C-SPL Reader of the Month: Evan Quade

When not reading, our first C-SPL Reader of the Month for 2020, Evan Quade, writes poems, sings karaoke, and drinks coffee in just about every café he finds. He also works at a car dealership and is admin to the Facebook group, BookAholic Café.


(See the past Reader of the Month posts here)

Evan's Reading Interests

Read beyond your vision. That is my invented philosophy related to books. You control the image the story lays out. It is your journey and yours alone. This is why I love fantasy! I'll read other genres too, but fantasy really sparks my imagination.

Q & A with Evan

Q. What is the best book you have read within the last year (or ever)?

A. The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho! It teaches everyone who reads it to be their own kind of original— “a personal legend,” as the book puts it.

Q. What is your ideal reading environment (location, sound, snacks, etc.)?

A. When not reading in the comfort of my reading corner at home, I like reading surrounded by nature or at a café. I like ambience or gentle, soothing music (whether by piano, guitar, harp, or flute).

Q. What book are you most excited about reading next and what about it is most exciting?

A. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson from The Stormlight Archive series. The series is part of an interconnected universe known as the Cosmere and offers the ultimate developed magic system. They are huge books, but worth it. Don't let the page length intimidate you!

Q. What book do you think more people should read and why do you think they should read it?

A. Go with books by Brandon Sanderson. I can bug every reader about that. He has the talent of world building, well-constructed characters, and of course different magic elements. If you are a fantasy nut, it's right up your alley. If you don't want to jump right into his lengthier books, you can start small. My personal starting book was Mistborn. Carnegie Stout Public Library's Geek Out! Book Club read that during 2019, so shout out to the host and librarian, Angie, for picking that one!

Q. What book has been the most challenging for you to read? How did it challenge you?

A. The Dark Artifices trilogy by Cassandra Clare. They are a sequel to The Mortal Instruments series. There was a new story line and a new set of characters, but familiar elements from the previous series were cluttered and made the three books big and chunky. I enjoyed them, don't get me wrong, but they took a lot of hard work.

Q. When do you decide to stop reading a book? (In other words, do you read every book to the last page, or is there a moment when you decide to stop?)

A. It really depends. It depends what your inner vibe tells you and whether the vision of the story is bright and clear. I am a curious person and always want to know the whole story.

Q. Do you remember when your love for reading began?

A. When I discovered Harry Potter. I was a little boy when the first book in the series and I crossed paths, and now here I am a lifetime reader, thanks to these revolutionary books. I was born to be a reader.

Check out more of Evan's Favorite Books 

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

C-SPL Reader of the Month: Tori Stanley

With 2019 coming to a close, we have one final C-SPL Reader of the Month for the year, but no worries, there will be more in 2020! Tori Stanley is a dental assistant and part-time clinical instructor at NICC in the dental assisting program. Besides reading, Tori loves crafting—especially bookish objects and home and holiday decor.

(See the past C-SPL Reader of the Month blog posts here.)

Tori's Reading Interests

I love fantasy and science fiction (YA and adult), horror, thrillers, and dystopian novels. I tend to stick with authors that I really like and other books they recommend. I love reading about characters trying to change their worlds for the better, when their worlds are colorful, crazy, and slightly different than our own, and I LOVE it when a character is morally gray. About two years ago, I ventured out into the world and went to my first Geek Out Book Club at Carnegie-Stout Public Library and it is something that I fell in love with and found a great friend in too. I love that the club pushes me to read different books that I might of just passed up on a regular basis. I also help on a Facebook book club as an admin creating events and discussions with people from all over the world.

Q&A with Tori

Q. What is your ideal reading environment (location, sound, snacks, etc.)?

A. Snacks. I need all the snacks. I love candy (especially milk duds—yes I know they’re bad for your teeth), popcorn, ice cream, and chocolate. I also enjoy a glass of green tea in the morning and a beer at night (but those aren’t necessary). I can typically read with or without music. BUT if I had to choose, I love reading any kind of fantasy novel while listening to The Lord of the Rings soundtrack (this will change your reading life).

