{ "1": { "id": 1, "title": "13 Ways Of Looking At A Fat Girl: Fiction", "author": "Mona Awad", "text": "

The title of this book might be off-putting — after all, the word “fat” makes people uncomfortable. We prefer euphemisms like “chubby” or “big.” But novelist Mona Awad uses the word deliberately. She wants her readers to understand how a struggle with body image can take over a life. Lizzie, the fat girl of the title, is an insecure, overweight young woman who lets men take advantage of her in humiliating ways. Later we meet her as an older, thin woman, obsessed with staying fit, but big or small, happiness eludes her. Awad is a fine writer with a keen sense of black humor, which makes this often sad story more entertaining than you might expect.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Lynn Neary" ], "isbn": "0143128485", "seamus": 472159879, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780143128489, "bookshop": 9780143128489, "cover": "0143128485", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780143128489", "isbn10": "0143128485", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 1, "book": "13 Ways Of Looking At A Fat Girl: Fiction", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'You Cannot Shame Me': 2 New Books Tear Down 'Fat Girl' Stereotypes", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/31/472132175/you-cannot-shame-me-two-new-books-tear-down-fat-girl-stereotypes" } ] }, "2": { "id": 2, "title": "32 Yolks: From My Mother's Table To Working The Line", "author": "Eric Ripert, with Veronica Chambers", "text": "

32 Yolks is as much a peek into the cutthroat restaurant world as it is a culinary tour of chef Eric Ripert’s childhood and first years in the kitchen. He pays tribute to the chef who inspired him as a young boy (he fed him bowls of chocolate mousse), and recalls the first dish he ever made in a Michelin three-star restaurant — a hollandaise sauce with 32 yolks. (Spoiler alert: It didn’t turn out well.)

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "staff picks", "family matters", "tales from around the world", "book club ideas" ], "reviewers": [ "Natalie Friedman Winston" ], "isbn": "0812992989", "seamus": 498730767, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780812992984, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0812992989", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780812992984", "isbn10": "0812992989", "links": [] }, "3": { "id": 3, "title": "A Change Of Heart", "author": "Sonali Dev", "text": "

A change of pace from last year’s A Bollywood Affair, Dev’s latest romance is emotional, intricate, and will squeeze your heart with painstaking precision. Cruise ship doctor Nic Joshi is drinking himself into oblivion as as he mourns his wife, Jen, who was killed after discovering a black market in organ transplants. When a passenger named Jess seeks him out, he refuses to believe her story: She received Jen’s heart, and she has a message for him. A Change of Heart is part thriller, part romance and part magical possibility, with a deeply satisfying and several-tissues-required happy ending.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "let’s talk about sex" ], "reviewers": [ "Sarah Wendell" ], "isbn": "1496705742", "seamus": 499339895, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781496705747, "bookshop": 9781496705747, "cover": "1496705742", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781496705747", "isbn10": "1496705742", "links": [] }, "4": { "id": 4, "title": "A Child Of Books", "author": "Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston", "text": "

It begins: “I am a child of books. I come from a world of stories. And upon my Imagination I float.” Avid readers of all ages will identify with this delightful picture book about a little girl who sails away on a sea of words. Texts from classic picture books are incorporated into clever illustrations. Now if only we could get some modern stories in there … perhaps A Child of Books, Part II? (For ages 4 and up)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "isbn": "0763690775", "seamus": 498577009, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780763690779, "cover": "0763690775", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780763690779", "isbn10": "0763690775", "links": [] }, "5": { "id": 5, "title": "A Collapse Of Horses: A Collection Of Stories", "author": "Brian Evenson", "text": "

Brian Evenson’s unsettling collection plumbs the depths of the unknown and brings back 17 stories of terror. In A Collapse of Horses, nothing is reliable; love, relationships, friendships, memories and reality are deeply suspect. These stories are subtly violent and existential, simultaneously minimalist and Lovecraftian. If you’re ready for this surreal procession of nightmares, it’s ready for you.

", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "short stories, essays & poetry", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Carmen Maria Machado" ], "isbn": "1566894131", "seamus": 467350932, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781566894135, "cover": "1566894131", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781566894135", "isbn10": "1566894131", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 5, "book": "A Collapse Of Horses: A Collection Of Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "Traditional Tropes Turn Eerie In Punishing, Subtle 'Horses'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/20/463862460/traditional-tropes-turn-eerie-in-punishing-subtle-horses" } ] }, "6": { "id": 6, "title": "A Gentleman In Moscow: A Novel", "author": "Amor Towles", "text": "

Count Alexander Rostov is a resourceful man who loves the finer things in life. When he is sentenced by the Bolsheviks to a lifetime of house arrest in a tiny room in the attic of Moscow’s best hotel, he uses his charm and wit to build a new life that is in some ways richer than his old one. While wars both hot and cold rage in the outside world, Count Rostov finds purpose and people to love within the confines of the Metropol. The count, says author Amor Towles, has a will to joy. No wonder, then, that A Gentleman in Moscow is a joyful read.

", "tags": [ "tales from around the world", "historical fiction", "staff picks", "rather long", "love & romance", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Lynn Neary" ], "isbn": "0670026190", "seamus": 490368930, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780670026197, "bookshop": 9780670026197, "cover": "0670026190", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780670026197", "isbn10": "0670026190", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 6, "book": "A Gentleman In Moscow: A Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": " 'The Book Show' Interview With Amor Towles", "url": "http://wamc.org/post/book-show-1473-amor-towles" } ] }, "7": { "id": 7, "title": "A Great Reckoning: A Novel", "author": "Louise Penny", "text": "

In Louise Penny’s 12th Chief Inspector Gamache novel, Gamache has just stepped into his new post as chief superintendent of the police academy. He accepted the job in order to find the source of corruption within the academy — a corruption that has warped idealistic cadets into brutish police officers. Soon enough, though, Gamache confronts a more pressing problem: the murder of a professor who had been antagonistic to Gamache’s appointment. Penny is a beautiful writer and A Great Reckoning is one of her best, but I think that pretty much every time I finish a Gamache mystery.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "isbn": "1250022134", "seamus": 498692297, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781250022134, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250022134", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781250022134", "isbn10": "1250022134", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 7, "book": "A Great Reckoning: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Book Review: 'A Great Reckoning' Is A Lyrical Whodunnit", "url": "http://kmuw.org/post/book-review-great-reckoning-lyrical-whodunnit" } ] }, "8": { "id": 8, "title": "A Promise Of Fire", "author": "Amanda Bouchet", "text": "

Cat is a Kingmaker, with the coveted power to tell when someone is lying — and in doing so, upend the power structure of her world. So she conceals herself as a member of a traveling circus to keep from being used as a pawn in an endless war between kingdoms. But when she is kidnapped by a warlord of a higher class, a breathtaking adventure begins as they both fight against connection, forbidden attachment, and centuries-old plots to kill them both. Infused with mythology and lavish world-building, this is the first book of a trilogy, and you will want more.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "let’s talk about sex", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Sarah Wendell" ], "isbn": "1492626015", "seamus": 499340839, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781492626015, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1492626015", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781492626015", "isbn10": "1492626015", "links": [] }, "9": { "id": 9, "title": "A Rage For Order: The Middle East In Turmoil, From Tahrir Square To ISIS", "author": "Robert F. Worth", "text": "

As the Arab Spring raged across the Middle East in 2011, New York Times correspondent Robert Worth was there, documenting the revolutions and the characters who drove them. His finely detailed book introduces us to the ecstatic Egyptian revolutionaries who toppled Hosni Mubarak; a Libyan rebel interrogator weighing whether to take revenge on the Moammar Gadhafi loyalists who killed his brother; and two young Syrian women, as close as sisters, whose bond is shattered by sectarian hatred. The latter half of the book explores the regimes that followed the revolutions, and the rise of the Islamic State. A Rage for Order offers vital lessons to help us understand a region whose conflicts rage on.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Melissa Block" ], "isbn": "0374252947", "seamus": 503058818, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780374252946, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0374252947", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780374252946", "isbn10": "0374252947", "links": [] }, "10": { "id": 10, "title": "A Study In Scarlet Women", "author": "Sherry Thomas", "text": "

Charlotte Holmes is immeasurably observant, able to tease the truth out of a handful of clues, but unable to accept that as a woman, her options in society are limited and do not include the autonomy she craves. The mystery here — several strange deaths that threaten Charlotte’s family — contains all the hairpin turns one might expect, but it’s the revelations and connections between Charlotte and the women who surround her that form the heart of this clever gender inversion of a classic literary character.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "love & romance", "mysteries & thrillers", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Sarah Wendell" ], "isbn": "042528140X", "seamus": 498563073, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780425281406, "bookshop": 9780425281406, "cover": "042528140X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780425281406", "isbn10": "042528140X", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 10, "book": "A Study In Scarlet Women", "source": "NPR", "text": "Charlotte Holmes Is On The Case In 'A Study In Scarlet Women'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/23/498562814/charlotte-holmes-is-on-the-case-in-a-study-in-scarlet-women" } ] }, "11": { "id": 11, "title": "Ada Twist, Scientist", "author": "Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts", "text": "

Why? Why? Why does Ada Twist ask so many questions? In this clever, fun and breezy book, Ada’s boundless curiosity propels her forward in her quest to understand the world and beyond. Though her endless experiments sometimes give way to disastrous results, we are rooting for this curious young scientist. With rhyming text by Andrea Beaty and energetic mixed media art by David Roberts, Ada Twist, Scientist deftly addresses the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. However, ultimately this is a book about Ada, a girl who yearns to follow her passion and achieve her dream. (For ages 5 to 7)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "funny stuff", "it’s all geek to me", "science!" ], "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "isbn": "1419721372", "seamus": 498681340, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781419721373, "bookshop": 9781419721373, "cover": "1419721372", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781419721373", "isbn10": "1419721372", "links": [] }, "12": { "id": 12, "title": "Addlands: A Novel", "author": "Tom Bullough", "text": "

Addlands is a novel with poetry and fistfights; sex and backbreaking work; horse-drawn plows and cellphones; and the occasional Welsh word to help situate you in the stark and stunning countryside. There, it doesn’t much matter what decade (or century) it is, and I loved spending time with this Welsh farm family — some 70 years — stretching back from World War II to modern times.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "tales from around the world", "family matters", "staff picks", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Barbara Campbell" ], "isbn": "0812998723", "seamus": 498409740, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780812998726, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0812998723", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780812998726", "isbn10": "0812998723", "links": [] }, "13": { "id": 13, "title": "Alive, Alive Oh!: And Other Things That Matter", "author": "Diana Athill", "text": "

Diana Athill is, by her own account, a very old woman. At 98, she lives in a home for the elderly in North London. This small and lovely book is a collection of favorite memories that return to Athill at the end of her life. It is a charming book for the company alone, for the luxury of wandering in someone else’s best memories, but it is also a nimble recasting of the familiar warning: gather ye rosebuds, memento mori, carpe diem, what have you, because we do not live forever.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "rather short" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "0393253716", "seamus": 462260173, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780393253719, "bookshop": 9780393253719, "cover": "0393253716", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780393253719", "isbn10": "0393253716", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 13, "book": "Alive, Alive Oh!: And Other Things That Matter", "source": "NPR", "text": "Memories Of A Long Life Return In 'Alive, Alive Oh!'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/10/461493754/memories-of-a-long-life-return-in-alive-alive-oh" } ] }, "14": { "id": 14, "title": "All That Man Is: A Novel", "author": "David Szalay", "text": "

Nine stories of nine European men, in European countries not of their birth. Nine uncomfortable stories of men at their smallest, their weakest, their loneliest, obsessing about love (or the lack thereof) and wealth (or the lack or loss thereof). It doesn’t sound like much of a feast, but these tales are unwrapped so gently and so without judgement, they make these lost men utterly human (and even somewhat likable).

", "tags": [ "fiction", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Nishant Dahiya" ], "isbn": "1555977537", "seamus": 499337482, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781555977535, "bookshop": 9781555977535, "cover": "1555977537", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781555977535", "isbn10": "1555977537", "links": [] }, "15": { "id": 15, "title": "All The Birds In The Sky", "author": "Charlie Jane Anders", "text": "

There aren’t any swords or lasers in Charlie Jane Anders’ All the Birds in the Sky — instead, it mixes science fiction and fantasy in a profound alchemy. The love story of a young, bird-communing witch and a young, time-traveling scientist, Birds sensitively raises some of the philosophical issues the human race faces as it ventures further into the future. The book is as full of quirkiness and playful detail as it is packed with overwhelming depth and poignancy — but more than that, it’s a laser sword straight to the heart.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "it’s all geek to me", "love & romance", "science!", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "isbn": "0765379945", "seamus": 463957488, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780765379948, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0765379945", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780765379948", "isbn10": "0765379945", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 15, "book": "All The Birds In The Sky", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'All The Birds' Overturns Sci-Fi And Fantasy, Gently", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/26/463860739/all-the-birds-overturns-sci-fi-and-fantasy-gently" } ] }, "16": { "id": 16, "title": "All The Single Ladies: Unmarried Women And The Rise Of An Independent Nation", "author": "Rebecca Traister", "text": "

All the Single Ladies begins with a milestone statistic: For the first time in the U.S., single adult women now outnumber married adult women. From there, the book takes a celebratory look at women’s hard-fought independence and the realities (both good and bad) of being a woman on your own. Author Rebecca Traister effortlessly bridges the gap between Susan B. Anthony (who predicted an “epoch of single women” back in the 1870s) and Carrie Bradshaw, highlighting the lives and choices of single women past and present. As Traister writes, “The story of single women is the story of the country.” Now put your hands up!

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Molly Seavy-Nesper" ], "isbn": "1476716560", "seamus": 468706123, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781476716565, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1476716560", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781476716565", "isbn10": "1476716560", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 16, "book": "All The Single Ladies: Unmarried Women And The Rise Of An Independent Nation", "source": "NPR", "text": "Fresh Air Weekend: Why Fewer American Women Are Married Than Ever Before", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/19/470960391/fresh-air-weekend-why-fewer-american-women-are-married-than-ever-before" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 16, "book": "All The Single Ladies: Unmarried Women And The Rise Of An Independent Nation", "source": "NPR", "text": "How Single Women Are Transforming American Politics", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/14/468958324/how-single-women-are-transforming-american-politics" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 16, "book": "All The Single Ladies: Unmarried Women And The Rise Of An Independent Nation", "source": "NPR", "text": "Single By Choice: Why Fewer American Women Are Married Than Ever Before", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/01/468688887/single-by-choice-why-fewer-american-women-are-married-than-ever-before" } ] }, "17": { "id": 17, "title": "Alligator Candy: A Memoir", "author": "David Kushner", "text": "

Don’t let the sugary title fool you. In this memoir, David Kushner takes us down a dark path as he unravels the senseless crime that has haunted his family: In 1973, Kushner’s 11-year-old brother was murdered after taking a carefree bike ride through the woods near their suburban Florida home. Kushner carefully reconstructs the shocking crime, but, more than that, his memoir is a powerful exploration of loss, survival and the tricks of memory.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "the dark side", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Melissa Block" ], "isbn": "1451682530", "seamus": 470971448, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781451682533, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1451682530", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781451682533", "isbn10": "1451682530", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 17, "book": "Alligator Candy: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'I Grew Up In The Shadow Of This': Writer Reflects On His Brother's Murder", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/19/470280320/i-grew-up-in-the-shadow-of-this-writer-reflects-on-his-brothers-murder" } ] }, "18": { "id": 18, "title": "American Cake: From Colonial Gingerbread To Classic Layer, The Stories And Recipes Behind More Than 125 Of Our Best-Loved Cakes", "author": "Anne Byrn", "text": "

If you like cakes, you’re not alone. For 250 years, Americans have been making whatever cake they could with whatever they could find. Anne Byrn’s impressive, big-hearted, historical tribute to the genre is a must-have for its dizzying diversity. (You surely haven’t heard of Oregon prune cake, Texas sheath cake or Scripture Cake, have you?) You can trace America’s gastronomic evolution and geographic expansion from cornmeal and molasses to Hershey bars and pineapples. Both the cakes and their stories are obscure, unexpected, delightful and worth getting to know, one sweet slice of history at a time.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "isbn": "1623365430", "seamus": 501042549, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781623365431, "cover": "1623365430", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781623365431", "isbn10": "1623365430", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 18, "book": "American Cake: From Colonial Gingerbread To Classic Layer, The Stories And Recipes Behind More Than 125 Of Our Best-Loved Cakes", "source": "NPR", "text": "Make America Bake Again: A History Of Cake In The U.S.", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/11/07/501032393/make-america-bake-again-a-history-of-cake-in-the-u-s" } ] }, "19": { "id": 19, "title": "American Housewife", "author": "Helen Ellis", "text": "

This delightfully zany book of short stories is Nora Ephron’s I Feel Bad About My Neck with a Southern drawl and a dark sense of humor. Novelist Helen Ellis took a long hiatus from writing, but her time as a “housewife” (her words) provided plenty of fodder. In this collection, Ellis turns her sharp wit on dinner parties, dishwashers, book clubs and passive-aggressive neighbors. The result is funnier — and far more sinister — than you might expect.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "staff picks", "short stories, essays & poetry", "family matters" ], "reviewers": [ "Maggie Penman" ], "isbn": "0385541031", "seamus": 462830435, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780385541039, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0385541031", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780385541039", "isbn10": "0385541031", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 19, "book": "American Housewife", "source": "NPR", "text": "Frisky, Subversive 'American Housewife' Practices Shock And Awwww", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/14/462263271/frisky-subversive-american-housewife-practices-shock-and-awwww" } ] }, "20": { "id": 20, "title": "American Philosophy: A Love Story", "author": "John Kaag", "text": "

Philosopher John Kaag hits the sweet spot between intellectual history and personal memoir in this chronicle of how a neglected library of philosophical treasures hidden deep in the New Hampshire woods rescued him from despair. When Harvard philosophy professor William Ernest Hocking died in 1966, he left a library that had become the repository for the personal libraries of many of his famous colleagues — a collection that included first editions of René Descartes, John Locke and Immanuel Kant, as well as countless volumes bearing their original owners’ marginalia. Over the three years Kaag spends excitedly excavating and cataloguing the books, he finds heartening answers to William James’ question, “Is life worth living?” — and a soulmate with whom to share his discoveries.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "love & romance", "nonfiction", "seriously great writing", "biography & memoir" ], "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "isbn": "0374154481", "seamus": 496764231, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780374154486, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0374154481", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780374154486", "isbn10": "0374154481", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 20, "book": "American Philosophy: A Love Story", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Neglected Library Leads To Love In 'American Philosophy'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/11/497085674/a-neglected-library-leads-to-love-in-american-philosophy" } ] }, "21": { "id": 21, "title": "And I Darken", "author": "Kiersten White", "text": "

Kiersten White’s And I Darken is an evocative imagining of the life of two noble children who are handed over to the Ottoman Empire to ensure that their father, the Prince of Wallachia, will be on his best behavior. What begins as resentful imprisonment soon becomes a source of internal and external conflict for siblings Lada and Radu, as they’re torn between hanging on to their past identities and assimilating into the empire that they ought to despise. This book takes no prisoners, offering up brutal, emotional historical fiction in a seldom explored setting.

