Transcript for Best Gift Books
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Welcome to the Reader's Roundtable edition of CADL Cast

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with Jessica Trotter, Mari Garza and Cheryl Lindemann.

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Welcome back to the Readers Round Table edition of CADL Cast.

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I'm Jessica Trotter and I am joined at the mic by Cheryl Lindemann and Mari Garza.

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Hey, ladies.

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Hello. Good morning.

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We are who?

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We've had a fun few weeks of fighting,

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sickness and settling into holiday strangeness and programing and stuff.

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We've been about town. Yeah.

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Holiday season, whether you celebrate or not, is upon us. Yes.

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And that's kind of where we were going.

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Today we're going to talk about things that we think, you know.

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We're looking at books we think might make great gifts.

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Whether because it's one of the maybe we think maybe the best of the year

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or it's something quirky and interesting that

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we think you should know about or just something that we find beautiful.

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It's kind of a fair assessment of what we came up with.

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Sure. Yep. Absolutely.

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I will go ahead and get started.

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Go for it.

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I've got the first cat in Space eight pizza.

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And this is by Mark BURNETT and Sean Harris.

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This is a graphic novel.

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Maybe I would say grade.

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Good readers, grade two to grade six.

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Anyone's going to laugh out loud. Love it.

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Evil rats from outer space are eating the Earth's moon.

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This is kind of a

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a very wacky space opera.

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And it basically begins with a scientist discovering that

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the moon is being eaten by a horde of rats.

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And there is one very meanie leader.

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It's the rat king.

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And these rats must be stopped.

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So enter the first cat, an astronaut who clearly loves the canteen.

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And the canteen is this place on the on the spaceship that you walk in

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and you can find all manner of yummy foods like, you know, oxtail soup,

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sushi satay, churros, tacos.

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But the thing is that they come in a tube like things like a toothpaste tubes.

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Oh, yes.

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So you get all the all the the goodness of your yummy flavors

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in a tube of ice cream.

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Ice cream?

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I mean, toothpaste.

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Anyway, this is really, really funny book.

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There's also a queen who's very,

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let's just say, sarcastic

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and constantly cutting poor, lovable laws for 4000 off laws.

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For them, 4000 is think sort of like a little

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I don't know R2-D2 but funnier this little total.

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He says I am a toenail clipping robot seeking my purpose in the vast universe

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and that he's constantly cut off the poor kid. Oh.

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But what I want to say is that this book

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is actually based on, like, a home based

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video cartoon that the two that Barnett and Harris came up with.

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It is so fun.

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It's worth it to look that up to.

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It's very funny and campy.

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I really love this book a lot. Very cool.

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Wow, Molly, that's hard to follow.

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You would have been good at radio theater.

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I think, you know, in the day when you had those radio theater productions.

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That's fantastic.

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Well, I have brought bringing a book today that I can't believe I haven't talked

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about yet because I have talked about it, maybe some of other book related events.

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This was my favorite cookbook of the year.

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And as you know from the podcast in the past, I love cookbooks.

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Our members love cookbooks.

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I think that, you know, for a little while,

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I think we were worried that cookbooks might go the way of people looking at

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recipes on the Internet, which I believe is a very popular thing to do.

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But I still feel that cookbooks are one of our strongest

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circulators in the system at all of our locations.

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So this was my favorite.

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And the reason being is it's just so such a great mix of food and history.

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And it's Gullah Geechee home cooking recipes from

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the matriarch of a distant island by Emily Midgette.

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And Emily Magat is the matriarch of Edisto Island.

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She is 90 years old.

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She was born and raised on Edisto Island and her ancestors have lived on

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and Edisto Island, which is in South Carolina.

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And it's one of the sea islands.

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And she is a geisha, Gullah Geechee

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person.

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And this book goes into the history of the Gullah Geechee

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people, which was incredibly fascinating, and also the history

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of how her family and members, her family were fundamental on securing land

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for the galaxy to people on Edisto Island

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after after the end of slavery.

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It's filled with wonderful recipes that feature, you know, rice.

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They're expert rice growers, seafood.

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They have all sorts of animals, farm animals.

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They were master farmers, essentially.

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And all the food in this book represents that rich farming and cooking culture.

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There's chicken palu

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and a number of vegetable casseroles, Chewy's, which are sort of like pecan.

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They're not blondies, they're called Chewy's,

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but they're like a blondie made with pecans, Bennett Cookies,

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which has a wonderful description of the history of bunny cookies.