Q. What book are you most excited about reading next and what about it is most exciting?

A. I am most excited about reading Aurora Burning by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. Their writing is fantastic. It’s YA science fiction. This band of misfits will make you fall in love with them and then rip your heart out. The first book, Aurora Rising, was one of my favorite books of the year. 

Q. What book do you think more people should read and why do you think they should read it?

A. Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1). Everyone should read this. It’s YA science fiction, but I have not had a single person tell me they didn’t love this series. The style of the book is something I’ve never seen before and the audiobook is to die for. I’m not a fan of audiobooks, but this changed my life: it has a full cast and the most amazing sound effects. It is totally worth the read, even if you aren’t a fan of YA or science fiction.

Q. What book has been the most challenging for you to read? How did it challenge you?

 
A. The most challenging book for me to read was All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover. It’s romance. Romance books are a tough one for me to swallow. A friend recommended it to me for my “read something you wouldn’t normally read” challenge. I won’t lie, I didn’t want to read it. I got it and would pick it up, just to put it back down. But once I finally started it, I fell in love. The book was incredibly real, broke my heart, then put it back together. The writing style was amazing. And now, I recommend it to everyone.

Q. When do you decide to stop reading a book? (In other words, do you read every book to the last page, or is there a moment when you decide to stop?)
 

A. Typically I like to finish books in one or two days, but life sometimes gets in the way. I try to read before bed every night so I have to be careful to watch the clock and not read all night. I have to stop at the end of chapters. It’s bothersome to have to stop reading in the middle of a chapter-it’s like nails on a chalkboard. If the book doesn't interest me, my reading motto is simple: life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy.

Q. Do you remember when your love for reading began?

 
A. I always enjoyed reading. The library where I grew up had great reading challenges that I loved to complete. The day I fell in love is easy to remember. It was my birthday in 1998. My aunt gave me Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. That’s the first night I pulled an all-nighter to finish a book. I fell in love with the characters and the world. And then of course with reading.


Check out more of Tori's Favorite Books

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

C-SPL Reader of the Month: Alanda Gregory

Alanda Gregory, November's C-SPL Reader of the Month is a life enthusiast, a part-time entrepreneur, and a library assistant at Carnegie-Stout. She has five grown-up children and assists her husband with his music studio in Dubuque.

(See the past C-SPL Reader of the Month blog posts here.)

Alanda's Reading Interests:

My reading interests are primarily anything that provokes thought. I love to read about history and I am an avid reader of self-help books, yet every once in a while I love to read a good book of science fiction, general fiction or classic literature. I believe that everyone should discover and familiarize themselves with the world around them. I believe that is how we learn the greatness within ourselves and appreciate the greatness in others. To think about it, my love for reading matches my love for all sorts of music. I believe that by expanding our selection of literary or musical arts, we broaden our cognitive learning abilities.


 Q & A with Alanda

Q. What is the best book you have read within the last year (or ever)? 

A. The best book I’ve ever read is The Game of Life & How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn.

Q. What is your ideal reading environment (location, sound, snacks, etc.)?

A. My ideal reading environment is in my home office. I’d grab a book, put on my classical music or meditation music playlist and sit in my recliner.

Q. What book are you most excited about reading next and what about it is most exciting?

A. A Terrible Thing to Waste by Harriet Washington. I am particularly excited because the title itself is a phrase for an advertisement related to The United Negro College Fund and I anticipate the book will touch on that. Harriet is also the writer of Medical Apartheid and that book opened my eyes to the horrors of medical practices against people of color in the name of medical research.

