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.…
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…
April is poetry month so we thought we’d share some of our favorite poems and poetry collections. Poetry Collections Dog Songs: Thirty-Five Dog Songs and One Essay by Mary Oliver. Elise Cowen: Poems and Fragments edited by Tony Trigilio. If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho translated by Anne Carson Ariel by Sylvia Plath. Life on…
“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…
“In Italo Calvino’s cosmicomics, primordial beings cavort on the nearby surface of the moon, play marbles with atoms, and bear ecstatic witness to Earth’s first dawn. Exploring natural phenomena and the origins of the universe, these beloved tales relate complex scientific concepts to our common sensory, emotional, human world. Now, The Complete Cosmicomics brings together…
“A meditation on the nature of life and time, Água Viva (1973) shows Lispector discovering a new means of writing about herself, more deeply transforming her individual experience into a universal poetry. In a body of work as emotionally powerful, formally innovative, and philosophically profound as Clarice Lispector’s, Água Viva stands out as a particular…
Chelsey’s comment: I just finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir and highly recommend it! “Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature…
This House is Haunted by John Boyne “This House Is Haunted is a striking homage to the classic nineteenth-century ghost story. Set in Norfolk in 1867, Eliza Caine responds to an ad for a governess position at Gaudlin Hall. When she arrives at the hall, shaken by an unsettling disturbance that occurred during her travels,…
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid “Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?…
Working at the library today, this book I was checking out for someone caught my eye. I knew nothing about it, but, reading the summary, it looked interesting. Checked Amazon and it apparently was a New York Times bestseller and won several awards when it came out in 2015. I’m not sure how I missed…
Three of our more popular mystery authors are Louise Penny, Donna Leon, and Ann Cleeves, whose books are set in Quebec, Venice, and England respectively. Always on the lookout for new (to me) mystery series with international settings, here’s one I’m enjoying now, and a few I’ll be trying soon. And if you’re looking…
Blue is for Nightmares by Laurie Faria Stolarz “I Know Your Secret . . . Boarding school junior Stacey Brown has nightmares too real to ignore. Her nightmares come true. This time they’re about Drea, her best friend who’s become the target of one seriously psycho stalker. To try and protect her, Stacey’s working with…
Sleepy Hollow: The Complete First Season “Ichabod Crane, a British expatriate who dies in the American Revolution, is revived in upstate New York during the time of the cell phone – as is the evil Headless Horseman, who plans to annihilate mankind! Teaming with a feisty police lieutenant, Crane races to vanquish the newly unearthed…
Autumn – Ali Smith “From the Man Booker-shortlisted and Baileys Prize-winning author of How to be both: a breathtakingly inventive new novel–about aging, time, love, and stories themselves–that launches an extraordinary quartet of books called Seasonal. Readers love Ali Smith’s novels for their peerless innovation and their joyful celebration of language and life. Her newest,…
A Quiet Place Angelina’s Note: I’m excited to see part II which was scheduled to be released in September but has now changed to April 23, 2021. About the movie: “If they hear you, they hunt you. In this terrifyingly suspenseful thriller, a family must navigate their lives in silence to avoid mysterious creatures that…
Washington Irving’s work and autumn in New England go hand in hand. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is perhaps Irving’s best-known work (likely competing only with Rip Van Winkle for that title), most people having either read the story or encountered one of several film/television adaptations in their lifetime, but that tale isn’t the one…
Lisa’s Note: I geared my selections for children under 8 years. 1. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! 2. The Nightmare Before Christmas 3. Halloweentown and Return to Halloweentown 4. Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie 5. Hotel Transylvania (1, 2, and 3) 6. Curious George A Halloween Boo Fest 7. Toy Story of Terror 8. The…