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So just a fantastic book with great stories, great history

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and beautiful recipes.

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It's very warm and accessible.

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It's something that you could just pick up and make something,

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you know, that night for dinner with or feed a crowd, which is something

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that Emily Mega is known for in her community.

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So Gullah Geechee home cooking.

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Okay.

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This is another kind of what Cheryl said.

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I kind of surprised I haven't talked about this already,

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but this is this was my big surprise of the year.

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It's a local very local story.

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The book is Blood and Fire The Unbelievable Real Life

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Story of Wrestling's Original Chic by Brian R Solomon.

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This is so I am not a fan of wrestling.

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I have never been a fan of wrestling.

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This book was fascinating to me.

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It is the story of Eddie Farhat, born in Lansing.

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Raised in Lansing.

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He is born of born

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to Lebanese immigrants that settled here.

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He served in the army, came back and started

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wrestling while he was in the army and in traditional

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Olympic style wrestling, and then

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made a career a very good career

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out of wrestling in the Midwest

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before the World Wrestling Federation.

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There were lots more of a set of syndicates,

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and he was eventually basically the head of the Midwest,

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sort of Michigan, Ohio and then parts of Canada syndicates.

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And it's just it's a fascinating look at a very

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and very local story

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that a lot of people don't know about.

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Now, I will say I have a bunch of male cousins and they were into wrestling.

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So something must have flooded through.

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Because as we

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as you get later into the years, into his years, I started recognizing,

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you know, the names that anybody

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who grew up in the eighties and nineties would recognize.

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But it was very it's just a very interesting story

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to have not known that he's from Lansing.

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When he got married, they settled in.

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Williamston.

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There's a house that still exists that was essentially kind of built on the,

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you know, the money he gained in his professional wrestling career.

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And it's

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the the syndicates are very mafia like.

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So if you're interested in sports, if you're interested in

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kind of really interesting,

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quirky history, local history, this is just a really interesting book.

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It's Blood and Fire, the unbelievable real life story of wrestling, originally

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by Brian Solomon.

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And a piece of quirky trivia.

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I believe that Capitol Area District Libraries,

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we had a friends of the library.

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Yes, luncheon and tea at the house in Williamston a number of years ago.

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I was the whole ad at the time,

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so it was a while back, but it was it's sort of a slightly

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there's slightly modern aspects to this big mansion.

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But in. Williamston Yeah.

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So yeah, that's kind of what's really cool and I believe is a bed and breakfast

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for a while. I don't know if it is right now.

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Yeah, I don't know about that either. Yeah. Yeah.

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Interesting. Mm.

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So next on my list is a young adult title

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that oh my goodness, you absolutely

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need to consider getting this for your teen or reading it yourself.

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This is all my rage by Saba to here it is, the National Book Award

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winner for this year for a young adult or young people's literature,

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this is a really, really moving story

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about the immigrant experience, but also the American dream.

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It's about a group,

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I wouldn't say a full family of Pakistani

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persons, but you have this setting of the Mojave Desert

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where there is a family who comes from Pakistan to run a motel.

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And there's another little girl who comes.

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Her parents have died in an earthquake.

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Her uncle ends up like rescuing her.

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And you keep hearing the refrain, you know, my uncle came.

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He dug through the rubble of the earthquake.

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He kept looking and finding, even though they told him I was dead.

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But he brought me back.

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So it's the story of the aunt

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of the of the motel or the mom in the motel, Misbah and Nur,

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who is a little girl from Pakistan and her very good friend

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Saladin.

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They're the only two Pakistani families in the town.

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And they really experience a lot of racism, a lot of,

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I don't know, Islamophobia, you could say.

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And they're really trying and this is a book

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that affected me so much because it's I mean, once in a while you get these,

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like, love stories, but also you just think a lot about,

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wow, the American dream is mythical.

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It can be really hard and it can be so rewarding.

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So it's told from from three different perspectives.

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So there is grief and that there is someone who passes away

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and there's just a lot of hardship in

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what needs to happen in order to fulfill your dream.

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I really like this story.

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I learned a lot about culture and even Punjabi, the language,

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the food.

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It's really, really a neat story.

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Yeah, that sounds excellent.

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That's.

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That's definitely on my list.

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I have to reframe it this year.

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Yeah.

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The next book that I have

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that I would recommend as a gift book, we just got this one

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at the end of the year and Jessica's nodding

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because we I believe she has it on hold as well.

