Name: Julia Aker
Title: Director of the Jackson County Public Library
What’s the name of the book and author you are recommending?
"Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens
What made you want to pick up this book in the first place?
Since this was published in August 2018, it is the book that I have heard the most people talking about and asking if I had read it. It is a New York Times best seller and was the September 2018 Reese’s (Witherspoon) Book Club selection. It took a while to get because there are 78 holds on the 251 physical books, 24 holds on the 48 large-print books and eight holds on the 50 audiobooks in Evergreen Indiana. In OverDrive/Libby, there are 227 holds on 47 e-books and 29 e-audiobooks. I actually got the e-book a day after I got the regular print book and read it on my iPhone over the holidays.
Once you got into the book, what made you want to keep reading it?
While it is described as a coming-of-age story, it is also a murder mystery, as well. The chapters were short, and the story kept moving. It’s also extremely easy to read books on my phone through the Libby app, which I just started using in December.
Once you finished the book, what did you like about it?
The author’s descriptive narrative made me feel like I was there. I liked learning a little about life in the marshy areas of North Carolina since it is so different from Indiana. I did get bogged down in and eventually skimmed over the extreme details of nature and sections of poetry.
What is the book about?
Kya Clark is a young girl who has been abandoned by her parents, brothers and sisters and the community at large. The "Marsh Girl" survives on her own for years before two young men from town come into her simple life. When one of them ends up dead in the marsh, she’s a suspect.
Why would you recommend this book to others?
I enjoyed reading it, and there’s a reason why a lot of people have read or listened to this book. JCPL’s physical copies have checked out 65 times since August 2018. It’s the 20th most checked out title in OverDrive/Libby, and in the last year, both the e-book and e-audiobook have checked out more than any other title — 103 times. (FYI, "Gone Girl" is the No. 1 e-book overall with 164 checkouts.) After reading reviews on Goodreads, a lot of people love it, and others didn’t. Everyone should at least attempt to read it and decide for themselves which side they take or if they are torn like me. I gave it five stars on Goodreads but wondered throughout the book if it would end how it did.