Learn another Language with your Library Card!

If you have a Shelby County Library card (in good standing) you can use the library's new language- learning program, Rocket Languages. Rocket offers 11 courses, including American Sign Language — and the ability to download lessons to a mobile device. Lessons are self-paced, interactive and easy to use.

Just click on the link on our library homepage: www.northshelbylibrary.org
OR click here to get started. You will need your 14 digit library card number located on the back of your library card.

Book Review: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell asks this question in Outliers: Why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Gladwell applies logic to define why certain people succeed in their field, such as: birthdays, hours of practice, cultural background, correlation between agriculture and academic schedule and more.

Gladwell redefines ‘self-made’ by saying that no one comes from nowhere to succeed; that person had many factors that helped s/he reach their goals: equipment available, hours of practice, connections, and birthdays. However, I disagree with his definition of a self-made person. Someone could have every advantage, something they’re interested in freely available and not be motivated enough to pursue or practice something in order to be successful.

The end of the book was a nice surprise because it was about the success of his own family and eventually his own journey of success from rural Ontario to New York Times Best Selling author.

Outliers was a fantastic read that makes you think about success in a deeper, analytical way. My fingers are still crossed that my sons have the potential to be in MLB despite their birthdays;)

Check it out here

Book Review:Surrender by Pamela Clare

Surrender by Pamela Clare

**Don't be put off by the cover! It's not cheesy. Promise**

I'm a big fan of Pamela Clare's I-Team series and was hesitant to read a historical. Sometimes authors are better in one genre than another. I should NOT have hesitated. Haven't read a historical romance in forever and this was better than most historical romances that I've read. The characters were well formed and I really believed in the story and felt the emotion. The love scenes can get a wee bit steamy, so it is not for those that prefer a more gentle romance. Pamela Clare did quite a bit of research to accurately portray this time in history. I highly recommend. Now I'm on the the sequel: Untamed.

Happy Reading!
Michelyn

Dee's Dee-va Dish

This week Dee would like to recommend:
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah/Click here to request.
Killing Floor by Lee Child/Click here to request




Watch Dee-va Dish below to hear her review:

Excellent Teen Reads

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

“Benny Imura couldn’t hold a job, so he took to killing.” So begins what on the surface is yet another post-apocalyptic zombie book, but in reality is much more. Kids today only remember life after First Night, when the dead rose from their graves and the world became overrun with zombies. In the fortified town of Mountainside, California, Benny has just turned fifteen, the age where you either get a job or your rations are cut in half. He agrees to apprentice with Tom, his bounty hunter brother, and reluctantly follows him into the rot and ruin of the world outside of the fences. Maberry takes classic elements of the horror genre and bends them into a coming of age story about truth, honor, love, and the ethics of zombie hunting. The emotional revelations and Benny’s introspective examination of what truly makes a monster are balanced by heart pounding action sequences throughout the novel. The zombie trading card illustrations found on the endpapers will be a special treat for teens. Highly recommended for fans of Rick Yancey’s Monstromologist series and Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth. This book will transform how readers feel about the walking dead.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

On the American Gulf Coast in a future that probably isn’t too far from now, the space between the haves and the have-nots has never been wider. The only way to bridge that gap and escape a life of backbreaking labor is a lucky strike, a stroke of extreme good luck. Nailer is a ship breaker, scavenging copper and other metals from the skeletons of former oil tankers washed up on shore. When a hurricane beaches a luxury yacht filled with valuables, Nailer knows this is his once in a lifetime opportunity to make a better life for himself. However, fate has other plans for Nailer and he is forced to choose between stripping the boat and saving its lone survivor. Bacigalupi vividly draws a world where the polar ice caps have melted and the seas have risen, where your crew is your family and the line between right and the power of might is razor thin. This will be a great addition to any young adult or science fiction collection. Recommended for readers who enjoyed Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy and James Dashner’s The Maze Runner. 

