The Friends of the Osterhout Free Library's 49th Tent Book Sale wraps up today.
Book sale chair Linda Kubiak said midway through the week things had been a little slower this year compared to previous years, but there were always people browsing the books on offer and stopping in for specials like Children's Day.
"It's great to see everybody coming up and that we're still reading physical books," she said.
Despite what Kubiak called smaller crowds at this year's sale, there were plenty of avid readers to find among the volunteers and shoppers.
Here are a few favorite reads from the tent:
Patty Niznik, Friends of the Osterhout Free Library member
Book: "Somerset"
Author: Leila Meacham
I would recommend this book because ... I do like historical fiction, and it is a book of historical fiction with great character development of two separate families that moved from the East Coast to the West during the period of the 1800s.
It involves the strife that they went through, as far as leaving their families and developing new communities, new relationships, and it also had very strong female characters, and I was impressed by the detail in which the author described the time period and the development of cities out in the West. (It was) more or less a time in which new colonies were being set up back East, but yet we often wonder, how did all those people get to the West, and how did they develop their governments, their towns, and their relationships?
Phyllis Scott, Friends of the Osterhout Free Library member
Book: "The Black Wolf"
Author: Louise Penny
I'd like to recommend some books that were just published in the last two years by a mystery writer named Louise Penny, and the books were called "The Dark Wolf," and then this year, or earlier this year, she published "The Black Wolf."
There's a new Louise Penny mystery coming out ... so look forward to that. But once you start reading her - it's a long series about a French-Canadian head of police in Montreal — you'll be hooked for life.
Hillary Hazus, Dallas
Book: "North Woods"
Author: Daniel Mason
It's really interesting to see how life just goes on each time. It's a novel, and it just keeps changing each chapter about a place in the woods that people just come to and take over as their own, and each time there's remnants of somebody else there, like ghosts and stuff. How our spirit lives on, it's very cool.
Allan Austin, Misericordia University, and Hope Austin
Book: "A Ghost in the Throat"
Author: Doireann Ní Ghríofa
HA: It's absolutely brilliant.
AA: It will blow your mind because it's both personal history, but also this exploration of the "Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire" ("Lament for Arthur O'Leary") in ways that connects Irish history to the present, it's brilliant.
HA: And that poem ... it's so ancient, it's on the "leaving cert" in Ireland, probably from the 1500s I want to say. This woman finds her murdered husband and she drinks cups of his blood. It's wild, and it's so beautifully written, and it explores this concept of a female text and mother-daughter relationships and vampirism, and it's really great.
AA: And as a historian, it's so cool because it's not only connecting this really deep and profound Irish history to her very personal lived experience. It's brilliant. It will change your life.
HA: And she just published another book, "Said the Dead." I love Doireann Ní Ghríofa. Read her books.
Sarah Scinto, WVIA Morning Edition Host and Reporter
Book: “We Were Liars”
Author: E. Lockhart
I haven’t started reading “We Were Liars,” yet — I just picked it up at the book sale this week.
But I’ve heard from multiple reliable sources — including our own Lydia McFarlane and frequent contributor Jess Ross — that I will burn through this book and thoroughly enjoy it. So once again, my recommendation this week is just to check out your local used book sale. You may find a new favorite.
That’s all for this edition of Bookmarks! Join us again on July 4.
