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. New books are added to the collection monthly, and are available at all Madison Public Library locations on a walk-in, first-come-first-served basis.
For this month of November we have six new titles that were added.**
Nonfiction
The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall in Love with Me by Keah Brown - Born with cerebral palsy, Brown has spent her last few years honing her message as an activist for disabled representation in media, creating the viral campaign #DisabledAndCute to empower people with disabilities to own their cuteness. In her witty and insightful tone, she covers topics from politics and race to her obsession with pop culture and her relationships with her family (Brown is a twin). This book would be a great choice for anyone interested in social justice, disability rights, or just interested in learning more about a fun, funny, beautiful woman.
The Book of (More) Delights: Essays by Ross Gay - Gay returns post-pandemic with another collection of miniature essays about some “fleeting sweetnesses” that he savored over the course of a year, beginning with his birthday in August of 2021. He zooms in to luxuriate in an encounter with a small dog or the “reprieve from unhugging” after many socially distant months and then zooms out to place those encounters in a wider context. Many of these delights are tempered with sadness, as when the author attends his aunt's funeral or deals with the challenges of “being a non-white person in mostly white spaces.”
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer - While picking serviceberries among singing birds doing the same, Kimmerer, a Potawatomi botanist, professor, MacArthur fellow, and writer renowned for Braiding Sweetgrass, envisions a new take on a traditional way of living in sync with nature. Serviceberries, she explains, sustain numerous animals and insects and have long been prized by Indigenous people for being delicious, nourishing, and medicinally beneficial. When her farmer neighbors invite people to pick their serviceberry harvest for free, Kimmerer found herself musing over how the Anishinaabe people are guided by gratitude and respect for nature’s sustaining abundance and reciprocity.
Fiction
The Rest of You by Maame Blue - The novel centers on Whitney Appiah, a Ghanaian Londoner whose life is upended after a dangerous encounter with an ex-boyfriend. Traversing multiple decades and points of view, Blue expertly illustrates the complicated lattice of familial networks that form each of us into who we are.
Masquerade by Mike Fu - Newly single Meadow Liu is house-sitting for his friend, artist Selma Shimizu, when he stumbles upon The Masquerade, a translated novel about a masked ball in 1930s Shanghai. The author's name is the same as Meadow's own in Chinese, Liu Tian--a coincidence that proves to be the first of many strange happenings. Over the course of a single summer, Meadow must contend with a possibly haunted apartment, a mirror that plays tricks, a stranger speaking in riddles at the bar where he works, as well as a startling revelation about a former lover.
I'll Have What He's Having by Adib Khorram - Two men pair like food and fine wine in YA author Khorram’s adult debut. Wine expert David Curtis, who is Black, hopes getting his master sommelier license will be his ticket out of Kansas City, Mo., where he feels stifled by the lack of work and dating opportunities. Then recently heartbroken Iranian American Farzan Alavi walks into Aspire, the restaurant where David works. A reservation misunderstanding means David mistakes Farzan for a restaurant critic and treats him to a flirty gourmet meal. Flattered, Farzan takes David home for some incredible sex—and then the truth comes out. Complications ensue.
If you're ever just looking for something "good" (a very subjective term) to read, I highly recommend browsing the TGTM books. There's a little something for everyone in this collection and it's my go-to when I'm not sure what I'm wanting to read.
**Linked titles are to the regular copies, which may have hold lists. The TGTM browse collection books are separate from those.