Like many people stuck at home with some spare time on my hands I’ve been reading more. For most of that time I have been binge reading/listening/looking at the Rivers of London Series. Its technically called the Peter Grant Series but I think Rivers of London sounds cooler. It consists of eight novels, two novellas…
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Our patron’s thoughts on the book: “The author is a local woman ( Peabody) and has written four books, her latest, Willow Run, was writtnen at the young age of 95. Her other books are Kwa Heri Means Goodbye, A Door Just Opened Africa Calling Me Back and recently, Willow Run I have not been…
Our patron’s thoughts on the book: “Every page is a gem. Interlocking stories of Olive Kitteridge as she and her neighbors in Crosby, Maine, deal with love, families, aging, disappointment and the endearing foibles of human beings.” The publisher’s summary: “The iconic Olive struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but also…
Our patron’s thoughts on the book: Tyler’s wonderdul quirky characters work their way through relationships and life. As Micah, a middle-aged computer repairman, begins to understand himself and the choices he has made, he says, “I am a roomful of broken hearts.” This is one of Tyler’s best, with a lovely sweet subtle ending. The…
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is a captivating, exploratory speculative fiction novel set in a pandemic-ravaged United States. The narrative follows the entwined stories of several people across time, all connected to an actor who dies the night the pandemic begins. St. John Mandel’s writing is intimate and lyrical in this melancholy work…
Our patron’s thoughts on the book: Story of an American family with 12 children – six of whom are diagnosed schizophrenic. Fascinating look at mental illness in America through the mid-20th century. Riveting detail about the scientific pursuit for answers, medical treatments, social stigmas associated with diagnosis, and the impact of all these factors in…
“Combining memoir with artistic and philosophical musings, the poet and National Book Critics Circle Award winner (for My Alexandria) begins by confessing his obsession with the 17th-century Dutch still life that serves as the title of this book. As he analyzes the items depicted in the painting, he skillfully introduces his thoughts on our intimate…
“As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. Yet in spite of her repressive upbringing, Deborah grew into an independent-minded…
A few collections and an anthology I am eager to lean into (that may reappear as recommendations next year during National Poetry Month): Deluge – Leila Chatti “In her early twenties, Leila Chatti started bleeding and did not stop. Physicians referred to this bleeding as flooding. In the Qur’an, as in the Bible, the Flood…
Having just finished The Nightingale, a wonderful novel by Kristin Hannah, I was so excited to read it’s in production to become a movie, with an expected release date of December 2020! I’m not surprised The Nightingale was Goodreads Best Historical fiction novel of 2015 and the People’s Choice Award winner for best fiction in…
Garvey’s Choice – Nikki Grimes “Garvey’s father has always wanted Garvey to be athletic, but Garvey is interested in astronomy, science fiction, reading—anything but sports. Feeling like a failure, he comforts himself with food. Garvey is kind, funny, smart, a loyal friend, and he is also overweight, teased by bullies, and lonely. When his only…
The Spring 2019 issue of The Paris Review served as my introduction to Franny Choi, in the form of “Amid Rising Tensions on the Korean Peninsula.” I was floored by that poem. Even after reading it untold times I remain astonished by that poem. Shortly after that first encounter I read “Introduction to Quantum Theory,”…
The Art of Resistance by Justus Rosenberg is a wonderful memoir. The book, which reads like a novel, begins with the author’s childhood in Danzig (present-day Gdansk, Poland), and spans the years of WWII, detailing an extraordinary life. As a young man, studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, war breaks out, changing Justus’ life in…
Along with Pagie Lewis’ Star Struck, Abdurraqib’s A Fortune For Your Disaster was another one of my favorite collections released in 2019. (His previous collection, The Crown Ain’t Worth Much, might be one of my favorite collections full-stop.) The audiobook – read by Hanif Abdurraqib(!) – is available on Hoopla. About the collection: “In his…
Whether or not you’re familiar with Ian Fleming’s original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang story you can still dive right into Frank Cottrell Boyce’s follow-up series, which was given the seal of approval by Fleming’s estate: “’They’re incredibly protective of the car but they quite liked the idea of starting all over with a completely new…
Paige Lewis’ Space Struck claimed a high spot on my list of top five poetry collections released in 2019. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve returned to its pages, to various poems, to single lines. (The entire collection is a standout, but to name just a few of the poems I particularly loved:…
