Monday is Labor Day, holiday is rooted in the late nineteenth century, when labor activists pushed for a federal holiday to recognize the many contributions workers have made to America’s strength, prosperity, and well-being. While the library will not be open on Labor Day, we did put together a list of books for all ages…
All Kinds of Lives (August 2023) by Shilpa Jacobie and Max McConnell
All Kinds of Lives (July 2023) by Shilpa Jacobie and Max McConnell
If you love music, classical music, and the composer Ludwig Van Beethoven, I would highly suggest you read this Why Beethoven: A Phenomenon in One Hundred Pieces! This is a great music history book that dives into the stories behind Beethoven’s musical compositions that the author discusses in the book. Norman Lebrecht reveals through Beethoven’s…
July is known as Disability Pride Month! Disability Pride initially started as a day of celebration in 1990—the year that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. That same year, Boston held the first Disability Pride Day. This month is meant to celebrate disabled persons embracing their disabilities as integral parts of…
All Kinds of Lives (June 2023) by Shilpa Jacobie and Max McConnell
Hijab Butch Blues chronicles the life of Lamya H, a queer Muslim writer and activist, through a series of salient and beautifully written prose essays. The essays range in topic and span much of Lamya’s life. In it, Lamya covers topics ranging from xenophobia, islamophobia, coming to terms with their own queerness, her experiences as…
The Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, but it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay,…
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month is currently celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, which was a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. This month-long celebration demonstrates how LGBTQ Americans have strengthened our country, by using our…
The host of our biography book club, Angelina, recommends April’s book club choice: Finding Me by Viola Davis. About her memoir, Davis says: This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose…
All Kinds of Lives (May 2023) by Shilpa Jacobie and Max McConnell
May is Jewish American Heritage Month! This month gives us the opportunity to celebrate the diverse and vibrant history, culture, and contributions of Jewish Americans through the years. There area many ways to celebrate Jewish American Heritage. One way we are celebrating at the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers is through this reading list that…
If you are a big music history and opera fan I would highly recommend reading the book “Opera: The Definitive Illustrated Story” By Alan Riding. As a big opera lover I really loved reading this book. It took me into the history and world of opera that dates back to its origin in 17th-century Italy…
May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month – a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10,…
Earth Day is April 22nd! There are many ways to celebrate Earth Day, and one of the ways we are celebrating at the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers is through this discovery list of books and movies for all ages to enjoy about eco-friendly activities, climate justice, Indigenous land stewardship, sustainable living, enjoying the beauty…
All Kinds of Lives (April 2023) by Shilpa Jacobie and Max McConnell
April 11th is national pet day! To celebrate at the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers, we have compiled a discovery list of books and movies that our pets recommend! Tessie Recommends: The Beagle Handbook by Dan Rice Here is detailed advice for owners of this cheerful breed, which is adaptable as a hunter or a…
The book Big Panda and Tiny Dragon by James Norbury is truly for all ages as you follow the main characters through each season, their friendship, and understanding the meaning of life. This book is a great reminder to stop, be kind to yourself, and remember that the small things are just as important and…
All Kinds of Lives (March 2023) by Shilpa Jacobie and Max McConnell
Women’s History Month began as a local celebration in Santa Rosa, California as a “Women’s History Week” in 1978, which corresponded with March 8, the International Women’s Day. In 1980, a consortium of women’s groups successfully worked together and lobbied for national recognition of Women’s History Week. Women’s History Week was celebrated in March until…
It is award season! In celebration with the 95th Academy Awards ceremony tomorrow night, we have compiled a list of recommendations based on nominees. This discovery list includes at least one book recommendation for every film nominated in the Best Picture category. All Quiet on the Western Front If All Quiet on the Western Front…
All Kinds of Lives (February 2023) by Shilpa Jacobie and Max McConnell
February is Black History Month. The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.…
January 27th marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. In 2005, the United Nations declared the 27th of January to be International Holocaust Remembrance Day in honor of this anniversary. To commemorate this day, the UN urges us to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of…
I first picked up this book because the cover was gorgeous and the title intrigued me. But then I started reading it and couldn’t put it down. It appealed to me in so many ways. As an immigrant who moved to the United States in my late twenties, I have often felt that I am…
All Kinds of Lives (January 2023) by Shilpa Jacobie and Max McConnell
All Kinds of Lives (December 2022) by Shilpa Jacobie and Max McConnell
All Kinds of Lives (November 2022) by Shilpa Jacobie and Max McConnell
November is Native American Heritage Month. The National Congress of American Indians tells us: [t]he month is a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to acknowledge the important contributions of Native people. Heritage Month is also an opportune time to educate the general public about tribes, to raise a general…
All Kinds of Lives (October 2022) by Shilpa Jacobie and Max McConnell
Latinx Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15-October 15 every year. This reading list highlights 30 titles (non-fiction and fiction for adults, children, and young adults) by Latinx authors available here at the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers.
