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Book Review | Murder at the Merton Library by Andrea Penrose

Published on by Emily DuGranrut

From the publisher: A perplexing murder in a renowned Oxford University library and a suspicious fire at a famous inventor’s London laboratory set Wrexford and Lady Charlotte on two separate investigations in this masterfully plotted, atmospheric Regency-set mystery.

Are you looking for a new historical mystery series? Check out Wrexford and Sloane by Andrea Penrose. Charlotte Sloane is a widowed lady of quality with a secret. She is a satirical cartoonist under a pen name. She uses her pen to cast light on injustices and misbehavior. Circumstances bring her together with two orphaned guttersnipes who she comes to love as her own, and with the intimidating Earl of Wrexford. This series has a nice mix of mystery, historical details, and found family. The relationships feature romantic love, parental love, family love, and deep friendships.

The book that introduces these characters and other series regulars is Murder on Black Swan Lane, and book seven in the series is due out in September. This is a great time to start reading, because if you like the first book, you can move right on to the next, but the number of books already published is not intimidating. Set in Regency London, the author likes to spotlight legitimate scientific innovation of the time period. Real scientists make occasional appearances in her stories.

Book seven, Murder at the Merton Library, starts with the murder of an Oxford librarian. It deals with fallout from the Napoleonic wars and intrigue around competition to create a marine propulsion system utilizing steam engines. (If that sounds boring, don’t worry – the author makes it interesting.) The Regency details seem perfect, and the author believably makes her female characters as important to the action as the male characters. I’ve found some of the other books in the series a bit draggy at times, but this one moved along briskly for me.

This series is a lot of fun for the serious historical mystery reader.

I read an advance reader copy of Murder at Merton Library from Netgalley. It is scheduled to be published on September 26. The Galesburg Public Library will own it in multiple formats, and we already own the first six books in the series.

Cooking the Books — Yummy: A History of Desserts by Victoria Grace Elliott

Published on by Emily DuGranrut

Welcome to Cooking the Books, where we try recipes found in, well, books! This month, Children’s Assistant & STEM Specialist Ms. Meghan tried out a recipe from one of her recent favs:

Yummy: A History of Desserts by Victoria Grace Elliott has been on my TBR (To Be Read) list/mountain for over a year now, so I was excited to have a chance to finally get around to it.

This is a nonfiction graphic novel for kids (but readable and enjoyable at any age!) about the history of desserts from around the world. Specifically, it focuses on ice cream, cake, brownies, pie, gummies, and cookies. These tales are introduced to us by Peri, a food sprite, and her sprite friends Fee and Fada. The history of each broad category of delectable dessert is told through a combination of history lessons, story times, science labs, interview corners with famous foodie figures, and recipes! The pages are jam (ha) packed with information and colors, and can at times be a bit difficult to follow. But overall I really enjoyed this book and learned all kinds of fascinating facts, like how in the mid 1800s street vendors used to sell ice cream by the ‘lick’ (exactly as hygienic as it sounds), and the science of how the butter in pastry dough leads to those lovely flaky layers.

I chose to make the Funfetti Cake recipe in cupcake form, as opposed to an 8×8 inch baking pan, since that would be the easiest way to share it with my discerning critics/co-workers. This recipe produces a very wet batter. It was quite messy spooning it into the cupcake liners. I also filled them completely full; this was a change from my usual ‘fill ⅔ full’ method of baking, but hey, I’m following the recipe! Fortunately for my oven, they didn’t overflow during baking like I feared. I did need to add two minutes to the upper range of the baking time listed by the recipe to get them to cook through. Upon removal from the cupcake tray, the paper liners were soaked through with oil.

The cupcakes are incredibly dense and moist. There’s a good flavor, with a hint of tang from the sour cream (which was a new cupcake ingredient for me). If I make these again, I’ll do a frosting from scratch, as I found the canned Pillsbury vanilla to be too sweet for my taste. While my husband and I found this recipe to be a bit too dense and moist, my coworkers disagreed. These traits were mentioned in every review, and almost always positively. ‘Much more flavor than a box mix’, ‘would happily eat again’, and ‘festive and fun for kids!’ were highlights of the reviews. While I found the recipe less than stellar, I really did enjoy the book and look forward to the companion Tasty: A History of Yummy Experiments, which comes out in December.

