Staff Recommendations
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Happiness is Baking: Cakes, Pies, Tarts, Muffins, Brownies, Cookies: Favorite Desserts From the Queen of Cake
by Heatter, Maida
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionAugust 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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Red, White & Royal Blue
by McQuiston, Casey
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryAugust 19, 2019
Alex Claremont-Diaz is the 21-year-old First Son Of The United States (FSOTUS). He has lived in the White House with his older sister, June (FDOTUS) for the last three years, during his mother’s first term in office. He is a media darling, being continually followed, photographed and dissected by the press. He, June, and Nora, the granddaughter of the Vice President, are referred to as “The White House Trio,” three ambitious and beautiful, young people of which the press and the American public cannot get their fill.
Alex is scheduled to attend the latest Royal Wedding in London,... Read Full Review
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What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction
by Morrison, Toni
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionAugust 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... Read Full Review
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The Survival of Margaret Thomas
by Howison, Del
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryAugust 5, 2019
The Western has been an established genre of fiction for well over a hundred years. In the early to mid20th century, Western fiction grew in popularity, largely driven by similarly themed motion pictures and television programs. In the 1970s, however, the genre began to fall out of favor with the general population. Even so, there has always been an audience interested in new stories or masterful reworkings of existing tales. Indeed, there are continual rumblings of a comeback for the Western genre. All that may be necessary for this to happen is a strong story, with all of the genre... Read Full Review
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Shoot for the moon : the space race and the extraordinary voyage of Apollo 11
by Donovan, Jim, 1954-
Reviewed by: David B., Librarian, InfoNowJuly 29, 2019
Call Number: 629.454 A644Do
James Donovan’s Shoot For The Moon is the first book about America’s triumphant moon landing in 1969 that puts the feat in its proper context. Donovan balances a technical analysis of space flight with gripping biographical details about the major players involved in the three NASA programs of the 1960s: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy gave a speech before Congress exhorting America to send a man to the moon by end of the decade. The date was less than three weeks after Alan B. Shepard became the first American to go into space. Shoot For The... Read Full Review
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Wild LA: Explore the Amazing Nature in and Around Los Angeles
by Higgins, Lila M.
Reviewed by: Andrea Borchert, Librarian, Koreatown Media LabJuly 22, 2019
Call Number: 570.9794 H636
Sometimes LA seems like an endless stretch of strip malls and freeways. But LA is more than that! LA is part of the California Floristic Province, a biodiversity hotspot. In its wide range of habitats, from deserts to beaches, there are many wonderful, fascinating plants, animals, and fungi figuring out how to live side by side with us.
The way flora and fauna survive this concrete jungle is a story, in and of itself. Or rather, it’s thousands of different stories. The way everything, from parakeets to western sycamore, lives in LA can be difficult to... Read Full Review
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Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You
by Moore, Scotto
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryJuly 15, 2019
It’s happened to all of us. You hear a song and it instantly raises your spirits. Or, you hear a different song and it instantly makes you feel melancholy. Some music makes you want to move, while other music makes you want to relax and be still. Something reminds you of a song and then it is repeatedly playing in your head all day long. Music elicits reactions, whether wanted or unwanted. But what if music were used, intentionally, for questionable purposes? This is the intriguing question explored by Scotto Moore in Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You.
A long-time music... Read Full Review
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Fay Wray and Robert Riskin : a Hollywood memoir
by Riskin, Victoria,
Reviewed by: Nicholas Beyelia, Librarian, History and Genealogy DepartmentJuly 8, 2019
Call Number: 812.09 R595
Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir is a meticulous and heartfelt account of the lives of the titular couple that was written by their daughter, Victoria Riskin. The book is a traditional biography, however the author’s relationship to the subjects gives the book resonance and depth that few show business bios can approach.
The book is structured so each chapter alternates its focus between Riskin and Wray before it leads up to their meeting and marriage in the 1940s. It then follows Wray’s efforts to support her family following Riskin’s death in 1955. Along the... Read Full Review
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Middlegame
by McGuire, Seanan
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryJuly 1, 2019
Roger Middleton is a rather typical seven-year-old boy. He lives with his adopted parents in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He seems to be exceptionally gifted when it comes to grammar, spelling, anything to do with languages, really. But he struggles with even the most basic levels of mathematics.
Dodger Cheswich is not a typical seven-year-old girl. She lives with her parents in Palo Alto, California and she is a mathematical genius. She appears to be able to comprehend and master increasingly complex levels of equations far beyond her limited number of years. But she doesn’t deal well... Read Full Review
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Snow White Learns Witchcraft: Stories and Poems
by Goss, Theodora
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryJune 24, 2019
"Fairy tales are another kind of Bible, for those who know how to read them.” 'Red as Blood and White as Bone' in Snow White Learns Witchcraft by Theodora Goss
Theodora Goss is an award winning-author, a professor of literature and writing at both Boston University and the Stonecoast MFA program. Her debut novel, The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (2017) and its sequel, European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman (2018) are wonderful and long-overdue adventures with a group of “girl monsters or monstrous young women,” who are the... Read Full Review
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Other people's houses
by Segal, Lore Groszmann.
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionJune 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... Read Full Review
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The Reign of the Kingfisher: A Novel
by Martinson, T. J.
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryJune 10, 2019
The first appearance of Batman was in Detective Comics in the Spring of 1939, making 2019 the character’s 80th anniversary. Batman is a sharp contrast to most “superheroes” in that he possesses no “super” powers. His prowess, whether physical or intellectual, comes from rigorous training and study. He patrols the fictional metropolis of Gotham City, an urban center so rife with criminal proceedings that law enforcement simply cannot stem the tide of illegal activities. While Batman has the tacit endorsement of the local police force, through his unauthorized partnership with Police... Read Full Review