MADreads Reviews

I've been super motivated this summer to read political memoirs and manifestos, starting with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's life story, This is What America Looks Like.  

During the last few months while we've been social distancing and keeping close to home there have been times when I just want something new to read right now. And at those times I turn to the wonderful Lucky Day section of Wisconsin's Overdrive collection. On any given day when you click into the collection you'll see a lot of familiar authors like James Patterson and Jodi Picoult and Lee Child, to name a few.

I absolutely love Maira Kalman’s artwork. Colorful and sweet with an endearing naivete, her work is like a cotton-candy version of a better life but with melancholic undertones. I love it and I want to live in it. So when I heard Kalman had illustrated one of my favorite books, Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, I was thrilled. This is the crossover event of 2020 as far as I’m concerned.

Jo Jones has a lot to think about. The Hollywood screenwriter and former child actress has just signed on pen her biggest project yet, a big budget action flick featuring an iconic American comic book character, while dialing back her involvement in her successful television drama series. She’s bracing for the inevitable blowback that will come when the fanboys hear their favorite comic will be written by a woman, and an Asian American one at that.

Do you like reading about other people's recollections?  Then check out the current Top 10 Memoirs from Booklist listed below. Also for more memoirs and biographies then consider subscribing to the Insiders newsletter Thanks for the Memories. It comes out bimonthly.

Sarah Weinman has been in and about the crime writing world for years. She's written for the New York Times and Vanity Fair as well as for more genre connected publications like Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and for the CrimeReads site (highly recommended if you're a crime/mystery fan). Her first full length book was about the connection between the book Lolita and the real life kidnapping of Sally Horner in 1948.

A behind the scenes look at the private life and idiosyncrasies of Winston Churchill and his circle during his first year as Prime Minister balanced with a behind the scenes look at Hitler’s circle especially Hess, Goring, and Himmler. At one point Larson references a letter from a man lamenting how the press of his position and duties limit him from not doing what he would prefer to do—which is spend time in the country with his wife and children. The writer was Heinrich Himmler.

I'm always looking for something different to read, something out of my comfort zone, which poetry is. I ran across the below list in a Publishers Weekly article "An Antiracist Poetry Reading List"  So if you've wondered where to start with poetry, the list below is a place to start.

There is a long history -- from Marquis de Sade to Jean Genet to Iceberg Slim -- of the incarcerated writing great books inspired by what got them there. Nico Walker, a former war medic turned heroin-addicted bank robber now doing time in a Kentucky federal prison, has clearly mined his own biography for his debut novel, Cherry, a nasty blister of a book that shows a lot of promise but is ultimately hamstrung by its limited point-of-view.

It’s the fall of 2016 and Darren Mathews feels like a seismic change has happened. The African-American Texas Ranger isn’t just bracing for whatever changes will be coming to law enforcement following the election, but his personal life is equally posed on the brink of change. After the events of Bluebird, Bluebird, Attica Locke’s first book in the Highway 59 series, Mathews thought he had reached a precarious sense of peace. His marriage to lawyer Lisa ha

Memorial Day has come and gone and it's unofficially summer in Wisconsin. I read Waiting for Tom Hanks over the long week-end and it was the perfect book to kick off my quarantine summer reading. It's available as an eBook and audiobook from OverDrive and the wait list is short.   

As the daughter of the Earl of Leicester the author has lived a life in a culture of social elites, in many ways a culture that has mostly vanished except for that of the British royal family. A great deal of the book looks at the author’s family, how things are done and not done in their tradition. Following a family tradition of directly working with the royal family, Anne Glenconner served as a Lady in Waiting for Princess Margaret from 1971-2002 and a good portion of the book details that period.

Sharon Bolton is one of those writers who is always coming up with new ways to thrill. Her characters are always sharp and complicated and she doesn't ever seem to tell the same story twice. Thus we come to her newest, The Split, a thriller set at the remote Antarctic island of South Georgia where glaciologist Felicity Lloyd is too late to catch the last boat off the island before winter locks them in. And even worse, she's convinced her ex-husband (and stalker) has made it onto the island from that last ship and now she's trapped with him for possibly months to come.

Sadie is a teenager who is missing. She's been living in an economically devastated town in rural Colorado, raising her younger sister Mattie on her own after their addict mother takes off. Their situation is stark. Then 13-year-old Mattie goes missing and is found murdered. The story follows Sadie's chase to locate her sister's killer and a reporter's race to find Sadie.

Catarina von Hasenberg is used to being underestimated. In fact, given the powerful world within which she operates, she encourages it. Her family is one of the most powerful ones in the universe and thus have some pretty powerful enemies. A fact that became all two clear in the first two books of this Consortium Rebellion trilogy. Cat's problem right now is that she may have done too good a job convincing people that she's just a flighty socialite. So much so that not even her family thinks she can help in waging the battles they face. 

Dani Brown needs some loving and soon. The grad student star of Take a Hint, Dani Brown is in hot pursuit of her PhD, but her latest partner ‘caught feelings’ and if there’s one thing Dani is clear on, it’s that she doesn’t want anything more from her relationships than a good time in bed. So, she’s dumped her girlfriend and is on the lookout for a new buddy to help her deal with the tension of academia—but definitely not a relationship. There’s the very cute security guard at her university office, but big, brooding former rugby pro Zafir Ansari doesn’t seem interested in her.

If you want to know what the secret jellyfish handshake is, you'll have to read this book.

A full-cast stage adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice produced by L.A.

Sometimes it can take a lifetime to understand a flashpoint decision which changes your life completely.

Sometimes the biggest pivot you take in life is one you do not choose yourself.

For cartoonist and memoirist Robin Ha, there is life before age 14, in South Korea---a life of solid academic achievement, good friends, favorite comics, and a proud role as her mother’s “warrior apprentice” in the fight to gain respect as a single mother running her own business.

Then, FLASH.

There is life after age 14, in America.

I've mentioned it before but when you're looking for something to read right now (in our digital world) you can always find something in the Lucky Day Collection on Overdrive (Libby). The books in this collection are checked out for a shorter amount of time and don't allow for anyone to place them on hold. As you can see from the graphic here (today's front page of available LD books) you'll see a little of everything.