Throughout the month I will be recommending poetry collections available via Hoopla and/or Overdrive. In the meantime, a few related items of note: This snippet from the poem “Pain Can Warn Us Of Danger,” from the 2011 collection by G.C. Waldrep and John Gallaher, Your Father On the Train of Ghosts, is eerily relevant still:…
If your teen reader enjoys fantasy novels with deep, intricate worldbuilding, point them towards Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer (and its sequel Muse of Nightmares). Both titles—in ebook and audiobook formats—are available on Overdrive. About Strange the Dreamer: “The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian,…
“Award-winning author Amy Stewart takes readers on an around-the-world, behind-the-scenes look at the flower industry and how it has sought—for better or worse—to achieve perfection. She tracks down the hybridizers, geneticists, farmers, and florists working to invent, manufacture, and sell flowers that are bigger, brighter, and sturdier than anything nature can provide. There’s a scientist…
The library may be closed but our elibrary is open 24/7 with ebooks, audiobooks, movies, music and more. But today I’m going to be recommending ebooks and audiobooks you can have right now from our Hoopla service. The Relic Master by Christopher Buckley. Audiobook I was first exposed to Buckley’s quirky style when I read…
“Demonstrating the lasting brilliance of her voice and her prophetic vision, Essential Essays showcases Adrienne Rich’s singular ability to unite the political, personal, and poetical. The essays selected here by feminist scholar Sandra M. Gilbert range from the 1960s to 2006, emphasizing Rich’s lifelong intellectual engagement and fearless prose exploration of feminism, social justice, poetry,…
Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams (March 10) because it’s the sequel to The Bromance Book Club If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane (March 24) because it’s a “social media fauxmance” You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle (April 7) because it’s a lovers to enemies to lovers romantic comedy The Happy Ever…
I’ve just started How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, which attempts to help readers understand and uproot racism in themselves and the world around them. Kendi is a history professor and writer who won the 2016 National Book Award for Stamped from the Beginning. –Alex Lent
Because I can not help but fall down a rabbit hole when I stumble on one, as I have been reading Lakota America, I’ve also been putting together a Plains Indian reading list. This is by no means and exhaustive list but more of a combination of new books and classics on a very complex…
I normally wait to finish reading a book before I start righting about it on Read This but I have been enjoying Pekka Hämäläinen’s Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power so much I needed to stop halfway through and recommend it to you all. As Hämäläinen points out in his introduction, one of…
About The Odd Woman and the City: “A memoir of self-discovery and the dilemma of connection in our time, The Odd Woman and the City explores the rhythms, chance encounters, and ever-changing friendships of urban life that forge the sensibility of a fiercely independent woman who has lived out her conflicts, not her fantasies, in…
Writing histories of the British East India Company (EIC) is hard. First of all what is it? Its a multi-national corporation, its a business with governmental authority over a large portion of the Indian subcontinent , it has its own military, and navy. All of it headquartered in Leadenhall street in London. Secondly it has…
It’s no wonder that In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado has received multiple starred reviews, her stylistic choices throughout the book take you on a journey. The dream house that Carmen builds is a house in Bloomington, Indiana where she lives with her girlfriend. The journey leads us through a raw…
—“I’ve just started Poppy by Avi. So far, it’s wonderful.” At the very edge of Dimwood Forest stood an old charred oak where, silhouetted by the moon, a great horned owl sat waiting. The owl’s name was Mr. Ocax, and he looked like death himself. With his piercing gaze, he surveyed the lands he called…
Coinciding with the Harvey Weinstein trial, these are must-reads. Both are excellent reporting stories and rapid page turners filled with revelations that are at the same time disturbing, infuriating, and riveting. Add to that the backstory of surveillance and harassment of the reporters and alleged victims. If I had to pick one, I’d go with…
I, like many kids, was forced to read Canterbury Tales when I was in High School. Most of it flew right over my head and asking the teacher didn’t help much. For example what is a Franklin anyway? Liza Picard’s Chaucer’s People is the book I wish I had way back then. Picard takes the…
A patron thought City of Thieves was a “good read.” “During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an…
About The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, the patron said: “This book is truly remarkable. It is hard to describe, but it was just so magical and moving.” “When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be…until they find a…
