Staff Recommendations
Sheryn Morris
Pages
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Miss Morgan's book brigade : a novel
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... 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 9th and ending on December 9th, 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... Read Full Review
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Shakespeare : the man who pays the rent
by Dench, Judi, 1934-
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, 1955-
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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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
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A year of last things : poems
by Ondaatje, Michael, 1943-
April 8, 2024
Call Number: 821 O575
Michael Ondaatje is first and foremost a poet whose insights, perceptions and writing style are evident, as well, in his prose. Generally he is well known for his historical novel, The English Patient, and the eponymous film. Even though the film differed, somewhat, from the novel, it was just as elegiacally beautiful and haunting in plot, photography and accompanying score. As I have stated before, “Poetry is the most intense and concentrated form of... Read Full Review
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Leave Me Alone With the Recipes: The Life, Art, and Cookbook of Cipe Pineles
March 28, 2024
Call Number: 641.594 L4395
The story of how this manuscript was found, and eventually published, is a serendipitous adventure, with many discoveries about the woman who created it, and connections with some of the people who knew her. In 2013 Sarah Rich was at an exhibition of the California International Antiquarian Book Fair in San Francisco. It was a chilly, somewhat gloomy day, and the books on display seemed to mirror that atmosphere. All the book jackets were in muted, dull color tones until, “The climactic moment of our visit to the fair could only be captured in the most brilliant hues, for the work we found... Read Full Review
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Breaking through : my life in science
by Karikó, Katalin
March 4, 2024
Call Number: 574.19092 K183
Katalin Karikó shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023, with Drew Weissman “for their discoveries concerning base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19." Her journey to this achievement could not have been predicted by her, or by anyone else. Her life and work are remarkable in many ways that she recounts in this warm, insightful memoir, sometimes told with wry, humorous asides. The inspiration for the book is “a long-belated thank-you [to] all my teachers from my earliest days in Hungary right through to the world-renowned... Read Full Review
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Tanya Holland's California Soul: Recipes From a Culinary Journey West
by Holland, Tanya
February 27, 2024
Call Number: 641.59794 H737-1
In her cookbook/memoir/history Tanya Holland organizes recipes in four chapters arranged by the seasons (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter), preceded with a lovely foreward by Alice Walker. In the introduction the successful American chef, restaurateur, podcaster, writer and cookbook author states, “I claim it all,” Black, African American, from the African diaspora, descended from enslaved people “brought to this country by Europeans. Americans have been and still are all on the journey together. And as an African American woman, the contributions that my ancestors made to what Americans eat... Read Full Review