State and Local Books Added for Moon Lake Library’s Future Holley Midgley Collection

If you are one of those curious lifelong learner types — no matter your age — or if you are a newcomer to the area, what treats await you at Moon Lake Library in Mentone! Thanks to the efforts of the Friends of the Moon Lake Library Board, the library recently received a grant from the Tillotson-Menlo Charitable Organization and has purchased dozens of books of local, state, and regional interest and added them to its State and Local Collection, soon to be renamed the Holley Midgley Collection. Holley, who passed away last year, was one of the library’s most ardent supporters and is still greatly missed by all who knew him.

There are many choices for the curious traveler. Before your next visit to Rocket City, check out the book 100 Things to Do in Huntsville and take it with you. If you feel like going somewhere but you’re not sure where, let Perfect Day Alabama: Day Trips, Weekend Getaways, and Other Escapes or Alabama Bucket List Adventure Guide help. Alabama Curiosities will point out the oddball quirks wherever you go in the state, as will Roadside Geology of Alabama, which is similar in a geological sort of way but layman friendly and full of photos. If you check out Birds of Alabama and Best Tent Camping: Alabama together, you’re guaranteed a great weekend. Headed to the Gulf? The Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera by Harvey H. Jackson relates the history of the Florida-Alabama coast as a tourist destination from the late 1920s to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. Why We Are Here is a photographic exploration of Alabama’s port city of Mobile, with short essays by Alabama’s own E.O. Wilson, who grew up there.

We just missed Halloween, but it’s never too late to be afraid. The library has Katherine Windham Tucker’s classic Jeffrey’s Favorite 13 Ghost Stories, but adults and children will find lots more to frighten them in three more new books: Haunted North Alabama; Eerie Alabama: Chilling Tales from the Heart of Dixie; and Ghost Stories & Graveyard Tales: Alabama.

Also new to library shelves are books about food. The Story of Alabama in Fourteen Foods is one. There’s also a delectable history of Alabama barbeque and cookbooks by Alabama’s own Katherine Windham Tucker and Stacy Lyn. Sports are covered, too, with a history of America’s oldest baseball park, Rickwood Field (in Birmingham). Iron in the Blood is a history of the Alabama/Auburn football rivalry. The book Fourth & Goal Every Day by Phil Savage takes a close look at the Alabama football program and the coaching style of former coach Nick Saban.

Just the titles alone of the new children’s books will be enough to entice your child to crack them open: Can I Touch Your Hair?; If a Bus Could Talk; Blast Off to Space Camp; The Museum on the Moon; and Nine: A Book of Nonet Poems.

Alabama writers are well represented in the future Holley Midgley Collection. There is fiction from Robert McCammon (Boy’s Life), Fannie Flagg (Standing in the Rainbow), and Mark Childress (Gone for Good) as well as Zelda Fitzgerald’s only novel (Save Me the Waltz). Can Alabama claim Zora Neale Hurston as one of its own? She was born in the state but moved when she was 3 to Etonville, Florida, which she actually considered home. No matter — Moon Lake Library has her first novel (Jonah’s Gourd Vine), as well as several of her collections containing dozens upon dozens of African-American folk tales, stories, myths, and other lore. Blessings and Disasters is a memoir by a Nigerian Alabamian, Montgomery native Alexis Okeowo. Out of the Dark is a collection of essays, letters, and speeches by Helen Keller. In Fort Payne, John Dersham looks at the history of that city through dozens of period post cards.

There are new books on the Civil Rights movement (The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It); music (Music and Mystique in Muscle Shoals); biographies of Zelda Fitzgerald and Werner Von Braun; histories of Alabama’s Phenix City and Tuskegee (I Wanted to Be a Pilot: The Making of a Tuskegee Airman); as well as a collection of biographical essays titled, Alabama Women: Their Lives and Times. There are two new books by Florence, Alabama-based fashion designer Natalie Chanin (Alabama Studio Style: More Projects, Recipes, and Stories Celebrating Sustainable Fashion and Living is one). Yvonne Wells is a self-taught folk artist and storyteller from Alabama. Check out her creations in The Story Quilts of Yvonne Wells.

These are just some of the library’s many new books. When you borrow a book from Moon Lake Library, it’s yours for two weeks. If you need it longer, you can renew it in person or over the phone. If you return it late, no problem, the library exacts no fines. Anyone who lives wherever this Groundhog newspaper is distributed (including Georgia) is welcome to come in and get a library card. We hope to see you soon!