Harlem Library

By Colleen Brommer

Don’t miss May’s Book Challenge which is to read a book you can finish in one day! You have a chance to win a gift certificate from a local business.

The Community Input Questionnaires are due back to the library by May 15. If you haven’t picked up your copy you may get one at the library or download it from our website at http://harlempubliclibrary.org. This information will assist the library board and staff in developing the new long-range plan. Your name will be entered to win a door prize!

With the school year quickly drawing to a close it is almost time for the Summer Reading Program for children ages preschool through grade six. Parents are encouraged to register their children beginning May 31. This year’s theme is “On Your Mark, Get Set...READ!” Children will be rewarded for the number of books or hours they read. There will be weekly programs throughout June and July. Family Fun Night will be June 1, 6:30-8:00 p.m. and children must be accompanied by a parent/guardian. If you need to obtain a library card please bring a current photo ID. Contact the library for more information.

Robert Morgan has written “Chasing the North Star.” This historical novel tells the tale of Jonah Williams, a slave, who in 1850 flees the South Carolina plantation with only a few stolen coins, a knife, and the clothes on his back. Following the North Star he must elude the men sent to capture him and the bounty hunters who are after the reward on his head. But another person is on his trail: Angel, also a slave, who sees Jonah as her way to freedom.

Fans of Karen Kingsbury will want to read “Brush of Wings.” Mary Catherine dismisses the advice of her doctor who tells her she must have a heart transplant. Instead she travels to Uganda where she wants to spend what time she has left helping children at a new orphanage. But she is finding it impossible to forget major league baseball player, Marcus Dillinger, whom she never meant to fall in love with.Neither Marcus, or her friends Tyler Ames and Sami Dawson, know how serious her heart condition is. After months of not hearing from Mary Catherine, Marcus receives a letter that sends him on a life-or-death mission.

“Cold Barrel Zero” is by Matthew Quirk. Special Operations legend John Hayes returns to the U.S. to his family after he went rogue on a deep-cover mission betraying his own soldiers. Disgraced, he vows to get revenge on his accusers. The only man who can stop him is Thomas Byrne, who fought alongside Hayes as a combat medic. Although they were once as close as brothers Hayes and Byrne must decide whom to trust and whom to betray as the fate of the nation hangs in the balance.

“Lilac Girls” by Martha Hall Kelly is a debut novel inspired by a real WWII heroine. Caroline Ferriday works at the French consulate in New York. Her world is changed forever when Hitler’s army invades Poland and sets its sights on France. In Poland, teenager Kasia Kuzmerick is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. Young German doctor Herta Oberheuser answers an ad for a government medical position only to find herself trapped in the realm of Nazi secrets and power. The lives of these three women collide when Kasia is sent to Ravensbruck.

The new Mary Higgins Clark novel is “As Time Goes By.” Delaney Wright is on the brink of fame as the evening news anchor who has the plum assignment of covering a sensational murder trial. But, she is consumed with the need to find her birth mother. On trial is Betsy Grant, who claims she would never kill the husband she loved, even to put him out of the misery of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Betsy’s stepson waits nervously to find the verdict as his large inheritance hangs in the balance. When friends of Delaney look into the mystery of her birth, a shocking secret is uncovered and Delaney’s pursuit of the truth endangers her life.

Other titles of interest include “The Friends We Keep” by Susan Mallery, “What We Find” by Robyn Carr, and “The Rebel” Book Three of the Keepers of the Promise Series by Marta Perry.