Cupcakes: 8/10 stars (based on all reviews)

Book: 4/5  stars (based on my own opinion)

The Recipe:

Funfetti Cake

Ingredients:
1 c sugar
½ c butter
¼ c sour cream
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 c milk
½ tsp salt
½ sprinkles
1 can of your favorite frosting!
(and more sprinkles)

Requirements:
8×8 – inch cake pan or 1 cupcake tin
Mixer with beater attachment
Whisk and spatula
2 large mixing bowls

 

Instructions:

  1. Make sure the butter, eggs, sour cream, and milk are all room temperature!
  2. And before you start, preheat your oven to 350 F. Prepare your pan! If you’re using the cake pan, grease with butter. If you’re making cupcakes, line the cupcake pan with liners
  3. NEXT, cream the softened butter and sour cream with the sugar! Make sure you beat the mixture until it’s light and fluffy.
  4. THEN, beat in one of the eggs until the mixture is fluffy. Then, beat in the other egg until fluffy! Add them one at a time to keep the batter light!
  5. ONCE MIXED, stir in the vanilla.
  6. IN A DIFFERENT BOWL, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
  7. FOR THE NEXT STEP, you’ll be taking turns between adding the flour mixture and the milk. Always make sure to mix it in completely before adding more! Add half the flour and mix in with the spatula.
  8. THEN add all the milk and mix.
  9. FINALLY, add the rest of the flour and mix!
  10. NOW’S THE FUN PART! Add the sprinkles! Gently mix until they’re evenly spread, but not for too long.
  11. FINALLY! The batter is ready! Pour into the cake pan and smooth the surface. Or, if you’re making cupcakes, spoon carefully into the liners.
  12. NEXT, bake at 350! The cake will need 30-35 minutes. The cupcakes will need 20-25 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when you stick a toothpick in and it comes out clean!
  13. WHEN IT’S DONE, let it cool COMPLETELY! If you have a cooling rack, use that! If you frost it while it’s still warm, the frosting will melt and get EVERYWHERE!
  14. WHEN IT’S COOLED, DECORATE IT!

Book Review | Starter Villain by John Scalzi

Published on by Emily DuGranrut

From the publisher: Inheriting your uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who’s running the place.

Charlie, the narrator of Starter Villain, is something of an affable idiot. Divorced and living in the childhood home he doesn’t even own due to complications with his siblings after his father’s death, he was laid off from his job as a journalist and is now working as a substitute teacher. He wants to buy a beloved local pub, but he has no money and no collateral. The best thing he has going for him is his relationship with his cats.

Then Charlie’s estranged Uncle Jake dies, and his lawyer shows up asking Charlie to attend his uncle’s memorial. Charlie is hesitant, and finds the request a little weird, but he agrees. And so his life as a starter villain begins. Yes, his uncle owned a large chain of parking structures, but he had other, bigger, more nefarious interests as well (mwa ha ha).

I enjoyed the Chicago area setting, and our narrator is an affable naïf who is fun to spend time with. Scalzi is clearly a cat lover and that certainly resonated with me. In the super villain business, it’s not dogs who spy for villains on other villains. (Yes, the cats are intelligent spies who can type on a computer using a special keyboard. Including Charlie’s cats.) I learned a new word – quisling! (“A traitor who collaborates with an enemy force occupying their country” according to the OED.) The narrative is pro-union, and against cats murdering birds. Intelligent talking dolphins also come into play, and I couldn’t stop myself from singing “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish” every time they made an appearance.

Charlie does better handling the various super villains that he meets than one might expect, and as he doesn’t take things seriously it was hard for me as the reader to take things seriously either. I perhaps did not enjoy Starter Villain as much as I enjoyed The Kaiju Preservation Society; the whole thing came off as a little less original, and the “starter villain” idea began to wear a little thin. Still, Starter Villain was a fun read with some genuine laughs for me.

