“This is what it means to be a fan: curious, open, desiring for connection, to feel like art has chosen you, claimed you as its witness.” – Carrie Brownstein, “Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl”
Prior to reading this book, I would not have necessarily considered myself a Carrie Brownstein “fan.” Like many my age, I knew Brownstein from Portlandia, her charmingly absurd sketch comedy show with Fred Armisen. My apologies to Sleater-Kinney fans; I acknowledge that this is sacrilege. In my defense, the band’s pre-hiatus discography released concurrently with my journey from infancy through elementary school, so I had barely graduated from Barney to Britney Spears. I downloaded the audiobook on a whim and it fully converted me into a fan as Brownstein defines the term.
This is not a sex, drugs, rock and roll type memoir. It begins with Brownstein’s youth in the Pacific Northwest, where her intense love of music and her attention-seeking tendencies lead to the formation of iconic punk band Sleater-Kinney. The format of the book then shifts to each chapter title corresponding to a Sleater-Kinney album, detailing each album’s creation, release and subsequent tour. Brownstein conveys tour life as grimy, unglamourous and exhausting. She does find comfort in the books she reads on the road, which clearly cultivated her talent as a writer. Content aside, “Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl” is incredibly well-written. The rich vocabulary and shrewd sense of timing make this a visceral and immersive read. Brownstein’s account of her own instantaneous breakdown that led to a 10 year hiatus for Sleater-Kinney is completely gut-wrenching. Continue reading “Staff Review: Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl”
I’m serious. My stuff is making me insane — I mean full-on, crazy-train-insane. Let me explain. We never really fully unpacked when we moved here five years ago, and since then we have absorbed a couple of other households worth of stuff from relatives who have passed. I have definitely crossed my clutter threshold. It’s to the point that I almost just want to walk away from it all. I’m sure that all of that STUFF is really valuable, useful and sentimental stuff, right? WRONG!
So I have been on a quest (obsession?) to get rid of the clutter in my house. I have been checking out decluttering, organizing, minimalism and zero waste books like crazy. Wait. We already established that the clutter is making me crazy, right? This quest has actually been an on again/off again thing for quite a while. I read “The Story of Stuff” when it first came out along with “No Impact Man” and even though I was concerned, life crowded those stories out.
The first obvious go-to books are “The Magic of Tidying Up” and “Spark Joy” by Marie Kondo. The idea behind these books is to hold each object in your house and decide whether or not it inspires a sense of joy. Yeah, that’s not going to work for me. That would just have me getting rid of things that I should probably keep (like the vacuum cleaner) and holding onto things that I should probably have let go of by now (like that crazy prom dress). It’s also hard to look at an item like a whisk and say “I need to get rid of that.” No. It’s a tool. It’s useful. We need to keep it. But when I looked in my kitchen drawer — the one that won’t close because it’s so full — I counted 10 whisks so maybe I do need to let some of them go. Continue reading “Help! My Stuff is Making Me Crazy!”
Here is a quick look at the most noteworthy nonfiction titles being released this September. Visit our catalog for a more extensive list.
TOP PICKS
Having researched and written about Presidents for decades, it is fair to say that Doris Kearns Goodwin knows what it takes to be a good leader. In “Leadership: In Turbulent Times,” she draws upon the four presidents she has studied most closely — Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson — to show how they recognized leadership qualities within themselves and were recognized as leaders by others. A very good distillation of all things related to leadership.
Lisa Brennan-Jobs, the daughter of artist Chrisann Brennan and Apple founder Steve Jobs, relates her fascinating childhood in “Small Fry.” With a rapidly changing Silicon Valley as the background, this memoir takes a fascinating trip through the ’70s and ’80s and focuses on the authors complicated relationship with her father, one of the richest, most driven men in the world. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: September 2018”
I read other books by Ruta Sepetys so I decided I wanted to read “Salt to the Sea” as well. I also wanted to read it since it has been nominated for the Gateway Readers Award.
Well, let me say that this book did not disappoint. I started reading it in the morning and I finished it all in one day — it was that good. I am so glad to know that Sepetys does quite a bit of research when writing her books. I even decided to check out a recommended website once I had finished reading the whole book.
I will admit that it was a little hard to start the book since it kept jumping around between different character points of view, but once I got into the story I started imagining what the characters looked like. My favorite character was Joana since she was leading a group of refugees across the war torn land. I empathized with other characters, but she seemed like the strongest of them all.
I think the character I didn’t like was Alfred, the boy soldier/sailor. He seemed to full of himself and thought more highly of himself than others did. He was so focused on daydreaming about his girl that he often did not get any work done. He was only thinking of himself when Florian asked for help. Alfred only was concerned with getting a medal or getting more recognition than he deserved. Continue reading “Reader Review: Salt to the Sea”
It’s been an odd summer for my family. The longest we have all been able to make our schedules match up this year has been two days (over the Fourth of July) so we took a mini-vacation together to the Ozarks. Beyond that, we are all taking separate longer vacations. My daughter went to Greece (lucky girl!), my son is planning on going skydiving, and my husband just got back from visiting family in Denver (with gorgeously cool weather). Me? I’m heading to Texas in August, but it’s for my mother’s 82nd birthday so I won’t complain about the 100+ degree weather. But since we can’t all take an actual vacation together, I thought we could take a virtual vacation through the library!