A patron recently returned the two books below and said: “These were both really good.” The Paris Orphan – Natasha Lester “New York City/Paris, 1942: When American model Jessica May arrives in Europe to cover the war as a photojournalist for Vogue, most of the soldiers are determined to make her life as difficult as…
“So is it just human nature to believe that things happen for a reason – to find some shred of meaning even in the worst experiences?” To be honest, had it not been a book club selection I probably would have never heard about Christina Baker Kline’s novel Orphan Train. Despite this novel being extremely decorated…
“It the first day of November and so today, some will die.” Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races takes you to the small island village of Thisby. Despite Thisby’s rolling hills and picture-perfect coast, this is a place haunted by tragedy. Creatures known as water horses are vicious beings who emerge from the sea on the…
I will be the first to admit the title of This Is How You Lose The Time War was what originally drew to this book. Why yes I do want to learn how to lose a time war (although I probably could without much help). Turns out there is a fantastic book hiding under that…
“Obstetrician Dr. Sophie Savard returns home to the achingly familiar rhythms of Manhattan in the early spring of 1884 to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. With the help of Dr. Anna Savard, her dearest friend, cousin, and fellow physician she plans to continue her work aiding the disadvantaged women society would…
“Here is a thing everyone wants: A miracle. Here is a thing everyone fears: What it takes to get one.” Maggie Stiefvater’s standalone novel All the Crooked Saints is a story of family, darkness, miracles…and the occasional owl. Bicho Raro, Colorado is a mysterious, small desert community that is home to the Soria Family. The…
“Before he became a household name in America as perhaps our greatest hard-boiled crime writer, before his attachment to Lillian Hellman and blacklisting during the McCarthy era, and his subsequent downward spiral, Dashiell Hammett led a life of action. Based on original research across the country, The Lost Detective is the first book to illuminate…
When it comes to being social, Athena Graves is far more comfortable creating a mix tape than she is talking to cute boys—or anyone, for that matter—and her staunchly feminist views and love of punk rock aren’t exactly mainstream at her conservative Catholic high school. Then a malicious rumor that her popular, pretty, pro-life sister…
1983: a time of technological advances, great movies, music, and art. 1983: a time of terror, death, ignorance, and homophobia. For many, like Michael Bartolomeo and his best friend James, being gay means watching those around you die from AIDS while the world condemns you for who you love. Set in New York City, Helene…
Over the summer I did a deep dive into research on the Italian Renaissance focusing on business, government and warfare. Two caveats before I get started though: 1) Several of these books will be hard to find unless you use our ILL Department. They are small print runs from academic presses so they are usually…
“Former CIA case officer Charles Jenkins is a man at a crossroads: in his early sixties, he has a family, a new baby on the way, and a security consulting business on the brink of bankruptcy. Then his former bureau chief shows up at his house with a risky new assignment: travel undercover to Moscow…
“Charlotte Runcie has always felt pulled to the sea, lured by its soothing, calming qualities but also enlivened and inspired by its salty wildness. When she loses her beloved grandmother, and becomes pregnant with her first child, she feels its pull even more intensely. In Salt On Your Tongue, a mixture of memoir, social history,…
“After an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico destroys three oil rigs trying to revive a dying field, Kurt Austin and the NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency) Special Projects Team are tapped by the President of the United States to find out what’s gone wrong. The trail leads them to a brilliant billionaire in…
Teaching children how to be kind friends, how to see things through a growth mindset, how to cope with anger and sadness, and simply how to manage the highs and lows of life is perhaps just as important as teaching children how to add and subtract or sing the alphabet song. Within the past few…
“New York, 1879: An epic blizzard descends on Albany, devastating the city. When the snow finally settles, two newly orphaned girls are missing. Determined not to give up hope, Dr. Mary Sutter, a former Civil War surgeon, searches for the two sisters. When what happened to them is finally revealed, Dr. Sutter must fight the most…
Not many of us will ever experience the pressure that comes from being in the public eye. We won’t have to go through life wondering if the paparazzi is waiting around the corner to catch us buying something embarrassing, or waiting to snap a picture of something that might cause a scandal. For most, we…
A lot of folks have a very set view of Howard Stern. Now 65, he’s in a new phase of his life and while he still maintains some of his outrageous (some might say offensive) traits, he is one of the most successful interviewers in broadcasting. In this book, he shares the best of the…
