Dig In!

Our Summer Reading Program has officially begun! We hope our community will make reading a habit, and to that end, we have issued a challenge: in the six weeks from May 26 to July 7, can you read at least 6 hours?

This year, the kids and teens are getting “Buggy About Books”, but we are encouraging our adult readers to “Unearth a Story”. What could be more fitting than dinosaurs? Michael Crichton may be best known as the author of “Jurassic Park” (FIC Cri), the basis for the movie of the same name (DVD FIC Jur), but that wasn’t all he wrote on the subject. In his historical fiction novel “Dragon Teeth” (FIC Cri), rival fossil hunters battle over a brontosaurus during the infamous Bone Wars. Set 30 years earlier, the movie, “Ammonite” (DVD FIC Amm), takes a very different tone, following the self-taught paleontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and the relationship she forms with a tourist (Saoirse Ronan) on the English coast.

Fossils aren’t the only treasure found underground. “Strata: Stories from Deep Time” by Laura Poppick (551.7 Poppick) delves into the history of rock itself, as told by the patterns it has formed over millions of years. Joshua Hammer relates the struggles and misadventures of unearthing a story in the most literal sense, in “The Mesopotamian Riddle: an Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman, and the Race to Decipher the World’s Oldest Writing” (935 Hammer). Kathleen Boland’s titular “Scavengers” (FIC Boland) are a mismatched mother and daughter following a map, a stranger, and the promise of one million dollars into the desert.

If you dig, you may uncover a mystery … or an ugly truth. In “Dinner with King Tut” by Sam Kean (930.1 Kean), modern experimental archaeologists replicate the experiences of the past — spear-hunting, ship-building, even ancient tattooing — to fill in missing details of historic life. “Palace of Deception: Museum Men and the Rise of Scientific Racism” by Darrin Lunde (508.074 Lunde) examines the abuses within the field of natural history, focusing on its golden years. Vanessa Lillie’s “The Bone Thief” (FIC Lillie) follows that thread into the modern day, as an investigator for the Bureau of Indian Affairs searches for stolen skeletal remains and a missing Narragansett teen.

Complete the challenge to win prizes! You can keep track of your reading online at cdpl.beanstack.com, or get a paper copy by visiting the library. Adult reading logs are on the display on the second floor where these titles and many more are located. Children and teens can pick up a copy at the Youth Services Desk on the first floor.

Check out what’s happening on our website or call us at 765-362-2242. This summer, the library is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.