For years I’ve been a listener to the podcast “On Being” with Krista Tippett. I’ve listened to the podcasts while sitting in the front yard pulling weeds from my garden, as well as in overflowing classrooms with others who have been mesmerized by her interviews and her thoughts “on being” — those questions about the meaning of our existence on this earth, how we make sense of it, how we find community, how we make sense of the physical and spiritual essences in our lives. So I was intrigued to discover the first spin-off from the On Being Project, a podcast called “Poetry Unbound” hosted by Pádraig Ó Tuama.
I love poetry, but this podcast has taken me deeper and opened my eyes to phrases and words that I would have missed completely — in fact, it has opened the bounds of poems and poetry for me. All of this is because of the way Ó Tuama introduces a poem, reads it beautifully for us, then, after a few seconds of a simple music interlude, begins opening up the poem. He will read a phrase, add a bit of background, nuance, thought, then pause for another musical interlude. After the thoughts are shared, he ends by reading the poem one more time. The podcast is brief, just enough time to sweep the garage or wash the dishes, but oh, the sense of peace it brings, the new thoughts that come to life, the feeling of being alive to the world, to being itself, rather than just going through the chores of a day. Continue reading “Reader Review: In the Shelter”
What a fascinating read! “The Art Thief” is one of those instances where real life is stranger than fiction! If it were a work of fiction, I would suspect most readers would have a difficult time believing the number of thefts and the audacity of the “techniques” used by Stéphane Breitwieser. Author Michael Finkel’s storytelling abilities kept me wanting to turn the page to find out where this would all end. Finkel explores Breitwieser’s psyche — and that of his girlfriend accomplice — while following their trail from the first theft to the resulting courtroom drama.
Three words that describe this book: fascinating, interesting, suspenseful
You might want to pick this book up if: you like mysteries, true crime and art!
-Anonymous
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. Submit your own book review here for a chance to have it featured on the Adults Blog.
When I started out as a cook, I didn’t really have any disposable income, so I couldn’t go to restaurants and sample what the local established chefs were doing. My window to technique and flavors was books and television. A few celebrity-type chefs guided me from afar: Jacques Pepin, Anthony Bourdain, Gordon Ramsay, Ming Tsai, Mary Ann Esposito, Lidia Bastianich, Nick Stellino, David Chang. If you’re about to chastise me for not mentioning Julia Child, sadly I watched her much earlier than this time I am referring to. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses, their own angle on what makes a dish, or a meal, great. (If you notice, almost all of these chefs had shows on PBS; specifically, my local station, PBS Wisconsin, Channel 38.) I would watch these shows and steal flavor combinations, learn the traditional dishes of their ancestry, watch their methods, skills and techniques. I would bring this new knowledge into my home kitchen and my work kitchen. Continue reading “Read the Recipe! Lidia Bastianich”
“American Prometheus” is an extensive look into the life and work of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer is probably best known as the father of the atomic bomb for his work as the scientific director of the Manhattan project.
The book offers a lot of insight into his childhood, education, and pre-war/post-war activities. One of the only reasons to not like the book is that it goes into a lot of detail, more than some people might be interested in. However, the detail was necessary because Oppenheimer was an interesting and complicated man. There was a lot made of Oppenheimer’s supposed connections to the communist party after WWII — this book gives you enough information to let you decide on your own how valid those claims are. There are also numerous sources and quotations used in the text from varied sources, so you can understand Oppenheimer’s interactions and activities from multiple points of view.
One of the reasons I liked this book was because it also gives background about Oppenheimer’s extensive scientific background before the war. He may have lacked some of the calculation skills of his peers but he was also one of the first to understand the significance and practicality of nuclear fission. This was a well researched and well written biography of Oppenheimer.
Three words that describe this book: Historical, Nuclear, researched
You might want to pick this book up if: You’re interested in history, especially nuclear history, including the background on Oppenheimer.
-Robbie
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. Submit your own book review here for a chance to have it featured on the Adults Blog.