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This one is called American Roots Lessons and Inspiration from the Designers

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Reimagining Our Home Gardens by Nick McCullough.

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Allison McCullough and Teresa Woodard.

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And this is one of those lovely books that is a combination of profiles

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of different gardeners, and it's arranged by a region in the United States.

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And it's it's eye candy,

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which is so wonderful for, you know, in the winter and giving as a gift.

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I love getting gardening books this time of year.

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I think that most gardeners would probably agree

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that you start gardening now.

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It's like, okay, you put the garden to bed,

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whatever that means to you, and then you're ready to launch back.

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And I spent time reading in and out.

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It's a nice book for our theme

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because you can read one of the passages, you can read really in depth,

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or you can just look at the pictures if you want.

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At each one of the

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gardeners profiled,

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there is a list of their favorite plants, and that's really fun

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because you're going across the country from West, Southern, different gardens.

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One of my favorite gardeners is in here, Benjamin Vogt, Lincoln, Nebraska.

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He is one of the gardeners that's calling for rewilding,

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rewilding in suburbia, even front yard gardens.

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He has a very active social media presence and I was really excited

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to see him in here.

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And we have a number of his books in the library system.

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All of the profiles are interesting in their own way

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and beautiful, but that one really stood out to me.

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It's one of my favorites,

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but I loved the story of Jeannette Belle from New Orleans, Louisiana,

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and she created gardens that were almost like an incubator kitchen.

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But for people who want to have their own small market sales gardens

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and there is a something as a mars project

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through Louisiana, through in New Orleans,

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and just a wonderful, inspiring story

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about how she took a kind of useless lot

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and turned it into this garden space, which then was an incubator

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for other people to be able to grow market flowers and vegetables

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and that sort of thing. I absolutely love that story.

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There's a garden in Big Sur showing this to my colleagues.

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I mean, this is one of those just like dream

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because you can see the mountains and but it's a mix of all different

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types of gardens and completely

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soothing and inspiring.

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And I loved this book, American Roots.

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I don't just have it on hold. I have it.

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You have it. Okay.

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So then it is one that I, I am buying for somebody that

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I know, somebody that I think might really enjoy this.

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So yeah.

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I love garden books as a gift because I feel like

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it's one of those things where, you know, you look at it and you put it away

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and then you look at it again and it really never gets old.

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And especially in the winter, it just carries you through.

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Something that it can take you in a lot of different directions.

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Some of it's

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not just the plants but the

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design elements that people have used in their gardens.

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And it's not in it's ideas of how to go about getting the different plants.

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And I mean, there's different parts.

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I like the layout of this one. Yeah.

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And it's a mix of different perspectives

00:14:59,198 → 00:15:03,135

from formal to an extremely environmentally conscious too.

00:15:03,135 → 00:15:05,537

Yeah. Really cool.

00:15:05,905 → 00:15:06,839

All righty then.

00:15:06,839 → 00:15:09,675

So my next book

00:15:09,675 → 00:15:11,677

is I'm not sure

00:15:12,011 → 00:15:14,146

how many people in our community have read

00:15:15,447 → 00:15:19,618

Station 11, but it was a and I'll make sure go can read it a few years ago

00:15:20,853 → 00:15:23,822

but I want to talk about Emily St John Mandel's

00:15:23,822 → 00:15:26,859

newest book, Sea of Tranquility.

00:15:26,859 → 00:15:29,695

This is it's kind of a hard to describe book.

00:15:29,862 → 00:15:32,498

There's a lot going on in it.

00:15:32,498 → 00:15:35,668

It explores humanity through multiple timelines.

00:15:35,668 → 00:15:39,405

So you've got your introduced to three timelines.

00:15:39,405 → 00:15:43,742

One is a sort of just ahead of World War One.

00:15:44,243 → 00:15:49,915

A younger son of a British family makes an inopportune

00:15:49,915 → 00:15:53,352

comment and embarrasses his family and is basically sent off to Canada.

00:15:53,886 → 00:15:57,456

They were already planning to do it, but he makes the come out and he's pretty much

00:15:58,324 → 00:15:59,458

on his way out the next day.

00:16:00,893 → 00:16:03,295

It's and I didn't know a lot about the remittance

00:16:03,896 → 00:16:07,199

children of Britain you know it's it's

00:16:08,467 → 00:16:12,104

young adults no adults 18 year olds basically sent off to Canada to

00:16:12,304 → 00:16:15,507

you know, they get kind of a monthly check.