All Kinds of Lives (September 2022) by Shilpa Jacobie and Max McConnell
“Five hundred and thirty years ago, a young woman sat before a Grecian-nosed artist known as Leonardo da Vinci. Her name was Cecilia Gallerani, and she was the young mistress of Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan. Sforza was a brutal and clever man who was mindful that Leonardo’s genius would not only capture Cecilia’s beguiling…
“When Ada Calhoun stumbled upon old cassette tapes of interviews her father, celebrated art critic Peter Schjeldahl, had conducted for his never-completed biography of poet Frank O’Hara, she set out to finish the book her father had started forty years earlier. As a lifelong O’Hara fan who grew up amid his bohemian cohort in the…
Jen’s note: I bought a (signed) copy from the author when he visited back in November. I forgot about it for a while and then waited until playoff time to start reading it. Awesome trip down memory lane. Any Celtics fan GenX or older will love it! “From award-winning Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy, an…
“Henri Lefebvre has considerable claims to be the greatest living philosopher. His work spans some sixty years and includes original work on a diverse range of subjects, from dialectical materialism to architecture, urbanism and the experience of everyday life. The Production of Space is his major philosophical work and its translation has been long awaited…
“Susan Brind Morrow brings her singular sensibility as a classicist and linguist to this strikingly original reflection on the fine but resilient threads that bind humans to the natural world. Anchored in the emblematic experiences of a trapper and a beekeeper, Wolves and Honey explores the implications of their very different relationships to the natural…
The Appalachian Trail: A Biography by Philip D’Anieri is a great quick read for anyone wanting to learn more about the people who shaped the beginning of a national landmark from the first idea, to the creation, to the politics involved in protecting it. Each chapter is neatly organized and dedicated to specific people and…
1774 The Long Year of Revolution – Mary Beth Norton “In this masterly work of history, the culmination of more than four decades of research and thought, Mary Beth Norton looks at the sixteen months leading up to the clashes at Lexington and Concord in mid-April 1775. This was the critical, and often overlooked, period…
Angelina did a survey with her book club to find out their favorites that they’ve read so far. Here are the top three so far! 1. Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl “When Condé Nast offered Ruth Reichl the top position at America’s oldest epicurean magazine, she declined. She was a writer, not a…
Do you enjoy hiking? Listed below are three amazing non-fiction books for those of you that enjoy reading about mountain adventures. All three books take place in the familiar White Mountains of New Hampshire. Although with a similar setting each book comes with their own powerful lessons to be learned. Even if hiking is not…
Abe : Abraham Lincoln in His Times – David Reynolds “From one of the great historians of nineteenth-century America, a revelatory and enthralling new biography of Lincoln, many years in the making, that brings him to life within his turbulent age. David S. Reynolds, author of the Bancroft Prize-winning cultural biography of Walt Whitman and…
Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters – Andrew Morton “Perfect for fans of The Crown, this captivating biography from a New York Times bestselling author follows Queen Elizabeth II and her sister Margaret as they navigate life in the royal spotlight. They were the closest of sisters and the best of friends. But when,…
The Crown in Crisis: Countdown to the Abdication – Alexander Larman (ebook) “On December 10, 1936, King Edward VIII brought a great international drama to a close when he abdicated, renouncing the throne of the United Kingdom for himself and his heirs. The reason he gave when addressing his subjects was that he could not…
The Best of Me – David Sedaris (ebook | eaudio) “For more than twenty-five years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and…
After watching several webcasts presented by marketing teams from various publishing houses my notebook is now full up with lists of upcoming titles of interest. Below is a very small selection of fiction and non-fiction titles pulled from those lists (release dates range from February to June). Happy (future) reading! We Begin at the End…
The Massey Lectures is an annual series of lectures delivered by Canadian writers, scholars, and thinkers, that take form around a central idea or theme. In 2011, Adam Gopnik chose as his theme the winter season. His lecture (Winter: Five Windows on the Season), structured in five-parts, focuses on ideas, events, and activities typically associated…
“From Nosferatu to Frankenstein’s monster, from Fritz Lang to James Whale, the touchstones of horror can all trace their roots to the bloodshed of the First World War. Bram Stoker Award nominee W. Scott Poole traces the confluence of military history, technology, and art in the wake of World War I to show how overwhelming…