The Recruit by Robert Muchamore

James Choke and James Bond share a first name and a profession, but that is where all similarity ends. There are no unbelievable high tech gadgets or daring down to the last second bomb defusions to be found in this first installment of the Cherub series. James is a troubled kid set on a course that will probably end with him serving jail time. Cherub, a fictional division of the British government that trains kids to be spies, plucks James from social services and offers him the opportunity to change his destiny. Readers follow James through basic training (envision Navy Seal training for twelve-year-olds), and through the completion of his first mission. The villains are not criminal masterminds with plots to take over the world but eco-terrorists wanting to stop the destruction of oil corporations and James discovers that good people get hurt in the name of justice. While James is a deeply flawed protagonist and his character development is superficial, boys will connect with his desire to be tough and save face in front of peers. Those who enjoy Anthony Horowitz’s teen spy Alex Rider will find James to be his gritty and more abrasive cousin. 

Stop by the teen department to pick up any of these page turning reads!

Dee-va Dish

Dee-va Dish

Dee recommends Hot Flash Holidays by Nancy Thayer.

Request a copy now.

Adult Paranormal Book Reviews

Playing with Fire: Tales of an Extraordinary Girl, Bk 1 Twice as Hot: Tales of an Extraordinary Girl, Bk 2

I recently had a lot of time on my hands to catch up on recreational reading. Unfortunately, not a whole lot caught my attention. One book that caught my eye had been lying on my bookshelf forever, just waiting for me to be in the right mood to truly enjoy the world that the author created. I picked it up and was hooked from the first page. Playing with Fire has an incredible heroine that is just an average girl, who is scrabbling like crazy to keep any job she can to pay for her father's retirement home and heart medicine. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a great track record with actually keeping the jobs, but things were rolling along great until a scientist dumped a formula into her grand mocha latte that just happened to change everything! She wakes up with the power to control the four elements (not very well, but that's another story) and a super hot government agent that is there to "neutralize" her. Oh, and there are the bad guys that want to make her do their evil bidding or experiment on her until they can create another just like her. To say the least, she is not happy!!!

This book was great!!! There are tons of scenes that made me laugh out loud, but I kept a genuine concern about Belle, the heroine, and the uncertainty of the relationship that was developing with Rome, the super hot government agent. As soon as I finished this book, I devoured the sequel, Twice as Hot, which was equally entertaining. I would recommend this series for anyone that enjoys the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris and the Jane Jamison series by Molly Harper. These books are a bit sexier than those, but fans will love the action and characters.

Playing with Fire: Tales of an Extraordinary Girl, Bk 1
Product Description:
Twenty-four-year-old barista Belle Jamison dreams of a better job and a decent love life. Until a crazy scientist spikes her mocha latte! Suddenly Belle can wield the four elements—earth, wind, fire and water—with only a thought. Coffee too hot? No problem. Hair in need of a blow-dry? Done.

Gorgeous government agent Rome Masters has been sent to neutralize Belle. But he's not the only one after her. Together they must outrun the rogue agents on their trail and find a way to control her powers. There's just one problem: the sparks Belle and Rome generate are even hotter than the ones flying from her eyes—and with her future on the line, now is the worst possible time to fall in love….

Twice as Hot: Tales of an Extraordinary Girl, Bk 2
Product Description:
Belle Jamison is finally starting to feel like a normal girl again. Her job as a paranormal investigator is going well, she's learned to control her supernatural abilities (mostly) and she's just gotten engaged to Rome Masters, the ultra-sexy operative who once tried to neutralize her!

But planning a wedding is never easy, especially when the bride keeps accidentally torching her dress, the groom returns from a dangerous mission with selective memory loss and the man responsible now wants Belle for himself. With Rome's ex determined to win him back and a new band of supervillains on the horizon, it will take all Belle's powers—plus a little help from her trusty empath sidekick—to save the day, salvage the wedding and prove that true love really does conquer all.