Q. What book do you think more people should read and why do you think they should read it?

A. The Game of Life and How to Play It. This book gives insight on self-awareness and our endless possibility of creating what we want. The book was written by one of the best known new thought leaders of the 20th century. Florence Scovel Shinn was a spiritual teacher and her principles and wisdom still applies to the present day. Her book is full of anecdotes and affirmations, which have helped me along my journey.

Q. Do you remember when your love for reading began?

A. My love for reading began at three. My mother taught me how to read and I remember as a five year-old child sitting at my desk copying pages out of our World Atlas books and telling my mother I wanted to write my own books. The best stories to read in my youth were Nancy Drew & the Hardy Boys Mysteries.


Check out more of Alanda's Favorite Books

C-SPL Reader of the Month: Sue Davis

The October C-SPL Reader of the Month, Sue Davis, is the owner of Dubuque's independent bookstore River Lights Second Edition. Anyone who has stopped in River Lights while Sue is working knows that she is always happy to share what books she's excited about and give a good recommendation. Here, she shares what books have made a big impact on her, what she's excited about reading, and more.

Q. What is the best book you have ever read?

A. My all-time favorite book is A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (I’m a big Irving fan). My more recent passion is for A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. My favorite from this past year would be Virgil Wander by Leif Enger. But a close second would be Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton.

I get plenty of real life by being a devout NPR listener, so I gravitate toward literary fiction. There isn’t a genre of fiction that I don’t love. Young adult, Mystery, Sci-Fi, you name it. I love authors that bring characters to life and bring me into their stories. I still think about Owen Meany and John Wheelwright. And I smile when I think of the quirky characters that Leif Enger created.

I love a novel that makes me want to dig deeper into a time in history or culture that I’m reading about. A Tale for the Time Being started me on a journey into learning about Japanese pop culture, the philosophy of Proust, and the poems of Zen Buddhist, Eihei Dogen.

We all need a good laugh these days and I chuckled my way through Hollow Kingdom, a rather satirical but hopeful look at the apocalypse.

Q. What is your ideal reading environment?

A. I love listening to audiobooks. When I’m not working, I have my earbuds in and am multitasking through my day. If I wake up at night, I set the sleep timer and listen until I’m drowsy. When I have time to sit with a book, I hang on the screen porch when it’s nice out and in front of the fireplace when it’s not.

Q. What book are you most excited about reading next and what about it is most exciting?

A. I’m super excited about the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. I re-read Handmaid’s about every other year and am a fan of the series but only Atwood can take me into the next adventure. I’m an admirer of Bill Bryson so am eager to read The Body coming October 15. I’m also looking forward to reading Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty. I think the title says it all!

Q. What book do you think more people should read and why do you think they should read it?

A. I’m an advocate for Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (or anything by Jason Reynolds), a brilliant, electrifying novel about gun violence. Not just for young adults.

Q. What book has been the most challenging for you to read? How did it challenge you?

A. While I love poetry, I find it a challenge to read. It’s hard for me to quiet my mind enough to absorb the flow and decipher the meaning rendered. I challenge myself to read a volume twice a year.

Q. When do you decide to stop reading a book? (In other words, do you read every book to the last page, or is there a moment when you decide to stop?)

A. If a book doesn’t grab me at first reading or listening, I will put it aside. If I find myself thinking about it later I’ll go back to it – maybe I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind at the time or maybe (rarely) I didn’t like the reader.

Q. Do you remember when your love for reading began?

A. My love of libraries has always been strong. My father was the President of the Marshalltown Public Library Board for as long as I can remember, and I accompanied him there often. I loved to use the card catalog and get lost in the stacks.

Check out more of Sue Davis' Favorite Books

-----------------------

See the past C-SPL Reader of the Month blog posts here.

Want to be the Next C-SPL Reader of the Month? Apply here.

C-SPL Reader of the Month: Hannah Burke

The September C-SPL Reader of the Month, Hannah Burke, frequently volunteers at libraries—from helping out at her elementary and middle school libraries to currently offering her services at Carnegie-Stout. She also loves buying second-hand books because 1) they're inexpensive and 2) she enjoys reading the margin notes from previous owners.

