Staff Recommendations
Pages
-
Crazy Brave: A Memoir
by Harjo, Joy
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionApril 28, 2021
Call Number: 811 H2816H-1
Joy Harjo is the current Poet Laureate of the United States, whose tenure began on June 19, 2019, and is the first Native American to hold this position. Last year she was elected to a third term by Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress. Harjo began her first year with a poetry reading and concert. Never one to regard unexpected events as anything other than a part of the cycle of life, the pandemic fired up Harjo's exceptional resilience, versatility and... Read Full Review
-
Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder
by Willberg, T. A.
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryApril 20, 2021
Imagine the following: A chilling murder, a secret detective agency with offices located in a myriad of tunnels located beneath London, and a young apprentice determined to find the killer in order to clear one of her closest friends of the murder. In her debut novel, which is the beginning of a new series, T.A. Willberg puts a decidedly fantastic spin on the mystery novel.
Marion Lane has had a few challenging years. When her mother died, she was forced to move in with her grandmother, who wants nothing more than for Marion to find a well-off young man, and... Read Full Review
-
Start With a Small Guitar: Poems
by Thompson, Lynne
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionApril 14, 2021
Call Number: 811 T4733-1
In this collection by Lynne Thompson the poems are about love and longing that combine the ethereal, the earthy, with unexpected modern incantations to people, places, flora and fauna. These modern lyrical poems are not predictable. Poems of substance require at least a second reading, and these poems require more than that. They are mostly joyous and frequently made me laugh out loud, recognizing Thompson’s honesty about relationships: what we expect, what we get and how we deal with our thoughts and emotions in that context. The title of each poem is like wrapping paper around... Read Full Review
-
Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose
by Giovanni, Nikki
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionApril 7, 2021
Call Number: 811 G5115-16
Poetry is the most intense and concentrated form of writing, using words, metre, rhyme and format to express thoughts, feelings and ideas that can be fact or fiction. It gets at the marrow of truth and truth-telling using words to create an image, not a picture, of an idea. In expository/essay writing, a subject statement is presented, then followed with paragraphs that have content to support the subject. An essay takes the time and space to implore, convince and to tell you something. Poetry slams on the brakes and makes you reconsider what was written. It may very well... Read Full Review
-
The Narrowboat Summer
by Youngson, Anne
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryMarch 30, 2021
Eve has spent the last 30 years working for an engineering/manufacturing company managing various projects and climbing the corporate ladder. Suddenly, she has been “released” from her position. She is a corporate scapegoat for systemic problems within her company and, as the only woman at her management level, the seemingly obvious choice for where to place the blame. While she is excellent at her job, and planning/execution is her specialty, she has no idea how to deal with this unexpected development in her ordered life.
Sally has decided that she can no longer... Read Full Review
-
Good Neighbors: A Novel
by Langan, Sarah
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryMarch 22, 2021
The first season of The Twilight Zone in 1960 included an episode written by show creator Rod Serling entitled “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.” Serling presented a block of homes, filled with “typical” American families, on a summer evening. There is a bright flash of light, whose origin is unknown. Then various utilities, the foremost of which is their electricity, begin to behave unreliably. As the residents’ questions grow, panic begins to develop and overtake them resulting in wild accusations, and, ultimately death. Sterling’s closing narration for the... Read Full Review
-
Nobody ever asked me about the girls : women, music, and fame
by Robinson, Lisa (Music journalist)
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionMarch 16, 2021
Call Number: 789 R6515
With more than 40 years covering the world of rock music, chronicler and journalist Lisa Robinson knows very well what the situation was and is for female musicians who perform and record in this genre. She wrote about the rock music scene in her memoir, There goes gravity : a life in rock and roll, and it was all about the guys. She seems to have been witness at the creation for many a career, performance, disaster or... Read Full Review
-
The madwoman and the Roomba : my year of domestic mayhem
by Loh, Sandra Tsing
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionMarch 8, 2021
Call Number: 810.92 L833-2
Reading Sandra Tsing Loh leaves me breathless, and in the best possible way, from too much laughing. Reading her is akin to watching Robin Williams when he performed his one-person comedy routines. She has, as he had, that rare ability to come at us like jazz musicians riffing: fast and furious, insightful and poignant, enlightening and maddening. There are no one-liners here, but multi-prong judgments that Loh is very adept at, having written quite a few books that you can find here. Her work is as... Read Full Review
-
The daughters of Kobani : a story of rebellion, courage, and justice
by Lemmon, Gayle Tzemach
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionMarch 2, 2021
Call Number: 956.9 L554
What began as the Arab Spring in early 2010, spread to country after country, in a region known as the MIddle East. What began in Syria as a minor protest, devolved into a major catastrophic war that has not ended, and has had major effects worldwide. Caught up in all of this were the Kurds, an ethnic group native to Western Asia, with many of them living in parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. The complex intricacies of their cultures, values, religions (groups and sub-groups)and political ideas are delineated as clearly as possible by journalist Lemmon. Theirs is a... Read Full Review
-
The atmosphere of crime, 1957
by Parks, Gordon, 1912-2006
Reviewed by: Alice S., Librarian, Art, Music & Recreation Dept.February 22, 2021
Call Number: 770.914 P252-16
In 1957, Gordon Parks, the first African-American staff photographer at Life magazine (and at that time still the only African-American staff photographer at Life) was sent on assignment to photograph “Crime in the U.S.,” accompanying police officers on their beats and visiting locations such as prisons, hospitals, and morgues in four major U.S. cities (New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles). Over the course of six weeks he took 300 color photographs, although only twelve were eventually published in Life in its September 9, 1957 issue... Read Full Review
-
Parks x Ali
by Parks, Gordon, 1912-2006.
Reviewed by: Alice S., Librarian, Art, Music & Recreation Dept.February 16, 2021
Call Number: 770.914 P252-15
Famed photographer Gordon Parks photographed Muhammad Ali twice, both times for Life magazine. The first occasion was in 1966 as Ali was being attacked in the press for his anti-war stance (a few months before Parks photographed him, Ali had filed as a conscientious objector to the draft). The second time was in 1970 as Ali was making his professional comeback after losing his boxing career for three years due to his refusal to fight in the Vietnam War.
While only several photos were published in Life for each article, Parks took many more,... Read Full Review
-
Soul food love : healthy recipes inspired by one hundred years of cooking in a Black family
by Randall, Alice, 1959-
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionFebruary 8, 2021
Call Number: 641.5973 R1875
Mother and daughter writers, Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams, respectively, have written a family history as told through food and cooking. Caroline Randall Williams has rewritten traditional soul food recipes so that the dishes are healthier, and in some cases even tastier. Their family history is based on "five kitchens and three generations of women who came to weighing more than two hundred pounds, and a fourth generation that absolutely refused ever to weigh two... Read Full Review