From Karen / That Wild Country by Mark Kenyon

FIND IT HERE:
Catalog

From Beryl / Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl

This is the story of a former Berkeley hippie entering the corporate world and worrying about losing her soul. It highlights the moment restaurants became an important part of popular culture, a time when the rise of the farm-to-table movement changed, forever, the way we eat.

FIND IT HERE:
Catalog / Libby

From Kristin / Horse by Geraldine Brooks

From Travis / The Dogs Bark by Truman Capote

FIND IT HERE:
Catalog

From Isabelle  /
Thirty Minutes Over Oregon : a Japanese pilot's World War II story by Marc Tyler Nobleman
Expedition Backyard : exploring nature from country to city by Rosemary Mosco

From Linda / Magazines at the Library like National Geographic, People, the Week and Time

Magazines at the Library like National Geographic, People, the Week and Time grab my attention when new issues arrive.  I love looking at the pictures and reading about places from all over the world, people and sometimes current events.  In addition to what is available for check out at the Library, the Libby app has over 5,500 magazines to subscribe to for FREE. 

Every topic of interest can be explored. There are no loan limits, wait lists and no due dates.  My current magazines on Libby are Quilting Arts, Love Patchwork and Quilting, Love of Quilting and Simply Sewing.  When a new issue drops, I get a notification on my phone.   I stopped buying quilting magazines; now, I can look at the current and back issues to spark my creative, obsessive endeavors without spending a dime.  With your library card, you can check out magazines at the Library for 3 weeks at a time, or download them from Libby.  Happy magazine binge reading!!!

FIND IT HERE:
Magazines on the Libby App

From Cheryl / Homeseeking by Karissa Chen

Our collection is home to a wide variety of self-improvement and skill-building materials. There are a few on display and MANY withing the stacks

Here is a sampling to get you started.

Listed below are books available at Harney County Library, as well as streaming services available through Hoopla. Click the image to see more information about the item!

Available streaming on Hoopla (FREE with your library card):

Available streaming on Hoopla (FREE with your library card):

Available streaming on Hoopla (FREE with your library card):

Book recommendations from staff members of Harney County Library! All of these titles are available either in the catalog, at the library, or on one of our e-book/audiobook platforms.

A group of the most talented magicians is selected for possible initiation into a secret society. Only five will be chosen. During the qualification year, this group will fight to survive and prove themselves the best.

Available here: Catalog (order via Sage) / Libby App / Hoopla

Based on a true story of women artists in early 1900s, when the art world was dominated by men, this tells the story of Swedish artist Hilma af Klint. Hilma and her friends formed the club for emotional support as they pursued their passion.

Available here: Catalog (order via Sage)

One of the great unsolved criminal cases of the 20th century:  the only skyjacker never to be caught by authorities.

Available here: Catalog (at HCL) / Libby App

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in jail convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. No visitors until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew.

Available here: Catalog (order via Sage + soon to be added to HCL) / Libby App / Hoopla

Set in a time when many believed a woman’s place was in the home, Elizabeth Zott is a scientist who finds the road to success very bumpy. Forging her own path, she eventually finds herself the star of a cooking show that sparks a revolution.

Available here: Catalog (at HCL) / Libby App

 A bereaved musician embarks under sail in a not-too-distant America in search of his departed, deeply beloved, wife. He finds an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, crumbled infrastructure, and a lawless society. His private quest for the love of his life sweeps up friends and foes alike.

Available here: Catalog (at HCL) / Libby App / Hoopla

ADULT:

•  A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman: Ove is grumpy but loveable. He points at people he does not like. But underneath his bitterness, there is a kind man with a story that will warm your heart. This book is funny, filled with unexpected friendships and a story to be shared over and over.
• The Essential Oils Book Creating Personal Blends For Mind & Body: recommended for its simple approach to creating herbal potpourri, salt baths, herbal steams, and sets up the reader for success on the education of essential oils to use and blend successfully.  
• Aesthetica by Allie Rowbottom: Available as an audiobook on Hoopla! A sharp look at Instagram culture and a deeper look at feminism in the digital age through the eyes of an influencer. Makes you think.
• Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid: A former tennis star returns to retake her record. Fascinating even for non-tennis afficionados.
• The Paris Wife by Paula McClain: A poignant historical fiction account of Hadley Richardson. Hemingway’s first wife and their life in Jazz Age Paris. 
• Rose Code by Kate Quinn: 1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets.

Non-Fiction Review by Marjorie Thelen
(Find Marjorie Thelen's books in the catalog or on her website)
 
The Book of Joy – Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Doug Abrams, 2016.

