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If you like "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb...
Book Match, Meg Raymond, Reading Room Blog
05/13/2009 - 9:55am

Thanks for contacting the Central Rappahannock Regional Library to
request a book match. We love matching readers to the right book!

You stated that you liked "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb and
like the "inspirational fiction" genre.

There are many books that deal with difficult or emotional topics, but
in an ultimately uplifting and/or redemptive manner. Some suggestions:

Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard - the story of a son,

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If you like "Dear Exile" by Hilary Liftin...
Book Match, Michele Brown, Reading Room Blog
05/13/2009 - 9:37am

Thanks for contacting the Central Rappahannock Regional Library for a
Book Match. There are so many wonderful facets to Dear Exile! I have
not found an exact match, but here are a few suggestions for books you
may like.

For the letters aspect between friends, two locales:

84 Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff
Helen Hanff, a vivacious New York writer with a passion for literature,
writes to a London bookstore in search of rare English classics. Frank

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If you like books set in India...
Book Match, Reading Room Blog
05/13/2009 - 8:53am

Following are some suggestions of books set in India. Some are
historical novels and some are contemporary, but all deal with domestic
situations. Only the first two are long.

"The Far Pavilions" by M. M. Kaye
"By the Green of the Spring" by John Masters
"The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
"A Passage to India" by E. M. Forster
"The Guru of Love" Samrat Upadhyay
"The Jewel in the Crown" by Paul Scott
"The Raj Quartet" by Paul Scott

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If you like action/adventure books...
Book Match, Michele Brown, Reading Room Blog
05/12/2009 - 1:09pm

I've listed below a few titles of action/adventure books, spanning from espionage to
bio-thriller, that you may wish to try. If none of these sound like
your kind of book, let us know a little more about what you may be
looking for!

Trojan Odyssey, by Clive Cussler
This 17th Dirk Pitt extravaganza finds Cussler (literally, as he makes a
cameo at book's end) and his entourage of paint-by-number characters in
fine fettle, foiling a dastardly plot by outlandish villains to launch a

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American Life in Poetry: Column 216
American Life in Poetry, Reading Room Blog, Poetry
05/11/2009 - 4:23pm

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Judy Loest lives in Knoxville and, like many fine Appalachian writers, her poems have a welcoming conversational style, rooted in that region's storytelling tradition. How gracefully she sweeps us into the landscape and the scene!

Faith

Leaves drift from the cemetery oaks onto late grass,
Sun-singed, smelling like straw, the insides of old barns.
The stone angel's prayer is uninterrupted by the sleeping
Vagrant at her feet, the lone squirrel, furtive amid the litter.

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After Hours Storytimes
Caroline Parr, evenings, LibraryPoint Blog, preschoolers, Storytime, weekends, Reading Room Blog, Book Buzz Blog, Books and Reading, Families, Picture Book
05/07/2009 - 3:25pm
After Hours Storytimes

Most library programs for preschoolers take place on weekday mornings.  But if you or your spouse is at work then, how can you bring your child to storytimes?

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CRRL Librarian Honored
Ann Haley, LibraryPoint Blog, Reading Room Blog, History Blog, Virginia History
03/04/2010 - 5:25pm

CRRL web content librarian, Virginia Johnson, has received the highest award for a nonfiction book in the Virginia Press Women’s 2009 Communications Contest.

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Poetry Books for Kids
Caroline Parr, Children's Book Columns, LibraryPoint Blog, Poetry, Reading Room Blog, Book Buzz Blog, Books and Reading
05/13/2009 - 1:08pm

          Poetry books are well represented on library shelves and eagerly checked out by readers raised on Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss. Fans of their humor and wordplay will love Adam Rex’s two monstrous poetry collections, “Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich” and the brand-new ”Frankenstein Takes the Cake.” Each book features poems about famous monsters – Dracula, the Phantom of the Opera, Bigfoot – and their trials and tribulations. 

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American Life in Poetry: Column 215
American Life in Poetry, Reading Room Blog, Poetry
05/04/2009 - 3:32pm

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

To commemorate Mother's Day, here's a lovely poem by David Wojahn of Virginia, remembering his mother after forty years.

Walking to School, 1964

Blurring the window, the snowflakes' numb white lanterns.
She's brewed her coffee, in the bathroom sprays cologne
And sets her lipstick upright on the sink.
The door ajar, I glimpse the yellow slip,

The rose-colored birthmark on her shoulder.
Then she's dressed—the pillbox hat and ersatz fur,

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American Life in Poetry: Column 214
American Life in Poetry, LibraryPoint Blog, Reading Room Blog, Poetry
04/27/2009 - 11:57am

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Sometimes I wonder at my wife's forbearance. She's heard me tell the same stories dozens of times, and she still politely laughs when she should. Here's a poem by Susan Browne, of California, that treats an oft-told story with great tenderness.

On Our Eleventh Anniversary

You're telling that story again about your childhood,
when you were five years old and rode your blue bicycle

from Copenhagen to Espergaerde, and it was night
and snowing by the time you arrived,

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