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Some book suggestions for worthwhile reading

January is getting off to a great start with Family Literacy Day on Jan. 27, 2010. Boy, do we have some fun things planned to celebrate that momentous event:

January is getting off to a great start with Family Literacy Day on Jan. 27, 2010. Boy, do we have some fun things planned to celebrate that momentous event:

First of all is our Get Caught Reading Photo Contest. Sponsored by the Stettler Public Library and the Stettler Read & Write Program, this has got to be the easiest contest to enter. The first step is to “catch” someone reading something. It can be anything like a recipe, nutritional labels, newspapers or just an ordinary book. You can also include family time like playing board games or bedtime stories. Step two is to take a great photo. Step three is to submit the photo to the Stettler Public Library by 4 p.m on Wednesday, Jan. 27. Photos will be displayed at the library and prizes will be awarded on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010 at 3 p.m.

Jan. 30 is also the day of our first annual Scrabble tournament. It is scheduled to run from 1 to 3 p.m. and everybody is welcome. There will be prizes for the winners (the age categories depend on who registers) and they will be presented at 3 p.m that day along with the winners of the Get Caught Reading Photo Contest.

Reader’s Circle met for the first time in 2010 on Jan. 7 and it is my favourite gathering of the whole year. This is when we talk about our favourite books of the previous year and there were some great books mentioned. I will give you the titles and you can add them to your reading list.

Deb couldn’t make the meeting but she did send a list: “I am a Genius of Stupendous Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President” by Josh Lieb, “The Reformed Vampire Support Group” by Catherine Jinks and “King of the Screwups” by K.L. Going, and a debut novel by Ninni Holmqvist called “The Unit”.

Gayle’s pick was a novel by Geraldine Brooks called “People of the Book”.

Luella came with a list that included her favourite books of the list “Some Great Thing” by Lawrence Hill, which was written before “The Books of Negroes” and “Wild Swans: three daughters of China” by Jung Chang.

That discussion worked right into Janet’s favourite book of 2009: “A Leaf in the Bitter Wind: a memoir” by Ting-xing Ye. This book also tells the story of women in China but a little later than “Wild Swans”.

My pick of 2009 was “Hungry” by Crystal Renn. It is the story of a young woman trying to survive in the fashion world as an anorexic but decided to choose life by making the conscious decision to become a plus-size model. What an uplifting book about a woman that decided embrace her curves.