library reads

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend wasn’t Dan Santat’s literary debut, but it was the book that made him a kid lit superstar. The New York Times bestselling author and illustrator received the Caldecott medal for Beekle at the 2015 National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Dedicated to his oldest son, Alek, Santat has described the book as a metaphor for awaiting the birth of his first child. As a matter of fact, Beekle’s name comes from the way Alek would pronounce the word “bicycle” as a toddler.

Angeline Boulley’s critically acclaimed novel starts out with most of the things the average teenager is concerned with: dating, friendships, school, sports, and family relationships. The tone of the book switches about a quarter of the way through with a gunshot that takes away Daunis’ closest friend and the innocence of her small community

Whenever I am in the mood for a creepy read, I pick up a copy Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box. This is my scary story comfort food. In this story, the reader is transported into the very unsettling world of Jude Coyne, an aging rock musician with a macabre collection that will make your skin crawl.

Whether you're seeking captivating fiction, enlightening non-fiction, or engaging poetry, this sampling from the Jacksonville Public Library’s Local Author Collection celebrates the unique perspectives and stories that make our city a rich source of literary inspiration. With thought-provoking narratives and engaging poetry that resonates with the ebb and flow of the St. Johns River, these pages encapsulate the very essence of our city.

Founders of the Highly Sensitive Refuge site who tell visitors “high sensitivity can be strong” and “it’s okay to be a highly sensitive person”, Jenn Granneman and Andre Solo share their thoughts on how to develop the gift of sensitivity into a powerful tool to enhance your own life and the lives of others around you.

As Dr. Sudbury tells the junior doctors in her hospital, "a hospital is a dangerous place to be". This message is driven home by the unnamed narrator in Sometimes People Die. A Scotsman by birth, the young doctor has joined the staff of St. Luke's Hospital. A former opioid addict who used his role as a health care provider to fuel his addiction, the young protagonist opens up about the life of a doctor, particularly an overworked one in London's east end. Late nights, the pressure of career advancement, the deaths of patients and loved ones, and the stress of a job with the ever-present mantra to "do no harm" come through wonderfully in the narrator's candid dialogue with the reader.

One of my earliest memories of the Medusa comes from the 1981 classic stop-motion animation Clash of The Titans. A serpentine monster that kills indiscriminately, the Medusa of these earlier versions is without voice or childhood. An established author in the classics, Natalie Haynes gives a voice to Medusa and allows the reader to decide if the young gorgon really deserves the label of "monster"

With the introduction of the TV dinner in 1954 and the popularization of the microwave oven in American households twenty years later, the terms “quick” and “easy” are as much a part of the American diet as hamburgers and hotdogs. Even when something comes out of the traditional oven rather than the microwave, it is often a premade casserole prepared by the industrious Mrs. Stouffer.

Rarely does a reader get the pleasure of experiencing a character such as Ruth Macallister. The driving force behind New York's Hudson Modeling Agency, Ruth is as confident, sarcastic, and stubborn as any man she might encounter in her Cold War era world. 

If I had a dollar for every time a library customer told me how much they love books, I would be a wealthy man. Those living now don't realize how privileged they are to be alive in an era with books and a population with the literacy level we have achieved. In her title Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World, international author Irene Moreu Valleho demonstrates how the book itself was instrumental in the advancement of mankind.