00:16:15,507 → 00:16:17,209

But that's that's it.

00:16:17,209 → 00:16:20,612

That's they need to figure out their life from there

00:16:20,612 → 00:16:21,947

and so you get this storyline.

00:16:21,947 → 00:16:25,651

You've got a woman who

00:16:26,552 → 00:16:27,453

whose

00:16:28,020 → 00:16:31,790

livelihood was wrecked by a Ponzi scheme, and she is trying to reconnect.

00:16:31,790 → 00:16:36,795

And basically her best friend's husband was the person who

00:16:39,031 → 00:16:39,932

committed the crime,

00:16:39,932 → 00:16:42,468

but then her husband committed suicide as a result.

00:16:43,702 → 00:16:47,406

So she you know, there's very much animosity between her and her former

00:16:47,406 → 00:16:49,675

best friend, but now she's trying to hunt down

00:16:49,675 → 00:16:51,610

the best friend and kind of get some answers.

00:16:51,610 → 00:16:54,513

And she she hadn't talked to her before and she wants to talk to her.

00:16:54,513 → 00:16:56,015

So you've got this storyline.

00:16:56,015 → 00:16:58,951

You've also got another storyline where a woman in the in

00:16:58,951 → 00:17:03,022

that is taking place basically 2019, right ahead of the end of the year,

00:17:03,022 → 00:17:05,758

right ahead of our current pandemic starting.

00:17:06,258 → 00:17:09,561

And then you have a woman who's doing a tour.

00:17:11,063 → 00:17:12,798

She's based on the moon,

00:17:12,798 → 00:17:15,300

but she is doing a tour of the world

00:17:17,036 → 00:17:18,337

of earth

00:17:18,570 → 00:17:22,241

on a pandemic book that she wrote years before that has become

00:17:23,308 → 00:17:25,644

in the news again, because another pandemic

00:17:25,644 → 00:17:28,113

is starting up in on Earth.

00:17:28,747 → 00:17:32,551

And so you've got that background of this the news of this pandemic spreading

00:17:32,551 → 00:17:35,220

and her going around and talking about her pandemic book.

00:17:35,654 → 00:17:37,656

And that one's very if you read

00:17:38,490 → 00:17:41,560

Section 11, that is a pandemic story.

00:17:41,560 → 00:17:44,630

So it's it's very you get things

00:17:44,630 → 00:17:47,766

that are happening around us now that she's dealing with.

00:17:47,800 → 00:17:52,438

And in the story, you've got these three timelines

00:17:52,438 → 00:17:55,474

that you don't really know for the longest time, how they connect

00:17:56,275 → 00:17:59,511

and you've got an added person who seems to be

00:17:59,511 → 00:18:02,214

in each of the timelines popping up.

00:18:02,548 → 00:18:04,083

Wow. It's

00:18:05,350 → 00:18:08,287

really, really well constructed.

00:18:09,922 → 00:18:11,223

She's

00:18:11,957 → 00:18:15,294

for all of it being very definitely a science fiction novel.

00:18:15,427 → 00:18:19,798

She the humanity and the characters are really, really important.

00:18:20,399 → 00:18:23,669

And the questions that they're dealing with in their times are very important.

00:18:24,269 → 00:18:27,806

But it also has an element of time travel and something has happened

00:18:27,806 → 00:18:30,342

that all three is spilling into all three timelines

00:18:30,342 → 00:18:32,344

and there is somebody going around to investigate.

00:18:32,344 → 00:18:37,116

So it's just it's hitting a lot of the best of lists.

00:18:37,116 → 00:18:41,386

And it's again, it's just so beautifully constructed and great, great writing.

00:18:42,488 → 00:18:46,158

So that is Sea of Tranquility by Emily Saint John Mondo.

00:18:47,059 → 00:18:48,927

Great.

00:18:48,927 → 00:18:49,661

It's good.

00:18:49,962 → 00:18:55,634

Well, I have a couple of picture books I'd like to recommend for gift purchase.

00:18:56,101 → 00:18:59,505

The first one is A Love in the Library

00:18:59,538 → 00:19:02,908

by Maggie Took Her to Heart, and it's illustrated by yes.

00:19:03,342 → 00:19:07,112

IMAMURA okay, this is really, really nice.