Jen’s seasonal reading recommendations First Frost – Sarah Addison Allen “Autumn has finally arrived in the small town of Bascom, North Carolina, heralded by a strange old man appearing with a beat-up suitcase. He has stories to tell, stories that could change the lives of the Waverley women forever. But the Waverleys have enough trouble…
The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern Skylis’ Note: Night Circus is heavily atmospheric and fantastical, with several cozy sensory passages about food smells that always remind me of fall and fair season. And of course, there’s magic! Publisher’s Summary: “The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it…
Chris’ Note: The Roger Corman adaptations of Poe stories are good seasonal viewing material if cheesy. My two favorites are House of Usher (1960) and The Masque of the Red Death (1964) The Fall of the House of Usher “Upon entering his fiancée’s family mansion, a man discovers a savage family curse and fears that…
Charlotte’s note: Anyone who has an interest in the iconic Debbie Harry or the outrageous history of New York’s punk rock scene will eat this up! “Musician, actor, activist, and the iconic face of New York City cool, Debbie Harry is the frontwoman of Blondie, a band that forged a new sound that brought together…
Moving Out is a moving simulator game where you work against the clock to load a van with boxes and furniture, but please don’t stop reading here. You won’t begin to appreciate its anarchic brand of fun until you realize it’s much faster to chuck boxes through a second story window than it is to…
Books I have on hold and am hoping to read but probably won’t because I have been in a slump: Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman (Overdrive & print) Now two friends, Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, tell the story of their equally messy and life-affirming Big Friendship…
About the documentary: “Filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, Remember This House. It is a journey into black history that connects the Civil Rights movement to #BlackLivesMatter. It questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond and examines the lives and assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.”…
We asked our staff for the titles of books they read and loved this year. Here are the ones they shared. Happy reading! The Hate You Give – Angie Thomas “Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between…
Charlotte recommends: Waking Up White by Debby Irving; and Under the Same Sky by Joseph Kim and Stephan Talty.
Quieter Than Sleep by Joanne Dobson “Karen Pelletier abandoned her life in New York for a professorship at Massachusetts’s elite Enfield College. But she quickly learns that New England is not the peaceful enclave she had imagined–and that not even the privileged world of academia is immune to murder….Professor Karen Pelletier’s prime literary passion is…
Jen recommends Benjamin Johncock’s The Last Pilot.
Recommended by Jen |
“Two decades after the end of the Cold War, an average American guy in his twenties helped to bring down a top Russian spy…
There’s no lie in that subtitle: the birth of the comic book (the storytelling, the art, the characters, the industry, all those egos) is the axis on which Men of Tomorrow turns. The thing is, a whole, beaming-bright universe of American history glommed on for the ride. There be decades in these pages, long years that hosted war and prohibition and depression and hope that ebbed and flowed like the tide. And I loved every minute spent on delving into the details.
“Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does. Little differentiates one day from the next. Then one morning a letter arrives, addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl, from a woman he hasn’t heard from in twenty years. Queenie…
I could go on ad nauseam about all the fantastic books I read last year, but for brevity’s sake, here are half a dozen of my 2014 favorites. (All but two of the following titles were published in 2014.)
If you like the gore of 16th century childbirth, rich historical descriptions and strong female characters, these are the books for you!
Staff suggestions of non-fiction and poetry.
I tend to always have way more books than I could possible read. As a result there is a big stack of books on my beside table that threatens to crush me in my sleep. I can’t review them because I haven’t read them yet but they all have a story for why they are on my bedside table.
Linda recommends this true story of Louis Zamperini, a famous runner and survivor of a Japanese concentration camp in WWII.
