Staff Recommendations
Sheryn Morris
Pages
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Feels Like Home: Reflections on Central Library
October 1, 2019
Call Number: 027.47949 L881Fe
One year ago, on September 13, 2018, the Los Angeles Public Library celebrated Central@25. This event commemorated the 25th anniversary of the reopening of Central Library. The day of appreciation, celebration and honors was the idea of Christina Rice, Senior Librarian, LAPL Photo Collection. Preliminary planning began approximately six months before the event. There were many staff suggestions to make the day grand and wonderful, but Ms. Rice suggested a book. At the time, I thought it was an impossible dream that a book of any value... Read Full Review
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Happiness is Baking: Cakes, Pies, Tarts, Muffins, Brownies, Cookies: Favorite Desserts From the Queen of Cake
by Heatter, Maida
August 26, 2019
Call Number: 641.71 H442-2
This is the most recent cookbook from the Queen of Cake, Maida Heatter, which is a collection of her favorite recipes. In the introduction she writes about how determined a baker can be to get a recipe, and how much satisfaction there is in baking and giving desserts to others. This cookbook is different from her other works only in its new format that has a very bright colorful layout and illustrations by Alice Oehr. Everything else is the same as in her other cookbooks: table of contents, complete index, meticulous easy-to-follow directions and an opening chapter, "Before you... Read Full Review
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What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction
by Morrison, Toni
August 12, 2019
Call Number: 818 M882
Toni Morrison possessed and shared with us knowledge about ourselves, through the power of words.The work of the grande dame of Black American Literature has always commanded our attention. Great fiction writers create stories expressed through characters, plot and language that speak truth to all of us. Their work takes our breath away by making us look at life we never thought about, and even denied existed. Toni Morrison was a great writer who wrote about the lives of Black Americans.The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution legally abolished slavery, but it did not... Read Full Review
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Other people's houses
by Segal, Lore Groszmann.
June 17, 2019
Call Number: Ed.a
Even though this book was published more than 50 years ago, Lore Segal's autobiographical novel is a story about refugee children that still resonates today. When the United Kingdom took in over 10,000 children, mostly Jewish, from Germany, Austria and other east European countries, and placed them in the care of foster families, Segal was part of the Kindertransport.Speaking through her narrator, this is the story of a 10-year-old girl who, with other children, was put on a train and transported to England to be safe and secure after Hitler annexed Austria in 1938. Seen... Read Full Review
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The plotters
by Kim, On-su, 1972-
May 15, 2019
Call Number:
Street orphan Reseng is rescued by nuns, then adopted by Old Raccoon, the owner of a sensational private library. Being in possession of a library, or being a librarian for that matter, is not a measure of respectability, which is the case with Old Raccoon, whose friends are a strange and nefarious group of people. It is in the Library of Dogs where assassinations are planned. There are syndicates of professionals who organize assassins for hire, and the syndicates are in competition with each other--they are the plotters. From the time he was a child Reseng was groomed to be one... Read Full Review
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Voyage of the Sable Venus: And Other Poems
by Lewis, Robin Coste
May 1, 2019
Call Number: 811 L675
Poetry is the most intense and concentrated form of writing, using words, metre, rhyme and format to express thoughts, feelings and stories that can be fact or fiction. Robin Coste Lewis, Los Angeles Poet Laureate, has used all of these characteristics of poetry to examine the artistic representation of black female enslavement through the millenniums. Her poetic technique catalogs art work that often extolled and rhapsodized the sexuality of black females. This is a complex work, which compels and shocks by the very nature of the historical artwork that is referenced. Her poetic... Read Full Review
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Our only world : ten essays
by Berry, Wendell, 1934-
April 22, 2019
Call Number: 309.73 B534-1
National Poetry Month is almost over, and today is Earth Day, so there is no better time to consider some of the thoughts and ideas of Wendell Berry. He is a gifted and prodigious writer of poetry, novels, short stories, and non-fiction. The Los Angeles Public Library's catalog lists numerous works by him (hard copy, audio-visual and e-media), with more of his work to be found in a variety of journals and magazines. His poems are approachable and suggestive; as a cultural critic his work is... Read Full Review
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The spy and the traitor : the greatest espionage story of the Cold War
by Macintyre, Ben, 1963-
April 16, 2019
Call Number: 351.74 M152-1
There have been masterfully written entertaining spy novels from Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, John Le Carré, and others. Many works are based on the authors' first-hand experiences working for intelligence agencies, not just their exuberant and fanciful imaginations. However, Ben Macintyre’s well-researched account of the Russian double agent, Oleg Gordievsky, and his American counterpart, Aldrich Ames, provides meticulous details about real spies. Gordievsky is the only known Soviet double agent smuggled out of Russia to Great Britain, and is still alive and in protective custody. ... Read Full Review
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Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”
by Hurston, Zora Neale
February 26, 2019
Call Number: 326.09 H966
Zora Neale Hurston is well known for her novels, especially for Their eyes were watching God. Her educational background and training were in cultural anthropology, ethnography and folklore. A prolific writer of fiction and non-fiction, this book would not be published in her lifetime because there were quesions about her methodology, and possible plagiarism. In the foreword, Alice Walker points out that black scholars and intellectuals also had issues with the... Read Full Review
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Sweet Home Cafe cookbook : a celebration of African American cooking
by Lukas, Albert, 1968-
February 20, 2019
Call Number: 641.5973 L9535
September 24, 2016 was the dedication and opening day for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which included the Sweet Home Cafe.This cookbook has the cafe's recipes, which represent the extensive diaspora of African Americans and encompass culinary traditions from Africa, the Caribbean, Native Americans, Europeans, Latinos, plus influences from recent African immigrants. There is a historical introduction and overview of African American cooking, cooks, eateries, The Green Book, and information about permanent exhibits at the museum which... Read Full Review
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An elderly lady is up to no good : stories
by Tursten, Helene, 1954-
January 23, 2019
Call Number:
An appropriate subtitle for this book might be: don’t mess with Maud, all she wants is peace and quiet. Mystery writer Helene Tursten, best known for the Detective Inspector Huss series, was asked to write a short story for Christmas, and so she did: “An Elderly Lady Seeks Peace at Christmastime”.88-year-old Maud is a combination of Charles Bronson’s character in the movie,... Read Full Review
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The white darkness
by Grann, David,
January 16, 2019
Call Number: 998.5 G759
Antarctica, which contains the South Pole, is a large land mass (5,400,000 square miles) located in the Southern Hemisphere. It is, " ... on average, the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents," and has a limited amount of animal and vegetative life. It is a place that has evoked rich hypothetical and mythological ideas about its origins. For those who want to journey on foot between certain geographical spots, there are seemingly limitless areas of white glacial plains, peaks and creavasses.Henry Worsley was... Read Full Review