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Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors
The library owns about two billion gardening books. I’m pretty sure that is hardly an exaggeration. It can be a bit overwhelming.
So let me recommend one as a librarian and a gardener: Emily Murphy’s Grow What You Love: 12 Food Plant Families to Change Your Life. It isn’t the only gardening book you’ll ever need, but it’s a darn good start.
If this were a reality show on television today, I would totally watch it.
Really smart, funny, feminist, anti-capitalist satire about what it's like to be a teen girl (and not necessarily just a cis/straight/able-bodied and/or white teen girl).
Grace Burrowes is pretty much an auto-read for me when it comes to historical romances. I don't get to every book of hers the minute it comes out, but eventually I'm going to read them. And the reason she's on my auto-read list is because she just does what she does so well. She writes engaging heroes and heroines. Her historical settings are well done - no major klinkers like a Lady Kardashian in Regency England. And the emotional journey she creates in each book always hits me just right.
This book is about cake and it is delightful.
What image comes to mind when ‘Lolita’ is mentioned? A knock-kneed schoolgirl, all innocence and trust, a puppet under the thrall of pedophile? A calculating ingénue who knows more than she lets on, as envisioned by Stanley Kubrick in his 1962 film? The brilliant, if unsettling, creation of one of the great masters of American writing?
Summer is almost here and there are a bunch of new upcoming mysteries that I am looking forward to reading. There are some new characters that I want to meet and some old friends with whom I'll be catching up.
Murder at the Mansion by Sheila Connolly [6/26] [series launch]
character: hospitality specialist Kate Hamilton
setting: her Maryland hometown
Marley Dias Gets it Done: And So Can You! is an up close look at the amazing girl who founded the #1000blackgirlbooks campaign. She talks about how the campaign got started (“If only there’d been one book at school . . . just one . . . about a black girl and her dog . . .
Genre readers will have much to look forward in July, as many familiar names are adding on to series, releasing standalone titles or trying out something entirely different. On to the highlights:
If you like reading biographies, then check out Booklist's Top 10 Biographies list. The list includes boxers, photographers, politicians, journalists, and more.
