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Literary Links: Spring Is the Season for Hope — Tips for Finding Some

Posted on Monday, April 14, 2025 by MaggieM

WHeel of the Year book coverSome people make New Year’s resolutions, but maybe spring is a better time to plant the seeds of hope for the coming year.

“Just as you sow seeds that you hope to tend into strong, healthy plants, you can also set personal intentions … A season of birth and renewal, spring is an especially potent time to state your hopes and dreams, calling them forth,” Fiona Cook and Jessica Roux profess in their book “The Wheel of the Year: An Illustrated Guide to Nature’s Rhythms.” While Cook and Roux’s book is written for a juvenile audience, anyone can enjoy the beautiful illustrations and the message about noticing and celebrating the Earth’s seasons.

In recognition of Earth Day, consider tapping into the energy of spring to find hope and inspiration for what the future could hold. Continue reading “Literary Links: Spring Is the Season for Hope — Tips for Finding Some”

May First Thursday Book Discussion: “Klara and the Sun”

Posted on Wednesday, April 9, 2025 by Karena

My dad has always been a fan of the writer Kazuo Ishiguro, and it happens that the two bear a passing resemblance: black graying hair, brows furrowed over thick glasses, a permanent look of concern around the eyes and mouth. Maybe that’s why reading Ishiguro sometimes feels, uncannily, like listening to my dad tell a story. Funnily enough, Ishiguro’s 2021 novel “Klara and the Sun” was based on a tale he made up for his daughter Naomi when she was small. And when he told a grown-up Naomi about his plans to use the premise for a children’s book, she said: “You can’t possibly give young children a story like that. They will be traumatized.”

Kazuo Ishiguro by Andrew Testa (2015)

Continue reading “May First Thursday Book Discussion: “Klara and the Sun””

Nonfiction Roundup: April 2025

Posted on Monday, April 7, 2025 by Liz

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

“Boat Baby: A Memoir” by Vicky Nguyen (Apr 1)
Starting in 1975, Vietnam’s “boat people” — desperate families seeking freedom — fled the Communist government and violence in their country any way they could, usually by boat across the South China Sea. Vicky Nguyen and her family were among them. Attacked at sea by pirates before reaching a refugee camp in Malaysia, Vicky’s family survived on rations and waited months until they were sponsored to go to America. But deciding to leave and start a new life in a new country is half the story… figuring out how to be American is the other. “Boat Baby” is Vicky’s memoir of growing up in America with unconventional Vietnamese parents who didn’t always know how to bridge the cultural gaps. It’s a childhood filled with misadventures and misunderstandings, from almost stabbing the neighborhood racist with a butter knife to getting caught stealing Cosmo in the hope of learning Do You Really Think You Know Everything About Sex? Vicky’s parents approached life with the attitude, “Why not us?” In the face of prejudice, they taught her to be gritty and resilient, skills Vicky used as she combated stereotyping throughout her career, fending off the question “Aren’t you Connie Chung?” to become a leading Asian American journalist on television. She delivers a uniquely transparent account of her life, revealing how she negotiated her salary in a competitive industry, the challenges of starting a family, and the struggle to be a dutiful daughter. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: April 2025”

Ready for a “Do Over?”

Posted on Friday, April 4, 2025 by MaggieM

Have you ever wanted to rewind time? What about moving to an alternate reality, or have infinite chances to ‘get it right?’

If so, you’re not alone. The “Do Over” theme isn’t a new literary trope, but based on my (not at all scientific) observations, it’s exhibiting a surge in popularity.

Everything Everywhere All At Once DVD coverThe 2022 movie “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” might be the most well-known and highly esteemed recent example of this genre. Michelle Yeoh stars as a middle-aged Chinese immigrant pulled into a quest spanning infinite universes to save existence. The movie swept the 2023 Academy Awards for best picture, best actress, best supporting actor and more for a total of 7 Oscars. It has humor, action, drama and excellent performances. Continue reading “Ready for a “Do Over?””

Q&A With Brian Smith, Author of “Tiger Style”

Posted on Wednesday, April 2, 2025 by Decimal Diver

photo of the author Brian Smith

Brian Smith is a Columbia, MO author whose debut book is “Tiger Style: Eight Steps to Create a Winning Culture.” The book details the Tiger Style philosophy which is designed to instill a sense of purpose, resilience, and a winning mindset in businesses, schools and teams. Smith has developed Tiger Style as the head coach of Mizzou’s wrestling team for 27 years. As the winningest coach in Mizzou wrestling history, he has been twice named as the top wrestling coach in the NCAA, and his athletes have won ten NCAA Championships, and some have gone on to become UFC champions and Olympic competitors. He was kind enough to take the time to be interviewed via email. Continue reading “Q&A With Brian Smith, Author of “Tiger Style””

Strange Weather (Atonal Wonder)

Posted on Friday, March 28, 2025 by Karena

A medley of rainy and sunny stories and songs, inspired by the strange weather of Makoto Shinkai’s “Weathering With You.”

🌧️☀️🌧️

In 2020 I went and saw the seriously gorgeous film “Weathering With You” and sort of figured I wouldn’t catch it in theaters again. And then Ragtag Cinema brought the movie back to Columbia this month for a showing presented by Science on Screen, featuring a lecture by Dr. Zack Leasor about Missouri’s fickle hydroclimate. So I got to rewatch the movie, this time with intensified attention towards the wildness of its weather. As the rain beat down on 16-year-old Hodaka I sunk into my hoodie. And when the sun broke out on screen I could almost feel it on my face.