“Six days ago, Joe Lynch was a happily married man, a devoted father, and a respected teacher living in a well-to-do London suburb. But that was before he spotted his wife’s car entering a hotel parking garage. Before he saw her in a heated argument with her best friend’s husband. Before Joe confronted the other…
Before William Adams (immortalized as John Blackthorn in James Clavel’s novel Shogun) became the first English samurai in the early 1600s there was Yasuke. Yasuke was an African slave/mercenary who ultimately become a samurai and served as a retainer of Ode Nobunaga a Japanese warlord from the Waring States period of Japanese history. Lockley’s African…
Growing up I loved to read books that let me immerse myself in imaginary words. From Hogwarts to Middle-Earth to Narnia, there was simply something magical about escaping reality and diving into the pages of a great book. While in college, I strayed away from reading fantasy novels and instead traded in my enjoyment reading…
The Figaro Trilogy caught my eye when I was doing some browsing in the Comcat Catalog about music/operas and I came across this title. Beaumarchais’s book discusses the history and social background of the 18th century world behind the plays: The Marriage of Figaro, The Barber of Seville, and The Guilty Mother. I never knew…
“London, 1880. “I’m dreadfully afraid someone is threatening to kill my wife …” When accounts clerk Ernest Stibbins approaches the World’s End investigation bureau with wild claims that his wife Albertina has been warned by her spirit guides that someone is out to harm her, the bureau’s owner Lily Raynor and her new employee Felix…
“For centuries, the kingdom of Iraden has been protected by the god known as the Raven. He watches over his territory from atop a tower in the powerful port of Vastai. His will is enacted through the Raven’s Lease, a human ruler chosen by the god himself. His magic is sustained by the blood sacrifice…
“Karen Russell’s comedic genius and mesmerizing talent for creating outlandish predicaments that uncannily mirror our inner in lives is on full display in these eight exuberant, arrestingly vivid, unforgettable stories. In“Bog Girl”, a revelatory story about first love, a young man falls in love with a two thousand year old girl that he’s extracted from…
When I was in college I worked in a meat packing plant. There was a little old Vietnamese lady who worked on the same line as I did doing odd jobs. One day in February she handed me an ornate red envelope. Inside the envelope was a two dollar bill. I looked at her rather…
This new account of the 1893 Trial of Lizzie Borden, accused and acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother in the home the family shared in 1892, is packed with facts and photographs the author uncovered during the course of her research, much of which draws on the collections of the archives in Fall River.…
Life doesn’t always give us what we want, but it often gives us what we need without our realization that what we need might be right in front of our faces. For Max that might mean Coq au Vinny, a failing food truck, run by Jordan and his melodramatic mother, Lydia. And Max might be…
I’m reading To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis. Willis is an incredible science fiction author, best known for Blackout/All Clear, a two-part novel about Oxford historians who travel back in time to observe (and not alter) historical events. They go back to World War II London. They’re amazing and stressful, and Willis…
I quite literally found this book by accident. I had an appointment at a local Minute Clinic to see about a persistent cough I had (turns out it was bronchitis) but was a little early. I ducked into a bookstore to kill sometime and the first book I laid eyes on was Lucy Ribchester’s Hourglass…
Raptus “Everywhere, a forceful, scrupulous intelligence is active- a luminous diction, a range of cadences.” So has Mark Strand written of the work of Joanna Klink, who has won acclaim for elegant, sensual, and musical poems that “remain alert to the reparations of beauty and song” (Dean Young). The linked poems in Klink’s third collection, Raptus,…
In our Today In History Reading List feature, we take the events of a particular day in history and try to give you a work of fiction and a work of non-fiction relating to those events. 1616 – Sir Walter Raleigh Freed From The Tower Of London Famous as an explorer Raleigh was also a…
“In December 1972, Jean McConville, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was…
On the night of October 30, 1938, thousands of Americans panicked when they believed that Martians had invaded Earth. What appeared to be breaking news about an alien invasion was in fact a radio drama based on H. G. Wells’s War of the Worlds, performed by Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre players. Some listeners became…
I have a love/hate relationship with biographies and memoirs. On the one hand they are the natural adjunct to reading history. My problem is (and I fully acknowledge this an unfair and possibly self-defeating) I only really care about the parts of the subjects life that occurred during the events that made them worthy of…
I tend to think of myself as an ambidextrous history buff. They say that history buffs either like big sweeping histories of political events and wars or they like the from the ground up histories of down trodden and, typically, unseen figures in history. I like both and I think that is in large part…