 I read an advance reader copy of Starter Villain from Netgalley. It is scheduled to be released on September 19 and will be available at the Galesburg Public Library.

Book Review | Disneyland on the Mountain: Walt, the Environmentalists, and the Ski Resort That Never Was by Greg Glasgow and Kathryn Mayer

Published on by Emily DuGranrut

From the publisher: A fascinating look at Walt Disney’s last, unfinished project and the controversy that surrounded it, including the budding environmental movement that made sure the resort never saw the light of day.

I’m a huge fan of Disneyland, Disney World, Disney movies, and their creator, Walt Disney. Walt Disney revolutionized animated films and theme parks. He truly was an American genius. (And I think he’d be appalled at some of the things being done in his name today.) When I saw a book was coming out about his attempts to build a Disney ski resort destination, I wanted to read it.

I’m afraid to say I did not find the entire book to be “fascinating,” no matter what the blurb says. Parts of the book I did indeed find fascinating, but I think this book could have been a great essay. The book appears to have been exhaustively researched. There are 18 pages of footnotes, a 2 page bibliography, and a 7 page index. There is no doubt that the authors did indeed find the subject fascinating.

The book opens just three months before Walt Disney’s death from lung cancer in December 1966. Right up until the end of his life, he was excited about goals he had for the Disney company. If he had managed to turn California’s Mineral King valley into a Disney resort, it would probably have been amazing. This book tells the story of the environmentalists who were determined to stop the resort from being built. (I got a definite sense that some of the people who already lived in the valley wanted to keep it pristine for themselves. It reminded me of a quote, attributed to Dennis Miller, that I heard my environmentalist brother-in-law repeat more than once: “A developer is someone who wants to build a house in the woods. An environmentalist is someone who already has a house in the woods.”)

I did find parts of the book interesting, and I learned things that I did not know. It’s only about 200 pages (not counting the footnotes and index). If you are attracted to all things Disney, you may want to read Disneyland on the Mountain.

I read an advance reader copy of Disneyland on the Mountain from Netgalley. It is scheduled to be published on September 13, and the Galesburg Public Library will own it.

Book Review | The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Published on by Emily DuGranrut

From the publisher: Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

Fair to say I’m not the #BookTok demo — for my taste, tropes are bugs, not features, books older than five years are a-okay, and I’m not being sponsored to promote Barnes & Noble. And then we have to consider the genre’s favorite trope: the spicy scene, which, in my experience, few authors know how to actually write in a way that doesn’t rely on repetitious language encounter after encounter. In other words, the whole phenomenon seems fundamentally limiting from a reading perspective, located within some venn diagram nexus of fantasy, young adult, and lightly erotic rom (plus maybe some com). That said, I decided to give Fourth Wing a go anyway, based largely on the then (insanely inflated) Goodreads 4.8 star rating. (*Check notes* — it’s still at a 4.66 with just under 390,000 ratings.)

In fairness, the novel starts off pretty well. Briefly, Fourth Wing follows Violet, a frail 20-year-old aspiring scribe in a violent, war-mongering world where she is forced by her general mother to join an elite school wherein students either become bonded with a dragon and take up the coveted mantle of warrior riders, or they die. Of course, there’s also a dangerous bad boy who also happens to be pathologically irresistible to Violet, as these things go. Given the presence of dragons and schools of fantasy and broody young men, it’s no surprise that the novel is marketed to the #BookTok-endorsed New Adult genre that straddles the Adult/Young Adult line. But make no mistake: we’re pretty firmly in YA territory from the get — meaning the psychological and emotional continuums presented are fairly histrionic and unhealthy.