The Perfume Collector – Kathleen Tessaro After receiving an unexpected inheritance from a complete stranger, newlywed socialite Grace Monroe must uncover the identity of her mysterious benefactor. Weaving through the decades from 1920s New York to 1950s Monte Carlo, Paris and London, the story Grace uncovers is that of an extraordinary woman who inspired one…
About Orphan Train: “Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and…
About the book: Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while…
The Silk Road, that myriad of trade routes crisscrossing Asia in the middle ages, has always held a certain fascination for me. The imagery alone is spellbinding: trackless deserts, vast mountain ranges and endless steppe and in this massive space, caravans of camels and yaks carrying the luxury goods across centuries. That’s what first drew…
About the book: “Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat diner in Plainview, Indiana is home away from home for Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean. Dubbed “The Supremes” by high school pals in the tumultuous 1960s, they’ve weathered life’s storms for over four decades and counseled one another through marriage and children, happiness and the blues. Now, however, they’re about…
One of the many things I like about being a librarian is the serendipitous way reading material falls into your hands. This is a good thing for me since, left to my own devices, I will go to the history section and not leave. One day a few months ago I was working at the…
Reviewed by Jim I had actually been waiting for this book to be translated into English for some time. It was written by a Italian writers collective Wu Ming (aka Luther Blisett). Altai is a loose sequel to their book Q published in 1999. Because it is a translation the tone of the writing can…
In this striking literary debut, Carol Rifka Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don’t know you’ve lost someone until you’ve found them. 1987. There’s only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that’s…
Jessica Brockmole’s debut novel written in letters sparkles from the start. Don’t let the format put you off. If you are thinking of long-winded letters from the 18th Century, think again. These letters move the pace along in this historical novel often leaving the reader hanging and highlighting the desperation of the time period. Brockmole…
About the book: “Gone Girl meets Before I Go to Sleep in Sophie McKenzie’s Close My Eyes, a riveting psychological thriller about a grieving mother who finds out years after her daughter’s death that her child may still be alive When Geniver Loxley lost her daughter at birth eight years ago, her world stopped… and never fully started again.…
“Welcome to Mattagash, the last town in the middle of the northern Maine wilderness. The road dead-ends here, but Mattagash’s citizens are fiercely proud. Yet this simple town connected by a single one-way bridge is anything but tranquil. While neighbors bicker publicly over trivialities such as offensive mailbox designs and gossip about suspicious newcomers, they…
Heading to the beach one of these bright, summery days? Consider bringing along one or all of the novels in Roxanne St. Claire’s Barefoot Bay series. Our staff member thought these books would make for non-demanding and entertaining company. About Barefoot in the Sand, book one in the series: When all you hold dear is…
“Like all mothers, Emily Rapp had ambitious plans for her first and only child, Ronan. He would be smart, loyal, physically fearless, and level-headed, but fun. He would be good at crossword puzzles like his father. He would be an avid skier like his mother. Rapp would speak to him in foreign languages and give…
Clay Jannon is an out of work graphic designer in Silicon Valley. In attempt to concentrate on his job search and not get sidetracked on the internet, Clay prints out job postings and walks the streets of San Francisco. On one of his excursions, he ends up in front of Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore…
Set in the early years of the Hundred Years War, 1356 sees the resurrection of Cornwell’s irascible archer, Thomas of Hookton. Thomas is given a quest to find La Malice, the oddly-shaped sword believed to have been used by Saint Peter to lop off the ear of one of the men who arrested Jesus Christ.…
About the book: “A sophisticated and suspenseful novel about the poignant lives of two women living in different eras. On the day John F. Kennedy is inaugurated, Claire, an uncompromising young wife and mother obsessed with the glamour of Jackie O, struggles over the decision of whether to stay in a loveless marriage or follow…
About the book: “Justin and Libby Denbe have the kind of life that looks good in the pages of a glossy magazine. A beautiful fifteen-year old daughter, Ashlyn. A gorgeous brownstone on a tree-lined street in Boston’s elite Back Bay neighborhood. A great marriage, admired by friends and family. A perfect life. This is what…
