“A Man Called Ove” tugged on all of my heartstrings. The main character, Ove, is unlikeable, truly. He is old and grumpy, and takes it out on everyone that he encounters, including the person trying to sell him an iPad. When Ove gets new neighbors, he is infuriated. Not only are they annoying, but the husband cannot back up a trailer. Ove, out of frustration rather than just being helpful, decides to help the couple back up the trailer. This is where the book really takes off, and Ove’s relationships with the people around him change. Ove reminded me of my own grandpa, who was quite grumpy, and thought his way was the only way. Ove also reminds me of my dad, so this character holds a special place in my heart. The book surprised me, made me laugh out loud, and made me cry while staying up late to finish it.
Three words that describe this book: Heart-wrenching, funny, and sad.
You might want to pick this book up if: If you are looking for something that will warm your heart while also breaking it, this is the book to pick up.
-Claire
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share reviews throughout the year.
Lisa Kinser is a Columbia, MO author whose debut book is “I Am the Night.” It’s a poetry book written over a 15 year period that chronicles a younger, more free time in her life — a past of longing and searching for both adventure and true love. Kinser is an Integrative Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach and End of Life Planner. She was kind enough to take the time to be interviewed via email. Continue reading “Q&A With Lisa Kinser, Author of “I Am the Night””
In the book “24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day A Week,” Tiffany Shlain dives into the topic of technology use and the harmful impacts it has on us inside and out. Tiffany’s family takes a tech Shabbat every Friday evening to Saturday evening. The time and attention that they gain from unplugging is exactly what many of us want in our lives. I was so inspired that I implemented a modified tech Shabbat in my life before I was halfway through reading this book. I intend to have a full tech Shabbat every week from now on.
Three words that describe this book: Intriguing, Informative, Insightful
You might want to pick this book up if: You want to know more about taking time off from technology or why it’s so important to consider taking a tech break.
-Rebecca
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share reviews throughout the year.
Music plays an important role in most people’s lives. I myself attribute many songs to specific points in my life and hearing them can trigger a specific emotional response. And, although most people love music, I recently learned that up to 5% of the world’s population doesn’t like music. This phenomenon is called musical anhedonia. For those who do enjoy music, or at least are interested in learning more about it, consider checking out some of the books below.
I grew up in the ‘90s so cassette tapes are very nostalgic for me. My first car only had a tape deck, and I remember listening to Nirvana’s album “Nevermind” over and over again on my drive to and from school. Marc Masters explores the history of cassette tapes in “High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape.” He charts the journey of the cassette tape from its invention in the early 1960s to its Walkman-led domination in the 1980s to its decline at the birth of the compact discs to its resurgence among independent music makers today. Continue reading “Literary Links: The Science of Music and Sound”
I think it is probably fair to say that I’m a power reader. In 2023, I read a little over 230 books, including novels, novellas, short story collections, and a lot of manga and graphic novels. Without pulling the numbers (I’m a book person, please don’t ask me to count), I’d say anywhere between 45-50% of my reading last year was some kind of graphic story. Before we get into it, here’s a quick overview of the difference between comics, graphic novels and manga/manwha: Continue reading “Favorite Manga and Graphic Novels of 2023”
Nina Totenberg’s memoir on her nearly 50-year friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsberg is the subject of the next First Thursday Book Discussion, which will be at noon on February 1 at the Columbia Public Library.
Totenberg’s book is the best kind of memoir, a personal and engaging story wrapped around the history of our judicial system and women’s rights. The story is of friendships, not just between Totenberg and Ginsberg, but also Cokie Roberts and Linda Werthheimer and all of their spouses. She takes us along as the friends buoy each other as allies in their male-dominated workplaces and through bouts with cancer. This might sound heavy, but the overall effect is uplifting, demonstrating what a profound difference individuals can make in the lives of their friends and family and the larger world. Continue reading “February First Thursday Book Discussion: Dinners with Ruth”
Here is a new DVD list highlighting various titles recently added to the library’s collection.
“Talk to Me” – Website / Reviews
In this horror film a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand — they become hooked on the thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.
“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” – Website / Reviews
This comedic satire explores every facet of the musician’s life, from his meteoric rise to fame with early hits like “Eat It” and “Like a Surgeon” to his torrid celebrity love affairs and famously depraved lifestyle.
