We now have 2 locations open 7 days a week! Our Mt. Washington branch has joined Central Library as our second location to offer Sunday hours from 1:00–5:00 PM.
FRIDAY, MAY 10th | All BCPL locations will be closed for staff development.
With thousands of items in our collection, BCPL offers something for everyone to enjoy. We can’t wait to help you discover great books, movies, and more!
Whether you want to build computer skills, master a language, or just learn something new for the fun of it, we offer resources and services to help you become the person you want to be.
Use the menu to the right to learn about all available resources for a particular format (like e-books!), or click on a specific resource icon (like Hoopla!) to begin exploring available titles. With just a few simple clicks, you can access thousands of free e-books, audiobooks, music albums, videos, and more.
Stream quality children's shows—no play credits required!
Switch to Libby!
The legacy OverDrive app will be fully discontinued in early 2023, but Libby offers the same Kentucky Libraries Unbound titles you love with new features and an improved user experience!
Summary: A king from a magical realm escapes into the ordinary world just long enough to meet two children in a seemingly ordinary city park. He gives them a map and the tools they need to rescue him just before several soldiers seize him and take him back through the door. After the king is recaptured, the intrepid kids find their way into the magical place and embark on a quest to free the king and lift darkness from the kingdom.
Tracy’s Thoughts:
Last year I raved about Aaron Becker’s Journey. It was one of my frontrunners for the 2014 Caldecott Medal, and I was thrilled when Becker nabbed an Honor for his majestic artwork. In Quest, our heroine and her new friend return for yet another journey into the wonderful kingdom of imagination and must face new challenges and dangers. But it is through quick thinking and teamwork that the kids overcome obstacles rather than confrontation or violence. Like Journey, Quest is a wonderful foray into creative problem solving and an ode to the twin powers of art and imagination.
The artwork here is more muted than the vivid landscapes of Journey, featuring a rain-drenched park, a dark kingdom under siege, and foreboding mountains. And yet the children are able to bring color into the world of gray. The scenes are rich and layered; the details of several scenes evoke the ancient temples and the ruins of different civilizations. There are also intriguing parallels between the the statuary of the real-world park and the children’s magical adventures. Observant or history-minded children will delight in examining the various scenes and are sure to tease out new details with each encounter. Tiny details are carried over from the first book while others hint at adventures still to come. The publisher blurb promises that fans will have one more addition to the series, and I am eager to experience the magical adventure that awaits!
I’m back with more quick reviews of my recent audio reads! I just finished two Bloody Jack Adventures plus a couple of adult historicals. So here goes…
The Book of Madness and Cures by Regina O’Melveny Rating: 2/5 Stars Audience: Adult Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery
When the powers that be try to keep her from practicing her craft as a physician, Renaissance woman Gabriella Mondini decides now is the time to go searching for her long-lost father. What follows is a journey across Europe and beyond that calls to mind the Canterbury Tales. Through her entries in her diary and additions made in an anthology of diseases begun by her father (also a physician), readers are privy to Gabriella’s adventures and obsessions. A woman physician in sixteenth-century Venice, Gabriella
Mondini had the potential to become a fascinating character. The plot in and of itself is certainly intriguing, but the pacing is uneven and the supernatural elements are clumsily integrated and all too predictable. O’Melveney is a poet, and the prose is lyrical and striking at times; however, it also frequently veers into pretension and excessive description. Probably the only reason I finished this audiobook is Katherine Kellgren, whose magnificent voice performance kept me engaged.
Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick Rating: 2.5/5 Stars Audience: Adult Genre: Historical Fiction/Psychological Suspense/Southern Gothic
When Charlie Beale arrived in the small Southern town of Brownsburg with a suitcase full of money, it was the summer of 1948. Decades later, a man who knew Charlie and was witness to Charlie’s torrid, fateful affair with the young bride of the town’s wealthiest man recounts the story. I was downright mesmerized by Goolrick’s A Reliable Wife, but Heading Out to Wonderful lacked the tension and immediacy I expected in his follow-up novel. The setting and storyline had the haunting, nostalgic quality of a folk ballad, but the finale seemed forced and arbitrary. Also, I was troubled by the occasional awkwardness of the narrative voice and some unacknowledged loose ends. For example, it is never explained (MILD SPOILER AHEAD…HIGHLIGHT TO READ) how Charlie came by that suitcase of money. Although this was the most interesting part of the story to me, I would have understood if that particular plot point remained a mystery. But the fact that none of the book’s characters seem to wonder or question it makes no sense. Still, even with all that being said, I think Heading Out to Wonderful would make a fantastic book club read. The recurring themes of lost innocence, sin and forgiveness, identities abandoned and recreated, and memory itself leave much to discuss.
