3 Book Trails for You to Explore!
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Dates: April 26 – May 10
Location: Mylan Park Elementary
Directions: The book trail is located in the back of the school building in the outdoor learning area, adjacent to the parking lot.
Book:”Flower Garden” by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt.
Dates: May 1 – May 16
Location: Mason-Dixon Historical Park
Directions: The book trail is located on the Fairy Trail.
Book: “A Fairy Friend” by Sue Fliess and illustrated by Claire Keane
Dates: May 1 – May 31
Location: West Virginia Botanic Garden
Directions: The book trail is located on the Reservoir loop, starting by the visitor center.
Book: “Over in the Meadow” by Ezra Jack Keats
Recommended Titles
Leave a CommentRecommended Titles Compiled by Crystal Lang
How Much of These Hills is Gold / C Pam Zhang (F ZHA)
Newly orphaned children of immigrants, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existence. Fleeing the threats of their western mining town, they set off to bury their father in the only way that will set them free from their past. Along the way, they encounter giant buffalo bones, tiger paw prints, and the specters of a ravaged landscape as well as family secrets, sibling rivalry, and glimpses of a different kind of future.
Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop / Roselle Lim (F LIM)
Ever since she can remember, Vanessa has been able to see people’s fortunes at the bottoms of their teacups. To avoid blurting out fortunes, she converts to coffee, but somehow the fortunes escape and find a way to complicate her life and the lives of those around her. To add to this plight, her romantic life is so nonexistent that her parents enlist the services of a matchmaking expert from Shanghai. After her matchmaking appointment, Vanessa sees death for the first time. She decides that she can’t truly live until she can find a way to get rid of her uncanny abilities. When her eccentric aunt Evelyn shows up with a tempting offer to whisk her away, Vanessa says au revoir to California and bonjour to Paris. There, Vanessa learns more about herself and the root of her gifts, and realizes one thing to be true: Knowing one’s destiny isn’t a curse, but being unable to change it is.
A Little Life : A Novel / Hanya Yanagihara (F YAN)
When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they’re broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.
The Committed / Viet Than Nguyen (F NGU New Books)
The astonishing sequel to The Sympathizer, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, The Committed follows the “man of two minds” as he comes to Paris as a refugee. There he and his blood brother Bon try to escape their pasts and prepare for their futures by turning their hands to capitalism in one of its purest forms: drug dealing. No longer in physical danger, but still inwardly tortured by his reeducation at the hands of his former best friend, and struggling to assimilate into a dominant culture, the Sympathizer is both charmed and disturbed by Paris. As he falls in with a group of left-wing intellectuals and politicians who frequent dinner parties given by his French Vietnamese “aunt,” he finds not just stimulation for his mind but also customers for his merchandise-but the new life he is making has dangers he has not foreseen. Both a literary thriller and brilliant novel of ideas, The Committed is a blistering portrayal of commitment and betrayal that will cement Viet Thanh Nguyen’s position in the firmament of American letters.
The Kiss Quotient / Helen Hoang (F HOA)
A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there’s not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick. Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases–a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old. It doesn’t help that Stella has Asperger’s and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice–with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can’t afford to turn down Stella’s offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan–from foreplay to more-than-missionary position… Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but crave all of the other things he’s making her feel. Their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic.
The Henna Artist / Alka Joshi (F JOS)
Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist–and confidante–to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own … Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a high-spirited young girl in tow–a sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Suddenly the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened.
Pachinko / Min Jin Lee (F LEE)
PACHINKO follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them all. Deserted by her lover, Sunja is saved when a young tubercular minister offers to marry and bring her to Japan. So begins a sweeping saga of an exceptional family in exile from its homeland and caught in the indifferent arc of history. Through desperate struggles and hard-won triumphs, its members are bound together by deep roots as they face enduring questions of faith, family, and identity.
My Year Abroad / Chang-rae Lee (F LEE New Books)
Tiller is an average American college student with a good heart but minimal aspirations. Pong Lou is a larger-than-life, wildly creative Chinese American entrepreneur who sees something intriguing in Tiller beyond his bored exterior and takes him under his wing. When Pong brings him along on a boisterous trip across Asia, Tiller is pulled into a series of ever more extreme and eye-opening experiences that transform his view of the world, of Pong, and of himself.
Whereabouts / by Jhumpa Lahiri (F LAH New Books)
Exuberance and dread, attachment and estrangement: in this novel, Jhumpa Lahiri stretches her themes to the limit. The woman at the center wavers between stasis and movement, between the need to belong and the refusal to form lasting ties. The city she calls home, an engaging backdrop to her days, acts as a confidant: the sidewalks around her house, parks, bridges, piazzas, streets, stores, coffee bars. We follow her to the pool she frequents and to the train station that sometimes leads her to her mother, mired in a desperate solitude after her father’s untimely death. In addition to colleagues at work, where she never quite feels at ease, she has girl friends, guy friends, and “him,” a shadow who both consoles and unsettles her. But in the arc of a year, as one season gives way to the next, transformation awaits. One day at the sea, both overwhelmed and replenished by the sun’s vital heat, her perspective will change.
