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Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors
The National Book Award was established in 1950. It is an American literary prize administered by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization. Every year, the Foundation selects a total of twenty Judges, including five in each of the four Award categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature. First there is a long list, then a finalist list, and then the winners for each category are announced in November.
Wendy Davies is driving along a lake road with her two younger brothers Michael and John when their car skids off a bridge and into the water. One of Wendy's brothers is missing after the accident - he's just plain vanished. \Did Michael survive the crash and wander away? Has he drowned in the lake? Wendy blames herself for the accident. Her family is in crisis. It's all confusing and impossible to come to terms with. What follows is the torturous response to the accident: the journal that Wendy keeps for her therapist.
The end of the year is closing in upon us, and so too is the publishing year. But there are still plenty of great titles coming to shelves this fall, so let’s get to the highlights:
If you’ve read the wonderful children’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian you know the PG version of Alexie’s life story growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me is the adult version, and it’s beautiful, haunting, devastating, and raw. When his mother Lillian died in 2015 he began writing this book. She was a complex woman: brilliant, an amazing quilter, cruel at times, and damaged by growing up Native in these United States. Unlike her son, she did not attain her dreams. I k
Billed as a counting book, Cyrus brings much more to this artful picture book. We count bricks by ones, fives, tens and twenties. Readers also learn how bricks and mortar are made, and are treated to the math, science, design and artistry involved in bricklaying. The rhyming text invites repeated read-alouds. And the photo-realistic illustrations are worth multiple visits as well, with a racially diverse cast of characters that range in age from children to grandparents, all sporting hardhats and coveralls and fully involved in the building.
Going back over time, I calculate that I've read and written about at least six different cat comics or children's graphic novel series on MADreads. This does not include a childhood spent reading Garfield. This does not include my recent (personal) purchasing and reading of the new "Grumpy Cat/Garfield" comic series. Who knew that Grumpy Cat and Garfield knew each other?!?!? It's an amazing world!! I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's a wealth of this kind of material out there and I celebrate it. All of it.
All I can say is, wow. Somehow we make it through elementary and middle school friendships. It's not easy. It's not nice. It's not quickly forgotten. And it doesn't seem to get any easier for subsequent generations. Why is that?
Every year Booklist publishes various top 10 lists. Below is their Top 10 Sports list. This list includes basketball, baseball, horse racing, running. Did they miss any of your favorite sports books? Are there any that you would add?
“The first thought I had after I died was: How will my dog cope with this?
The second thought: I hope we can still go with open casket.
Third thought: I have nothing to wear to my funeral.
Fourth: I’ll never meet Daniel Radcliffe now.
Fifth: Did Bobby just break up with me?”
Ruth Ware does it again! If you've read In a Dark, Dark Wood and/or The Woman in Cabin 10 and felt pulled in by the masterful skills of the author in constructing a psychological thriller that is tortuous and creepy as all get out, you will undoubtedly find The Lying Game to be of equal or higher chill factor.
