Make your heart healthy and happy at Shreve Memorial Library
February is such a wonderful month, with so much to celebrate in a very short amount of time. This month we have celebrated so many things including Black History Month and African Americans in the Arts, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Mardi Gras and Valentine’s Day! Did you know that there is even more to celebrate in February, something to make your heart healthy and happy? In addition to the marvelous holidays previously mentioned, February is the month to celebrate library lovers and hearts, with observances for Library Lovers’ Month and American Heart Month taking place at Shreve Memorial Library branches.
Library Lovers’ Month encourages all of us library lovers around the world to show our love and appreciation for libraries of all types and sizes. Whether it is their vast collections of books and materials or the innovative programs and services offered, libraries make hearts happy. I mean, who does not feel happy reading their favorite book from the library? You can join in the celebration of Library Lovers’ Month by visiting your favorite library branch or joining the online conversation with the hashtag #LibraryLoversMonth and let us know how the library makes your heart sing.
Not only are we showing love for the library, but Shreve Memorial Library is also showing love for our hearts by recognizing American Heart Month, an annual initiative encouraging everyone to focus on their cardiovascular health. American Heart Month shines a light on heart disease and prevention. Shreve Memorial Library is joining the celebration and raising awareness through by encouraging library patrons to de-stress with interactive craft programs, to eat healthy with heart healthy food demonstrations and recipe swaps, and to get at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity in library fitness classes, such as yoga, Tai Chi, and low impact exercise. Programs will take place now through the end of the month at Shreve Memorial Library branches throughout Caddo Parish, and all programs are free and open to the public. Check out the schedule of events at www.shreve-lib.org.
The library really is a wonderful place! There is so much to love and do. Be sure to visit your favorite Shreve Memorial Library branch to dream, discover, and do more of what makes your heart healthy and happy.
What’s New at the Library
Only If You’re Lucky: A Novel by Stacy Willingham (fiction)
Lucy Sharpe is larger than life. Magnetic, addictive. Bold and dangerous. Especially for Margot, who meets Lucy at the end of their freshman year at a liberal arts college in South Carolina. Margot is the shy one, the careful one, always the sidekick and never the center of attention. But when Lucy singles her out at the end of the year, a year Margot spent studying and playing it safe, and asks her to room together, something in Margot can’t say no – something daring, or starved, or maybe even envious. And so Margot finds herself living in an off-campus house with three other girls, Lucy, the ringleader; Sloane, the sarcastic one; and Nicole, the nice one, the three of them opposites but also deeply intertwined. It’s a year that finds Margot finally coming out of the shell she’s been in since the end of high school, when her best friend Eliza died three weeks after graduation. Margot and Lucy have become the closest of friends, but by the middle of her sophomore year, one of the fraternity boys from the house next door has been brutally murdered… and Lucy Sharpe is missing without a trace. From the author of A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things comes a tantalizing thriller about the nature of friendship and belonging, about loyalty, envy, and betrayal – another gripping novel from an author quickly becoming the gold standard in psychological suspense.
The Women by Kristin Hannah (fiction)
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets – and becomes one of – the lucky, the brave, the broke, and the lost. But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam. The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.
The House of Love and Death by Andrew Klavan (fiction)
Cameron Winter is known for having a sense about crime. His background as a spy trained his mind – and his body – for action, and his current role as an English professor gives him a sharp understanding of human nature. But beyond that, he was born with a “strange habit of mind” – the ability to recreate detailed crime scenes in his imagination and dissect the motives and encounters that produced them. And after reading a puzzling news story about a wealthy family killed in a small town in the Chicago suburbs, he can’t resist the chance to apply this deductive power in the pursuit of justice for the victims. Three members of the family, along with their live-in nanny, were pulled from their burning mansion, already dead from gunshot wounds. The only survivor is a young boy whose memory of the event raises more questions than answers. The police seem happy to settle on a simple explanation and arrest the most obvious suspect – but Winter knows that obvious solutions are seldom the correct ones, and all too often hide a darker truth. While Winter’s investigation is welcomed by many who knew the victims, the lead detective makes it clear he not only wants Winter to stop looking for answers, but to stay out of his town altogether. Winter begins to understand why as he slowly uncovers crimes and unsavory behavior that had been ignored long before the killings, and in the process grows increasingly determined to find the real killer and expose the rot beneath the town’s sanitized façade. And as the inquiry brings all-too-familiar sins to the surface, he’ll have to confront his own inner demons once and for all.
About Shreve Memorial Library
Shreve Memorial Library transforms Caddo Parish lives with resources, services and support to create a better world by focusing on developing young readers, sparking imaginations, encouraging curiosity, fostering connection, and providing comfortable places. Shreve Memorial Library’s 21-branch system is maintained by a parish-wide property tax millage to support the informational, educational and recreational needs of its constituents. For more information, visit www.shreve-lib.org, and like, follow and subscribe on social media channels including Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Pinterest and YouTube. Dream, discover, do – Shreve Memorial Library and you!
This article originally appeared on Monroe News-Star: Make your heart healthy and happy at Shreve Memorial Library
