Gentle Reads for Hectic Holidays

So many chores over the holidays. You have shopping to do and wrapping to do and baking to do. Take some well-deserved time to read a good book. Below are some stories to help you unwind after a busy day.

Battles at Thrush Green by Miss Read [FIC REA]
A congregation in the village of Thrush Green draws battle lines when their rector suggests renovating the church's small cemetery. Even small, idyllic villages have their troubles.

Bet Your Bottom Dollar by Karin Gillespie [FIC GIL, LP]
Elizabeth Polk is the owner of the Bottom Dollar Emporium in Cayboo Creek, South Carolina. When a big chain store opens across from her small business, she fights back with the help of two other shopkeepers.

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigliani [FIC TRI, LP]
Ave Maria MacChesney proclaims herself a spinster at the age of 35. She lives in the town of Big Stone Gap, near the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. However, after she discovers a hidden family secret, her comfortable life takes some surprising, and hilarious, turns.

Friendship Cake by J. Lynne Hinton [FIC HIN]
Five female members of the Hope Springs Community Church gather to create a church cookbook. As they work on their project, they share their life stories and dreams along with the recipes. A heartwarming Southern read.

Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor [FIC KEI, LP]
Keillor introduces us to a small town in the Midwest called Lake Wobegon. We meet many characters there and get to know their stories, all told with warmth and wit.

The Ladies of Covington Send Their Love by Joan Medlicott [FIC, MED]
Amelia is in her sixties when she inherits a rundown farmhouse in North Carolina. Despite the objections of her grown children, Amelia and two friends move to the farmhouse and begin renovations, meanwhile creating meaningful, fulfilling lives for themselves.

Ladies with Options by Cynthia Hartwick [FIC HAM]
To help stave off boreom, eight women form the Mostly Methodist Club in Larksdale, Minnesota. They gossip, exchange recipes, and perform various charity work until a pink-haired college student hom on probation helps to transform them into the Larksdale Ladies Independence Club. The novice investors make a killing in the stock market and become very wealthy.

The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas [FIC DAL]
Set during the Great Depression in Harveyville, Kansas, the story focuses on young farmwife Queenie Bean and her friends. They love their weekly quilting gatherings, during which they exchange gossip and share thoughts. However, when a new member with a desire to be a journalist begins to investigate a secret the group has sworn to guard, things get interesting.

Quite a Year for Plums by Bailey White [FIC WHI, LP]
White offers us the stories of eccentric but loveable characters in a small Georgia town. They look after their plants, their pets, and each other.

Step Ball Change by Jeanne Ray [FIC FAY, LP]
Caroline McSwain runs a dance school and has a happy, peaceful life until all at once her daughter announces her engagement and plans for a lavish wedding, her sister moves into her guest room, and the foundation of her house literally begins to crack.

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If you like Jodi Picoult, you may like...

Elizabeth Berg

Chris Bohjalian

Alice Hoffman

Ann Hood

Sue Miller

Jacquelyn Mitchard

Anna Quindlen

Anita Shreve

Native American Fiction

The following titles feature Native American characters, settings, and stories. Take a look.

The Antelope Wife by Louise Erdrich [FIC ERD, CAS]
A cavalry soldier rescues an Ojibwa baby strapped to the back of a dog, and when the girl, not yet weaned, latches onto the soldier, he is miraculously able to give her milk.

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsoliver [FIC KIN, Pbk F 1685]
Taylor Greer, who grew up poor in rural Kentucky, heads west with high hopes and a barely working car. her only goals have been to avoid pregnancy and to get out of her small town. She picks up an abandoned three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle. Young Taylor must come to terms with motherhood and all its challenges as she searches for a sense of belonging.

The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman [CAS MYS HIL, LP, Pbk M 1237]
Joe Leaphorn, a Lieutenant with the Navajo Tribal Police, discovers a corpse with a mouth full of sand. The crime scene seems to have no clues. Leaphorn suspects he is dealing with a supernatural killer called the Wolf-Witch.

House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday [WES MOM]
A young American Indian, Abel, is home from a foreign war. He is caught between the world of his father and that of industrial America. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1969.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie [FIC ALE]
Twenty-four interlinked stories describe life on the Spokane Indian Reservation. These are characters in the true sense of the word.

The Story Teller by Margaret Coel [MYS COE]
Arapaho attorney Vicki Holden returns to Wind River Reservation to find a nineteenth-century Arapaho warrior's ledger chronicling tribal life, while Father O'Malley lobbies church hierarchy for a reservation museum.

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris [FIC DOR]
Ida, Christine, and Rayona represent three generations of Montana Indian women bonded by lifelong hardships and secrets. Starting in the present day and moving backward, each distinctive voice tells her story.

Coming January 2nd...

Winter Reading Program

Register at the Circulation Desk for one of the library's Winter Reading Programs. Choose from our literary Bingo game or our Mysteries Around the World program. Earn great prizes just for reading good books.