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Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors
We've all got them. Books we think will make us smarter but that are just a bit too daunting every time you go to pick them up and read. Mine in recent times has been Yuval Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. I placed it on hold, had the hold come in, checked it out and then returned it unread. I think that probably happened a couple of times.
This sensitive and empowering middle grade graphic novel focuses on changes associated with adolescence. Set in modern-day Montreal, Adèle is enjoying her winter break when she discovers something new about herself: she can see and hear ghosts. Adèle first hears voices in the backseat of the car while her sister is driving her to the Mile End Library. Then she sees the same elderly man waiting outside her family's convenience store, the Blue Goose Dépanneur, several days in a row.
"Congratulations to the finalists for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. The two medal winners will be announced by 2025 selection committee chair Allison Escoto at the Reference and User Services Association’s Book and Media Awards live-streaming event, held during ALA LibLearnX on Sunday, January 26.
Every month there are new titles purchased for the Too Good to Miss collections at our libraries. If you're not familiar with TGTM (as we call it here in library-world), it's a special collection of popular books that are truly too good to miss. Some are new and popular titles, others are older titles that might not have had as much media attention as a bestseller or celebrity book club selection but are still great reads that deserve another look.
In this very darkly funny adventure (think way amped up Deadpool humor), Carl is saved from annihilation by aliens because his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend's prizewinning cat, Princess Donut, has escaped their apartment. While he's freezing outside in the wee hours of the morning, barefoot in his boxer shorts and a jacket, trying to re-capture Princess Donut, Carl sees every physical structure flattened, literally. Anyone who was in those buildings? Gone. He knows that because an alien announcer tells him so.
"I would never eat a child. What do you think I am...a monster?" proclaims the main character of this book who, admittedly, looks an awful lot like a monster.
The orange creature stands in a line with a bunch of kids. Ten kids, to be exact - this is important, so pay attention. Each kid has some sort of accessory - a kite, a soccer ball, knitting needles, etc.
Chris Nickson really, really loves his hometown of Leeds, England. The music journalist and mystery novelist has written, by this point, four detective series spanning two hundred years set in Yorkshire’s largest city. While each series could loosely be considered police procedurals, what makes Nickson’s series stand out is the portrait of the city itself—a place largely off the beaten path for many crime readers—as it progresses from a regional center of the wool and agricultural trade to sprawling industrial boom town bursting with late Victorian optimism.
Rocky's family spends one week a year vacationing in a cottage on the Cape. Rocky, her husband, their two college-age or slightly older children, their son's girlfriend, and Rocky's elderly parents make the small, quaint cottage with a sensitive septic system their home away from home. There are not enough beds or chairs, and privacy is limited. There is plenty of swimming, relaxing on the beach, and enough penny candy to make lasting memories.
Tessa, a young Cree girl, wants to learn beading from her grandmother, or Kohkom. But her mother informs her that first, she must learn why beads and beading are important to them. The two of them visit Kohkom, and she proceeds to lovingly teach Tessa all about the stories behind the beads. Written by a Nbisiing Nishnaabe author, What's in a Bead? shares indigenous words and customs alongside clear, bold illustrations.
I'm a fan of true crime tv and podcasts and will listen to a wide variety of them, but when it comes to books, I'm a bit more particular. I think this choosiness has to do with being able to distance myself a bit from the content and for me, when I'm reading, it can feel so much more immediate. So for nonfiction crime books I gravitate to historical crime with the natural distancing of time making it more enjoyable. A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum really fit that bill.
