Staff Picks in the Library

Sometimes when people find out that I am a librarian they automatically start talking about books and reading. Many can assume that librarians just sit around and read all day. The truth is that much of what people working in libraries do are technology-oriented projects, customer service, reference and printer jam fixing. That being said, there is some truth in the fact that all those who find a profession in the library have fallen in love with books at some point in their journey. So at the Union Library we thought that we would make a display of staff picks. The display is not only meant to highlight some books form our collection but also to give you a sense of the personalities of each one of our staff members. So here are the books that we chose:

Stephen Mount

	King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus Timothy J Keller
	New York, N.Y. : Dutton Redeemer, 2011
	Presents a revelatory examination of the life of Christ as told in the Gospel of Mark, inviting readers to review their personal relationships with God with a greater understanding of historical events.

Margaret Duncan

	Same Kind of Different as me Ron Hall; Denver Moore; Lynn Vincent
	Nashville, Tenn. : W Pub., 2006.
	The co-author relates how he was held under plantation-style slavery until he fled in the 1960s and suffered homelessness for an additional eighteen years before the wife of the other co-author, an art dealer accustomed to privilege, intervened.

Lori Haney

	Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone J K Rowling; Mary GrandPré
	New York : A.A. Levine Books, 1998.
	Harry Potter, 1.
	Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Anna Beth Morgan

	The Millennials: connecting to America's largest generation Thom S Rainer; Jess W Rainer
	Nashville, Tenn : B&H Pub. Group, ©2011.
	Presents new social, economic, and spiritual findings on the Millennials--youth born between 1980 and 2000--based on direct interviews with 1,200 members of the generation and reported from a Christian worldview perspective.

Beth Lynn

   The Help


   Kathryn Stockett

	New York : Amy Einhorn Books, 2009.
	In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another.

TR Parker

The power and the glory

Graham Green

New York: Vicking Press, 1952

In a poor, remote section of southern Mexico, the Red Shirts have taken control. God has been outlawed, and the priests have been systematically hunted down and killed. Now, the last priest strives to overcome physical and moral cowardice in order to find redemption.

Mary Platt

	The wreck of Henrietta Marie: an African-American's spiritual journey to uncover a sunken slave ship's past. Michael H Cottman
	New York : Harmony Books, ©1999.
	The author offers an account of the slave ship Henrietta Marie and its role in his ancestors' history.

Jenny Lowery

Evolving in Monkey Town : How a girl who knew all the answers learned to ask the questions.


Rachel Held Evans
Zondervan 2010


Eighty years after the Scopes Monkey Trial made a spectacle of Christian fundamentalism and brought national attention to her hometown, Rachel Held Evans faced a trial of her own when she began to have doubts about her faith. Growing up in a culture obsessed with apologetics, Evans asks questions she never thought she would ask. She learns that in order for her faith to survive in a postmodern context, it must adapt to change and evolve. 

Jeannie Byrd

	Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen; George Saintsbury; Hugh Thomson
	Mineola, N.Y. : Dover Publications, 2005.
	"When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited, while he struggles to remain indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever"--Book cover p. [4].

Paul Sorrell

	Ready, Set, Go! : Synergy Fitness for time-crunched adults Phil Campbell
	[Jackson, TN] : Pristine Publishers Inc., 2003.
	A comprehensive approach to five major areas of fitness: flexibility, endurance, strength, power, and anaerobic conditioning, with information on increasing growth hormones naturally.

Melissa Moore

	The Adoration of Jenna Fox Mary Pearson
	New York : Henry Holt, 2008.
	In the not-too-distant future, when biotechnological advances have made synthetic bodies and brains possible but illegal, a seventeen-year-old girl, recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses, learns a startling secret about her existence.

Ellen Kimbro

Unspoken


Francine Rivers

Wheaton, Ill. Tyndale House Publishers, 2001.

In award-winning writer Francine Rivers's five-book Lineage of Grace series about women in the family tree of Jesus Christ, perhaps the most compelling installment is Unspoken, the love story of David and Bathsheba. This Old Testament saga of adultery, power, and battles fought both on the field of combat and in the human heart touches on the cost of poor choices, the need for forgiveness, and finding ultimate fulfillment -- themes that are relevant today.

Anna Dombrowski

The Hole in Our Gospel

Richard Stearns

Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 2009.

Encouraging Christians to love their neighbors, examines the manner in which worldwide poverty is handled and how it must be changed and inspires individuals to reach out by using their time, talent, and money.