Cascade Public Library – Page 4 – Welcome to Cascade Public Library

Kindergarten Readiness Program

November 2, 2021 By Cascade Library Staff

Cascade Public Library will be hosting Ready! for Kindergarten a program for 0-4 year old’s. We will be doing a partnership between Donnelly Public Library and Cascade Public Library to hold these classes along with Toddler Time. Each family will receive a gift bag worth approximately $200! We are capping our registration at 15, so come sign up as soon as possible. To register please come into the Cascade Public Library or the Donnelly Public Library. We would love to see you all there. You may also register by emailing [email protected] or [email protected]

Growing Things

September 1, 2020 By Cascade Library Staff

Book: “Growing Things” by Paul Tremblay

Reviewed by: Amelia Valasek, Library Manager

Who should read this: Those who enjoy weird fiction and/or scary stories. Folks with a short attention span who still want to enjoy a good book.

Personal impression: This is a collection of short stories. As such, there were some entries I liked, while some fell flat. The great thing about a collection like this is that you can skip the stories that don’t draw you in. I only ended up skipping three of the stories, and really enjoyed the rest.

Review: Short story collections are one of those things that people either love or hate. For those who enjoy a good collection, this one is worth checking out. Paul Tremblay is best known for his horror novels, and while these stories are sometimes scary, they tend more toward the strange and uncanny. In many of the stories, Tremblay has used the weird and the unexplainable as a framing device to explore much more personal issues – a mother with a drug addiction who has lost custody of her daughter, a writer who can’t make ends meet, a fanboy meeting his idol, a dad enjoying a day at the beach with his kids. Tremblay has a talent for prose, and for weaving together the weird and the mundane in a way I found compelling. He is also a talented craftsman, and his writing adapts effortlessly across a stylistic range from experimental poetry to a heart-pounding robbery get-away.

One of the drawbacks to a collection of short stories, especially for a writer of Tremblay’s talent, is that you connect to the story and the characters quite strongly, only to find the story has ended before you are ready to let go, and left you wanting more. The book falters in a couple of places, especially with the more experimental pieces; a choose-your-own-adventure style piece that failed to draw me in, and a self-indulgent meta-examination of the publishing industry that was neither scary nor interesting. But these two exceptions aside, the book was quite enjoyable. It was the first work I’ve read by this author, though he has quite an extensive back-list. I am excited to read one of his novels and see what he is capable of in a longer format.

The Wolf and the Watchman

August 20, 2020 By Cascade Library Staff

Book: The Wolf and the Watchman

Author: Niklas Natt Och Dag

Reviewed by: Amelia Valasek, Library Manager

Who should read this: Fans of well-paced dark thrillers, horror, and historical fiction. Warning – this book is very dark and contains graphic descriptions of violence.

Personal impression: I really liked this book, but I have a strong constitution when it comes to dark and graphic material (I was reading Stephen King at age 12…). As such, I wasn’t as much bothered by this aspect of the book. A lot of the negative reviews on Amazon say the book is too dark and violent, but if you can stomach “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, you’ll be fine.

Review: Take the bleak social disparities of a Charles Dickens novel, spice it up with a buddy-cop murder mystery, add a dash of body-horror, and plop in down in late 18th century Stockholm and you’ll get The Wolf and the Watchman. The official book description/back-cover provides a clear sense of what the book is about, so I won’t spend a lot of time re-hashing the novel’s plot here, except to say that it is fairly straightforward: body is discovered, investigations are made, truth is revealed. This isn’t a twisty mind-bender, and that’s to the books credit. Instead, the author put his effort into creating fully-realized characters that you really care about as they struggle through the incredibly harsh realities of working-class life in 1793 Stockholm. The book explores themes of class, (in)justice, and the messy, bloody reality of democracy’s progress. After all, the 1790’s were a time of social upheaval; in France, the royalty were, literally, losing their heads.

One thing I really appreciated about this book is that it didn’t fall into the trope of putting a dead, silent girl at the center of the mystery. Instead, the murder victim is a man, and the tragedy and injustice of life as a woman in the emerging industrial era is explored through the living eyes of a main character. She is given agency and voice, which makes her story that much more powerful. The other three characters comprise a dying detective, a jaded one-armed veteran, and a naive country boy. All four characters are given compelling story arcs with emotionally satisfying (if sometimes tragic) conclusions.