Find it the catalog here.

This is an uplifting and inspiring book about two giants in the spiritual community -- Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama.  Both are Nobel Prize Laurates. The Dalai Lama is head of the main Tibetan lineage of Buddhism. Tutu was a social rights activist and Anglican Bishop in South Africa. The book asks the question of how to find joy in the face of life’s inevitable hardships. Doug Abrams, writer, journalist, and friend, accompanied Bishop Tutu on a trip to Dharamsala, India to celebrate the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday in April 2015. It was a strenuous journey for the archbishop who was suffering from cancer at the time. He died in 2021. The Bishop and the Dalai Lama had long been great friends. The more delightful part of their friendship was their ability to giggle together, to keep their sense of humor. Dharmsala sits in the Indian foothills of the Himalayas, and it has been the Dalai Lamas’ refuge since he was forced out of Tibet by the Chinese in 1959. Bishop Tutu was a leading force in driving apartheid out of South Africa. Both men have known unbearable hardships, but still retain unspeakable joy. The essence of the book is true joyfulness comes from helping others, the way to change our world is by teaching compassion, and the ultimate source of happiness lies within ourselves. If you need inspiration, read this book.

Fiction Review (Audiobook) by Cheryl Hancock
(Our Harney County Library Director)

​Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

​Find in the catalog here.

Historical fiction at its best! The reader is fabulous, the story riveting and although it’s a fictional account, it is based entirely on the true story of a woman sniper in the Russian army during World War II. Sometimes called Lady Midnight, other times Lady Death, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a young single mother who became a sharpshooter so she could also be a father to her son. When Hitler invaded Russia, this young woman joined the army, became a sniper and began to record kills of the enemy, eventually totaling over 300. This fascinating story is full of family and friends, bravery, heartbreak and heroism and narrated perfectly by an extraordinary reader – I highly recommend it! 

Read it and looking for something to read next? Try one of these titles!

August Nonfiction Book Reviews by Marjorie Thelen
(Find Marjorie Thelen's books in the catalog or on her website)

Being interested in history, I look for authors and scholars who examine history from a different perspective. There are three such volumes available at the Harney County Library that feature scholars interested in looking at history from an Indigenous perspective. I recommend all three.

Archaeologies of Indigenous Presence, 2022 edited by Tsim D. Schneider and Lee M. Panich.

This is a collection of articles by a wide representation of anthropologists and archaeologists, some Indigenous. Among other subjects, they discuss how to incorporate Indigenous knowledge or presence into archaeological practice and research. Diane Teeman, enrolled member of the Burns Paiute tribe, and her colleague, Sarah E. Cowie, write about “Navigating Entanglements and Mitigating Intergenerational Trauma in Two Collaborative Projects”.  Teeman’s project is “Our Ancestors Walk of Sorrow” about the forced removal of the Burns Paiute Tribe from their ancestral homelands in the winter of 1879. Cowie’s project “Stewart Indian School Project in Carson City, Nevada” discusses the federal government’s forced assimilation of Native children from 1890 to 1980. Teeman is currently a doctoral candidate and faculty research assistant in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Reno. Cowie is a professor of anthropology at the same university. It is especially worth reading their articles, which start on page 265. They are thought-provoking and deserve careful reading as do the other articles in the book. As the editors, Schneider and Panich, point out “we will do well to reforge our institutional boilerplate to acknowledge that Native people have been here all along.” (See it in the catalog here.)

An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States, 2014 by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.

This Indigenous scholar looks at the history of the U.S. from an Indigenous perspective. She identifies settler colonialism as one of the primary causes of the harm done to Indigenous peoples and culture. The U. S. westward expansion took land from Indigenous peoples, moving them to reservations where promises by the U.S. government weren’t kept. Native culture was destroyed, and whole tribes exterminated. Indigenous children were moved to government and church run boarding schools to “civilize” them. Native peoples resisted, and they point out that “We are still here.” All of us need to read this perspective of history. (See it in the catalog here.)

Origin – A Genetic History of the Americas, 2022 by Jennifer Raft.

This anthropologist and geneticist speculates on how First Peoples arrived in North and South America based on sequencing their complete genomes. The migration of First Peoples is surrounded by controversy. Raft is critical of some of the outlandish theories that surround certain First Peoples sites in the U.S like the mound builders. If you want to learn about the speculation on how First Peoples arrived and thrived in “the New World” for thousands of years, take a look at this book. It is a challenging read. (See it in the catalog here.)

