Staff Recommendations
Sheryn Morris
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You Are Here: A Novel
by Nicholls, David
August 27, 2024
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True-to-life love stories are a challenge to write because, as anyone who has been in a relationship knows, real life experiences have no predictable beginnings with neatly tied up endings. The opposite of that is what makes romance and rom-com novels so appealing, and they certainly have a place in our reading experiences. David Nicholls has met the challenge with this love story that uniquely has elements of comedy, tragedy, and some life-changing experiences for the two protagonists, older adults Marnie (38) and Michael (42). Each of them has experienced joys, sorrows and disappointments... Read Full Review
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Sand Rush: The Revival of the Beach in Twentieth-century Los Angeles
by Devienne, Elsa
August 19, 2024
Call Number: 979.494 D492
As the 2024 Olympics in Paris ended, and the torch and flag were handed over to Mayor Karen Bass for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, I find it delightfully serendipitous to have read this book (a PhD dissertation, originally in French and now in English, about the beaches of Los Angeles) by Dr. Elsa Devienne. Talk about hands across the water! Having grown up along southern California's coastline with its wonderful beaches, I never thought about the wide swaths of sand, except during the summer when it was always a trek across all that hot sand to get to the ocean. It never occurred to me... Read Full Review
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Waiting for the Monsoon
by Nordland, Rod
August 6, 2024
Call Number: 071.092 N8315
Rod Nordland was one tough, determined, and well-respected war correspondent who had been in some of the world’s most dangerous war zones, where there was not too much that could scare him and from which he emerged relatively unscathed. On July 5, 2019, one particular event would definitely be life-threatening. In June 2019, he was in New Delhi, India, because "The Indian summer has always fascinated me, and I was in New Delhi, experiencing its climatic extremes firsthand." It is a time when the population is waiting for the monsoon rains to cool things off because "Heat builds to inhuman... Read Full Review
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Miss Morgan's Book Brigade
by Skeslien Charles, Janet
July 16, 2024
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The novel’s plot is recounted in alternating chapters, told from the perspectives of two librarians in two different eras: Jessie Carson during World War I and Wendy Peterson during the late 1980s. Each of them has a connection to the New York Public Library and to the work of a remarkable woman from whom little was expected. During the Gilded Age, Anne Morgan, daughter of J. P. Morgan, banker and financier, led a very privileged life. However, she was aware of other people's lives and became a staunch crusader for better working conditions and benefits for everyone—especially for women.... Read Full Review
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On the Isle of Antioch
by Maalouf, Amin
July 9, 2024
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The novel is divided into four chapters: First notebook: Fog; Second notebook: Patches of Sunlight; Third notebook: Moorings; Fourth notebook: Disappearance. It covers one month, beginning on November 9 and ending on December 9, with no year specified, but is definitely in the present. Graphic artist Alexandre, aka Alec, has chosen to live alone and work on the island of Antioch, somewhere off the French Atlantic coast. He depends on having consistent electricity for the internet, cell phone service, and radio communication. When electricity ceases with... Read Full Review
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Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent
by Dench, Judi
June 26, 2024
Call Number: 822.092 D391-3
Actor Dame Judi Dench has portrayed many characters (in comedies and in tragedies) in different formats (stage, screen, TV, sound recordings); in the James Bond franchise, she was featured in the role of M (the first female to do so), whose character gave it all for Queen and country, and then got bumped off; she has been parodied for being Dame Judi by comedian Tracey Ullman—some videos can easily be found on YouTube and are a hoot; she is known as Judi Dench:... Read Full Review
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Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me
by Goldberg, Whoopi
June 10, 2024
Call Number: 812.092 G618
For all her candor, no-holds-barred way of expressing herself, we may think we know all there is to know about Whoopi Goldberg. How wrong could all of us be, as you will discover in this autobiographical memoir. This remembrance is primarily about Whoopi's immediate family (her mother Emma Johnson and her brother Clyde Johnson), and all they meant to each other. It is an homage, a paen, especially to her mother, definitely in charge of Whoopi and brother Clyde. She led by example, not putting up with any nonsense and doing all of it with an abundance of love, kindness, wisdom, and magic. The... Read Full Review
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Waiting for the Waters to Rise
by Conde, Maryse
May 20, 2024
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"Babakar is a doctor living alone, with only the memories of his African childhood. In his dreams, he receives visits from his blue-eyed mother and ex-lover Azelia, both now gone, as are the hopes and aspirations he's carried with him since his arrival in Guadeloupe. Until, one day, the child Anais comes into his life, forcing him to abandon his solitude. Anais's Haitian mother died in childbirth, leaving her daughter destitute—now Babakar is all she has, and he wants to offer this little girl a future. Together, they fly to Haiti, a beautiful, mysterious island plagued by violence,... Read Full Review
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The outsider : the life and work of Lafcadio Hearn : the man who introduced voodoo, Creole cooking,
by Kemme, Steve
May 13, 2024
Call Number: 814 H436Ke
Lafcadio Hearn, a man with unusual origins and a complex life, whose early life gave no indication as to what he would later achieve, as he repeatedly overcame obstacles and controversies that became a part of his life until his death, and even after. The subtitle of the book is an enticing hint to Lafcadio Hearn’s achievements and to his fascinating life. His father was an Irish officer-surgeon and his mother was a noble-blooded Greek woman, and he was born in 1850 on the Greek island of Lefkada. Lafcadio is a variation on the place where he was born. Abandoned by both parents, he was... Read Full Review
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The Kamogawa food detectives
by Kashiwai, Hisashi, 1952-
May 7, 2024
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This is the first book, in a series, to be translated from Japanese into English. From the illustration on the book cover and the title of the book, this might seem to be a cozy mystery. And, in some ways it is. The Kamogawa Diner is located on an insignificant side street in Kyoto, and there is no signage outside. So, how do customers find this place, and how do the owners stay in business? First of all, there is a daily set menu for regulars who eat there. Other customers find the diner from a vaguely worded ad (“We find your food.”) in the Gourmet Monthly. The diner is... Read Full Review
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Sharks in the rivers
by Limón, Ada.
April 29, 2024
Call Number: 811 L734
“Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden appointed Ada Limón as the 24th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress on July 12, 2022 and reappointed her for a historic two-year second term on April 24, 2023. Limón’s second term will begin in September 2023 and conclude in April 2025."In this collection of poems there are several themes that Limón’s poetry encompasses. Among them are recurring metaphors of water and aquatic life. There are long poems, one with multiple stanzas, and there are... Read Full Review
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Musical tables : poems
by Collins, Billy
April 22, 2024
Call Number: 811 C7115-14
Billy Collins is a former U.S. Poet Laureate (2001 - 2003). Over the years he has become very well known for poems and for his poetry readings. "In 2002, as US poet laureate, Collins was asked to write a poem commemorating the first anniversary of the fall of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on September 11. The reading was in front of a joint session of Congress held outside of Washington, DC," and “One of Billy Collins’ most critically acclaimed works, “Fishing on the Susquehanna in July” has been added to the preserved works of the United States Native American literary registry... Read Full Review