Posts by Dena (20)

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It's the 12th annual list of my favorite books — the 2023 edition! This year was a good reading year; I read over 300 books for the first time since 2019 (although my TV watching… continue reading Dena's Favorite Books of 2023

By written by Dena    December 27, 2023    1

Welcome to Year 11 of my annual list of favorite books and the third year of pandemic reading! I've started getting my reading mojo back and have been spending a bit more time reading than… continue reading Dena's Favorite Books of 2022

By written by Dena    January 3, 2023   

It's that time of year again for my annual list of favorite books from the Philbrick Hall Fiction Department at Parkway Central Library ! Welcome to the tenth anniversary of this yearly list… continue reading Dena's Favorite Books of 2021

By written by Dena    January 3, 2022   

Yes, it’s that time of the year again, to head to the beach (or a heavily air conditioned reading nook) and dive into some fun reading! Here are some new and newish books that are perfect… continue reading Summer Reading with Dena!

By written by Dena    July 26, 2021   

It's that time of year again for my annual list of favorite books from the Philbrick Hall Fiction Department at Parkway Central Library . It's been a hard year for a lot of people, and… continue reading Dena's Favorite Books of 2020

By written by Dena    December 31, 2020   

It's that time of the year again! Working in the Fiction Department of the Parkway Central Library means that I am always surrounded by excellent books to read. I read over 330 this year, and… continue reading Dena's Favorite Books of 2019

By written by Dena    December 30, 2019    9

Every year I read a lot of books. Out of the 339 that I read in 2017, I've picked out the 36 that I liked the best . 2017 was a hard year, and I found myself looking for books that were happy… continue reading Dena's Favorite Books of 2017

By written by Dena    January 2, 2018   

A few weeks ago The Ripped Bodice, a romance bookstore in Los Angeles, released the inaugural report on the State of Racial Diversity in Romance Publishing and it exposes some hard truths about… continue reading 5 African American Romance Authors to Keep Your Eye On

By written by Dena    October 19, 2017    9

Do you ever have dreams or memories that are just flashes of a scene that you vaguely remember but don’t know how or why? When that happens to me, I can usually trace it back to a book or… continue reading #ThrowbackThursday: Re-reading Escape to Witch Mountain

By written by Dena    August 31, 2017   

Although I think that one never needs an excuse for wanting a good happily-ever-after, I’m happy to take any chance I get to recommend some great romance books. Personally, I find it… continue reading Dive into Dena's Romance Picks for Valentine's Day!

By written by Dena    February 10, 2017    2

Every year I read a lot of books. This year I’m at 329 and counting (I still have a day left...). This isn’t a strange statement coming from a librarian since it’s pretty much… continue reading Dena's Favorite Books of 2016

By written by Dena    December 30, 2016    1

When I was growing up you had to have a special sticker on your library card to be allowed to take out adult books. Eventually I convinced my parents that I had read every book in the kid’s… continue reading Getting Swept Away during #FLPNoShameNovember

By written by Dena    November 20, 2015   

For the longest time I loved reading series. The bigger and more epic the better. But I succumbed to series fatigue years ago (just in time for all my favorite genres to decide that series were… continue reading What Dena Reads: When Good Series Go Bad

By written by Dena    May 7, 2014    3

On Monday, February 10th, the Free Library broadcast its first ever Google+ Hangouts On Air with Dena, Camille, and Karin discussing romance books and what they love about the genre. Live… continue reading It's a Romance Video Podcast!

By written by Dena    February 12, 2014   

Hi, my name is Dena and I’m a fiction librarian in Philbrick Hall at the Parkway Central Library. You might have seen me there excitedly recommending the best vampire book ever written… continue reading What Dena Reads: 2013 Favorites

By written by Dena    December 31, 2013    5

  Please join us in welcoming the latest addition to Parkway Central's Philbrick Hall team. Patrice is the new Teen Center Specialist, and she'll be hanging out in the Teen Center… continue reading Meet Patrice!

By written by Dena    April 22, 2013   

We love year-end "Best of" lists here in Libraryland! There's so much good stuff published each year that we ache to share the books we love with everyone we can get our hands on.… continue reading Philbrick Hall's Favorites

By written by Dena    December 20, 2012   

There's a new face in Philbrick Hall at Central this week - Michael R. has joined the team to be the After School Leader in the Teen Center.  Michael graduated from Vassar College in… continue reading Introducing Michael - Central's New Teen Center After School Leader!

By written by Dena    November 20, 2012   

The Philbrick Hall teens, Teen Leadership Assistants, and After School Leader K-Fai Steele collaborated on an ambitious series of post-it murals this past month. They discovered the post-it mural… continue reading Teen Post-It murals at Parkway Central

By written by Dena    July 5, 2012    2

If you're anything like me, you've read a ton of series books. And then you come to the end, or you've read all the available books and are waiting for the author to write more. So you move on to… continue reading Great Website for Series Readers

By written by Dena    December 23, 2010    5