Where the Crawdads Sing
A saying that suggests “far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters.” In other words, far from other people. Check out this book before it is released as a movie in July 2022!

Release date: July 22
Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickson
Watch the Trailer

What it’s about: Set in a quiet town on the North Carolina coast, a young girl named Kya is forced to survive on her own. Known as "the marsh girl" with a love for nature, she's not accepted within her town, though she tries to fit in. We jump back and forth in time, watching Kya grow up in the past while learning about the murder of Chase Andrews in 1969's present, where locals suspect Kya's involvement.

Find the Book:
Find in Catalog (Book or Playaway) // Find on Library2Go (Book or Audiobook)

DUNE
 Meet Paul Atreides, the heir apparent to the House of Atreides. At the beginning of the novel, his family takes control of the desert planet Arrakis, the source of the most sought after commodity in the galaxy. But power like that breeds many enemies who will stop at nothing to take over Arrakis. Mixing politics, religion, and mysticism with a whole lot of adventure, Herbert sends you on an epic journey worthy of any science fiction reader. Science fiction aficionados have waited for years for a better remake of Dune, so this one could be huge if done well.

Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa
Released in 2021

Read the Book:
Find in Catalog // Find on Library2Go (Book or Audio) // Hoopla (Book, Audio, or Comic)

Watch the Movie:
Find in Catalog

The Nightingale
The clear favorite of the most-anticipated books turning into movies in 2021 is Kristin Hannah’s World War 2 drama. Set in a small village in occupied France, the story centers around two sisters. Forced to house a German officer in her home, the older sister Vianne Mauriac must decide, to protect her daughter, where exactly she should draw the line of being complicit with German demands. On the other hand, her younger sister Isabelle Rossignol feels committed to doing anything she can to resist the German occupation.

Starring: Elle Fanning and Dakota Fanning
Release Date: 2023

Read the Book:
Find in Catalog // Find on Library2Go (Book or Audio)

Woman in the Window
Among the books to movies in 2021 whose 2020 release has not been rescheduled is one of 2018’s hottest books. This psychological thriller peeks into the life of Anna Fox, a New York City recluse who, spying on the family across the street, witnesses a shocking event. With its unreliable narrator and layers of secrets, The Woman in the Window will keep you guessing to the end. Movie is available on Netflix.

Released in 2021.
Starring: Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Fred Hechinger, and Julianne Moore

Read the Book:
Find in Catalog // Find on Library2Go (Book or Audio) // Hoopla (Book)

We always get fantastic recommendations from our library patrons. These adult fiction and non-fiction books are all ones you all have excitedly told us about as dropped your books into the drop box at the front desk. Read on:

From In the days and months after Pearl Harbor, the lives of Japanese Americans across the continent and Hawaii were changed forever. In this unforgettable chronicle of war-time America and the battlefields of Europe, Daniel James Brown portrays the journey of Rudy Tokiwa, Fred Shiosaki, and Kats Miho, who volunteered for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and were deployed to France, Germany, and Italy, where they were asked to do the near impossible.

Brown also tells the story of these soldiers' parents, immigrants who were forced to submit to life in concentration camps on U.S. soil.

Woven throughout is the chronicle of Gordon Hirabayashi, one of a cadre of patriotic resisters who stood up against their government in defense of their own rights. Whether fighting on battlefields or in courtrooms, these were Americans under unprecedented strain, doing what Americans do best—striving, resisting, pushing back, rising up, standing on principle, laying down their lives, and enduring. (From Amazon)

Find in Catalog / Read or Listen on Libby

Have a book that you LOVED and want to recommend? Let us know at the front desk or send us an email ([email protected])!

Check out our books that represent characters that are underrepresented and their stories brought to life. We have put together a theme of characters (fiction and nonfiction) with lost stories brought to life by the author. All of our book picks are specifically curated with inspiration from The Bohemians by Jazmin Darznik. The real-life artists and misfits of the 1920’s including Ansel Adams, Maynard Dixon, Georgia O’Keeffe, Dorothea Lange, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and Edward Curtis. 

For a true deep dive, we recommend truly living the book that you just read. For example, the “Pisco Punch” from the Bohemians: a true historical drink. Try out the drink of a true free wander with the recipe below.

 Ansel Adams is not only a notable photographer but a pianist as well, try listening to one of his favorite Nocturnes composed by Frederic Chopin. Although these historical figures may not be with us today, their spirit still lives on, and we can still get to know them thanks to historians, authors, librarians, and archivists that dutifully preserve knowledge.

