Welcome in the new year with one of these new novels by debut authors. For a longer list of titles, please visit our catalog.
“A Deadly Fortune” by Stacie Murphy
Amelia Matthew has done the all-but-impossible, especially for an orphan in Gilded Age New York City. Along with her foster brother Jonas, she has parleyed her modest psychic talent into a safe and comfortable life. But safety and comfort vanish when a head injury leaves Amelia with a dramatically-expanded gift. After she publicly channels an angry spirit, she finds herself imprisoned in the notorious insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island. As Jonas searches for a way to free her, Amelia struggles to control her disturbing new abilities and survive a place where cruelty and despair threaten her sanity. Continue reading “Debut Author Spotlight: January 2021”
A new year and more new nonfiction books coming out for you to read! 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 eAudiobook format (as available). For a more extensive list of new nonfiction books coming out this month, check our online catalog.
Top Picks
“Keep Sharp: Build A Better Brain At Any Age” by Sanjay Gupta (Jan 5)
Throughout our life, we look for ways to keep our mind sharp and effortlessly productive. Now, globetrotting neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta offers insights from top scientists all over the world, whose cutting-edge research can help you heighten and protect brain function and maintain cognitive health at any age. “Keep Sharp” debunks common myths about aging and cognitive decline, explores whether there’s a “best” diet or exercise regimen for the brain, and explains whether it’s healthier to play video games that test memory and processing speed, or to engage in more social interaction. Discover what we can learn from “super-brained” people who are in their eighties and nineties with no signs of slowing down — and whether there are truly any benefits to drugs, supplements, and vitamins. Dr. Gupta also addresses brain disease, particularly Alzheimer’s, answers all your questions about the signs and symptoms, and shows how to ward against it and stay healthy while caring for a partner in cognitive decline. He likewise provides readers with a personalized 12-week program featuring practical strategies to strengthen your brain every day. “Keep Sharp” is the only owner’s manual you’ll need to keep your brain young and healthy regardless of your age! Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: January 2021”
What a year this was! Am I right? Between the global pandemic, raging fires on the west coast, a cancelled Olympics, and an election that just wouldn’t stop, I found it difficult to read. Well, I shouldn’t say that because I did read plenty, but the nature of what I read and how I read certainly changed this year. I listened to a lot more audiobooks this year, and I followed obsessions.
I took part in a couple of book challenges. I blew away my Goodreads goal of 100 books by reading over 150. And, once again, I took part in the Read Harder Challenge. I have to be honest — I didn’t finish this challenge this year. My mantra throughout the entire year was “but we’re ALREADY reading harder just because it’s 2020!” I’m still proud of myself for reading all but two of the tasks, and the challenge introduced me to some of my favorites for the year. I absolutely loved “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon” written by Grace Lin, which I read as a “retelling of a classic fairy tale or myth by an author of color.” This book has hints of “The Wizard of Oz” while also telling a very unique story centered in Chinese fairy tales and folklore. I’m always stunned by how much I can love books intended for middle-graders even though I’m in a vastly different “middle” age group myself. Continue reading “2020 Was a Dumpster Fire, But I Read Some Good Books!”
“The Riot Within” is the memoir of Rodney King — the black man from Los Angeles whose mistreatment at the hands of the LA Police was the catalyst for riots in the summer of 1992. I sought this book out because I was barely six months old when the riots occurred, and while I had heard people speak of him and the riots, I knew little about the man himself. The reading level of this book is not advanced, but that is not to say that this book was an easy read.
One of the best parts of this memoir, to me, is that the book is about so much more than just his beating at the hands of the police and the riots that came after the acquittal — it was about him, the admittedly flawed human, who had done things wrong, who loved to fish with his family, who dealt with substance use disorder, who was mistreated at the hands of lawyers and who struggled to see who he was in the greater scheme of the Civil Rights movement.
One of the things that has stayed with me is that Rodney King talked about how difficult it was for him to be shrunk down to nothing more than an adjective — “The Rodney King Riots.” Never again will I minimize this man to those four words.
Three words that describe this book: Moving. Important. Strong.
You might want to pick this book up if: You want to step outside of your own community and learn more about the lives of others. Or perhaps you just want to learn more about the man whose mistreatment was the catalyst for the 1992 LA Riots.
