Lovingkindness Meditation by Sharon Salzberg

On this Valentine’s Day, I’d like to share a resource that has been proven to increase people’s sense of well-being called lovingkindness meditation.  On Hoopla*, you can find guided meditations and writings from the well-known meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg, who is credited with increasing awareness about lovingkindness meditation in the United States.  The audiobooks titled Lovingkindness Meditation give readers insight into this practice, and the author offers listeners the opportunity to participate through guided meditations.

In recent decades, scientific studies have been conducted on the benefits of lovingkindness meditation.  Some of those benefits include decreases in chronic pain, depression, and anxiety and increases in positive emotions and feelings of social connectedness. 

Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate the different types of love, not just romantic, and so I end my review by sharing the lovingkindness phrases that have enhanced the lives of so many…

May you be happy,

May you be healthy,

May you be safe,

May you live with ease.

Amy Kendrick is the Branch Manager for May Memorial Library. You can reach her at akendrick@alamancelibraries.org.

*To download Hoopla, visit our website or download it on the Apple Store or Google Play Store.

Super Bowl Picks

It’s Super Bowl week, so why not have feature some books where sports and their players play a main role?

Tumble by Celia C. Pérez

Addie Ramirez decides to search for her birth father, whom she doesn’t remember at all. In the process, she also finds her grandparents, who are retired professional wrestlers, her cousins, who want to be wrestlers, and her dad, who is staging a comeback as a wrestler. This is a touching but joyous middle grade novel about finding yourself (and how much fun wrestling in a ring in the backyard can be!).

Playbook Series by Alexa Martin

If the book names didn’t clue you in (Intercepted, Fumbled, Blitzed, and Snapped), this book series features players from the NFL’s (fictional) Denver Mustangs and the women with whom they found love. Of course, there are always complications on and off the field. These books are spicy, so be warned!

Hometown victory : a coach’s story of football, fate, and coming home by Keanon Lowe

This memoir evokes all of the joys and sorrows of high school football. Keanon had a plum job as an NFL coach when his childhood friend and former high school teammate died of an opioid overdose. He returned to his hometown to coach football at Parkrose High School, and changed lives along the way. His message of overcoming his demons to be a successful player and coach in the NFL, as well as his successes and failures as a high school coach, teacher and mentor will inspire you.

Hockey night in Kenya by Danson Mutinda & Eric Walters

Kitoo and Nigosi are orphans in Kenya. They love playing soccer and other sports. When Kitoo reads a book about sports around the world, he is intrigued by ice hockey. He finds a pair of roller skates one day and decides to try this new sport. But can you play hockey in Kenya? This is an early chapter book that kids will love!

Air by Monica Roe

Emmie wants to compete in wheelchair motocross, and is saving up for her dream wheelchair. But her dreams must be delayed when there’s an incident with a poorly-designed ramp at school, and, instead of fixing it, the school gives her a full-time aide, and begins a fundraising campaign for her wheelchair. While this is what she wants, she feels she’s lost control of her own life, and must work to show her town that she wants to do this her way.

The cactus league : a novel / Emily Nemens

Jason Goodyear and the rest of the (fictional) Los Angeles Lions are in Arizona for spring training. The book’s narrator is a sports commentator, but we also hear from a batting coach, a woman looking for spring training romance, a sports agent, and other characters that make up the spring training ecosystem. Baseball lovers will enjoy this fictional look at a baseball player and the people who surround him.

The ACC basketball book of fame / by Dan Collins ; foreword by Dave Odom

We can’t finish this list without throwing in an ACC-centric book about basketball! Dan Collins went to UNC-Chapel Hill, and wrote about Wake Forest sports for more than 20 years. He’s compiled a list of greats from ACC basketball, and features both the known players and the unknown. This book was published in 2015, so it won’t include anyone in the past decade or so, but there are so many great players to choose from in the past of the ACC that you won’t miss reading about the more recent players.

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. You can reach her at madams@alamancelibraries.org.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, lets chat about romance novels. What are they and why do we like them? There are two requirements for a book to be considered a romance. One, the main plot centers on two individuals falling in love. The author can include as many subplots as they like (murder mystery, baking competition, alien invasion, etc.), as long as the love story is the main focus. Two, there has to be a happy every after. Many romance readers (including me) take comfort in the guarantee that there will be an emotionally satisfying ending waiting for us.

There is a lot of diversity in romance. These novels can be set in any time or place, have any tone or style, and having varying levels of steaminess. Below, I am sharing a favorite contemporary, historical, and paranormal romance.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Ali Hazelwood is one of my top contemporary romance writers. She has become known for writing romance novels featuring women in STEM fields. In this book, Olive is a busy PhD candidate needs a boyfriend and it does not matter who. Enter Adam, a young professor, who agrees to be her fake boyfriend. As time goes on, real feelings begin to emerge and they have to decide what to do next.