For all that, the world-building is actually pretty intriguing, even if the structural skeleton in the early going is entirely cribbed from Divergent, which is a woof of a novel in itself. But much like Stephanie Meyer — yes, I’m just name-checking a bunch of YA touchstones here so you understand exactly how derivative this is — Yarros shows skill with ending chapters, encouraging readers to push through with speed, even if there’s a bevy of eye rolls along the way. But the organization of the world built here is fairly appealing from a fantasy perspective, at least enough to encourage investment in watching it unfurl further.

But given the marketing angle, I’d be remiss if I didn’t get to the spice. Sorry, let me be more specific to this novel: the deranged approximation of some pubescent fantasy of sex, which feels dredged up from the perspective of some middle school diary. We’ll keep it PG here, but suffice it to say that the book’s attempts at an R-rating are not likely to please readers going in for such books. The brooding #badboi also claims that the main character here “is going to be the death of” him a dozen or more times, because Yarros just doesn’t seem to have any idea how to write characters who aren’t operating from a place of emotional stability. Instead, she just keeps recycling the same cliches ad nauseam, all of which indicate the need for therapeutic intervention rather than wedding bells. The whole thing scans more like the abandoned script for some SNL sketch sending up super-nerd fanfiction. I’ve read sexier phonebooks.

Again, a good half of this offers easy-reading and propulsive fantasy fun; plus the ending introduces a wrinkle that promises an expansion of the established world, which should appeal to fans of expansive series development. And readers inclined to this sort of thing already aren’t likely to find the faults I did; it’s classic mileage-may-vary kind of book, and I’m absolutely not the intended audience. But as a quick PSA to curious but perhaps hesitant fantasy fans: if you’re happy to take your novels sans loonies slobbering all over each other and decrying life’s meaning in the absence of unhealthy obsession, you should probably pop on over to the next shelf.

September Is Library Card Sign-Up Month!

Published on by Emily DuGranrut

September is Library Card Sign-up Month and we are celebrating with libraries across the country!

Do YOU have a library card?

Join us during the month of September as we show you why having a library card is ELEMENTAL!   Throughout the month, Galesburg community members are encouraged to come to the library and sign up for a library card! Here is what you need to do:

  • If you live within Galesburg City Limits, stop by the Check-Out desk with your ID and proof of address
  • If you are a student attending Carl Sandburg College or Knox College, stop by the Check-Out desk with your ID and Student ID cards
  • If you are a student between the ages of 5- 18, but live outside of Galesburg City Limits, you are eligible to receive a library card at Galesburg Public Library. Have your parent bring in an ID (unless you are 16 or older, then just bring in your ID)
  • If you are veteran, you and your family are eligible to receive a free library card. Bring in an ID and let us know (if you live outside Galesburg City Limits).

In addition to signing people up for library cards, we are also waiving the replacement fee for library cards if you live within Galesburg City Limits and have lost your card. Each person who signs up for a library card or comes in for a replacement card during the month of September will be entered for a chance to win a library themed prize.

With your library card, you have access to: games, puzzles, pickleball paddles, disc golf discs, hot spots, cakepans, books, audiobooks, databases, book club kits, museum passes, movies, magazines and so much more.   Get ready to ‘Fire up your imagination’ or ‘Dive into a new hobby’ with your library card today.

Once you have your library card, make sure you stop by the Check-Out Desk to try the new Self-Check Kiosk. All items can be checked out at the kiosk unless they need to be unlocked or are a book club book.

If you aren’t able to enjoy the benefits of having a library card in person, we also offer a Home Delivery service for those who are unable to leave their homes due to age, disability, injury, illness, or lack of access to transportation. Give us a call at 309-343-6118 to sign up for this service.

You can also apply for a library card online and we will mail it to you. Simply fill out this form.

Are you ready to get your library card so you can see for yourself why a library card is ELEMENTAL?

