Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors
It’s that time of year again, when the American Library Association’s Caldecott Committee bestows a Medal and Honor prizes on the years’ most distinguished picture books.
Here are some strong contenders that are worth checking out before the announcements on January 25th.
Alice Randall isn’t an author that typically is at the top of many readers’ lists, having written several solid quietly received novels in the past and a few nonfiction works. But her latest, Black Bottom Saints, proves that Randall deserves more attention and a place on to-read lists.
Literary Hub is a great site with much, much great book content. But my favorite thing about it, I'll admit, is its offshoot site CrimeReads.
Madison Public Library has added more than 50 new cookbook titles to the collection thanks to a recent $1,000 grant from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for East Asian Studies’ (CEAS) East Asia in Wisconsin Library Program.
Strong heroines are practically a necessity in historical romance, but Diana Quincy introduces an especially memorable lady at the center of her new romance Her Night With the Duke, launching her Clandestine Affairs series. Lady Delilah Chambers knows the habits of England’s ton through and through: as the daughter of a marquis and the widow of an earl, Leela circulates among the highest of the high.
The American Indian Library Association has created a reading challenge called Read Native 2021. You can find a printable reading tracker for adults and for kids along with suggested reading lists, which will be updated throughout the year by returning to the AILA site.
To get started here are two Own Voices titles published in 2020.
Resolution lists often include starting a new exercise regime, eating more veggies, and home decluttering. Why not read more poetry? I believe this goal is achievable for all ages.
Find inspiration in 2021 by reading the seven-time NAACP Image Award-winning poet's latest collection of poems that span topics from the presidency to racism to making Frontier soup. Nikki Giovanni is honest, candid and utterly fascinating.
The idea of attending a Broadway show in person still seems so distant right now. Luckily, the library collects plays, musical scores and original cast recordings to help you get in the spirit.
Hurricane Season, a novel about the unexplained murder of a "witch” in a bottomed-out Mexican village, as told by several unreliable narrators, does not have paragraphs. If this is a deal breaker, move it along. Author Fernanda Melchor did not come to coddle, she came to slay.
Majella O'Neill lives in the small town Aghybogey in Northern Ireland that has been torn apart by The Troubles that have only recently "ended". To say that the Troubles have ended is a bit of a misnomer. Certainly the violent attacks between Catholics and Protestants have stopped for the most part, but the lingering divide between the factions continues. As the townsfolk go about their lives in this recovery period Majella observes it all from her job in a chip shop (the Catholic one, naturally).
Suraya has always found it hard to make friends and being a new student doesn't help. She does have one good friend, although it comes in the form of a grasshopper. It’s a pelesit, a spirit familiar that serves Survaya, inherited from her estranged grandmother. The book begins with the reader being empathetic of lonely Suraya and welcoming of her pelesit. You’ll be rooting for them thinking, “I’m glad he’s there to protect her from those bullies!” But soon things take a wicked turn, reminiscent of a popular horror movie when awful things start happening to Suraya herself.
The hero and heroine of Courtney Milan's The Duke Who Didn't have known each other since they were children. And not only have they known each other for years, they have loved as well. But their very different personalities and coping mechanisms have meant that they haven't yet figured that last fact out and have been operating at cross purposes for a few years. Until now.
The Brooklyn community of Gifford Place has seen its rough patches to be sure, but Sydney has always relished how her neighbors have banded together to help each other and hold the more insidious threats out of the historically Black neighborhood. But since Sydney has moved back to the venerable brownstone she’s always shared with her mother after a bruising divorce and mental breakdown, something has been off.
When I read that Loretta Chase's (a favorite historical romance author) newest novel would be a take-off of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, I wasn't super-enthused. Taming is not a favorite of mine and thus I came into this novel with only middling expectations. Those expectations were exceeded in pretty much every way. This is Chase's best outing in a number of years.
Too dramatic? I've never skied off piste in my life, so if you're like me, you can cross that off your worry list. If you don't even know what it means, don't do it! Just kidding! But not really. Skiing off piste means straying from designated slopes and routes. It can be extremely dangerous. Especially in this novel.
Anna Tromedlov hasn't had a gig in weeks from her temp agency so she jumps at the chance for a data entry position that might last a few weeks - even though she'll have to work on site (she prefers working from home). An offer to do some field work is unexpected but makes for a nice change of pace and she is promised that it's safe. Only it's not so much and what should have been a routine press conference by her villain boss turns into a violent attack when a hero crashes the event.
Bea Schumacher has had some rough mornings, but nothing quite like the one she wakes to after a particularly harrowing wine-filled evening. The plus-size fashion blogger and One to Watch heroine wakes after her hazy, booze-fueled tweet storm righteously demolishes the premiere of the popular Bachelor-esque dating show Main Squeeze, calling out the reality show’s obviously unreal portrayal of women’s bodies and beauty. Reeling from a heartrending breakup, Bea expects the resulting Twitter furor to blow over, but to her surprise, she gets a call from the show’s producer.
This is the time of year for top 10 lists. Booklist puts out various top 10 lists throughout the year, including Top 10 Sci-Tech Books. Are you looking for a good science or technology book to read? Then check out the below titles. These works of popular science cover a wide range of topics including birds, cats, whales, the universe, and much more.
If you ask anyone they'd probably tell you that 2020 wasn't their best year. I won't get into all the ways in which it was not good and really it was probably not good for each of you in different ways. But what was good was the books that were published. It's really been a stellar year for reading as demonstrated by all the awesome "best" lists that are coming out. If you don't believe me - and I'll admit to being a bit biased as I was on a panel that helped select some of the titles on one of these lists - take a look at a few of the lists that have come out so far.**
When Becky Cooper first heard the story as a student at Harvard, it seemed both unbelievable but still entirely feasible: in early January 1969, a Harvard professor killed a female archeology grad student after she threatened to expose their affair. After she failed to show for her general exams, she was discovered in her apartment with red ochre and necklaces arranged ritualistically over her bloodied, naked body. Harvard smothered the investigation, the murder remained unsolved, and the professor was still teaching in the same department, fully tenured.
