. Two new authors I've discovered whose books kept me up past midnight are Katherine Center and Susie Finkbeiner. Susie's historical fiction is amazing and Katherine's How to Walk Away and Things You Save in a Fire certainly took my mind off of our current situation. For laughs, I read actor Louie Anderson's Hey Mom, and then I had to binge-watch the television show where he portrays a woman much like his mother.





Abby Schrup

I’ve been reading a lot during this time and utilizing Overdrive to check out lots of ebooks and audiobooks. I’ve also read a couple from my own bookshelves (Red Clocks by Leni Zumas and In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware) and then placed those books in my neighborhood Little Free Library.
I really enjoyed After the Flood by Kassandra Montag, and then read a couple other post-apocalyptic books, but when I picked up Station Eleven, I only got a couple chapters in before I had to stop. It’s about a really severe flu pandemic—a topic too close to home! That went back into the "To Be Read" pile!

I am looking forward to a couple books that will be released soon: Heather Gudenkauf’s This is How I Lied and Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.


Thea Dement

Favorite Overall Pick: NOS4A2 by Joe Hill, read by Kate Mulgrew (Audio book)

I decided to take a risk with this book, because I'm not a fan of Stephen King, but I figured it was only fair to give his son a chance. I'm so glad I did! First, my preferred method of reading is not audio book, but let me tell you- in this case I recommend it over the print version. Kate Mulgrew (a native Dubuquer!) goes above and beyond in her rendition of the characters- especially the villain Charlie Manx. If you're looking for the perfect supernatural suspense novel- this is it!

Favorite Picks by Genre:

Thriller/Action-Adventure: The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer
Move over Twilight! Meyer explores a new genre of writing and knocks it out of the park with the story of a former government worker who uses her knowledge to get free from her old life once and for all.

Non-Fiction: Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
This is a detailed, but totally not boring, history of the Chernobyl disaster. I thought I knew about what happened, but it was so much worse than I ever thought possible. A great example of how the failings of Socialism cost hundreds of lives and put the whole world in danger from nuclear fallout.

Favorite new authors by Genre:

Fantasy: Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn series)
Science Fiction: Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children series)
Mystery: Ruth Ware


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