", "tags": [ "young adult", "historical fiction", "family matters", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "isbn": "0553522310", "seamus": 485163557, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780553522310, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0553522310", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780553522310", "isbn10": "0553522310", "links": [] }, "22": { "id": 22, "title": "Another Brooklyn: A Novel", "author": "Jacqueline Woodson", "text": "

Jacqueline Woodson says Another Brooklyn came to her in a “kind of dreamlike series of vignettes.” And that is just how this slender novel unfolds. It’s the story of a girl named August who moves to Brooklyn from Tennessee after the death of her mother. Peering out the window of the apartment she now shares with her father and brother, August sees the three girls who will become her best friends, guiding her through this new world and into adolescence. Adult August narrates the book, and we know from the start that the friends have betrayed one another. But we only learn how, why and to what effect as August’s memories return to haunt her. Woodson perfectly captures the elusive feel of memory in prose that often reads like poetry.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "seriously great writing", "family matters", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "rather short" ], "reviewers": [ "Lynn Neary" ], "isbn": "0062359983", "seamus": 489312011, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062359988, "bookshop": 9780062359988, "cover": "0062359983", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062359988", "isbn10": "0062359983", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 22, "book": "Another Brooklyn: A Novel", "source": "WVXU", "text": " 'Around Cincinnati' Interview With Jacqueline Woodson", "url": "http://wvxu.org/post/national-book-award-nominee-jacqueline-woodson#stream/0" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 22, "book": "Another Brooklyn: A Novel", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Bittersweet Memories Of Growing Up In 'Another Brooklyn'", "url": "http://www.wnyc.org/story/bittersweet-memories-growing-another-brooklyn/" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 22, "book": "Another Brooklyn: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Jacqueline Woodson's 'Brooklyn' Is Full Of Dreams And Danger", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/09/489311892/jacqueline-woodsons-brooklyn-is-full-of-dreams-and-danger" } ] }, "23": { "id": 23, "title": "Appetites: A Cookbook", "author": "Anthony Bourdain, with Laurie Woolever", "text": "

What does a famous, world-traveling chef eat when he’s back home? In his first cookbook in more than a decade, Anthony Bourdain — who travels the globe eating food that’s not for the faint of heart — shares go-to crowd-pleasers for family and friends. Here you’ll find sandwiches, salads, biscuits, mac and cheese and other dishes that would please his 9-year-old daughter. But Appetites isn’t all warm and fuzzy. The photos in the book are as disturbing as they are beautiful, and Bourdain offers an abundance of no-nonsense advice, complete with honesty and F-bombs.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "staff picks", "family matters" ], "reviewers": [ "Jeanine Herbst" ], "isbn": "0062409956", "seamus": 498575240, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062409959, "bookshop": 9780062409959, "cover": "0062409956", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062409959", "isbn10": "0062409956", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 23, "book": "Appetites: A Cookbook", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Appetites,' Bourdain Pleases The Toughest Food Critic (His 9-Year-Old)", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/10/27/499308031/in-appetites-bourdain-pleases-the-toughest-food-critic-his-9-year-old" } ] }, "24": { "id": 24, "title": "Around The Way Girl: A Memoir", "author": "Taraji P. Henson, with Denene Millner", "text": "

Turns out, the details of Taraji Penda Henson’s climb to fame could have been used as a script for one of her own movies. The Empire star was born in Washington, D.C., raised by a single mom and cheered on by a dad who struggled with alcoholism and his own impulsive behavior. Henson left the love of her life when he hit her, raising their son as a single mom. She earned far less than her white co-stars on movies like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. More a story of empowerment and persistence than a Hollywood tell-all, this book unfolds like a story told by Cookie Lyons’ talented thespian sister; a down-to-earth, around the way girl explaining to contributor Denene Millner how a sister who graduated from Howard and worked as a secretary for the Pentagon became one of TV’s hottest performers.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "staff picks", "no biz like show biz" ], "reviewers": [ "Eric Deggans" ], "isbn": "1501125990", "seamus": 497799176, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781501125997, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1501125990", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781501125997", "isbn10": "1501125990", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 24, "book": "Around The Way Girl: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'I Had To Create My Own Lane': How Taraji P. Henson Found Her Place In Hollywood", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/14/497799039/i-had-to-create-my-own-lane-how-taraji-p-henson-found-her-place-in-hollywood" } ] }, "25": { "id": 25, "title": "As Good As Gone: A Novel", "author": "Larry Watson", "text": "

I love stories about family dysfunctions as much as the next person, because who can’t relate, right? There’s plenty of that in Larry Watson’s latest novel, about a man who abandons his own kids, but is called into service decades later as a grandfather. His son and daughter-in-law must drive 500 miles across Montana for an operation — and his job is to look after the grandkids. At first glance, the characters may seem like simple 1950s and ‘60s stereotypes, but their pasts reveal more complex storylines. As someone who grew up in the area, I also got a kick out of Watson’s depiction of Missoula, Mont., which, with its stately, tree-lined neighborhoods, was the envy of so many people who hailed from much harsher, rugged corners of Big Sky Country.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Kirk Siegler" ], "isbn": "1616205717", "seamus": 482034063, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781616205713, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1616205717", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781616205713", "isbn10": "1616205717", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 25, "book": "As Good As Gone: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Author Larry Watson Examines Morality, Generations With ‘As Good As Gone’", "url": "http://kmuw.org/post/author-larry-watson-examines-morality-generations-good-gone" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 25, "book": "As Good As Gone: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Good As Gone' Doesn't Quite Get To Greatness", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/23/482023737/good-as-gone-doesnt-quite-get-to-greatness" } ] }, "26": { "id": 26, "title": "Barkskins: A Novel", "author": "Annie Proulx", "text": "

This book makes casual reference to eating veal broth and the honor killing of moose, as a prerequisite to marriage. OK, so Annie Proulx had me at veal broth, and I stayed for the moose in this epic, sprawling tale. Two indentured woodsmen arrive in “New France” (now Canada) and take divergent paths — one establishes a timber empire, the other marries a Mi’kmaw woman. Barkskins follows the descendants of these men over centuries, chronicling the march of Manifest Destiny, deforestation, progress, destruction, hope and greed. I kept saying, “I’m never going to finish this” 700-page epic, yet, in the end, I couldn’t put it down.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "for history lovers", "staff picks", "rather long", "book club ideas" ], "reviewers": [ "Kirk Siegler" ], "isbn": "0743288785", "seamus": 481407944, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780743288781, "bookshop": 9780743288781, "cover": "0743288785", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780743288781", "isbn10": "0743288785", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 26, "book": "Barkskins: A Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": " 'The Book Show' Interview With Annie Proulx", "url": "http://wamc.org/post/book-show-1457-annie-proulx" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 26, "book": "Barkskins: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Annie Proulx's 'Barkskins' Is Lovely, Dark, and Deep", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/18/481427123/annie-proulxs-barkskins-is-lovely-dark-and-deep" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 26, "book": "Barkskins: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Annie Proulx's Bloody New Novel 'Barkskins' Is About More Than Deforestation", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/10/481449357/annie-proulx-s-bloody-new-novel-barkskins-is-about-more-than-deforestation" } ] }, "27": { "id": 27, "title": "Before The Fall", "author": "Noah Hawley", "text": "

This is not a book to read if you are a nervous flier. It begins with a plane crash off Martha’s Vineyard (though in a small, private jet). From there, though, you’ll be engrossed even at 35,000 feet as the layers of this mystery are peeled away and each chapter about the final days before the crash is told from a different passenger’s point of view. There’s a media mogul, a starving artist, a young boy; they deal with celebrity, tragedy and absurdity. Author Noah Hawley created the TV show Fargo. Dude knows how to tell a story.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Ted Robbins" ], "isbn": "1455561789", "seamus": 499470135, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781455561780, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1455561789", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781455561780", "isbn10": "1455561789", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 27, "book": "Before The Fall", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Before The Fall' Is A Thrill Ride", "url": "http://kmuw.org/post/fall-thrill-ride" } ] }, "28": { "id": 28, "title": "Beginner's Guide: Love And Other Chemical Reactions", "author": "Six de los Reyes", "text": "

Kaya Rubio is focused on her research in molecular biology and doesn’t have time for anything else — until her overwhelming and loving family nudges her one time too many about being single. She devises a scientific methodology to find an ideal match in time for a family wedding, including selecting a negative control: Nero, owner of a local cafe, because he is the most unsuitable match she can think of. Of course, plans like that never work out as intended, and seeing Kaya’s brilliant mind try to sift scientific analysis out of emotional complication is the best part of this experiment.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "it’s all geek to me", "tales from around the world", "science!" ], "reviewers": [ "Sarah Wendell" ], "isbn": "1987660552", "seamus": 502461117, "asin": "B01DXMYPUM", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781987660555, "cover": "1987660552", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781987660555", "isbn10": "1987660552", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 28, "book": "Beginner's Guide: Love And Other Chemical Reactions", "source": "NPR", "text": "Women Who Count: 3 Smart STEM Romances", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/01/01/505854734/women-who-count-3-smart-stem-romances" } ] }, "29": { "id": 29, "title": "Behold The Dreamers: A Novel", "author": "Imbolo Mbue", "text": "

Imbolo Mbue’s debut novel begins like any story about the American dream; a young, Cameroonian couple move to New York to find a better life for themselves and their son. Here’s where it departs: It’s the fall of 2007 and the U.S. economy is on the verge of collapse. Jende works as a personal chauffeur for a Lehman Brothers executive and the ensuing bankruptcy will strain his family and his marriage. I’m not sure any of these bright and lost and careful characters find the lives they’re looking for in this book, but Mbue shares a version of the American dream that feels captivating and real.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "family matters", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Lucy Perkins" ], "isbn": "0812998480", "seamus": 490367176, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780812998481, "bookshop": 9780812998481, "cover": "0812998480", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780812998481", "isbn10": "0812998480", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 29, "book": "Behold The Dreamers: A Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": " 'The Book Show' Interview With Imbolo Mbue", "url": "http://wamc.org/post/book-show-1478-imbolo-mbue" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 29, "book": "Behold The Dreamers: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Here's What College Freshmen Are Reading", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/11/22/651094749/heres-what-college-freshmen-are-reading" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 29, "book": "Behold The Dreamers: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Newly American 'Dreamers' Are Torn Between Love And Disappointment", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/24/490100087/newly-american-dreamers-are-torn-between-love-and-disappointment" } ] }, "30": { "id": 30, "title": "Black Lotus: A Woman’s Search For Racial Identity", "author": "Sil Lai Abrams", "text": "

In a time when racial issues and identity politics are widely discussed, it’s hard to imagine growing up with your biological background hidden from you. But that’s what happened to Sil Lai Abrams, who, until she was 14, was told that her brown skin and curly hair were the result of being born in Hawaii. Abrams’ journey to the truth — that the man she knew as her father was not her biological father — makes for illuminating, thought-provoking reading.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "book club ideas" ], "reviewers": [ "Eric Westervelt" ], "isbn": "1451688466", "seamus": 498437691, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781451688467, "bookshop": 9781451688467, "cover": "1451688466", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781451688467", "isbn10": "1451688466", "links": [] }, "31": { "id": 31, "title": "Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet", "author": "Ta-Nehisi Coates, illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze", "text": "

Fifty years after the birth of mainstream comics’ first black superhero, MacArthur “genius grant” recipient Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a rich take on this formidable character and his world. King T’Challa leads the mythical, technologically advanced African kingdom of Wakanda, a nation that hasn’t been scarred by colonial rule. In a story inspired by a Pulitzer Prize-winning history book, Coates questions whether it is ever possible for a truly good man to be a king. Brian Stelfreeze’s art is nicely balanced between thickly shaded, satiny surfaces and the best comic book smash-and-flash.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "isbn": "1302900536", "seamus": 473224613, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781302900533, "cover": "1302900536", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781302900533", "isbn10": "1302900536", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 31, "book": "Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet", "source": "NPR", "text": "Let's Get Graphic: 100 Favorite Comics And Graphic Novels", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/07/12/533862948/lets-get-graphic-100-favorite-comics-and-graphic-novels" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 31, "book": "Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Black Panther, At Odds With Himself And His Country In 'A Nation Under Our Feet'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/01/26/510816471/the-black-panther-at-odds-with-himself-and-his-country-in-a-nation-under-our-fee" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 31, "book": "Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet", "source": "NPR", "text": "Ta-Nehisi Coates Hopes 'Black Panther' Will Be Some Kid's 'Spider-Man'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/04/06/473224606/a-reluctant-king-ta-nehisi-coates-takes-on-marvels-black-panther" } ] }, "32": { "id": 32, "title": "Book Uncle And Me", "author": "Uma Krishnaswami, illustrated by Julianna Swaney", "text": "

What can one child do to make an impact on her community? A lot. In Book Uncle and Me, 9-year-old Yasmin’s cherished free lending library is about to be shut down. A voracious reader, she must unite her friends, family and fellow Indian neighbors in a political campaign to keep Book Uncle’s library going. Author Uma Krishnaswami tells the story of a girl coming out from behind the pages to speak out and be heard. With delightful Illustrations by Julianna Swaney, this is a celebration of ingenuity and the power of words. (For ages 7 to 10)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "tales from around the world" ], "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "isbn": "155498808X", "seamus": 498681520, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781554988082, "bookshop": 9781554988082, "cover": "155498808X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781554988082", "isbn10": "155498808X", "links": [] }, "33": { "id": 33, "title": "Borderline", "author": "Mishell Baker", "text": "

If Millicent Roper only had to deal with being a bisexual woman living with two prosthetic legs and borderline personality disorder while trying to get her life back on track after her suicide attempt derailed a promising film career, that would be plenty — but also there are fairies. Millie gets recruited to the Arcadia Project, a community of people in Los Angeles tasked with policing the borders between human and fairy worlds, and when a famous fairy noble goes missing, it’s up to Millie and the people who aren’t quite her friends to figure out what’s going on. Shrewd, sharp and full of fiercely graceful writing, this is somewhere between urban fantasy and ballet.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "isbn": "1481429787", "seamus": 468788739, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781481429788, "bookshop": 9781481429788, "cover": "1481429787", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781481429788", "isbn10": "1481429787", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 33, "book": "Borderline", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Borderline' Is Urban Fantasy With A Cinematic Punch", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/02/467413538/borderline-is-urban-fantasy-with-a-cinematic-punch" } ] }, "34": { "id": 34, "title": "Born A Crime: Stories From A South African Childhood", "author": "Trevor Noah", "text": "

This memoir isn’t the funny book you’d think a funny man would write. Nor do you read it just for the rags to riches journey, though what a journey — from a South African township to The Daily Show host chair. You read it for the remarkable perspective of someone born between categories: a biracial kid spit out into an apartheid regime in which marriage between whites and blacks was illegal and his existence a crime. When you go back to watching The Daily Show, the jokes sound better.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "tales from around the world", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "no biz like show biz" ], "reviewers": [ "Gregory Warner" ], "isbn": "0399588175", "seamus": 498569895, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780399588174, "bookshop": 9780399588174, "cover": "0399588175", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780399588174", "isbn10": "0399588175", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 34, "book": "Born A Crime: Stories From A South African Childhood", "source": "NPR", "text": "We Did It For The LOLs: 100 Favorite Funny Books", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2019/08/20/752044550/we-did-it-for-the-lols-100-favorite-funny-books" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 34, "book": "Born A Crime: Stories From A South African Childhood", "source": "NPR", "text": "Summer Reading For The College-Bound", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/06/30/534458892/the-books-college-kids-are-reading-this-summer" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 34, "book": "Born A Crime: Stories From A South African Childhood", "source": "NPR", "text": "Trevor Noah Says He Grew Up 'In The Shadow Of A Giant' (His Mom)", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/11/22/503009220/trevor-noah-looks-back-on-childhood-in-the-shadow-of-a-giant-his-mom" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 34, "book": "Born A Crime: Stories From A South African Childhood", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Daily Show' Host Writes About Growing Up Biracial In South Africa", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/11/11/501679293/daily-show-host-writes-about-growing-up-in-biracial-south-africa" } ] }, "35": { "id": 35, "title": "Born To Run", "author": "Bruce Springsteen", "text": "

Self-written rock star biographies often hit two potholes: They’re not particularly insightful and they’re not particularly well-written. Thankfully, rock ’n’ roll wise man Bruce Springsteen leaps past both obstacles with a bracing story that reads like extra stanzas to epic songs like “Jungleland” or, yes, “Born to Run.” Springsteen dishes on the father who struggled with mental illness and never really understood him, how he sidestepped early efforts to present him as the new Bob Dylan and how a rock superstar hailed by millions as The Boss could endure his own struggles with depression. There might be a bit too much detail about ‘70s-era rock joints in New Jersey for casual fans, but this book sets the record straight on everything from the despair of his failed first marriage to fights over money with members of the E Street Band. And there’s a little bit in here about rock ’n’ roll inspiration, too.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for music lovers", "rather long", "staff picks", "no biz like show biz" ], "reviewers": [ "Eric Deggans" ], "isbn": "1501141511", "seamus": 495024102, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781501141515, "bookshop": 9781501141515, "cover": "1501141511", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781501141515", "isbn10": "1501141511", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 35, "book": "Born To Run", "source": "NPR", "text": "Bruce Springsteen: On Jersey, Masculinity And Wishing To Be His Stage Persona", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/05/496639696/bruce-springsteen-on-jersey-masculinity-and-wishing-to-be-his-stage-persona" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 35, "book": "Born To Run", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Born To Run' Is A 500-Page Springsteen Show", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/22/495024024/born-to-run-is-a-500-page-springsteen-show" } ] }, "36": { "id": 36, "title": "Boys Among Men: How The Prep-To-Pro Generation Redefined The NBA And Sparked A Basketball Revolution", "author": "Jonathan Abrams", "text": "

Award-winning basketball writer Jonathan Abrams takes a deep dive into the lives and careers of a special group of basketball prodigies in his book Boys Among Men. Centered on players who made the leap into the NBA straight from high school between 1995 and 2005, Abrams’ fine-tuned prose and analysis ignite every page. From illuminating anecdotes to never-heard-before interviews with some of the NBA’s most elite athletes, this is a smart and fresh account that fans and casual fans alike will enjoy.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for sports lovers" ], "reviewers": [ "Juan Vidal" ], "isbn": "0804139253", "seamus": 494300636, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780804139250, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0804139253", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780804139250", "isbn10": "0804139253", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 36, "book": "Boys Among Men: How The Prep-To-Pro Generation Redefined The NBA And Sparked A Basketball Revolution", "source": "NPR", "text": "Off The Campaign Trail, Onto The Gridiron: 5 Sports Books For Fall", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/18/494300668/off-the-campaign-trail-onto-the-gridiron-5-sports-books-for-fall" } ] }, "37": { "id": 37, "title": "Bullies: A Friendship", "author": "Alex Abramovich", "text": "

Ever wonder what would happen if you reconnected with your childhood bully? Writer Alex Abramovich finds out when he gets back in touch with Trevor Latham, his own tormentor, who grew up to become president of Oakland’s East Bay Rats Motorcycle Club. This memoir of an unlikely friendship condenses a lot into its 224 pages: It’s an anthropological look at motorcycle gangs. It’s a well-researched dive into Oakland’s rich history. It’s a thoughtful exploration of the nature of memory — and a hard look at the question of why men fight.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "staff picks", "biography & memoir" ], "reviewers": [ "Jessica Reedy" ], "isbn": "0805094288", "seamus": 469790177, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "0805094288", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780805094282", "isbn10": "0805094288", "links": [] }, "38": { "id": 38, "title": "Burn Baby Burn", "author": "Meg Medina", "text": "

If you, like many in this post-Serial age, have finally discovered the charms of a good true crime story, then this YA thriller will be a treat. It’s set in 1977 New York during the Son of Sam killing spree, which author Meg Medina (herself a Queens native) also lived through. The book follows 17-year-old Nora Lopez as she watches Carrie for the first time and worries that kissing her co-worker will bring her to the serial killer’s attention. It’s a fictional story, but Medina fills it with so many telling details that you are entirely transported. Nora’s experiences feel real and immediate, and they will keep you up turning pages late into the night.

", "tags": [ "family matters", "historical fiction", "identity & culture", "mysteries & thrillers", "young adult", "for history lovers", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "isbn": "0763674672", "seamus": 498687486, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780763674670, "bookshop": 9780763674670, "cover": "0763674672", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780763674670", "isbn10": "0763674672", "links": [] }, "39": { "id": 39, "title": "By Gaslight: A Novel", "author": "Steven Price", "text": "

Readers may approach a doorstop novel of some 700-plus pages with a mixture of hope and dread, but Steven Price’s By Gaslight proves engrossing enough to warrant its forest-depleting bulk. This historical crime drama stars William Pinkerton, whose father founded the famous Pinkerton detective agency. William is something of a brute with heart; he possesses the essential noir detective traits of world weariness, barely controlled machismo and an aching, underlying sensitivity. Set primarily in Victorian London with side trips to the American Civil War and to the diamond mines of South America, By Gaslight is threaded through with a melancholy brilliance.

", "tags": [ "the dark side", "mysteries & thrillers", "historical fiction", "rather long", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jean Zimmerman" ], "isbn": "0374160538", "seamus": 495829617, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780374160531, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0374160538", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780374160531", "isbn10": "0374160538", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 39, "book": "By Gaslight: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Hardboiled Historical Noir With A Heart In 'By Gaslight'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/29/494927889/hardboiled-historical-noir-with-a-heart-in-by-gaslight" } ] }, "40": { "id": 40, "title": "Carry Me: A Novel", "author": "Peter Behrens", "text": "

Great historical novels give us a god’s omnipotence. They don’t coddle but burden us with the sure knowledge that we can do nothing to alter the flow of time. And this is the inherent tragedy that lives at the heart of Carry Me, which follows the fortunes of two intermingled families through one of the most turbulent times in modern history — England, Ireland and Germany in the first half of the 20th century. We can read words like “Blitz” and “zeppelin” and “Nazi” echoing in our heads, and we know that there’s nothing we can do but watch and wait for the bad things to come.

", "tags": [ "family matters", "for history lovers", "historical fiction", "love & romance", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "isbn": "1101870494", "seamus": 471007181, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101870495, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101870494", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101870495", "isbn10": "1101870494", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 40, "book": "Carry Me: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Love Story Rudely Interrupted By History", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/20/469700870/a-love-story-rudely-interrupted-by-history" } ] }, "41": { "id": 41, "title": "Central Station", "author": "Lavie Tidhar", "text": "

If you read only one science-fiction book this year about a spaceport in the middle of embattled Tel Aviv, it should be this one. If you read only one book about the religion of robots, the evolution of the Internet, magical children and data vampires, Central Station has to be it. The stories will gut you. The language will make you wonder why you even bother speaking English. It is one of the most beautiful books of the year, absolutely the most grab-you-by-the-heart engaging, and so, so smart that Lavie Tidhar can scatter a hundred brilliant ideas like pennies on the ground — like he has so many of them in his pockets that he can just throw them away, leaving them for anyone to pick up.

", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "isbn": "1616962143", "seamus": 476511002, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781616962142, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1616962143", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781616962142", "isbn10": "1616962143", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 41, "book": "Central Station", "source": "NPR", "text": "Brilliant 'Central Station' Is Rich With Detail And Mystery", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/12/476486350/brilliant-central-station-is-rich-with-detail-and-mystery" } ] }, "42": { "id": 42, "title": "Certain Dark Things", "author": "Silvia Garcia-Moreno", "text": "

In Mexico, local drug-dealing vampire gangs that trace their lineage back to the Aztecs clash with European newcomers — everywhere but Mexico City, where human gangs have declared a vampire-free zone. Living on the margins of this world is Domingo, a 17-year-old garbage collector with a heart of gold, whose vampire comics don’t prepare him for the real thing. When he meets Atl, a vampire woman being hunted by a rival gang, he gets swept up in a whirlwind of blood debts and danger. Fast-paced and full of gorgeous characters, this is urban fantasy with emphasis on the urban: Mexico City is as much a character as the vampires.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "isbn": "1250099080", "seamus": 498391493, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781250099082, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250099080", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781250099082", "isbn10": "1250099080", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 42, "book": "Certain Dark Things", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Certain Dark Things' Takes The Vampire Story In A New Direction", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/12/21/506483896/certain-dark-things-takes-vampire-story-in-new-direction" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 42, "book": "Certain Dark Things", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Certain Dark Things' Is A Compelling New Take On Vampires", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/27/498726833/certain-dark-things-is-a-compelling-new-take-on-vampires" } ] }, "43": { "id": 43, "title": "Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune And Random Failure In Silicon Valley", "author": "Antonio Garcia Martinez", "text": "

Antonio Garcia Martinez, author of Chaos Monkeys, reads like a despicable human being: a misogynistic Silicon Valley elitist who lives on a sailboat, neglects his kids and embraces the tech culture he claims to reject. But (and this is the tricky part), he also reads like a philosopher and historian, the exact travel guide you’d want to walk you through the inner workings of Facebook. His tell-all memoir is the best writing out there on one of the world’s most powerful companies. And he even manages to make the ins and outs of online advertising fascinating.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "the dark side", "staff picks", "rather long" ], "reviewers": [ "Aarti Shahani" ], "isbn": "0062458191", "seamus": 498389305, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062458193, "bookshop": 9780062458193, "cover": "0062458191", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062458193", "isbn10": "0062458191", "links": [] }, "44": { "id": 44, "title": "Charcoal Joe: An Easy Rawlins Mystery", "author": "Walter Mosley", "text": "

I’ve been reading the Easy Rawlins series for so long, the character is like an old friend now. In this latest installment, Walter Mosley manages once again to make you care about this complicated and richly fleshed out character. He’s on one hand a killer – but only when necessary and always reluctantly – while on the other a loving and protective dad, loyal friend and brokenhearted lover. And if none of that floats your boat, Easy solves mysteries too.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Tanya Ballard Brown" ], "isbn": "0385539207", "seamus": 487938522, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780385539203, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0385539207", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780385539203", "isbn10": "0385539207", "links": [] }, "45": { "id": 45, "title": "Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures Of Urban Decay", "author": "Ben Katchor", "text": "

Ben Katchor’s comic strips, published in various alt-weeklies as Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer, serve as both a serialized love letter to, and a deadpan satire of, a kind of urban experience that has faded from the world. Katchor produces a series of vignettes about tiny, out-of-the-way and vaguely impossible corners of a vanished New York City, and makes sure we feel a subtle magic simmering behind every grimy storefront and tenement fire escape. Originally published in 1991, this deluxe 25th anniversary edition has been reformatted by Katchor, and the result retains the artist’s characteristically elliptical, allusive charm.

", "tags": [ "for art lovers", "comics & graphic novels", "book club ideas", "for history lovers", "funny stuff" ], "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "isbn": "1770462635", "seamus": 498567330, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781770462632, "cover": "1770462635", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781770462632", "isbn10": "1770462635", "links": [] }, "46": { "id": 46, "title": "Children Of The New World: Stories", "author": "Alexander Weinstein", "text": "

Alexander Weinstein’s assured and astonishing debut fiction collection, which explores how technology is changing humanity in tiny, specific and irrevocable ways, invites comparisons to the Netflix show Black Mirror. But where that series offers cautionary tales steeped in mordant cynicism, Weinstein’s take is warm and achingly, plaintively funny. This is speculative fiction that privileges language and emotion over didactic moral lessons or tedious technical detail, and it’s my favorite book of the year.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "short stories, essays & poetry", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "isbn": "1250098998", "seamus": 498569697, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781250098993, "bookshop": 9781250098993, "cover": "1250098998", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781250098993", "isbn10": "1250098998", "links": [] }, "47": { "id": 47, "title": "Chronicle Of A Last Summer: A Novel Of Egypt", "author": "Yasmine El Rashidi", "text": "

Today, stories about Egypt often conjure up images of Tahrir Square protests and political unrest, but so much of Yasmine El Rashidi’s novel — which documents three summers (1984, 1998 and 2014) in the life of a young Egyptian woman — is about silence. When the book’s unnamed narrator asks, as a child, where her father has gone, no one will say. (He was forced to flee the government.) And later, when he returns, no one tells her why her parents are no longer living together. El Rashidi’s story explores how one can be a participant and an observer of political change, and how so much of our politics are formed by the things we don’t say in public and the questions we are afraid to ask.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "rather short", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Heidi Saman" ], "isbn": "077043729X", "seamus": 498570900, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780770437299, "bookshop": "", "cover": "077043729X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780770437299", "isbn10": "077043729X", "links": [] }, "48": { "id": 48, "title": "Commonwealth", "author": "Ann Patchett", "text": "

Commonwealth isn’t as soaring or as lush as Ann Patchett’s earlier novels, but wow does it ever suck you in. This is a story of families and marriage and love and the unlikely friendship that develops between two sets of children, united in hatred of their parents. Reading it before bed the other night, I found myself laughing even as tears rolled down my cheeks, then gently closing the cover, turning to my husband and whispering, “This book is so, so good.”

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Mary Louise Kelly" ], "isbn": "0062491792", "seamus": 493142469, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062491794, "bookshop": 9780062491794, "cover": "0062491792", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062491794", "isbn10": "0062491792", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 48, "book": "Commonwealth", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Commonwealth' Doesn't Need Big Drama To Draw Us In", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/17/493003934/commonwealth-doesnt-need-big-drama-to-draw-us-in" } ] }, "49": { "id": 49, "title": "Consequence: A Memoir", "author": "Eric Fair", "text": "

Eric Fair is a goody-two-shoes. A Presbyterian church geek from a moribund Pennsylvania steel town, he believed a career in law enforcement would be an opportunity to minister to those who needed it most. So how did he end up torturing Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib? This wrenching — and deeply moving — memoir provides a powerful reminder of how brutal circumstances can lead to an unexpected capacity for cruelty. It’s also a chance to confront our collective national shame. Consequence is one of those books that should be required reading for all Americans.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Neda Ulaby" ], "isbn": "1627795138", "seamus": 472986247, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781627795135, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1627795138", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781627795135", "isbn10": "1627795138", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 49, "book": "Consequence: A Memoir", "source": "WUNC", "text": "Former Abu Ghraib Interrogator Reflects On Prisoner Abuse In Memoir", "url": "http://wunc.org/post/former-abu-ghraib-interrogator-reflects-prisoner-abuse-memoir#stream/0" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 49, "book": "Consequence: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'It Was Torture': An Abu Ghraib Interrogator Acknowledges 'Horrible Mistakes'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/04/04/472964974/it-was-torture-an-abu-ghraib-interrogator-acknowledges-horrible-mistakes" } ] }, "50": { "id": 50, "title": "Cook Korean! A Comic Book With Recipes", "author": "Robin Ha", "text": "

Korean cookbooks are everywhere right now, but this one’s different. Author Robin Ha is an artist and graphic novelist, and every page features a variety of ingredients having a rollicking, boisterous party on the page. There’s a smiling daikon, a winking squid and even bland tofu that seems to be enjoying itself. Though each recipe relies on more or less the usual suspects — soy, sesame oil, chili paste, scallions, ginger — each has a distinct character, whether it’s japchae, soy spinach and bean sprout salad, pajeon or galbi. Ha’s protagonist (or alter ego) is a smiling young cook in traditional Korean silk formalwear with a ribbon in her hair. She’s a whiz with a cleaver — and she has excellent handwriting.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "tales from around the world", "comics & graphic novels" ], "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "isbn": "1607748878", "seamus": 484379740, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781607748878, "bookshop": 9781607748878, "cover": "1607748878", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781607748878", "isbn10": "1607748878", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 50, "book": "Cook Korean! A Comic Book With Recipes", "source": "NPR", "text": "Learn To Make Korean Food With A Charming Graphic Cookbook", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/07/02/484040776/learn-to-make-korean-food-with-a-charming-graphic-cookbook" } ] }, "51": { "id": 51, "title": "Crosstalk", "author": "Connie Willis", "text": "

Connie Willis’ books are intentionally and enjoyably exasperating, as characters struggle through screwball situations and endless obfuscations in search of the one bit of information they actually need. Crosstalk is no different, as a young woman deals with sudden, unwanted telepathy and the endless complications it brings to her job and her love life. Part romantic comedy, part exploration of why psychic ability is the worst superpower, and part metaphor for an oversharing society that’s perpetually awash in a flood of distracting data from mobile devices, Crosstalk is a comedy about the importance of privacy and the pleasure of unplugging.

", "tags": [ "rather long", "funny stuff", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "love & romance", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Tasha Robinson" ], "isbn": "0345540670", "seamus": 496760170, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780345540676, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0345540670", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780345540676", "isbn10": "0345540670", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 51, "book": "Crosstalk", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Humor In 'Crosstalk' Gets Lost In The Hubbub", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/13/496446479/the-humor-in-crosstalk-gets-lost-in-the-hubbub" } ] }, "52": { "id": 52, "title": "Dalí: Les Dîners De Gala", "author": "Salvador Dalí", "text": "

Salvador Dalí, the great surrealist painter, didn’t just create fantastical visions on canvas. He also hosted many dreamlike dinner parties — at one (we aren’t making this up!) the hostess, dressed as a unicorn, bottle-fed a lion cub, and guests dined on frogs served inside satin slippers. In 1973, the artist released a lushly illustrated cookbook of recipes from these Dionysian gatherings. A collector’s item long out of print, it has just been reissued. Warning: Many dishes feature ingredients likely to put off most palates — there’s a whole chapter on snail and frog dishes alone. But for art lovers long entranced by Dalí, this is truly a feast for the eyes.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "for art lovers", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Maria Godoy" ], "isbn": "3836508761", "seamus": 502165640, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9783836508766, "cover": "3836508761", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9783836508766", "isbn10": "3836508761", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 52, "book": "Dalí: Les Dîners De Gala", "source": "NPR", "text": "Decades Later, Salvador Dalí's Decadent Dream Dishes Are Awakened", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/11/17/502161689/decades-later-salvador-dal-s-decadent-dream-dishes-are-awakened" } ] }, "53": { "id": 53, "title": "Dark Matter: A Novel", "author": "Blake Crouch", "text": "

There’s a moment in Dark Matter that made my blood run cold. That’s a cliched thing to say about a thriller, granted. But that my horror stemmed from theoretical physics? Less so. The story hinges on the simple facts of Jason Dessen’s life: He’s married. He has a son. He’s a middling college physics professor. And then one day, he’s abducted, knocked unconscious and thrust into a life where he’s still Jason Dessen … but everything else is different. I ripped through this book, unable to put it down. It’s a breathless journey through the laws of the universe and the human heart. It didn’t take much time to read it, but it stayed with me long after I put it down.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "family matters", "staff picks", "the dark side", "love & romance", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Ravenna Koenig" ], "isbn": "1101904224", "seamus": 485900361, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101904220, "bookshop": 9781101904220, "cover": "1101904224", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101904220", "isbn10": "1101904224", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 53, "book": "Dark Matter: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Dark Matter' Is A Jet-Propelled Science Thriller", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/31/485865180/dark-matter-is-a-jet-propelled-science-thriller" } ] }, "54": { "id": 54, "title": "Dark Money: The Hidden History Of The Billionaires Behind The Rise Of The Radical Right", "author": "Jane Mayer", "text": "

Long before “rigged” elections were a daily (albeit false) refrain, Charles and David Koch, along with their octopuslike political organizations, were wielding multimillion-dollar influence from secret hotel conference rooms and clandestine bank accounts. For good or bad (and in Jane Mayer’s telling, more than bad), the Koch brothers transformed American politics — elevating their libertarian ideology from fringe to mainstream. Dark Money takes you inside those back rooms and narrates — in clear, readable prose — the Koch brothers’ 30-year conservative crusade.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "the dark side", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Alison MacAdam" ], "isbn": "0385535597", "seamus": 463567062, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780385535595, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0385535597", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780385535595", "isbn10": "0385535597", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 54, "book": "Dark Money: The Hidden History Of The Billionaires Behind The Rise Of The Radical Right", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Hidden History' Of Koch Brothers Traces Their Childhood And Political Rise", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/19/463565987/hidden-history-of-koch-brothers-traces-their-childhood-and-political-rise" } ] }, "55": { "id": 55, "title": "Darktown: A Novel", "author": "Thomas Mullen", "text": "

Set in Atlanta just after World War II, Darktown chronicles the progress of two young black veterans who’ve been chosen to integrate the Atlanta Police Department — over strenuous objections of most of the city. How they manage to do that (with the under-the-table help of a few well-intentioned white colleagues) as the city’s racial tensions continue to rise makes for a riveting read. And the police-community tensions will sound sadly familiar.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "the dark side", "staff picks", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Karen Grigsby Bates" ], "isbn": "1501133861", "seamus": 495084942, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781501133862, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1501133861", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781501133862", "isbn10": "1501133861", "links": [] }, "56": { "id": 56, "title": "Death's End", "author": "Cixin Liu", "text": "

The Three-Body Problem, the first installment of Chinese author Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2015. Death’s End is the series finale; “grand” doesn’t do it justice. A tale of contact with an alien species that radically transforms our understanding of ourselves, our world and the laws of physics themselves, the novel sprawls across a jaw-dropping backdrop that encompasses universes and eons — a meditation on technology, progress, morality, extinction and knowledge that doubles as a cosmos-in-the-balance thriller.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "isbn": "0765377101", "seamus": 495488142, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780765377104, "bookshop": 9780765377104, "cover": "0765377101", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780765377104", "isbn10": "0765377101", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 56, "book": "Death's End", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Death's End' Brings An Epic Trilogy To A Satisfying Close", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/27/494927821/deaths-end-brings-an-epic-trilogy-to-a-satisfying-close" } ] }, "57": { "id": 57, "title": "Demon, Volume 1", "author": "Jason Shiga", "text": "

Originating as a minicomic, Jason Shiga’s Demon has grown to four planned volumes centering on one mystery: Why can’t Jimmy Yee die? In this first book he continually changes his identity and circumstances — frequently attempting suicide — yet remains an emotionally stunted, amoral cipher. Even so, clues turn up that will eventually make all clear — if you’ve been paying attention. Thanks to the overarching conundrum and Shiga’s sparse, cartoony style, the gore and nihilism manage to be simultaneously gloomy and cute.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "isbn": "1626724520", "seamus": 498438061, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781626724525, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1626724520", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781626724525", "isbn10": "1626724520", "links": [] }, "58": { "id": 58, "title": "Disappearance At Devil's Rock", "author": "Paul Tremblay", "text": "

Tommy Sanderson, a 13-year-old living with his single mother and sister just outside Boston, doesn’t come home after a sleepover with his buddies. The search for him begins in Borderland, a nearby forest: specifically a place called Split Rock, a cleft boulder with a dead tree sticking out of it that the boys have begun referring to as Devil’s Rock. From that simple premise, Paul Tremblay crafts an intricate, perception-rattling mystery in which nothing is as it seems — the kind of thriller that takes the simple premise of a lost child and twists it into a dizzying emotional vortex.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "isbn": "0062363263", "seamus": 482037960, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062363268, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062363263", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062363268", "isbn10": "0062363263", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 58, "book": "Disappearance At Devil's Rock", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Devil's Rock' Is An Atmospheric, Gut-Twisting Descent", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/22/482023642/devils-rock-is-an-atmospheric-gut-twisting-descent" } ] }, "59": { "id": 59, "title": "Don't Call Me Grandma", "author": "Vaunda Nelson, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon", "text": "

A lot of children’s books have a doting older relative hovering around, looking cuddly and offering cookies and hugs. Don’t Call Me Grandma has a fully realized character who upends those stereotypes. The “Grandma” of the title is Great-Grandmother Nell, 96 years old, with wrinkled “chocolaty brown” skin, who wears pearls every day, doesn’t hug and eats fish for breakfast. Nell is prickly and sometimes scary, but to her great-granddaughter, the narrator, she is also fascinating, with her crowded vanity, the glass she’s always sipping out of, and the bedroom that’s fit for a princess. Elizabeth Zunon’s illustrations are genius — mixed media that allows some of Nell’s memories to be sharper than others. There are civil rights-era photographs, a lone ticket to Alvin Ailey, an I Voted sticker. Vaunda Nelson spells out neither Nell’s past, nor the message of the book, allowing readers the best ending: a conversation about what makes us who we are, and the pleasure of loving difficult people. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "for history lovers", "staff picks", "identity & culture" ], "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "isbn": "1467742082", "seamus": 502463584, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781467742085, "bookshop": 9781467742085, "cover": "1467742082", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781467742085", "isbn10": "1467742082", "links": [] }, "60": { "id": 60, "title": "Dorie's Cookies", "author": "Dorie Greenspan", "text": "

Dorie Greenspan can bake anything. We’ve seen her do it in one home-cook-friendly book after another. But here she takes her talents to the little round talisman we all love best: the cookie. For five years, Dorie and her son ran a cookie business, and the upshot is a cookie compendium like no other. It’s chock-full of disks and bars and sandwiches, biscotti and pinwheels and drops, knots and puffs and wafers — each with that attentive Dorie detail that gently but firmly inspires you to up your cookie game without complicating your life.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "isbn": "0547614845", "seamus": 499467764, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780547614847, "bookshop": 9780547614847, "cover": "0547614845", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780547614847", "isbn10": "0547614845", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 60, "book": "Dorie's Cookies", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Book Review: 'Dorie's Cookies'", "url": "http://kmuw.org/post/book-review-dories-cookies" } ] }, "61": { "id": 61, "title": "Dust (Object Lessons)", "author": "Michael Marder, edited by Christopher Schaberg and Ian Bogost", "text": "

Yep, it’s precisely what it looks like: a book about dust. Well, that and the ways this all-but-invisible matter, this ever-accumulating nothing, pervades and reflects our relationship with the world. Dense topics, to be sure, but Michael Marder’s little book of philosophy — just one installment in a multiauthor series called Object Lessons — brings levity and loving care to his topic. It’s brisk, brief and slim enough to fit in your pocket; what better way to embrace all the big ideas these tiny specks offer?

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "it’s all geek to me", "seriously great writing", "eye-opening reads", "rather short" ], "reviewers": [ "Colin Dwyer" ], "isbn": "1628925582", "seamus": 498433759, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781628925586, "bookshop": 9781628925586, "cover": "1628925582", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781628925586", "isbn10": "1628925582", "links": [] }, "62": { "id": 62, "title": "Ego Is The Enemy", "author": "Ryan Holiday", "text": "

In an age when self-promotion and celebrity are glorified to the hilt and “hero” gets overused, Ryan Holiday’s book is a reminder that the biggest impediment to achievement is often ourselves. Holiday retells stories of the famous and not so famous that will both inspire you and stop you in your tracks. This is a book to savor by reading it in increments so the power of the examples sinks in, leaving time for healthy reflection. If the rat race of modern life has you feeling burned out, Ego is the Enemy just might help you view philosophy as anything but a relic of the ancient Greeks.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "staff picks", "for history lovers" ], "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "isbn": "1591847818", "seamus": 498435744, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781591847816, "bookshop": 9781591847816, "cover": "1591847818", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781591847816", "isbn10": "1591847818", "links": [] }, "63": { "id": 63, "title": "Eleanor And Hick: The Love Affair That Shaped A First Lady", "author": "Susan Quinn", "text": "

The love affair between first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena “Hick” Hickok — something of an open secret for the better part of a century — has never been treated with as much care or attention as in Susan Quinn’s Eleanor and Hick. Here, Quinn deftly traces the dissimilar but converging paths of these two complex women and gives new life to their intimate, dynamic relationship, against a backdrop of tremendous social upheaval.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Carmen Maria Machado" ], "isbn": "159420540X", "seamus": 498429451, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781594205408, "bookshop": "", "cover": "159420540X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781594205408", "isbn10": "159420540X", "links": [] }, "64": { "id": 64, "title": "Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 3: The War Years And After, 1939-1962", "author": "Blanche Wiesen Cook", "text": "

In the earlier volumes of her acclaimed biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, historian Blanche Wiesen Cook described Eleanor’s emotionally deprived childhood and delved into the marital partnership that evolved between Eleanor and Franklin. In this third and final volume, Cook focuses on the war years. As the president’s attention shifted away from his New Deal programs, Eleanor pushed for progressive ideals like racial equality and full employment. She also grew into the role of “First Lady of the World,” working for refugee rescue and traveling to Blitz-ravaged London and bases in Bora Bora and Guadalcanal. Cook has written a superb conclusion to one of the 20th century’s most monumental lives.

", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "nonfiction", "rather long", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "isbn": "0670023957", "seamus": 498691724, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780670023950, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0670023957", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780670023950", "isbn10": "0670023957", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 64, "book": "Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 3: The War Years And After, 1939-1962", "source": "NPR", "text": "Volume 3 Of Eleanor Roosevelt Biography Chronicles The Rise Of An Activist", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/11/01/500215038/volume-3-of-eleanor-roosevelt-biography-chronicles-the-rise-of-an-activist" } ] }, "65": { "id": 65, "title": "Elephant Complex: Travels In Sri Lanka", "author": "John Gimlette", "text": "

Elephant Complex made me add Sri Lanka to my bucket list, but armchair travelers will enjoy settling in for an evocative visit with John Gimlette as guide. There is so much more to the tear-shaped Indian Ocean island than tea, cricket and the legacy of civil war. Fun facts: Cinnamon became a global commodity thanks to the Portuguese conquest. Sri Lankan tradition says that a punishment far worse than death is reincarnation as a crow. I won’t spoil the elephant stories.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "tales from around the world", "eye-opening reads", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "isbn": "0385351275", "seamus": 498436288, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780385351270, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0385351275", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780385351270", "isbn10": "0385351275", "links": [] }, "66": { "id": 66, "title": "Eleven Hours", "author": "Pamela Erens", "text": "

Lore Tannenbaum has brought an elaborate birth plan to the hospital, several pages long, single-spaced and with lots of bullet points. Franckline, the nurse who will guide her through delivery, knows better: “as if much of anything about a birth can be planned,” she thinks to herself. Pamela Erens’ slim novel centers on the 11 intense hours of one woman’s labor. Along the way, she unwinds the complicated back stories that have brought these two women together. This is childbirth at its grittiest and most intimate.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "rather short", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Melissa Block" ], "isbn": "1941040292", "seamus": 477049754, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781941040294, "bookshop": 9781941040294, "cover": "1941040292", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781941040294", "isbn10": "1941040292", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 66, "book": "Eleven Hours", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Eleven Hours' Vividly Depicts The Beauty And Brutality Of Childbirth", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/19/478419658/eleven-hours-vividly-depicts-the-beauty-and-brutality-of-childbirth" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 66, "book": "Eleven Hours", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Eleven Hours' Follows Two Soon-To-Be Moms In The Course Of One Labor", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/08/477049261/eleven-hours-follows-two-soon-to-be-moms-in-the-course-of-one-labor" } ] }, "67": { "id": 67, "title": "Eligible: A Modern Retelling Of Pride And Prejudice", "author": "Curtis Sittenfeld", "text": "

Pride and Prejudice has inspired endless adaptations, but rarely has anyone captured Austen’s wry and antic spirit like Curtis Sittenfeld in Eligible. Sittenfeld isolates what makes Jane Austen endure (her social and moral acuity; her interest in what makes a good life), from the historical context (bonnets and balls) that so many adaptations fetishize. Instead, Sittenfeld brilliantly shows how much richer life is for the story’s heroines now, and what forces they are when they get out of the drawing room and into the world.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "love & romance" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "1400068320", "seamus": 474403058, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781400068326, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1400068320", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781400068326", "isbn10": "1400068320", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 67, "book": "Eligible: A Modern Retelling Of Pride And Prejudice", "source": "WVXU", "text": " 'The Book Club': Curtis Sittenfeld's 'Eligible'", "url": "http://wvxu.org/post/curtis-sittenfeld-eligible#stream/0" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 67, "book": "Eligible: A Modern Retelling Of Pride And Prejudice", "source": "NPR", "text": "What If 'Pride And Prejudice' Were Set In Cincinnati?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/17/474402056/what-if-pride-and-prejudice-was-set-in-cincinnati" } ] }, "68": { "id": 68, "title": "Every Anxious Wave", "author": "Mo Daviau", "text": "

If you could go back in time and see any band play, whom would you choose? In Mo Daviau’s Every Anxious Wave, that question faces Karl, a former indie-rock star turned bar owner, and Lena, a Ph.D. candidate in astrophysics, after Karl finds a wormhole that leads to any yesterday of one’s choosing. Soon, though, time travel becomes less of a way to see old bands and more of a way to painfully revisit past relationships, departed relatives and buried traumas — not that it gets in the way of some serious music geekitude. Wise and witty, the book is a sci-fi romp about how our past can both hold us back and lift us up.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "for music lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "isbn": "1250067499", "seamus": 465579689, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781250067494, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250067499", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781250067494", "isbn10": "1250067499", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 68, "book": "Every Anxious Wave", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Every Anxious Wave' Is A Wise, Witty Romp Through Time — And Indie Rock", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/10/463861906/-every-anxious-wave-is-a-wise-witty-romp-through-time-and-indie-rock" } ] }, "69": { "id": 69, "title": "Everybody's Fool: A Novel", "author": "Richard Russo", "text": "

Pretty much all you need to know about this book is the story that inspired it: A small-town police officer discovers a garage door opener in his wife’s car. Convinced his wife is having an affair, he goes all over town aiming that door opener at different garages. Such is the jumping-off point for author Richard Russo’s return to North Bath, N.Y., a place he first wrote about over two decades ago in Nobody’s Fool. It’s the kind of place that would be easy to dismiss as a down-on-its-luck former factory town, so what a joy to have a novelist open up the humanity, wisdom and — of course — comedy to be found there.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "family matters", "rather long", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Shannon Rhoades" ], "isbn": "0307454827", "seamus": 476765450, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780307454829, "bookshop": 9780307454829, "cover": "0307454827", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780307454829", "isbn10": "0307454827", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 69, "book": "Everybody's Fool: A Novel", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Richard Russo & Jenny Boylan On Plot Twists In Books – And Life", "url": "http://www.wnyc.org/story/richard-russo-jenny-boylan-everybodys-fool/" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 69, "book": "Everybody's Fool: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Everybody's Fool' Has Delightfully Flawed Characters", "url": "http://kmuw.org/post/everybodys-fool-has-delightfully-flawed-characters" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 69, "book": "Everybody's Fool: A Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": " 'The Book Show' Interview With Richard Russo", "url": "http://wamc.org/post/book-show-1452-richard-russo" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 69, "book": "Everybody's Fool: A Novel", "source": "NHPR", "text": " 'Word Of Mouth': In Conversation With Richard Russo", "url": "http://nhpr.org/post/conversation-richard-russo" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 69, "book": "Everybody's Fool: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Richard Russo Returns To North Bath, NY, In 'Everybody's Fool'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/09/477314264/richard-russo-returns-to-north-bath-ny-in-everybodys-fool" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 69, "book": "Everybody's Fool: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Novelist Richard Russo: 'I Find Myself Now ... Having Lived The American Dream'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/05/476743466/novelist-richard-russo-i-find-myself-now-having-lived-the-american-dream" } ] }, "70": { "id": 70, "title": "Evicted: Poverty And Profit In The American City", "author": "Matthew Desmond", "text": "

“Enthralling” might seem like a bizarre way to describe the stories of real people teetering on the brink of homelessness in Milwaukee, but this account of how the system is stacked against poor people is powerfully written. It reads like great fiction, but it’s deeply and compassionately reported. (Author Matthew Desmond — a Harvard sociologist and recipient of the MacArthur “genius grant” — has his own memories of his family losing a home to foreclosure.) Books about social issues can sometimes feel like homework, but reading Evicted is a gripping, moving and eye-opening experience.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Neda Ulaby" ], "isbn": "0553447432", "seamus": 503014622, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780553447439, "bookshop": 9780553447439, "cover": "0553447432", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780553447439", "isbn10": "0553447432", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 70, "book": "Evicted: Poverty And Profit In The American City", "source": "WUWM", "text": "Evicted' Paints A Heartbreaking Picture Of A Milwaukee Under Stress", "url": "http://wuwm.com/post/evicted-book-paints-heartbreaking-picture-milwaukee-under-stress" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 70, "book": "Evicted: Poverty And Profit In The American City", "source": "NPR", "text": "First-Ever Evictions Database Shows: 'We're In the Middle Of A Housing Crisis'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/12/601783346/first-ever-evictions-database-shows-were-in-the-middle-of-a-housing-crisis" } ] }, "71": { "id": 71, "title": "Exit, Pursued By A Bear", "author": "E.K. Johnston", "text": "

You would be forgiven for assuming that E.K. Johnston’s Exit, Pursued By a Bear — about how head cheerleader Hermione Winters pieces her life back together after being drugged and raped at cheer camp — would be a depressing read. But despite its unflinching depiction of the real challenges faced by assault survivors, it’s also warmer, more comforting and simply compelling in a way its plot summary could never capture. While assault survivors, both in fact and in fiction, often find their lives narrowed to this one designation, Johnston refuses to flatten her heroine. Instead, she insists that Hermione’s joy in being thrown into the air during cheer routines, and the strength of her best friendship with co-captain Polly are just as vital to our understanding of her as the facts of her assault. By doing so, Johnston makes Hermione’s story easier to survive, for both Hermione and the reader, without ever making it less true.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "family matters", "fiction", "young adult" ], "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "isbn": "1101994584", "seamus": 498687883, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101994580, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101994584", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101994580", "isbn10": "1101994584", "links": [] }, "72": { "id": 72, "title": "Eyes On The Street: The Life Of Jane Jacobs", "author": "Robert Kanigel", "text": "

Perhaps it’s not as momentous as Henry Hudson sailing into New York Harbor in 1609, but Jane Jacobs’ 1934 arrival in Greenwich Village (at age 18) also changed the city’s history. Jacobs fought to save Washington Square and the Village itself from Robert Moses’ plan to build an expressway through the heart of Lower Manhattan; and she drew on her life as a downtown mother of three to inform her classic, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Like Jacobs, author Robert Kanigel is a lively writer, and *Eyes on the Street * is an all too rare biography of the making of a female public intellectual.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "rather long", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "isbn": "0307961907", "seamus": 495621712, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780307961907, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0307961907", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780307961907", "isbn10": "0307961907", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 72, "book": "Eyes On The Street: The Life Of Jane Jacobs", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Eyes On The Street' Details Jane Jacobs' Efforts To Put Cities First", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/28/495615064/eyes-on-the-street-details-jane-jacobs-efforts-to-put-cities-first" } ] }, "73": { "id": 73, "title": "Faith Volume 1: Hollywood And Vine", "author": "Jody Houser, illustrated by Francis Portela and Marguerite Sauvage", "text": "

The radiant Faith is long overdue in comics. This superhero who fights crime using powers of flight and telekinesis is formidable, pulchritudinous and — remarkably, unabashedly — fat. The art both caresses and celebrates Faith’s ovoid belly and double chin; the phenomenal subversive power of a fat female body in motion makes her larger than life in a way many other female superheroes seem to struggle to be.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "isbn": "1682151212", "seamus": 484065921, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781682151211, "cover": "1682151212", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781682151211", "isbn10": "1682151212", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 73, "book": "Faith Volume 1: Hollywood And Vine", "source": "NPR", "text": "Questions For Jody Houser, Writer Of High-Flying 'Faith'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/07/29/536893629/questions-for-jody-houser-writer-of-high-flying-faith" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 73, "book": "Faith Volume 1: Hollywood And Vine", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Faith' Makes Fat A Force To Reckon With", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/06/484012379/faith-makes-fat-a-force-to-reckon-with" } ] }, "74": { "id": 74, "title": "Fear The Drowning Deep", "author": "Sarah Glenn Marsh", "text": "

Sarah Glenn Marsh paints a portrait of a little Manx fishing village in 1913, where people are disappearing and mythical creatures may be to blame. Bridey has hated the sea ever since it took her grandfather away, and all she wants to do is leave the island behind forever. But when she finds a mysterious young man washed up on the beach, she will have to put aside her terror of the sea to protect her loved ones. Fans of folklore-influenced YA will find this to be a satisfying use of familiar material.

", "tags": [ "young adult", "historical fiction", "family matters", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "isbn": "1510703489", "seamus": 496141679, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781510703483, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1510703489", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781510703483", "isbn10": "1510703489", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 74, "book": "Fear The Drowning Deep", "source": "NPR", "text": "Magic In The Air: 3 Young Adult Fantasy Reads For Fall", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/01/494916840/magic-in-the-air-3-young-adult-fantasy-reads-for-fall" } ] }, "75": { "id": 75, "title": "Fellside", "author": "M.R. Carey", "text": "

Mike Carey (of the Lucifer and Unwritten graphic novels) writes the kind of novels that are best experienced with no advance information, even of the genre involved. Both his 2014 novel The Girl With All The Gifts and 2016’s Fellside pull tremendous tension from their reveals, as they start in one story mode and transform over time, with careful teases to keep readers guessing. But for the distrustful: This supernatural fantasy reads like a marriage between Stephen King and Charles De Lint, with a touch of Orange Is The New Black and a little modern young adult fiction for extra flavor.

", "tags": [ "rather long", "the dark side", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Tasha Robinson" ], "isbn": "0316300284", "seamus": 499469846, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316300285, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0316300284", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316300285", "isbn10": "0316300284", "links": [] }, "76": { "id": 76, "title": "Flavorwalla: Big Flavor. Bold Spices. A New Way To Cook The Foods You Love", "author": "Floyd Cardoz", "text": "

Flavorwalla (or “vendor of flavors”) is chef Floyd Cardoz’s exciting contribution to the bustling market of “chef cooks at home” books, and it’s simultaneously more user-friendly than the typical chef book and more exciting than the typical home-cooking book. Why shouldn’t you drizzle your roast broccoli in lime and honey? Why wouldn’t you add pomegranate seeds and crushed peanuts to white beans? Fresh and unexpected as a hit of citrus zest where you least expected it, Flavorwalla has much to offer cooks whose sense of adventure is greater than their free time.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "isbn": "1579656218", "seamus": 499468747, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781579656218, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1579656218", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781579656218", "isbn10": "1579656218", "links": [] }, "77": { "id": 77, "title": "Float", "author": "Anne Carson", "text": "

Float is an uncontained delight. This collection of loose chapbooks — poems, lists, essays, speeches — can be read in any order. Cryptic, antic and funny, all contain sparks of something truly original. The subjects are often classical but range from Zeus to the artist Yves Klein to Joan of Arc to her brother’s widow (“she dies / in April 2010 of alcohol and indescribable longing”). Anne Carson’s thoughts feel like anarchic rainfall, a fresh shower, an escape.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "seriously great writing" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "1101946849", "seamus": 500707791, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101946848, "bookshop": 9781101946848, "cover": "1101946849", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101946848", "isbn10": "1101946849", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 77, "book": "Float", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Float' Will Lift Your Mind Out Of Its Rut", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/11/06/499654945/float-will-lift-your-mind-out-of-its-rut" } ] }, "78": { "id": 78, "title": "Forbidden", "author": "Beverly Jenkins", "text": "

In post-Civil War Nevada, wealthy and powerful rancher Rhine finds Eddy lost and near death in the desert, and nurses her back to health — but though Rhine comes to desire her, he can’t act on it. Eddy is black, and Rhine’s business, wealth, status and security all rest on the fact that he is passing as white. If you like vivid characters inhabiting underexplored but fascinating American history, in stories overflowing with scorchingly unresolved sexual tension, this is definitely a book for you.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "love & romance", "identity & culture", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas", "let’s talk about sex", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Sarah Wendell" ], "isbn": "0062389009", "seamus": 499340979, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062389008, "bookshop": 9780062389008, "cover": "0062389009", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062389008", "isbn10": "0062389009", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 78, "book": "Forbidden", "source": "NPR", "text": "For Valentine's Day, Romance Writers Share Their Favorite Moments", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/02/14/585350758/for-valentines-day-romance-writers-share-their-favorite-moments" } ] }, "79": { "id": 79, "title": "Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives And Dreams Brought To Life", "author": "Ashley Bryan", "text": "

In this moving, beautifully illustrated picture book, Ashley Bryan uses historical documents to evoke the lives of 11 slaves who were sold during the 1828 dissolution of a Southern plantation. Using a combination of free verse and illustration, Bryan elegantly accomplishes a challenging feat: honoring the work of these slaves, imagining the pride they might take in that work and celebrating their rich interior life without ever muting our awareness of the oppressive framework that defined their lives and their existence in America. A stunning book and a wonderful, accessible demonstration of the artistic potential of primary source research. (For ages 6 to 10)

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "kids’ books", "short stories, essays & poetry", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "isbn": "1481456903", "seamus": 498687313, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781481456906, "bookshop": 9781481456906, "cover": "1481456903", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781481456906", "isbn10": "1481456903", "links": [] }, "80": { "id": 80, "title": "Full Of Beans", "author": "Jennifer L. Holm", "text": "

The irrepressible Beans Curry is at the heart of this rollicking whopper of a Depression-era story. Always scheming to make a few extra nickels, Beans is not above working for a shady character or two, especially since it beats babysitting. When a stranger shows up in his hometown of Key West, Fla., with a plan to turn it into a tourist destination, Beans finds himself right in the middle of the action. Author Jennifer Holm keeps the laughs coming in this colorful story that captures the small town dynamics of another era. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "historical fiction", "funny stuff", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "isbn": "0553510363", "seamus": 498676258, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780553510362, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0553510363", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780553510362", "isbn10": "0553510363", "links": [] }, "81": { "id": 81, "title": "Ghostland: An American History In Haunted Places", "author": "Colin Dickey", "text": "

The good news: Nothing’s really haunted except by the spirits we imagine for ourselves. The bad news: We’ll make anything haunted. The great news: There’s Ghostland. Colin Dickey gets to the heart of the matter over and over, skirting any tourist-trap sensationalism in favor of historical context that touches on the longing and tragedy underneath ghost stories. It’s a tour of America’s haunted places that takes an insightful look at how ghost stories are made, how ghosts and historical visibility are so tightly intertwined, and why we keep looking for the dead.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "isbn": "1101980192", "seamus": 496757042, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101980194, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101980192", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101980194", "isbn10": "1101980192", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 81, "book": "Ghostland: An American History In Haunted Places", "source": "NPR", "text": "Skeletons In The Closet: What Ghost Stories Reveal About America's Past", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/12/496756968/skeletons-in-the-closet-what-ghost-stories-reveal-about-america-s-past" } ] }, "82": { "id": 82, "title": "Ghosts", "author": "Raina Telgemeier", "text": "

Ghosts is the latest comic from Raina Telgemeier, and darn it if her books don’t just keep getting better. She’s got a real connection with middle-graders who are skirting puberty and having just as much fun with it as you did (amirite?). Ghosts tells the story of Cat and her little sister Maya, who’ve moved to the spooky and beautifully drawn Northern California town of Bahia de la Luna — it’s windswept and wet and the sun rarely shines, but the ocean air is meant to help with Maya’s cystic fibrosis. Maya is exuberant and outgoing despite the illness; Cat is more withdrawn and protective. Cat and Maya come face to face with two scary things: a cute boy, and some ghosts that frequent the town. What follows is a wonderful experience from panel to panel — and the rare book that doesn’t talk down to middle schoolers about death.

", "tags": [ "young adult", "family matters", "comics & graphic novels", "identity & culture", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "isbn": "0545540623", "seamus": 493183545, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780545540629, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0545540623", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780545540629", "isbn10": "0545540623", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 82, "book": "Ghosts", "source": "NPR", "text": "Yes, Some Comics Are For Kids — And They're Big Business", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/07/22/538662858/yes-some-comics-are-for-kids-and-theyre-big-business" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 82, "book": "Ghosts", "source": "NPR", "text": "Let's Get Graphic: 100 Favorite Comics And Graphic Novels", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/07/12/533862948/lets-get-graphic-100-favorite-comics-and-graphic-novels" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 82, "book": "Ghosts", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Ghosts' Takes On A Tough Topic For Children", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/11/493183503/ghosts-takes-on-a-tough-topic-for-children" } ] }, "83": { "id": 83, "title": "Girls On Fire: A Novel", "author": "Robin Wasserman", "text": "

Robin Wasserman’s terrifying thriller is the story of two teenage girls, outcasts in their small western Pennsylvania town in the early 1990s. The girls’ hatred of a popular classmate quickly takes a dark turn that just keeps getting darker. Wasserman’s novel turns the Satanic panic of the Reagan-Bush years on its head, and the result is a novel that’s terrifying, upsetting and hypnotically beautiful. There’s not a false step in it, and you never want it to end, although you know it has to. It’s an inferno of a book — brutally gorgeous — and you know it could explode at any time, but you can’t turn away, even for a second.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "let’s talk about sex", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "isbn": "0062415484", "seamus": 467406083, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062415486, "bookshop": 9780062415486, "cover": "0062415484", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062415486", "isbn10": "0062415484", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 83, "book": "Girls On Fire: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Girls On Fire' Is Terrifying, Upsetting And Beautiful", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/21/477372864/girls-on-fire-is-terrifying-upsetting-and-beautiful" } ] }, "84": { "id": 84, "title": "Grief Is The Thing With Feathers: A Novel", "author": "Max Porter", "text": "

In his masterful debut novel Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Max Porter offers a poetic and beautifully rendered meditation on love, grief and the transformative power of art. Told in compressed yet striking prose, it centers on a husband — a father of two boys — who is trying to process his wife’s sudden, accidental death. Each sentence and page carries the air of a song, drawing in the reader with its deep wisdom and dazzling language.