Overall, the prose is well crafted, the plot is well paced, the characters fully developed, and the setting is, for better or worse, completely immersive. This was a book I just couldn’t put down.

Nothing to See Here

July 31, 2020 By Cascade Library Staff

Book: Nothing to See Here

Author: Kevin Wilson

Reviewed by: Amelia Valasek, Library Manager

Who should read this: Anyone who’s in the mood for a laugh-out-loud, feel-good book with a bit of human combustion thrown in for good measure.

Personal impression: I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I should point out that I did “read” this as an audio book, so had the benefit of an excellent voice actor who added a lot of texture to the narrator’s story. I cant say if this also shines through in the written text, but I imagine it would.

Review: This book is narrated in first person by our protagonist, Lillian Breaker. She’s had a rough go of things most of her life, with a careless and selfish mom, a dad that was never in the picture, and not much in the way of prospects. As a teenager, Lillian’s higher-than average intelligence lands her a scholarship spot at a prestigious boarding school. However, her dreams for a better future are dashed when she takes the fall for her best friend, Madison, and gets booted back to her less-than-ideal public school. As a result, Lilian decides that its easiest to just float through life without any real ambition or drive. Years later she is contacted by her old friend Madison who has a favor to ask: will Lilian play nanny to Madison’s two step children for the summer? There’s a catch though – these children catch on fire when they get upset.

If I seem less than forthcoming with the specific plot logistics that bring Lilian and Madison back together, it’s because those logistics aren’t really the main focus of the story. And as odd as it might seem, the fact that Madison’s step children spontaneously combust isn’t really the main focus of the story either. This is a story about outcasts who find comfort and belonging in one another. Lillian’s narration, was for me, the best part of the book. It is by turns dryly sardonic, self deprecating, and surprisingly sensitive. Her journey is both very small, and very big, and totally normal, and completely absurd. But at the heart of it all is a story about love, forgiveness, and hope. And of course, it’s laugh out loud funny, which I think is something most people could use in these stressful days of global pandemics and social upheaval. The perfect book for a stressful year.

Back to the main blog page

The Need

July 20, 2020 By Cascade Library Staff

Book: The Need

Author: Helen Phillips

Reviewed by: Amelia Valasek, Library Manager

Who should read this: If you want a weird book that has a foot in two different genres, but doesn’t really adhere to either. If you like sci-fi, and also if you like books about the struggles of motherhood and existential questions about family life.

Personal impression: The book started out strong – it was weird, but in a fun, trippy sci-fi kind of way. Then it just sort of disintegrated into a philosophical examination of motherhood. Since I am not a parent, I couldn’t really relate and just got tired of it after a while. I suppose it’s possible that someone who has been through the trials of raising young children might get more out of this one.

Review: Caution, this review contains some minor SPOILERS, but nothing you won’t find out after the first 50 pages of the book. So, here’s the what the book is actually about, which you won’t really be able to glean from the official description: A woman is confronted by a copy of herself from an alternate universe and this causes her to confront her conflicted feelings about motherhood and her own identity. Although the book did have some interesting science-fiction-adjacent plot points and a sort of simmering tension of alternate reality mind-bending going on in the background, it really isn’t a book about these things at all. For all the promise of a twisty, creepy thrill ride, this book is actually quite mundane. And I use the word “mundane” on purpose. The book isn’t boring, but it is surprisingly ordinary, all things considered. There is more text dedicated to breast-feeding and packing lunches and stressing about a four-year old’s birthday party than there is to anything else.

“The Need” referenced by the title is the all-consuming need that (some, all, most?) mothers feel for their children, and how that need creates a conflict of identity. I suppose for someone who is a new mother confronting the crisis of identity that comes from constantly sacrificing yourself, this book may actually be profound. For this reason, and because it was a fairly quick read, I will give the book the benefit of the doubt. Even though I personally found it wanting, I do think there is an audience out there who will truly appreciate this particular story.

Back to the main blog page

Kindergarten Readiness Program

Growing Things

The Wolf and the Watchman

Nothing to See Here

The Need

Recycled Book Store

Have fun with math and science

Help The Library