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216 N Marshall Ave

Litchfield MN 55355

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While all Pioneerland Library System buildings remain closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Curbside Pick-up of library items is available. You may place items on hold using the online catalog. Library staff will call you to schedule a pickup time once your hold is ready. Pickup days/times vary by location. Please contact your library if you have questions or need assistance in using this service.

Friday, March 15, 2019

Read About Intriguing People in This Spring's Books


by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Spring is here, at least officially.  We may not have flowers and warm temperatures for a while yet, so there’s plenty of time to keep reading before we have too many outside activities.  The Litchfield Library is getting a number of new books that are generating buzz this spring.

Bestselling author Harlan Coben has a new book, Run Away, that just came out this past week. It’s a parent’s nightmare: a daughter who becomes addicted to drugs with an abusive boyfriend and leaves her family.  In order to save her, the parent follows her into the dangerous world she lives in.  Reviews say it’s an exciting thriller you’ll want to read in one sitting.

The Silent Patient is in demand in our library system, and everywhere else, right now.  This psychological thriller is about a famous artist who murders her fashion photographer husband and then refuses to speak another word.  A criminal psychologist becomes obsessed with the notorious case and begins to treat her.  Brad Pitt has purchased the film rights to this first novel by Alex Michaelides.

Lisa See’s new book, The Island of Sea Women, covers the history of a unique place, the Korean island of Jeju.  Women there have been the primary breadwinners for centuries, even now diving into the sea to gather shellfish without oxygen masks.  This novel centers on two friends who begin diving together as children, and it follows them through Japanese colonialism in the ‘30s and ‘40s, World War II, and the Korean War, bringing them to the current era of cell phones and wet suits.  If you enjoy novels about history and female friendship, this is for you.

Written as though it’s a celebrity memoir, the novel Daisy Jones and The Six is the story of a wildly-successful band in the ‘70s.  Author Taylor Jenkins Reid captures the sex, drugs, and rock and roll of the era through Daisy’s rise to superstardom when she joins the band The Six.  Reviewers have said that the characters feel so real that they want to find their albums.

British author Helen Oyeyemi has won awards for her inventive novels and short stories.  Her latest is called Gingerbread, and it builds on the special place gingerbread has in fairy tales.  A mother and daughter live in a London apartment with talking plants, and the mother’s mysterious friend Gretel loves the family’s famous gingerbread, a recipe passed down through the generations.

Figuring is a nonfiction book about the interconnected lives of a number of prominent people over four centuries, beginning with astronomer Johannes Kepler and ending with biologist and author Rachel Carson.  Writer Maria Popova examines the lives of these artists, writers, and scientists, most of them women and many of them LGBT, who have made important public contributions while going through struggles in their private relationships. 

The Altruists by Andrew Ridker is a funny novel about a dysfunctional family.  A Missouri professor invites his estranged adult children home in a supposed attempt at reconciliation.  His late wife had kept her small fortune a secret and left it directly to their children.  People Magazine recently named it their book of the week, saying “it’s a relatable, unforgettable view of regular people making mistakes and somehow finding their way back to each other.”

The world is full of interesting books.  Settle in with one while the cold weather lasts.