Vinton Public Library Newsletter
January 29th through February 3rd, 2024
Monday, January 29th
- Open 9am-5pm
- All Day: Puzzle Swap
- 10am: Adult Coloring
- 10am: Ready Set Build with Legos for Kids
- 10:30am: Tot Lot Storytime at VPRD Skate Center
- 3:30pm: Ready Set Build with Legos for Kids
Tuesday, January 30th
- Open 9am-6pm
- 11am: Children's Storytime
- 1:30pm: Read Aloud Book Club for adults at the Vinton Lutheran Home Assisted Living Center
Wednesday, January 31st
- Open 9am-5pm
- 10am: Preschool Storytime
Thursday, February 1st
- Open 9am-8pm-EXTENDED HOURS!!
- 10am: Tummy Time, birth through 18 months
- 5-8pm: Teen Coloring Night
- 6-8pm: Open Craft Night
Friday, February 2nd
- Open 9am-4pm
- 9am: Free Coffee Fridays for Adults
- 10am: Play-Doh Fun for Kids
- 12pm: Guided Journaling for Adults
- 2pm: Benton County 4H/ISU Extension-'Snow Spectacular'
Saturday, February 3rd
- Open 9am-12pm
- 9am: Indoor Mini-Golf, sign up for your timeslot below!
- 9am: SafeSitter Babysitting course for kids, preregistration required, call 319-214-2601 to register
What We're Reading: VPL Staff Book Chats
'The Only One Left' by Riley Sager
Oh. My. Goodness! Recommended to me by a friend, this is hands-down the chillingest, twistiest, can’t-put-it-down book I’ve read in a long time! (I don’t even know if a couple of those words are actual words, but they should be!)
I just finished ‘The Only One Left’ by Riley Sager, and I am an instant fan! Most of you have probably heard the story of Lizzie Borden and you may have even sung the little ditty. “Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her father 40 whacks; when she saw what she had done, she gave her mother 41.” This book references ‘Lizzie’, and draws a few comparisons, but even the true story of the Borden Family didn’t compare to this one in the shivers and shocks department.
The year is 1929, and ‘it was a dark and stormy night.’ In a gorgeous mansion on the coast of Maine, high above the rest of the lowly population, lives the Hope family; parents and two daughters. Seventeen-year-old Lenora is assumed to be guilty of killing the rest of the family, but it cannot be proven, even though she is The Only One Left. Except to say that she didn’t commit the triple murder, Lenore has never said anything else, nor has she left the mansion, known as Hope’s End.
Jump to 1983: Lenora is now seventy years old and confined to a wheelchair, requiring twenty-four-hour care. The house has deteriorated greatly, and, subject to near-constant stormy winds, has begun to slide, slowly, inexorably, to the ocean below. The shingles are flying off the roofs, cracks are appearing in the walls, the house itself tilts more each day. Into this ‘warm and charming’ scenario comes Kit McDeere, Caregiver, and freaked-out hearer of spooky tales. Her predecessor, Mary, has mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night, taking nothing with her. Where did she go? Why? Will Kit be next? Writing this is sending chills down my back! Read this book right away and try to unravel the story in a book where nothing is truly what it seems!
~Connie, Library Clerk, VPL
'Daisy Darker' by Alice Feeney
I am such a sucker for gothic thrillers with a twist ending and Alice Feeney's "Daisy Darker" delivered! Old rambling house on a lonesome island: check! Bizarre family with deep dark secrets: check! A narrator straight out of a M. Night Shyamalan movie: check! A few pages in and I was sold by Feeney's lonesome narrator and her inability to understand why her family refuses to love her. Stop in today for this fun weekend read and enjoy a free coffee on us until noon! Happy reading, friends!
~Heather Egan/Vinton Public Library Clerk
'Divine Rivals' by Rebecca Ross
'Divine Rivals' has been on the New York Times Bestseller list for 30 weeks. My go-to genre is typically historical fiction or thriller/suspense. Something I wanted to work on going into the New Year was stepping out of my comfort zone and trying something new. I took the leap after 13 years of avoiding the fantasy genre and I am SO GLAD I did!
I was enamored by the love story of the main characters, Roman Kitt and Iris Winnow.
I can't wait to find out in book number 2 'Ruthless Vows' if Roman and Iris's love story stands the test of time.....
-Kellie Roberts/Children's Librarian
'Everyone on this Train is a Suspect' by Benjamin Stevenson
Inside the book jacket of this gem is the caption 'Murder on the Orient Express' meets 'Clue;' yes please! I started Benjamin Stevenson's latest book 'Everyone on this Train is a Suspect' last night and am enjoying the ride! Several murder mystery writers are on a train ride across Australia when murder comes aboard, and the title takes it from there! The narrator, a mystery writer himself, assures me he is reliable and that it isn't a locked room mystery since none of the train cabins have locks, and I'm inclined to believe him. This book is a sequel to 'Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone' and will appeal to fans of classic mystery writers Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse. I've got big plans to read this weekend with some tea by the fire at home and will try to have the book back on our library shelves on Monday
~Kelly Henkle, Library Director
Upcoming Programming Events
Attention Teens! Beginning February 1st, we are staying open late on Thursdays and will have a weekly Teen Coloring Night! Call up a friend and stop into the library for some casual social time--materials provided, but feel free to bring your own.