At any given library, Zadie Smith is one of those authors who claims her own shelf, or two (And that’s just in the fiction section. You’ll find her essay collections in nonfiction, somewhere in the 800s). It’s hard to miss the Zadie Smith shelf, with its bulky hardbacks and bright colors. And if you’re like me, it’s hard to walk past her name once you’ve spotted it — a name you’ve seen referenced by your favorite authors; a name that seems to invoke the idea of contemporary literature itself. It was this feeling of promise, of cultural weight, that brought me to a halt at the end of the “Smith”s. I pulled “The Autograph Man,” a large white thing boasting a protagonist by the name of Alex Li-Tandem (A Chinese main character? What are the odds? I had to investigate). After a heartrending prologue, the story begins:
”You’re either for me or against me, thought Alex Li-Tandem, referring to the daylight and, more generally, to the day. He stretched flat and made two fists. He was fully determined to lie right here until he was given something to work with, something noble, something fine. He saw no purpose in leaving his bed for a day that was against him from the get-go. He had tried it before; no good could come from it. A moment later he was surprised to feel a flush of warm light dappled over him, filtered through a blind. Nonviolent light. This was encouraging.” Continue reading “Staff Review: The First Two Novels of Zadie Smith”
“Carrie Soto Is Back” is a fictional story about a record-holding tennis player who is deemed “the greatest” but is not very likable by the public. After taking a few years off after surgery, she’s decided to come back and reclaim her title once again as it’s being threatened by another younger player. At first, I didn’t think I would enjoy this, not knowing much about tennis, but the author does such a wonderful job of building the suspense of the matches that you’re pulled in to the story so easily and rooting for her the whole time.
Three words that describe this book: Perseverance, sporty, relational
You might want to pick this book up if: You like tennis or even into sports in general; you’re looking for a story with the main character overcoming obstacles and having personal growth.
-Anonymous
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. Submit your own book review here for a chance to have it featured on the Adults Blog.
“The Love Hypothesis” is about a biology Ph.D. student fake-dating a professor from her department to convince her best friend that she’s over another guy. It is charming, funny and very fast-paced. As they go through their fake-dating journey, it turns out that Adam, the professor, has been crushing on Olive, the student, for the past three years. Olive starts liking him too, and they develop a loving relationship. I loved reading it and was hooked instantly. There are some fun reveals throughout the story, and even though it might predictable, the novel is still great. I love it!
Three words that describe this book: Romantic, funny and motivational
You might want to pick this book up if: You like STEMinist novels, enemies-to-lovers trope and funny dialogue.
-Kristina
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. Submit your own book review here for a chance to have it featured on the Adults Blog.
It took me more than a week to get through the first 200 pages of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.” I felt confused and disengaged. Most of the characters were barely related to each other, if at all. All of them felt very self-centered, unsympathetic and uninteresting. Author Stieg Larsson also has a penchant for meandering into subplots every once in a while.
But then, if you persist, something clicks. You are in for a mystery thriller. The foundations of the trilogy are laid down and off you go. It took me three days to read the remaining 400 pages after that.
Three words that describe this book: Gripping, Mysterious, Hacker-punk
You might want to pick this book up if: You want a light yet gripping read for the week. Continue reading “Reader Review: The Millennium Trilogy”
It’s time to post something like “The 10 Best Vacation Getaways!” and “Summertime Activities With the Kids!” and I do not want to disappoint! Let’s look at some old-fashioned summer activities and how you can learn more about them at the library.
Let’s Watch an Old Time Baseball Game
When you enjoy or play baseball this Summer, whether it is a game in the backyard with friends or a professional game played by your favorite team, you are continuing an activity that started in mid-1800s. According to Britannica: “it was once thought to have been invented in 1839 by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, N.Y., but it is more likely that baseball developed from an 18th-century English game called rounders that was modified by Alexander Cartwright.” The first American league was formed in 1871 to help organize and publicize the professional teams being formed. Continue reading “Historic Summertime!”
In 2019, a reporter interviewed a notable presidential candidate on a well-kept secret. The reporter? John Hendrickson, just a few months into his new job at The Atlantic. The candidate? Former vice president of the United States, Joe Biden. And the secret: his stutter.
At that point, we didn’t know much about Biden’s speech disorder — he’d become an expert at hiding it, working around his stutter with word substitutions, and maneuvering strategically out of difficult moments. But Hendrickson saw through the maneuvers, noticed the thoughtful pauses that were really the “blocks” characteristic of stuttering. He identified the coping mechanisms because he’d used similar ones his entire life. In January 2023, four years after writing an acclaimed, vibrantly human story on the potential president-elect’s lingering stutter, Hendrickson published a book detailing his own experience with the disorder. Continue reading “Staff Review: Life on Delay by John Hendrickson”
For years I’ve been a listener to the podcast “On Being” with Krista Tippett. I’ve listened to the podcasts while sitting in the front yard pulling weeds from my garden, as well as in overflowing classrooms with others who have been mesmerized by her interviews and her thoughts “on being” — those questions about the meaning of our existence on this earth, how we make sense of it, how we find community, how we make sense of the physical and spiritual essences in our lives. So I was intrigued to discover the first spin-off from the On Being Project, a podcast called “Poetry Unbound” hosted by Pádraig Ó Tuama.