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore

This debut novel is the first in Evie Dunmore’s A League of Extraordinary Women. It is 1879 and Annabelle is in the first cohort of female students at Oxford University. She is also involved in the women’s suffrage movement and is recruiting men of influence to help champion their cause. Her target is the Duke of Montgomery and more than politics will be at play. Once you finish this first book, continue on with the rest of their series featuring more strong-willed women who have met their match.

Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper

In this paranormal romance series, the town of Thistle Grove is home to magical residents. Emmy Harlow retreated to the non-magical world years ago after a bad breakup. She reluctantly returns for a town-wide celebration. On her first night back, Emmy meets two other witches who have also been duped by the same man. They agree to team up and exact revenge. This book and the novels in the rest of the series are cozy rom-coms that you do not want to miss.

I have too many favorite authors to go into detail on all of them. Other authors I would recommend include Tessa Bailey, Sarah Hogle, Martha Waters, Alexis Hall, Jasmine Guillory, and Sarah MacLean. I invite you to pick a new author to explore.

Amanda Gramley is the Adult Programming Coordinator. You can reach her at agramley@alamancelibraries.org.

This Wednesday, January 24, is National Peanut Butter Day, which made me think of peanut butter and jelly, which made me think of other great pairs, trios and groups in children’s literature. Kids love reading about friends who support each other, and there are some great books in the library to read to and with your children!

Pea, Bee and Jay by Brian Smith

Of course, I had to start with this early reader graphic novel series, since they’re the inspiration for this book post! In the first book, Strawberry dares Pea to roll off of the farm, and a thunderstorm knocks him off course. He meets new friends, Bee and Jay, who help him get back home. There are now 6 books featuring Pea, Bee and Jay.

Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel

Frog and Toad are a classic pair. This series has charmed kids for decades now with short, sweet adventures written at the level of kids just learning to read. In this book, Frog and Toad bake cookies, grow a garden and act bravely together. These books are also available as eaudiobooks through Libby, which would be great for listening to as you go about your day or to and from school!

Today I Will Fly! By Mo Willems

Elephant and Piggie are one of the great duos of modern children’s literature. Uptight Elephant and freewheeling Piggie are total opposites, yet they have a wonderful relationship. This first book has Piggie announcing he will fly. Elephant is skeptical – pigs don’t fly – but when you get help from others, anything can happen!

Stick and Stone by Beth Ferry

This series shows young children how we all have something to share with friends. In the first book of the series, Stick saves Stone from a prickly situation with Pinecone, and now Stone wants to return the favor and rescue Stick.

Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

Ulysses (the squirrel) accidentally dies after an encounter with a vacuum cleaner, but Ulysses is saved by Flora and comes back as a super hero. He has super strength, he can fly, and he can recite (bad) poetry! Flora is cynical, but maybe the existence of a super hero squirrel can make her have hope in the world again.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

This is the first of the books about the Gaither sisters. Siblings are your first friends, and Delphine and her younger sisters have come to stay with their mother in Oakland, California in 1968. But their mother doesn’t really want them there and is going to send them to the local Black Panther camp.

Other options:

Picture books –Otis and Peanut by Naseem Hrab, Toot and Puddle by Holly Hobbie, Kite Day: A Bear and Mole story by Will Hillenbrand

Early Readers – Fox and Chick by Sergio Ruzzier, George and Martha by James Marshall, Frank and Bean by Jamie Michalak

Juvenile Fiction – Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows, The Terrible Two by Mac Barnett and Jory John, Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. She can be reached at madams@alamancelibraries.org.

In the dark I see you. Narayanan, Mallika. New York: Union Square & Co., 2023.

A blind woman stumbles (literally) over a body in her neighbor’s condo, and becomes a suspect in this great psychological thriller.

Audrey is blind, and lives in a lovely condo development in Sleepy Point, a suburb of NYC. Her next-door neighbor is Sarah. Sarah has a baby, Nicole, whom Audrey sometimes babysits, while Sarah goes to the gym or to a class. It’s not immediately clear what Sarah does (or will do after maternity leave), but Audrey works from home as an accountant.

What comes apparent fairly quickly is that Audrey has some secrets and is living in Sleepy Point for a specific reason – to investigate Sarah. When Sarah is found dead in her apartment, and Audrey is the one who finds the body, she becomes a suspect. The police believe that she’s keeping information from them, but would never guess what (and neither will you!).

This story goes back and forth in time and tells the past from both Sarah and Audrey’s points of view. When the twist came, I had just figured it out a few chapters before, but some reviewers say it caught them completely by surprise.

