Of Books and Lists
'Tis the season for best-books-of-the-year lists, and the media, retailers and others are turning out booklists (or apps and videos that serve the same purpose) like buns from the proverbial oven.
As it turns out, the human brain really likes the nuggety information-snacking that lists allow.
Being librarians, we love nuggets of information, as well as substantive meals of knowledge, so we make up booklists all year long to help you connect with useful, enjoyable books. Did you know the Library has a vast collection of booklists on our website? Including topics such as Christian Fiction, Science & Nature and Business & Finance? And that there are even lists for Teens and Kids?
In addition to those lists, here is a smattering of the most talked-about books of 2013 that you can find in the Library collection, with a little emphasis on Missouri authors. As with any book request, stop by, call or use our text/chat service if there’s something you’d like to read that we can find for you.
2013's Talked-About Books: Fiction
The Maid's Version by Daniel Woodrell
Alma DeGeer Dunahew, mother of three young boys, works as a maid for a prominent citizen and his family in West Table, Missouri. Her husband is mostly absent, and, in 1929, her scandalous, beloved younger sister is one of the 42 killed in an explosion at the local dance hall. Who is to blame? Mobsters from St. Louis? The embittered local gypsies? The preacher who railed against the loose morals of the waltzing couples? Or could it have been a colossal accident? [Missouri author]
Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld
When the strongest earthquake in U.S. history occurs just north of their St. Louis home, Kate and Jeremy find the disaster further complicated by Kate's self-proclaimed-medium twin's prediction about a more powerful earthquake, a situation that places Kate under public scrutiny and reveals her own psychic abilities. [Missouri author]
Biography & Nonfiction
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore
A revelatory portrait of Benjamin Franklin's youngest sister and a wholly different account of the founding of the United States.
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer
Through an examination of the lives of several Americans and leading public figures over the past three decades, Packer portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
Young Adult Fiction
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits--smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.
Children's Picture Books
In Missouri, young children have a special opportunity to vote for their favorite picture book each year with the Missouri Building Block Picture Book Award. Take a look at the list of nominated picture books for 2013. Voting continues all across Missouri now through December 31. Your child can vote for his or her favorite in the Children's Department of any Library branch!
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