Cowan Bookends
Books and Movies to Share on Galentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is this Sunday, February 14, and whether you love or hate this holiday, it’s hard to deny that it does make for a great excuse to eat copious amounts of chocolate covered strawberries without shame (or is that just me?). I am personally a fan of the holiday, but one of my most favorite holidays is actually the day preceding Valentine’s Day- Galentine’s Day!
If you are unfamiliar with Galentine’s Day, it was born out of the amazing television show Parks and Recreation. The holiday was the creation of the beloved fictional deputy director of Parks and Recreation in Pawnee, Indiana, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler). The show’s writers centered the 16th episode of the second season around Leslie’s favorite February tradition, Galentine’s Day. Over a brunch of waffles and excessive gift-giving, Leslie celebrates the joy of female friendship with close friends and co-workers. This has now become a legit holiday with companies creating cards for the occasion and businesses offering Galentine’s Day specials.
Leslie explains, “Every February 13, my ladyfriends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it, breakfast-style. Ladies celebrating ladies. It’s like Lilith Fair, minus the angst. Plus frittatas.” Unfortunately, this is not the time for brunch gatherings and long evenings at the wine bar, so how can you celebrate? Share some amazing books with your best gal pals or watch a film together online (ideas for how to watch together here)!
Below you’ll find some of my top picks for books (fiction and nonfiction) and films that are perfect for Galentine’s Day celebrating and sharing!
Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman
Bridesmaids directed by Paul Feig
Booksmart directed by Olivia Wilde
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
Let’s Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship by Gail Caldwell
Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
Girls Trip directed by Malcom D. Lee
Mean Girls directed by Mark Waters
Girl Talk: What Science Can Tell Us About Female Friendship by Jacqueline Mroz
Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship by Kayleen Schaefer
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Wishing you all a safe and happy Galentine’s Day! Happy reading!
New Books Tuesday @ RRPL
Check out this weeks new releases and add onto your reading list! Here are some books we picked out for you!
Walk in My Combat Boots: True Stories from America’s Bravest Warriors by James Patterson – The decorated war hero who inspired the movie, Black Hawk Down, shares firsthand wartime accounts describing the courageous battlefield sacrifices of men and women from every branch and operational specialty of the U.S. military.
The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec – A subversive reimagining of Norse mythology traces the experiences of a banished witch whose unexpected passionate relationship with the trickster Loki produces three remarkable offspring before her family is targeted by wrathful gods.
The Vineyard at Painted Moon by Susan Mallery – Devastated by a divorce that she admits was inevitable, MacKenzie finds her attempts to move away from the only family and source of employment she has ever known complicated by an unplanned pregnancy.
We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida – The disappearance of a teen in the aftermath of a dispute about something that was or was not witnessed exposes dark community secrets. By the award-winning author of Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name.
Faithless in Death by J. D. Robb – Investigating a woman whose report about an artist’s murder is not adding up, Eve Dallas uncovers a fanatical conspiracy that leads to Dallas’s partnership with the FBI. By the best-selling author of Vendetta in Death.
A Stranger in Town: a Rockton Novel by Kelley Armstrong – Becoming suspicious when she notices that fewer residents are joining their fresh-start community, Detective Casey Duncan learns in the wake of a violent attack that the Rockton project is being shut down.
The (Other) You: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates – The National Book Award-winning author of We Were the Mulvaneys presents a latest collection of stories that explores the musings of a writer, a prisoner and a student who consider how their lives might have unfolded differently.
Never Far Away by Michael Koryta – Placed in witness protection in remote northern Maine, Leah risks exposing herself to the dangerous forces of her past when her homesick children run away. By the award-winning author of Those Who Wish Me Dead.
The Power Couple by Alex Berenson – Embarking on a European family vacation to revitalize their marriage, two government employees find the limits of their bond tested when their daughter goes missing from a Barcelona club. By the award-winning author of The Faithful Spy.
The Burning Girls by C. J. Tudor – Assigned to a remote English countryside parish after a suspicious suicide, an unconventional vicar and single father investigates the village’s tragic history and the recent disappearances of two teens. By the award-winning author of The Chalk Man.
The New Normal: A Roadmap to Resilience in the Pandemic Era by Jennifer Ashton – The Chief Medical Correspondent at ABC News presents a guide to resilience in the era of COVID, sharing insights into how to understand evolving medical updates, adapt to evolving norms and make responsible choices throughout the pandemic.
Zorrie by Laird Hunt – Cast adrift in the Depression-era West after the last of her relatives pass away, Zorrie survives by working at a radium processing plant before finding love, community and unexpected loss upon returning to her small Indiana hometown.
