Hampton Library Weekly Reads: Feb. 23

Need a good read?

The folks at the Capt. Kimberly Hampton Memorial Library have some ideas. Check out one of these books today.

KIDS

"RRRalph," by Lois Elhert

Illustrated with cut-felt collage art, a whimsical tale by the creator of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom introduces "talking" puppy Ralph, who tells youngsters about the "rough, rough" texture of the outside path and agrees, "Yep, yep," that he wants to go indoors.

With bestselling author Lois Ehlert's simple, funny, call-and-response text and bold, playful collage illustrations, this fresh, young book is sure to get little ones laughing (and talking to their dogs!)

TEENS

"Etiquette & Espionage," by Gail Carriger

In an alternate England of 1851, spirited 14-year-old Sophronia is enrolled in a finishing school where, she is surprised to learn, lessons include not only the fine arts of dance, dress and etiquette, but also diversion, deceit and espionage.

ADULTS

"Nothing Gold Can Stay," Stories by Ron Rash

Pickens County author and PEN/Faulkner Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Ron Rash turns again to Appalachia to capture lives haunted by violence and tenderness, hope and fear, in unforgettable stories that span from the Civil War to the present day.

In the title story, two drug-addicted friends return to the farm where they worked as boys to steal their former boss's gruesomely unusual war trophies. In "The Trusty," which first appeared in The New Yorker, a prisoner sent to fetch water for his chain gang tries to sweet-talk a farmer's young wife into helping him escape, only to find that she is as trapped as he is. In "Something Rich and Strange," a diver is called upon to pull a drowned girl's body free from under a falls, but he finds her eerily at peace below the surface. The violence of Rash's characters and their raw settings are matched only by their resonance and stark beauty, a masterful combination that has earned Rash an avalanche of praise.