London, 1947: Besieged by the harshest winter in living memory, burdened by onerous shortages and rationing, the people of postwar Britain are enduring lives of quiet desperation despite their nation’s recent victory. Among them are Ann Hughes and Miriam Dassin, embroiderers at the famed Mayfair fashion house of Norman Hartnell. Together they forge an unlikely friendship, but their nascent hopes…
I just finished The Bees by Laline Paull, which was mesmerizing. I keep seeing it described as a fantasy novel, but I think that term doesn’t quite cut it. Magical realism might be better. It’s the story of a bee from the lowest caste in a rigid hive society who finds herself involved in different…
However long ago it was that I first came across word of Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree, it was right then I determined to read it immediately upon its release (Feb 26, for the curious). With less than a week to go, Shannon has an essay up on Boundless that looks at…
“Figuring explores the complexities of love and the human search for truth and meaning through the interconnected lives of several historical figures across four centuries—beginning with the astronomer Johannes Kepler, who discovered the laws of planetary motion, and ending with the marine biologist and author Rachel Carson, who catalyzed the environmental movement. Stretching between these figures…
I just recently discovered (and by discovered I mean a friend told me about them) the author Crystal King who writes cooking based historical fiction. Given that food and historical fiction are two of my favorite things I can’t wait to start these books. Also the covers are gorgeous. Feast of Sorrow: A Novel of…
Late last year the librarians of NOBLE came together to vote on their favorite books of 2018. Here are the winners by category. You can view the runners-up and the sort-list at NOBLE Book Awards 2018. Adult Fiction Finn, A. J. The woman in the window : a novel It isn’t paranoia if it’s really…
George Washington Black, or “Wash,” an eleven-year-old field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is terrified to be chosen by his master’s brother as his manservant. To his surprise, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can…
In How the Internet Happened, Brian McCullough chronicles the birth of the internet era for the first time, beginning in a dusty Illinois basement in the early nineties and ending with the introduction of the iPhone fifteen years later. Depicting the lives of now-famous innovators like Netscape’s Marc Andreessen and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, McCullough reveals surprising…
I’m reading How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery. It’s a memoir told through experiences with 13 different animals that impacted Montgomery’s life. Montgomery is best known for The Soul of an Octopus, which is on my TBR. ~ Alex Lent
Ever wanted to be king? Yeah don’t it kind of sucks. At least that’s the feeling I got from The Restless Kings On the other hand if you are curious what its like being a king in the 12th century this is the book for you. This book traces the events of Henry II from…
I’m rereading Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, which is one of my all-time favorite sci-fi books. It follows a character who isn’t able to discern gender and so the narrative doesn’t give many clues to the genders of the characters. At first this is somewhat confusing, but then it becomes clear that it doesn’t really…
When I was in high school I was an absolute World War II aircraft nut. I could identify all the planes. I knew all their specifications. I knew the exact course of the air war in Europe and the Pacific. It got so obsessive that my teachers worried that I wasn’t reading anything else. Then…
In our Today In History Reading List feature, we take the events of a particular day in history and try to give you a work of fiction and a work of non-fiction relating to those events. 1571 Royal Exchange Opens in London The Royal Exchange of London was based loosely on a similar institution in…
Today I’m honoring Katherine Kellgren, a renowned actress who voice acted more than 250 audiobooks. This month is the anniversary of her passing from a long battle with cancer that ended on 10 January, 2018. Kellgren is one of my all-time favourite audiobook performers; her voice acting brings characters to life like no other, and…
Here is another book I read over my vacation. The Secret World of Christoval Alvarez is another series by Ann Swinfen. Unlike the Booksellers Tales this one is set in Elizabethan London. Sadly it isn’t available in the NOBLE system but we can probably get it through ILL so just ask. Christoval Alvarez has way…
I am a big fan of Adriana Trigiani’s books. When I came across this book at the library I had to read it this one to add to my list of books to read by her. The book is set in late 1940’s South Philadelphia after World War II. The main character Nicky Castone is…
“Through the lens of Kelly Link’s vivid imagination, nothing is what it seems, and everything deserves a second look. From the multiple award- winning “The Faery Handbag,” in which a teenager’s grandmother carries an entire village (or is it a man-eating dog?) in her handbag, to the near-future of “The Surfer,” whose narrator (a soccer-playing…