American Serial Killers: The Epidemic Years 1950-2000 by Peter Vronsky – Collects chilling narrative accounts of serial killers from the age of the serial murder “epidemic” (1950-2000).
Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends, and Colleagues
by David Bradford & Carole Robin – Based on Stanford’s successful Interpersonal Dynamics course, a guide to building more fulfilling relationships in personal and professional arenas shares time-tested strategies for giving feedback, negotiating boundaries and overcoming tricky disputes.
~Semanur
Discover RRPL’s Shared Shelf
Each week a Rocky River Public Library staff member will share a glimpse into their reading shelf in hopes that you will discover that next great read.
Readalikes for The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
This week in our readalikes corner, it’s libraries, libraries, libraries! It’s a little self-indulgent on our part, but to be fair, The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles is one of the most-requested books on our holds lists. Based on a true story, [the book] describes how a lonely, 1980s teenager befriends an elderly neighbor and uncovers her past as a librarian at the American Library in Paris who joined the Resistance when the Nazis arrived.
Sounds really interesting, right? Click the book cover up above to put a hold on it in our catalog.
But you might have to wait a while (it comes out on February 8, 2021), so we’ve curated a list of books that you might like to try in the meantime. Click any of the book covers below to be taken to our catalog, where you can request a copy of the book with your library card number and PIN. We’ve also included links to our e-media services Overdrive and Hoopla where available.
The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
A New York Public LIbrary superintendent’s wife reevaluates her priorities upon joining a woman’s suffrage group in 1913, decades before her granddaughter’s efforts to save an exhibit expose tragic family secrets.
Lions of Fifth Avenue Overdrive link
The Archivist by Martha Cooley
A battle of wills between Matt, a careful, orderly archivist for a private university, and Roberta, a determined young poet, over a collection of T. S. Eliot’s letters, sealed by bequest until 2019, sparks an unusual friendship and reawakens painful memories of the past.
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
In 1996, Hanna Heath, a young Australian book conservator is called to analyze the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a priceless six-hundred-year-old Jewish prayer book that has been salvaged from a destroyed Bosnian library. When Hanna discovers a series of artifacts in the centuries’ old binding, she unwittingly exposes an international cover up.
People of the Book Overdrive link
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
A last-of-her-kind outcast and member of the Pack Horse Library Project braves the hardships of Kentucky’s Great Depression and hostile community discrimination to bring the near-magical perspectives of books to her neighbors.
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
The author reopens the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in American history, and delivers a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution: our libraries.
The Library Book Overdrive link
All plot summaries courtesy of Novelist.
Discover@RRPL
Dear Miss Kopp
The sisters are separated during this time but each is doing their part for the war effort. They share their adventures with each other through letters. Fleurette performs with “May Ward and her 8 Dresden Dolls”, a real-life vaudeville act, for servicemen. Constance pursues German spies. Norma is part of the Army Signal Corps and serves as manager for the carrier pigeon project. The pigeons are trained to relay military messages to the front. Norma also helps her nurse roommate, Aggie, who has been wrongly accused of stealing medical supplies from the American Field hospital.
The 6th entry in the Kopp Sisters series is a quick fun read. I highly recommend reading the whole series in order.
Kopp Sisters series
- Girl Waits with Gun (2015)
- Lady Cop Makes Trouble (2016)
- Miss Kopp’s Midnight Confessions (2017)
- Miss Kopp Just Won’t Quit (2018)
- Kopp Sisters on the March (2019)
- Dear Miss Kopp (2021)
- Miss Kopp Investigates (2021)
~Emma
New Books Tuesday @ RRPL
In this week’s special picks there are new exciting detective, mystery, suspense, and many more genres for you to choose from! Enjoy!
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi & Keisha N. Blain – Co-edited by the National Book Award-winning author of How to Be an Antiracist, a 400-year chronicle of African-American history is written in five-year segments as documented by 80 multidisciplinary historians, artists and writers.
Robert Ludlum’s The Treadstone Exile by Joshua Hood – A sequel to The Treadstone Resurrection finds Adam Hayes offering passage to a tech baron’s daughter, whose subsequent kidnapping pits the former Operation Treadstone agent against a rogue operative connected to a scheme to steal millions in relief aid.
Beneath the Keep (Queen of the Tearling) by Erika Johansen – A prequel to the best-selling Queen of the Tearling trilogy finds an underworld assassin, a farm girl-turned-rebel and a manipulated crown princess struggling to save their feudal Tearling world, while local rumors prophesize the rise of a great queen.