“Brandon Stanton created Humans of New York in 2010. What began as a photographic census of life in New York City, soon evolved into a storytelling phenomenon. A global audience of millions began following HONY daily. Over the next several years, Stanton broadened his lens to include people from across the world. Traveling to more than forty…
This is one of two books I actually tried to read on my Kindle during the early days of the shutdown. I’m more of an actual book person, but I do enjoy reading ebooks while drying my hair. Lady Anne Glenconner and her life as a confidante of Princess Margaret plus her marriage to the…
As I find the process fascinating, how it varies writer by writer, I often go for books on the ins and outs of the craft. The following are titles I’ve enjoyed over the last few months. The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing – Richard Hugo “Richard Hugo, whom Carolyn Kizer called…
“Combining memoir with artistic and philosophical musings, the poet and National Book Critics Circle Award winner (for My Alexandria) begins by confessing his obsession with the 17th-century Dutch still life that serves as the title of this book. As he analyzes the items depicted in the painting, he skillfully introduces his thoughts on our intimate…
“As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. Yet in spite of her repressive upbringing, Deborah grew into an independent-minded…
The Art of Resistance by Justus Rosenberg is a wonderful memoir. The book, which reads like a novel, begins with the author’s childhood in Danzig (present-day Gdansk, Poland), and spans the years of WWII, detailing an extraordinary life. As a young man, studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, war breaks out, changing Justus’ life in…
Coinciding with the Harvey Weinstein trial, these are must-reads. Both are excellent reporting stories and rapid page turners filled with revelations that are at the same time disturbing, infuriating, and riveting. Add to that the backstory of surveillance and harassment of the reporters and alleged victims. If I had to pick one, I’d go with…
“Before he became a household name in America as perhaps our greatest hard-boiled crime writer, before his attachment to Lillian Hellman and blacklisting during the McCarthy era, and his subsequent downward spiral, Dashiell Hammett led a life of action. Based on original research across the country, The Lost Detective is the first book to illuminate…
“Charlotte Runcie has always felt pulled to the sea, lured by its soothing, calming qualities but also enlivened and inspired by its salty wildness. When she loses her beloved grandmother, and becomes pregnant with her first child, she feels its pull even more intensely. In Salt On Your Tongue, a mixture of memoir, social history,…
A lot of folks have a very set view of Howard Stern. Now 65, he’s in a new phase of his life and while he still maintains some of his outrageous (some might say offensive) traits, he is one of the most successful interviewers in broadcasting. In this book, he shares the best of the…
“In December 1972, Jean McConville, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was…
On the night of October 30, 1938, thousands of Americans panicked when they believed that Martians had invaded Earth. What appeared to be breaking news about an alien invasion was in fact a radio drama based on H. G. Wells’s War of the Worlds, performed by Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre players. Some listeners became…
“Figuring explores the complexities of love and the human search for truth and meaning through the interconnected lives of several historical figures across four centuries—beginning with the astronomer Johannes Kepler, who discovered the laws of planetary motion, and ending with the marine biologist and author Rachel Carson, who catalyzed the environmental movement. Stretching between these figures…
In How the Internet Happened, Brian McCullough chronicles the birth of the internet era for the first time, beginning in a dusty Illinois basement in the early nineties and ending with the introduction of the iPhone fifteen years later. Depicting the lives of now-famous innovators like Netscape’s Marc Andreessen and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, McCullough reveals surprising…
In the annals of art theft, no case has matched―for sheer criminal panache―the heist at Ireland’s Russborough House in 1986. The Irish police knew right away that the mastermind was a Dublin gangster named Martin Cahill. Yet the great plunder ―including a Gainsborough, a Goya, two Rubenses, and a Vermeer― remained at large for years.…
Like most Americans, I got my knowledge about the mob in Cuba from watching The Godfather Part 2. Havana Nocturne was actually a book I picked up out of my interest in the Cold War but I learned quite a bit more from it than that. As the name suggests this is the parallel stories…
On March 20, 1969, the day after she slipped a color-coded piece of paper into an on-campus mailbox designated for ride sharing requests, University of Michigan student Jane Mixer was murdered. Picked up by the man who had replied to her request for a lift back to her hometown, a man she did not know…
For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area. Three decades later, true crime journalist Michelle McNamara was determined to…
