Winter One Church One Read
The Library committee has selected This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger as its Winter One Church One Read title. Copies are available for checkout in the Library, and the discussion is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on March 22 in the Office Conference Room.
This Tender Land is a magnificent novel about four orphans on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression. In 1932, the Lincoln School in Minnesota is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated.
It is also home to an orphan named Odie O’Banion, a lively boy whose exploits earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee, he and his brother Albert, their best friend Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.
Over the course of one unforgettable summer, these four orphans will journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an enthralling, big-hearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole.
Warm up With a Good Book
Be sure to visit the snow and winter book and movie displays in the OSL Library. To make your selection easy, a large number of items are on separate displays, one for children and youth and one for adults.
Library Hours
Sunday 8:30 a.m.–12:15
Monday 9:00 a.m.–noon
Tuesday 9:00 a.m.–noon
Wednesday 9:00 a.m.–7:30 p.m.
Thursday 9:00 a.m.–noon
Friday Closed
2nd Saturday of the month 10:00 a.m.–noon and 4:30–6:30 p.m.
Second Saturday Movie
This month’s Second Saturday Movie, on January 11, will be Overcomer.
Life changes overnight for coach John Harrison after he loses his basketball team and is challenged by the school’s principal to coach a new sport he doesn’t know or like. As John questions his own worth, he dares to help the least likely runner take on the biggest race of the year. Filled with a powerful mix of faith, humor and heart, this inspirational story will have you on the edge of your seat.
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!
Monthly Book Club for Adults
The Book Club for Adults meets at 7:00 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of each month in the OSL Library to discuss that month’s book. The January 24 selection will be The Huntress by Kate Quinn.
Bold and fearless, Nina Markova always dreamed of flying. When the Nazis attack the Soviet Union, she risks everything to join the legendary Night Witches, an all-female night bomber regiment wreaking havoc on the invading Germans. When she is stranded behind enemy lines, Nina becomes the prey of a lethal Nazi murderer known as the Huntress, and only Nina’s bravery and cunning will keep her alive.
Transformed by the horrors he witnessed from Omaha Beach to the Nuremberg Trials, British war correspondent Ian Graham has become a Nazi hunter. Yet one target eludes him: a vicious predator known as the Huntress. To find her, the fierce, disciplined investigator joins forces with the only witness to escape the Huntress alive: the brazen, cocksure Nina. A shared secret could derail their mission unless Ian and Nina force themselves to confront it.
In this immersive, heart-wrenching story, Kate Quinn illuminates the consequences of war on individual lives, and the price we pay to seek justice and truth.
Join this exciting community of readers! A list of 2020 selections is available in the OSL Library.
Shifting demographics and shrinking congregations make all the headlines, but Duncan sees something else at work—drawing a direct line between the church’s lack of diversity and the church’s lack of vitality. He discusses that the problems the ELCA faces are theological, not sociological, and so are the answers.
Part manifesto, part confession, and all love letter, Dear Church offers a bold new vision for the future of Duncan’s denomination and the broader mainline Christian community of faith. Dear Church rejects the narrative of church decline and calls everyone—leaders and laity alike—to the front lines of the church’s renewal through racial equality and justice.
It is time for the church to rise up, dust itself off, and take on forces of this world that act against God: whiteness, misogyny, nationalism, homophobia, and economic injustice. Duncan gives a blueprint for the way forward and urges us to follow in the revolutionary path of Jesus.
Dear Church also features a discussion guide at the back—perfect for church groups, book clubs, and other group discussion.
Additional New Titles for Adults
• The Woman I Was Before by Kerry Fisher
• Finding Chika by Mitch Albom
• The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
Top on his list of “People to Avoid” are Conor from his Language Arts class, Hunter, who hangs around the climbing gym, and Lily Small, who happens to be the tallest girl in school. He might be able to be friends with a new kid from Hawaii who insists that everyone call him “Big.” He’s got a way of bringing everyone into his circle and finding the beauty in even the worst of situations.
When the three of them—Paul, Big, and Small—are assigned to the same group project, they form an unlikely friendship. Paul realizes that maybe Lily isn’t so bad after all. He might even actually like her and maybe even more than like her.
Paul and Lily team up for a rock-climbing competition, but when Lily is diagnosed with leukemia, Paul ends up with Conor on his team. When Paul learns that Conor is dealing with bullies of his own—as well as some deep emotional pain—he realizes that the bullying in his school has got to stop.
Additional New Titles for Middle- and High-School Youth
• Guinness World Records 2020 by Guinness World Records
• On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
• Wings of Fire: The Poison Jungle by Tui Sutherland
New Picture, Early Reader,
and Chapter Books
Lasting Love by Tony DiTerlizzi. When a family member or other loved one becomes ill, one of the scariest aspects of their sickness is the way they may change, both physically and in spirit. The feeling of loss can come so early as the person becomes more difficult to recognize.
It’s a hard thing for anyone to understand but especially for a child. This book offers a helpful visualization of a sick person’s essence as a friendly creature who remains strong and warm, even as the illness progresses. The sick person is always around and never tries to cheer up the child, but only serves to keep them company.
Caroline Wright and Willow Heath clearly understand that, like the sick person, a book cannot “fix” a painful situation or even make it a little better. Instead, the authors simply reflect the pain of loss back to the reader and help them understand that they are not alone.
Additional New Picture Books
• A Little Spot of Kindness by Diane Alber
• When Pencil Met Eraser by Karen Kilpatrick and Luis O. Ramos Jr.
New Early Reader Books
• Old Friends, New Friends (Toy Story 4) by Natasha Bouchard and Disney Storybook Art Team
• Tyrannosaurus Rex by Storybots
New Chapter Books
• A Dog Called Homeless by Sarah Lean
• Billy and the MiniMonsters: Monsters on the Loose by Zanna Davidson