Year: 2020

Forever Young (10/12/2020): Slasher Girls & Monster Boys
Book Clubs

Forever Young (10/12/2020): Slasher Girls & Monster Boys

September 14, 2020

For fans of Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, American Horror Story and The Walking Dead comes a powerhouse anthology featuring some of the best thriller and horror writers in YA.
A host of the sharpest young adult authors come together in this collection of terrifying tales and psychological thrillers. Each author draws from a mix of literature, film, television, and music to create something new and fresh and unsettling. Clever readers will love teasing out the references and can satisfy their curiosity at the end of each tale, where the inspiration is revealed. There are no superficial scares here; these are stories that will make you think even as they keep you on the edge of your seat. From blood horror, to the supernatural, to unsettling, all-too-possible realism, this collection has something for anyone looking for an absolute thrill.
Stefan Bachmann
Leigh Bardugo
Kendare Blake
A. G. Howard
Jay Kristoff
Marie Lu
Jonathan Maberry
Danielle Paige
Carrie Ryan
Megan Shepherd
Nova Ren Suma
McCormick Templeman
April Genevieve Tucholke
Cat Winters […]

Back to Book Club, part 4 – Take A Reading Challenge
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Back to Book Club, part 4 – Take A Reading Challenge

September 9, 2020

Stuck in a reading rut?  Consider a Reading Challenge! While not a book club in the usual sense, a reading challenge can add a fresh twist to your reading life. Whether done alone or as part of a group, a reading challenge encourages participants to choose books that fit a specific prompt.  One month, readers might be asked to read […]

Spinecrackers (10/02/2020): Bringing Down the Duke
Book Clubs

Spinecrackers (10/02/2020): Bringing Down the Duke

September 4, 2020

England, 1879. Annabelle Archer, the brilliant but destitute daughter of a country vicar, has earned herself a place among the first cohort of female students at the renowned University of Oxford. In return for her scholarship, she must support the rising women’s suffrage movement…Her charge: recruit men of influence to champion their cause…Her target: Sebastian Devereux, the cold and calculating Duke of Montgomery who steers Britain’s politics at the Queen’s command…Her challenge: not to give in to the powerful attraction she can’t deny for the man who opposes everything she stands for. […]

Book Clubbers (10/01/2020): Good Omens
Book Clubbers

Book Clubbers (10/01/2020): Good Omens

September 3, 2020

The world will end on Saturday. Next Saturday. Just before dinner, according to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world’s only completely accurate book of prophecies written in 1655. The armies of Good and Evil are amassing and everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture. And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist. […]

Back To Book Club, part 3 – Virtual Book Clubs
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Back To Book Club, part 3 – Virtual Book Clubs

September 2, 2020

Love the idea of a book club, but don’t want the commitment of regular membership? A virtual book club can be a great option for people who want the flexibility to read and comment on their own schedule. It’s also a simple way to get your feet wet discussing books with other readers. While Oprah’s Book Club is the oldest […]

Stranger than Fiction (10/06/2020): Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory
Book Clubs

Stranger than Fiction (10/06/2020): Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory

September 1, 2020

Most people want to avoid thinking about death, but Caitlin Doughty – a twenty-something with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre – took a job at a crematory, turning morbid curiosity into her life’s work. With an original voice that combines fearless curiosity and mordant wit, Caitlin tells an unusual coming-of-age story full of bizarre encounters, gallows humor, and vivid characters (both living and very dead). Describing how she swept ashes from the machines (and sometimes onto her clothes), and cared for bodies of all shapes and sizes, Caitlin becomes an intrepid explorer in the world of the deceased. Her eye-opening memoir shows how our fear of dying warps our culture and society, and she calls for better ways of dealing with death (and our dead). In the spirit of her popular Web series, “Ask a Mortician,” Caitlin’s engaging narrative style makes this otherwise scary topic both approachable and profound. […]

Back to Book Club, Part 2- Do It Yourself!
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Back to Book Club, Part 2- Do It Yourself!

August 26, 2020

Last week’s Adult Services blog post highlighted AAPLD’s current book clubs.  But what if none of the times are convenient, or you enjoy gathering with a group of friends to talk books? AAPLDs Do It Yourself Book Club service has everything you need for your new or existing independent book club. How does it work? First, choose a book, and […]

Nite Readers (09/17/2020): Rough Magic
Nite Readers

Nite Readers (09/17/2020): Rough Magic

August 21, 2020

At the age of nineteen, Lara Prior-Palmer discovered a website devoted to “the world’s longest, toughest horse race”-an annual competition of endurance and skill that involves dozens of riders racing a series of twenty-five wild ponies across 1,000 kilometers of Mongolian grassland. On a whim, she decided to enter the race. As she boarded a plane to East Asia, she was utterly unprepared for what awaited her. Riders often spend years preparing to compete in the Mongol Derby, a course that recreates the horse messenger system developed by Genghis Khan, and many fail to finish. Prior-Palmer had no formal training. She was driven by her own restlessness, stubbornness, and a lifelong love of horses. She raced for ten days through extreme heat and terrifying storms, catching a few hours of sleep where she could at the homes of nomadic families. Battling bouts of illness and dehydration, exhaustion and bruising falls, she decided she had nothing to lose. Each dawn she rode out again on a fresh horse, scrambling up mountains, swimming through rivers, crossing woodlands and wetlands, arid dunes and open steppe. Told with terrific suspense and style, Rough Magic captures the extraordinary story of one young woman who forged ahead, against all odds, to become the first female winner of this breathtaking race. […]