Below is a list of our underrepresented stories of counter-culturalists, misfits, and free spirits:

Circe by Madeline Miller

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child -- not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power -- the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. (From Amazon.)

Find in Catalog // Read on Library2Go // Listen on Library2Go

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

In their remote mountain village, Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. For the Akha people, ensconced in ritual and routine, life goes on as it has for generations—until a stranger appears at the village gate in a jeep, the first automobile any of the villagers has ever seen.

The stranger’s arrival marks the first entrance of the modern world in the lives of the Akha people. Slowly, Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, begins to reject the customs that shaped her early life. When she has a baby out of wedlock—conceived with a man her parents consider a poor choice—she rejects the tradition that would compel her to give the child over to be killed, and instead leaves her, wrapped in a blanket with a tea cake tucked in its folds, near an orphanage in a nearby city. (From Amazon.)

Find in Catalog // Read on Library2Go // Listen on Library2Go

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo

Quick-witted, ambitious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother’s Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure she has been longing for.

Eleven-year-old houseboy Ren is also on a mission, racing to fulfill his former master’s dying wish: that Ren find the man’s finger, lost years ago in an accident, and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master’s soul will wander the earth forever.

As the days tick relentlessly by, a series of unexplained deaths racks the district, along with whispers of men who turn into tigers. Ji Lin and Ren’s increasingly dangerous paths crisscross through lush plantations, hospital storage rooms, and ghostly dreamscapes.

Find in Catalog // Read or Listen on Library2Go // Listen on Hoopla

The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash

Twelve times a week, twenty-eight-year-old Ella May Wiggins makes the two-mile trek to and from her job on the night shift at American Mill No. 2 in Bessemer City, North Carolina. The insular community considers the mill's owners-the newly arrived Goldberg brothers-white but not American and expects them to pay Ella May and other workers less because they toil alongside African Americans like Violet, Ella May's best friend. While the dirty, hazardous job at the mill earns Ella May a paltry nine dollars for seventy-two hours of work each week, it's the only opportunity she has. Her no-good husband, John, has run off again, and she must keep her four young children alive with whatever work she can find.

Find in Catalog // Read or Listen on Library2Go // Read or Listen on Hoopla

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

One of the best known horror stories ever. Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss scientist, has a great ambition: to create intelligent life. But when his creature first stirs, he realizes he has made a monster. A monster which, abandoned by his master and shunned by everyone who sees it, follows Dr Frankenstein with murder and horrors to the very ends of the earth.

Find in Catalog // Read or Listen on Library2Go

Strange Case of Dr. Jekell and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has been a part of modern consciousness since it's publication and smashing success. The split personality of Jekyll and Hyde has disturbed audience and been retold in countless forms.

Stevenson's short novel became an instant classic. It was a Gothic horror that originated in a feverish nightmare, whose hallucinatory setting in the murky back streets of London gripped a nation mesmerized by crime and violence. The respectable doctor's mysterious relationship with his disreputable associate is finally, revealed in one of the most original and thrilling endings in English literature.

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Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher by Timothy Egan

In this bestselling autobiography, completed shortly before his death in 1984, Ansel Adams looks back at his legendary six-decade career as a conservationist, teacher, musician, and, above all, photographer.

Illustrated with eight pages of Adams' gorgeous black-and-white photographs, this book brings readers behind the images into the stories and circumstances of their creation. Written with characteristic warmth, vigor, and wit, this fascinating account brings to life the infectious enthusiasms, fervent battles, and bountiful friendships of a truly American original.

Find in Catalog / Read or Listen on Hoopla / Read on Library2Go

In Search of Chopin

In a new film from the director of award-winning and critically acclaimed trilogy In Search of Mozart, In Search of Beethoven & In Search of Haydn Phil Grabsky brings us the music and life story of one of the world’s favourite composers, Fryderyk Chopin.

Find in Catalog

What Would Frida Do?: A Guide to Living Boldly
by Arianna Davis

Revered as much for her fierce spirit as she is for her art, Frida Kahlo stands today as a brazen symbol of daring creativity. She was a woman ahead of her time whose paintings have earned her generations of admirers around the globe. But perhaps her greatest work of art was her own life.

What Would Frida Do? explores the feminist icon's signature style, outspoken politics, and boldness in love and art, even in the face of pain and heartbreak. The book celebrates her larger than life persona as a woman who loved passionately and lived ambitiously, refusing to remain in her husband's shadow. Each chapter shares intimate stories from her life, revealing how she overcame obstacles by embracing her own ideals.

Find in Catalog / Listen on Hoopla