Recent Acquisitions
When you’re looking for a good new read, it’s never a bad idea to stick with award winning authors- like Louise Erdrich. She’s got the National Book Award, PEN/ Saul Bellow, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and more laurels to rest on. Her newest, La Rose, takes place in North Dakota and centers on two families who are linked together by death and growth and a shared son named Dusty.
Coming up in March, Lonnie Braxton will be hosting a discussion of the award-winning book Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson. If you’ve ever attended a movie screening hosted by Braxton (there two more opportunities to do so this month, Fridays in February at 6:30pm, see details here), you’ll know that he is an excellent moderator and a very knowledgeable host. Just Mercy has been compared to To Kill a Mockingbird, so stop by for what is sure to be a thought provoking read on the subjects of justice and tolerance.
You may know Carrie Brownstein from the TV show in which she co-stars and co-writes: Portlandia. This memoir does not include that part of her life, but Brownstein has long been a creative explorer & performer. Her start on the stage began with the Olympia, Washington-based band Sleater-Kinney. In an interview with Bust magazine last year, she talked about some of her younger fans: “They just see me as this person they know from television, and then they listen to Sleater-Kinney, and they think: ‘What is this scary music? You seem so happy on the show. What’s wrong? Why are you so upset?’ ” With Brownstein’s sharp eye and deprecating tongue, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl gives us those clues about what makes Brownstein “hungry” and “modern.”
What is stranger than fiction? Politics! Historical novel Finale “captures the crusading ideologies, blunders, and glamour of the still- hotly- debated Reagan years, taking readers to the political gridiron of Washington, the wealthiest enclaves of Southern California, and the volcanic landscape of the Iceland, where the president engages in two almost apocalyptic days of negotiation with Mikhail Gorbachev.” The cover of Finale is eye-catching and the plot is equally well designed; such are the machinations of our world leaders!
Tom Brokaw writes in the first sentence of his memoir, “In the seasons of life, I have had more than my fair share of summers.”
In 2013, however, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma- a treatable but incurable blood cancer. In the intimate A Lucky Life Interrupted, he writes with his well-known journalistic voice on his first year of treatment, his time left, his life past, and hope for the future.
Yes indeed, we now have Yes Please , the autobiography of the silly and successful Amy Poehler. It’s just one of many new books up for “adoption” during our annual Adopt-A-Book fundraiser. There’s still time to pick one up (or a few!) before December 1st! Come in and make a selection or, click here to see what’s available, and here to adopt your books online!
The MacArthur Fellowship, colloquially known as the “Genius Grant”, comes with no-strings-attached six-figure stipend. The 2015 Fellows were recently announced, let’s see how many of the artists we have represented in our collection!
We’ll start first with a new book, Between the World and Me, by the journalist and author, and now recipient of a MacArthur grant, Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Presented within the framework a father addressing his son, Coates confronts our country’s history and leads it to our current systems of racial injustice. He shares also from his own experience of living in America and in a black body. According to Toni Morrison, Between the World and Me is “required reading.”
We’re hosting an open book discussion around Harper Lee’s just released second novel. If you register for the August 12th event, you’ll find access to our very hot-off-the-press copies of the book, Go Set a Watchman. You’ve heard all about the sensational origins of this manuscript and have read the reviews, now check it out yourself! (Go Set a Watchman Book Discussion is August 12, 2015 at 5:30PM. Copies can be found at the Circulation Desk. Call at 860-447-1411 or click here to register.)
Looking for a summer dessert recipe? How about a summer dessert recipe that comes with a beautifully illustrated history? If so, A Fine Dessert: Four Centuries, Four Families, One Delicious Treat is the book for you!
Sometimes it’s hard to make sense of the collective public outrages made so visible by social media. Jon Ronson follows a few “recipients of famous public shamings” and sheds light on the merciless circle of public shame that social media enables. He also provides an implicating understanding of a cyber-bully, and argues that shaming is a form of social normalizing. Twitter activities have mystifying consequences on the lives of even non-public persons, and So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed delves, with empathy and humor, into the meaning of the renaissance in public shaming.