Love is a many-splendored thing. And first love, in particular, is splendidly awkward, uniquely devastating and often poorly timed. Whether it hits at age 16 or 60, and whether it ends in heartbreak or happily ever after, we only get one first love to live. Luckily, there are many, many first love stories to read! And I don’t think it matters whether you’re happily married, happily single or entrenched in the frog-kissing process — there’s nothing like escaping into a good first love story. Continue reading “Literary Links: First Love”
Summer time is a great time to travel, even if it’s only in your mind. The Read Harder Challenge Task #8 is “an #ownvoices book set in Oceania” and can help you to explore a part of the world that many of us will never get to visit in real life. I have tried to find a few books that were not already on DBRL’s list for this task. Continue reading “Read Harder 2019: An #Ownvoices Book Set in Oceania”
We love to anthropomorphize. If we see something that looks even vaguely human, we rush to assign our own traits to it. It starts when we are kids reading about cats named Pete, rabbits on a pilgrimage and codependent trees while holding stuffed animals on whom we’ve bestowed names, personalities and 
affection. While these tendencies fade away, we never seem to outgrow them completely. We name inanimate objects like our cars and we speak to our pets as if they know English as well as we do. I like to believe this stems from an innate sense of empathy, a desire to relate and connect with everything around us. We try to see from a different perspective. Consequently, there is a long list of books that satisfy Task #6 by taking on the point of view of non-human characters.
People bond closely to their pets, so naturally there are many books narrated by them. “The Art of Racing in the Rain” and “A Dog’s Purpose” are told from the perspective of dogs who love the humans that own them. I will give no further detail because I avoid Sad Dog Books at all costs. In a similar vein, “Laika,” a graphic novel, tells the story of the first dog in space. Abandoned as a puppy, Laika learns to trust the scientists preparing her to be launched out of Earth’s orbit. If you’re more of a cat person, “The Traveling Cat Chronicles” takes you on a road trip through Japan through the eyes of a cat. My childhood favorite, “Black Beauty,” follows a horse through his life as he encounters owners ranging from gentle and kind to cruel and abusive. Continue reading “Read Harder 2019: A Book in Which an Animal or Inanimate Object is a Point-of-View Character”
A refugee takes great risks to get control of her toaster. A superhero makes a misguided attempt to address racism and police corruption. A husband’s frustrations with health insurance coverage for his sick wife lead him down an internet rabbit hole to radicalization. A wealthy finance-bro retreats to his underground bunker when civilization gets unstable. These are the plots of the four novellas comprising Cory Doctorow’s “Radicalized.” They are all extremely timely — they practically scream, “TOPICAL!” The subtitle is in fact, “Four Tales of Our Present Moment.” Subtle messaging isn’t the goal here, but the stories are told with the nuance that complex issues deserve, and the characters are given a depth that makes you care about them.
The first story, “Unauthorized Bread,” is the strongest of the collection. It deftly explores themes of a refugee crisis, stark income disparities, exploitation of vulnerable populations and how much proprietary technology dictates our lives. When the main character learns how to hack the software in her toaster so it will make any kind of bread she wants, she soon ends up liberating appliances throughout her apartment building. As the risks of these actions become apparent, she is faced with difficult decisions. Continue reading “Know Your Dystopias: Radicalized”
Here is a quick look at the most noteworthy nonfiction titles being released this July. Visit our catalog for a more extensive list.
Top Picks
“Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and the Outbreaks to Come” by Richard Preston
This time, Ebola started with a two-year-old child who likely had contact with a wild creature and whose whole family quickly fell ill and died. The ensuing global drama activated health professionals in North America, Europe, and Africa in a desperate race against time to contain the viral wildfire. By the end — as the virus mutated into its deadliest form, and spread farther and faster than ever before — 30,000 people would be infected, and the dead would be spread across eight countries on three continents. In this taut and suspenseful medical drama, Richard Preston deeply chronicles the outbreak, in which we saw for the first time the specter of Ebola jumping continents, crossing the Atlantic, and infecting people in America. Preston writes of doctors and nurses in the field putting their own lives on the line, of government bureaucrats and NGO administrators moving, often fitfully, to try to contain the outbreak, and of pharmaceutical companies racing to develop drugs to combat the virus. The more we discover about the virosphere, the more we realize its deadly potential. “Crisis in the Red Zone” is an exquisitely timely book, a stark warning of viral outbreaks to come. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: July 2019”
There were several big events that occurred in 1969. I will be doing a series of posts that focus on these important events and share some library materials about these events for library patrons to check out!
