“After about two months of the war, I decided to do something normal, ordinary, necessary. I took my 8-year-old daughter for a haircut,” journalist Maram Humaid wrote in October 2024 for Al Jazeera, recounting her first year reporting the war on Gaza. Visiting with Najla the hairdresser, Humaid is moved by her generosity in sharing stories that Najla’s clients have shared. These “side-stories” are in some ways at odds with the pressing priorities of Humaid’s journalism.
The necessity Humaid discovers in these ordinary stories speaks to alternative ways of grasping the flow of events or “sitting in the room with history,” as Dionne Brand put it in “A Map to the Door of No Return.” Continue reading “Literary Links: History From a First-Person View”
I absolutely devoured “The Trees” and still wanted more. I think fans of Jordan Peele’s “Us” will love this exploration of race and reparations by Percival Everett.
I loved how he wrote each character, flipping race stereotypes on their head and being unrelenting in his writing of unlikable characters. The chapters were short and fast, making it so easy to fly through. The story was spooky and mysterious, originally taking over a small town before the whole country became involved. With incredible writing, deeply addicting plot, and a stellar, expansive cast of characters, this book has made me a life long fan of Everett’s.
Three words that describe this book: Haunting, vengeful, addictive.
You might want to pick this book up if: you had just finished visiting your racist family.
-Jordan
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year.
Brendon Steenbergen is a Mid-Missouri author whose latest book is “.” The book details the story of the 1960 Mizzou Football team — the gridiron struggles, the Civil Rights era battles, and their record breaking and controversial national championship run. A two time Mizzou alumnus, Steenbergen has previously worked with Tiger football recruiting, served as a game-day video replay official for the Big 12 and SEC, and has published the book “
Mizzou Sports Through the Ages.” He currently serves as Executive Director for the
Missouri Coalition of Recovery Support Providers (MCRSP). He was kind enough to take the time to be interviewed via email.
Continue reading “Q&A With Brendon Steenbergen, Author of “Respectable Roughnecks””
Below I’m highlighting some nonfiction books coming out in November. All of the mentioned titles are available to put on hold in our catalog and will also be made available via the library’s Overdrive website on the day of publication in eBook and downloadable audiobook format (as available). For a more extensive list of new nonfiction books coming out this month, check our online catalog.
Top Picks
“Bread of Angels: A Memoir” by Patti Smith (Nov 4)
“God whispers through a crease in the wallpaper,” writes Patti Smith in this moving account of her life. A post–World War II childhood unfolds in a condemned housing complex where we enter the child’s world of the imagination. Smith, the captain of her loyal and beloved sibling army, vanquishes bullies, communes with the king of tortoises, and searches for sacred silver pennies. The most intimate of Smith’s memoirs, “Bread of Angels” takes us through her teenage years where the first glimmers of art and romance take hold. Arthur Rimbaud and Bob Dylan emerge as creative role models as she begins to write poetry then lyrics, ultimately merging both into the songs of iconic recordings such as Horses, Wave and Easter. She leaves it all behind to marry her one true love, Fred Sonic Smith, with whom she creates a life of devotion and adventure on a canal in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. Here, she invents a room of her own, a low table, a Persian cup, inkwell and pen, entering at dawn to write. The couple spend nights in their landlocked Chris-Craft studying nautical maps and charting new adventures as they start a family. A series of profound losses mark her life. Grief and gratitude are braided through years of caring for her children, rebuilding her life and, finally, writing again — the one constant in a life driven by artistic freedom and the power of the imagination to transform the commonplace into the magical, and pain into hope. In the final pages, we meet Smith on the road again, the vagabond who travels to commune with herself, who lives to write and writes to live. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: November 2025”
While it took me a minute to get into “The Lathe of Heaven,” once I was hooked I could not put it down. It follows George Orr, a resident of the future version of an impoverished and over-crowded Portland, Oregon. George has a special quality to his dreams that alters timelines to make whatever he dreams about become reality. This is a power that overwhelms George and forces him into Dr. Haber’s office, a psychiatrist and dream researcher. Haber manipulates George’s dreams with hypno-therapy and the story winds through multiple versions of reality.
Because of the nature of this story, Le Guin is able to touch on an incredible number of topics. Class, war, capitalism, gender, race and love are all weaved into this narrative in both obvious and subtle timeline shifts. It was originally written in the 1970’s and set in the 1990’s, so it is very interesting to read the past version of the future and find truths there. I am in awe of this book!
