Colleen Barnes, DPS coordinator for ELA and Media Specialists, joins Russell and the Rach(a)els to discuss her favorite books, DPS reading challenges, and the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

Books we discuss include:

• Books of Essays, especially:
  • “The Best of Me” by David Sedaris
  • “Wow, No Thank You” by Samantha Irby
  • “Here For It: Or, How To Save Your Soul in America” by Eric Thomas
• “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie
• “Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions” by Daniel Wallace
• “The Iowa Baseball Confederacy” by W.P. Kinsella
• “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• “Colton Gentry’s Third Act” by Jeff Zentner
• “Monster Hunter Mystery” series by Annelise Ryan
• ANYTHING by Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume
• “Bud, Not Buddy” by Christopher Paul Curtis
• “Call of the Wild” by Jack London
• “Small Spaces” by Katherine Arden

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael discuss our October challenge, books with a supernatural (or spooky) element.

Books we discuss include:

• “My Darling Dreadful Thing” by Johanna van Veen
• “‘Til Death” by Jason Anspach
• “Parade: A Collection of Delightfully Odd Stories” by V.R. Christensen
• “Mile 81” in “The Bazaar of Bad Dreams” by Stephen King
• “Flight or Fright: 17 Turbulent Tales” edited by Stephen King and Bev Vincent
• “Rougarou Magic” by Rachel M. Marsh
• “The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society” by C.M. Waggoner
• “Through the Woods” by Emily Carroll
• “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman
• “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” by Neil Gaiman
• “The Haunted Mask: A Goosebumps Graphic Novel” by R.L. Stine, illustrated by Maddi Gonzalez
• “Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark” by Alvin Schwartz, illustrated by Stephen Gammell
• “Under the Dome” by Stephen King

Amanda Paez, assistant to the city manager, and wearer of many hats, talks about her library crimes.

*CORRECTION: A note from Rachael -
Our Classics book club meets on Monday, September 30 at 5:30 PM to discuss “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie. Call 434-799-5195 to register! We hope you join us.

Books we discuss include:
“I Want a Pet - A School Zone Start To Read Book”
“And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie*
“Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone” by Benjamin Stevenson
“Throne of Glass” series by Sarah J. Maas
“Monster Hunter Mystery” series by Annelise Ryan
“The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien
“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” by Ian Fleming
“IT” by Stephen King
“Where the Red Fern Grows” by Wilson Rawls
“Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens
“Pippi Longstocking” by Astrid Lindgren
“Jaws” by Peter Benchley
“Jurassic Park” by Michael Crichton
“The Neverending Story” by Michael Ende
“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll
“Winnie-the-Pooh” series by A.A. Milne

Russell and the Rach(a)els explore works by authors with Hispanic heritages.

Book we discuss include:

• “The Bullet Swallower” by Elizabeth Gonzalez James
• “Family Lore” by Elizabeth Acevedo
• “Fruit of the Drunken Tree” by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
• “My Favorite Thing Is Monsters” by Emil Ferris
• “River Woman, River Demon” by Jennifer Givhan
• “Mexican Gothic” and “The Daughter of Doctor Moreau” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• “Just for the Summer” by Abby Jimenez
• “Solito” by Javier Zamora
• “Hippie” and “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael welcome our first guest from beyond the library walls, Michelle Larking, IB Literature teacher at Galileo Magnet High School. We discuss how to foster a love of reading through education and whether Russell should have been in the Zebra reading group.

Books we discuss include:

• “Babar” series by Jean de Brunhoff
• “Frog and Toad” series by Arnold Lobel
• “The Boxcar Children” series by Gertrude Chandler Warner
• “A Patchwork Planet”, “Digging to America” and others by Anne Tyler
• “Under the Bayou Moon” by Valerie Fraser Luesse
• “The Sound of Waves” by Yukio Mishima
• “Convenience Store Woman” by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
• “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green
• “Kitchen” by Banana Yoshimoto, translated by Megan Backus
• “Little Bee” by Chris Cleave
• “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo
• “Crank” by Ellen Hopkins
• “Agnes Grey” by Ann Bronte
• “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte
• “Tuck Everlasting” by Natalie Babbitt
• “Bridge to Terabithia” by Katherine Paterson
• “The Witches” by Roald Dahl
• “Sounder” by William H. Armstrong
• “Educated” by Tara Westover
• “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah
• “Devotions” by Mary Oliver
• “Christy” by Catherine Marshall

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael discuss our August challenge, books set by the beach or sea, and regrettably did not prepare any sea shanties.

Books we discuss include:

• “A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks” by David Gibbins
• “The Whydah: A Pirate Ship Feared, Wrecked, and Found” by Martin W. Sandler
• “Pirate Latitudes” by Michael Crichton
• “The Wreck of the Medusa” by Jonathan Miles
• “The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier” by Ian Urbina
• “Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter” by Lizzie Pook
• “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway
• “The Pearl” by John Steinbeck
• “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson
• “Peter & the Starcatchers” by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
• “Unbroken: An Olympian's Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive” by Laura Hillenbrand
• “James and the Giant Peach” by Roald Dahl
• “Earthsea Cycle” series by Ursula K. Le Guin
• “The Sea Wolf” by Jack London
• “And the Ocean Was Our Sky” by Patrick Ness
• “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• “Whalefall” by Daniel Kraus
• “Goosebumps: Deep Trouble” by R.L Stine
• “Fins: A Shark Incorporated Novel” by Randy Wayne White
• “Refugee” by Alan Gratz
• “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen
• Russell’s Sidetrack - “Woods Runner” by Gary Paulsen

If you would like to suggest a cozy mystery set on a cruise ship or share any other comments, follow us on Facebook @RubyArchieLibrary.

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael welcome guest Jess McAllister, Youth Library Services Specialist, to talk about every book ever written and how to read at light speed.

Books we discuss include:

• “Tracker” by Gary Paulsen
• “Amelia Bedelia” by Peggy Parish
• “Frog and Toad” series by Arnold Lobel
• “Howl’s Moving Castle” by Diana Wynne Jones
• “The House in the Cerulean Sea” by T.J. Klune
• “Legends & Lattes” by Travis Baldree
• “The Great Library” series by Rachel Caine
• “Daisy Jones & the Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• “Small Spaces” by Katherine Arden
• “Arlo Finch” series by John August
• “Amari and the Night Brothers” by B.B. Alston
• “Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow” by Jessica Townsend
• “Jurassic Park” and others by Michael Crichton
• “Wolfsong” by T.J. Klune

Russell, Rachel and Rachael discuss our July challenge, books set in another country, and a few extras just for good measure.

Books we discussed include:

• “The Women” by Kristin Hannah
• “Sooley” by John Grisham
• “Convenience Store Woman” by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
• “Lady Tan’s Circle of Women” by Lisa See
• “Run Me to Earth” by Paul Yoon
• “City of Thieves” by David Benioff
• “A Man Called Ove” by Frederik Backman
• “What the River Knows” by Isabel Ibañez
• “Birnam Wood” by Eleanor Catton
• “Pirate Latitudes” by Michael Crichton
• “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” by William Kamkwamba
• “A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear” by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling