Join the First Annual Great Reading Challenge!

Carnegie-Stout Public Library is doing something new this year. We are having a year-long reading challenge for our adult readers. You have until the end of 2016 to read 24 books - with the catch being (fun catch, I think!) that your books have to fit into one of our book categories.

The challenge was built to appeal to as many people as possible. People who want to challenge themselves and expand their reading horizons by reading from the different categories or genres will find lots of new areas to explore. But, our categories do fit just about any type of book, so don't worry if you like to keep reading in your favorite niche or genre.

Some examples of our categories (we have over 50 in all):

Read a love story
Read a book by a North American author
Read a book recommended by a friend
Read book you have always meant to read
Read a true crime book
Listen to an audio book
Read a book of poetry
Read a graphic novel
Read a microhistory

If 24 books seems like a lot to read in the next 11 months, never fear. You can substitute for up to 12 of those books by attending events at the library in 2016. The only rule is that the events have to be adult events. Events like Coloring, Nerf, Book Clubs, etc. will count toward the challenge.

You can register and submit your book logs online, or stop by the Recommendations Desk on first floor. There are small prizes at 12 books (50%) and 18 books (75%) read. When you complete the challenge, you will be invited to a reception in January 2017 and can put your name in to win a gift-basket, with prizes from our sponsors: Dubuque Food Co-op, Inspire Cafe, Mindframe Theaters, L. May Eatery, River Lights Bookstore, Rubix Coffee, Jumble Coffee Company, East Mill Bakeshop & Catering, Manna Java World Cafe and Outside the Lines Art Gallery.

Valentine's Day D.I.Y. Titles: Funny/Mischievous/Seductive How-To's

For your entertainment, we have on display a unique array of adventurous, humorous and seductive romance books. All of which  begin with the phrase "How To..." Who knew there were so many skills one needed to learn?!


Check them out on the first floor!
 
 
How to Tame a Wild Fireman - by Jennifer Bernard (ROM)

Firefighter Patrick "Psycho" Callahan earns his nickname every day. Fast, fit, and a furious worker, he thrives on the danger which helps him forget a near tragedy that changed his life forever. But when his off duty carousing gets out of hand, Patrick is sent back to Loveless, Nevada, where the wildfire threatening his hometown has nothing on sizzling Dr. Lara Nelson. Now, the embers of their decade-old attraction have ignited into a full-on inferno, as the bad boy firefighter and the good doctor take a walk on the wild side they'll never forget.




How to Ravish a Rake - by Vicky Dreiling (ROM)


Amy Hardwick has one last Season to shake off her wallflower image and make a love match. If she can't, she'll set aside her dreams of romance and return home to a suitor who can provide security--if little else. What she doesn't count on is the inappropriate--and irresistible--attention lavished on her by rake extraordinaire Will "The Devil" Darcett.




How to Seduce a Scoundrel - by Vicky Dreiling (ROM)


After being rejected by her brother's best friend, the Earl of Hawkfield, in front of the town, Lady Julianne Gatewick secretly writes a lady's guide to enticing unrepentant rakes that becomes the hottest scandal in London.







How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf - by Molly Harper (ROM)

Even in Grundy, Alaska, it's unusual to find a naked guy with a bear trap clamped to his ankle on your porch. But when said guy turns into a wolf, recent southern transplant Mo Wenstein has no difficulty identifying the problem. Her surly neighbor Cooper Graham-who has been openly critical of Mo's ability to adapt to life in Alaska-has trouble of his own. Werewolf trouble.


 

Staff Review: Armada by Ernest Cline

I’ll admit it. I'm a fan girl. I was more than ecstatic that Ernie Cline’s long-awaited book Armada was finally released. His previous book, Ready Player One, was such a fun adventure – nostalgic about the past, but set in a dire and ugly future landscape that everyone escapes by going to a virtual reality called “OASIS” to live their lives. Cline has such an extensive vocabulary of 1980s popular culture, that it permeates the whole book. In Armada, Cline takes us through similar tropes – video games, nostalgia for the 1980s popular culture, adventure, and a very important quest.

Zach Lightman is 18 years old and he has spent his childhood angry at the death of his father when he was only a baby. He lives with his widowed mother (who sadly never found love again) and spends many hours going through boxes of his father’s old belongings. His father was killed during the 1980s and most of his belongings portray a life deeply immersed in video games, popular science fiction films and space-themed paraphernalia. Zach takes on these interests, becoming an expert in his own right. He gets a job at a local arcade and becomes one of the best ranked Armada video game players in the world. Armada is a flight simulation game – the plot of which imagines a war between the people on earth and alien invaders called Sobrukai. Armada players fly unmanned drones that shoot down the alien spaceships.

Life changes for Zach when he looks out of his classroom window and sees one of the alien spaceships hovering in the air above his town. A Sobrukai craft. The same spacecraft he knows so well from his video game Armada. Zach soon discovers that his talents as a gamer (indeed the talents of all Armada gamers the world over) are needed to help save the universe from alien invaders. What follows is a whirlwind of flight simulation, discoveries about the universe, and betrayals and secrets that challenge everything Zach knows about his life, his history and his father.

This book felt heavier than Ready Player One - it doesn't have the sense of lightness that RPO had, even though RPO was set in a much bleaker landscape. The 1980s references and knowledge the main character had in RPO helped him through the story. In Armada, having the knowledge of his father’s past feels like a burden to Zach and one that holds darker implications. Also, unfortunately, it seems that the references don't actually move the story forward, nor do they play much of a role in the plot. They seem to be there just as gratuitous elbow nudges.

This book is very similar to existing stories - like The Last Starfighter and Ender's Game. This is freely acknowledged in the book and I think this book was meant as a nod/tribute to these stories. The numerous acronyms, combined with flight simulator equipment, functions and warfare strategies, were a bit heavy handed for me and I felt a bit lost at times. It took me out of the story. I was spending too much time trying to imagine just exactly what flight maneuvers he was doing, rather than focusing on where the story was going.

Zach’s general smart-assery betrays his absolute terror of what is happening to the world around him. One feels for Zach as he tries to handle all that is heaped upon his plate, but we don't quite know if he realizes it or if he is just in shock. His sarcastic and witty remarks do tend to ring a little desperate and look like a defense mechanism against the chaos. We don't get into Zach's head enough and so he fell a bit flat for me.

My conclusion: I think expecting Armada to be RPO all over again, though, was going to be a letdown no matter what. And it is not exactly fair to compare them, but of course that is what readers do. But I would definitely give this author another chance. I do think he is an inspired writer and I love the blending of "popular culture as character" into his works. Plus, Cline owns and drives a DeLorean. Come on now. I’d give Armada a C+ for effort.

~ Angie, Adult Services