If you like books about librarians…….
Home for Erring and Outcast Girls
A NOVEL
By JULIE KIBLER
Category: Historical Fiction | Women’s Fiction
ABOUT HOME FOR ERRING AND OUTCAST GIRLS
In turn-of-the-20th century Texas, the Berachah Home for the Redemption and Protection of Erring Girls is an unprecedented beacon of hope for young women consigned to the dangerous poverty of the streets by birth, circumstance, or personal tragedy. Built in 1903 on the dusty outskirts of Arlington, a remote dot between Dallas and Fort Worth’s red-light districts, the progressive home bucks public opinion by offering faith, training, and rehabilitation to prostitutes, addicts, unwed mothers, and “ruined” girls without forcibly separating mothers from children. When Lizzie Bates and Mattie McBride meet there—one sick and abused, but desperately clinging to her young daughter, the other jilted by the beau who fathered her ailing son—they form a friendship that will see them through unbearable loss, heartbreak, difficult choices, and ultimately, diverging paths.
A century later, Cate Sutton, a reclusive university librarian, uncovers the hidden histories of the two troubled women as she stumbles upon the cemetery on the home’s former grounds and begins to comb through its archives in her library. Pulled by an indescribable connection, what Cate discovers about their stories leads her to confront her own heartbreaking past, and to reclaim the life she thought she’d let go forever. With great pathos and powerful emotional resonance, Home for Erring and Outcast Girls explores the dark roads that lead us to ruin, and the paths we take to return to ourselves.
Running the Books
THE ADVENTURES OF AN ACCIDENTAL PRISON LIBRARIAN
By AVI STEINBERG
Category: Biography & Memoir
ABOUT RUNNING THE BOOKS
Avi Steinberg is stumped. After defecting from yeshiva to attend Harvard, he has nothing but a senior thesis on Bugs Bunny to show for himself. While his friends and classmates advance in the world, Steinberg remains stuck at a crossroads, his “romantic” existence as a freelance obituary writer no longer cutting it.
Seeking direction (and dental insurance) Steinberg takes a job running the library counter at a Boston prison. He is quickly drawn into the community of outcasts that forms among his bookshelves—an assortment of quirky regulars, including con men, pimps, minor prophets, even ghosts—all searching for the perfect book and a connection to the outside world. Steinberg recounts their daily dramas with heartbreak and humor in this one-of-a-kind memoir—a piercing exploration of prison culture and an entertaining tale of one young man’s earnest attempt to find his place in the world.
›Two more to consider:
The World’s Strongest Librarian BY JOSH HANAGARNE Josh Hanagarne doesn’t really blend in. After all, he’s 6’7” and suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome and has learned to throttle his “tics” through weightlifting. Today, Josh works as a librarian at Salt Lake City’s public library and writes a blog about books and weightlifting. This is his story of overcoming adversity, finding love, and learning to live.
Twelve Angry Librarians BY MIRANDA JAMES When the Southern Academic Libraries Association conference comes to town, Charlie Harris is in a panic. As the director of libraries, he’s expected to address all the librarians at an event. But when one of them turns up dead, Charlie gets even more than he bargained for—especially because Charlie, himself, had an argument with the victim the night before he died.
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