The State Library of Kansas to Recognize Kansas Notable Books

Towanda Public Library Posted on by

Meet the Writers behind Kansas Highlighted Books

 

 

Topeka, KS — The State Library of Kansas and the Kansas Center for the Book (KCFB) will recognize this year’s Kansas Notable Book Award winners at the 2012 Kansas Book Festival, an event showcasing current authors and books, while promoting literacy. “It’s an honor to be selected and to be connected to other Kansas authors through this program,” said author Marci Penner of Inman, KS.

 

Festival-goers can also visit the State Library and KCFB booths to learn about popular downloadable eBooks and audiobooks, online research tools, early childhood literacy initiatives, and the other statewide programs and services available at no charge to Kansas residents. Staff will be on hand to answer questions and help Kansans connect to their interests through local libraries.

 

The Kansas Notable Book list was established in the year 2006 by KCFB. The KCFB is a state affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and headquartered at the State Library of Kansas. “It is a great privilege to have one’s work recognized beside these luminaries. The prairies of Kansas have inspired deep riches in literature, history, art, poetry, and all the cultural expressions that define the human experience. This award recognizes not only the writers who capture that experience but the landscape which provides the stage,” said author Jim Leiker of Eudora, KS.

 

KCFB will also be represented at the 2012 National Book Festival, hosted by the Library of Congress, Sept. 22–23, on the National Mall. Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool, a 2011 Kansas Notable Book winner, will be featured in this year’s Great Reads about Great Places booklist.

 

The Kansas Book Festival will take place at the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka on Sept. 15 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Kansas Notable Book Award Ceremony will be at noon in the Museum Classroom. 13 authors are expected to attend the ceremony recognizing their books. Admission to the festival is free and open to the public. Details about the Kansas Notable Books can be found at www.kcfb.info/kansas-notable-books.html.

 

2012 Kansas Notable Book Authors and Hometowns

 

8 Wonders of Kansas! Guidebook

by Marci Penner (Inman, KS)

 

The Afterlives of Trees

by Wyatt Townley (Leawood, KS)

 

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

by Candace Fleming (Oak Park, IL)

 

Bent Road: A Novel

by Lori Roy (Manhattan, KS)

 

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

by Candice Millard (Leawood, KS)

 

Doc: A Novel

by Mary Doria Russell (Cleveland, OH)

 

The Door in the Forest

by Roderick Townley (Leawood, KS)

 

Liar’s Moon

by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Lenexa, KS)

 

My Ruby Slippers: The Road Back to Kansas

by Tracy Seeley (Wichita, KS)

 

The Northern Cheyenne Exodus in History and Memory

by James N. Leiker (Eudora, KS) and Ramon Powers (Topeka, KS)

 

Osa and Martin: For the Love of Adventure

by Kelly Enright (Vail, CO)

 

Prairie Fire: A Great Plains History

by Julie Courtwright (Ames, IA)

 

Rode

by Thomas Fox Averill (Topeka, KS)

 

Send Me Work: Stories

by Katherine Karlin (Manhattan, KS)

 

Tapped Out: Rear Naked Chokes, the Octagon, and the Last Emperor: An Odyssey in Mixed Martial Arts

by Matthew Polly (New Haven, CT)

Visiting Writer James Ayers

Towanda Public Library Posted on by

James Ayers will be visiting to read from his new book, From the Mists of Eden.  The book tells eleven stories from the Old Testament, from Genesis to Joshua, retold as family stories, to enable modern readers to feel the connections between ourselves and Uncle Abraham, Aunt Hagar, Uncle Jacob and Uncle Red.

From amazon.com:

When we read old family letters or hear stories about our great-grandparents, they hold our attention in a particular way. Events from long before we were born are about us: they tell us something important about who we are. If there’s a story about great-aunt Mildred on the Oregon Trail as a young child, we want to know that story, because it affects who we are today.

Commonly we read the Bible as a historical text, making it a source of facts or doctrines: useful information, but perhaps not very personal. Yet the narratives in early chapters of the Bible need to be understood not as ancient history, but as part of the story of our family. Again and again, for example, the people of Israel of later generations were reminded, “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt”—they must understand that the story of the deliverance is not distant history, but their own reality.

From the ‘Mists of Eden’ retells eleven key stories, from Genesis through Joshua, as family stories: Aunt Hagar and Aunt Sarai, Uncle Joshua, and Uncle Red and Uncle Jacob and Uncle Joe.

James Ayers (PhD, Boston College) is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He is the author of ‘Finding the Story: Hard Texts, Homiletical Narratives’, and ‘Hearing God’s Voice’, and of more than two hundred journal and magazine articles.

Donate Your Old Books

Towanda Public Library Posted on by

We’re gearing up for our big annual booksale during the Towanda Days Festival, and we’re accepting any and all donations of books.  Paperbacks, hardcovers, children’s, YA, and adult books welcome.  Fiction and nonfiction.

We’re also accepting used DVDs, video games, board games, but most of all, clean out your houses of all those books you don’t want anymore!

The sale will run Friday and Saturday, October 12th and 13th.  Stop by the park for all sorts of fun events, and don’t forget to drop into the library to see if anyone else’s donated books are the treasure you’ve been searching for….