• 'Flint Kill Creek' by Joyce Carol Oates
• 'The Close Up' by Pip Drysdale
• 'Pictures of You' by Emma Grey
• 'Bellevue' by Robin Cook
• 'Christmas with the Queen' by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

• 'Tom Clancy: Defense Protocol' by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson
• 'Stuart Woods' Golden Hour' by Brett Battles

• 'The Menopause Brain' by Lisa Mosconi, PhD
• 'The Cinnamon Bun Book Store' by Laurie Gilmore

• 'The Last One' by Rachel Howzell Hall
• 'From Here to the Great Unknown' by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough (Large Type)
• 'Christmas with the Queen' by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb (Large Type)

~'Tales of Hope: Life Lessons from a Missionary to Africa' by Stephen M. Demoss

~'Sleep No More' by Jane Ann Krentz (Large Print)

Take home one of these new titles in Large Type Western Fiction:

~'The Edge of Nowhere' by William W. Johnstone

~'Devil's Tower' by Wayne D. Dundee

~'Trail of Blood' by Sebastian Morales

~'Pecos Law' by Bradford Scott

I have finally found a book that showcases the true wretchedness complete and utter heartbreak can cause after the sudden, unexpected ending of love. And the hilarity beneath it all! Dolly Alderton's ‘Good Material’ is a book I wish I had read during my divorce: I might have come out of it a little less injured.

Alderton knows her way through the warped landscape of love and loss and writes with such humor that I found myself laughing and crying throughout each chapter to the point of absurdity. I recommend this book to anyone that has been through a nasty breakup in the age of social media where you can’t help but find yourself stalking someone online to the point that you have to delete your accounts to get your life back. Hahaha. I jest. Well, sort of…

Check out this title today; it has a 3.88 rating on Goodreads.com. Happy reading, friends! ~Heather

I recently finished 'When Christmas Comes' by Andrew Klavan. I appreciated Klavan's writing so much that I read the second and third books in the series as well. Melancholy and atmospheric, this is not your average Christmas 'feel-good' tale. Cameron Winter is a former US intelligence officer coming to terms with his violent past and lavish yet emotionally neglected childhood. He works through guilt, emotional isolation and loneliness by focusing the power of his intuition and deductive skills into investigating an 'open-and-shut' yet heinous crime.

I would recommend this book for fans looking for something darker than a cozy mystery, yet not quite a thriller. This book currently has 3.92/5 stars on Goodread.com.

Happy reading!

Kelly Henkle, Library Director

VPL Note: We have a large selection of books by Jan Brett in our Children's Library, including her latest title 'Alice in A Winter Wonderland.' Check them out today!

As a student at the Boston Museum School, she spent hours in the Museum of Fine Arts. "It was overwhelming to see the room-size landscapes and towering stone sculptures, and then moments later to refocus on delicately embroidered kimonos and ancient porcelain," she says. "I'm delighted and surprised when fragments of these beautiful images come back to me in my painting."
Travel is also a constant inspiration. Together with her husband, Joe Hearne, who is a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jan visits many different countries where she researches the architecture and costumes that appear in her work. "From cave paintings to Norwegian sleighs, to Japanese gardens, I study the traditions of the many countries I visit and use them as a starting point for my children's books.""

Source: https://janbrett.com/biography.htm

To encourage a sense of community and creativity, our library is holding a community quilt project. The blocks will be assembled into a finished quilt that will be auctioned off in the Spring/Summer of 2025. The proceeds from the auction will benefit future programming at the Vinton Public Library. We hope the project appeals to beginning quilters, experienced quilters, and everyone in between. Thank you for supporting our library!

• Submit a 9 1/2" X 9 1/2" unfinished quilt block
• Fabric available at the library
• Email library@vintonia.gov with any questions
• Team of quilters helping with the project

Stop by the library book sale and browse through our selection of adult titles. Books are sold on a first come, first served basis; all proceeds benefit future library programming. The sale is located in our board room on the lower level. Hard copy books are $1.00, paperbacks are $0.50.

