There are two new faces on the O’Fallon Public Library staff. Meet Maura and Chrissy!
Maura
What jobs did you have before coming to the library? I have worked most recently in the finance industry as a licensed stock broker with TDAmeritrade. Before that I was trying my hand at tech support and repair with GeekSquad, and before that I managed a website for a lifestyle brand in Texas!
What are your favorite books or movies? My top 3 favorite books are Dune, The Name of the Wind, and Sabriel.
What do you love most about libraries? I love that it is extremely hard to be bored in a library. Libraries are spaces that appeal to everyone. They spark curiosity when we are young and help foster discovery, imagination, and community throughout our lives.
Chrissy
What jobs did you have before coming to the library? I was a middle school science teacher and then a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom.
What are your favorite books or movies? The Mitford Years series by Jan Karon; The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis; Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss
What do you love most about libraries? The smell of old books.
Reader’s Advisory from Maura and Chrissy (click on the title to order from the library catalog)
Dune by Frank Herbert. Follows the adventures of Paul Atreides, the son of a betrayed duke given up for dead on a treacherous desert planet and adopted by its fierce, nomadic people, who help him unravel his most unexpected destiny.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. The tale of Kvothe, from his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-riddled city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a difficult and dangerous school of magic. In these pages, you will come to know Kvothe as a notorious magician, an accomplished thief, a masterful musician, and an infamous assassin. But this book is so much more, for the story it tells reveals the truth behind Kvothe’s legend.
Sabriel by Garth Nix. Sent to a boarding school in Ancelstierre as a young child, Sabriel has had little experience with the random power of Free Magic or the Dead who refuse to stay dead in the Old Kingdom. But during her final semester, her father, the Abhorsen, goes missing, and Sabriel knows she must enter the Old Kingdom to find him. She soon finds companions in Mogget, a cat whose aloof manner barely conceals its malevolent spirit, and Touchstone, a young Charter Mage long imprisoned by magic, now free in body but still trapped by painful memories. As the three travel deep into the Old Kingdom, threats mount on all sides.
At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon. It’s easy to feel at home in Mitford. In these high, green hills, the air is pure, the village is charming, and the people are generally lovable. Yet, Father Tim, the bachelor rector who yearns for something more, suddenly finds he has more than he can handle. His life is turned upside down with church secretary Emma Garrett managing his every move, the appearance of a very large dog, a lovable but unloved boy named Dooley thrust into his care, and the charm of an attractive new neighbor who effects surprising change in his stick-in-the-mud habits. Seemingly overnight, Father Tim’s quiet life isn’t so quiet anymore.
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. In his enduringly popular masterpiece The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis re-imagines Hell as a gruesome bureaucracy. With spiritual insight and wry wit, Lewis suggests that demons, laboring in a vast enterprise, have horribly recognizable human attributes: competition, greed, and totalitarian punishment. Avoiding their own painful torture as well as a desire to dominate are what drive demons to torment their “patients.”
Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss. The smart Fox uses difficult tongue twisters to get the confused Mr. Knox in trouble with his tongue.
The O'Fallon Public Library News 