WPL Books It! Adult Winter Reading Challenge

 

Welcome to WPL Books It! Adult Reading Challenge. Every contender will get a registration grab bag full of your favorite ‘90s swag (yes, there is a snap bracelet) and be entered to win ‘90s themed prizes! 

For this '90s themed challenge we're offering readers the opportunity to win three different prizes. 

Prize 1: Your Favorite ‘90s CDs and a state of the art CD player alarm clock with a $50 gift card to Joe’s Albums

Prize 2: The Beanie Babies collection of your dreams with a $50 gift card to That’s Entertainment

Prize 3: A VCR and a starter collection of all the best VHS movies from the ‘90s with a $50 gift card to the Elm Draught House Cinema

Prizes sponsored by the Worcester Public Library Foundation

Click here for more information and to log into your Beanstack account to start logging your minutes, activities, and reviews. If you don't have an account, you can create one today!

Read these patron book reviews submitted by your fellow readers to get an idea of what to read next! And don't forget to log what you read, WPL events you attend, and your book reviews!

Trust by Hernan Diaz

I read Trust by Hernan Diaz. This is a historical fiction tome set during the late 19th and early 20th century and centered on the topic of finance. The book begins with a novel within the novel, the story of a prominent finance baron (not unlike JP Morgan) and his rise to financial superstardom. His humanity is lodged in the story of his wife, Helen. Similar in personality, they gel and build a life together until tragedy strikes. This first part sets the tone for the rest of the novel. The book then segue into a manuscript told from the voice of Andrew Bevell, the real-life financier. In the third part, Bevel hires a woman to write his memoir and the final section is Mildred Bevel's wife's diary. Who has power and who controls the narrative? It all interconnects and weaves into a great story that makes you think long after it is over. I had to read the last line of the book over and over because it was so beautifully written, "Words peeling off from things, in and out of sleep, like a needle coming out from under a black cloth and then vanishing again unthreaded." This was a great book.

- Abby C.

The Hard Road Out: One Woman’s Escape From North Korea by Jihyun Park

This book, originally published in French, tells the saga of a North Korean family's decent into poverty and famine during the 1980's and '90's. The author was a loyal North Korean, as one must be in any communist regime, until deciding to flee at the point when she could no longer watch the bodies piling up in the street and the children starving to death. Her path of escape, unbeknownst to her, was being sold to a Chinese family. The only good thing to come out of that nightmare was her son, but they were separated for a number of years when she was sent back to North Korea when he was young. A second attempt to go from China to South Korea was also unsuccessful, but she eventually was assisted by a missionary organization in China and able to immigrate to the U.K. The epilogue explains her success there, but the bulk of the book is her life in North Korea and China - worlds that we are not typically privy to understanding from an insider's perspective. Well written and worth your time.

-Linda J.

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon is a riveting historical fiction novel about Martha Ballard, an 18th-century midwife, who is also tasked with investigating crimes. Martha kept copious journals about the births she attended, the crimes she investigated, and life in general. It is through these journal entries that Ms. Lawhon is able to tell us this remarkable story. The story opens with a dead man floating under the ice in a frozen river. This man was awaiting trial for rape. As the medical investigator, Martha must assess the man’s injuries and tell the court her findings. As Martha wants only justice to be served, there are others who have secrets they are not willing to let go of. In order to solve this crime and make the murderer pay, Martha needs to understand the dead man better. He was a rapist and Martha knew his victim. Martha is more entwined with this particular crime than she’d like to be. The horrors suffered by women in the 1700’s were many, but it was the heroism of women like Martha Ballard that shined bright. I had never heard of her before this book and I am so grateful to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the opportunity to read this amazing, well-researched bit of history. I highly recommend this book, not only to historical fiction lovers, but to anyone who loves a brilliantly written story. This easily rates 5 stars.

-Lisa G