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MADreads

Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors

MADmatches tonight

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Your Next Reading Suggestions

Maybe you just haven't met the right one, yet? MADmatches pairs local readers with the books of their dreams! 

Post the last three books you read and enjoyed on our Facebook MADmatches event page from 5:30-7:30 pm tonight, and our librarians will respond with a few titles they think you’ll enjoy. Madison librarians will be on Facebook from 5:30-7:30 pm with custom book recommendations just for you.

A library card isn’t needed to take part in MADmatches.

Apr 14, 2020

Everyone should have an EDC (Emergency Day Carry) Bag

book cover
A review of Emergency Contact by Mary H. K. Choi

How would you, a college freshman with little social skills, get the attention of the hot, tattooed baker/barista with an equally hot-but-manipulative ex-girlfriend with an enviable Insta feed named MsLOLAXO?Answer: Save his life with your EDC (Every Day Carry) bag of emergency items and become each other’s emergency contact (cause you know, the baker/barista is bare bones making it in life and can’t afford healthcare).

Apr 10, 2020

Supernatural romance

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A review of The Regrets by Amy Bonnaffons

The Regrets is a unique love story.

When the novel begins, we meet Thomas, a cool, young Brooklynite who is newly, but incompletely, dead. Due to an erring angel, Thomas is placed in limbo and instructed to await his final fate, albeit with the grave warning that he is not to incur regrets by engaging in intimate involvements with the living.

Apr 9, 2020

Sherlock before Holmes

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A review of Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty Birdcage by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse

Has there ever been a character that has inspired other writers so much as Sherlock Holmes? The world of the quintessential English detective has expanded and reimagined to include Holmes-like detective on the western frontier, an unlikely apprentice to HolmesHolmes as a consulting magician and the 

Apr 8, 2020

Human Diversity

Cover of Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winners

Looking for something different to read, to challenge you, then check out the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winners, which honor books that address racism and diversity. The 2020 books have been announced "The new books explore human diversity in riveting style, putting the lie to racism and ableism even as reading them knits us closer together in times when we must be apart," said prize manager Karen Long. I have included the ebook link for those available in the Wisconsin Digital Library and at the end the library book.

Apr 2, 2020

Odyssey Award Winner for Excellence in Audiobook Production

Cover of Hey, Kiddo
A review of Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka

Scholastic Audiobooks won the 2020 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production for the audiobook adaption of Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction.  It is fantastic.  The audiobook is read by the author, Jarrett Krosoczka, and a full cast that includes friends and family featured in the book, his real-life art teachers, and offsp

Mar 31, 2020

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