by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian
Now that it’s January and the holidays are done, Pioneerland
libraries are launching this year’s adult winter reading program, Winter
Reads. It’s an easy way to set yourself a
goal to read several books before the winter is over and earn prizes for doing
it.
Litchfield Library’s program begins today and ends March
30. When you sign up, you get a book
bag, a bookmark, a few book review forms, and a punch card. Each time you turn in a brief review of a
book you read, we’ll mark your card.
When you turn in three reviews, you can choose a prize: a mug, a large
candy bar, an ice scraper, a stocking cap, or lip balm. When you turn in three more, you’ll be
entered in a drawing for gift certificates to local businesses, sponsored by
the Friends of the Litchfield Library.
The program works in a similar way for the libraries in
Grove City, Cosmos, and Dassel, but the prizes will work slightly differently.
It’s all very easy, with no one holding your feet to the
fire to complete the program, so sign up to join in this winter’s
challenge. You can read any book you
want, whether it’s checked out from the library or something you own, as long
as you read it after you sign up for the program. You can read fiction or nonfiction. You can even listen to it in audiobook form
or read it as an e-book.
Need some ideas about what to read? Here are a few new titles available at the
Litchfield Library.
Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World is a nonfiction thriller by Tom Wright and Bradley
Hope, Pulitzer Prize-finalist Wall Street Journal reporters. This bestseller covers a decade of massive international
fraud by a Malaysian graduate of the Wharton School of Business, a real-life
Gatsby.
Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey is a biography by Mark Dery. Gorey was an eccentric writer, illustrator,
and artist who lived from 1925 to 2000. You
may have seen his Gothic pen-and-ink drawings in books such as The House with
a Clock in Its Walls or The War of the Worlds, or his animated introduction
to the PBS Mystery series in the ‘80s.
Evening in Paradise is a critically-acclaimed collection
of short stories by Lucia Berlin. Her short
story collection, A Manual for Cleaning Women, was published posthumously in
2015 to great praise, with her style being described as “gritty glamour.” The New York Times said, “Lucia Berlin spent
her career in obscurity. Now, she is
being hailed as a literary genius.”
The Calculating Stars is a science fiction novel by Mary
Robinette Kowal, the first in the Lady Astronaut series. It imagines an alternate history, with a huge
meteorite obliterating much of the east coast in 1952. With human extinction looming, an
international coalition is racing to colonize the moon. A former WASP pilot and mathematician is
working on the project as a calculator, but she has dreams of becoming the
first female astronaut.
Take the opportunity of these cold, dark winter days to
enjoy a book or two. Winter is a great
time to read.