-Anonymous
Editor’s note: This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will be sharing more throughout the rest of the year.
In the novel Circe, author Madeline Miller takes a character who was once a few lines in the Odyssey, and creates a swirling, beautiful, heartbreaking novel that shows Circe in full bloom. Circe is a goddess, banished to a deserted island for her use of magic. She grows up alone, creating a life for herself, growing plants, herding other banished women, and raising her son with Odysseus, who visits and decides to stay a while. The novel covers hundreds of years, but manages to be a page-turner, speaks of unchanging gods and ever-growing mortals, and is absolutely perfect.
Three words that describe this book: Surprising, magical, down-to-earth
You might want to pick this book up if: Everyone should read this. Classics readers, fantasy lovers, teens, adults who have never step foot beyond nonfiction or romance, human beings. Try the audio book, too! Circe’s soft-spoken, but strong voice is perfectly captured.
-Anna
Despite the holiday season, you could cut the tension in most poorly ventilated rooms with a knife these days. So we’re going to have some fun, d**n it! And I can always rely on David Sedaris‘ army of strange autobiographical essays for a laugh. They’re irreverent, witty, succinct and dry as a bone. No topic is too taboo for this humorist: bodily woes, family dysfunction, sexuality, mortality. Despite some dark topics and takes on the world, I come away from finishing a collection with the simple satisfaction of being entertained. Continue reading “Author Spotlight: David Sedaris”
Here is a new DVD list highlighting various titles recently added to the library’s collection.
“The Donut King”
Website / Reviews
This documentary follows the rags to riches story of Ted Ngoy, a Cambodian refugee arriving in America in 1975 and building a multi-million-dollar empire baking America’s favorite pastry, the donut. His story is one of love, hard knocks, survival and redemption. Ted helped hundreds of refugees by teaching them the ways of the donut business—he was living the American Dream. But, in life, great rise can come with great falls. Continue reading “New DVD List: The Donut King, The Great & More”
Mel West is a Columbia, MO author who recently came out with his debut book, “One Damned Good Horse.” The book contains essays and stories, tracing his youth as a Missouri farm boy through his time at the University of Missouri and service during World War II to his time as a dairy farmer, a Methodist minister and an internationally known humanitarian. At the age of 70, he started what is now known as Mobility Worldwide, an organization based in Columbia, MO that makes three-wheeled, hand-cranked mobility carts to give to leg-disabled people in more than 100 developing countries around the world. All the money from sales of the book go towards building more mobility carts. I recently emailed some interview questions to him, and he was kind enough to take time to write back some answers. Continue reading “Author Interview: Mel West”
In the midst of the holiday season, social distancing has never felt so distant. Many of us are contemplating how to make this time feel special when we are unable to gather and celebrate as we have in past years. Of course there are digital ways to connect with each other, but as we become even more reliant on video chats and technology, people are experiencing digital fatigue. So, I humbly offer up a suggestion for a new tradition: letter writing. Personal letters have fallen out of fashion, to be replaced by emails, picture postcards and family newsletters, especially around the holidays. And those are great ways to keep in touch, but there’s something special about a handwritten letter.
Just what is it about letters that makes them so special to us? That’s what Nina Sankovitch seeks to uncover in “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.” Sankovitch turns to famous letters of the past, as well as the letters she’s personally saved, to discover the unique ways letters connect us and why we treasure them. Continue reading “Literary Links: The Lost Art of Letter Writing”
Don’t you hate it when, on a winter evening, you yawn and stretch, wondering if you’ve stayed up way past your bedtime because it’s been dark forever, but the clock tells you it’s only 6:30? What to do with all of those long hours of darkness? The obvious answer is to lose yourself in a good story. Quick, breezy reads are for summer. Now is the season to crack open those deep, rich novels that span several hundred pages. Below are some long reads I have enjoyed.
At 846 pages, “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell” can carry you through a few evenings. In this tale of rival magicians working to bring the old magic back to 19th century Britain, Susannah Clarke built a world I didn’t want to leave. What happens when men of ordinary character come to possess extraordinary powers? They get in over their heads, for one thing. I was mesmerized by Clarke’s descriptive prose and her vivid imaginings of how magic might manifest. Continue reading “Long Reads for Long Nights”