Q. Can you tell us about your reading interests in general?

A. I read a lot of fiction and am naturally drawn to realistic fiction because I can only suspend my disbelief to a certain extent.  I also really enjoy movies so I find myself reading novels and then watching the film adaptation to compare.  The books are always better of course.  In my opinion, books are better able to provide character development and background in a more cohesive way.

Q. What is the best book you have read within the last year (or ever)?

A. Based on what I’ve read in the last year, I would have to go with either Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn or And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.  I haven’t read many mystery novels, but I really enjoyed these two.  They are incredibly interesting stories and I had a hard time putting them down.  The twists and turns in these stories had me hooked from the beginning.  I have a really hard time picking one book to call my favorite so here are my top five: Room by Emma Donoghue, Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg, and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Q. What is your ideal reading environment (location, sound, snacks, etc.)?

A. I tend to read either in my bed or some of the local coffee shops. Unplanned background noises take me totally out of the story so I usually have my earbuds in with an album playing to block out the sound of other people. I’m not much into eating while reading because I find it a bit distracting and I hate the thought of getting a book dirty!

Q. What book are you most excited about reading next and what about it is most exciting?

A. I am really excited to read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott because the latest film adaptation is set to release this winter and I love the cast and director so I have high hopes for it! 

Q. What book has been the most challenging for you to read? How did it challenge you?

A. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou was a pretty tough read.  It was rough reading about all of the hardships in her life. From childhood abuse to teen pregnancy, Maya Angelou had to overcome some terrible things in her life.  Reading this book makes you appreciate her writing and her grace all the more. 

Q. When do you decide to stop reading a book? (In other words, do you read every book to the last page, or is there a moment when you decide to stop?)

A. I try to make it through about 50 pages of a book before I give it up.  If a book hasn’t gotten me by then, I have a hard time imagining it will hook me at all.

Q. Do you remember when your love for reading began?

A. I always liked reading but didn’t have much free time in high school to read for pleasure. Luckily, my literature teachers always picked a great list of novels for us to read and discuss in class.  Literature was always my favorite class because I loved all of my teachers and had a genuine interest in the subject matter.



Check out more of Hannah Burke's Favorite Books

-----------------------

See the past C-SPL Reader of the Month blog posts here.

Want to be the Next C-SPL Reader of the Month? Apply here.

C-SPL Reader of the Month: Abby Schrup

The August C-SPL Reader of the Month, Abby Schrup, is an animal lover (owner of two cats and a dog from rescue centers) who—besides reading—loves taking pictures, crafting, and gardening. In her interview below, Abby shares her love for Harry Potter, why she can’t read print before bed, and more.

Q. Can you tell us about your reading interests in general?

A. My all-time favorite books are the Harry Potter series. I picked up the first one at my school library in 1999. I eagerly anticipated each successive book. I remember choosing Chamber of Secrets in paperback as a prize for the C-SPL summer reading program. My two best friends and I would dress up and go to the midnight release of the books and movies. Order of the Phoenix was the first book I remember purchasing with my own money. As soon as I got home from Borders I would devour the new book in one sitting. Nobody else in my family read the books, so when my youngest sister was old enough, I got her into them with the promise that after she read each book we would discuss it and watch the movie together. She ended up reading them quickly enough that we were able to go see the last movie in theater together when I came home to visit from college. I cannot listen to my current book before bed (I would stay up the whole night and finish it). So I turn on a timer and listen to Harry Potter. I have done this for 10 years and have lost count of how many times I have read the series. Proud moment: I recently got 1st place out of 59 teams at the inaugural Backpocket Brewery Harry Potter trivia.

Q. Do you remember when your love for reading began?

A. I have always enjoyed reading. When I was younger, my mom would take books away from me when I got in trouble. I always carried an extra book with me too, just in case I finished one while out. When I got my driving permit, I realized I didn’t know my way around Dubuque at all since I had always read books while in the car!