“20 Days in Mariupol” – Website / Reviews
A documentary following a team of Ukrainian journalists from The Associated Press (AP) trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol as they struggle to document atrocities of the Russian invasion.
“Fremont” – Website / Reviews
In this black and white drama, an Afghan refugee who works in a fortune cookie factory struggles to put her life back in order. In a moment of sudden revelation, she decides to send out a special message in a cookie.
“The Sandman” – Season 1 – Website / Reviews
A fantasy show based on Neil Gaiman’s comic series. After years of imprisonment, Morpheus — the King of Dreams — embarks on a journey across worlds to find what was stolen from him and restore his power. Continue reading “New DVD List: January 2024”
…and haven’t finished. I’ll come back for them! In the meantime, may they each find a new reader with more free time and mental real estate.
Lauren Marks — “A Stitch of Time: The Year a Brain Injury Changed My Language and Life”
Why I checked it out: When I picked up Lauren Marks’ book, I had John Hendrickson’s “Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter” in mind, in search of another heartrending memoir about
living with some communication or speech disorder.
Marks offers a different kind of story. While Hendrickson grows up with his stutter, Marks’ aphasia strikes down in her 27th year after an aneurysm ruptures in her brain. The sudden onset of this language disorder is devastating — Marks finds herself unable to read, or to express herself on even a basic level.
What stuck: Marks describes a profound serenity that blooms within her in the aftermath of the aneurysm. Without a functional language center to articulate and store her anxieties, hopes, fears and insecurities, her internal monologue is replaced by something she calls “the Quiet.”
Recommended for: Anyone with a special interest in language, and/or language disorders. Anyone interested in chronic health conditions, the mysteries of the brain, and the unending process of recovery. Continue reading “Great Books I’ve Started”
I love gorillas. As a small child my grandfather would take me to the B&I shopping center in Tacoma, Washington where I would watch Ivan the gorilla for hours. Even that young, I felt sorry for him, but I was, at the same time, happy to be able to wile away literal hours watching him. He was funny, clearly smart, and so incredibly intimidating. It was obvious he was intelligent and it forced me to think about humans relationship with animals in a way I otherwise may not have done.
The book “Ishmael” follows the story of a gorilla named Ishmael who can “speak” telepathically, and communicate vast amounts of knowledge about the aforementioned relationship between men and animals. He advertises for students in the newspaper and the story is a chronicle of his tutoring of one such man that answers the advertisement.
I find it funny that the top three reviews of this book are not only one star, but are written by people that clearly took the book at it’s word and face value. Ishmael uses his time with the narrator to explain why man is on a crash course for self-destruction. While I don’t agree with every detail of Ishmael’s explanation, I do agree with the overall sentiment. Manifest destiny, etc. lend very heavily toward our precarious place in the circle of life. Our hubris and self importance will be our eventual downfall.
This is fiction and should be read as such, but it makes you think and makes you reexamine ideals and supposed knowledge. Isn’t that what all good fiction should do? If the reader is also entertained, it’s a win-win. My copy is littered with Post-It Notes. Ishmael says many, many things that I want to look into further — things I know, but want to know more about.
Three words that describe this book: Thought-provoking, relevant, insightful
You might want to pick this book up if: You question humanity’s place in the world.
-Kandice
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share reviews throughout the year.
New Year, new nonfiction books coming out in January 2024! 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
“The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship with Our Wild Neighbors” by Erika Howsare (Jan 2)
Deer have been an important part of the world that humans occupy for millennia. They’re one of the only large animals that can thrive in our presence. In the 21st century, our relationship is full of contradictions: We hunt and protect them, we cull them from suburbs while making them an icon of wilderness, we see them both as victims and as pests. But there is no doubt that we have a connection to deer: in mythology and story, in ecosystems biological and digital, in cities and in forests. Delving into the historical roots of these tangled attitudes and how they play out in the present, Erika Howsare observes scientists capture and collar fawns, hunters show off their trophies, a museum interpreter teaching American history while tanning a deer hide, an animal-control officer collecting the carcasses of deer killed by sharpshooters, and a woman bottle-raising orphaned fawns in her backyard. As she reports these stories, Howsare’s eye is always on the bigger picture: Why do we look at deer in the ways we do, and what do these animals reveal about human involvement in the natural world? Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: January 2024”