This is Narayanan’s fiction debut, and in some ways, it shows. There are a few characters that don’t get enough “page time,” and I would have liked to known more about them. But overall, I loved the character development and how she wrote a complex story that slowly unfurls. It is the type of story that after you know the twist, you want to go back and reread the story with the knowledge you now have.

If you like psychological thrillers and slow burn stories, then you’ll love In The Dark I See You.

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. She can be reached at madams@alamancelibraries.org.

Speak Your Truth with Love and Listen Deeply. Sofer, Oren Jay. Sounds True; 2022.

During the height of COVID, I started studying communication with Oren Jay Sofer, a certified trainer in Nonviolent Communication or NVC.  I recently discovered that one of his titles Speak Your Truth with Love and Listen Deeply is available as an audiobook on our library’s digital platform Hoopla.  The book covers many of the topics we discuss in his classes, and I think that people looking to improve their communication skills in the new year will find the information helpful. 

The audiobook is read by the author, and the narration is both soothing and engaging.  The book is laid out as if it were an eight-session course, with a different topic highlighted each session.  Some of the topics include intentions and needs, handling our emotions, the power of empathy, finding your voice, and difficult conversations.

The author provides clear and accessible instruction, using stories from his own life and his students’ lives to illustrate how NVC tools can be useful in conversation.  He also offers reflection exercises and guided meditations as a way to practice with each topic.

In addition to being an NVC trainer, the author is also a meditation teacher and Somatic Experiencing (SE) practitioner.  His teachings include tools from each philosophy, which I find adds a level of depth and breadth I have not received from other communication trainings.  If you are looking for ways to be more mindful in your relationships and specifically with your communication, I highly recommend this audiobook and the author’s teachings.

Amy Kendrick is the Branch Manager for May Memorial Library. You can reach her at akendrick@alamancelibraries.org.

New to Hoopla? You’ll find instructions on our Downloadable Resources page!

The princess of Thornwood Drive. Moreau, Khalia. New York: Forever, 2023.

Content Warnings: death of parents, panic attacks, off-page sexual assault.

I love books like The Princess of Thornwood Drive that straddle genres and make you think about what is real.

This is a wonderful, touching story of two sisters. One (Alyssa) has a traumatic brain injury, the other (Laine) is her caregiver. Laine feels guilty about the accident that killed her parents and paralyzed her sister. She thinks if she hadn’t lied and said she was sick and couldn’t come home from college, they never would have been in the car. Laine is struggling to keep a roof over their heads and pay the bills. But she still wants the best for her sister. She’s just moved her to Lake Forest Day Care Center, which isn’t going to charge for her care. Laine is too tired to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when she’s worried their uncle wants to purchase their house from under them.

Alyssa isn’t able to communicate with her sister, but she is still present in her body. However, she believes she is a princess and her parents are missing in the Dark Forest. She sees her sister as the First Princess and herself as the Second Princess. When she and Laine enter Lake Forest, she sees it as a healing center for changels, and smells the rot. She communicates with her fellow changels via their mind connection, and they warn her of the dark prince who hurts women. But how can she communicate this information to Laine?

The narrative jumps back and forth between the sisters, giving different viewpoints of what is going on. While you know that Laine’s viewpoint is the reality and Alyssa’s is coming from her brain injury, there are times when the lines are blurred and you’re not quite sure. Alyssa’s fantasy world is vivid and detailed.

This book does deal with some upsetting topics (see the content warnings above), and it also serves as a warning to all of us how easy it is to abuse power when you’re working with people with brain injuries, developmental delays or any other disability that makes them reliant on others for care. I hurt for Alyssa and her friends, who had no way to share what was happening.

There are so many wonderful details in this book (like that Laine and Alyssa were award-winning black equestrian riders), that I felt I was able to drop into their lives and enjoy their story. I do wish there was more explanation of the divide between them and their uncle, because that becomes an important factor in the story.

I highly recommend this book for lovers of realistic fiction as well as fantasy!

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. You can reach her at madams@alamancelibraries.org.

Women Are Some Kind of Magic Series by Amanda Lovelace

In Amanda Lovelace’s first collection of poetry she explores the hopes and struggles of her past and present by leaning into fairy tales and themes we all grew up with. She explores subjects of toxic relationships and self-love by setting them against the backdrop of fairy tales to give herself (and her readers) a happy ending.

The Princess Saves Herself in This One. Lovelace, Amanda. Kansas City Missouri: Andrews McMeel Publishing, a division of Andrews McMeel Universal, [2017].

This first collection is separated into four parts; the princess, the damsel, the queen, and you. Lovelace lets the last part, “you” focus on the reader while the first three sections focused on herself. Lovelace explores a raw and honest take on love, loss, grief, and healing with this collection that connects to the reader in a personal way.