I asked my husband where we should go for our virtual vacation and ran into an immediate snag. We have completely opposite vacationing styles. He likes islands; I like mountains and woods. He likes drinks on the beach; I like coffee shops in bookstores. He likes bungalows; I like historic hotels. He likes sand volleyball; I like strolling through museums. We did find a compromise, however — the Galapagos Islands. He gets sea and sun and I get science, history and adventure at a World Heritage site. Continue reading “Virtual Vacation: The Galapagos Islands”
Summer reading may be over, but don’t let that stop you from checking out these books by debut authors. Please visit our catalog for a complete list of titles.
“Vox” by Christina Dalcher
A governmental decree that women will now be limited to no more than 100 words per day is just the beginning. Fitted with wristbands that tally their words and provide shocks for overage, soon women aren’t allowed to have jobs and girls are not taught to read or write. More restrictions follow.
Dr. Jean McClellan was a highly recognized cognitive linguist before the government began restricting women’s rights. But when the President’s brother suffers an accident that impairs his brain’s speech functions, Jean is given back some of her freedom — and her voice — to work on a cure. And now that she has her voice back, Jean will stop at nothing to keep herself, her daughter and women everywhere from ever being silenced again.
“How Are You Going to Save Yourself” by J.M. Holmes
A coming of age tale for a group of young black men — Gio, Rolls, Rye and Dub — as they navigate being black in America. Gio recounts his friends’ highs and lows as they make their way into adulthood. There’s Gio, who has the best prospects as he attends Cornell. Then there’s Rolls, who pursues a career as a painter. Rye, failing to achieve his dreams of playing for the NFL, becomes a firefighter. And Dub moves around aimlessly as he tries to find his way.
This novel is an unflinchingly honest look at the realities of race, class and family in America.
Continue reading “Debut Author Spotlight: August 2018”
The National LGBT Pride Month festivities are held in June as a way to honor and remember the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan. Here in Mid-Missouri, with most of the college students away on summer break, June is a sleepy month. In order to share the love with as many as possible, the Mid-Missouri PrideFest will take place on August 25 at Rose Music Hall in Downtown Columbia, MO. This year, the library is taking Bookmobile, Jr. to join in on the fun — so be sure to stop by during this free, family-friendly event!
The Mid-Missouri PrideFest “is an annual, family-friendly celebration of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and ally community in Mid-Missouri.” You can find out more information about the MidMO PrideFest at www.midmopride.org.
The library has a ton of great resources for those interested in reading about LGTBQ issues and stories. We also have digital services with great music playlists and films. Continue reading “Mid-Missouri PrideFest”
Some documentaries take very little time to shoot, while others can take decades. For these longer films, directors undertake the tough process of sorting the quality from the quantity in order to create unique testaments to their subjects. Check out these documentaries that were filmed over long periods of time. Continue reading “Long Story Short: Docs Filmed Over Long Periods Of Time”
As Jon Kabat-Zinn writes in his groundbreaking book, “Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness,” “Yoga is meditation.” The two go hand in hand and without one the other does not exist. The library is offering a program called Yoga and Mindfulness for Beginners on Saturday August 25. The class is taught by Brockell Briddle who is a certified yoga instructor in the Columbia area. We also have a wide ranging number of resources related to both yoga and meditation.
Perhaps the best way to learn about a yoga practice and techniques related to it are by taking a class, or watching a video and following along with the instructor poses. The library has dozens of DVDs related to yoga, and several new ones that have come in recently. One of our most popular yoga DVD series is called “Yoga for Busy Moms,” and several different versions can be found on our shelves. Yoga and mindfulness can also be used to assist in dealing with chronic pain; see “Survival Guide for Pain-Free Living” instructed by Peggy Cappy. Continue reading “Yoga = Meditation”
“Persepolis” is a graphic novel about a girl coming of age during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The author introduces the book as her firsthand account of living in Iran, saying that she wrote it because she doesn’t want people to forget what happened, nor judge all of Iran on the bad things that happened there.
The book is a heartbreaking combination of humor and horrible, an unspeakable reality of the events that transpired in Iran. I learned a lot about the progression of events that led this somewhat progressive, educated society into a repressive theocracy. Seeing it through the eyes of a young girl helped me to understand not only the historical aspects, but also made it personal.
Three words that describe this book: Historical, heartbreaking, humorous
You might want to pick this book up if: You want to try out a graphic novel! This is a great one.
-Anonymous
