Here’s another new face you will see behind the circulation desk: Ashley!
Where did you work before you joined the library?
Before the library, I worked at Joann Fabrics which was dangerous, and I was a greeting card merchandiser. Mostly I was a mom though.
What are your favorite books?
Hmm… My favorite books lately have been young adult fantasy novels set in African Mythology. I most recently read “The Merciless Ones” by Namina Forna. It was phenomenal! I’ve also been reading “Stamped from the Beginning” by Ibram X. Kendi. And my favorite book when I was a kid was “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.
What do you love most about libraries?
What do I love most about libraries? Well, the library is like the last bastion of hope in a world going nuts. You have access to all of the knowledge you could ever dream of, and we’ll fight to keep it that way. The library is a magical place, and I’m just super excited to be a part of it.
Ashley’s Reading Advisory
“The Merciless Ones” by Namina Forna. It’s been six months since Deka freed the goddesses in the ancient kingdom of Otera and discovered who she really is. But war is waging across the kingdom, and the real battle has only just begun. For there is a dark force growing in Otera, a merciless power that Deka and her army must stop. Yet hidden secrets threaten to destroy everything Deka has known. And with her own gifts changing, Deka must discover if she holds the key to saving Otera or if she might be its greatest threat.
Stamped from the Beginning : the definitive history of racist ideas in America by Ibram Kendi. Americans like to insist that we are living in a postracial, color-blind society. In fact, racist thought is alive and well; it has simply become more sophisticated and more insidious. And as historian Ibram X. Kendi argues, racist ideas in this country have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit. Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. Stamped from the Beginning uses the lives of five major American intellectuals to offer a window into the contentious debates between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and antiracists.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. The setting is a dusty Southern town during the Depression. A white woman accuses a black man of rape. Though he is obviously innocent, the outcome of his trial is such a foregone conclusion that no lawyer will step forward to defend him— except the town’s most distinguished citizen. His compassionate defense costs him many friendships but earns him the respect and admiration of his two motherless children.
The O'Fallon Public Library News 