“Elliot Rosenzweig, a respected civic leader and wealthy philanthropist, is attending a fundraiser when he is suddenly accosted and accused of being a former Nazi SS officer named Otto Piatek. Although the charges are denounced as preposterous, his accuser, Ben Solomon, is convinced he is right. Solomon urges attorney Catherine Lockhart to take his case,…
Reviewed by Alan Death of Kings continues the story of Uhtred, this time through the tumultous years which followed the death of Alfred the Great as two men struggle to inherit the crown of Wessex. Uhtred has to contend with betrayal, treachery and the largest army the Danes have yet assembled to conquer Wess to…
An exhaustive explanation of the history of consumable energy in the industrialized world, from animal oils to petrochemicals to nuclear power to renewables (solar, wind etc.). Daniel Yergin somehow manages to cram an improbable amount of information into a considerable amount of pages (804 in all!). “The Quest” delivers an illuminating (and, often, surprisingly entertaining)…
“Rory Hendrix is the least likely of Girl Scouts. She hasn’t got a troop or even a badge to call her own. But she’s checked the Handbook out from the elementary school library so many times that her name fills all the lines on the card, and she pores over its surreal advice (Disposal of…
Reviewed by Charlotte “When a tsunami rages through their coastal town in India, 17-year-old Ahalya Ghai and her 15-year-old sister Sita are left orphaned and homeless. With almost everyone they know suddenly erased from the face of the earth, the girls set out for the convent where they attend school. They are abducted almost immediately…
“The year is 2032. The third Iran-Iraq war is over; the 11/11 dirty bomb attack on the port of Long Beach, California is receding into memory; Saudi Arabia has recently quelled a coup; Russians and Turks are clashing in the Caspian Basin; Iranian armored units, supported by the satellite and drone power of their Chinese…
Publisher’s Summary: “An electrifying psychological thriller about a mother and daughter pushed to their limits. Shelley and her mom have been menaced long enough. Excused from high school where a trio of bullies nearly killed her, and still reeling from her parents’ humiliating divorce, Shelley has retreated with her mother to the quiet of Honeysuckle…
If you’re looking for something to get you in the spirit of the holidays, try one of the books on our New Holiday Fiction Booklist. If you’re looking for a good book your favorite booklover, we have some suggestions for you. Books to Give the Reader in Your Life This Holiday Season is a compilation…
Publisher’s Summary: “An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel. Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues…
Juliet is the debut novel by Anne Fortier and what a grand debut it is. For those of you who are Romeo and Juliet purists, a word of warning; while there are many similarities, there are also just as many differences such as instead of the story being set in Verona it takes place in…
Harm None ~ M. R. Sellars Rowan Gant, self-proclaimed witch, is brought in to help his best friend, Detective Ben Storm, solve a brutal murder that involves elements of Witchcraft. As the number of horribly gruesome murders grows, Rowan is drawn into relentless visions and nightmares that, bit by bit, offer painful clues as to…
A tale about English villagers who are of elvish lineage. They are trapped in the human world because the gate to the other world is closed. The quest to open the gate has as many convolutions as a soap opera: there are star-crossed lovers, suspense and mystery. There is a good sense of place and…
Publisher’s Summary: “New York City, 1945. Marjorie Jacobson and her best friend, Marty Garrett, arrive fresh from the Kappa house at the University of Iowa hoping to find summer positions as shopgirls. Turned away from the top department stores, they miraculously find jobs as pages at Tiffany & Co., becoming the first women to ever…
In the summer of 1921, English society is fascinated by the spiritual world – perhaps no one more than the great mystery writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, one of thirteen eager guests at a weekend party and seance in a stately Devon manor house steeped in history and tradition. But, as Sir Arthur puts it,…
Matt Younger is a 30-year-old boat delivery captain, who returns to Amelia Island, Florida from the Dominican Republic to make a confession to his dying father. With two companions, a cook named Jesse, and Phillip, a French mechanic, Matt tells his father how he set off from West Palm Beach on board Stardust, a 40′…
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family’s apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th…
“Lovely Sorcha is the seventh child and only daughter of Lord Colum of Sevenwaters. Bereft of a mother, she is comforted by her six brothers who love and protect her. Sorcha is the light in their lives, they are determined that she know only contentment. But Sorcha’s joy is shattered when her father is bewitched…