Detecting da Vinci
In 2017 a painting, the Salvator Mundi, was sold at auction for $450 million. The question remains, was it painted by Leonardo da Vinci?
MADreads
Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors
Facing the past
Mary Balogh is a hit or miss author for me. I always admire her writing, but she doesn't always grab me emotionally. Her newest is definitely a hit. A lovely, warm story that strikes all the right notes.
Hoot-a-riffic, wingtastic, owl-dorable, I could go on and on
The Owl Diaries young reader series by Rebecca Elliot is officially the nicest and the cutest. Eva Wingdale lives with her owl family in Treetopolis. Eva's best friend is Lucy Beakman and her frenemy is Sue Clawson. The level of clever owl and bird word play in this series is spectacular. But what's really notable is the recognition and practice of thoughtfulness throughout all of the stories.
Tempered glass
Debbie Harry's autobiography Face It is a beautifully packaged book. The cover and paper stock are exceptionally high quality and the pages are filled with photographs and fan art never before shared with the public. I loved all of this. I have happy memories of dancing around in my cousin's bedroom to Blondie's Autoamerican in 1981 and thought "Rapture" was the best thing I'd ever heard. Almost 40 years later and I still think that's true.
Love and suffrage
I've been hearing the buzz about this debut romance for a while and though I was skeptical it could live up to the hype (as I would be with any hyped piece), my skepticism proved to be unfounded. Funny and sparkly and complicated and lovely are all adjectives that fit.
The enormity of life
Jacqueline Woodson's third adult novel explores the role of history and community in shaping the lives of family. It is a stunner and heartbreaker, starting with the title, Red at the Bone. Imagine the point at which the human body is at its most raw and hurt state. That's what red at the bone is described as by one of the main characters, Iris, like there is something inside of her undone and bleeding.
Gritty (and not just the sand)
Winner of the 2017 Tony Hillerman Prize, this debut mystery lives up to the buzz. Potenza's gritty police procedural is set in the American Southwest and gives the reader an interesting detective and a multi-threaded story involving drugs, gambling, missing people, undercover FBI agents, and more. It's readable and also deeply imbedded in Native American culture. Looking forward to more by this author.
All the best
It's the time of year for "best lists" and it can't come at a better time for holiday gift ideas for the readers in your life. First up I'll mention the "best" list I contribute to.
Challenging beauty
A dense but often lyrical book of many levels. In one sense it is one man’s retracing his life’s journeys to remote and far flung points on earth. In another, it is a contemplation of human kinds' significance and insignificance in the history of our planet, and the concern that our hubris dooms not only our species but earth itself. Does our ability to create sublime beauty such as the music of Beethoven or the art of Manet supplant our equally ugly creations such as the many prisons built over the ages and the despicable ways we treat our own kind?
Justice revisited
Cruel Acts is the 8th in the Maeve Kerrigan series of police procedurals set in London. As you can guess, as the series is named Maeve Kerrigan, she's the Detective protagonist. Her partner is Josh Derwent and together they've worked out an effective partnership. Though she is good with people and he is decidedly not, both are intelligent and driven and extremely good at their job, which is why they've been tasked with a delicate job. A convicted killer, Leo Stone, is about to win his appeal based on jury misconduct. Leo was convicted of killing Sara Grey and suspected of killing another.
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