Phil recommends "The Kelloggs: The battling brothers of Battle Creek"

Michigan history buffs will love this story of two extraordinary brothers - John Harvey Kellogg, health guru and founder of the Battle Creek Sanitarium and William Keith Kellogg, founder of the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company.  John Harvey’s sanitarium was legendary, with clients such as Mary Todd Lincoln, Amelia Earhart, Booker T. Washington, Dale Carnegie, Henry Ford, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr.  William Keith’s cereal company became a household name and influenced how Americans started their mornings.  The Kellogg brothers’ animosity toward each other was as epic as their accomplishments.

I particularly enjoyed this book because I was born and raised in Battle Creek and my grandpa used to work for Kellogg’s and the Sanitarium – he carried Eleanor Roosevelt’s luggage! 

This book is appropriate for adults.

Gretchen recommends "The Traveling Feast"

Rick Bass takes readers on a wide-ranging road trip to meet his literary and artistic heroes including the late Peter Matthiessen, Barry Lopez, David Sedaris and Terry Tempest Williams among others.  He wants to explore and impart their wisdom with upcoming writers, and cook these luminaries a seasonal, local and organic meal, fueling his company in body and spirit.  Like his early work, Oil Notes, written in his twenties when he was a geologist, this is an introspective read.  At a painful turning point in midlife, Bass is now taking stock and  moving forward.   Part memoir, part culinary travelogue, The Traveling Feast is frequently humorous and often poignant.  Simply put, the writing is beautiful.  This adult book is the perfect read for a winter's day, best appreciated at a leisurely pace.

Connie recommends "The Girl Who Wrote in Silk"

​Inspired by true events, a heartwarming story you're sure to enjoy!



Recommended for adults or young adults.

Lynn recommends "The Best We Could Do"

“The Best We Could Do” is an illustrated memoir by Thi Bui.  In it, Bui documents the story of her family’s escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970's, and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves after all the horrors they endured.  It is appropriate for adults and young adults.

Connie recommends Favorites

Educated by Tara Westover is an amazing and inspiring story of survival and the ability to move forward in spite of insurmountable obstacles.  Recommended for adults.






Dear Fahrenheit 451 by Annie Pence is by a local librarian.  Her debut book is cleverly written and quite funny!  I especially enjoyed the audio book, as the narrator had the same persona as Annie herself. Recommended for teens or adults.

Celia recommends "Her Favorites"

   

Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession by Alice Bolin                    

A collection of sharp, poignant essays that expertly blends the personal and political in an exploration of American culture through the lens of our obsession with dead women. 305.4097 B

Sweet Tea and Sympathy by Molly Harper

After a spectacular failure at an exclusive event in Chicago, event planner Margot Cary takes a job in Lake Sackett, Georgia. Organizing wakes and fishing trips isn’t exactly her thing, but she starts feeling more at home when she catches the eye of the elementary school principal Kyle Archer. An offer for a big-city job means Margot must decide between her career, and a possible new love. FIC HARPER

The Garden Party by Grace Dane Mazur

The two very different families of an engaged couple meet for a prenuptial dinner in the garden of the groom’s parents’ home in Brookline, Massachusetts. FIC MAZUR

Circe by Madeline Miller

Born into the house of Helios, god of the sun, Circe lacks the power of those around her and prefers human companions. Then she discovers she has the gift of witchcraft and is soon banished to a desert island, where she encounters famed figures in Greek mythology. FIC MILLER

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Mosfegh

A novel about a young woman’s efforts to duck the ills of the world by embarking on an extended hibernation with the help of one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature and the battery of medicines she prescribes. FIC MOSFEGH

Kira recommends "Don't Make Me Pull Over!"

For some of us, road trips were an essential part of our childhood. For others, they were a fad that was quickly fading, with only two or three road trips in our lifetimes. For the youngest, they're legends of a by-gone era, lost to affordable airfare. In the book Don't Make Me Pull Over!: An Informal History of the Family Road Trip by Richard Ratay, you're packed into the back of a 70's station wagon to explore what once was in the days of family road trips. From an introduction to the birth of American roads to the creation of the highways that still exist today, from the shift from mom-and-pop food stands and roadside attractions to the omnipresent McDonald's and Starbucks, and everything else a family road trip might entail, this book covers it all. If you miss the days of road trips, or even if you've never been on one and simply wanted to know what all the fuss is about, this is a good read, rich with American history.