Let's get creative and have some fun this holiday season with a Gingerbread House contest!!
*Contest open to readers of all ages
*Entries will be accepted December 9th-20th, 2024
*Please include a display baseplate with your entry
*1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will be announced Friday, December 20th, 2024 at 3pm

Join us for a special Fireside Read-Aloud Series in the Vinton Public Library Reading Room. Margie Ortgiesen will be reading Truman Capote's classic 'A Christmas Memory.' The Friends of the Vinton Public Library is providing cocoa and cookies.

• Tuesday, December 10th at 6pm, 'A Christmas Memory' Part I
• Tuesday, December 17th at 6pm, 'A Christmas Memory' Part II

Join us for our monthly book club where you pick the book! This month's theme is 'Deck the Halls'; this could be an author's last name of Hall, a book with decorations on the cover, or a book about ornaments. Get creative! We offer this book club at two different times; pick the one that works for you!

• Thursday, December 19th at 12pm
• Thursday, December 19th at 6pm

National Puzzle Day is January 29th, 2025 and we're celebrating with a puzzle swap! Between January 10th and January 22nd, drop off your puzzle and pick up one in exchange! Puzzles must be clean, in like-new condition, with all pieces included. Puzzles for all ages and difficulty levels welcome!

Congratulations to Susan M. for winning a VPL swag bag for the "Read Grateful" Beanstack reading challenge in November!!!

Meet Charley, our December Kid Librarian!

Congratulations to Diane W. for winning a VPL swag bag for the "Read Grateful" Beanstack reading challenge in November!!!

Congrats to our friend who has read 400 books!

Love 'book-to-movie' adaptations? So do we! Join our 'Red Carpet Reading Challenge' and read 6 books from our list that were made into Oscar-nominated films! Finish the challenge and you'll receive your own trophy at our 2nd Annual Red Carpet Fundraiser on Sunday, March 2nd.

Meet Lincoln, our December Kid Librarian!

It's the 100th anniversary of 'When We Were Very Young' by A.A. Milne where we first met Winnie the Pooh! Celebrate with one of these titles available at the library!

"Poet, writer, playwright, and journalist Alan Alexander Milne was born in London. His father was the headmaster at Henley House School, and Milne studied there under H.G. Wells. He earned a BA in mathematics at Cambridge University before moving to London, where he worked as the assistant editor of the humor magazine Punch for eight years (1906–1914). Milne served as an officer in the British army in World War I, after which he devoted his career to writing.

Milne’s voice often incorporates humor and wordplay, but though his subjects are fanciful, they are often grounded in a serious emotional reality. After his only child, Christopher Robin, was born, Milne began to write the children’s books for which he is best known: two poetry collections, When We Were Very Young (1924) and Now We Are Six (1927), and the story books Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). His Toad of Toad Hall (1930) is an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. Milne published prolifically in many genres, including numerous plays—most notably Mr. Pim Passes By (1919)—and a novel, The Red House Mystery (1922).

Milne also published poetry for adults, including Behind the Lines (1940) and The Norman Church (1948). He wrote three nonfiction books on war and pacifism, Peace with Honour (1934), War with Honour (1940), and War Aims Unlimited (1941), as well as the autobiographies When I Was Very Young (1930) and It’s Too Late Now: The Autobiography of a Writer (1939), and the essay collection Year In, Year Out (1952).

Milne died on January 31, 1956, at his home in Sussex. A selection of his papers is held at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. " ~Source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/a-a-milne

It didn't take this friend long to reach 100 books after joining our 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Challenge!

This family had a fun night making Christmas Tree Button ornaments at our Craft Night!

Mondays: 9a-5p

Tuesdays: 9a-8p

Wednesdays: 9a-5p

Thursdays: 9a-8p

Fridays: 7a-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

Free Wifi

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