Q. What is the best book you have read within the last year?

A. The best books I have read so far this year include: Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate and Five Presidents by Clint Hill.

Q. What is your ideal reading environment (location, sound, snacks, etc.)?

A. My ideal reading environment is listening to an audiobook while I am gardening or working on my craft projects. If reading a hard copy, I tend to read it under the covers with a flashlight and stay up most of the night. I often think, “just one more chapter…” and suddenly it’s 3:30 a.m.

Q. What book are you most excited about reading next and what about it is most exciting?

A. I am looking forward to A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult. Her "ripped from the headlines" books are hard to put down and make for quick reads. I am 12th in line for the audiobook.

Q. What book do you think more people should read and why do you think they should read it?

A. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas is a must-read. The book is YA Fiction but is highly relevant because it is about police brutality, racial profiling, and social injustice.

Q. What book has been the most challenging for you to read? How did it challenge you?

A. Room by Emma Donoghue was a difficult one to read. Not only is it about kidnapping, captivity and rape, the book is told from the perspective of a young boy, so his descriptions of things and his voice can be confusing.

Q. When do you decide to stop reading a book?

A. Life is far too short and my ‘to be read’ list is far too long to continue books I don’t like. I have no problem not finishing a book if I don’t like it.


Check out more of Abby Schrup's Favorite Books

-----------------------

See the past C-SPL Reader of the Month blog posts here.

Want to be the Next C-SPL Reader of the Month? Apply here.

C-SPL Reader of the Month: Mary Potter Kenyon

July's C-SPL Reader of the Month, Mary Potter Kenyon, is the program coordinator at Shalom Spirituality Center in Dubuque. She is the author of seven books, including the award-winning Refined By Fire: A Journey of Grief and Grace and a book on creativity to be released by Familius next year. 

Q. Can you tell us about your reading interests?

A. I’m a strong believer in lifelong learning, so am naturally drawn to non-fiction, though there’s nothing like a good fiction book to escape into. As a non-fiction writer and workshop presenter, I also do a lot of topical research, easily reading 30-40 books related to my current project. For the last two years those topics have been creativity, mindfulness, gratitude, spirituality, and the intersection between art and faith.

Q. What is the best book you have read within the last year, or ever? 

A. I can’t choose just one book, but I can say that although I’ve never read the juvenile fiction author Madeleine L’Engle is famous for, I was influenced by her Crosswick journal series. As a mother of eight children, I struggled to maintain a semblance of sanity through the craft of writing. I knew I had discovered a kindred soul when I read how she spent the morning of her 40th birthday lamenting her lack of success as a writer. With yet another rejection in the mail, she covered her typewriter in a grand gesture of renunciation. Pacing the room, crying and wailing, she realized she was imagining how she was going to write about the pivotal moment. She had an epiphany I can relate to: Madeleine could no more stop writing than she could stop breathing.

Working on a book about creativity this past year, I revisited some of L’Engle’s non-fiction. I read her Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, which led me to read several biographies, including Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L’Engle in Many Voices by Leonard S. Marcus, the juvenile biography Becoming Madeleine: A Biography of the Author of A Wrinkle in Time by her granddaughters Charlotte Jones Voiklis and Lena Roy and A Light So Lovely: The Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine L’Engle, Author of A Wrinkle in Time by Sarah Arthur. L’Engle’s Two-Part Invention, chronicling the death of her husband from cancer, was the first book I read after my husband died in 2012.

