Our meeting room here at Rhoads Memorial Library will be the site of county fair entries when Castro County Harvest Days commences on Saturday, Aug. 27. A variety of entries will be onsite for inspection as the annual event is set to feature a day of family fun and entertainment.
Newly released books that have arrived and are ready for checkout include: 'Overkill' (a novel) by Sandra Brown; 'The Challenge' (a novel) by Danielle Steel; 'The Edge of Summer' (a novel) by Viola Shipman.
That last book, 'The Edge of Summer,' follows Sutton Douglas, who, devastated by her mother's sudden death, searches for clues to her mother's past. Sutton knows Miss Mabel was a quiet, loving mother and very private Southern seamstress in the Ozarks, but not much else.
Sutton believes her mother had ties to a Lake Michigan resort town, so Sutton travels there for answers. She meets a woman who could be the grandmother she never knew. Sutton begins to uncover the secrets Miss Mabel hid and learns how she, Sutton, played a role in it.
'Radar Girls' is a 2021 release by Sara Ackerman which is inspired by the real Women's Air Raid Defense (WARD) during World War II. It features Daisy Wilder, who prefers bare feet, salt water, and the company of horses to high heels and elegant parties. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, she enlists in the top-secret program where women replace male soldiers in a war zone for the first time.
Under fear of imminent invasion, WARD guides pilots into blacked-out airstrips and track unidentified plans across Pacific skies. From radar towers on remote mountaintops to flooded bomb shelters, Daisy and her team must rise above their differences and work side by side since America's future is on the line.
'Ancestor Stones,' a novel of fiction by Aminata Forna, is a 2007 release that was donated to us recently. According to the book's blurb, the tale 'beautifully captures Africa's past century and her present.' It follows Abie, who leaves her home in England to visit her family in West Africa after years of civil war.
Abie hopes to reclaim the family plantation, Kholifa Estates, once owned by her grandfather. There to meet her are four aunts, whose tales supply much of the history of both the family and the country. The book, set against the backdrop of a nation's descent into chaos, is ready for checkout.
We will be closed Saturday, Sept.3, for Labor Day weekend. We will re-open at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 6.
Until next week, Happy Reading!