Vinton Public Library Newsletter

• 'You & Me and You & Me and You & Me' by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees
• 'The Nightingale' by Kristin Hannah, deluxe edition
• 'The Water Lies' by Amy Meyerson
• 'Women Of A Promiscuous Nature' by Donna Everhart

• 'Pendergast: The Beginning' by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
• 'The Ex-Wives Murder Club' by Mette Ivie Harrison
• 'Stolen in Death' by J. D. Robb
• 'Robert B. Parker's Big Shot' by Christopher Farnsworth

• 'The Last Thing He Told Me' by Laura Dave
• 'The Record Keeper' by Charles Martin
• 'The Keeper' by Charles Martin

• 'Quarter to Midnight' by Karen Rose
• 'Beneath Dark Waters' by Karen Rose
• 'Buried Too Deep' by Karen Rose

For our Comics & Cookies Book Club, I recently read 'Sunny Makes a Splash' by Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm!
Set in the summer of 1978, Sunny starts her break feeling bored — no air conditioning, friends away for the summer, and nothing to do. After she reluctantly agrees to babysit her little brother for $1 a week, things take an unexpected turn when a family friend invites them to the local pool.
At the pool, Sunny reconnects with a classmate and ends up helping at the snack bar — landing an official summer job! What begins as a dull summer quickly turns into one filled with new friendships, responsibility, and fun. By the end, Sunny can’t wait to be back at the pool next year.
A sweet, relatable story about making the most of summer surprises!

I often tell my co-workers I’ve found a new favorite book, but this time I mean it. 'Kingfisher' by Rozie Kelly has settled itself deep in me and refuses to let go.
In a novel spare in length but immense in feeling, Kelly writes of grief—not as something we move past, but as something that walks beside us for a lifetime. She writes, too, of love: how it is inherited, learned, mislearned, and carried forward; how the ways we love are so often shaped by the ways we were first loved by our parents.
Love runs through this book like a thread with no beginning and no end—quiet, unbreakable, binding everything together.
If you love poetry, you will feel at home in Rozie Kelly’s prose. If you love reading about love and its many unnamed shapes, you will feel seen. And if you have ever loved someone you could not quite hold or contain, 'Kingfisher' by Rozie Kelly will know you.
Happy reading, friends.
~Heather

‘Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague’ by Maggie O’Farrell checks many boxes for me as a reader. An author I haven’t yet read, film adaptation, Oscar buzz, hypnotic descriptions of the natural world... The novel tells the story of Hamnet, an 11-year-old boy who in 16th Century England discovers his twin sister Judith alone in their home. She is rapidly succumbing to pestilence, and he is desperate to find help. It had my full attention from page one. The author’s fictional account of the two disparate events preceding Judith’s exposure to the disease was particularly appealing to the armchair epidemiologist in me. This story weaves these events and more together to culminate in an early stage production of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet.’

O’Farrell has taken a scattering of known facts from Shakespearean times and crafted a spell-binding story of one mother’s love for her son set within the contrasting shadows of her husband’s absence and genius. Immersive, imaginative, and unique, I highly recommend it for lovers of historical fiction. Winner of the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction, ‘Hamnet’ currently has 4.21/5 stars on goodreads.com.

As always, happy reading,

Kelly

Thank you to Flowers By Nature's Corner for gifting us these beautiful roses!

Thank you to Shelley Haisman and Jenny Dunkin, authors of 'Wait, Did I Say That? Faith, Mindset, and Why Your Words Matter,' for joining us at the library! We had an unforgettable evening of laughter and an inspiring message. These sisters are so much fun to listen to; we even got to learn which one is older 😄

We have their new book available for checkout here at the Vinton Public Library. Happy reading!

Our Beanstack Olympics Reading Challenge ends February 28th, 2026! Log your reading for the chance to win!

Mr. Walston's history classes recently visited our library and learned all about our history as a Carnegie library. Students took a tour and participated in a literary scavenger hunt. Thank you to Mr. Walston and Vinton Shellsburg Community Schools for providing such educational and engaging opportunities for our students to learn more about the world around them!

The 11th Annual Benton County Community Health and Wellness Fair will be held Saturday, March 7th, 2026! Be sure to stop by our library table! The event is held in the Vinton-Shellsburg High School Gymnasium. Hope to see you there!

Mondays: 9a-5p

Tuesdays: 9a-8p

Wednesdays: 9a-5p

Thursdays: 9a-8p

Fridays: 7a-4p

Saturdays: 9a-Noon

Sundays: Closed

Copy services: $0.20 per black and white, $0.25 per color

Fax services: $1.00 for 1-2 pages, $2.00 for 3+ pages

Notary services: No charge, call 319-472-4208 for availability

Free Wifi

Boardroom available at no charge; reservations required

Email: library@vintonia.gov
Website: vinton.lib.ia.us
Location: 510 2nd Avenue, Vinton, IA, USA
Phone: (319) 472-4208
Facebook: facebook.com/heartofvinton