Cooking the Books — Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal

Published on by Emily DuGranrut

 Welcome to Cooking the Books, where we try recipes found in, well, books! This month, Technical Services Supervisor Anne tried out a recipe from one of her recent favs: I first read J. Ryan Stradal’s The Lager Queen of Minnesota this spring and I couldn’t put it down. When it was announced that Stradal was stopping by Galesburg’s Wordsmith Bookshoppe literally days after I finished the novel, I hustled on over. Stradal was polite, unassuming and kindly posed for a photo with me. (I’ll not share the photo as my Saturday-doing-chores look was not my best.) Soon after, I found myself purchasing an autographed copy of his 2015 novel Kitchens of the Great Midwest. The storyline follows the coming of age of Eva, a chef with a select palate, who’s life is woven through a cast of characters, all tied together by food. The book begins with memories of lutefisk, meanders Read more »

Book Review | The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins

Published on by Emily DuGranrut

From the publisher: What happens after we save the world? In the near future, humanity hasn’t avoided the worst of climate change—wildfires, rising oceans, mass migration, and skyrocketing inequality have become the daily reality. But just when it seems that it can’t get any worse, remarkably, a movement of workers, migrants, and refugees inspires the world to band together, save the planet, and rebuild a society for all. This is The Great Transition. This astonishing debut is a remarkable story of struggle, change, and hope.

Parts of The Great Transition are some of the best climate fiction I have read. In this book, climate change happened. Fires, floods. Massive numbers of climate refugees. Massive extinctions. All the terrible things that we know are coming came. Then a movement took back the planet from the climate deniers and criminals and humanity reached net zero emissions.

This is a remarkable debut novel. The writing is assured. The author clearly did his research on climate change. The planet reached the brink but was pulled back, but only at incredible cost in lives and species. There is one section where the author describes the effort to save the last stand of giant sequoias that moved me to tears. What are we doing to the only planet that we have?

No mistaking, this book has an agenda. The author wants us to look in the mirror and confront what’s coming, make some changes so the worst is changed to not quite the worst. Hold accountable the people who are responsible for the climate damage. But the book also has at its center a family. Mom and dad were heroes in the effort to save the planet. Both lost their parents and families to climate change. Their daughter Emi suffers from anxiety and an eating disorder. Her mom despairs that Emi doesn’t appreciate how good she has it.

The author is a teacher and I feel like the book really shows that he knows young people today. Emi feels very believable. Her mother is still fighting the climate fight; her father has moved on and wants to appreciate the good things. This conflict causes a lot of family drama. The author uses a homework device to tell parts of the backstory; Emi is writing a report on the Great Transition. I didn’t find this wholly effective. Parts 1-3 are the best part of the book. I was wholly immersed. I did not find Parts 4-6 as effective. The family drama gets to be a bit much and the plot turns a little too Hollywood. Also, I thought the book had ended two times before it finally did. It might have been more effective to leave some things unsaid.

Still, I found this book easy to read and very thought provoking, both hopeful and terrified for our common future on planet Earth. I highly recommend it for fans of climate fiction and dystopia.

I read an advance reader copy of The Great Transition. It is scheduled to be published on August 15, and the Galesburg Public Library will own the book in print, as an ebook, and in audio.

From the Director’s Desk — Illinois Book Banning Bill

Published on by Emily DuGranrut


Credit: The Times of Northwest Indiana

Illinois has become the first state in the country to enact a law preventing book bans. Governor Pritzker signed a bill on June 12 prohibiting public libraries from removing books due to “partisan or doctrinal disapproval,” and libraries may lose eligibility for state funding if they don not comply. I’d like to address what this means for GPL and for other libraries in Illinois.

The bill states:

“In order to be eligible for state grants, a library or library system shall adopt the American Library Association’s [ALA] Library Bill of Rights that indicates materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval or, in the alternative, develop a written statement prohibiting the practice of banning books or other materials within the library or library system.”

Galesburg Public Library receives around $40,000 annually from the State in addition to occasional grants, like the Public Library Construction Act Grant for $15.3 million that is funding 75% of the construction of our new building. GPL meets the requirements named in the bill and is not at risk of losing state funding. Our Materials Selection Policy, approved by the library board of trustees in 2002, adopts the ALA Library Bill of Rights and outlines criteria for selecting materials for our collection as well as criteria for removing materials from our collection.

