Shelf Talk April 21

Reading recommendations from the Dripping Springs Community Library chatted up by columnist Alice Adams.

Believe it or not, a cozy corner and a good book will do wonders for your mood, your outlook and your attitude…and if any of the following books tweak your interest, just know they’ll be waiting on the shelves at your Dripping Springs Community Library -- as soon as the current shut-down, quarantine is lifted. In the meantime, some of these selections are available online -- if you just can’t wait to read them. 

CHILDREN’S DEPARTMENT 

X-treme X-ray: see the world inside out!  Photographs by Nick Vease -- Discover what it's like to have x-ray vision!  Step inside the world of x-rays where you can see behind walls, inside objects, and even through skin! Ever wonder what you would like? What about a laptop computer or cell phone? A spider or a fish? Each page features an x-ray photo of a person or object in nature, sports, or technology with descriptions and fun facts about the images themselves, along with a brief explanation of how x-rays work.

YOUNG ADULT DEPARTMENT

All the Days Past, All the Days to Come by Mildred D Taylor -- The saga of the Logan family - made famous in the Newbery Medal-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - concludes in a long-awaited and deeply fulfilling story.

In her 10th book, Mildred Taylor completes her sweeping saga about the Logan family of Mississippi, which is also the story of the civil rights movement in America of the 20th century.

Cassie Logan, first met in Song of the Trees and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, is a young woman now, searching for her place in the world, a journey that takes her from Toledo to California, to law school in Boston, and, ultimately, in the '60s, home to Mississippi to participate in voter registration. She is witness to the now-historic events of the century: the Great Migration north, the rise of the civil rights movement, preceded and precipitated by the racist society of America, and the often violent confrontations that brought about change.

Rich, compelling storytelling is Ms. Taylor's hallmark, and she fulfills expectations as she brings to a close the stirring family story that has absorbed her for over 40 years. It is a story she was born to tell.

ADULT DEPARTMENT

In five years by Rebecca Serle -- Where do you see yourself in five years? Dannie Kohan lives her life by the numbers. She is nothing like her lifelong best friend—the wild, whimsical, believes-in-fate Bella. Her meticulous planning seems to have paid off after she nails the most important job interview of her career and accepts her boyfriend’s marriage proposal in one fell swoop, falling asleep completely content.

But when she awakens, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. Dannie spends one hour exactly five years in the future before she wakes again in her own home on the brink of midnight—but it is one hour she cannot shake. In Five Years is an unforgettable love story, but it is not the one you’re expecting.