", "tags": [ "family matters", "the dark side", "seriously great writing", "rather short" ], "reviewers": [ "Juan Vidal" ], "isbn": "1555977413", "seamus": 480319288, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781555977412, "bookshop": 9781555977412, "cover": "1555977413", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781555977412", "isbn10": "1555977413", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 84, "book": "Grief Is The Thing With Feathers: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Moving, Inventive 'Thing With Feathers' Is A Guide To Grief", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/02/479729015/moving-inventive-thing-with-feathers-is-a-guide-to-grief" } ] }, "85": { "id": 85, "title": "Hag-Seed", "author": "Margaret Atwood", "text": "

Margaret Atwood’s best books delve deep into her characters’ souls, but her funniest work is faster and broader. Her retelling of The Tempest is the latter: a modern farce that casts a small-town theater director as Prospero and the local bureaucrats as his usurpers. Atwood taps into The Tempest’s rage and grief and finds unsettling analogues for Miranda and Ariel that waver between realism and fantasy. But the book’s meta humor is its lifeline. Atwood blurs the lines between the director’s life and his art, turning the book into a simultaneous meditation on mourning and a lively, silly trip down the rabbit hole.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "fiction", "family matters" ], "reviewers": [ "Tasha Robinson" ], "isbn": "0804141290", "seamus": 497867846, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780804141291, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0804141290", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780804141291", "isbn10": "0804141290", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 85, "book": "Hag-Seed", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Hag-Seed,' A Gentle Guide To Shakespeare's Stormy Island", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/16/496762131/in-hag-seed-a-gentle-guide-to-shakespeares-stormy-island" } ] }, "86": { "id": 86, "title": "Hamilton: The Revolution", "author": "Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeremy McCarter", "text": "

Not all of us Hamilton nerds will be lucky enough to be in the room where it happens. But poring over the musical’s accompanying book will help soothe your Hamilton obsession while you wait to hear back about today’s ticket lottery. I recommend you put on the cast album, curl up on the couch and begin dissecting every essay, every footnote, every sketch and every historical document. I won’t spoil any of the Easter eggs jam-packed into the production. But let’s grab a drink when you’re finished so we can discuss every detail.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for art lovers", "for music lovers", "for history lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "staff picks", "no biz like show biz" ], "reviewers": [ "Jessica Reedy" ], "isbn": "1455539740", "seamus": 473504712, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781455539741, "bookshop": 9781455539741, "cover": "1455539740", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781455539741", "isbn10": "1455539740", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 86, "book": "Hamilton: The Revolution", "source": "NPR", "text": "Lin-Manuel Miranda Talks 'Hamilton': Once A 'Ridiculous' Pitch, Now A Revolution", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/09/473503407/lin-manuel-miranda-talks-hamilton-once-a-ridiculous-pitch-now-a-revolution" } ] }, "87": { "id": 87, "title": "Heat And Light: A Novel", "author": "Jennifer Haigh", "text": "

Jennifer Haigh grew up in Pennsylvania coal country. In this novel, she explores what happens when fracking comes to a fictional version of her hometown. The story is told from multiple perspectives, starting with a cocky salesman set on convincing locals to license their land for natural gas drilling. A prison guard who dreams of farming the land he owns sells his rights. An organic farmer says no. Through the reactions and interactions of Haigh’s large cast of characters, we see how the controversies around fracking play out in corporate America, in the environmental movement, and in one small town where people must live with the consequences of their decisions.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Lynn Neary" ], "isbn": "0061763292", "seamus": 476776830, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780061763298, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0061763292", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780061763298", "isbn10": "0061763292", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 87, "book": "Heat And Light: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Still Puzzled By The Election? Authors Prescribe Fiction For Better Understanding", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/12/22/506476143/still-puzzled-by-the-election-authors-prescribe-fiction-for-better-understanding" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 87, "book": "Heat And Light: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Dying Coal Town Falls Into 'Fracking Frenzy' In 'Heat And Light'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/10/477425129/a-dying-coal-town-falls-into-fracking-frenzy-in-heat-light" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 87, "book": "Heat And Light: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Heat & Light' Digs For The Soul Of Coal Country", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/04/476775276/heat-and-light-digs-for-the-soul-of-coal-country" } ] }, "88": { "id": 88, "title": "Here Comes The Sun: A Novel", "author": "Nicole Dennis-Benn", "text": "

Set in the fictional Jamaican town of River Bank, this novel follows three women struggling to keep their lives together in the wake of a long drought and a series of personal tragedies. Nicole Dennis-Benn’s writing is so assured, so gorgeous, that it’s hard to believe Here Comes the Sun is a debut novel. There are no wasted words; every sentence is constructed with care and a clear eye. It’s a joy to read, but you can tell that each phrase was hard-fought. Dennis-Benn’s novel is tough, beautiful and necessary. It feels like a miracle.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world" ], "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "isbn": "1631491768", "seamus": 484067657, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781631491764, "bookshop": 9781631491764, "cover": "1631491768", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781631491764", "isbn10": "1631491768", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 88, "book": "Here Comes The Sun: A Novel", "source": "KAJX", "text": " 'First Draft' Interview With Nicole Dennis-Benn", "url": "http://aspenpublicradio.org/post/first-draft-nicole-dennis-benn" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 88, "book": "Here Comes The Sun: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Here Comes The Sun' Shows A Complex, Heartbreakingly Real Jamaica", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/06/484012478/here-comes-the-sun-shows-a-complex-heartbreakingly-real-jamaica" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 88, "book": "Here Comes The Sun: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'This Is No Paradise': Author Explores The Side Of Jamaica Tourists Don't See", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/04/484196246/this-is-no-paradise-author-explores-the-side-of-jamaica-tourists-dont-see" } ] }, "89": { "id": 89, "title": "Hero Of The Empire: The Boer War, A Daring Escape And The Making Of Winston Churchill", "author": "Candice Millard", "text": "

Winston Churchill, FDR’s stalwart partner in World War II, burned with ambition and visions of grandeur from his earliest years. Candice Millard tells of his quest for fame and glory that landed him in a reckless mess in the South African Boer War. Churchill ended up hiding in a mine before a daring escape as smuggled cargo. Millard’s elegant turns of phrase, with just the right detail that brings out Churchill’s character, make the book a delightful read. This story places Churchill’s later gambles on the world stage into a pattern of what today we would call “go big or go home.”

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "for history lovers", "seriously great writing", "eye-opening reads", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "isbn": "0385535732", "seamus": 498435057, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780385535731, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0385535732", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780385535731", "isbn10": "0385535732", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 89, "book": "Hero Of The Empire: The Boer War, A Daring Escape And The Making Of Winston Churchill", "source": "KMUW", "text": " 'Marginalia' Interview With Candice Millard", "url": "http://kmuw.org/post/marginalia-candice-millard" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 89, "book": "Hero Of The Empire: The Boer War, A Daring Escape And The Making Of Winston Churchill", "source": "WUWM", "text": "The Making Of Winston Churchill: A Man 'Destined For Greatness'", "url": "http://wuwm.com/post/making-winston-churchill-man-destined-greatness" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 89, "book": "Hero Of The Empire: The Boer War, A Daring Escape And The Making Of Winston Churchill", "source": "NPR", "text": "How The Boer War Helped Winston Churchill Become The 'Hero Of The Empire'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/09/26/544447697/how-the-boer-war-helped-winston-churchill-become-the-hero-of-the-empire" } ] }, "90": { "id": 90, "title": "Hidden Figures: The American Dream And The Untold Story Of The Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win The Space Race", "author": "Margot Lee Shetterly", "text": "

The names Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan were never taught in any of my history classes. Hidden Figures introduced me to these “human computers” — two of the many African-American women who helped the U.S. win the “Space Race” in the 1960s. When I finished the book, I was left with a feeling of deep gratitude to author Margot Lee Shetterly for researching and telling these previously untold stories. The book is being adapted into a film — premiering in January — and perhaps these women will finally claim their hard-earned place in American history.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "it’s all geek to me", "staff picks", "science!", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Aggi Ashagre" ], "isbn": "0062363603", "seamus": 495180475, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062363602, "bookshop": 9780062363602, "cover": "0062363603", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062363602", "isbn10": "0062363603", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 90, "book": "Hidden Figures: The American Dream And The Untold Story Of The Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win The Space Race", "source": "WUNC", "text": "Hidden Figures' Tells The Story Of Black Women Who Helped The Space Race", "url": "http://wunc.org/post/hidden-figures-tells-story-black-women-who-helped-space-race#stream/0" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 90, "book": "Hidden Figures: The American Dream And The Untold Story Of The Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win The Space Race", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Hidden Figures,' 'The Glass Universe,' And Why Science Needs History", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/12/18/505592663/hidden-figures-the-glass-universe-and-why-science-needs-history" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 90, "book": "Hidden Figures: The American Dream And The Untold Story Of The Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win The Space Race", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Hidden Figures' No More: Meet The Black Women Who Helped Send America To Space", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/12/16/505569187/hidden-figures-no-more-meet-the-black-women-who-helped-send-america-to-space" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 90, "book": "Hidden Figures: The American Dream And The Untold Story Of The Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win The Space Race", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Hidden Figures': How Black Women Did The Math That Put Men On The Moon", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/25/495179824/hidden-figures-how-black-women-did-the-math-that-put-men-on-the-moon" } ] }, "91": { "id": 91, "title": "Highly Illogical Behavior", "author": "John Corey Whaley", "text": "

An ambitious high school junior decides to befriend a former classmate and “cure” him of his agoraphobia as a way to secure the scholarship she needs to the college of her choice; emotionally fraught high jinks ensue. That’s the kind of plot summary that makes you raise both eyebrows, and not necessarily in a good way. But in the hands of John Corey Whaley, it becomes a book that will make you laugh out loud, full of characters that, while highly comic, never lack nuance or feel less than real — a book just heightened enough to crackle with fun, but grounded enough to keep you fully invested in its oddballs.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "fiction", "young adult" ], "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "isbn": "0525428186", "seamus": 498688156, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780525428183, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0525428186", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780525428183", "isbn10": "0525428186", "links": [] }, "92": { "id": 92, "title": "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir Of A Family And Culture In Crisis", "author": "J. D. Vance", "text": "

J.D. Vance walks you through the struggles of white working-class Americans making their way across a broken economic landscape. Ouch: The journey cuts. As he describes his rise from a chaotic home in Ohio’s Rust Belt to Yale Law School, he considers the economic changes that make people poor – and the personal failings that can keep them that way. He knows all about the alcoholism, drug abuse and bad work habits that hold some back. But he also sees the heartbreak and dislocation that accompany the loss of mining and manufacturing jobs. His people — “hillbillies” — have a story worth hearing.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Marilyn Geewax" ], "isbn": "0062300547", "seamus": 490328697, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062300546, "bookshop": 9780062300546, "cover": "0062300547", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062300546", "isbn10": "0062300547", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 92, "book": "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir Of A Family And Culture In Crisis", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Hillbilly Elegy' Recalls A Childhood Where Poverty Was 'The Family Tradition'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/17/490328484/hillbilly-elegy-recalls-a-childhood-where-poverty-was-the-family-tradition" } ] }, "93": { "id": 93, "title": "His Bloody Project: Documents Relating To The Case Of Roderick Macrae", "author": "Graeme MaCrae Burnet", "text": "

His Bloody Project is an ingenious, artful tale of a 19th century triple murder in the Scottish Highlands. Though a novel — and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize — it masquerades as the tale of a true crime, made up of a collection of historical documents supposedly unearthed by the writer, each new bit shedding further light on what drove a 17-year-old to kill three people — including an infant — in his small crofting community.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "the dark side", "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Nishant Dahiya" ], "isbn": "1510719210", "seamus": 499337799, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781510719217, "bookshop": 9781510719217, "cover": "1510719210", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781510719217", "isbn10": "1510719210", "links": [] }, "94": { "id": 94, "title": "Homegoing: A Novel", "author": "Yaa Gyasi", "text": "

The next time I hear someone say “Oh, please — slavery ended centuries ago; discrimination against African-Americans can’t only be the fault of slavery,” I’m going to recommend this book. Yaa Gyasi’s sweeping epic follows two half-sisters and their descendants; one endures the horrors of the Middle Passage to end up enslaved in America. The other remains in West Africa, under colonial rule. Gyasi’s skilled storytelling allows readers to understand that although slavery has ended, the concentric ripples of its effect continue to wash up on both shores, even today.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Karen Grigsby Bates" ], "isbn": "1101947136", "seamus": 480480788, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101947135, "bookshop": 9781101947135, "cover": "1101947136", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101947135", "isbn10": "1101947136", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 94, "book": "Homegoing: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Homegoing,' A Saga Of A Family United By Blood, Separated By Slavery ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/07/481085831/in-homegoing-a-saga-of-a-family-united-by-blood-separated-by-slavery" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 94, "book": "Homegoing: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Homegoing' Is A Sprawling Epic, Brimming With Compassion", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/07/480477931/homegoing-is-a-sprawling-epic-brimming-with-compassion" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 94, "book": "Homegoing: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Slavery Scars A Trans-Atlantic Family Tree In 'Homegoing'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/04/480480531/slavery-scars-a-transatlantic-family-tree-in-homegoing" } ] }, "95": { "id": 95, "title": "Hot Dog Taste Test", "author": "Lisa Hanawalt", "text": "

In cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt’s bold, brilliant and bananas collection of comics — and comics essays — she infuses her disparate passions (food, travel, sex, horses) with ebullient humor. Whether she’s shadowing avant-garde chef Wiley Dufresne around his kitchen or chronicling the sexual misadventures of various anthropomorphized animals, Hanawalt’s eye is bracingly idiosyncratic, her wit sharp, her sensibility defiantly absurd.

", "tags": [ "funny stuff", "for art lovers", "comics & graphic novels", "let’s talk about sex", "biography & memoir" ], "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "isbn": "1770462376", "seamus": 482028249, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781770462373, "bookshop": 9781770462373, "cover": "1770462376", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781770462373", "isbn10": "1770462376", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 95, "book": "Hot Dog Taste Test", "source": "NPR", "text": "Hot Dogs Against Conformity In 'Taste Test'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/21/482023608/hot-dogs-against-conformity-in-taste-test" } ] }, "96": { "id": 96, "title": "How To Be A Person In The World: Ask Polly's Guide Through The Paradoxes Of Modern Life", "author": "Heather Havrilesky", "text": "

Heather Havrilesky, New York magazine’s self-proclaimed “existential advice” columnist, is both the first and last person you’d seek out for guidance. On one hand, she’ll shake you by the shoulders and tell you the truth. On the other, she’s the friend rooting you on, cursing (creatively) all the way. Taking on topics such as “Am I Too Weird?” and “I’m Thirty-Eight and Everything Is Awful,” Havrilesky abandons the prim and proper and instead delivers delightfully offbeat wisdom with a side of straight talk.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Meghan Keane" ], "isbn": "0385540396", "seamus": 485576674, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780385540391, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0385540396", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780385540391", "isbn10": "0385540396", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 96, "book": "How To Be A Person In The World: Ask Polly's Guide Through The Paradoxes Of Modern Life", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Ask Polly' Columnist Tells Advice-Seekers 'How To Be A Person In The World'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/10/485432506/empathy-qualifies-ask-polly-columnist-to-tell-advice-seekers-how-to-be-a-person" } ] }, "97": { "id": 97, "title": "How To Be A Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide To Tudor Life", "author": "Ruth Goodman", "text": "

Did you know the Tudors didn’t actually smell that bad? Neither did I, and I’ve read an awful lot of history books. Historian Ruth Goodman spent three months wearing period-correct linen underthings and changing them every day as the people of the era did, and she stayed relatively stench-free. It’s that level of hands-on research that makes How to be a Tudor a delight; from breakfast to brewing to the very occasional bathtime, Goodman is a charming and deeply informed guide.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Petra Mayer" ], "isbn": "1631491393", "seamus": 467116555, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781631491399, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1631491393", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781631491399", "isbn10": "1631491393", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 97, "book": "How To Be A Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide To Tudor Life", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'How To Be A Tudor': Not As Stinky As You Think", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/18/463862420/how-to-be-a-tudor-not-as-stinky-as-you-think" } ] }, "98": { "id": 98, "title": "Hunters In The Dark: A Novel", "author": "Lawrence Osborne", "text": "

This novel about a down-on-his-luck young Englishman in Cambodia reads like a thriller. Lawrence Osborne weaves in the country’s past and present, and he has much to say about East and West, but it’s really money that drives Hunters In The Dark. Small amounts, the dreams of bigger amounts, the lure of vast amounts — this is a tale of greed, trickery and treachery. Deft pacing, luscious descriptions of Cambodia and an impeccable sense of impending doom keep the reader hooked all the way through.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "seriously great writing" ], "reviewers": [ "Nishant Dahiya" ], "isbn": "0553447343", "seamus": 463078472, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780553447347, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0553447343", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780553447347", "isbn10": "0553447343", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 98, "book": "Hunters In The Dark: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Hunters' Is A Dark, Elegant Tale Of East And West", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/16/462262247/hunters-is-a-dark-elegant-tale-of-east-and-west" } ] }, "99": { "id": 99, "title": "I Am No One: A Novel", "author": "Patrick Flanery", "text": "

Patrick Flanery’s novel I Am No One asks whether it is more delusional to think you are being watched, or to think you are not being watched. In it, a mild history professor begins to suspect he is under surveillance. Though Flanery undeniably has a point to make, one about privacy in this “new regime of data collection [that] does not see innocence first but assumes guilt by algorithmic association,” he resists the obvious at every turn. This is not a polemic — instead, emotional and psychological precision are the order of the day.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "1101905859", "seamus": 484067334, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101905852, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101905859", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101905852", "isbn10": "1101905859", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 99, "book": "I Am No One: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'I Am No One:' Feels Like Somebody's Watching Me", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/07/484012298/i-am-no-one-feels-like-somebodys-watching-me" } ] }, "100": { "id": 100, "title": "I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us And A Grander View Of Life", "author": "Ed Yong", "text": "

This is a book about the millions of microbes that live inside us, and yet — it’s not gross! As you might guess from the Walt Whitman reference in the title, Ed Yong is a romantic — and a tremendously fun science writer. The book took me from laughter to near-theological epiphany, and best of all, it left me with actual facts about bacteria (rather than just vague fears) that I’ve found can come in handy as I go about my day, living in the world.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "staff picks", "science!" ], "reviewers": [ "Rebecca Hersher" ], "isbn": "0062368591", "seamus": 489172325, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062368591, "bookshop": 9780062368591, "cover": "0062368591", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062368591", "isbn10": "0062368591", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 100, "book": "I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us And A Grander View Of Life", "source": "NPR", "text": "Eating Yogurt Is Not Enough: Rebalancing The Ecosystem Of 'The Microbes Within Us'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/18/490432969/eating-yogurt-is-not-enough-rebalancing-the-ecosystem-of-the-microbes-within-us" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 100, "book": "I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us And A Grander View Of Life", "source": "NPR", "text": "How The Microbes Inside Us Went From Enemies To Purported Superhealers", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/08/09/489171611/how-the-microbes-inside-us-went-from-enemies-to-purported-superhealers" } ] }, "101": { "id": 101, "title": "I'm Judging You: The Do-Better Manual", "author": "Luvvie Ajayi", "text": "

I have spent entirely too much time gut-laughing at posts and comments on the blog AwesomelyLuvvie.com. It’s a mix of humorous and often right on the nose commentary about politics, pop culture and fashion, with some popular TV show recaps, social media etiquette tips, and advice. Luvvie Ajayi took her witticisms and had them bound into a wig snatching “Do-Better” manual because, as she writes, “Humans are flawed beings. Some flaws are mere wrinkles, some are cracks and some are the Grand Canyon.” So put your side-eyes on pause and start taking notes so you, too, can do better.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "staff picks", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "reviewers": [ "Tanya Ballard Brown" ], "isbn": "1627796061", "seamus": 494867031, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781627796064, "bookshop": 9781627796064, "cover": "1627796061", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781627796064", "isbn10": "1627796061", "links": [] }, "102": { "id": 102, "title": "I'm Thinking Of Ending Things", "author": "Iain Reid", "text": "

A boyfriend takes his girlfriend on a long drive to the remote farmhouse where he grew up. It’s dark, it’s snowing and the trip feels as doomed as the relationship: She has agreed to meet his parents, though she is “thinking of ending things.” To say much more might spoil it, but I will add that even a pair of slippers becomes deeply unsettling in author Iain Reid’s world. Yep, slippers. The ending won’t work for everyone, but you’ll still enjoy the chilling ride that leads up to it.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Shannon Rhoades" ], "isbn": "150112692X", "seamus": 499344943, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781501126925, "bookshop": "", "cover": "150112692X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781501126925", "isbn10": "150112692X", "links": [] }, "103": { "id": 103, "title": "Ida, Always", "author": "Caron Levis and Charles Santoso", "text": "