The reasons an item may be added to the collection include demand by patrons, local interest, significance to the existing collection, qualifications of the author, timeliness, and price. An item may be removed because it is not being checked out, is obsolete, inaccurate, physically worn or damaged, is a duplicate copy, or other reasons demonstrating that the item no longer adds value to the collection.

The bill was written in response to a record high number of attempts to remove or restrict books from schools, classrooms, and public libraries recorded last year. ALA counted 1,269 demands to censor books and resources in 2022 with 2,571 unique titles being targeted. The majority of challenged books were written by or about people of color and people in the LGBTQIA+ community. GPL has not faced any formal challenges to remove books or other resources from our collection.

Because of our policy recognizing everyone in our community’s freedom to read, we are in compliance with the new bill, which goes into effect on January 1, 2024. To read more about how censorship impacts communities, check out my blog entry from Banned Books Week.

Library Bill of Rights

  1. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.
  2. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
  3. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.
  4. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.
  5. A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.
  6. Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.
  7. All people, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use. Libraries should advocate for, educate about, and protect people’s privacy, safeguarding all library use data, including personally identifiable information.

LeAnna’s Picks!

Published on by Emily DuGranrut

Here at the library, we love all books, of course, but some of us have a particular affinity for specific books. We regularly highlight those books in our Staff Picks section here on the blog, and this time it’s our newest Children’s Librarian, LeAnna’s turn. Here are five of her favorite titles:

Watership Down by Richard Adams

I have loved this book the longest of any of the materials on this list. I read it first when I was in college, and I re-read it a few years ago. I enjoyed both readings, and I gained different meaningful ideas from both. Watership Down is a survival tale about the courage of rabbits who, having lost their home, journey onward to find a new, better one. It was written by Adams for his children. Originally, he told it to them over a period of time as bedtime stories. Though the story was meant for children, and children will no doubt enjoy the rabbit’s adventures, there are important allegories about human society to be found and enjoyed by older readers.

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds

“There will come a time when we will love humanity, when we will gain the courage to fight for an equitable society for our beloved humanity, knowing, intelligently, that when we fight for humanity, we are fighting for ourselves.”

I read the adult version of this book first because I wanted to educate myself about the Black experience in America. As someone raised in the Southern United States, public education left a lot of – if not most of –  the details out. And when I found out that the book was being adapted by Jason Reynolds, I knew I had to read the YA version. I adore Jason Reynolds, both as a human and author, so I knew his take on Ibram X. Kendi’s thoroughly researched original work would be both engaging and accessible, and it was! In my opinion, this book should be required reading for all.

Mort by Terry Pratchett

Have you ever wondered what Death is like? No not the act of dying. The actual entity, Death. Like, the Grim Reaper.

If your answer was yes (and you enjoy a good hilarious and sarcastic fantasy novel), then this is the book for you! You’ll get to see Death’s lodgings and meet his daughter. Yes, Death has a daughter! You will also get to meet Death’s new, teenage apprentice, Mort, and you will come to love them all.

Wait. There’s more! If you do find yourself enjoying the characters and this uproarious, lively world Pratchett created, the good news is, there are eight more books in the Death sub-series of the forty-one Discworld novels.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: And Other Lessons From the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

Pick up this title and learn about the death industry in America from an insider. Caitlin Doughty used to work for a California crematory. Now she owns her own funeral home, runs an educational Youtube channel and podcast, and travels the world researching, writing, and teaching us about dying in various cultures.

I’ve always been a little morbid; the Goosebumps and Bailey School Kids books were favorites when I was a child. This book checks all the boxes that those series did, but Doughty’s stories are true as well as creepy.

Loveless by Alice Oseman

This is one of the most relatable books I have ever read. At its heart, the story is about friendships and how important they are in our lives – maybe even more important than romantic relationships. The author does a great job of writing in a way that makes you feel like you are right there with the main characters, and the book includes some pretty hilarious scenes – including a battle on a bouncy castle!