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Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors

Pitch perfect

Cover of Five Flavors of Dumb
A review of Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John

"For the record, I wasn't around the day they decided to become Dumb. If I'd been their manager back then I'd have pointed out that the name, while accurate, was not exactly smart. It just encouraged people to question the band's intelligence, maybe even their sanity. And the way I saw it, Dumb didn't have much of either."

May 1, 2018

Edgar Awards announced

Cover of Mystery Winners
A review of Mystery Winners by

The Mystery Writers of America bestowed their annual Edgar Awards April 26, recognizing the best in crime writing in several genres and formats. The evening's top prize for fiction went to Attica Locke's Bluebird, Bluebird, an East Texas set whodunit featuring a black Texas Ranger investigating the deaths of a black man and a white woman that soon promises to unearth long-buried romantic and racially motivated crimes.

Apr 30, 2018

Ready, Set, Fly!

Cover of The Airport Book
A review of The Airport Book by Lisa Brown

The Airport Book is perfect for anyone planning an adventure particularly if that adventure includes flying in an airplane!) or anyone who is curious about what happens at the airport.  Follow a family of four as they pack for their trip, take a taxi, go through airport security, board the plane, and fly all the way to Grandma and Grandpa’s!  This is one of those fascinating picture books that takes the reader behind the scenes, and each repeat read will offer new details and interesting tidbits to explore. 
For ages 3 – 7

Apr 27, 2018

Guwop grows up

Cover of The Autobiography of Gucci
A review of The Autobiography of Gucci Mane by Gucci Mane and Neil Martinez-Belkin

Even if you haven’t heard of trap music, you’ve heard it. A hip hop subgenre born out of the American south, with fast and hard drums and lyrics about the drug underworld, trap music has taken the world by storm — dominating all of hip hop, America’s most consumed music, and infiltrating pop music in general.

Apr 24, 2018

Gloomies, like Goonies, but not exactly

Cover of Misfit City Vol. 1
A review of Misfit City Vol. 1 by Kirsten Smith

This graphic novel series is set in Cannon Cove, where a popular adventure movie called The Gloomies was filmed in the 1980s. Decades later, fans of the movie continue to visit and annoy the residents who cater to the tourism with mild resentment. Then a cool group of teen "misfits" who begrudgingly live in the sleepy coastal town discover something unexpected, mysterious and adventurous: a pirate map belonging to the legendary Black Mary!

Apr 23, 2018

The art of dostadning

Cover of The Gentle Art of Swedish
A review of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson

The title of this book might put you off, but the topic is real and it is important. There is a kind of decluttering in Sweden called dostadning. Do means "death" and stadning means "cleaning." The author, Margareta Magnusson, suggests ways in which we can prepare our homes and possessions to make the most of them while we are still living and to ease the burden on others after we have died. She promotes minimalist living and choosing clothing, furniture and artifacts with care, especially as we age.

Apr 12, 2018

Daring meets independent

Cover of Hello Stranger
A review of Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas

In her latest in the Ravenals series, Kleypas has loosely based the heroine on a real historical figure, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first (and only, for many years) female doctor in England. Kleypas' Dr. Garrett Gibson is also the lone female physician of her time and she does work in London and those are broadly the only things they have in common.

Apr 10, 2018

Hide and Seek

Cover of Bear & Hare, Where’s Bea
A review of Bear & Hare, Where’s Bear? by Emily Gravett

The Bear & Hare books are such fun to share with young readers! Toddlers and preschoolers will enjoy the humor and charm of each one – and you will, too! To practice counting and have a first introduction to hide-and-seek, check out Bear & Hare, Where’s Bear? (Simon & Schuster, 2016). The pacing is perfect – and the illustrations are very silly. Readers get to practice counting from 1 to 10 several times as bear and hare take turns hiding. When Hare can’t find Bear at the very end, and is feeling sad, Bear appears quickly and gives his friend a much needed hug of reassurance.

Apr 6, 2018

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