Contributed by Leslie Randall, Glenwood Public Library

Please visit our Waterama Used Book Sale at the Glenwood Public Library Saturday, July 30, starting at 8 a.m. Once again, we have received many wonderful donations and we are weeding our collection. There is a huge variety of books including fiction, history, cookbooks and children’s books. The proceeds from this book sale will go towards our special library programs, including the Summer Reading Program. Come browse, have fun and stock up; hardcovers are $1, paperbacks 50¢ and books on CD/DVDs $1. We may have just the book you have been looking for. The library will be closed during the sale.

New at the library we have Julie Garwood’s “Grace Under Fire.” Michael Buchanan will need every bit of his extensive skill set when he appoints himself bodyguard to a woman determined not to need one in this thrilling new novel.

Jennifer Chiaverini’s “Switchboard Soldiers” is a novel of the heroic women who served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War I. In June 1917, General John Pershing arrived in France to establish American forces in Europe, but communications with Allied commanders and troops in the field were perilously unreliable. Pershing needed operators who could swiftly and accurately connect multiple calls, speak fluent French and English, remain steady under fire, and provide absolute secrecy when conveying classified military information. At the time, nearly all American telephone operators were women, but women were not permitted to enlist. Nevertheless, the U.S. Army Signal Corps promptly began recruiting them. More than 7,600 women responded; Grace from New Jersey, Marie and Valerie were among the first women sworn in. The male soldiers they had replaced had needed one minute to connect each call. The switchboard soldiers could do it in 10 seconds. The valiant women of the U.S. Army Signal Corps served their country with honor and played an essential role in achieving the Allied victory. Their sacrifices cleared the way for generations of women who followed.

In the children’s section we have “Berry Song.” On an island at the edge of a wide, wild sea, a girl and her grandmother gather gifts from the earth. Like their Tlingit ancestors before them, they harvest salmon from the stream, herring eggs from the ocean and in the forest, a world of berries; salmonberry, cloudberry, blueberry, nagoonberry, huckleberry, soapberry, strawberry and crowberry. Here is Caldecott Medalist Michaela Goade’s resonant celebration of the land she knows well and the powerful wisdom of elders.