My Year Abroad by Chang-Rae Lee – An everyday American college student finds his life transformed by a Chinese-American businessman who unexpectedly takes him under his wing on a series of whimsical, heartbreaking and darkly shocking adventures throughout Asia. By the award-winning author of Native Speaker.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah – A Depression-era woman confronts a wrenching choice between fighting for the Dust Bowl-ravaged land she loves in Texas or pursuing an uncertain future in California. By the best-selling author of The Nightingale.
The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner – Moving to early 20th-century San Francisco to escape New York tenement life, an Irish mail-order bride uncovers transformative secrets involving a silent child and two other women before her precarious existence is upended by the great earthquake of 1906.
Blink of an Eye by Roy Johansen & Iris Johansen – Investigator Kendra Michaels teams up with military-trained bodyguard Jessie Mercado and agent-for-hire Adam Lynch in a desperate effort to rescue a famous pop singer who has been kidnapped during a live performance.
Blood Grove by Walter Mosley – Unlicensed private investigator-turned-hardboiled detective Easy Rawlins navigates sex clubs, the mafia and dangerous friends when he reluctantly accepts the racially charged case of a traumatized Vietnam War veteran in late-1960s Los Angeles.
The Survivors by Jane Harper – Haunted by guilt for a reckless and consequential mistake in his youth, Kieran returns to his coastal hometown and his struggling fishing-industry parents, before the discovery of a body on the beach reveals long-held secrets.
Girl A by Abigail Dean – Bequeathed the house from where she escaped her brutally abusive parents, eldest child Lex Gracie navigates complicated family loyalties in her efforts to renovate the property into a safe place for her traumatized siblings.
The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse – Accompanying family members to an isolated Swiss Alps hotel to recuperate from a traumatizing case, a woman detective uncovers the fates of long-ago tuberculosis patients who went missing from the property years earlier when it operated as a sanatorium.
Serpentine by Jonathan Kellerman – LAPD homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis and brilliant psychologist Alex Delaware investigate a decades-unsolved case involving a rich and spoiled client, a mysterious birth mother and violent coincidences. By the Edgar Award-winning author of True Detectives.
The Shadow Box by Luanne Rice – Preparing for an exhibit that includes a piece about the domestic violence she once endured at the hands of her gubernatorial candidate husband, an artist survives a home invasion only to find herself pitted against dangerous corrupt forces.
~Semanur
Discover Book Club Kits@ RRPL
We know how difficult it is to choose a book for your next book group meeting, and to find enough copies for all the members of your group. We would like to make this easier for you by offering Book Club Kits to our patrons. You will receive 8 copies of the same title, a set of discussion questions and other pertinent information about the book or author, all inside a canvas library bag, to be checked out on the library card of the patron picking up the kit. The loan period for the kit is 6 weeks. We own 18 Book Club Kits, 12 fiction book titles and 6 nonfiction book titles. I’d like to share with you one of our newly selected book titles, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell..
“On a summer’s day in 1596, a young girl in
Stratford-on Avon takes to her bed with a
fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches
everywhere for help. Why is nobody at
home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a
mile away, in the garden where she grows
medicinal herbs. Their father, a playwright,
is working in London. Neither parent knows
that one of the children will not survive
the week.
Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a
famous playwright. It is a story of the bond
between twins and of a marriage pushed
to the brink by grief.
Above all, it is the tender reimagining of a
boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name
was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.”
http://www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk
© Women’s Prize for Fiction
Discover@RRPL
Leonard and Hungry Paul: A Novel
Best friends Leonard and Hungry Paul, bachelors in their 30’s, enjoy quiet walks, playing board games, and staying close to home. Leonard, who recently inherited his family’s home, writes articles for children’s encyclopedias. Hungry Paul is a substitute mailman who lives at home with his parents who are busy planning their daughter’s wedding. Leonard is interested in a young woman at work and hopes a romance can progress even though their initial encounters have been awkward. Hungry Paul enters a slogan contest for his local business community and wins. This opens up a new opportunity for Hungry Paul which will hopefully help him move forward with his life in new ways.
This is an enjoyable gentle story. It’s a tale of best friends who are genuinely happy for each other’s successes and challenges.
~Emma
Discover New Resources at the Cowan Pottery Museum
The Cowan Pottery Museum has a new resource Cowan Activities @Home. Go to https://rrpl.org/cowan-activities/ to find past Crafting with the Curator instructions and inspiration guides, as well as the Cowan Pottery coloring book pages. Make sure to check back as we will be adding more resources in the future!
Also make sure to sign up to participate in our upcoming Crafting with the Curator by going to:
http://rrpl.evanced.info/signup/EventDetails?EventId=26420&backTo=Calendar&startDate=2021/04/01
Read it or Weep 