00:19:07,112 → 00:19:12,117

I want you to picture a little librarian in a small library.

00:19:12,117 → 00:19:17,723

She's setting up books, caring for the community and income zone.

00:19:17,723 → 00:19:24,062

This gentleman who is often hanging around because little by little

00:19:24,062 → 00:19:27,866

you learn that he just wants to be there.

00:19:27,866 → 00:19:31,770

And this woman, she's living in a tight little community.

00:19:32,371 → 00:19:34,139

And let me tell you what that community is.

00:19:34,139 → 00:19:37,342

It's actually one of the internment camps

00:19:37,743 → 00:19:40,579

for Japanese Americans

00:19:40,913 → 00:19:44,716

that were sent in the 1940s because of World War Two.

00:19:44,750 → 00:19:46,785

There we have this part of our history.

00:19:46,785 → 00:19:49,121

This is a book really that is based

00:19:50,088 → 00:19:52,124

on a true story,

00:19:52,791 → 00:19:56,295

but a lot the author does say that she has, you know, kind of given it

00:19:56,295 → 00:20:01,099

a lot of source to embellish the story and make it what it is

00:20:02,134 → 00:20:03,502

to be appealing.

00:20:03,502 → 00:20:05,370

But it's just another book.

00:20:05,370 → 00:20:10,209

I think, that really helps us and helps our children to learn about our history.

00:20:10,943 → 00:20:14,012

That there was a time when Americans

00:20:14,012 → 00:20:18,784

were sent away to camps and because they were feared.

00:20:18,784 → 00:20:22,821

And then this would be Japanese and Japanese Americans that were in the

00:20:22,821 → 00:20:23,956

in the US.

00:20:23,956 → 00:20:29,127

Beautiful, beautiful book and quite, quite something to think about.

00:20:29,461 → 00:20:33,432

Book talking, I think, would be a great thing to do for both parents

00:20:33,799 → 00:20:38,370

and teachers with this sort of a title, one of the many that are out there.

00:20:38,604 → 00:20:42,741

The other book I want to mention is Goodnight Little Bookstore.

00:20:42,774 → 00:20:44,476

It's by Amy Cherry.

00:20:44,476 → 00:20:46,478

And that is illustrated by E.B.

00:20:46,478 → 00:20:47,679

Goodale.

00:20:47,746 → 00:20:52,484

And I'll bring up the illustrator first because I really love her work.

00:20:52,651 → 00:20:55,787

I don't know if anyone remembers Windows by Julia Daniels.

00:20:55,787 → 00:20:57,856

That's just gorgeous. Gorgeous.

00:20:57,856 → 00:21:02,961

But this little book is kind of an ode to the community bookstore.

00:21:03,295 → 00:21:05,030

It's really, really sweet

00:21:05,030 → 00:21:08,867

where every you know, every page you know, goodnight to the recycling.

00:21:08,867 → 00:21:12,137

Goodnight to the bookshelf Goodnight to shutting down

00:21:13,171 → 00:21:14,606

the store in general.

00:21:14,606 → 00:21:17,776

I really like just those sorts of

00:21:17,909 → 00:21:22,814

of repetition books for goodnight stories or bedtime stories.

00:21:22,814 → 00:21:25,117

And I really it really appealed to me.

00:21:25,117 → 00:21:27,686

So I hope you'll consider that, too.

00:21:27,686 → 00:21:29,421

Oh, it sounds great.

00:21:29,421 → 00:21:32,024

And we have so many wonderful independent bookstores

00:21:32,024 → 00:21:35,160

that are even opening up as we speak in the Lansing area.

00:21:35,294 → 00:21:37,229

So it's the more the merrier.

00:21:37,229 → 00:21:42,467

So I actually have a picture book, too, as my last gift book for this year.

00:21:43,068 → 00:21:46,138

This one is called Farmhouse by Sophie Blackall.

00:21:46,638 → 00:21:51,276

And Sophie Blackall is a multi award winning Caldecott

00:21:51,576 → 00:21:54,446

Medal award winning artist and illustrator

00:21:54,780 → 00:21:58,350

and her books are beloved and I.

00:21:58,550 → 00:21:59,151

I love them.

00:21:59,151 → 00:22:01,486

She also had an adult nonfiction book this year

00:22:02,387 → 00:22:06,124

about things you know, things to look forward to.

00:22:06,692 → 00:22:10,262

But this is a really unique book, as are all of her books.

