MADreads

Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors

Making a fresh start

Cover of On the Hustle
A review of On the Hustle by Adriana Herrera

Dominican-American Alba Duarte is trying to do it all and is in danger of completely losing it as On the Hustle by Adriana Herrera opens. Alba is putting in the work towards her dream of being an interior designer and instagram influencer, but she's doing so on top of a full-time job and being a support to her immigrant family. Something's gotta give. And when Alba decides it's giving up her job as assistant to the arrogant Theo Ganas and moving to Dallas? Well that sets in motion a whole new set of complications in this fast-paced, sexy and flirtatious contemporary romance.

Posted by Jane J on Sep 20, 2022

Saving faces and lives

Cover of The Facemaker: A Visionar
A review of The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris

It can sometimes be easy to forget how transformative World War I was to the course of history. A war that began with nineteenth century visions of cavalry charges to glory fatally collided with the reality of the technology of the twentieth century. The brutal carnage that the war became soon revealed that medicine, like army tactics, would have to change radically in order to address the wounds—physical and mental—of the casualties returning from battle.

Posted by Katie H on Sep 19, 2022

Shhhh!

Cover of Be Quiet!
A review of Be Quiet! by Ryan T. Higgins

In Be Quiet! Rupert, a mouse, wants to create his very own wordless book. His friends are game, but unfortunately, they won't stop talking about it, filling the book with more and more words and making Rupert more and more frustrated. This book is hilarious, introduces some wonderful vocabulary, and takes advantage of every part of the book, from the cover to the endpapers. It's perfect for elementary school-aged children.

Posted by Janelle C on Sep 16, 2022

Can you trust it?

Cover of The Passengers
A review of The Passengers by John Marrs

If you, like me, are feeling the end of summer doldrums a bit, then I've got the book for you. The Passengers by John Marrs takes you on a wild ride and sets you on a collision course with fun! Too much? One pun too many?

Posted by Jane J on Sep 9, 2022

There's a word for that...

Cover of Love in the library
A review of Love in the library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

I'm always a little skeptical of books about libraries - maybe being a librarian has made me too jaded. But this story isn't really about libraries, and it's not even really about books, although there is a gorgeously illustrated spread celebrating the breadth of imagination and worlds to be found within the pages of a book and the walls of a library. 

Posted by Holly SP on Sep 6, 2022

Sewn with hate

Cover of The Poison Thread
A review of The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell

When describing this book to a friend, I summarized as the story of two women in Victorian England: Ruth, a seamstress who believes she can hurt and kill others through her sewing, and Dorothea, a member of the gentry who visits Ruth in prison, believing that phrenology (the study of the contours of the human skull to describe a person's personality) holds the clues to Ruth's innocence or guilt. It sounds a bit wacky, I'll admit, but the story is so much more complex than that.

Posted by on Aug 30, 2022

After the fall

Cover of Poster Girl
A review of Poster Girl by Veronica Roth

In her stellar adult fiction novel debut Veronica Roth explores what happens when a totalitarian, dystopian regime falls and whether or not the society can rebuild without repeating the same patterns and mistakes. And she does all of this through the eyes of someone who was complicit in that regime's behavior.

Posted by Jane J on Aug 29, 2022

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