They Called Us Enemy / George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Steven Scott (B Takei)
A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei’s childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon — and America itself — in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love. George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his captivating stage presence and outspoken commitment to equal rights. But long before he braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father’s — and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future. In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten “relocation centers,” hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard. They Called Us Enemy is Takei’s firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the joys and terrors of growing up under legalized racism, his mother’s hard choices, his father’s faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future. What is American? Who gets to decide? When the world is against you, what can one person do? To answer these questions, George Takei joins co-writers Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott and artist Harmony Becker for the journey of a lifetime.
Everyday is a Gift: A Memoir / Senator Tammy Duckwort (B Duckworth)
The Iraq war veteran traces her impoverished childhood, her decision to join the Army, the months spent recovering from the RPG attack that shot down her helicopter and nearly took her life, and her subsequent mission of serving as an elected official.
Crystal Lang is the reference supervisor at the Morgantown Public Library downtown branch.
Recommended Titles
Leave a CommentRecommended Titles Compiled by Crystal Lang
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed / Lori Gottlieb (B Gottlieb)
With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times / Pema Chödrön (294.344 CHO)
Describes a traditional Buddhist approach to suffering and how embracing the painful situation and using communication, negative habits, and painful emotions leads to emotional growth and happiness.
Be Calm: Proven Techniques to Stop Anxiety Now / Jill P. Weber, PhD (152.46 WEB)
This book is both a handy resource for stress management and a close look into the causes of anxiety. Evidence-based strategies show you how to control a variety of symptoms in lots of different circumstances.
The Hilarious World of Depression / John Moe (616.8527 MOE)
Inspired by the immediate success of his podcast, Moe has written a remarkable investigation of the disease, part memoir of his own journey, part treasure trove of laugh-out-loud stories and insights drawn from years of interviews with some of the most brilliant minds facing similar challenges. Throughout the course of this powerful narrative, depression’s universal themes come to light, among them, struggles with identity, lack of understanding of the symptoms, the challenges of work-life, self-medicating, the fallout of the disease in the lives of our loved ones, the tragedy of suicide, and the hereditary aspects of the disease.
Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression-and the Unexpected Solutions / Johann Hari (616.8527 HARI)
Across the world, Hari found social scientists who were uncovering evidence that depression and anxiety are not caused by a chemical imbalance in our brains. In fact, they [believe they] are largely caused by key problems with the way we live today. Hari’s journey took him from a … series of experiments in Baltimore, to an Amish community in Indiana, to an uprising in Berlin. Once he had uncovered [what he argues are] nine real causes of depression and anxiety, they led him to scientists who are discovering seven very different solutions.
An Unquiet Mind / Kay Redfield Jamison (B Jamison)
From a leading international authority on manic-depressive illness–and one of only a handful of women who are full professors of medicine–comes a remarkable personal testimony: the revelation of her own struggle since childhood with manic-depression, and how it has shaped her life.
Broken (in the Best Possible Way) / Jenny Lawson, full grown mammal (B Lawson)
Jenny brings readers along on her mental and physical health journey, offering heartbreaking and hilarious anecdotes along the way.With people experiencing anxiety and depression now more than ever, Jenny humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we’re not alone and making us laugh while doing it. From the business ideas that she wants to pitch to Shark Tank to the reason why Jenny can never go back to the post office, Broken leaves nothing to the imagination in the most satisfying way.
Crystal Lang is the reference supervisor at the Morgantown Public Library downtown branch.
May Dial-a-Stories are Live!
Leave a CommentMay Dial-a-Stories are Live! Call 304-826-BOOK (2665).
If you haven’t heard, we now have an always available phone number where you can listen to stories, jokes, and poems. No internet required — just a phone. What you’ll hear is recorded by staff and wonderful community members.
Our menu of choices is varied so we’ve written them out below. At the end of each selection, you will automatically be redirected to the main menu, but if you don’t want to wait until the end, you can hit # to go to the main menu.
Your May story selection:
Dial 1: “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak (a children’s story read by Abigail Cyphert)
Dial 2: “No Buddy Like a Book” by Allan Wolf (a children’s story read by Sarah Palfrey)
Dial 3: “The ABCs of Yoga for Kids” Part 2 (a follow-along book read by Lynda Lukenbaugh)
Dial 4: “Eyes that Kiss in the Corners” by Joanna Ho (a children’s story read by Sarah Palfrey)
Dial 5: The Language Line– Island Greetings with Lynda Lukenbaugh
Dial 6: Joke Line (chicken-themed) with Lynda Lukenbaugh
Dial 7: Excerpt from “Stardust” by Neil Gaiman, Chapter 1 (a novel for adult readers read by Lynda Lukenbaugh) (Beltane/May Day Selection)
Women’s History Month Recommended Reads
Leave a CommentReference Supervisor at the Downtown Branch, Crystal, put together a Women’s History Month recommended reads list. All the books mentioned can be found on display on the 2nd floor!