Summary: In the fall of 2010, Abby Norman was repeatedly hospitalized in excruciating pain, but doctors insisted it was a urinary tract infection and sent her home with antibiotics. Norman ultimately dropped out of college and embarked on what would become a years-long journey to discover what was wrong with her, and it wasn’t until she…
“Is vocabulary destiny? Why do clocks “talk” to the Nahua people of Mexico? Will A.I. researchers ever produce true human-machine dialogue? In this mesmerizing collection of essays, Daniel Tammet answers these and many other questions about the intricacy and profound power of language. In Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing, Tammet goes…
“In 1965 writer-activist-monk Thomas Merton fulfilled a twenty-four-year dream and went to live as a hermit beyond the walls of his Trappist monastery. Seven months later, after a secret romance with a woman half his age, he was in danger of losing it all. Yet on the very day that his abbot uncovered the affair,…
Hillary Clinton reveals what she was thinking and feeling during one of the most controversial and unpredictable presidential elections in history. Free from the constraints of running, she speaks about the challenges of being a strong woman in the public eye; the criticism over her voice, age, and appearance; and the double standard confronting women…
Loving Vincent – Nominated for an Academy Award (Animated Feature Film) “On 27th July 1890 a gaunt figure stumbled down a drowsy high street at twilight in the small French country town of Auvers. The man was carrying nothing; his hands clasped to a fresh bullet wound leaking blood from his belly.This was Vincent van…
In our Today In History Reading List feature, we take the events of a particular day in history and try to give you a work of fiction and a work of non-fiction relating to those events. 1788 Sydney Australia Established by Arthur Phillip The British First Fleet under Governor Arthur Phillip arrived at Port Jackson…
Personal History – Katharine Graham “In this bestselling and widely acclaimed memoir, Katharine Graham, the woman who piloted the Washington Post through the scandals of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, tells her story—one that is extraordinary both for the events it encompasses and for the courage, candor, and dignity of its telling. Here is the awkward child…
Today’s society is one of avid movie-goers, Netflix bingers, and people who stay up all night for the midnight release of the next Star Wars film. So it makes sense that after inundating our lives with all forms of multimedia, that we have begun to take an interest in the variety of edibles displayed in…
“In this unique and lovingly detailed biography of a literary family that has enthralled readers for nearly two centuries, Victorian literature scholar Deborah Lutz illuminates the complex and fascinating lives of the Brontës through the things they wore, stitched, wrote on, and inscribed. By unfolding the histories of the meaningful objects in their family home…
What inspires you? That’s the simple, but profound question posed to forty-six renowned authors in LIGHT THE DARK. Each writer begins with a favorite passage from a novel, a song, a poem—something that gets them started and keeps them going with the creative work they love. From there, incredible lessons and stories of life-changing encounters…
Aliens: The World’s Leading Scientists on the Search for Extraterrestrial Life By Jim Al-Khalili Is there anybody out there? Are we all alone in the cosmos? Science hasn’t answered this question yet, but it’s not for lack of trying. This book contains essays from some of the world’s leading astrophysicists, cosmologists, geneticists and NASA planetary…
“For years, America’s national parks have provided public breathing spaces in a world in which such spaces are steadily disappearing, which is why close to 300 million people visit the parks each year. Now, to honor the centennial of the National Park Service, Terry Tempest Williams, the author of the beloved memoir When Women Were…
Released in 2015, the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Frank Sinatra, this sensitively written yet honest and raw portrayal of the life of the great entertainer is a real page turner for Sinatra fans. Tina Sinatra (Frank’s youngest daughter) brings the reader back in time to her father’s past as he attempted to gain…
In 1946 something amazing happened in the world of comics and pop-culture. The Golden Age of Comics was coming to a close. In less than a decade Fredric Wetham’s Seduction of the Innocent would demonize the industry. Comic books would be smeared as leading to delinquency and fascism. Wertham must have been unaware of the…
“To the River is the story of the Ouse, the Sussex river in which Virginia Woolf drowned in 1941. One midsummer week over sixty years later, Olivia Laing walked Woolf’s river from source to sea. The result is a passionate investigation into how history resides in a landscape – and how ghosts never quite leave…
It’s August and the Sun is Shining. C’mon Get Happy! From Ivy League towers to your local public library, books on the elusive science of happiness have been hitting the shelves. It looks like most people could use a little boost in the happiness department… but why is it that we all feel that way?…
