Staff Recommendations
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The escape artist
by Fremont, Helen
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionNovember 9, 2020
Call Number: 940.5315296 F8723
There are many factual accounts of people who have survived and lived through torture, terrorist attacks, wars, genocides. Many survivors go on to live productive, successful lives, but suffer residual emotional and psychological trauma that are not obvious to them or to others. In this sequel to After long silence: a memoir, Helen Fremont writes about those very effects that are not visible to... Read Full Review
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Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre
by Brooks, Max
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryNovember 2, 2020
What if Sasquatch is real? What if there actually is a large, hair-covered hominid that lives in the undeveloped areas of the Pacific Northwest and is occasionally sighted by unsuspecting humans? What if a natural disaster displaced these creatures and their prey, forcing them to move closer to human settlements? And what if a small group of humans, desiring to get back to nature created a community that allowed them to live a distance from more urban environments while maintaining and relying on the creature comforts... Read Full Review
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Fright Favorites: 31 Movies to Haunt Your Halloween and Beyond
by Skal, David J.
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryOctober 26, 2020
Call Number: e-Book
As the days grow short and the nights grow longer, as the air gets cooler and the leaves on the trees shift in color from green to brown, red, and gold, we know that we have moved into autumn. And autumn is the time for movies that provide chills, from gentle and humorous to frightful and fearsome. If you are looking to find that perfect movie for an autumnal eve, then David J. Skal has the perfect resource: Fright Favorites: 31 Movies to Haunt Your Halloween and Beyond.
Skal, a horror media expert and enthusiast, began his career with the 1990’s ... Read Full Review
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On all fronts : the education of a journalist
by Ward, Clarissa, 1980-
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionOctober 19, 2020
Call Number: 809.295092 W257
War is hell for those who fight and definitely for civilian populations caught in the crosshairs. War correspondents, who are embedded with troops, have their own versions of hell, which Clarissa Ward writes about in her autobiography and chronicle of what it is like to be a broadcast journalist reporting from the world’s nastiest streets. If you think of any wars, conflicts, natural disasters that have occurred over the past 19 years, Clarissa Ward has been there to report on them: in parts of Africa, Afghanistan, Burma, China, Egypt, Gaza, Greenland, Iraq, Israel, Japan,... Read Full Review
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Crossings : consisting of three manuscripts
by Landragin, Alex
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryOctober 14, 2020
Crossings, Alex Landragin’s debut novel is as difficult to define as it is to describe. At its most elemental, Crossings is a collection of three novellas that collectively tell a story. There are elements of several different genres present: historical fiction, mystery, fantasy, and romance. And, perhaps most surprising, the novel can be read in two distinctly different ways: traditionally (beginning on page one and reading through the book sequentially), or it can be read it using the “Baroness sequence” as described in the novel’s preface, which leads readers to an... Read Full Review
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The well-gardened mind : the restorative power of nature
by Stuart-Smith, Sue
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionOctober 8, 2020
Call Number: 615.8515 S932
For many years Sue Stuart-Smith regarded gardening as a form of “outdoor housework.” It was the life of the mind that she sought, and states, “ … I would no more have plucked a weed than baked a scone or washed the curtains.” She knew that gardening was a part of her family’s history, which she writes about. For her, it was not until some crises and interactions took place, that Stuart-Smith changed her attitude about gardening, which resulted in a profound refocus about her personal and professional life. There were gardening connections in her past, and there would be more in... Read Full Review
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Our riches
by Adimi, Kaouther, 1986-
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionSeptember 29, 2020
Kaouther Adimi has based this historical novel on Les Vraies Richesses (Our True Wealth), a famous Algerian bookstore, which was a publishing house and a lending library. In 1935 Edmond Charlot established the store in the city of Algiers, with the motto “by the young, for the young.” The store was destroyed several times because of wars, revolutions, and changing economies. Charlot was from a French colonial family, and was born in Algeria. Those Europeans born in Algeria between 1830 and 1962 were known as Pied-Noirs, about and for whom there continues to be controversy. ... Read Full Review
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Before She Was Helen
by Cooney, Caroline B.
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibrarySeptember 23, 2020
Helen Stephens lives a quiet life in Sun City, a retirement community in South Carolina. She regularly plays cards in the clubhouse with other residents of the complex, including her neighbors Joyce and Johnny. While she is mostly retired, she continues teaching some Latin classes at a local high school. She has what she needs and most of what she wants. But a single careless act will set in motion a series of events that will upend, and ultimately threaten, Helen’s quiet life in Caroline B. Cooney’s new novel
As Helen begins another day, she sends her daily... Read Full Review
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The last days of night
by Moore, Graham, 1981-
Reviewed by: Holly Z., LibrarianSeptember 14, 2020
In 1888 on a busy street in Manhattan, New York City, a young man, who works for Western Union, attempts to connect two direct current wires by mistake. The workman’s arms jolted with orange sparks, a blue flame shot from his mouth and set his hair on fire. Then it melted his clothes and the skin off his bones….
Witnessed by 200 people, as well as the young lawyer Paul Cravath, the terrifying event begins this historical novel about a compelling and often mysterious story about the so-called current wars. Which is better, direct or alternating current? A bitter... Read Full Review
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It Came From the Sky
by Sedoti, Chelsea
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibrarySeptember 8, 2020
Call Number: YA
Sixteen-year-old Gideon Hofstadt prefers an orderly life and an orderly future. In his schoolwork, he excels in the sciences, but struggles with the vagaries of the humanities. It is the same way he struggles with his relationships with his family, friends, and his maybe boyfriend, Owen. Gideon cares about Owen, but as the only other gay student in his school, Gideon fears that Owen really doesn’t care about him, as there aren’t any local alternatives for either of them. When he creates a seismograph and wants to test it, he allows, against his better judgement, his older brother... Read Full Review
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The Operator
by Berg, Gretchen
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryAugust 31, 2020
In a world where most people walk around with a telephone on their person that can allow them to contact someone anywhere in the country, or the world, easily and directly, it may be a bit of a shock to realize that as little as 50 years ago many people relied upon the assistance of an operator to connect their calls. Operators, primarily women, manually connected callers to the person with whom they wanted to speak. Another marked change, societal rather than technological between the age of operators and today, has to do with personal information. Again, it may seem odd to... Read Full Review
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Zandra Rhodes : 50 fabulous years in fashion
by Rhodes, Zandra, 1940-
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionAugust 26, 2020
Call Number: 746.52 R477-1 folio
Who is that woman on the cover of the book? A holdover, punk rock fashion designer? The appearance, clothes and art are by design, but her name is not. For over 50 years, Dame Zandra Rhodes has been actively designing textiles, clothes and anything else that she has the creative impulse to work on. Friends, designers, artists, fashion designers and colleagues pay homage to her in this collection of essays. There are fond remembrances of this iconoclast, for whom originality is not a word, but a way of life. As they tell it, she was always full of surprises, and she still is... Read Full Review