Three words that describe this book: mind-bending, evocative, unique
You might want to pick this book up if: you love a story that keeps you on your toes and gives you a lot to think about! There is no predicting what comes next.
-Isabel
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year.
Here is a new DVD list highlighting various titles recently added to the library’s collection.
“The Life of Chuck” – Website / Reviews
Based on a novella by Stephen King, this genre-bending tale celebrates the life of Charles ‘Chuck’ Krantz as he experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained in all of us.
“40 Acres” – Website / Reviews
In this post-apocalyptic action/thriller, a family of isolated farmers defend their well-protected homestead against a ravenous militia hell bent on claiming their 40 acres of land.
“Superman” – Website / Reviews
In this action/adventure film by director and writer James Gunn, Superman is drawn into conflicts both abroad and at home where his his actions to protect humankind are questioned.
“Outrageous” – Season 1 – Website / Reviews
A six episode drama series inspired by the true story of the Mitford sisters — six aristocratic women who defied convention in 1930s Britain. From fame to revolution, their lives were unapologetically bold.
“Girls Will Be Girls” – Website / Reviews
In this coming of age drama, Mira first discovers desire and romance while at a strict boarding school. However, her life is disrupted by her mother, who never got to come of age herself. Continue reading “New DVD List: September-October 2025”
The book “The Once and Future Witches” takes place during the 19th century women’s suffrage movement but adds a fantasy element of witchcraft. The world building and character development were great! I enjoyed the overall story and inclusive characters.
I think there are story elements that could trigger strong emotional reactions (i.e., violence, abuse, suggested sexual violence). I think these components fit into the overall narrative of the oppressive environment for women, but it could be hard for some people to read.
Three words that describe this book: Witches, suffragettes, community
You might want to pick this book up if: You enjoy alternative histories with fantasy twists or books with inclusive characters.
-Anonymous
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year.
On Saturday, October 11, I visited the Sidney Larson Gallery at Columbia College to view the current exhibition, “Everything at the Same Time,” featuring sprawling, luminous works by local artist Caleb Crites. Crites spoke to a small group about the stories of these pieces, which will be on display through Wednesday, Oct. 22. For more information about art galleries and opportunities in Columbia, please visit DBRL’s Local Arts Guide.
“We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is.”
By the time Caleb Crites welcomes his visitors with this Kurt Vonnegut quote, I have already made my way around the room. The Sidney Larson Gallery is an intimate space which bends easily around the eyes; it takes only a few steps to travel between paintings, and a well-placed gaze to hold them all in view at once. I have done both — zoomed in and zoomed out — so it is a relief to be addressed this way, to be brought back into the fold.
Continue reading “Local Artist Spotlight: Caleb Crites, “Everything at the Same Time””
Author Haruki Murakami’s latest novel, “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” calls back to his much earlier work “Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World,” presenting an alternate version of the magical “Town” that much of that novel centers on. The fractured narrative juxtaposes the seemingly ordinary life of a middle-aged man who suddenly decides to become a librarian with two tales of his past: one, the mournful story of his first love at 17; the other, a story about an alternate version of himself who becomes trapped in a strange, sometimes frightening reality outside of our own. Not every question the story presents is answered, but the pieces all come together in an emotionally satisfying way.
Three words that describe this book: Mysterious, longing, experimental
You might want to pick this book up if: You like Murakami’s other works (especially “Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World”) or the puzzle-box narratives of television shows like “Severance” or “Dark.”
-Eric
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year.
On October 13 we celebrate Indigenous People’s Day. This day is a celebration of the true discoverers of our continent, the indigenous people who likely came here from modern day Asia tens of thousands of years ago, and whose descendants were forcibly and tragically removed into reservations and other areas away from their common lands. The same descendants contribute immeasurably to culture in North American and the United States at the present day.
How did these ancient peoples arrive in North American in the first place? Most theories propose that, slightly before the immense Laurentide Ice Shield started quickly receding, around 10,000 years ago, they migrated across the Bering Land Bridge, which was also called Beringia. This was possible because the massive North American ice fields had sucked up so much water into their frigid interior mass that sea levels were at least 20 meters below current levels, thus creating Beringia.
However, it is now known that although peoples did make there way across the Bering Land Bridge at this time, others made their way down the “kelp belt” that rings the Pacific Coast much, much earlier; skirting the ice fields that would have hemmed them in. Some archeologists and historians of archaic human history believe that such exploration occurred as far back as 20,000-30,000 years ago. Continue reading “The Ice Age Peoples of Indigenous People’s Day”