Q. What is your ideal reading environment? 

A. When I moved from a four-bedroom house with a home office to a two-bedroom, 760-square-foot house in Dubuque, I made sure I created a “space” for myself where I could write and read, surrounded by my favorite things. That space in my bedroom includes a recliner and a book-themed lamp on an end-table hand-painted by my daughter to look like book spines. I followed the advice of Spark Joy author Marie Kondo when I downsized for my move. Everything in the room brings me joy; the art on the walls created by my mother and children, the vintage cabinet I inherited from my mother that holds a collection of books signed by the authors, and a trunk filled with letters, cards, and other memorabilia, topped by a quilt my mother made and a wooden St. Michael statue she’d carved.
Morning reading is accompanied by a cup of coffee. Afternoon and evening reading always includes hot tea. I generally finish fiction books in one sitting, so plan ahead for a free weekend afternoon that often extends into the wee hours of the next morning. Non-fiction is easier for me to set down for later.

Q. What book are you most excited about reading next?

A. I have a long to-read list, and a wooden crate full of books near my reading chair, but always look forward to new books by favorite authors and am especially looking forward to Heather Gudenkauf’s Before She Was Found. Alas, my fiction reading is delayed by my current research on the topic of creativity.

Q. When do you decide to stop reading a book?

A. I used to think I had to finish every book I started, but there are too many good books in the world to struggle through a badly written one, or a book I’m not enjoying by the second chapter. Occasionally, I’ll still want to know the ending of a book I am abandoning. I have no qualms about skipping to the last chapter.

Q. Do you remember when your love for reading began?

A. Having older siblings who loved reading, I couldn’t wait to learn. The summer before first grade my sister Sharon read a Dick and Jane book to me so many times that I memorized it, learning to read in the process. Bored with the worksheets and phonics lessons in first grade, I’d sneak books off the shelves and hide them in my lap to read. I finished the entire set of readers before my teacher spotted my subterfuge one day. “What are you doing? You can’t read yet!” she scolded. When I began reading out loud to prove I could, she snatched the book from me and told me I’d learned to read “wrong.” The girl who’d learned to read incorrectly never stopped reading. Bullied as a child, books became my best friends. I found escape in the worlds that Lois Lenski, Jean Little, Eleanor Estes and Carolyn Haywood created, and it was my dream to someday become a writer. My sisters and I would check out four or five books at the library after school on Friday, and by Sunday, we’d be trading books because we’d finished our own.


Check out more of Mary Potter Kenyon's Favorite Books

-----------------------

See the past C-SPL Reader of the Month blog posts here.

Want to be the Next C-SPL Reader of the Month? Apply here.

C-SPL Reader of the Month: Bill Carroll

Adult Services Manager Bill Carroll has been selected as C-SPL Reader of the Month for June. Here he's shared what kind of books offer him the best kind of escapism and shows what has most influenced who he is today.

Q. Can you tell us about your reading interests in general?

A. In general, I enjoy reading books to escape. I enjoy graphic novels and sci-fi and fantasy. On the other hand, you’ll also find me reading current non-fiction science books, particularly in geology or biology. I think reading is important to escape life for a little while, and for me, it is a different form of entertainment outside of sitting in front of a TV. Interestingly, I’m a sucker for books about maps too. I’m not talking travel books per se, just books about how to create, read, interpret, enjoy, or use maps.

Q. What is the best book you have read within the last year?

A. The best book I have read over the last year is Zucked: Waking up to the Facebook Catastrophe by Roger McNamee. I think this is an eye-opening look at tech giants and how they collect and store user information. All of us that are connected frequently agree to user terms and agreements without really examining what we are agreeing to. McNamee gives an insider look into the realities of our online lives.

Q. What is your ideal reading environment (location, sound, snacks, etc.)?

A. My ideal reading condition is quietly in bed after a long day. If the book is a real page turner, I can be comfy just about anywhere!

Q. What book are you most excited about reading next and what about it is most exciting?

The next book I am most excited to read is New York Times best seller The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells. This is exciting because the author pairs reputable scientific data with real world possibilities and outcomes that impact human beings across the planet. I anticipate this will be a grim read regarding climatological disasters yet unseen to us. At the same time, I am hopeful this book will be able to provide some level of hope to all that read it that these potential disasters might yet be averted.

