Now that the weather is turning beautiful again, it is a great time to curl up in a pile of leaves or near a fire and read a book. One of my favorite parts of my job is recommending books to people. I especially love when people read a book I recommend to them and then come back to talk to me about it.
Often, I read something that I adore and then recommend it to everyone that will listen to me. This year some of those have been Nina LaCour’s “We Are Okay,” Mariko Tamaki’s and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell’s “Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me” and Tehlor Kay Mejia’s “We Set the Dark on Fire.”
“We Are Okay” won the Printz Award last year, an award given to an exceptional young adult book. The main character, Marin, deals with grief and depression in a real and moving way. “Laura Dean” is a gorgeous and moving graphic novel in which the main character struggles to get over her ex-girlfriend. “We Set the Dark on Fire” is a fantasy novel with political intrigue, set in a dystopian society with uncomfortable similarities to present day America.
I am currently in the middle of a spooky mystery, “The Cutting Season” by Attica Locke. It is about the manager of an old plantation in Louisiana who tries to solve a murder committed one fall night. I would recommend it to anyone who likes mystery/thrillers, but also readers of horror or historical fiction, even if mysteries aren’t your normal jam.
Another creepy book for anyone who, like me, is never prepared to let the Halloween season go is “When I Arrived at the Castle” by Emily Carroll. The main character is a traveler in a fairytale-esque landscape who happens upon a castle. This graphic novel is creepy and utterly weird in the sense that I am still not sure what happened in the narrative. I think this is part of the point of the book, though, as this makes it even more terrifying.
People who don’t like talking to library workers can still utilize the library to acquire recommendations. The library website (mybcpl.org) includes book lists cultivated by book experts. Using your library card, you also have access to NoveList, which is linked on our website under the “Books and More” tab. NoveList allows you to search for books based on genre and appeals. Relatedly, the Teen Area recently reorganized our fiction shelves by genre. So, if you like horror, you can now easily browse our horror section for more books. Everyone who has interacted with the new layout has enjoyed it, especially students here on class visits. Most departments of the library also have assorted physical book lists for patron perusal.
Whether you need a cozy mystery for the cold winter nights or something to distract yourself from relatives during the holidays, the staff at the Bartholomew County Public Library will happily assist you in these endeavors.
Dakota Hall is the teen programming specialist at the Bartholomew County Public Library. He can be reached at [email protected].
