Time for Recess! Start With a Good Book From JCPL!

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Preschool is a fun place to be, most of the time. It’s just the beginning of a long line of social events that will shape and form who you are and what your place in the world will be when you grow up. I have a four year old granddaughter who is just learning the ins and outs of social skills. A bad day for a four year old is when those social skills go awry, and that they did. Sitting in a chair with a sour face and her arms crossed, she was in Time-Out for pushing another little girl who had dared to “look at her” sometime during the course of that day. 

On the way home, I listened as she and her older sister exchanged conversation in the back seat. Big sister had a good day, and told us she had gone out for recess. Crossing her arms across her chest and thinking back over her day, the four year old said, “Humph…I had a recess too; all coz of that GIRL who looked at me!”

Do you need a recess? If you do, give yourself a “time-out” and enjoy these new fiction titles from the Jasper County Public Library!

The magical healing power of food brings people together and provides a second chance at love for Angelina D’Angelo in “Angelina’s Bachelors: A Novel With Food” by Brian O’Reilly. In this novel full of homemade warmth, you’ll meet widowed Angelina, who finds herself pouring her grief stricken heart out by cooking with passion. The only problem is that she cooks so much food that she ends up handing out the leftovers to the neighbors in her tight-knit Italian community. They, in turn, enjoy the food so much that her culinary skills are put to use as each neighbor takes turns ordering food from her, giving Angelina a new lease on life, and even a second chance at love.

Olivia Wainwright is gifted with a second sight. Touching a lifeless body takes her into the depths of darkness, and as she glimpses the final moments of the deceased, she’s drawn ever deeper into danger. When Olivia seeks the help of Detective Gabe Cooper in solving a decade old crime that continues to haunt her, he steps in against his better judgment in “Cold Touch: Extrasensory Agents” by Leslie Parrish.

One after another, people are disappearing into thin air in Christchurch. First, Cooper Riley, a psychology professor goes missing. Next, his student, Emma Green never returns home after class. Emma’s father enlists the help of ex-cop, Theodore Tate. Just released from a four month prison sentence, Tate begins to follow the clues in the girl’s disappearance, being led back over and over again to Grover Hills Mental Hospital, an institution that had previously closed down years before. But as Tate unearths one clue after another, the dark past of Grover Hills begins to surface in “Collecting Cooper: A Thriller” by Paul Cleave.

The future of Gloria Powell’s adopted daughter, Lily, is in jeopardy. When Lily’s sister, Kai, arrives at a Dallas hotel to discuss potential health problems that may lie ahead for Lily, Gloria becomes fearful. First of all, her own relationship with her adopted daughter is in tatters; second of all, even though Kai seems to have the girl’s best interests at heart, could she possibly be here to take her back to China with her? As a storm begins to brew outside of the hotel, the inner storm that is lurking in Gloria’s heart gains strength as well in “Reclaiming Lily” by Patti Lacy.

Set in the South of France, “The Lantern” by Deborah Lawrenson is s modern gothic novel of love, secrets and murder. Dom and Eve have fallen in love, and their whirlwind courtship has brought them to live together in an abandoned house, living each summer day to the fullest, enjoying the fragrant lavender that grows all around their romantic cottage. As the days begin to cool, however, Dom becomes more and more silent, making Eve uncertain about their future together. The more obsessed that Eve becomes with finding the source of Dom’s unhappiness, the more haunted their new surroundings become. As the cold and uninviting shadows begin to close in on her, Eve senses that her relationship with Dom, and perhaps her very life, may be in danger in this modern day mystery.

Robert Fulghum had it right in “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” This wonderful literary book of essays includes the basics of how to live and be happy, even if you’re a preschooler with an attitude. He says, “Think about what a better world it would be if we all—the whole world—had cookies and milk at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap.” I take that to mean that we all need a recess; a time-out now and then; and what better way to spend a time-out than curled up with a blankie and a good book from JCPL!?