'autobiography'

2/27/2023

Homebound Delivery Service is now available! Free monthly delivery is provided to anyone who lives in the East Grand Forks that is homebound due to temporary or permanent illness/disability and is unable to visit the library. More information...

Just Jerry by Jerry Pinkney

How Drawing Shaped My Life // Jerry Pinkney, Caldecott Medal winner and illustrator of over one hundred books, tells the story of his childhood and how he developed his artistic talent.

741.64209 PINKNEY

The Last Invitation by Darby Kane

Over the last few years, prominent people have died in a series of fluke accidents and shocking suicides. There's no apparent connection, no signs of foul play. Behind it all is a powerful group of women, the Sophie Foundation, who meet over wine and cheese to review files of men who behave very, very badly, and then mete out justice. Jessa Hall jumped at the mysterious, exclusive invitation to this secret club. After years of fighting and scratching to get ahead, she's ready for a chance to make the "bad guys" lose. Jessa soon realizes, though, just how far she's willing to go and how dangerous this game has become.

Mystery KANE

A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel

The Best Investment Guide That Money Can Buy // Malkiel reveals how to be a tax smart investor and how to make sense of recently popular investment management techniques, including factor investing, risk parity, and ESG portfolios. Investors of every age, experience level, and risk tolerance will find the step-by-step guidance they need to protect and grow their dollars.

332.632 MALKIEL

The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan

Seventeen-year-old Aziza El-Amin, the only hedgewitch in Blackthorn, Massachusetts, teams up with a cursed boy looking for answers and a young necromancer in order to eradicate a new threat in the woods and take back her hometown.

Young Adult HASSAN Buried v.1

If you need help accessing any of these titles or using front door pickup, email or call us and we will be happy to assist you!

Curiosity is probably my strongest characteristic. It shows up most strongly when I meet new people. Sometimes, I meet them in person at the library or when I’m traveling. Even more often, I meet new people in books.

There is never the awkward stumbling through an initial conversation. No wondering if I’m saying something offensive or confusing while reading. The author introduces me to someone new and away I go into finding out all about them.

My curiosity leads me to ask questions, even when reading. “Why would he do that?,” will send me back through the pages to catch what I must have missed. Fictional characters’ actions are often well explained in a book. Then there are the historical books which sometimes give one view of a moment in our past. I especially enjoy histories of groups of people like Warriors in Uniform: the Legacy of American Indian Heroism by Herman Viola. It had personal stories and the history that put their stories into context. I enjoyed a lot of the pictures also.

Memoirs are a real person’s retelling of an event or life experience through an emotional lens. Will I learn about the person? Absolutely. Some personal stories are told through important messages they want to share as in Every Body Yoga by Jessamyn Stanley.

How many times have you asked a question like “Is Sam your oldest brother or cousin?” That’s done when in the presence of another person. No matter how many times we visit with that individual, we can’t keep those details straight. A good amount of credit needs to go to people who can remember all the details about a person they meet like Sherlock Holmes does or Detective Vale in The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman. Yes, that one’s fiction but I’m connected to all the characters. I also ask why about actions or viewpoints and sometimes get answers from living and breathing people though this can be much easier in a book. When searching for an answer in a book, there is no consequence for rereading a page to find the answer like there might be by asking, “What’s your name again?”.

Another way to get to know people who I can’t find in our community is to read their folklore or stories based on them. The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri includes the epics of India as the background. Stories set in a real location in a different time, brings the people of those parts of the world to life. Noor by Nnedi Okorafor is another science fiction novel that uses African culture as a backdrop. In it, I met Fulani herdsman which I knew nothing about before reading this fictional story.

Our Library also has some great children’s biographical picture books. The stories are true but placed in a story format. We even have graphical biographies which are wonderful fun to read.

With so many options, you could make new acquaintances every day at the library. It’s OK if you don’t remember the title or the author or the name of the character. Ask one of us and we’ll help you locate it. We love to be asked, “What is the name of the book that has the colorful cover with eyes looking out at me?” We’ll start asking you questions and very likely find your book. “Is it about a tracker?”

“Yes,” you say and we answer with the title or walk you over to find the book. By the way, that is Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James which gives us a look into African history and mythology through a fictional tale.

Curiosity is great. Keep asking questions and discovering who else is out there.

3/7/2022

Join us on Tuesday, March 15 at 6:00pm for Campbell Creates! We making Upcycled Bird Feeders from recycled materials. More information...

Forget the Alamo  by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and Jason Stanford

The Rise and Fall of an American MythThis book provocatively explains the true story of the battle against the backdrop of Texas's struggle for independence, then shows us how the sausage of myth got made in the Jim Crow South of the late 19th and early 20th century.

976.403 BURROUGH

Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson

As Jenny Lawson's hundreds of thousands of fans know, she suffers from depression. In this book, she explores her experimental treatment of transcranial magnetic stimulation with brutal honesty.

070.92 LAWSON

Sunbelt Blues by Andrew Ross

The Failure of American Housing // As millions of renters face down evictions and foreclosures in the midst of the COVID-19 recession, Andrew Ross reveals how ineffective government planning, property market speculation, and poverty wages have combined to create this catastrophe. Immersive and compassionate, this book finds in Osceola County a bellwether for the future of homelessness in America.

363.5 ROSS

The Lost Boys of Montauk by Amanda M. Fairbanks

The True Story of the Wind Blown, Four Men Who Vanished at Sea, and the Survivors They Left Behind // This book is the riveting account of a fishing boat and its four young crewman lost at sea in 1984 off the coast of Montauk in eastern Long Island -- a "fishing town with a drinking problem," as the locals call it -- and the stunning repercussions of that loss for the families and friends of the four missing men and, indeed, the entire storied summer community of the Hamptons.

910.9163 FAIRBANKS

If you need help accessing any of these titles or using front door pickup, email or call us and we will be happy to assist you!

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