Ida and Gus are true New Yorkers. They love the pulse of the city. These two best friends — did I mention they are polar bears? — live side by side in the Central Park Zoo. Gus has always had Ida. Always. Then Ida gets sick, and she and Gus realize she won’t have much time left. “Wherever I go,” Ida tells him, “I bet I’ll always smell your fishy breath!” Gus wants to smile, but isn’t sure if it’s OK until he sees that Ida is laughing. This sweet, sad story of friendship, love and memory will help kids learn that life comes along with both joy and pain. (And I dare grown-ups to try to get through it with dry eyes!) (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "staff picks", "the dark side" ], "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "isbn": "1481426400", "seamus": 498578230, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781481426404, "bookshop": 9781481426404, "cover": "1481426400", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781481426404", "isbn10": "1481426400", "links": [] }, "104": { "id": 104, "title": "Imagine Me Gone", "author": "Adam Haslett", "text": "

This stunning novel from author Adam Haslett tells the story of decades in the life of a family living in the shadow of depression and suicide. Told from rotating points of view, Imagine Me Gone is sometimes quite funny and often heartbreaking. Haslett’s characters are fully formed and true to life, and he writes in a beautiful, distinct voice. It’s not just one of the best novels of the year; it might be one of the best novels ever about living, and dying, with mental illness.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the dark side" ], "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "isbn": "0316261351", "seamus": 476073319, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316261357, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0316261351", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316261357", "isbn10": "0316261351", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 104, "book": "Imagine Me Gone", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Imagine Me Gone' Is A Literary Achievement", "url": "http://kmuw.org/post/imagine-me-gone-literary-achievement" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 104, "book": "Imagine Me Gone", "source": "NPR", "text": "Unquiet Minds Make Absorbing Reading In 'Imagine Me Gone'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/04/476048053/unquiet-minds-make-absorbing-reading-in-imagine-me-gone" } ] }, "105": { "id": 105, "title": "Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, And The Sterilization Of Carrie Buck", "author": "Adam Cohen", "text": "

Though most Americans are familiar with Nazi Germany’s horrific eugenics program, it’s less well known that, in 1927, Oliver Wendell Holmes, a polymath and justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, championed forced sterilization as a way to “protect” the U.S. gene pool. In Imbeciles, author Adam Cohen details the landmark high court decision that led to the state mandated sterilization of up to 70,000 Americans. Connecting the dots from Charles Darwin, to faux science, to misguided immigration anxiety, Cohen recounts the compelling tale of Carrie Buck, the plaintiff in the court case, who was sterilized after the state of Virginia deemed her “feebleminded.” The Nazis borrowed from the U.S. eugenics program, Cohen warns, and, to this day, Buck v. Bell has never been officially overturned.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "the dark side", "staff picks", "science!", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Deb Franklin" ], "isbn": "1594204187", "seamus": 469479774, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781594204180, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1594204187", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781594204180", "isbn10": "1594204187", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 105, "book": "Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, And The Sterilization Of Carrie Buck", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Supreme Court Ruling That Led To 70,000 Forced Sterilizations", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/03/24/521360544/the-supreme-court-ruling-that-led-to-70-000-forced-sterilizations" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 105, "book": "Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, And The Sterilization Of Carrie Buck", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Supreme Court Ruling That Led To 70,000 Forced Sterilizations", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/03/07/469478098/the-supreme-court-ruling-that-led-to-70-000-forced-sterilizations" } ] }, "106": { "id": 106, "title": "In The Not Quite Dark: Stories", "author": "Dana Johnson", "text": "

You don’t have to have lived in Los Angeles to appreciate how author Dana Johnson shadows in the sun-bleached settings of Southern California. The USC English professor works in the spare, efficient — and compassionate — short story traditions of Raymond Carver and Edward P. Jones. From a mother trying to navigate her young daughter’s interactions with LA’s overwhelming homeless population, to a former stripper (and astronomy buff) whose boyfriend is pushing a threesome, Johnson delineates surprising, troublesome days in the lives of everyday Angelenos, mostly African-American.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "seriously great writing", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Neda Ulaby" ], "isbn": "1619027321", "seamus": 498732621, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781619027329, "bookshop": 9781619027329, "cover": "1619027321", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781619027329", "isbn10": "1619027321", "links": [] }, "107": { "id": 107, "title": "Innocents And Others", "author": "Dana Spiotta", "text": "

Dana Spiotta’s fearless, ambitious new novel explores our ongoing obsession with fame and technological change. Meadow Mori and Carrie Wexler are childhood friends raised on the fringes of Hollywood. Both become filmmakers — Meadow a documentarian and Carrie taking the more commercial route. Also central to the story is Jelly, a lonely, vulnerable woman with an unusual approach to phone sex who agrees to be the subject of one of Meadow’s documentaries — a choice she comes to regret. Throughout this complicated and important book, Spiotta reminds us to wonder what’s “real” and what’s constructed by visible or invisible others.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "no biz like show biz", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jane Ciabattari" ], "isbn": "150112272X", "seamus": 470105403, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781501122729, "bookshop": "", "cover": "150112272X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781501122729", "isbn10": "150112272X", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 107, "book": "Innocents And Others", "source": "NPR", "text": "Amid Shadows On Screen, 'Innocents' Wonders What's Real", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/19/469700752/amidst-shadows-on-screen-innocents-wonders-whats-real" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 107, "book": "Innocents And Others", "source": "NPR", "text": "Men Are Momentary, But Art Is Forever In 'Innocents And Others'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/15/470517477/men-are-momentary-but-art-is-forever-in-innocents-and-others" } ] }, "108": { "id": 108, "title": "Jane Steele", "author": "Lyndsay Faye", "text": "

Remember Jane Eyre, that Victorian orphan whose sad story begins with a bullying cousin and a cruel headmaster? Now imagine an alternate version in which Jane fights back — like, really, murderously fights back. That’s the premise of Jane Steele, which isn’t so much a retelling of Charlotte Brontë’s classic as a total reimagining of her main character. This Jane is a completely different woman, one who refuses to accept her lot in life or the limitations imposed on the women of her time. The resulting book is a dark, thrilling read, and while there is a romance thrown in, it comes with a contemporary twist.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "love & romance", "the dark side", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Nicole Cohen" ], "isbn": "0399169490", "seamus": 467407624, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780399169496, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0399169490", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780399169496", "isbn10": "0399169490", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 108, "book": "Jane Steele", "source": "NPR", "text": "This 'Jane' Is Eyre's Steely Sister", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/26/471343820/this-jane-is-eyres-steely-sister" } ] }, "109": { "id": 109, "title": "Jazz Day: The Making Of A Famous Photograph", "author": "Roxane Orgill, illustrated by Francis Vallejo", "text": "

If jazz is audible poetry, then how fitting to find a poetry/fiction/nonfiction book about graphic designer Art Kane’s 1958 pitch to Esquire magazine: What if he got all the living jazz legends together to pose for a single photograph? The story of who came (and who didn’t) is an unlikely subject for a children’s picture book. All the more impressive, then, that this Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner is as visually stunning and fantastically written as it is. Jazz Day shows fabled musicians — like Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie — laughing, sweating, goofing around and, most importantly, alive once more. (For ages 9 to 12)

", "tags": [ "for music lovers", "kids’ books", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "isbn": "0763669547", "seamus": 498436761, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "0763669547", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780763669546", "isbn10": "0763669547", "links": [] }, "110": { "id": 110, "title": "Jerusalem", "author": "Alan Moore", "text": "

Alan Moore (the groundbreaking, hairy, British genius behind V for Vendetta and Watchmen) spent 10 years pecking away at this Really Big Book — a nearly 1,300-page masterpiece of ambition and focus in which the only character that really matters is the place where it’s set: a half-mile-square patch of working-class Northampton, England, known as the Boroughs. Sure, other characters show up. There are angels and prostitutes, James Joyce and Oliver Cromwell, the plain and the famous. But they are all temporary. The Boroughs is eternal. And Moore chronicles it all in a novel that is insane in the best possible way; which reads in its best moments like a bedtime story for the overeducated and verbose, and in its worst like a wild, boundless experiment in the extremes of modern storytelling.

", "tags": [ "rather long", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "fiction", "historical fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "isbn": "1631491342", "seamus": 493950597, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781631491344, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1631491342", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781631491344", "isbn10": "1631491342", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 110, "book": "Jerusalem", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Jerusalem,' Nothing You've Ever Lost Is Truly Gone", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/18/494287211/in-jerusalem-nothing-youve-ever-lost-is-truly-gone" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 110, "book": "Jerusalem", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Jerusalem' Is Alan Moore's Really Big Book — In Every Way", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/15/493003885/jerusalem-is-alan-moores-really-big-book-in-every-way" } ] }, "111": { "id": 111, "title": "Joe Gould’s Teeth", "author": "Jill Lepore", "text": "

Joe Gould, an eccentric Greenwich Village fixture who claimed for decades to be writing a monumental “Oral History of Our Time,” achieved immortality through Joseph Mitchell’s beloved New Yorker profiles, “Professor Sea Gull” and “ Joe Gould’s Secret.” More than half a century after Gould’s death, Jill Lepore, a Harvard history professor and New Yorker writer, questions Mitchell’s fact-finding and addresses trenchant issues about race, mental illness and journalistic versus historical standards in this breezy, compulsively readable inquiry. The result, more than just a footnote to a beloved literary landmark, has bite.

", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas" ], "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "isbn": "1101947586", "seamus": 478224718, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101947586, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101947586", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101947586", "isbn10": "1101947586", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 111, "book": "Joe Gould’s Teeth", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Joe Gould's Teeth' Is The Tale Of A Long, Lost Book", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/17/477372569/joe-goulds-teeth-is-the-tale-of-a-long-lost-book" } ] }, "112": { "id": 112, "title": "Kill 'Em And Leave: Searching For James Brown And The American Soul", "author": "James McBride", "text": "

Kill ‘Em and Leave tells James Brown’s story through quiet scenes and colorful, real-life characters who knew Brown in and outside the frenzy of his 1960s stage shows. It’s part documentary and part meditation on Brown’s legacy: his highly cultivated (and successful) attempts to remain a mystery, his wily fights with the IRS and, oh yeah, that race thing that shaped him into an American original. This is no uplifting showbiz fairytale; it’s too funky, too haunting for that.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for music lovers", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "no biz like show biz", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Walter Ray Watson" ], "isbn": "0812993500", "seamus": 473277039, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780812993509, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0812993500", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780812993509", "isbn10": "0812993500", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 112, "book": "Kill 'Em And Leave: Searching For James Brown And The American Soul", "source": "NHPR", "text": "10-Minute Writer's Workshop With James McBride", "url": "http://nhpr.org/post/10-minute-writers-workshop-james-mcbride-0" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 112, "book": "Kill 'Em And Leave: Searching For James Brown And The American Soul", "source": "NPR", "text": "Code Switch Suggests: Books, Movies, Music For A Midwinter's Night", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/12/23/506193113/code-switch-suggests-books-movies-music-for-a-midwinters-night" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 112, "book": "Kill 'Em And Leave: Searching For James Brown And The American Soul", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pack These Pages: 7 Professional Booksellers Select Your Summer Reading", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/02/486450408/pack-these-pages-7-professional-booksellers-select-your-summer-reading" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 112, "book": "Kill 'Em And Leave: Searching For James Brown And The American Soul", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Lonely Side Of James Brown", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/19/473276616/the-lonely-side-of-james-brown" } ] }, "113": { "id": 113, "title": "Kill The Boy Band", "author": "Goldy Moldavsky", "text": "

What would happen if One Direction met the Heathers? In Kill the Boy Band, a group of teenage girls accidentally kidnaps Rupert P., the “worst” member of their favorite boy band, the Ruperts. This pitch-black comedy reads like a well-plotted thriller. The whip-smart musings about the relationship between insecure teenagers and their pop star loves melted my Backstreet Boy-loving heart. I wish I could go back in time and give this book to my 13-year-old self.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "for music lovers", "funny stuff", "the dark side", "staff picks", "no biz like show biz" ], "reviewers": [ "Jessica Reedy" ], "isbn": "0545867479", "seamus": 481291329, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780545867474, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0545867479", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780545867474", "isbn10": "0545867479", "links": [] }, "114": { "id": 114, "title": "King Baby", "author": "Kate Beaton", "text": "

For anyone who’s had the honor of being in the presence of a baby, this charming book captures the tiny tyrant nature that quickly becomes apparent. King Baby’s expressions, his entitlement and his condescension to his subjects are amusing to adults and children alike — and both may see behavior that feels just a tiny bit familiar. Most important, King Baby holds up over multiple, multiple readings, the true test of a children’s book. And, of course, it’s primed for a sequel, since who shows up at the end (spoiler alert)? Queen Baby. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "funny stuff", "comics & graphic novels", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Nina Gregory" ], "isbn": "0545637546", "seamus": 499337344, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780545637541, "bookshop": 9780545637541, "cover": "0545637546", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780545637541", "isbn10": "0545637546", "links": [] }, "115": { "id": 115, "title": "Knockout: Stories", "author": "John Jodzio", "text": "

The characters in this sometimes dark, sometimes hilarious short story collection include a young man who lets himself be talked into stealing a tiger and selling it for meth, and a guy who moves into a duplex and discovers, too late, that his new roommate is a sadistic kidnapper. John Jodzio writes about junkies, criminals, dealers and liars, but he treats them all with compassion and humanity. He writes with emotional honesty about the people on the very edge of society, and the result is, well, a knockout.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "funny stuff", "the dark side" ], "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "isbn": "1593766351", "seamus": 470683478, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781593766351, "bookshop": 9781593766351, "cover": "1593766351", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781593766351", "isbn10": "1593766351", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 115, "book": "Knockout: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Knockout' Scores A Hit With Humanity And Dark Humor", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/17/469700385/knockout-scores-a-hit-with-humanity-and-dark-humor" } ] }, "116": { "id": 116, "title": "KooKooLand", "author": "Gloria Norris", "text": "

Gloria Norris’ memoir Kookooland describes the violent projects of Manchester, N.H., with its race tracks and drive-ins, con men, rat hunts at the dump, and the river that “sliced through Manchester like a wet, oily knife.” Violence is omnipresent in her own family and those around her. As in a tyranny, in an abusive family you either find small ways to dissent or you rebel and perish, or you decide to survive at all costs. Norris exactly captures the chilly calculus of abuse: What it would cost her to disagree out loud? But what it would cost her to stay silent?

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "the dark side", "seriously great writing" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "1941393608", "seamus": 464576887, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781941393604, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1941393608", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781941393604", "isbn10": "1941393608", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 116, "book": "KooKooLand", "source": "NPR", "text": "Family Is Tyranny Writ Small In 'Kookooland'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/30/464577036/family-is-tyranny-writ-small-in-kookooland" } ] }, "117": { "id": 117, "title": "Lab Girl", "author": "Hope Jahren", "text": "

Part memoir and part meditation on the natural world, this book is probably my favorite of the year — quite a statement from this fiction-obsessed reader. The writing is as lovely as the world around us, a world that author and geobiologist Hope Jahren is trying to get us to really see. You will be moved by the “lives” of the plants and trees she describes, as well as by Jahren’s own difficult journey as a woman in science.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "staff picks", "science!" ], "reviewers": [ "Shannon Rhoades" ], "isbn": "1101874937", "seamus": 486461841, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101874936, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101874937", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101874936", "isbn10": "1101874937", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 117, "book": "Lab Girl", "source": "WNYC", "text": "The Life Of A Scientist Told Through The Lives Of Plants", "url": "http://www.wnyc.org/story/hope-jahren/" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 117, "book": "Lab Girl", "source": "NPR", "text": "Just Trust Me: In Praise Of Strange Books", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/12/23/573053135/just-trust-me-in-praise-of-strange-books" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 117, "book": "Lab Girl", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pack These Pages: 7 Professional Booksellers Select Your Summer Reading", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/02/486450408/pack-these-pages-7-professional-booksellers-select-your-summer-reading" } ] }, "118": { "id": 118, "title": "Labyrinth Lost", "author": "Zoraida Córdova", "text": "

These days it’s hard to toss a broomstick without hitting a book about teen witches, but in Labyrinth Lost, Zoraida Córdova gives us a twist on an old story by populating her mythos with elements inspired by Latin American culture and folklore. Alex was born a bruja, connected to the spirits by a bond that goes back generations. When she tries to rid herself of magic, she accidentally banishes her entire family to the spirit world. In order to save them, she must come to terms with the power she has always feared — and brave creatures she thought were nothing more than myth.

", "tags": [ "young adult", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "identity & culture", "family matters", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "isbn": "1492620947", "seamus": 496141614, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781492620945, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1492620947", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781492620945", "isbn10": "1492620947", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 118, "book": "Labyrinth Lost", "source": "NPR", "text": "Magic In The Air: 3 Young Adult Fantasy Reads For Fall", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/01/494916840/magic-in-the-air-3-young-adult-fantasy-reads-for-fall" } ] }, "119": { "id": 119, "title": "Lacunae: 100 Imagined Ancient Love Poems", "author": "Daniel Nadler", "text": "

Take this as perhaps the most soothing manuscript of the past year. Daniel Nadler — Janus-headed tech firm CEO — debuts a collection made up of poems that feel less like lyrics than incantations for a trance-like state.

\n

Throughout these ultra-short 100 (much of the poetry is fewer than six lines long), Nadler’s ambient noodling is rooted in an arch sense of being-in-the-world, of floating ahistorically, free of the allusions and symbolisms made and exchanged over time. The result is a dream-inducing exercise in imagism that Ezra Pound would be impressed by.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Mina Tavakoli" ], "isbn": "0374182698", "seamus": 498698819, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780374182694, "bookshop": 9780374182694, "cover": "0374182698", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780374182694", "isbn10": "0374182698", "links": [] }, "120": { "id": 120, "title": "Landmarks", "author": "Robert Macfarlane", "text": "

Noted naturalist writer Robert Macfarlane goes home again in Landmarks, an autumnal rumination on language, place and life. It’s probably strange to say a book is written gently, but it suits; the language carries with it the weight of the years Macfarlane has been seeking himself in the land, without losing the little thrill of immediacy at seeing a bird in flight. It’s a meandering and philosophical memoir — less about him than about his most beloved geographies, and the writers who gave him the map to discover and rediscover them — and it’s a walk you’ll want to go on.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "biography & memoir", "science!", "seriously great writing" ], "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "isbn": "0241967872", "seamus": 488266054, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780241967874, "bookshop": 9780241967874, "cover": "0241967872", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780241967874", "isbn10": "0241967872", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 120, "book": "Landmarks", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pack Your Bags And Your Books For 6 Literary Journeys With Nancy Pearl", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2019/01/29/687759369/pack-your-bags-and-your-books-for-6-literary-journeys-with-nancy-pearl" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 120, "book": "Landmarks", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Workings Of Nature: Naturalist Writing And Making Sense Of The World", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/02/488261221/the-workings-of-nature-naturalist-writing-and-making-sense-of-the-world" } ] }, "121": { "id": 121, "title": "Leave Me Alone!", "author": "Vera Brosgol", "text": "

Parents and older siblings alike will identify immediately with this folktale-esque story about the trials of a grandmother who just wants a little time to herself to knit. The interruptions, however, rapidly become loopier and loopier. Whether it’s overeager children, peckish mountain goats or curious moon men, the old woman’s rapidly disintegrating patience is matched only by author Vera Brosgol’s hilarious art. This book reads aloud beautifully to large groups, and should have them rolling in the aisles. Funny is hard; Brosgol makes it look easy. (For ages 4 to 6)

", "tags": [ "funny stuff", "kids’ books" ], "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "isbn": "1626724415", "seamus": 498436928, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781626724419, "bookshop": 9781626724419, "cover": "1626724415", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781626724419", "isbn10": "1626724415", "links": [] }, "122": { "id": 122, "title": "Let Me Finish", "author": "Minh Lê, illustrated by Isabel Roxas", "text": "

Such a fun romp! A boy with big glasses is trying his best to find a quiet spot to read, but no luck! Creatures of all sorts keep interrupting to tell him why his book is so great. As you race to the end trying to avoid spoilers, the book in his hands becomes the book in your hands. I can’t wait to see what’s next from first-time author Minh Lê! (For ages 4 to 7)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "funny stuff", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "isbn": "148472173X", "seamus": 503761422, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781484721735, "cover": "148472173X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781484721735", "isbn10": "148472173X", "links": [] }, "123": { "id": 123, "title": "Lily And Dunkin", "author": "Donna Gephart", "text": "

When a pair of introverted outsiders meet, their lives are about to change forever. For Lily, being herself is a battle she fears she is losing. For Dunkin, the new kid, he’s barely staying afloat. Middle school is hard enough, but when you are transgender or dealing with a bipolar disorder, it can be torture. Though some scenes seem to wrap up too neatly, friendship, understanding and love are challenged in this finely nuanced novel. Donna Gephart’s Lily and Dunkin introduces us to two kids who just want to be themselves — and when they find each other, they may just get that chance. (For ages 10 and up)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "love & romance", "identity & culture" ], "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "isbn": "0553536745", "seamus": 498677473, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780553536744, "bookshop": 9780553536744, "cover": "0553536745", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780553536744", "isbn10": "0553536745", "links": [] }, "124": { "id": 124, "title": "Listen To The Moon", "author": "Rose Lerner", "text": "

Fans of historical romance know that if there’s one thing fictional England has in spades, it’s dukes. But they might not be as accustomed to encountering valets. You might see one briefly, making certain a coat of claret velvet hangs just so on his master’s shoulders, but as the hero, complete with romantic aspirations and dreams of his own, he’s almost unheard of. That is what makes Rose Lerner’s Listen to the Moon (and all the other books in her wonderfully grounded Lively St. Lemeston series) so special: John Toogood, valet extraordinaire, and upper housemaid Sukey Grimes are not the lovers you’re used to seeing. They’re expert at cleaning silk and unaccustomed to wearing it. But their love story is just as toe-curlingly delightful as that of any duke and duchess.

