South Central Regional Library's 2024 Staff Favorites!

 2024 SCRL's Staff Favorites

What a fantastic year.. Below you will find some of our 2024 staff favorites. Interested in reading some of these novels? Click on the title and you can place it on hold (Some titles are not available... yet!).

From the Office:

- Cathy (Director): Under the Whispering Door by T.J Klune; “If we worry about the little things all the time, we run the risk of missing the bigger things.”

- Raina (Office Manager and Miami Branch Admin): The Prisoner's Throne by Holly Black; "'So let me get this straight,' Oak says. 'You understand the part where I might have had to kill a lot of people, but you think I chose the wrong girl to kiss?'"

- Joanna (Cataloging Clerk): The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater; “All of us have secrets in our lives. We’re keepers or kept from, players or played. Secrets and cockroaches — that’s what will be left at the end of it all.”

- Britany (Programming Clerk and Winkler Library Clerk): Gorgeously Me by Jonathan Van Ness; “I won’t be afraid to stand out or show the world what I’m all about. I am exactly who I’m meant to be. Perfectly, happily, gorgeously me!” 

From the Altona Branch:

- Racheal (Branch Admin): Unsouled by Will Wight; "Fate is not fair, but it is just. Hard work is never in vain... even when it does not achieve what you wanted."

- Michelle: Conclave by Robert Harris; “Any man who is truly worthy must consider himself unworthy.” 

- Alvina: Dinner for Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz; “I found out that when the numbness lasts for long enough it bears a striking resemblance to peace.”

- Wendi: 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea by Jonathan Franklin; "It's in the darkest moments that our true strength is tested, when we discover what we are really capable of."

From the Manitou Branch:

- Angela (Branch Admin): The Wild and Distant Sea by Tara Karr Roberts; "A lie is a fragile thing, Rachel," she said, her voice uncertain, as if finding a single word at a time, "but so is a heart."

- Kirsty: The Break by Katherena Vermette; "In the dream, the Break is land like any other land, just a place covered with snow. The sky is clear, the stars are bright and blinking, and the moon is full and bright. She can see all its dents and curves, and the light that reflects back somehow feels as warm as fire. The wind is the winter kind, huge and overpowering in her ears. It's all she hears but it doesn't make her cold. Stella walks on and knows she can take this path all the way north. She can go until she reaches the end of the city where she will see the sky and snow stretch out full and empty. So her dream self walks that way, all the way, and doesn't look back."

- Cherri: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls; "Everyone has something good about them, you have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that."

- Susan: The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander; "'Don’t worry, ma chérie', she had said. 'All the books that matter are still here. They are yours to keep, and to take with you wherever you go.'”

From the Miami Branch:

- Charlize: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens;"'But, ladies and gentlemen, did we exclude Miss Clark because she was different, or was she different because we excluded her?'"

- Nyomi: The Night Ends with Fire by K.X. Song; "I needed to prove that I as a woman could be better than the rest of them. That I too could belong. That I too could be free."

- Donna: Someone is Watching by Joy Fielding; "Can I do this? Can I really tell her everything? Can I trust her crazy? I take a deep breath, then release it slowly. The air escaping my body like air from a balloon. I push the words from my mouth, 'I think I may be losing my mind.'"

From the Morden Branch:

- Gail (Branch Admin): A Hard Day for a Hangover by Darynda Jones; "Remember when you were little and you'd fall while on the trampoline and everyone would keep jumping so you couldn't get back up? That's adulthood. Try adding coffee." 

From the Winkler Branch:

- Jess (Branch Admin): Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson; "Hello! Would you like to destroy some evil today?"

- Heidi: Never Broken by Jewel: "Carrying anger with you is like lighting your own house on fire to get rid of rats. The rats run to safety while you burn yourself down. Forgive. Let go. Heal."

- Jill: The All-American by Susie Finkbeiner; "No one escapes difficulty. Nobody.  But when it comes, we have a few choices to make.  We can become angry, bitter, hard -hearted.  Or we can look at our troubles right in the face and decide we won’t let them steal our hope."

- Linda: We Solve Murders by Richard Osman; "If you have any sort of personality, someone will eventually want to kill you."

-Shirl: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelly Van Pelt; "Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire?"