00:22:10,262 → 00:22:12,030

I think there's a little piece of history

00:22:12,030 → 00:22:15,901

in all of her award winning books that show the things I love about them.

00:22:16,501 → 00:22:18,637

And this is based on a true story.

00:22:18,637 → 00:22:23,875

So Sophie Blackall bought a property and she intended to do

00:22:23,875 → 00:22:27,479

sort of a writer's retreat, a writer, do writing work there.

00:22:27,779 → 00:22:32,351

And on this property was this decaying, dilapidated farmhouse

00:22:32,751 → 00:22:37,923

and had gotten to the point where nature had taken over squirrels and trees.

00:22:38,223 → 00:22:42,327

But but artifacts from the house were still there.

00:22:42,327 → 00:22:46,198

So while paper was still there, pieces from the family

00:22:46,198 → 00:22:49,634

who lived there, a little little artifacts from their lives were still there.

00:22:49,935 → 00:22:50,802

She was actually able

00:22:50,802 → 00:22:54,339

to track down members of the family still living in the area.

00:22:54,639 → 00:22:58,477

And through looking at the artifacts, talking with the family,

00:22:58,744 → 00:23:02,848

she pieces together this lovely picture book about this large,

00:23:02,848 → 00:23:06,451

loving family with 12 children

00:23:07,285 → 00:23:09,654

and there and kind of pieces together,

00:23:09,654 → 00:23:12,691

a sort of fictionalized story about their lives.

00:23:12,991 → 00:23:16,228

But in the pictures themselves, she has the artifacts

00:23:16,228 → 00:23:19,698

and has pulled them in into the actual artwork.

00:23:20,132 → 00:23:22,834

And so it's a wonderful story about

00:23:23,502 → 00:23:26,371

I love thinking about this, especially with old houses,

00:23:26,371 → 00:23:27,639

you know, you wish they could talk.

00:23:27,639 → 00:23:29,341

And in a way, that's sort of what this book is.

00:23:29,341 → 00:23:32,711

It's sort of the House talking about this this loving,

00:23:32,711 → 00:23:36,181

big family living in this space

00:23:36,515 → 00:23:41,953

and that sort of that magic of telling the stories of everyday lives.

00:23:41,953 → 00:23:43,488

And that really comes through in this book.

00:23:43,488 → 00:23:48,093

Really fun to share with children because it's that collage style art.

00:23:48,326 → 00:23:49,795

So there's all these really cool things

00:23:49,795 → 00:23:53,532

to pick out in the pictures and just the just the whole piece.

00:23:53,532 → 00:23:57,302

It's just an incredibly beautiful book, I think is on a lot of end of year lists

00:23:57,602 → 00:23:59,504

for good reason.

00:23:59,504 → 00:24:01,139

Just just a gorgeous book.

00:24:01,139 → 00:24:02,374

It's a work of art.

00:24:02,374 → 00:24:06,511

I loved the I think there was a little picture of a bear, a baby bear.

00:24:06,511 → 00:24:07,746

Living in the basement.

00:24:07,746 → 00:24:09,214

Yes. Yes.

00:24:09,214 → 00:24:10,849

Yes, yes.

00:24:10,849 → 00:24:11,416

Yeah.

00:24:11,416 → 00:24:14,686

And to be able to point that out to a child and say, you know,

00:24:14,686 → 00:24:18,423

when things start going back into their natural

00:24:20,358 → 00:24:22,561

state, you will find that.

00:24:23,028 → 00:24:24,496

In when she raised the house

00:24:24,496 → 00:24:28,467

and when she finally took it down, she planted wildflowers in that spot,

00:24:28,533 → 00:24:30,869

which is really a beautiful memorial as well.

00:24:31,236 → 00:24:34,473

So I just love this book, Farmhouse by Sophie Blackall.

00:24:34,473 → 00:24:37,476

It's one of those picture books that children will love, but

00:24:37,476 → 00:24:40,378

adults will love to.

00:24:40,378 → 00:24:42,614

Okay, absolutely right.

00:24:42,614 → 00:24:44,182

In the same vein,

00:24:44,916 → 00:24:46,651

I have another picture book.

00:24:46,651 → 00:24:48,253

This one's called The Lantern House.

00:24:48,253 → 00:24:51,456

It's by Erin Napier and it it's illustrated by Adam Trent.

00:24:52,257 → 00:24:56,027

This is not from a real life story, but it's

00:24:57,128 → 00:24:59,297

if you're not familiar with Erin Napier.

