OSL Library – The Intercom, February 2019

Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris is the OSL Library committee’s selection for the Winter One Church One Read title.

“Two Children for Sale.” The sign is a last resort. It sits on a farmhouse porch in 1931, but could be found anywhere in an era of breadlines, bank runs, and broken dreams. Any mother facing impossible choices could have written it.

For struggling reporter Ellis Reed, the gut-wrenching scene evokes memories of his family’s dark past. He snaps a photograph of the children, not meant for publication, but when it leads to his big break, the consequences are more devastating than he ever imagined.

At the paper, Lillian Palmer is haunted by her role in all that happened. She is far too familiar with the heartbreak of children deemed unwanted. As the bonds of motherhood are tested, she and Ellis must decide how much they are willing to risk to mend a fractured family.

Inspired by an actual newspaper photograph that stunned the nation, Sold on a Monday is a powerful novel of love, redemption, and the unexpected paths that bring us home.

Copies of the book are available for checkout in the Library; the discussion will be at 10:00 a.m. on March 24 in the Conference Room.

Second Saturday Movie
This month’s feature, on February 9, will be Lion, the true story of survival and triumph against incredible odds. When Saroo Brierley used Google Earth to find his long-lost hometown half a world away, he made global headlines. Saroo had become lost on a train in India at the age of five. Not knowing the name of his family or where he was from, Saroo survived for weeks on the streets of Kolkata before being taken into an orphanage and adopted by a couple in Australia.

Despite being happy in his new family, Saroo always wondered about his origins. When he was a young man, the advent of Google Earth led him to pour over satellite images of India for landmarks he recognized. One day, after years of searching, he miraculously found what he was looking for and set off on a journey to find his mother.

Make a day of it with the movie at 2:30 in the Holy Word Theatre, followed by worship at 5:00 in the Sanctuary, and dinner afterward in The Gathering Place!

New for Adults
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore. The Curies’ newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community.

Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these “shining girls” are the luckiest alive—until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.

The factories that once offered excellent opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women’s cries of corruption. As the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America’s early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights that will echo for centuries to come.

The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women’s courage and tenacity that led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

Additional New Titles for Adults
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be by Rachel Hollis
• The Storyteller’s Secret by Sejal Badani

New for Middle- and High-School Youth
I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina. Alfonso Jones can’t wait to play the role of Hamlet in his school’s hip-hop rendition of the classic Shakespearean play. He also wants to let his best friend, Danetta, know how he really feels about her. However, as he is buying his first suit, an off-duty police officer mistakes a clothes hanger for a gun, and he shoots Alfonso.

When Alfonso wakes up in the afterlife, he’s on a ghost train guided by well-known victims of police shootings, who teach him what he needs to know about this subterranean spiritual world. Meanwhile, Alfonso’s family and friends struggle with their grief and seek justice for Alfonso in the streets. As they confront their new realities, both Alfonso and those he loves realize the work that lies ahead in the fight for justice.

In the first graphic novel for young readers to focus on police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, as in Hamlet, the dead shall speak—and the living yield even more surprises.

Additional New Titles for Middle- and High-School
• The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart
• The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
• Henchgirl by Kristen Gudsnuk