Library Loot ~ December 4-10

The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion ~ by Fannie Flagg, 2013, fiction (Alabama, Wisconsin), 9/10

Mrs. Sookie Poole of Point Clear, Alabama, has just married off the last of her daughters and is looking forward to relaxing and perhaps traveling with her husband, Earle.  The only thing left to contend with is her mother, the formidable Lenore Simmons Krackenberry.  Lenore may be a lot of fun for other people, but is, for the most part, an overbearing presence for her daughter.  Then one day, quite by accident, Sookie discovers a secret about her mother’s past that knocks her for a loop and suddenly calls into question everything she ever thought she knew about herself, her family, and her future.  Sookie begins a search for answers that takes her to California, the Midwest, and back in time, to the 1940s, when an irrepressible woman named Fritzi takes on the job of running her family’s filling station.  Soon truck drivers are changing their routes to fill up at the All-Girl Filling Station.  Then, Fritzi sees an opportunity for an even more groundbreaking adventure.  As Sookie learns about the adventures of the girls at the All-Girl Filling Station, she finds herself with new inspiration for her own life.  I read this New York Times bestseller straight through and returned it to the library the next day.  I rate it 9 of 10.

One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale ~ by Demi, 1997, children's (India), 7/10

A village girl outsmarts a selfish king by asking him to double a portion of rice every day for 30 days in order to feed the hungry.  Long ago in India, there lived a raja who believed that he was wise and fair.  But every year he kept nearly all the people's rice for himself.  Then a village girl named Rani devises a clever plan, using the surprising power of doubling to win more than one billion grains of rice from the raja.  The artwork is inspired by traditional Indian miniature paintings.  I rate it 7 of 10, a good book.

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls ~ by Anton Disclafani, 2013, fiction (North Carolina)

It is 1930, the midst of the Great Depression.  After her mysterious role in a family tragedy, passionate, strong-willed Thea Atwell, age fifteen, has been cast out of her Florida home, exiled to an equestrienne boarding school for Southern debutantes.  High in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, with its complex social strata ordered by money, beauty, and girls’ friendships, the Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is a far remove from the free-roaming, dreamlike childhood Thea shared with her twin brother on their family’s citrus farm — a world now partially shattered.  As Thea grapples with her responsibility for the events of the past year that led her here, she finds herself enmeshed in a new order, one that will change her sense of what is possible for herself, her family, her country.  The narrative unfurls the true story behind Thea’s expulsion from her family, but it isn’t long before the mystery of her past is rivaled by the question of how it will shape her future.

Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers ~ by Anne Lamott, 2012, religion

Anne Lamott is known for her perceptive and funny writings about spirituality.  Readers of all ages have followed her faith journey through decades of trial and error (sometimes more error than Annie wanted), and in her new book, she has coalesced all she knows about prayer to three essentials:  Help, Thanks, and Wow.  It is these three prayers — asking for assistance from a higher power, appreciating all that we have and all that is good, and feeling awe at the beauty of the world around us — that can get us through the day and can show us the way forward.  In Help, Thanks, Wow, Lamott recounts how she came to these insights, explains what they mean to her and how they have helped, and explores how others have embraced these same ideas.  In July, Jonna Jensen wrote a beautiful meditation on this book, which you should read.

Northgate Branch of the Chattanooga library system, or "my library"

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Marg @ The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages us to share titles of books we’ve checked out of the library.  Add your link any time during the week, and see what others got this week.