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 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!
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Read it and looking for something to read next? Try one of these titles! The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
The Marsh King's Daughter by Karen Dionne
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
Educated by Tara Westover
Have recommendations to share? Leave them in the comments section!
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: Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown "Facing the Mountain is a such a good book. It is a painful book, but a book that we all should read. Read and heed."  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 Code Girls by Liza Mundy "Story is told really well, not like a history book. Very interesting to hear about these women working through the worse conditions to get really important work done. Hard to put down, you have to get to the next CD."  Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment. (From Amazon) Find in Catalog / Read or Listen on Libby Piranesi by Susanna Clarke "A brilliant story about being lost and found."  Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house. There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known. Find in Catalog / Read or Listen on Libby The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden  "At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn't mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse's fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil. After Vasilisa's mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa's new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows. And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa's stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent. As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse's most frightening tales." 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 (harneycl@harneycountylibrary.org)!
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: Fiction:  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 Bohemians by Jasmin Darznik In this novel of the glittering and gritty Jazz Age, a young aspiring photographer named Dorothea Lange arrives in San Francisco in 1918. As a newcomer—and naïve one at that—Dorothea is grateful for the fast friendship of Caroline Lee, a vivacious, straight-talking Chinese American with a complicated past, who introduces Dorothea to Monkey Block, an artists’ colony and the bohemian heart of the city. Dazzled by Caroline and her friends, Dorothea is catapulted into a heady new world of freedom, art, and politics. She also finds herself falling in love with the brilliant but troubled painter Maynard Dixon. As Dorothea sheds her innocence, her purpose is awakened and she grows into the artist whose iconic Depression-era “Migrant Mother” photograph broke the hearts and opened the eyes of a nation. Find in Catalog  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. Find in Catalog // Read or Listen on Hoopla Nonfiction  The Good Daughter by Jasmin Darznik We were a world of two, my mother and I, until I started turning into an American girl. That's when she began telling me about The Good Daughter. It became a taunt, a warning, an omen. Jasmin Darznik came to America from Iran when she was only three years old, and she grew up knowing very little about her family's history. When she was in her early twenties, on a day shortly following her father's death, Jasmin was helping her mother move; a photograph fell from a stack of old letters. The girl pictured was her mother. She was wearing a wedding veil, and at her side stood a man whom Jasmin had never seen before. At first, Jasmin's mother, Lili, refused to speak about the photograph, and Jasmin returned to her own home frustrated and confused. But a few months later, she received from her mother the first of ten cassette tapes that would bring to light the wrenching hidden story of her family's true origins in Iran: Lili's marriage at thirteen, her troubled history of abuse and neglect, and a daughter she was forced to abandon in order to escape that life. The final tape revealed that Jasmin's sister, Sara - The Good Daughter - was still living in Iran. Find in Catalog Ansel Adams: An Autobiography 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  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  The Art and Life of Maynard Dixon by Donald Hagerty "I know my West some, but to realize how big and splendid and free and magnificent and God-made it really is, once in a while, I have to look on Maynard Dixon's pictures," said Wilbur Hall in 1937. Added to this new edition are 20 newly discovered Dixon paintings, along with 12 previously unpublished black-and-white photographs, many of them portraits of Dixon taken by Dorothea Lange. This beautiful book captures the magnificence of Dixon's work and his unique personality. Find in Catalog Deep Dives  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 Local History |
| So many of our patrons have loved reading The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi! So, on the heels of our wonderful author talk with her last week, we have a list of other fabulous authors to read next! All can be ordered via the Sage System. Click the title of the book to find it in the catalog. |  |
| | Not sure how to order a book? Watch this video, stop into the library, or give us a call! |
27 Great Books by Indian Authors
This list was curated by Isabelle! Those with asterisks* can be found at HCL.
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 | Lahiri, Jumpa –
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 | Sonali, Dev –
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 | Perkins, Mitali –
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 | Rushdi, Salman –
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 | Majumdar, Megha –
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 | Umrigar, Thrity –
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 | Vijay, Madhuri –
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 | Basu, Dksha –
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 | Enjeti, Anjali –
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 | Desai, Kiran –
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 | Tagore, Rabindranath – |
 | Verghese, Abraham –
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 | Joshi, Alka –
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Authors
Authored by the staff at Harney County Library!
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