Join us for a night of crafting at the library! Bring your own craft to work on while enjoying the company of others in our community! No craft? No problem! We will have a puzzle, coloring, and a paint by number canvas available for your enjoyment.
Free Mini Golf at VPL, Saturday, February 3rd, 2024!
Click on the link below to pick your time slot!
Join us in February for our 'LEAP' themed Adventures in Bookclubbing! This book club is for adults; hope to see you there!
Red Carpet Arrivals Party
We're excited to partner with McBride Mobile Taps for our Red Carpet Arrivals party!!! We'll draw for the limo raffle winner on February 20th, so buy your tickets today!!
New Books in Our Collection
'Becoming Ella Fitzgerald' by Judith Tick
'The Fury' by Alex Michaelides
'Everyone on this Train is a Suspect' by Benjamin Stevenson
'The Waters' by Bonnie Jo Campbell
'Random in Death' by J.D. Robb
'Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!' by David Zucker
'Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story' by Max Marshall
'The Ball in the Air: A Golfing Adventure' by Michael Bamberger
Author Spotlight: Alex Michaelides
VPL Note: We have all three of Alex Michaelides'' books in regular type, and we have a copy of 'The Fury' on order in large type.
Alex was born on the small Mediterranean island of Cyprus, to an English mother and a Greek-Cypriot father. He was fortunate enough to grow up in a house full of books. His mother amassed a small library and all the authors who later influenced him as a writer – Charles Dickens, Evelyn Waugh, Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood, Robert Graves, Henry James – were taken off the shelves and handed to him by his mother with the instruction ‘to read’. (An action she possibly regretted when he became a struggling writer!)
But ironically his first and most profound reading experience had nothing to do with his mother. She was perhaps a bit of a literary snob and didn’t read crime fiction – but his older sister did, and Alex snuck into her room when he was about eleven or twelve, and looked at the books on her shelf. He was immediately attracted by her selection of Agatha Christie novels, mainly intrigued by the lurid covers, and chose And Then There Were None to read. He devoured it in a state of excitement and fear and didn’t sleep all night. He was probably scarred for life – and all he wanted was more. The next summer at the beach, he read nothing but Agatha Christie – these were the first adult books he ever read – and that summer, sitting by the sea, reading, wriggling his toes in the sand, are among his happiest memories...
Finally, at the age of thirty-six, he said sat down to write that detective story he’d been putting off for twenty years. The moment he started to think about the novel, he realized there was a snag: he knew nothing about detectives – but he knew a great deal about psychotherapists. So, he decided to make his hero a psychotherapist and have him investigate a psychological crime.
He went back to his main influences – Greek myths and Agatha Christie. All her novels are set in iconic enclosed locations – and so he set The Silent Patient in a psychiatric institute; partly because was one of the few locations Christie never used – and what better location for murder mystery? It wasn’t an easy book to write, mainly because of the self-doubt that plagues anyone who attempts a long-term creative project. Perseverance and maintaining self-belief is one the most important attributes of a writer. It doesn’t get easier!
The phenomenal success of The Silent Patient was entirely unexpected. It ended up selling in fifty territories and was a worldwide bestseller. It transformed Alex’s life in all kinds of ways. When he wrote the book he wasn’t in a good place: he felt lost, lonely and very much a creative failure. Since then, not only had he had the artistic validation that he craved, his world enlarged massively: he had and continues to have interactions with people all over the world who message him to say that his books have entertained them or touched them, or in some way affected them. Not to mention the publishers and editors in various countries who have become good friends. So he went from a place of feeling alone, to a place where he never felt less lonely. It’s a happy ending, really. The journey of becoming a writer has taken him back to where, and who he was meant to be. He gets paid to write, which is something he would do for free anyway. Which is a pretty wonderful life.
Excerpt from Source: https://www.alexmichaelides.com/about
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Mondays: 9a-5p
Tuesdays: 9a-6p
Wednesdays: 9a-5p
Thursdays: 9a-8p (beginning February 1st, 2024!)
Fridays: 9a-4p
Saturdays: 9a-Noon
Sundays: Closed
Copy services: $0.20 per black and white, $0.25 per color
Fax services: $1.00 for 1-2 pages, $2.00 for 3+ pages
Notary services: No charge, call 319-472-4208 for availability
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Boardroom available at no charge; reservations required
Email: library@vintonia.gov
Website: vinton.lib.ia.us
Location: 510 2nd Avenue, Vinton, IA, USA
Phone: (319) 472-4208
Facebook: facebook.com/heartofvinton