A few weeks ago I accidentally carted home two books titled “Silent Treatment” by two different authors, the result of my unintentionally placing both copies on hold. This pleasant mistake (I sped through both books) left me considering various types of silence, some of which can be extremely beautiful, while others can be absolutely toxic, with plenty of nuances in between.
One awe-filled type of silence is that found in nature, which is not truly soundless, as anyone who has ever hiked through a scruffy forest or wandered along a driftwood-covered waterfront recognizes. One of my favorite nature books is “Vesper Flights,” a magnificent collection of essays. Here author Helen Macdonald touches on searching, observing and remembering, while she seeks out vanishing orioles and migrating songbirds, along with a host of other living beings. Her voice celebrates wonder while it also expresses concern for our world in the face of climate shifts. Continue reading “Literary Links: Silence”
Chloe Dalton’s memoir “Raising Hare” will be the subject of the First Thursday Book Discussion on May 7 at the Columbia Public Library.
Dalton’s busy life as a political advisor and speech writer changed dramatically during the COVID lockdown when she moved from London to the English countryside. It was here that she came across a newborn hare, or leveret, that had been chased by dogs. Fearing for it, she brings it home. Continue reading “May First Thursday Book Discussion: “Raising Hare””
Below I’m highlighting some nonfiction books coming out in April. 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
“London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth” by Patrick Radden Keefe (Apr 7)
In the early morning of November 29th, 2019, surveillance cameras at the headquarters of MI6, Britain’s spy agency, captured video of a young man pacing back and forth on a high balcony of Riverwalk, a luxury tower on the bank of the river Thames. At 2:24 a.m., he jumped into the river. In a quiet London neighborhood several miles away, Rachelle Brettler was worried about her son. Zac had told her that he had gone to stay with a friend, but then he did not come home. Days later, a police car pulled up and two officers relayed the dreadful news: her son was dead. In their unbearable grief, Rachelle and her husband, Matthew, struggled to understand what had happened to Zac. He had his troubles, but in no way seemed suicidal. As they would soon discover, however, there was a lot they did not know about their son. Only after his death did they learn that he had adopted a fictitious alter-ego: Zac Ismailov, son of a Russian oligarch and heir to a great fortune. Under this guise, Zac had become entangled with a slippery London businessman named Akbar Shamji, and a murderous gangster known as “Indian Dave.” As the Brettlers set about investigating their son’s death, they were pulled into a different and more dangerous London than the one they’d always known, and came to believe that something much more nefarious than a suicide had claimed Zac’s life. But to their immense frustration, Scotland Yard seemed unable—or unwilling—to bring the perpetrators to justice. In a bravura feat of reporting and writing, Patrick Radden Keefe chronicles the Brettlers’ quest, peeling back layers of mystery and exposing the seedy truths behind the glamorous London of posh mansions and private nightclubs, a city in which everything is for sale, and aspirational fantasies are underwritten by dirty money and corruption. “London Falling” is a mesmerizing investigation of an inexplicable death and a powerful narrative driven by suspense and staggering revelations. But it is also an intimate and deeply poignant inquiry into the nature of parental love and the challenges of being a parent today, a portrait of a family trying to solve the riddle not just of how their son died, but of who he really was in life.
Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: April 2026”
April brings a variety of new flowers and new fiction! This month’s LibraryReads, favorites of library staff from across the country, includes time travel, horror, fantasy, romance and historical fiction, among other great books. Read on to find a new tale to enjoy.
“Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke
Natalie is an influencer with a seemingly perfect life: perfect children, perfect husband, and a perfectly beautiful Idaho farm. Never mind the workers who actually run the farm, the nannies who care for the children. And never mind the women online who are jealous that Natalie can afford to be a trad wife who serves her family and, most importantly, her God. Natalie wakes one morning in her house… except it’s not. Electricity has been replaced by a fire, her children are dirty, and her husband is old and gruff. Where are the hidden cameras? Where is her real family? Creative, mind-bending, and incredibly well-written, this one is sure to be a blockbuster.
~Jenny Davies, Oak Creek Public Library, WI Continue reading “April 2026 LibraryReads”
Steven Watts is a Columbia, MO author whose latest book is “Citizen Cowboy: Will Rogers and the American People.” The book details how a youth from the Cherokee Indian Territory of Oklahoma rose to conquer nearly every form of media and entertainment in the early twentieth century’s rapidly expanding consumer society. Watts is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Missouri and has written many other biographies. He was kind enough to take the time to be interviewed via email.
Continue reading “Q&A With Steven Watts, Author of “Citizen Cowboy””
Spend some of Women’s History Month reading about the first female captain to pilot a merchant ship around the southern tip of the Americas, and then join us for a book discussion in the Columbia Public Library on April 2 at noon.
“The Sea Captain’s Wife: A True Story of Mutiny, Love and Adventure at the Bottom of the World,” by Tilar J. Mazzeo tells the story of Mary Ann Patten who first took to the sea with her husband, Joshua Patten, in 1854 when she was 17 years old. Two years later, she had learned how to navigate by sextant, won the loyalty of her crew and literally ‘learned the ropes’ or how to adjust the sails. These were no small feats considering that many sailors wanted no women aboard sailing vessels, and when allowed, women were usually restricted to their cabin below decks speaking only to their husband and one or two other crew members. Not surprisingly, most captain’s wives chose not to accompany their husbands.