You may remember my reading plans for my holiday vacation which I outlined in Jim’s Long Winters Nap Book List. As I suggested there it was an aspirational plan but one that I was somewhat successful in. Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants was one of those successes.This is a short book. Only about…
I finished They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera four days ago, but the ending of this novel and the entire plot that surrounds the characters has been weighing heavily on my mind since then. When one decides to read a book with such an ominous sounding title, one might expect the ending…
Dear readers, My name is Søren, and I’m a new reviewer/recommender for the Read This blog! I mostly read YA books in accessible formats like audiobooks, so know that almost all the books I review will be available in audio CD or digital audio format from MA public libraries. I’m going to start off my…
There are some people who believe that the universe sets plans in motion for a reason, and some that are cynical enough to believe that the universe is against them. Arthur is only in NYC for the summer, so looking for love would be a waste of his time, right? Ben has been cheated on…
A New Year And New History Books To Enjoy In It. Here are a few of the history books coming out in the new year that we are looking forward to. Queen of the World: Elizabeth II: Sovereign and Stateswoman. by Robert Hardman On today’s world stage, there is one leader who stands apart from…
In our Today In History Reading List feature, we take the events of a particular day in history and try to give you a work of fiction and a work of non-fiction relating to those events. 1154 Henry II of England Crowned King In Westminster Abbey Henry was the son of Matilda the daughter of…
The first two of the following titles are on top of the pile so that I can discuss them with sixth graders at the middle school (or, barring that, as a potential summer reading option). Foxheart – Claire LeGrand Twelve-year-old Quicksilver dreams of becoming the greatest thief in the Star Lands. With her faithful dog…
It is that time of year when I take a long vacation (i.e. for the rest of the year). This year I thought I would give you a list of books I’m planning on reading. The key part of that last sentence was “planning.” This list is entirely aspirational and many if not most will…
Charles Emmerson’s 1913 is a book I’ve been meaning to read since it came out in 2013. What drew me to it was actually my enjoyment of The Proud Tower by Barbara W Tuchman. You might remember Tuchman for Guns of August about the opening couple of months of World War I (Guns of August…
If you are a fan of Jane Austen and Mary Shelley I highly recommend reading the book Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel. Kessel combines the novels Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein that sparked my interest in coming across this book. I was curious to see how the two books combined would play out. Kessel uses Mary Bennett…
I just listened to Good Clean Fun by Nick Offerman, which is a memoir? a how-to-book? a satire? After enjoying Ruth Reichl’s My Kitchen Year (a cookbook? a memoir? a tell-all?), I thought I’d give this a try, but it wasn’t really for me. I’m currently listening to The Cleaner, by Brett Battles, a thriller…
A small sample of the many new history book titles arriving at the library soon How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England: A Guide for Knaves, Fools, Harlots, Cuckolds, Drunkards, Liars, Thieves, and Braggarts by Ruth Goodman Every age and social strata has its bad eggs, rule-breakers, and nose-thumbers. As acclaimed popular historian and author of How…
So what do you think of when you think of the Crimean War (assuming you think anything)? Charge of the Light Light Brigade or Florence Nightingale? Those are some of the only iconic images left from the war. Orlando Figes’ Crimean War is, not surprisingly, a much deeper dive. I’ve read a couple of Figes…
mood board noun an arrangement of images, materials, pieces of text, etc., intended to evoke or project a particular style or concept. The Wee Free Men The Wee Free Men – Terry Pratchett “The first in a series of Discworld novels starring the young witch Tiffany Aching. A nightmarish danger threatens from the other side…
In our Today In History Reading List feature, we take the events of a particular day in history and try to give you a work of fiction and a work of non-fiction relating to those events. 1386 Tamerlane Sacks Tblisi Tamerlane, aka Timur, was the Turkic Emir of Samarkand who conquered much of Central Asia…
I have to say I can’t actually remember how I stumbled on this book. I may have been trolling the internet for historical fiction and found it that way. At any rate I ended up with this rather esoteric work of historical fiction that I loved. Sadly we don’t have a copy of The Bookseller’s…
I’m almost done with When by Daniel H. Pink, which is about effective timing. Certain types of work are more effective at certain times of day. Being aware of this face and of our individual “chronotypes” (per wikipedia: “a chronotype is the behavioral manifestation of underlying circadian rhythms of myriad physical processes. A person’s chronotype…