The Stonewall Riots occurred on June 28, 1969. New York City Police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, in Greenwich Village. This raid sparked push back from the gay community of New York City and beyond. The Stonewall Riots help strengthen the Gay Liberation Front and lead to the formation of the Gay Activists Alliance. It also lead to the first Gay Pride March that occurred one year later on June 28, 1970.
Books
“The Stonewall Reader: Edited by the New York Public Library” by New York Public Library, Edmund White (Foreword)
June 28, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, which is considered the most significant event in the gay liberation movement, and the catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States. Drawing from the New York Public Library’s archives, “The Stonewall Reader” is a collection of first accounts, diaries, periodic literature, and articles from LGBTQ magazines and newspapers that documented both the years leading up to and the years following the riots. Most importantly the anthology spotlights both iconic activists who were pivotal in the movement, such as Sylvia Rivera, co-founder of Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR), as well as forgotten figures like Ernestine Eckstein, one of the few out, African American, lesbian activists in the 1960s. The anthology focuses on the events of 1969, the five years before, and the five years after. Continue reading “50th Anniversary: Stonewall Riots”
“The Secrets We Bury” is a good mystery/suspense book that doesn’t make the main character seem like an idiot. I prefer this genre but this is the only book I’ve read so far that’s actually had moments that creeped me out. It flowed perfectly so there was never a time I felt bored, which I personally find rare. I can usually predict how a book is going to end or who will be the main culprit but this actually surprised me a little. If you like murder mysteries or the suspense genre, I recommend this book for sure.
Three words that describe this book: Good suspenseful read
You might want to pick this book up if: You like murder mysteries.
-Courtney
It’s hot outside, which means people with sufficient funds who live in the vicinity of movie theaters are watching “blockbusters.” Those with the means to attend movies (but not to attend them in the private theater located conveniently on their grounds) are purchasing buckets of soda and cauldrons of popped corn and escaping into the air conditioning to immerse themselves in a fantasy world in which the most powerful people are good, strong, sane, and photogenic.
But suppose you lack the funds for cinema and/or also enjoy reading. What is one to do? I insist the library has the cure for what ails you: “blockbuster” books. You might be wondering how you’ll keep cool without the icy embrace of the local cinema. Your best course of action might be to read your blockbuster book in the comfort of your local library, but I understand some of you prefer to read at home with ready access to your domesticated animals, snacks, and the toilet that knows you best. There are many methods to achieve a comfortable temperature, though you’ll have to be pretty tiny to fit inside your fridge, and visiting your neighbors so that you can surreptitiously fill hundreds of garbage bags with their air conditioned air and then release your ill-gotten cool inside your own home doesn’t work as well as you might suppose. Perhaps place a dollop of cubed ice on a shaved portion of your scalp? As a gentleman of means, I’ll simply activate a machine built for the sole purpose of fanning me. Continue reading “The Gentleman Recommends: Tom Sweterlitsch”
We’re now entering the dog days of summer, and what better time to take up a reading challenge? Our library is participating in Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge, which encourages you to read more broadly. It’s never late to join us! June is also LGBT+ pride month, a commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall riots and recognition of the impact of LGBT people on society. In honor of pride month, here are a few books that work for task 21: A comic by an LGBTQIA creator. Note, the creators here may not identify under the specific LGBTQIA acronym, but within an expanded LGBT+ acronym.
Nonfiction & Memoir:
Queer theory and history is an endlessly complex topic even for the most academic-minded reader; where should one start? Meg-John Barker and Julia Scheele’s “Queer: A Graphic History” does a good job at condensing some of the central arguments and tenets about sex, gender, and sexuality from thinkers like Judith Butler, Adrienne Rich, and many more. Continue reading “Comics by LGBTQ+ Creators: Read Harder 2019”
“Dear Martin” is about a high school senior, Justyce McAllister, and the issues he faces with racism as a black student attending a predominately white college prep school. He is a smart student but still encounters unjust suspicion and prejudice from fellow white students and members of the community, especially the police. Justyce writes letters to Martin Luther King, Jr in his journal in an effort to sort through his thoughts and find answers. This book is timely and relevant to issues we currently face in America today. It is a believable story that could easily be made into a movie.
Three words that describe this book: relevant, timely, believable
You might want to pick this book up if: You are a teen or you enjoyed the book “The Hate U Give.”
-Anonymous
