Skip the Long Winter's Nap; Read a Good Book!

The story of Rip Van Winkle is a short one, but a classic. As the story goes, Rip Van Winkle decided to take a short nap one day and woke up twenty years later to a whole new world. Imagine how much catching up you'd have to do if you fell asleep twenty years ago and were just waking up now. You'd go to watch TV, see a skinny, flat screen, and wonder where the rest of the TV set went. Conversation would be sort of confusing, too. If someone mentioned the "'Net," "phish," and "spam" all in one sentence, you'd pack a lunch and find the nearest fishing hole. If asked about what Antivirus works for you, or how to Debug your system, your answer would probably be penicillin. You'd wonder, too, how, or even WHY, you'd want to "surf the 'Web," when a web is really just a tangled mess of silk that spiders call their home. Taking a "long winter's nap" right now might sound good to you, but there are so many great, new fiction titles on the shelves of the Jasper County Public Library that you won't want to take the chance of oversleeping and missing these wonderful "texts." Read on!

The "what-ifs" of life sometimes haunt us all, especially when times get really tough. Annabelle and her husband, Grant, have been married for nearly three decades, and in that time, they raised two wonderful children and made many great memories as a family. Grant has stood by Annabelle's side, even in the early, tumultuous years of their marriage when Annabelle stepped out of the boundaries of their marriage, betraying her husband's faith with another man. Now, all these years later, Annabelle finds herself wondering if Grant is really the man for her, or if her true soul mate is the other man in "The Stuff That Never Happened" by Maddie Dawson.

Jill Murray has built a life for herself and her ten year old daughter, and because of past experience, has established a "no boys allowed" rule for herself. Meeting free-spirited, entrepreneur, Billy, Jill's "no boys allowed" rule begins to falter, and to make matters worse, her ex-husband has reentered her life, proving to Jill that he can't even run away reliably in "Seven Year Switch" by Claire Cook.

Faced with a terminal illness, Jenny Lucas journeys back to a place she swore she'd never revisit; her hometown in North Carolina and the family she left behind. Coming face to face with her distant father, her oxygen-toting grandmother, and David, the father of her five year old daughter, is a dose of reality for Jenny, but demonstrates how the power of love and family can heal old hurts, and open new doors in "Crossing Oceans" by Gina Holmes.

Scraping by and living paycheck to paycheck, Tina Finn's life takes a drastic turn when her mother passes away, leaving her a huge, luxury apartment and an inheritance that could solve all of her money troubles. Things are looking up for Tina, that is, until her two half-brothers, who have been left out of the inheritance surface, making Jenny stand up for what is rightfully hers in "Twelve Rooms With a View" by Theresa Rebeck.

When it comes to taking a long winter's nap, you'll want to "Wake up Little Suzy," "Sleep With One Eye Open," and you "Won't Want to Miss a Thing," because with these and other new fiction titles from JCPL, you'll be "Talking in Your Sleep" and singing the "No Sleep Blues!"