Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors
If you have ever wondered what a gritty and meanly funny version of Marley and Me would look like, Pilar Quintana’s The Bitch has you covered. It is the story of Damaris, who gets a dog. Damaris lives with husband Rogelio on a Colombian hillside, surviving off fishing and keeping house for absentee homeowners. Wife and husband long for a baby that will never come.
I'm a fan of true crime tv and podcasts and will listen to a wide variety of them, but when it comes to books, I'm a bit more particular. I think this choosiness has to do with being able to distance myself a bit from the content and for me, when I'm reading, it can feel so much more immediate. So for nonfiction crime books I gravitate to historical crime with the natural distancing of time making it more enjoyable. A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum really fit that bill.
When he wakes up at the beginning of the book the hero doesn't have a clue as to who he is or where he is. All he knows is that he's hooked up to a lot of tubes and a computer voice is asking him what 2 + 2 is. When he's finally able to answer that question, the computer allows him to progress in his recovery. As he gets stronger physically, he begins to have flashes of memories (including his name, Ryland Grace). Oh and he discovers there are two people long dead in the beds next to his and that he's in a ship in space. Ryland is all alone and millions of miles away from home.
Maureen and Francine Carter are twins and inseparable until the start of sixth grade. Maureen doesn’t understand why Francine doesn’t want things to be as they always have been. Francine’s acting different now. She wants to be called Fran, starts joining other groups, she cares about being stylish, and wants to run for class president?! Tired of not being the ‘smart twin’ and with a twinge of anger at Fran, Maureen decides to run for class president too. Can they be competitive and still be loving sisters? It’s going to be a bumpy election with lessons to be learned on both sides.
This is a gorgeous purple graphic novel inspired by the Purple One. Theresa Booker dreams of being a musician and knows that there are many barriers to success for a black woman on the Minneapolis music scene in 1982. She puts together an amazing band with a singular vision but there's nowhere for Starchild to play. Talent and drive are not always enough.
In this Spanish language graphic novel for school age kids, Olivia is bored out of her mind after moving to a small town from the city. Things quickly begin to change when she starts exploring the woods that surround her new home. There, Olivia meets a strange old lady who gives her a dog. Immediately, Olivia and her dog, who she names Peluso (Fuzz), begin getting into all kinds of wacky adventures. Shortly into their relationship, Olivia and Peluso meet a genie who offers to grant Olivia's wishes, but Olivia quickly realizes that wishes can go very, very wrong.
The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town is an intimate look at the doctors and patients who work, live, and die at Community Hospital.
Is reading about other people's lives your cup of tea? Then check out the finalists for the Plutarch Award, honoring the best biography of the year and presented by the Biographers International Organization. The winner is going to be announced on May 16th. See the finalists below.
Unicorns are supposed to be all smiles, glitter and rainbows. And Kevin’s days are “filled with …Magical Awesomeness” Until the morning Kevin wakes up on the floor. Something feels not quite right, but he picks himself up and smiles through it all, since his living room posters remind him that, “Unicorn Starts with You!” and to “Keep it Happy” and “Sparkle Sparkle Sparkle.” So he sets out for yet another fantastic day.
"My name is Lila Macapagal and my life has become a rom-com cliche'.
Not many romantic comedies feature an Asian-American lead (or dead bodies, but more on that later), but all the trademarks are there.
Girl from an improbably named small town in the Midwest moves to the big city to make a name for herself and find love? Check.
Girl achieves these things only for the world to come crashing down when she walks in on her fiance' getting down and dirty with their next door neighbors (yes, plural)? Double check.
There is something so honest and true about Loretta Lynn. I had no idea she was best of friends with Patsy Cline during the early 1960s until I read this book. And what a friendship they had. I'm not sure how much dust they kicked up, but there were definitely some shenanigans.
Right now, we all feel far away from one another. This bilingual board book helps little ones understand what it means for something to be "far." Using simple text and tranquil illustrations, Lejos = Far describes places and things by their distance from one another. If you're looking to teach spatial concepts and get a little language practice in too, I recommend this book.
There is also a companion book that covers the concept of "close": Cerca = Close
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Just in time for National Poetry Month! This is an exquisite special edition of National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman's presidential inauguration poem given on January 20, 2021 with a foreword by Oprah Winfrey. I've watched and listened to this spectacular young poet recite "The Hill We Climb" numerous times, now, and each time I'm left feeling hopeful for our country and a democratic society. This poem is honest and looking towards a brighter future.
It was perhaps inevitable that the same year that sports stopped cold in its tracks, The Best American Sports Writing would mark its last year.
Somewhere in the Nevada desert, Rose Colter hears her best friend’s last voicemail message broadcasted on the radio. With her car broken down, she runs towards the broadcast tower into a town called Lotus Valley. The townspeople have been waiting for her; in fact, she was prophesied to arrive and in doing so would bring about a great flood within the next three days. Is Rose the cause of the flood and if so, why?
As we've all hunkered down over this past year there have been a few bright spots in our social network. One of the brightest (and most surprising to many) was the instagram posts that veteran character actor Leslie Jordan started posting while he was sheltering in place in Tennessee. Leslie is best known for his guest appearances on Will and Grace, but he has appeared in many, many things. And as was the case for everyone, the pandemic shut down the bulk of his work and life.
National Poetry Month was launched by the Academy of American Poets to remind "the public that poets have an integral role to play in our culture and that poetry matters." To help myself (and you) out I've put together some lists of poetry from last year and some new titles from the the first quarter of this year. This is the last of four lists. Let's read some poetry!
National Poetry Month was launched by the Academy of American Poets to remind "the public that poets have an integral role to play in our culture and that poetry matters." To help myself (and you) out I've put together some lists of poetry from last year and some new titles from the the first quarter of this year. This is the third of four lists. Let's read some poetry!
National Poetry Month was launched by the Academy of American Poets to remind "the public that poets have an integral role to play in our culture and that poetry matters." Since I don't read much poetry, I try every April to challenge myself to read some poetry. To help myself (and you) out I've put together some lists of poetry from last year and some new titles from the the first quarter of this year. This is the second of four lists. Let's read some poetry!
Albert Marrin has crafted a gripping narrative of the life and death of Janusz Korczak, a Polish Jewish doctor in the Warsaw Ghetto. He was not only a physician, he ran an orphanage in Warsaw for Jewish children. As the horrors of the Nazi regime moved closer, Dr. Korczak was given numerous opportunities to escape, but he would not go without his charges. Ultimately, he led them to Treblinka Camp, dying by gas along with the children in 1942.