The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One. Lovelace, Amanda. Kansas City Missouri: Andrews McMeel Publishing, a division of Andrews McMeel Universal, [2017].

This second collection follows a singular character more so. We have the witch, who is powerful, independent, and now – she is indestructible. Lovelace focuses on being strong and unapologetic and excepting of self-love and feminine power in this collection. She also advocates for the reader to realize all of those things and to embrace that in their own life. 

The Mermaid’s Voice Returns in This One. Lovelace, Amanda. Kansas City Missouri: Andrews McMeel Publishing, a division of Andrews McMeel Universal, [2017].

The final collection of poems shows that, like a mermaid, we are all more than what people see. Instead of just being the “siren” we are soft and in need of a safe space. One of Lovelace’s themes in this collection is the idea of healing and the courage it takes to get to that place. This collection also contains some guest poems by other poets, to allow more voices to showcase unity.

This isn’t your typical poetry. Lovelace doesn’t focus on rhyming lines or meter, nor does she have a heavy emphasis on syllabic beats, Lovelace writes her poems in a more modern way. She focuses on stream of conscience – on how we think or talk.

Note: This entire collection of poems does contain themes of abuse, assault, and healing that Lovelace does warn the reader about at the beginning of each book.

Kayleigh Dyer is a Library Technical Processing Assistant at May Memorial Library. Contact her at kdyer@alamancelibraries.org.

The Wings of Fire Series by Tui T. Sutherland

Looking for holiday gifts for your late elementary/middle school children? We often get questions about different book series to purchase for kids, so this week, we’re featuring The Wings of Fire series by Tui Sutherland.

The Wings of Fire series is about a group of dragonets who are part of a prophecy to end the endless wars between the seven dragon tribes. The Talons of Peace kidnapped the dragonets years ago and have raised them together in a cave. In the outside world, dragons, for the most part, live with their species. Few places exist where dragons of different types would spend any amount of time together, leading to a lot of misconceptions of each other and even hatred. But these five dragons have been raised as friends, knowing they’re going to have to work together to stop the Dragon Wars.

In the first book, the dragonets escape the caves when one of their lives is threatened by the dragons holding them. Unfortunately, they are immediately captured by the queen of the Skywings, and must find a way to escape from her kingdom as well.

Each book has one dragonet as its main character. The first five books deal with first prophecy. Book 6 begins the second prophecy (with a new set of dragonets), and Book 11 introduces a whole new continent, with new dragon species! The original books are now being re-released as graphic novels.

Sutherland has built a wonderful fantasy world that kids will enjoy exploring through these books. As an adult, I enjoyed them greatly, and have seen kids fly through the series. With fifteen books in the main series, companion books and the graphic novels, there is plenty to get excited about.

There are many positive messages these books teach:

Friendship across species – Kids will find it easy to understand that the dragons are judging others by their outward characteristics and prejudices, and why that is wrong.

Kindness – The villains in these stories are ruthless and unkind, and each story reinforces that while evil can rule for a time, goodness always prevails if dragons (or people!) stand together. There also are characters who have made bad choices (or have been led to making bad choices) and are given the chance to redeem themselves.

A Sense of Adventure – If your kid loves adventure, these books deliver in spades! There are numerous battles in each book, and each dragon has their own special powers and strengths. What you’ll love is how different types of strength and power are celebrated, so every kid reading it will find a character with which they really identify.

Diversity/Neurodiversity – As I stated above, each dragon has their own power and strengths. The world values certain traits over others (both our world and the dragon world), but having those preferred traits don’t necessarily lead to success. Kids learn to value their own strengths and feel they are an important part of the world.

Representation: There are LGBTQIA+ characters, which means kids who identify as such feel seen.

(Possible) Negatives:

Violence: These books do depict dragon deaths. The violence is not gratuitous, but it might upset some children. There are dragons who have seized power (and hold power) through violence.

Neglect: Some dragonets are welcomed back into their families, while others are not. The dragons watching over the dragonets in the beginning are pretty callous at times.

Romance: The dragons do have crushes on each other, and talk about liking each other. Any romance depicted is age-appropriate (holding tails), but it is a part of these books that you might be surprised to see!

However, these “negatives” shouldn’t stop your children from enjoying these books! If your children are concerned, or you are, you can talk about these topics as your children read these books, or even before they begin the series. Talking about something happening to a book character, like a dragon, is a good way to introduce a topic with children in a way that doesn’t seem as threatening or personal to them.

We always love giving book recommendations and helping to grow a love of books in children. Come by any library for more recommendations.

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. You can reach her at madams@alamancelibraries.org.