One of my main interests is how pop-culture impacts and reflects the society in which it is produced. While some might devalue comic books and cartoons as juvenile literature, they can be complex, and give a greater insight into the public mindset. Marc DiPaolo’s book War, Politics and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and…
Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon – Jeffrey Kluger “In August 1968, NASA made a bold decision: in just sixteen weeks, the United States would launch humankind’s first flight to the moon. Only the year before, three astronauts had burned to death in their spacecraft, and since then the…
A quarterly roundup of the latest updates to our science collection with a spotlight on: Nature The Earth The Ground Beneath Us: From the Oldest Cities to the Last Wilderness, What Dirt Tells Us About Who We Are (March 2017) How many of us have given much thought to the ground beneath our feet?…
Jane is a household name in the literary world, owing in no small part to Eyre and Austen. Indulge your love for both ladies with these forthcoming titles. The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen Flynn (Available in July) “Perfect for fans of Jane Austen, this engrossing debut novel offers an unusual twist on the legacy of…
About Victoria: The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire: “When Victoria was born, in 1819, the world was a very different place. Revolution would threaten many of Europe’s monarchies in the coming decades. In Britain, a generation of royals had indulged their whims at the public’s expense, and republican sentiment…
The full title of Sobel’s latest is The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars. What the book contains is what it says on the tin, mostly. I would add emphasis to one word in the subtitle: How. I would de-emphasize another: Ladies. Based on the title and publisher…
I know what you’re thinking, those of you with less than pleasant memories of Kafka (thanks to High School English class, right?), but here’s the thing: For all that this book is billed as a biography, Kafka is mostly just along for the ride. Which is to say: Have you ever focused your wanderlust on…
An out-of-the-corner-of-my-eye glance at a line-up of books focused quickly when one in particular – it’s cover full of two animated faces, the title writ large, a particularly urgent newspaper headline – caught my attention. I thought it was a picture book, and then I read the subtitle. And the summary. And it is decidedly…
Bakewell’s new book on Sartre, Beauvoir, and Company blinked onto my radar several months ago and stayed there, but it wasn’t until I read The Bookseller’s interview with the author, and then a Beauvoir-centric excerpt, that the book went from under consideration to Must Read. While I might have read The Second Sex and Being…
Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged…
You’re on the hunt for a lighthearted or uplifting book to read while winter wanes; your eager eye has wandered here, to this title by National Book Award winner M.T. Anderson, but I must tell you: Symphony for the City of the Dead is neither lighthearted, nor uplifting. This book, after all, concerns the Soviet…
There was a bit of a line in Jennifer Senior’s New York Times review of The Man With the Golden Typewriter that drew my eye back to read it again, because, I suppose, I was trying to imagine what a giant stalk of catnip might look like, if it would be Jack-worthy giant or stop…
I met Franz Kafka over the body of a giant insect. It was, years upon years ago, an inauspicious introduction. And first impressions being what they are–misleading, mostly–I veered away from a second encounter, slipping quickly past the K’s (or the PT 2620’s, here) with downcast eyes. Then, well, then my epistolary leanings pitched me…
After many years spent traveling and reporting on the considerable number of life-altering events of her era, Martha Gellhorn, war correspondent, passed away on this day in 1998, at the age of 89. Gellhorn began as a novelist before turning to journalism, had the dubious honor of being Ernest Hemingway’s third wife, and considered Eleanor…
Who invented the flapper? Was it one of the equally infamous Fitzgerald’s? F. Scott so often gets the credit, whereas Zelda had her fingers on the pulse of what it was to be a flapper more intimately than her husband ever could. But, all right, if not one of the expat members of the Lost…
This particular reading intersections topic is near and dear to my heart. You see, a few months ago I fell down this very rabbit hole, amassing a towering pile of non-fiction espionage titles, mostly those pinned to the heart of the Cold War. I have yet to see the light of day, quite happy to…
Jen’s comments: Just read this and loved it. Fascinating read for anyone who’s ever scoffed at the price of music CDs. Like the reviewer suggests, I’m really hoping for a movie. BookPage review by Edward Morris “The story of how the Internet brought the imperious music business to its knees has never been told more…
If only letters – written, sent with a stamp cornered at a crooked angle – were still a thing. As they are sadly not, instead of out of mailboxes, I’ve been pulling off of shelves piles of books crammed with page after page of posthumously published letters, the latest being Anne Sexton’s, as compiled and…