Can you trust it?
If you, like me, are feeling the end of summer doldrums a bit, then I've got the book for you. The Passengers by John Marrs takes you on a wild ride and sets you on a collision course with fun! Too much? One pun too many?
MADreads
Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors
There's a word for that...
I'm always a little skeptical of books about libraries - maybe being a librarian has made me too jaded. But this story isn't really about libraries, and it's not even really about books, although there is a gorgeously illustrated spread celebrating the breadth of imagination and worlds to be found within the pages of a book and the walls of a library.
Sewn with hate
When describing this book to a friend, I summarized as the story of two women in Victorian England: Ruth, a seamstress who believes she can hurt and kill others through her sewing, and Dorothea, a member of the gentry who visits Ruth in prison, believing that phrenology (the study of the contours of the human skull to describe a person's personality) holds the clues to Ruth's innocence or guilt. It sounds a bit wacky, I'll admit, but the story is so much more complex than that.
After the fall
In her stellar adult fiction novel debut Veronica Roth explores what happens when a totalitarian, dystopian regime falls and whether or not the society can rebuild without repeating the same patterns and mistakes. And she does all of this through the eyes of someone who was complicit in that regime's behavior.
Judith & Susanna & Artemisia
This fictionalized biography of Artemisia Gentileschi is as beautiful, powerful, and haunting as the paintings its subject produced. Gentileschi is best known as a celebrated Italian Baroque painter, and for insisting on trying her rapist in a court of law-- two things that were near unheard of for women of her time.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it*
Inspired by the author's critically acclaimed album Dirty Computer, this Afrofuturistic collection of five connected stories center around a woman named Jane 57821 who is looking for refuge from the world of the Dirty Computer. The Dirty Computer is what society views as human imperfection, tainted by memory, emotion, and time.
Eye of the beholder
What is art? What attracts or repulses the viewer? The colors, setting, images, tactile feel of textiles/sculpture? Does knowledge of the artist or the subject influence the viewer? All these questions and more are addressed in this surprisingly slim and amazing new book by the French novelist Camille Laurens detailing her fascination of one artist, Edgar Degas, and one work, his now iconic sculpture of a young dancer.
Watch out for the gooseberry pie
This graphic novel companion to the Bridgerton series is an absolute delight - candy for the mind and soul. I don't mean that in the empty calories and high fructose corn syrup way. I mean that in the irresistible way that fresh saltwater taffy, or homemade fudge, or hand dipped chocolate candy overwhelms the senses, and for me, is perfection. Sweet as honey combined with buttery brickle. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
Underwear everywhere
Who says nonfiction is boring??? Not author Hannah Holt and illustrator Korwin Briggs! Their book, A History of Underwear with Professor Chicken, is about as delightful as the title suggests. Silly cartoon illustrations loaded with chicken-y antics show the evolution of underwear through time and culture. There’s lots to giggle at here. The text is age appropriate, interesting and factual, with many undie puns to keep it snappy. There is even a visual timeline of underwear and a substantial bibliography at the end. A fresh and fun addition to nonfiction for younger readers.
Margaret in a fun-house mirror
Thanks to the popularity of Netflix’s series The Crown (and the constant drumbeat of stories about Meghan and Harry vs. Kate and William) there has been a resurgence of interest in one of the Windsor family's most fascinating characters, Princess Margaret. Younger sister of Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret has to be arguably the most polarizing royal figure of her era.
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