In 1870 Congress passed a law making Independence Day (that’s July 4, in case you weren’t sure) a federal holiday. Since 
then many of us get that day off and spend it eating grilled meats, watching fireworks and enjoying activities associated with summer. While there is a nebulous love of country in the air (stars and stripes tank top anyone?), the original intent of the holiday often isn’t the focus. The holiday was declared to commemorate the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopting the Declaration of Independence and announcing the colonies’ separation from Great Britain. But a history lesson doesn’t really say “summer fun.”
Fortunately both summer fun and colonial history are available in a very American medium — comics. I spent much of my youthful summers reading comics — regularly biking in the heat to spend my lawn mowing money at the comics shop — and I don’t think I’m alone in that experience. Now you can enjoy the thrill of comics and immerse yourself in our nation’s early history with the series “Rebels” by Brian Wood. The series takes a period of history very familiar to most of us from grade school and creates a fresh take in both the form it’s presented and from the perspectives the stories are told. Continue reading “Independence Day Read: “Rebels””
Here is a quick look at the most noteworthy nonfiction titles being released this June. Visit our catalog for a more extensive list.
TOP PICKS
In “Jell-o Girls” by Allie Rowbottom, a descendant of the Jell-O dynasty traces the privilege, addiction and illness that has impacted generations of her family, tracing her late mother’s obsessive research into a link between their family’s lifestyle and poor health. Part memoir, part family history, this title presents an enthralling examination of the dark side of an iconic American product. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup – July 2018”
Writers face many struggles in their chosen craft. How do they get inspiration and explore their chosen subjects? How do they portray themselves to get an audience? Check out these documentaries about writers.
“City of Gold” (2016)
Acclaimed food writer Jonathan Gold sets off on a journey to explore the panoply of regional cuisines and trademark dishes to be found within the vast urban sprawl of Los Angeles. With eternal curiosity, razor-sharp intellect, and existential longing, Gold is a culinary geographer taking us where no critic has gone before. Continue reading “The Write Stuff: Docs About Authors”
I’m excited to share these LibraryReads with you so you can start your summer off right! There’s a great variety, including thrillers, romances and mysteries. We even get a new book from the ever-popular Fredrik Backman! Take a peek at these newly-published librarian favorites:
“Little Big Love”
by Katy Regan
“A portrait of a family and a boy’s search for the father who left them, told from multiple perspectives with authentic, likeable characters.”
~Kimberly McGee, Lake Travis County Library, Austin, TX Continue reading “June 2018 LibraryReads: Top Ten Books Librarians Love”
A wonderful little story. In the book “The Reminders,” author Val Emmich gets into the heads of a talented young girl and a grieving middle aged man, and we get to experience the universal truths that emerge from their thoughts and interactions. Joan’s interesting memory condition and Gavin’s fame and misfortune are unique narrative elements, but the real gold this book mines is simply in the friendship that develops between them. I’m certainly not exactly like either of them, but I understand them and I want to befriend them. Also, while being a rather low-key story, there are quite satisfying plot points for each character and a great climax and denouement.
Three words that describe this book: Quirky, Light, Compelling
You might want to pick this book up if: You want to spend several hours grinning as you come to appreciate two remarkable people.
-Xander
The Civil War haunts the collective American memory, and we return to it again and again in both fiction and nonfiction stories. With a diverse and polarized electorate, the specter of another civil war occupies real estate in our imagination (and I’m not just talking about the Marvel Comics variety).
In the comic book series “DMZ,” the demilitarized zone of the the title is the island of Manhattan. The heart of the Big Apple is now territory caught between two factions in a second American civil war. The warring factions are the armies of the United States federal government and the Free States armies, a coalition of various secessionist groups. Most of Manhattan’s population has been evacuated. The remaining population consists of the poor (who were abandoned), holdouts refusing to leave and various operatives for both sides of the conflict. Continue reading “Know Your Dystopias: DMZ”
Is there something happening in the world causing me to gravitate to strange stories told by unreliable narrators which offer little to no resolution? There is no way to know, but I’m here to recommend another story that, while thrilling many readers, has left others scratching their chins and polishing their monocles while they try to unearth the key that they missed which would unlock the mystery and allow them to go about their merry ways confident that they’ve completed a sensical story and fully absorbed what it has to offer.
Perhaps I need to polish longer, but I haven’t been able to make total sense of “
The Job of the Wasp” by
Colin Winnette. But like riding a ferris wheel or eating a bucket of street food, the pleasure is in the journey rather than the destination. That said, where the book takes you is
absolutely worth it, and the final sentence is a doozy, but just as one rarely finds themselves coming to any epiphanies while hosing out a freshly emptied bucket of street food, you’re unlikely to exclaim “A-HA,” upon finishing this novel.
Continue reading “The Gentleman Recommends: Colin Winnette”
A boy with thick glasses sits cross-legged, reading a book, as a different boy walks by accompanied by his father. “You know what we do to nerds, right?” the father asks. His son grins. “Yeah. Learn from them!”
The scene described is a sequence in the “Lunarbaboon” webcomic. Lunarbaboon is half human and half moon monkey, but the situations he encounters as a father seem entirely human. Author Chris Grady has a knack for taking some of our more undesirable social conventions and turning them on their heads. In one cartoon, the father offers to teach his son some “sweet moves” with the ladies. The “moves” turn out to involve listening and showing respect. After a number of years of internet popularity, Grady’s cartoons are now available in book form. “Lunarbaboon: the Daily Life of Parenthood” was published last year. Continue reading “Father’s Day Reads”
“In the Unlikely Event” was thoughtful, suspenseful and fascinating. I always love a good book about people and their lives and stories; this one is no exception. I enjoy the way Judy Blume writes and have been reading her books for years. I loved all the characters. Although the number of characters was a little overwhelming and hard to keep track of at times, Blume does a good job of reminding you who the characters are and how they fit into the book. This book follows the lives of those who lived through the tragedy of three plane crashes which happened in their neighborhood within a matter of a few months. The plane crashes actually happened but the characters and the story are a work of fiction. It seems so unbelievable but the way the tragedy affects the characters is intense, heartbreaking and not at all surprising. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to others.
Three words that describe this book: touching, real, exceptional
You might want to pick this book up if: You like to read about others’ lives and how people react in the face of tragedy.
-Megan
This time of year brings summer weather and a whole new month’s worth of debut fiction. There are some exciting titles by new authors that came out in May and, as always, you can find a longer list of debut titles in our catalog.
“Song of Blood and Stone” by L. Penelope
The magical barrier—known as the Mantle—separating the enemy lands of Elsira and Lagrimara is about to fall. Both countries face the threat of impending war, but also that of an ancient evil known as the True-Father which seeks to conquer them both.
Gifted with the power of Eathsong, Jasminda is an outcast in her homeland of Elsira where her dark skin marks her Lagrimaran descent. Jack is an Elsiran spy who is trying to warn Elsira about the eminent collapse of the Mantle and the threat of the True-Father. As Jasminda and Jack work together to protect their home and reinforce the Mantle, their professional alliance becomes personal even as they are faced with political and social opposition.
Continue reading “Debut Author Spotlight: May 2018”
