The end of the year brings "best of" lists for everything you could think of. We asked the Waukee Public Library staff what books they enjoyed reading in 2023. Some of them also shared books they're looking forward to reading in the new year!
I’ve really enjoyed reading Marie Benedict’s stories about forgotten women in history—so I want to review a couple of books by her that I highly recommend.
The Personal Librarian
To expand on my mini review of my favorite book of 2021, the Personal...
I think we can all agree that 2021 was another rough year—to say the least. And while we're more than happy to say goodbye to 2021 in hopes of a brighter new year, it was a good year for books. To celebrate the year's end and the great reads of 2021...
After reading Detransition, Baby and Memorial back-to-back in May, I figured I should keep reading recent LGBTQ+ books and write some reviews for Pride Month. (We should pay attention to LGBTQ+ voices all year, of course, but the timing happily...
At the beginning of Fredrik Backman’s Anxious People, he writes: “This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots. So it needs saying from the outset that it’s always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you...
Over the last few years, authors have created new and atypical stories that make me want to read more about World War II. Here are a few of my favorite stories that show different perspectives of the war—the correspondence between a Japanese boy and...
The mystery genre loves a good series, with many fan favorites going well past twenty books in a series. As a reader, this is pretty awesome—find an author and a character you like, and settle in for a regular dose of reading joy. This applies to one...
Gail Jarrow strikes again with another inventive non-fiction book. In The Poison Eaters you will be transported to the late 1800s where more people are moving from farms, where they grew their own food, to cities, where they must trust an unregulated...
Mysteries are my jam. In high school, I would rush home from soccer practice just so that I could catch Murder She Wrote reruns. Cozy mysteries are essentially Murder She Wrote in book form—quick reads, with minimal violence, featuring everyday...