Weathering with You DVD cover

I’m writing this on a Thursday in March, a flat blue afternoon with the kind of sunshine the residents of “Weathering With You”’s Tokyo would have prayed for. The city is under a months-long spell of rain when Hodaka arrives, the showers broken up every so often by Hina the Sunshine Girl. Hina performs her miracles of sunshine at a great cost, which she hides to make everyone happy, including Hodaka — she doesn’t realize Hodaka loves her more than any blue sky; that he would gladly weather storm after storm in her company. Continue reading “Strange Weather (Atonal Wonder)”

First Thursday Book Discussion – Yellowface: A Novel

Posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2025 by Beth

Book cover: American DirtIn 2020 the novel “American Dirt” was released to great fanfare, after a bidding war had resulted in a seven-figure advance for the author. The accolades rolled in: “American Dirt” remained on the New York Times Bestseller List for 36 weeks, and emerged as one of the best-selling books of the year. It has been published in 37 languages and has sold over three million copies worldwide. 

Then the controversy hit. In USA Today Barbara VanDenburgh commented, “These character, story and style missteps would be problematic no matter the source. But it matters in this case that the source is a European-born woman in the U.S. without ties to the Mexican migrant experience.”

Suddenly the book world was abuzz:  Who exactly was allowed to write about which experiences? And what precisely constituted cultural appropriation in publishinBook cover: Yellowfaceg?

In a riff on this real-life situation, R. F. Kuang addresses these questions and more in “Yellowface: A Novel,” the Columbia Public Library’s First Thursday Book Discussion selection for April.  Continue reading “First Thursday Book Discussion – Yellowface: A Novel”

March 2025 LibraryReads

Posted on Monday, March 10, 2025 by Kat

LibraryReads logoCheck out these new books that library staff around the country love! March brings at least one seasonally punny book, a new novel by last year’s One Read author and a wide variety of other fiction. Read on to pick out a new book to welcome Spring with, and find a way to use all this light in the evenings (thanks Daylight Saving Time, I guess).

Murder by Memory book cover“Murder by Memory” by Olivia Waite

Dorothy Gentleman, ship’s detective on the Fairweather, is trying to solve a mystery in which the victim has been erased completely. There is a very real possibility that she herself is inhabiting the body of the killer, due to an emergency action by the ship’s mind. Waite has come up with something insanely clever and truly original.
~Jill Minor, Washington County Public Library, VA

 

Wild Dark Shore book cover“Wild Dark Shore” by Charlotte McConaghy

A gripping novel of a father and his children residing on a remote island, frantic to protect the last remaining seeds for future generations. Their lives are disrupted when an injured woman washes ashore. Mutual interest in the natural world enhances their passionate connection, despite a tense urgency for the truth. An immersive novel of family, nature and the ties that bind.
~KC Davis, LibraryReads Ambassador, CT

 

Go Luck Yourself book cover“Go Luck Yourself” by Sara Raasch

This delightful follow-up to The Nightmare Before Kissmas follows Kris, the other Christmas Prince, and Loch, the Prince of St. Patrick’s Day. There’s a bit of mystery and political intrigue, as well as passionate banter. Great for readers looking for fun holiday rom-coms with a bit of spice that can be read outside of the winter holidays.
~Katelyn Tjarks, Anne Arundel County Public Library, MD

 

The River Has Roots book cover“The River Has Roots” by Amal El-Mohtar

Sisters Esther and Ysabel are among the lucky few to have found their way home after getting lost in the land of Faerie. When Esther falls in love with a stranger, a darkness threatens to separate the sisters forever. An enchanting story of the bonds of sisterhood and the magic of Faerie for readers who love a good riddle song or murder ballad.
~Mara Bandy Fass, Champaign Public Library, IL

 

More new books coming out in March:

Literary Links: Women’s Work

Posted on Sunday, March 9, 2025 by Jonya

I went into a research rabbit hole this fall after rereading “Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times” by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. Join me as I share some of the works I discovered. 

Young archeologist Elizabeth Wayland Barber began researching women’s contributions to early society, thinking she would write a paper, revised that to a book and then made it a life’s work. Male researchers had, for the most part, ignored findings of ephemeral fibers and families. “Women’s Work” has a deserved place on American Scientist’s list of “100 or So Books That Shaped a Century of Science.”

“Women’s work” has often meant labor traditionally seen as the domain of women, often linked to specific stereotypical roles that are viewed as inherently feminine or related to domestic responsibilities that include low or no pay. However, women and their supporters are working to evolve that, to turn ‘women’s work’ into anything a woman aspires to do. Continue reading “Literary Links: Women’s Work”

Nonfiction Roundup: March 2025

Posted on Monday, March 3, 2025 by Liz

Below I’m highlighting some nonfiction books coming out in March. 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

Propaganda Girls book cover“Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS” by Lisa Rogak (Mar 4)
Betty MacDonald was a 28-year-old reporter from Hawaii. Zuzka Lauwers grew up in a tiny Czechoslovakian village and knew five languages by the time she was 21. Jane Smith-Hutton was the wife of a naval attaché living in Tokyo. Marlene Dietrich, the German-American actress and singer, was of course one of the biggest stars of the 20th century. These four women, each fascinating in her own right, together contributed to one of the most covert and successful military campaigns in WWII. As members of the OSS, their task was to create a secret brand of propaganda produced with the sole aim to break the morale of Axis soldiers. Working in the European theater, across enemy lines in occupied China, and in Washington, D.C., Betty, Zuzka, Jane, and Marlene forged letters and “official” military orders, wrote and produced entire newspapers, scripted radio broadcasts and songs, and even developed rumors for undercover spies and double agents to spread to the enemy. And outside of a small group of spies, no one knew they existed. Until now. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: March 2025”