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Staff Recommendations

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  • Book cover for The Children on the Hill

    The Children on the Hill

    by McMahon, Jennifer

    August 15, 2022

    Monster. The word brings to mind ugly, misshapen creatures wreaking havoc wherever they go. Perhaps the most famous monster is Frankenstein’s monster from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It’s been over 200 years since the teenaged Shelley created one of the most enduring tales of all time. And over the last two centuries, many have pondered who is the true monster in Shelley’s story? Is it Victor Frankenstein’s creation, the person he created from the parts of others, spurned by everyone, including his own creator, forced to live an existence alone and in constant fear? Or... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for The unexpected Mrs. Pollifax.

    The unexpected Mrs. Pollifax.

    by Gilman, Dorothy, 1923-2012.

    Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & Fiction

    August 9, 2022

    Call Number: M

    In 2020, during those early weeks of COVID lock-down, when we were not allowed into our Los Angeles Public Libraries, and the present and the future were beyond comprehension, it was good to have some personally owned books at home. There were two series that I turned to. One was the Mrs. Pollifax series. At the time, I owned only a hardcopy of Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled, which is the last book in the series, and that caused me to quickly... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for Siren Queen

    Siren Queen

    by Vo, Nghi

    August 1, 2022

    On a whim, a young Chinese-American girl pays with an inch of her hair so that she and he sister can see Romeo and Juliet at the new nickelodeon in their neighborhood. From that moment on, she has a single desire: to be a motion picture star. Not simply an actress, but a star. Quite a goal for a young Asian-American girl in 1930s Los Angeles. Luli Wei is not her real name. It actually belongs to her sister, stolen in a moment of panic while meeting with the head of Wolfe Studios. But no one in the movie business uses their real names. To provide your employer with your... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for Remarkably Bright Creatures

    Remarkably Bright Creatures

    by Van Pelt, Shelby

    July 25, 2022

    After her husband’s death, Tova Sullivan took a job cleaning the Sowell Bay Aquarium. She works evenings after the aquarium has closed to the public, mopping the floors, clearing the trash cans, and cleaning the glass walls of the exhibition tanks until they shine. As she works her way around the circular building, she chats with the various occupants of the aquarium. She knows them all very well and while she believes it is pointless to carry on one sided conversations with them, it makes her feel less lonely while she is working.

    Marcellus is the giant Pacific... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for The memory theater

    The memory theater

    by Tidbeck, Karin, 1977-

    Reviewed by: Andrea Borchert, Librarian, Koreatown Media Lab

    July 18, 2022

    In The Memory Theater a girl and a boy, Dora and Thistle, escape from a palace during a perpetual, eternal summer evening party, where nobles murder and devour children as a regular part of the evening entertainment, somewhere between dessert and rounds of croquet on the lawn. Unfortunately for Dora and Thistle, one of the nobles, the monstrous and fabulously dressed Lady Augusta, follows them as they flee across worlds. 

    The line between fairy tales and the horror genre is incredibly porous. But few stories that I have read straddle that line as... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for The Book Woman's Daughter

    The Book Woman's Daughter

    by Richardson, Kim Michele

    July 11, 2022

    In 2019, Kim Michele Richardson told the story of Cussy Mary Carter and her work as a Pack Horse Librarian in The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. Now, in 2022,  Richardson returns to tell the next chapter in Cussy Mary’s story, which actually belongs to her daughter, in The Book Woman’s Daughter.

    It has been almost 17 years since the events recounted in The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for Run towards the danger : confrontations with a body of memory

    Run towards the danger : confrontations with a body of memory

    by Polley, Sarah

    Reviewed by: David B., Librarian, InfoNow

    July 5, 2022

    Call Number: 812.092 P773

    The six essays in this book by the acclaimed Canadian actress (The Sweet Hereafter) and filmmaker (Stories We Tell), Sarah Polley, provide a recounting of her emotional and physical scars in steady, meticulous prose. The first essay, “Alice Collapsing,” chronicles her childhood bout with severe stage fright during a... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for Never Been Kissed

    Never Been Kissed

    by Janovsky, Timothy

    June 27, 2022

    As Wren Roland celebrates his 22nd birthday with his best friends and roommates, Mateo and Avery, he begins to lament the fact that he has never been kissed. He’s been close, but has yet to experience what his degree in film studies has convinced him will be a life-altering and incredibly romantic experience. As the evening progresses, and the drinks flow, Wren finds himself more than a bit drunk in front of his computer. He clicks on the email folder labeled “tentacle porn” (It seems like the perfect hiding place! Who would ever look in there?) where he has four email drafts to... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for One last stop

    One last stop

    by McQuiston, Casey

    June 21, 2022

    A young woman on her way to her first day of classes at Brooklyn College spills coffee on herself just prior to boarding the subway. Another young woman on the train comes to her rescue with a scarf and a kind word. The next time the student boards the train, her rescuer is there. They declare each other “coffee-girl” and “subway girl” and begin chatting. Is it a “meet cute” of the type employed in almost every/any romance novel? Absolutely! But, in the hands of Casey McQuiston, author of 2019’s fantastic Red, White, and Royal Blue, it is the beginning of so much more!... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for Watermelon & red birds : a cookbook for Juneteenth and black celebrations

    Watermelon & red birds : a cookbook for Juneteenth and black celebrations

    by Taylor, Nicole A.

    Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & Fiction

    June 14, 2022

    Call Number: 641.5973 T2445-1

    This is the first cookbook devoted entirely to celebrating the significance of Juneteenth. “The title combines a native-born African fruit–watermelon–with the African American and Native American adage that red birds flying in sight are ancestors returning to spread beautiful luck.” Writer and scholar Nicole A. Taylor states, “This is my declaration of independence from the traditional boundaries of so-called Southern food and soul food. It’s my fulfillment of the dreams of those domestics, inventors, bakers, and bartenders who form the base of my family tree. It is my statement... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for One-Shot Harry

    One-Shot Harry

    by Phillips, Gary

    June 6, 2022

    Call Number: M

    The year is 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. is about to hold his Freedom Rally at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles; William H. Parker is Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department; John F. Kennedy is President of the United States; Pat Brown is the Governor of California; Gas is $0.29 a gallon and ground beef is less than $0.50 a pound. It is in this world, which is as different as it is similar to ours, that Gary Phillips sets his new novel One-Shot Harry.

    Harry Ingram is a freelance news photographer in Los Angeles. He also works side-jobs serving legal papers. Harry... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for The Quarter Storm

    The Quarter Storm

    by Henry, Veronica G.

    June 1, 2022

    Vodou priestess Mambo Reina Dumond learned the practices and customs of Vodou as a child from her father, while her family was living in Haiti. She is inhabited by the spirit of Erzulie, which makes her a gifted practitioner of water magic. Reina operates a small business behind her home in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans for both tourists and locals alike.

    Shortly after an unusual session with a first time client, Reina is informed that a crime has been committed in the apartment above one of the more high-profile Vodou shops in the French Quarter. The... Read Full Review

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