Recommended Reads: https://www.mympls.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/CrystalRecommendedReads.pdf
Winners Announced!
Leave a CommentWe are proud to announce the winners of our 2021 3-Sentence Love Story Contest!
Submissions had to be, you guessed it, no longer than three sentences and must be their original work. Winners received a $25 gift certificate to Love LC Cookies, Morgantown’s sweet treat shop.
Thank you to everyone that participated!
Age Category: Kids (11 and under)
Winner: Ava Mason
Submission: Once upon a time, Mr. Watermelon and Mrs. Cantaloupe, two fruits of a kind, went to a five star farmers market called, Fruits are Divine. They bought some little fruits, and went back to their homes, not together forever, so sad, so wrong, until Cupid came along with his bow and arrows, and he shot them with a forever love arrow. Those fruits that were apart, came together, loving and all, to have cute baby fruits, and they all loved each other, a happy family forever.
Age Category: Teens (12-18)
Winner: Autumn Deverich
Submission: The purest form of love is the love between a parent and child. It’s called unconditional love, and it is one of the strongest forces on the planet. Not a single thing can break it.
Age Category: Adult (19+)
Winner: Laurie Abildso
Submission: After an exhausting day spent juggling Zoom meetings while ensuring the kids were logged into their virtual classrooms, I realized it was already past 6 pm, and I had no idea what to make for dinner. The sounds of my growling stomach mingled with the screams of my children fighting over who-knows-what, when I hear these magic words uttered softly in my ear: “I’ll take care of dinner tonight, honey.” And that, my friends, is LOVE.
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Emily Calandrelli, science extraordinaire and Morgantown native, is participating in this week’s Media Literacy Series video, “How to Spot Fake Science!”
Science book resources mentioned in the video: https://www.mympls.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Science-Book-Recommendations.pdf
In our 8-video Media Literacy Series, Morgantown Public Library System staff will unpack the difficult but necessary skills you will need to become a smart consumer of information on Facebook Live (https://www.facebook.com/MorgantownPublicLibrary).
Each of our videos are designed with a specific age group in mind. So, whether you are a young learner, early in your development, or a seasoned reader, anyone can benefit.
Media Literacy Series Schedule:
February 3: Finding Reliable Sources (Designed for adults featuring Dr. Nathan Wuertenberg, Staff Researcher at the Aull Center for Local History, a division of the Morgantown Public Library System) Watch it back: https://youtu.be/ZR9co_ASh8w
February 10: How to Watch the News with Your Kids (Designed for parents of young children featuring Sarah Palfrey, Library Director for the Morgantown Public Library System) Watch it back: https://youtu.be/JnpyiTgr3yw
February 17: Fact versus Opinion (Designed for teens featuring Tessa Staubly, Reference Tech at the Morgantown Public Library) Watch it back: https://youtu.be/N5q8_tML7-g
February 24: Photo Zoom and Edits (Designed for adults featuring Rowan Strother, Reference Tech at the Morgantown Public Library) Watch it back: https://youtu.be/MkumUvvwbig
March 3: How to Spot Fake Science (Designed for kids featuring Charlotte Chung, Library Assistant at the Cheat Area Public Library, a branch of the Morgantown Public Library System) Watch it back: https://youtu.be/wrttdlShxJY
March 10: Tweens and Clickbait (Designed for preteens featuring Eva Bragonje, Reference Tech at the Morgantown Public Library)
March 17: Ideological Biases (Designed for adults featuring Cody Wolfe, Reference Tech at the Morgantown Public Library)
March 24: Media Biases and How to Spot Them (Designed for adults featuring Shelby Donnelly, Evening Supervisor at the Morgantown Public Library)
Tutor.com
Leave a CommentTutor.com has updated their mobile app (tutor.com to go) meaning, with your library card, you can access expert tutors anywhere! Anyone from elementary through graduate school, as well as adults transitioning careers will find this to be a very useful resource.
- Connect with a live tutor (7days/week from 2:00pm-9:00pm) for 1-to-1 help in academic classes, study skills, and test prep.
- Submit an essay for drop-off review by an expert tutor.
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Access thousands of educational and test-prep resources through our SkillsCenter Resource Library.
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Save and review past tutoring sessions.
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Store essays, assignments, and homework problems in your Tutor.com Locker.
Learn more about our other educational and professional development tools in our online library: https://www.mympls.org/download-it/
RB Digital is Merging with Libby by OverDrive!
Leave a CommentAll 3000 magazines you love on RB Digital and up to 3 years of back issues are now available on Libby by Overdrive (https://www.mympls.org/download-it/).
The magazines will be available on both Libby by Overdrive and RB Digital through March to help better ease the transition for our patrons. After March 31st, RB Digital, it’s content and application, will be unavailable.
Please reach out to us at askmympls@gmail.com or call us at 304-291-7425 with any questions.