Library Champion: Want a reading challenge this winter?
Library Champion,
We have summer reading programs each year to help students avoid the “summer slide.” Adults get to join in on the fun, too, and participate in our adult summer reading program. But some of us are busy in the summer, using the time to travel and enjoy the summer sun. But in the winter, many of us stay put. That’s why we have an adult winter reading program!
Join us for our annual adult winter reading program held all winter. Through March 20, read 3 books you have had on your “to read” list. Log them on your winter reading challenge form and when you complete the challenge, you get to pick a book for the library to buy! You will even get your name on the inside of the book so others know you picked it!
You can use books from our library, from your own collection, digital books or books on CD. You can join the program at any time and if you can remember any reading that you’ve done up until that point you’re welcome to go back and count that.
Donate to the library today! It takes less than a minute. Click here.
To get started, please register so we know how many people participated. You can download the winter reading challenge form by clicking here. All of the details and links can also be found on our website here.
Stay warm and enjoy your books!
Donate to the library today! It takes less than a minute. Click here.
Here is one book I am reading and a book that I just bought for the library’s collection.
I am reading Still Life by Louise Penny
(Book #1 in the Chief Inspector Gamache series: Adult fiction, mystery)
I will admit I am late to the Louise Penny party. Many readers I respect have lauded her books for years and I have put off picking up one of her books. I finally gave in and picked up her first book in the Chief Inspector Gamache series and I’m sure glad I did.
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team find that Miss Jane Neal has been shot through the heart with an arrow. Is it a hunting accident or murder? Gamache sets up shop in the charming village B&B owned by a gay couple but is suspended when he refuses to arrest a local bowman who confesses after his sullen son is fingered for the crime. His longtime associate Beauvoir takes over while Gamache ponders the case.
Jane, who never exhibited her work, had just had an astonishing folk art painting accepted for a show. Her obnoxious niece Yolande, who can’t wait to get into Jane’s house, gets a court order to keep the police out. Meanwhile, an equally arrogant trainee has not done her job checking wills, and a new one turns up leaving almost everything to Jane’s neighbor Clara Morrow, a married artist who’d been like a daughter to Jane, whose youthful romance had been quashed by her parents. Because no one had ever been allowed past Jane’s kitchen, everyone’s dumbfounded to find walls, recently covered by Yolande in appalling wallpaper, full of murals. The slight difference Clara notices between the murals and Jane’s painting holds the clue to her murder.
Bottom line: Cerebral, wise and compassionate, it’s never too late to start reading this series.
Donate to the library today! It takes less than a minute. Click here.
One of the books I purchased that you should check out: Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It by Ethan Kross (Adult nonfiction)
In this deft debut, Kross, director of the University of Michigan’s Emotion & Self Control Laboratory, helps readers better understand what it means to be human.
We all talk to ourselves every day, and even the calmest characters among us do so at a blistering pace. What experimental psychologists and neuroscientists refers to as “chatter” is the part of this one-person tête-à-tête that falls into a pattern of thinking, common to the human condition, in which reflection becomes a burden. Since we aren’t going to stop talking to ourselves—and, frankly, we don’t want to; the voices in our heads have valuable things to say—it’s important we use our introspection effectively:
“Chatter underlies a variety of mental illnesses,” notes the author, who artfully describes how we talk to ourselves, why those conversations are helpful, and the triggers that can get us into trouble. He shows readers meaningful ways to reframe the discussion, when to seek assistance, and how to better support friends and family. The potential of a mind constructively channeled is no small thing, but it’s not all about being perpetually present. “The power of the mind to heal itself is, indeed, magical (in the awe-inspiring, not supernatural, sense).” Even if you have all the tools, which the author provides, “it’s critical that you build your own toolbox.”
Throughout this fascinating narrative, fluidly written and packed with insight, Kross is consistently concise, practical, and well organized. Although an academic with impressive credentials, the author speaks to all students of life, grounding the text with illuminating vignettes pulled from the lives of public figures as well as his own.
Bottom line: In the end, Kross shows us how we might have better chats with ourselves, ones that make us happier, healthier, and more productive people.
Donate to the library today! It takes less than a minute. Click here.
Did you know? Lists of our new releases are available in-person at the library and online so that you never miss a new release.
Is your library card current? If not, click here to see. It’s one of the most powerful things you can have.
Your support ensures that a library card is incredibly valuable and remains free.
Need some law in your life?
Do you have questions about everyday law? ⚖️ We have print copies of Pennsylvania consolidated statutes, real estate law, landlord-tenant law, and more! Sometimes it’s nice to just have the print copy in front of you. Request those titles and more below ⤵️
⚫ Pennsylvania real estate law
⚫ Pennsylvania landlord-tenant law and practice
⚫ Nolo’s Encyclopedia of everyday law : answers to your most frequently asked legal questions
You can make a donation to the library in under 2 minutes. Click here to do just that.
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Your library misses you. We wish you and your family health and wellbeing during these (and all) times.
–Vince Giordano
Librarian and Director of the Juniata County Library.
P.S.- You don’t need to make an account or jump through any hoops to be a library champion. I wouldn’t say this if it wasn’t true. You can make this happen in less than a minute. Just click here.