Mississippi Jack by L.A. Meyer Rating: 4/5 Stars Audience: Teen/Young Adult Genre: Historical Adventure/Humor Series: Bloody Jack Adventures #5
I am still a little furious at Jamie. But at the same time, I also like him a bit better now. In the past, Jamie has been almost too perfect for the wonderfully flawed adventuress that is Jacky Faber. Now, I see him as a more developed, if flawed character and I like him better for it. In this latest adventure, Jacky and Jamie are once again separated as Jacky makes her way down the Mississippi in a rollicking adventure reminiscent of the best tall tales. Legendary boatman Mike Fink even plays a significant role in the story. New love interests also emerge—most notably the irascibly charming Sir Richard Allen—to throw a wrench in Jacky and Jamie’s relationship. Not to mention the intervention of the British Navy and Intelligence Agency, marauding Indians, and a homicidal Mike Fink. Also, did I already mention that I love Katherine Kellgren? Because I do. Her fabulous performances make the Bloody jack series a joy to listen to, bringing Jacky and the gang to vivid life.
Mt Bonny Light Horseman by L.A. Meyer Rating: 3/5 Stars Audience: Teen/Young Adult Genre: Historical Adventure/Humor/War Story Series: Bloody Jack Adventures #6
This time around, Jacky is tasked by British Intelligence to act as a spy against the French. Those who love the battle scenes of earlier Bloody Jack novels won’t be disappointed. And Jacky being Jacky, there are also new flirtations for the more romantically minded (though the new love interest fails to live up to the standard set by Jamie’s previous rivals for Jacky’s affections, IMHO).
Summary: Forced to find another job due to the Great Recession,
web designer Clay Jannon finds himself the night clerk at the
mysterious Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, a bookstore where there are
few regular patrons and where the regulars borrow books rather than buy
them. Little does Clay know that by walking into this bookstore he will
discover a secret world that will shape his future in ways he could
never imagine and irrevocably alter his view of the world.
Lucinda’s Views:
This book possessed a carefully crafted plot that keeps the reader
interested even to the end. The seamless blend of cutting edge
technology and the history of the book will delight the reader. The
mystery that comprises much of the plot is believable and works to
propel the story forward. The characters are likable, believable, and
fit into this tale of one young man’s quest to find himself in a world
which is not quite what he thought it was. For those who love a good
book, but also like their technology this is a perfect read.
Tracy’s Thoughts:
I didn’t know quite what to expect from this book. It appeared on a number of “Best of 2012” lists and won a 2013 Alex Award.
Lucinda told me she stayed up ridiculously late to finish it. And yet
I’ve also read some less than positive reviews and a co-worker whose opinion I trust told me that it was “weird” and “disappointing.” Well…
I generally like “weird” so that didn’t do a lot to dissuade me, but my
co-worker’s inability to pinpoint exactly what didn’t work for her left
me feeling less than enthused about reading it. But then I read more
glowing reviews and I needed to read more eligible books for the Hub Reading Challenge… so I decided to take my chances.
Unfortunately, I too ended up disappointed. For me, it was a really
rough start as I found nothing engaging about
the voice (as a reader, I’m all about voice :)). I wasn’t interested in
Clay as a narrator, and I also thought Sloan’s prose was choppy and even
clunky at times. The overabundance of modifiers in particular kept
yanking me out of the story, inspiring annoyance rather than interest in
whatever was being described:
This place was absurdly narrow and dizzyingly tall, and the shelves went
all the way up—three stories of books, maybe more. I craned my neck
back (why do bookstores always make you do uncomfortable things with
your neck?) and the shelves faded smoothly into the shadows in a way
that suggested they might just go on forever. (Page 8)
As a not-so-secret bibliophile, a description that should have inspired
awe or curiosity at the very least simply left me cold. I’m a girl who
enjoys lengthy sentences and detailed description, but clearly Sloan’s
prose just isn’t for me. However, I appreciate that this is an entirely
subjective reaction—there’s nothing really wrong with the writing after
all—and that the prose will speak differently to different readers.
I also felt that the characters were a bit underdeveloped. Penumbra
could have been a figure of great curiosity but instead seemed barely
present. While Lucinda saw the characters as likable and believable, I
interpreted them as one-dimensional and uninteresting. Luckily, about
80 pages in the thematic element of antiquity vs. technology emerged to
advance the story. I enjoyed the idea of how technology and antiquity
(in this case, old books and the knowledge they contain) can be seen as
opposing forces but at the same time act as partners in advancing human
knowledge and possibilities. For me, this concept was the heart of the
book.
In the end, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is firmly in my
“meh” category. The concept was promising but, for me, never fully
realized. The story and characters ultimately fell flat, but the
intriguing juxtaposition of traditional books and technology
(particularly Sloan’s imagined Google world and underworld hacker/pirate
network) kept me interested enough to finish the book. For a better,
more fully realized read with a similar feel (though, alas, without the
book emphasis), I suggest reading Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One.