Q. What book do you think more people should read and why do you think they should read it?

A. I think more people should read, and then re-read as an adult, 1984 by George Orwell. This classic resonates for me today even more than it did when I first read it back in high school. This literary masterpiece is a reminder of who our society was, is, and potentially, where it may go in the future.

Q. When do you decide to stop reading a book? (In other words, do you read every book to the last page, or is there a moment when you decide to stop?)

A. This can be different for each and every book! Generally, I’ll stop reading a book after trying to get through the first quarter of the book and it has not engaged me (yes, I actually count the total pages and divide by four). The great thing about the library is if I am not enjoying the book I checked out, there are always thousands more to choose from that will likely better hold my interest.

Q. Do you remember when your love for reading began?

A. My love for reading began in high school. The first book that got me addicted was Terry Brooks’ The Sword of Shannara. The book is a fantasy book similar in style and story to JRR Tolkien. I’ve been a reader ever since.

Check out more of Bill's Favorite Books!

---------------

See the past C-SPL Reader of the Month blog posts here.

Want to be the next C-SPL Reader of the Month? Apply here.

C-SPL Reader of the Month: Heather Gudenkauf

With the release of her new book, Before She Was Found in April, and her approaching book talk at the library on Tuesday May 21, there's no better time to get to know the reading habits of local Dubuque bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf. Heather graciously agreed to be C-SPL Reader of the month for May, and in what follows, we get a glimpse of what influenced the Gudenkauf style.

Heather's Reading Philosophy

“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.” 
― Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life

This quote by Anna Quindlen perfectly sums up my personal reading philosophy. I’m a dedicated homebody but love to travel through books. I will read just about any genre but a few of my favorites are mystery/thriller, biographies – especially featuring historical figures, and historical fiction. If you were to knock at my door, chances are I would answer it with a book in my hand. Reading has always been an escape for me.

Q & A with Heather Gudenkauf 

 

Q. What is the best book you have read within the last year (or ever)? 

A. My Ántonia by Willa Cather – My all-time favorite book by my all-time favorite author. Cather’s writing is just beautiful. I love the way that she could describe the setting in a novel and it actually seemed to become a character within the story. I reread My Ántonia and O Pioneers every year.

Q. What is your ideal reading environment (location, sound, snacks, etc.)?

A. I can read just about anywhere but my ideal spot is in bed with my dog Lolo sitting next to me.

Q. What book are you most excited about reading next and what about it is most exciting?

A. I’m excited about starting The Friend by Sigrid Nunez. I’m looking forward to this National Book Award Winner because Sue Davis from River Lights Books recommended it and because it features a dog (of course).

Q. What book do you think more people should read and why do you think they should read it?

 A. I love the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series by Louise Penny about the tiny fictional town of Three Pines just south of Montreal and its inhabitants. I tell anyone who will listen: After reading the first book in the series, Still Life, you will be happy to have met the characters, after the second book you will want to visit Three Pines, and after the third book you will want to pack up and move there. This is how enchanting Penny’s writing is! I’m anxiously awaiting the newest installment ~ A Better Man. I can’t wait!

Q. When do you decide to stop reading a book? (In other words, do you read every book to the last page, or is there a moment when you decide to stop?) 

A. I used to be in the camp of if you start a book you should finish it. That’s changed over the years, if a book isn’t connecting with me I’ll set it aside. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a fabulous book, it just means that the story isn’t resonating with me at this particular moment in time.

Q. Do you remember when your love for reading began?

A. I was around six years old when we learned I had a profound hearing loss so learning to read was really hard for me. I was not a fan! After I was fitted with hearing aids the world opened up for me and I slowly started catching on. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment when the print on the page began to make sense but I do remember that once it did, I was rarely without a book.

Looking for something to read? Check out Heather Gudenkauf's Favorite Books in the library catalog.