In 1856 she and her husband set sail aboard their ship, Neptune’s Car, intending to sail their cargo around the length of the America’s to California. Joshua fell seriously ill with tubercular meningitis partway through the trip. Faced with a mutinous and incompetent first-mate, Mary Ann — 19 years old and pregnant–took over the captaining of the ship, safely completing the trip.
As a sailor herself, author Mazzeo, brings this feat to life for the reader with technical details and meticulous historical research. But “The Sea Captain’s Wife” isn’t just about Mary Ann. It’s also a window onto the harsh realities for women of this time and the seafaring life-style in general — an unflinching glimpse into an often romanticized period of our history.
Bring your thoughts, question and newfound appreciation for electricity, antibiotics and flushing toilets to our next book discussion.
“Leonardo Da Vinci” by Walter Isaacson is a detailed and thoughtful biography of one of the most curious and brilliant minds in history. The book was pretty good overall, though I found it a little long-winded in places.
What I really enjoyed were the parts about science and math — how Leonardo understood that nature followed mathematical principles, even though he didn’t have the formal training to fully explain them. Isaacson does a great job using Leonardo’s notebooks to show how his mind worked and how he constantly asked questions about everything, from how birds fly to how the heart pumps blood. I also liked the theme of learning for its own sake — Leonardo wasn’t always trying to be practical; he was just obsessed with figuring things out. That kind of passion is inspiring.
On the other hand, I thought the chapters focused on his paintings dragged a bit, but that’s probably just because I’m more interested in science than art. Still, the book makes it clear how his artistic and scientific sides were connected, which was interesting to think about. Isaacson’s writing blends history, biography, and storytelling in a way that makes Leonardo feel like a real person, not just a name from a textbook.
Three words that describe this book: Curious, detailed, inspiring
You might want to pick this book up if: You might pick up this book if you’re interested in how a genius like Leonardo da Vinci thought and worked. It’s a great read for anyone curious about the Renaissance or how one person could be both an incredible artist and a groundbreaking scientist. If you enjoy biographies that blend science, art, history, and storytelling, this book does that really well. It also appeals to readers who are inspired by the idea of learning for the sake of curiosity, not just for practical reasons. Even if you’re not deeply into art, there’s a lot to enjoy in the way Leonardo’s mind explored everything from anatomy to engineering.
-Robbie
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year.
A random find on a library shelf can draw you in and show you wonders, or it can send you down an incredible research path. In this instance, I learned just how gullible people can be.
While researching foodways of Missouri, I came across Kimberly Harper’s book “Men of No Reputation: Robert Boatright, the Buckfoot Gang, and the Fleecing of the Middle West.” The author is an editor at the Missouri Historical Review at the State Historical Society of Missouri. Working primarily in Jasper County and extending throughout the midwest, Robert Boatright is considered one of the greatest confidence men of the early 20th century. He and the Buckfoot Gang, working with a local bank and an influential Democratic leader, fleeced possibly millions of dollars from their victims in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Harper says, “While it would be easy to romanticize their exploits, Boatright and Mabray were criminals who wrecked people’s lives. They capitalized on technological innovations – the railroad, the telegraph, the telephone — to further their schemes.” Continue reading “Literary Links: Con Men, Cheats and Crooks”
“The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught In Between,” by Michael Dobbs will be the subject of the March First Thursday Book Discussion. This event is part of the programming related to “Americans and the Holocaust,” a traveling exhibition that examines the motives, pressures and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war and genocide in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. This exhibit is an educational initiative of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association and will be on display at the Columbia Public Library from February 9 through March 16.
Dobbs’ account of Jewish families’ desperate efforts to leave Germany and the American response is chilling and accurate. He deftly teases apart the strands of American politics, culture and current events, explaining not only what actions were taken (or not taken) by the U.S. government and citizens, but also the strategies and arguments leading up to them. That analysis is juxtaposed with a detailed account of the Jewish residents’ of the German town of Kippenheim attempts to flee the Nazi regime, as well as a recounting of the escalation of violence against them.
Artfully including primary sources and narratives, Dobbs brings life to the horrifying bind German Jews faced. On the one side was rapidly escalating persecution and terror, on the other a nearly impassible bureaucratic maze. From a perspective that condemns the Holocaust, Dobbs objectively analyzes the U.S. response, what happened and why, leaving readers to make their own judgments on the history and its implications for today.
Join us to share your thoughts on the book and hear from other community members on Thursday, March 5 at noon in the Quiet Reading Room.
The Holocaust was so horrible, why would we ever want to read a story about it? Why, in fact would we want to read about any genocide? There are so many valid answers to that question.
I was privileged to be able to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial and Museum when I was in my twenties, which allowed me to imagine being in the shoes of those who passed through that nightmare. But not everyone has that luxury.
At Dachau, there’s a startling memorial sculpture that depicts the stacked bodies of prisoners as designed by Jewish artist Nandor Glid, who was persecuted by the Nazis in his home country of Yugoslavia. A path leads to a tomb containing the ashes of a prisoner with the inscription, “Never Again.” When I was there, I felt those words deep in my being. Continue reading “Literary Links: The Holocaust and Other Genocides in Fiction”