00:24:59,297 → 00:25:02,400

She's the co-host of HGTV's Home Town,

00:25:03,535 → 00:25:05,871

which is a design show set in Laurel, Mississippi.

00:25:06,338 → 00:25:09,074

It's they're rehabbing older homes

00:25:09,674 → 00:25:12,377

and this is a book she's done.

00:25:12,377 → 00:25:19,284

Adam Trust is a childhood friend of hers and a noted Southern artist.

00:25:19,284 → 00:25:19,818

Really.

00:25:19,818 → 00:25:22,821

And honestly, the reason I picked up the book, he

00:25:22,988 → 00:25:26,291

his artwork has been featured on the TV show. It's

00:25:27,392 → 00:25:28,627

very flora.

00:25:28,627 → 00:25:30,128

Fauna,

00:25:30,829 → 00:25:32,430

really beautiful.

00:25:32,430 → 00:25:33,665

Busy.

00:25:33,665 → 00:25:37,702

Um, scenes.

00:25:37,702 → 00:25:38,770

Where is that?

00:25:38,770 → 00:25:43,975

Sort of a lot of color, but a lot of it.

00:25:44,276 → 00:25:46,945

Maybe like a tree spread out over the whole page,

00:25:46,945 → 00:25:48,547

but hidden in the tree are lots of different

00:25:48,547 → 00:25:49,881

things are at the base of the tree.

00:25:49,881 → 00:25:52,617

You'll see the root system and lots of different things

00:25:52,617 → 00:25:54,653

hidden in the picture as well are not really hidden.

00:25:54,653 → 00:25:57,656

But you know, things pop out to you

00:25:58,023 → 00:26:01,159

and this is a book that is

00:26:01,159 → 00:26:04,262

they put together that is just it's the story of a home taught sort of taught,

00:26:04,362 → 00:26:07,832

told from the home of having a family inside of it,

00:26:07,999 → 00:26:13,104

watching that family grow, of having having a wedding or having

00:26:13,805 → 00:26:17,475

only half of a couple left in the house or having the light not go out.

00:26:17,642 → 00:26:19,177

Go in. Excuse me.

00:26:19,177 → 00:26:23,214

Having the lights not go on one day because it's gone, the family is gone.

00:26:23,415 → 00:26:27,052

And then having another family move in and it's just that it's

00:26:27,052 → 00:26:32,190

as if these walls could talk type story and it's just a beautiful book.

00:26:32,190 → 00:26:34,893

I absolutely love Adam.

00:26:34,893 → 00:26:37,862

It is absolutely up my alley. He has sort of a

00:26:39,864 → 00:26:42,834

some of my favorites are more of a folk tale style but

00:26:42,968 → 00:26:46,471

but he sort of works that into this very

00:26:47,872 → 00:26:50,842

it's it's that idealist stick home idea

00:26:50,842 → 00:26:52,844

but still it's just a beautiful

00:26:54,679 → 00:26:55,914

picture book, too. Yeah.

00:26:55,914 → 00:26:58,650

So and one of those kind of nice gift style, too.

00:26:58,917 → 00:27:01,386

Yeah. I love that one too. Was really good.

00:27:01,653 → 00:27:05,056

And I having also learned from Yeah.

00:27:05,423 → 00:27:09,961

So great book for great books for discussion too with kids.

00:27:09,961 → 00:27:10,228

Yeah.

00:27:10,228 → 00:27:15,600

About what is homey and that sort of thing and thinking about right that, you

00:27:15,600 → 00:27:20,972

know, generations go through living spaces have such an interesting concept that.

00:27:21,139 → 00:27:24,509

Thinking about your little downtowns and your other buildings. Yes.

00:27:24,909 → 00:27:25,543

Oh, yes.

00:27:25,543 → 00:27:28,780

So much history even of our own Ingham County. But.

00:27:28,780 → 00:27:31,049

Mm hmm. I like discussing that.

00:27:31,516 → 00:27:31,950

Yeah.

00:27:31,950 → 00:27:37,522

Kids, I think this is a great, great, great group of titles.

00:27:37,522 → 00:27:38,289

Yeah.

00:27:38,623 → 00:27:40,625

Thanks for joining us. Yes.

00:27:40,625 → 00:27:41,760

See you next time.

00:27:41,760 → 00:27:49,634

Thank you. Bye.

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