", "tags": [ "for history lovers", "historical fiction", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "isbn": "161923310X", "seamus": 502460080, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781619233102, "bookshop": "", "cover": "161923310X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781619233102", "isbn10": "161923310X", "links": [] }, "125": { "id": 125, "title": "Little Labors", "author": "Rivka Galchen", "text": "

This essay collection from fiction and science writer Rivka Galchen is not your mother’s motherhood lit. Brief, gemlike reflections on adjusting to life under the rule of a baby daughter (called “the puma”) are interwoven with literary and historical references. It’s a book that will ring both familiar and strange.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "staff picks", "rather short" ], "reviewers": [ "Anya Kamenetz" ], "isbn": "0811225585", "seamus": 478684103, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780811225588, "bookshop": 9780811225588, "cover": "0811225585", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780811225588", "isbn10": "0811225585", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 125, "book": "Little Labors", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Little Labors' Is No Small Feat", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/19/477372775/little-labors-is-no-small-feat" } ] }, "126": { "id": 126, "title": "Little Red", "author": "Bethan Woollvin", "text": "

For those of us ready to leave the “damsel in distress” trope in the rearview mirror, this visually stunning twist on the classic fairy tale is a breath of fresh air. Instead of waiting to be rescued, author Bethan Woollvin’s fearless heroine looks danger right in the eye and takes matters (and an ax) into her own hands. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "funny stuff", "kids’ books" ], "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "isbn": "1561459178", "seamus": 498707220, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781561459179, "bookshop": 9781561459179, "cover": "1561459178", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781561459179", "isbn10": "1561459178", "links": [] }, "127": { "id": 127, "title": "Loner: A Novel", "author": "Teddy Wayne", "text": "

Like all good writers, Teddy Wayne has an uncanny ability to teleport to another location and inhabit the people who live there. In the case of Loner, his dark and compulsively readable novel, the protagonist, David Federman –– one of those kids in high school who is known by almost no one –– unravels over the course of the narrative, and Wayne skillfully shows us every disturbing and obsessive moment. This is a close-grained look at a stalker, set against a Harvard backdrop, and the combination of true creepiness dropped into an undergraduate social setting is very effective: It’s a tightly written, tensely memorable short novel.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "the dark side" ], "reviewers": [ "Meg Wolitzer" ], "isbn": "1501107895", "seamus": 493014225, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781501107894, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1501107895", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781501107894", "isbn10": "1501107895", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 127, "book": "Loner: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "A First Year College Student Finds Himself Outclassed In 'Loner'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/14/493913133/a-first-year-college-student-finds-himself-outclassed-in-loner" } ] }, "128": { "id": 128, "title": "Look: Poems", "author": "Solmaz Sharif", "text": "

“It matters what you call a thing.”

\n

So begins Look, the debut collection of poetry from Solmaz Sharif, with all the grace and ferocity of an unpinned grenade. Built upon the language of the Department of Defense’s Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, Sharif’s Look is an open invitation to marvel at the audacity and capacity of euphemism in modern politics. As she detonates term after DoD-approved term throughout tender and personal poetics, Sharif takes back wartime doublespeak by pumping it full of her own blood and memory.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "seriously great writing", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Mina Tavakoli" ], "isbn": "1555977448", "seamus": 461615552, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781555977443, "cover": "1555977448", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781555977443", "isbn10": "1555977448", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 128, "book": "Look: Poems", "source": "NPR", "text": "Powerful Poetry Urges Us To 'Look' More Closely", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/09/494928388/powerful-poetry-urges-us-to-look-more-closely" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 128, "book": "Look: Poems", "source": "NPR", "text": "In A Dark Time, The Eye Begins to See: A 2016 Poetry Preview", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/03/461504550/in-a-dark-time-the-eye-begins-to-see-a-2016-poetry-preview" } ] }, "129": { "id": 129, "title": "Losing It: A Novel", "author": "Emma Rathbone", "text": "

Julia Greenfield is 26 years old, and she’s trying to lose her virginity. (Got yer attention, eh?) I know this sounds like the plot of a teen comedy, but bear with me, because Losing It is one of the cleverer books about sex I’ve ever read. This is partly because Emma Rathbone resists, after the initial setup, making anything about her characters cliche — Julia is a delightful and sharply drawn young woman, and her observations about the world of sex and dating are both insightful and hilarious. Julia — like most of us in our ‘20s — makes some good decisions, and some bad ones, and in the end finds her most central relationship won’t have anything to do with sex at all.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "let’s talk about sex", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "isbn": "1594634777", "seamus": 498412767, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781594634772, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1594634777", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781594634772", "isbn10": "1594634777", "links": [] }, "130": { "id": 130, "title": "Louisa: The Extraordinary Life Of Mrs. Adams", "author": "Louisa Thomas", "text": "

This carefully detailed portrait of Louisa Adams, wife of sixth U.S. President John Quincy Adams, depicts a woman of strength, ambition and tenacity. Born in London in 1775, she traveled the world, worked tirelessly to get her husband elected and served as a behind-the-scenes advisor. Through it all, Louisa wrote; she left behind letters, plays and memoirs, documenting her trips around the world and giving an insider’s view of a Congress in its infancy. Author Louisa Thomas weaves these writings into a thrilling account of an extraordinary life.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "for history lovers", "love & romance", "staff picks", "rather long", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Jeanine Herbst" ], "isbn": "1594204632", "seamus": 498575151, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781594204630, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1594204632", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781594204630", "isbn10": "1594204632", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 130, "book": "Louisa: The Extraordinary Life Of Mrs. Adams", "source": "WAMU", "text": "Presidents, First Ladies And ‘The Extraordinary Life Of Mrs. Adams’ With Louisa Thomas", "url": "http://wamu.org/story/16/05/26/presidents_first_ladies_and_the_extraordinary_life_of_mrs_adams_with_louisa_thomas/" } ] }, "131": { "id": 131, "title": "Lucky Bastard: My Life, My Dad, And The Things I'm Not Allowed To Say On TV", "author": "Joe Buck", "text": "

You might think you know Joe Buck — the sportscaster has been calling World Series and NFL games for Fox for years. But if you haven’t read Lucky Bastard, you don’t. It’s the story of his relationship with his father, Jack Buck, the radio voice of the St. Louis Cardinals. In poignant and revealing chapters, Joe describes how his dad’s legacy has dogged him all his life. That’s reason enough to pick up the book, but it’s also laugh-out-loud funny and full of self-deprecating humor. (Did you hear the one about the hair plugs that nearly ended his career?)

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "funny stuff", "staff picks", "for sports lovers", "no biz like show biz" ], "reviewers": [ "Sarah Handel" ], "isbn": "1101984562", "seamus": 501702866, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101984567, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101984562", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101984567", "isbn10": "1101984562", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 131, "book": "Lucky Bastard: My Life, My Dad, And The Things I'm Not Allowed To Say On TV", "source": "NPR", "text": "Hall-Of-Fame Sportscaster Joe Buck Admits To Being A 'Lucky Bastard'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/01/11/509302998/hall-of-fame-sportscaster-joe-buck-admits-to-being-a-lucky-bastard" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 131, "book": "Lucky Bastard: My Life, My Dad, And The Things I'm Not Allowed To Say On TV", "source": "NPR", "text": "Second-Generation Sportscaster Joe Buck: 'I Hear My Dad More In Me Now'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/11/12/501702797/second-generation-sportscaster-joe-buck-i-hear-my-dad-more-in-me-now" } ] }, "132": { "id": 132, "title": "Lucy And Linh", "author": "Alice Pung", "text": "

For dedicated readers of young adult fiction, the extraordinary quality of Australian YA has long been an acknowledged fact. With the help of remarkable books like this year’s Lucy and Linh by Alice Pung, I hope to spread this gospel to readers at large. Pung’s novel follows the struggles of Lucy Lam, a scholarship student trying to reckon with her Viet-Chinese heritage at a ritzy Australian private school. It feels like what Zadie Smith might produce if she set out to retell Mean Girls: It’s funny, sharp and addictively paced, but without ever sacrificing nuance, or limiting its capacity to provoke a profound emotional response. This is one I’m going to be pushing on friends for years to come.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "young adult", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "isbn": "0399550488", "seamus": 498688373, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780399550485, "bookshop": 9780399550485, "cover": "0399550488", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780399550485", "isbn10": "0399550488", "links": [] }, "133": { "id": 133, "title": "Madonnaland: And Other Detours Into Fame And Fandom", "author": "Alina Simone", "text": "

Musician and author Alina Simone set out to write a book about Madonna but abandoned the project when she realized her real interest lay with the Material Girl’s hometown and army of fans. Madonnaland is a wonderful collection of essays on subjects ranging from one man’s quest to get Bay City to recognize its famous daughter, and other bands that hail from the Michigan city, like Question Mark and the Mysterians. Simone is a deeply funny writer, but also a perceptive, compassionate one.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for music lovers", "funny stuff", "seriously great writing", "rather short", "no biz like show biz" ], "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "isbn": "0292759460", "seamus": 498697851, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780292759466, "bookshop": 9780292759466, "cover": "0292759460", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780292759466", "isbn10": "0292759460", "links": [] }, "134": { "id": 134, "title": "March: Book Three", "author": "John Lewis, with Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell", "text": "

The third and final installment of Congressman John Lewis’ retelling of the civil rights movement is genius. Even if you already know the story well, March: Book Three is well worth the reminder of the African-American struggle to register to vote. Nate Powell’s masterful brushwork swirls and carries you through the years of struggle, loss and pain all the way from 1963 Birmingham, Ala., to 2009 Washington, D.C. Once you’ve read it, you will want to pass it on.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for art lovers", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "L.A. Johnson" ], "isbn": "1603094024", "seamus": 503725306, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781603094023, "bookshop": 9781603094023, "cover": "1603094024", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781603094023", "isbn10": "1603094024", "links": [] }, "135": { "id": 135, "title": "Mastering The Art Of Japanese Home Cooking", "author": "Masaharu Morimoto", "text": "

When chefs cook at home, they leave everything but their skills at the restaurant — and sometimes their skills leave even their “home” recipes dauntingly out of reach. Not so with Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s new book. If you can find mirin, miso pastes, scallions and sesame seeds, you can cook this food (katsu don, yakisoba, nabeyaki udon, gyoza, the works). And once you have, you’ll see that a lot of the dishes you thought were strictly restaurant foods can also be home-cooked meals, even on a weeknight.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "tales from around the world" ], "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "isbn": "0062344382", "seamus": 502911326, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062344380, "bookshop": 9780062344380, "cover": "0062344382", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062344380", "isbn10": "0062344382", "links": [] }, "136": { "id": 136, "title": "Missing, Presumed: A Novel", "author": "Susie Steiner", "text": "

If you’ve binge-watched Happy Valley, The Fall or Prime Suspect, I’ve got a book for you: Former journalist Susie Steiner’s Missing, Presumed shows a diverse crew of Brits coming to terms with both a murder and their own imperfect lives. Unhappy at midlife, Detective Sergeant Manon Bradshaw of the Cambridgeshire Major Incident Team faces down a complicated case involving an upper-class family and a lower-class young man in a novel that’s audaciously full of real women’s voices. You might come to Missing, Presumed for the police procedural; you’ll stay for the layered, authentic characters.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Bethanne Patrick" ], "isbn": "0812998324", "seamus": 467408073, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780812998320, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0812998324", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780812998320", "isbn10": "0812998324", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 136, "book": "Missing, Presumed: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Missing, Presumed' Chronicles Ups And Downs Of Dating ... And Detective Work", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/16/486196364/missing-presumed-chronicles-ups-and-downs-of-dating-and-detective-work" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 136, "book": "Missing, Presumed: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Missing, Presumed' Brings The Police Procedural To Life", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/02/482983159/missing-presumed-brings-the-police-procedural-to-life" } ] }, "137": { "id": 137, "title": "Modern Lovers", "author": "Emma Straub", "text": "

The subject matter of Modern Lovers — love, friendship, the SATs and New York real estate — may sound lightweight, but this book is as clever as it is charming. Three middle-aged friends and former bandmates learn that a movie is being made about a fourth bandmate, who achieved solo fame, but died tragically at 27. The news launches the characters into various midlife crises and tailspins. The result is a comedy of family and errors — just think: Jane Austen in contemporary Brooklyn.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "for music lovers", "family matters", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Maggie Penman" ], "isbn": "159463467X", "seamus": 480649740, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781594634673, "bookshop": "", "cover": "159463467X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781594634673", "isbn10": "159463467X", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 137, "book": "Modern Lovers", "source": "WAMU", "text": "One Perfectly Imperfect Summer Unfolds In ‘Modern Lovers’", "url": "http://wamu.org/story/16/08/10/one_perfectly_imperfect_summer_unfolds_in_modern_lovers/" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 137, "book": "Modern Lovers", "source": "NPR", "text": "Exploring The 'Quiet New York' With Emma Straub", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/05/480605612/exploring-the-quiet-new-york-with-emma-straub" } ] }, "138": { "id": 138, "title": "Molly On The Range: Recipes And Stories From An Unlikely Life On A Farm", "author": "Molly Yeh", "text": "

At first glance, Molly on the Range looks like just another young person’s blog-to-book adventure, albeit one attractively shot in a Midwestern farmhouse, irresistibly illustrated (by Lisel Jane Ashlock) and starring a fresh-faced Jewish-Chinese Juilliard-trained percussionist. But it’s the food that’s breaking boundaries here: There are Brussels sprouts rosti, scallion pancakes with maple syrup slaw and a dark chocolate marzipan scone loaf so good you won’t even remember to be embarrassed till you’ve polished off the crumbs of your third serving.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "isbn": "162336695X", "seamus": 499468885, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781623366957, "bookshop": 9781623366957, "cover": "162336695X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781623366957", "isbn10": "162336695X", "links": [] }, "139": { "id": 139, "title": "Monstress Volume 1: Awakening", "author": "Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda", "text": "

This epic fantasy graphic novel tells the story of Maika, a teenage heroine who struggles with a hungry monster living inside her, set in a magical world torn apart by war. The book isn’t an easy read, especially if you don’t like gore, but it’s a worthwhile one. With the help of Sana Takeda’s lushly detailed art, Marjorie Liu has created a story full of gods and monsters that’s ultimately about the violence of dehumanization, the brutality of racism and what it means to be human.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "the dark side", "staff picks", "for art lovers" ], "reviewers": [ "Mallory Yu" ], "isbn": "1632157098", "seamus": 487495360, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781632157096, "cover": "1632157098", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781632157096", "isbn10": "1632157098", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 139, "book": "Monstress Volume 1: Awakening", "source": "NPR", "text": "You've Heard 'Monstress' Is Great. But Just How Great Is It?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2019/07/09/738982736/youve-heard-monstress-is-great-but-just-how-great-is-it" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 139, "book": "Monstress Volume 1: Awakening", "source": "NPR", "text": "Let's Get Graphic: 100 Favorite Comics And Graphic Novels", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/07/12/533862948/lets-get-graphic-100-favorite-comics-and-graphic-novels" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 139, "book": "Monstress Volume 1: Awakening", "source": "NPR", "text": "Good, Evil And Long Black Tentacles Make A 'Monstress'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/02/487633169/good-evil-and-long-black-tentacles-make-a-monstress" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 139, "book": "Monstress Volume 1: Awakening", "source": "NPR", "text": "Comic Book Writer Marjorie Liu On How Rejection Shaped Her Writing", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/22/487078939/graphic-novelist-marjorie-lui-on-how-rejection-shaped-her-writing" } ] }, "140": { "id": 140, "title": "Mooncop", "author": "Tom Gauld", "text": "

Deadpan humor doesn’t get much deader than Tom Gauld’s spare and slyly funny graphic novel about the last police officer on a soon-to-be-abandoned lunar colony. Though Gauld’s characters are little more than stick figures, he imbues them with so much feeling, you find yourself leaning into the page, as if to catch hints of whatever’s hiding behind their blank expressions. The book’s retro-future designs (everyone, including the dog, sports a bubble space helmet) are shot through with a very modern species of loneliness and melancholy. Beautiful and haunting.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "for art lovers", "the dark side", "funny stuff" ], "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "isbn": "1770462546", "seamus": 498567779, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781770462540, "cover": "1770462546", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781770462540", "isbn10": "1770462546", "links": [] }, "141": { "id": 141, "title": "Moonglow: A Novel", "author": "Michael Chabon", "text": "

Michael Chabon’s latest novel, a playful twist on family memoirs, purports to be the amazing adventures of the author’s maternal grandfather, as confided to him when the normally reticent, often anger-fueled electrical engineer lay dying on a “palliative cloud” of painkillers. The entertaining, beautifully written narrative encompasses the hunt for Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun during the last days of World War II, marriage to a beguiling but psychologically damaged French Holocaust survivor, and a stint in prison for attempted murder. Despite a few wayward blasts, Moonglow is a propulsive, ultimately moving love story about shooting for the moon but learning to accept misfires.

", "tags": [ "for history lovers", "love & romance", "family matters", "book club ideas" ], "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "isbn": "0062225553", "seamus": 502595119, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062225559, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062225553", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062225559", "isbn10": "0062225553", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 141, "book": "Moonglow: A Novel", "source": "WNYC", "text": "The Deathbed Confession That Inspired Michael Chabon's 'Moonglow'", "url": "http://www.wnyc.org/story/deathbed-confession-inspired-michael-chabons-moonglow/" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 141, "book": "Moonglow: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Michael Chabon's 'Moonglow' Shines With Insight And Fantastic Storytelling", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/11/23/503077416/michael-chabons-moonglow-shines-with-insight-and-fantastic-storytelling" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 141, "book": "Moonglow: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Amazing Adventures Of Michael Chabon's Sort-Of-Grandpa In 'Moonglow'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/11/22/502599623/the-amazing-adventures-of-michael-chabons-sort-of-grandpa-in-moonglow" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 141, "book": "Moonglow: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Moonglow' Shines A Light On Hidden Family History", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/11/19/502581929/moonglow-shines-a-light-on-hidden-family-history" } ] }, "142": { "id": 142, "title": "Mothering Sunday: A Romance", "author": "Graham Swift", "text": "

Graham Swift’s spare, incantatory tale zeroes in on a turning point in the life of a young woman, a foundling and a servant who against all odds becomes a famous author. With no mother to visit on the 1924 Mothering Sunday holiday (when servants were given time off to visit their mothers), Jane Fairchild bikes over for a final tryst with the neighbor’s ne’er-do-well son before his upcoming marriage. Their relationship, although consensual, is grossly imbalanced. The novel, a sort of slow striptease, gradually bares the contours of Jane’s life before and after that fateful day. More than just a story about crossing “impossible barriers” like class and education at a time of seismic change in English society, it is a lovesong to “untethered” possibility and to finding a voice.

", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "rather short", "fiction", "tales from around the world", "let’s talk about sex" ], "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "isbn": "1101947527", "seamus": 474659645, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101947524, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101947527", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101947524", "isbn10": "1101947527", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 142, "book": "Mothering Sunday: A Romance", "source": "NPR", "text": "One Life Changes Forever On 'Mothering Sunday'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/19/474225803/one-life-changes-forever-on-mothering-sunday" } ] }, "143": { "id": 143, "title": "Multiple Choice", "author": "Alejandro Zambra, translated by Megan McDowell", "text": "

Every author makes decisions while writing; every reader makes choices while interpreting. Usually you can ignore the rejected possibilities on either side. Not so with Multiple Choice. This haunting book-in-test-form demands that you carefully consider how things could be different. Cut this sentence, swap this word, ponder this explanation. Does that sound like a bloodless bit of formal experimentation? It’s not: This is a book about love, loss, guilt, empathy, inequality and life under Chile’s dictatorship. It’s a slim volume, but calls for lingering. It’s beautiful, fascinating, brilliant, brutal, all of the above.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "eye-opening reads" ], "reviewers": [ "Camila Domonoske" ], "isbn": "0143109197", "seamus": 485897108, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780143109198, "bookshop": 9780143109198, "cover": "0143109197", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780143109198", "isbn10": "0143109197", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 143, "book": "Multiple Choice", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Multiple Choice' Is A) A Novel, B) In Test Form, C) Fascinating, D) All Of The Above", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/23/485864244/multiple-choice-is-a-a-novel-b-in-test-form-c-fascinating-d-all-of-the-above" } ] }, "144": { "id": 144, "title": "My Marathon: Reflections On A Gold Medal Life", "author": "Frank Shorter, with John Brant", "text": "

Before I’d read a page of My Marathon I assumed it would be your fairly typical “how I became a champ” autobiography by a sports legend. I was dead wrong. In this compelling, engaging work, gold medalist Frank Shorter writes with brutal honesty about how the sport helped him evade a monstrously abusive father who terrorized him and his siblings. You don’t have to be a marathoner to appreciate all that Shorter overcame to become an Olympic champion and “father of the modern running boom” in America.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "family matters", "for sports lovers" ], "reviewers": [ "Eric Westervelt" ], "isbn": "1623367247", "seamus": 488383558, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781623367244, "bookshop": 9781623367244, "cover": "1623367247", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781623367244", "isbn10": "1623367247", "links": [] }, "145": { "id": 145, "title": "My Name Is Lucy Barton: A Novel", "author": "Elizabeth Strout", "text": "

A woman named Lucy stares out the window of a hospital room, recovering from an infection. She turns and sees her mother, from whom she has been estranged for many years. For most of a week, Lucy relaxes into the comfort and closeness of a mother’s love. But this is a complex relationship with dark corners — Lucy gossips amiably with her mother about people they used to know, but they never talk about the poverty and abuse that marked her childhood. Nor do they discuss the life Lucy leads now, her small successes as a writer, her husband and children. There are mysteries here that Elizabeth Strout doesn’t fully try to uncover, which is one of the reasons I loved this book.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "seriously great writing", "family matters", "book club ideas", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Lynn Neary" ], "isbn": "1400067693", "seamus": 462830759, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781400067695, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1400067693", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781400067695", "isbn10": "1400067693", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 145, "book": "My Name Is Lucy Barton: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Make Space For Strout In Your Reading Life", "url": "http://kmuw.org/post/make-space-strout-your-reading-life" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 145, "book": "My Name Is Lucy Barton: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'My Ears Are Open': Novelist Elizabeth Strout Finds Inspiration In Everyday Life", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/13/462912164/my-ears-are-open-novelist-elizabeth-strout-finds-inspiration-in-every-day-life" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 145, "book": "My Name Is Lucy Barton: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Simplicity And Restraint Make 'Lucy Barton' Shine", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/13/462263304/simplicity-and-restraint-make-lucy-barton-shine" } ] }, "146": { "id": 146, "title": "Native: Dispatches From An Israeli-Palestinian Life", "author": "Sayed Kashua", "text": "

Native is a collection of the satirical columns that Sayed Kashua wrote for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz over the course of several years. They’re funny — kinda. A laugh-so-they-can’t-see-what-you’re-getting-away-with kind of funny, except when they’re seriously funny or surreally funny or that kind of funny that comes from laughing at someone who suffers with a certain amount of sad-sack elan. I don’t know if there’s a word for that. Like schadenfreude without the guilt. The columns are autobiographical — they track Kashua, his neighbors in Jerusalem, his family and his career to form a kind of novel/memoir about a newspaper writer telling stories about being a newspaper writer and about being a Palestinian in Israel during the Arab Spring and the Israel-Gaza conflict of 2014.

", "tags": [ "tales from around the world", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "seriously great writing", "funny stuff" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "isbn": "0802124550", "seamus": 464920880, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780802124555, "bookshop": 9780802124555, "cover": "0802124550", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780802124555", "isbn10": "0802124550", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 146, "book": "Native: Dispatches From An Israeli-Palestinian Life", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Writer Straddles Jerusalem's Two Worlds In 'Native'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/03/463861260/a-writer-straddles-jerusalems-two-worlds-in-native" } ] }, "147": { "id": 147, "title": "Necessity: A Novel", "author": "Jo Walton", "text": "

There’s a matter-of-fact surety to Jo Walton’s books that makes the most implausible ideas seem as prosaic and sensible as warm socks. In her Thessaly trilogy, wrapping with the marvelous Necessity, the goddess Athena has stolen dreamers from throughout time to found an ideal city per the dictates of Plato’s Republic. The philosophical debates — starring a good-humored Socrates — are thought-provoking, but Walton never loses sight of her characters in all the heady thoughts about consent, education, responsibility and equality. These books move fleetly, with irresistible humor and action, and some fascinating perspective on the lives of gods.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "historical fiction", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Tasha Robinson" ], "isbn": "0765379023", "seamus": 499469919, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780765379023, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0765379023", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780765379023", "isbn10": "0765379023", "links": [] }, "148": { "id": 148, "title": "Night Sky With Exit Wounds", "author": "Ocean Vuong", "text": "

Before it even came off the presses, Night Sky with Exit Wounds had a mythos about it that hummed in the air. Ocean Vuong had been marked as a precocious talent whose age belied the wisdom with which he wrote about his queerness and his experience as a refugee. With a sigh of relief, here we are: Vuong’s proper debut is every bit as graceful and muscular as we’d hoped.

\n

Thickening the thin line between fear and intimacy with the fortitude that only an exile would be able to provide, Night Sky with Exit Wounds is an exercise in trauma, history and motion — a dark dance done beautifully.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "tales from around the world" ], "reviewers": [ "Mina Tavakoli" ], "isbn": "155659495X", "seamus": 475516896, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781556594953, "bookshop": 9781556594953, "cover": "155659495X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781556594953", "isbn10": "155659495X", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 148, "book": "Night Sky With Exit Wounds", "source": "NPR", "text": "In The Lines Of Ocean Vuong, Echoes Of His Family's Past In Vietnam", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/24/475511998/in-the-lines-of-ocean-vuong-echoes-of-his-familys-past-in-vietnam" } ] }, "149": { "id": 149, "title": "Nitro Mountain: A Novel", "author": "Lee Clay Johnson", "text": "

If you need a blood and whiskey soaked waterslide out of your life for approximately seven hours (or however long it takes you to read 224 pages), this is your book. Lee Clay Johnson tells the tale of Leon, a bass player with a broken arm, who is asked by the woman he loves to murder a dangerous man living on the top of a mountain. Will he do it? Not really the question of this book. Johnson writes like lightning, and this wild, careening ride through mountain roads, dirt-covered couches, cold vans and burning bars jumps perspectives and makes you laugh when you least expect it. If you want to see literary talent applied in refreshingly new ways, come along; there’s blood ahead — and betrayal, exploitation, arson, unthinkable violence and all the other byproducts of people reaching, straining, for a better life.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "the dark side", "love & romance", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Lulu Miller" ], "isbn": "1101946369", "seamus": 498682154, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101946367, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101946369", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101946367", "isbn10": "1101946369", "links": [] }, "150": { "id": 150, "title": "Noonday: A Novel", "author": "Pat Barker", "text": "

Indelible, searing images haunt Noonday, Pat Barker’s ambitious historical novel. Depicting the lives of a group of young men and women struggling to survive in Blitz-era London, the book completes the trilogy Barker began with Life Class and Toby’s Room. Here we have a marriage and a love affair under a painful shadow, as the 500-pounders pummel London from above. It’s no mean feat to match the horror of an experience with horrific language and not venture into fright-show territory. Barker walks this line with sensory-thick prose; its sweep makes us truly appreciate life and death in a decimated landscape.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "historical fiction", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jean Zimmerman" ], "isbn": "0385537727", "seamus": 469716236, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780385537728, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0385537727", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780385537728", "isbn10": "0385537727", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 150, "book": "Noonday: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Bravery Among The Ruins In 'Noonday'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/12/468941711/bravery-among-the-ruins-in-noonday" } ] }, "151": { "id": 151, "title": "Nutshell: A Novel", "author": "Ian McEwan", "text": "

I approached Ian McEwan’s fetal Hamlet with the healthy skepticism of one who has sat through many dumb Shakespeare adaptations. But wit and self-awareness will go far in making improbable interpretations work. In Nutshell, we see a bookish mind at play. And it turns out that a fetal Hamlet — bound, listening while his mother and his uncle plot the death of his poet father, watching the inevitable event grow nearer, an extravagant and erring sprit confined in doubts and impotence — is actually just about right.

", "tags": [ "the dark side", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "0385542070", "seamus": 493013930, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780385542074, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0385542070", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780385542074", "isbn10": "0385542070", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 151, "book": "Nutshell: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Bookish Mind At Play In 'Nutshell'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/14/493004017/a-bookish-mind-at-play-in-nutshell" } ] }, "152": { "id": 152, "title": "ODY-C: Cycle One", "author": "Matt Fraction, illustrated by Christian Ward", "text": "

ODY-C is a stunning interplanetary adaptation of The Odyssey, both graphic and novel, which makes Homer new. In the world of ODY-C, most of the men are dead, and the gods and heroes are powerful, muscled warrior women with flowing hair and no mercy. Instead of cunning Odysseus, creators Matt Fraction and Christian Ward give us the “witchjack and wanderer” Odyssia. Reading ancient literature can occasionally feel like a lesson in the disposability of women. But change is the essence of Homeric poetry, and with ODY-C, two male comic book creators have made a Greek hero worthy of women.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "comics & graphic novels", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "for art lovers", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "1632159279", "seamus": 503069912, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781632159274, "cover": "1632159279", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781632159274", "isbn10": "1632159279", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 152, "book": "ODY-C: Cycle One", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'ODY-C,' A Greek Hero Worthy Of Women", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/11/30/503067759/in-ody-c-a-greek-hero-worthy-of-women" } ] }, "153": { "id": 153, "title": "Olio", "author": "Tyehimba Jess", "text": "

Voluminous Olio, a “black vessel of spiritspeak,” choruses with history in an enormously beautiful, half-imagined collection of songs yet unsung. As with all historical fiction, Tyehimba Jess has created a hybrid work, riffing here with the voices of musicians and vaudevillians of the early 20th century. Throughout, there is a strong posture of reverence for a time when black song was necessarily colored by the blues. It’s both gorgeous and stupefying — a marvel to read someone whose blood beats loudly enough in rhythm with the past to resuscitate the dead.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "for music lovers" ], "reviewers": [ "Mina Tavakoli" ], "isbn": "1940696208", "seamus": 461505987, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781940696201, "bookshop": 9781940696201, "cover": "1940696208", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781940696201", "isbn10": "1940696208", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 153, "book": "Olio", "source": "NPR", "text": "In A Dark Time, The Eye Begins to See: A 2016 Poetry Preview", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/03/461504550/in-a-dark-time-the-eye-begins-to-see-a-2016-poetry-preview" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 153, "book": "Olio", "source": "NPR", "text": "In A Dark Time, The Eye Begins to See: A 2016 Poetry Preview", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/03/461504550/in-a-dark-time-the-eye-begins-to-see-a-2016-poetry-preview" } ] }, "154": { "id": 154, "title": "Originals: How Non-Conformists Move The World", "author": "Adam Grant", "text": "

When I first read Originals, I couldn’t help but take notes. What I jotted down was essentially a to-do list for how I could be more creative and how I could imagine and communicate new ideas. Some of my favorite takeaways: Take more risks! Instead of brainstorming, try “brainwriting,” in which you come up with ideas on your own and then convene with friends, co-workers or classmates to share and evaluate. Procrastination can lead to originality (this one was my favorite!), and, if you need more time to be creative, take it, because extensions can be a good thing. (Maybe my editor should read this book …) In addition to being a guide for adults, the book is filled with interesting guidance for teachers and parents on how to cultivate originality and creativity in kids.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Elissa Nadworny" ], "isbn": "0525429565", "seamus": 465605578, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780525429562, "bookshop": 9780525429562, "cover": "0525429565", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780525429562", "isbn10": "0525429565", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 154, "book": "Originals: How Non-Conformists Move The World", "source": "NPR", "text": "How Adults Can Encourage Kids To Be Original Thinkers", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/03/12/467976865/how-adults-can-encourage-kids-to-be-original-thinkers" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 154, "book": "Originals: How Non-Conformists Move The World", "source": "NPR", "text": "How Do You Spot A Nonconformist? You Can Start With Their Internet Browser", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/07/465605577/how-do-you-spot-a-nonconformist-you-can-start-with-their-internet-browser" } ] }, "155": { "id": 155, "title": "Over The Plain Houses: A Novel", "author": "Julia Franks", "text": "

In Depression-era North Carolina, an unhappy wife struggles to get out from under her husband’s shadow — and in doing so, triggers a series of devastating events. This beautifully written and carefully researched novel examines what happens when the women who “belong” to men get a taste of freedom, and it explores the complex way nascent feminism and accusations of witchcraft were historically entwined with each other.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "family matters", "historical fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Carmen Maria Machado" ], "isbn": "1938235215", "seamus": 475099573, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781938235214, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1938235215", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781938235214", "isbn10": "1938235215", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 155, "book": "Over The Plain Houses: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Plain Houses' Is A Spellbinding Story Of Witchcraft And Disobedience", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/27/475021942/plain-houses-is-a-spellbinding-story-of-witchcraft-and-disobedience" } ] }, "156": { "id": 156, "title": "Panther", "author": "Brecht Evens", "text": "

In Belgian writer/artist Brecht Evens’ previous works The Wrong Place and The Making Of, he employed colorful, chaotic ink washes to lampoon urban life and the art world, respectively. Panther’s story, about a small girl’s imaginary playmate, is far more intimate — and disturbing — than those works, but Evens once again uses watercolor tableaux bursting with bold detail to tell it. At first, his imagery may seem jarring, even confusing, but it steadily coalesces as the true subject of the book reveals itself. An assured and accomplished work that — fair warning — goes to a very dark place.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "for art lovers", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "comics & graphic novels" ], "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "isbn": "1770462260", "seamus": 498567020, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781770462267, "bookshop": 9781770462267, "cover": "1770462260", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781770462267", "isbn10": "1770462260", "links": [] }, "157": { "id": 157, "title": "Paper Girls Volume 1", "author": "Brian K Vaughan, illustrated by Cliff Chiang", "text": "

Paper Girls Volume 1 collects the first five issues of writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Cliff Chiang’s ongoing series about a group of teenage girls who encounter deep, mind-bending weirdness and danger while going about their morning paper routes. Think Stranger Things if the main characters were tough, complicated young women, and the titular things they faced were even stranger — and darker, and trippier. Warning: Ends on a cliff-hanger — and you’ll be hooked.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "the dark side", "for art lovers" ], "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "isbn": "1632156741", "seamus": 498568627, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781632156747, "bookshop": 9781632156747, "cover": "1632156741", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781632156747", "isbn10": "1632156741", "links": [] }, "158": { "id": 158, "title": "Paracuellos Volume 1", "author": "Carlos Giménez", "text": "

This memoir of growing up in the orphanages of Francisco Franco’s Spain bursts with insights into the nature of tyranny. Giménez’s acute moral sensitivity, needle-sharp characterizations and knack for narrative make Paracuellos comparable to such celebrated political comics as Maus and * Persepolis.* In these pages the bullies torture the other kids with the same vicious creativity the adults employ to torture everyone. The parallels with fascism are unflinching.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "for history lovers", "nonfiction", "tales from around the world", "the dark side" ], "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "isbn": "1631404687", "seamus": 472182393, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781631404689, "bookshop": 9781631404689, "cover": "1631404687", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781631404689", "isbn10": "1631404687", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 158, "book": "Paracuellos Volume 1", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Spanish Comic Book Exposes Franco's Orphanages", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/03/472181859/a-spanish-comic-book-exposes-franco-s-orphanages" } ] }, "159": { "id": 159, "title": "Party Of One: A Memoir In 21 Songs", "author": "Dave Holmes", "text": "

As a late 20-something, I remember Dave Holmes as the affable MTV VJ who hosted after-school staples like Total Request Live and Say What? Karaoke. Holmes is now a wonderful writer and comedian, and he has penned the funniest memoir I’ve read all year. Reading his book is like catching up with your favorite friend and music nerd (if that friend skyrocketed to fame in 1998 and has a great story about lounging in a Jacuzzi with Kid Rock.)

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for music lovers", "funny stuff", "staff picks", "biography & memoir" ], "reviewers": [ "Jessica Reedy" ], "isbn": "0804187983", "seamus": 498575966, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780804187985, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0804187983", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780804187985", "isbn10": "0804187983", "links": [] }, "160": { "id": 160, "title": "Patience", "author": "Daniel Clowes", "text": "

The subhead of this graphic novel promises “A cosmic timewarp deathtrip to the primordial infinite of everlasting love.” It’s not wrong, and for a dedicated follower of Dan Clowes, Patience travels to a genre and place unexpected enough to qualify as a plot twist that I won’t spoil here. While the love story moves quickly, the familiar feelings of alienation and loss that Clowes is known for remain long after the last panel. Beautiful and life-affirming colors provide an uncomfortable contrast to the story — and a freshness to Clowes’ signature style. For someone new to his work, it’s a fine example of why he has so many loyal readers — and awards.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "for art lovers", "love & romance", "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Nina Gregory" ], "isbn": "1606999052", "seamus": 471344133, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781606999059, "bookshop": 9781606999059, "cover": "1606999052", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781606999059", "isbn10": "1606999052", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 160, "book": "Patience", "source": "NPR", "text": "Cartoonist Daniel Clowes On Time Travel And Giving Readers Their Money's Worth", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/12/477352896/cartoonist-daniel-clowes-on-time-travel-and-giving-readers-their-moneys-worth" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 160, "book": "Patience", "source": "NPR", "text": "True Love And Time Travel In 'Patience'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/22/471343232/true-love-and-time-travel-in-patience" } ] }, "161": { "id": 161, "title": "Patient H.M.: A Story Of Memory, Madness, And Family Secrets", "author": "Luke Dittrich", "text": "

In 1953, Luke Dittrich’s grandfather performed a lobotomy on a man who was having seizures. Those “devastating and enlightening cuts” destroyed Patient H.M.’s ability to form new memories — and subsequent studies of H.M. illuminated much of what we know about how memory works. Luke Dittrich’s new book asks: How many lives does a medical breakthrough cost? Dittrich writes a vivid and painful story of the dark tension between desire for knowledge and that most basic tenet: First, do no harm.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "science!" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "0812992733", "seamus": 489766323, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780812992731, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0812992733", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780812992731", "isbn10": "0812992733", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 161, "book": "Patient H.M.: A Story Of Memory, Madness, And Family Secrets", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Lobotomy Of Patient H.M: A Personal Tragedy And Scientific Breakthrough", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/14/489997276/how-patient-h-m-and-his-lobotomy-contributed-to-understanding-memories" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 161, "book": "Patient H.M.: A Story Of Memory, Madness, And Family Secrets", "source": "NPR", "text": "Counting The Cost Of Medical Advances In 'Patient H.M.'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/14/488427008/counting-the-cost-of-medical-advances-in-patient-h-m" } ] }, "162": { "id": 162, "title": "Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! Volume 1: Hooked On A Feline", "author": "Kate Leth, illustrated by Brittney Williams", "text": "

Patsy Walker has been banging around the Marvel Universe since 1944. Introduced as a romance-comic ingénue, she became a superhero, married the son of Satan, died, got trapped in hell, developed new superpowers and returned to life. But you can enjoy her new series without any of that byzantine backstory, because writer Kate Leth has come up with a brilliantly simple premise: Walker starts a temp agency in New York City for superpowered individuals who don’t particularly want to save or destroy the world — they just want decent jobs. Penciler Brittney Williams incorporates manga influences to produce panels bursting with kinetic, kick-ass cuteness. Patsy Walker is one of several titles, like The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, that carves off an out-of-the-way corner of the Marvel Universe to allow long-underused deep-benchers to shine.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "funny stuff" ], "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "isbn": "1302900358", "seamus": 498568854, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "1302900358", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781302900359", "isbn10": "1302900358", "links": [] }, "163": { "id": 163, "title": "Pax", "author": "Sara Pennypacker, illustrated by Jon Klassen", "text": "

From the very first page, this rich, soulful book celebrates the loyal friendship between a fox and his boy: “The fox felt the car slow before the boy did, as he felt everything first. Through the pads of his paws, along his spine, in the sensitive whiskers at his wrists.” It’s a joy to experience the world through the eyes — and nose — of a fox, but this is also Persephone saga. Pax and Peter are separated, and they must fend for themselves as they find their way back to one another. The journey changes them, in real and heartbreaking ways. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "staff picks", "family matters" ], "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "isbn": "0062377019", "seamus": 466274724, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062377012, "bookshop": 9780062377012, "cover": "0062377019", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062377012", "isbn10": "0062377019", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 163, "book": "Pax", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pack These Pages: 7 Professional Booksellers Select Your Summer Reading", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/02/486450408/pack-these-pages-7-professional-booksellers-select-your-summer-reading" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 163, "book": "Pax", "source": "NPR", "text": "Left To Fend For Himself, 'Pax' The Fox Must Find His Human Friend", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/10/466274721/left-to-fend-for-himself-pax-the-fox-must-find-his-human-friend" } ] }, "164": { "id": 164, "title": "Peplum", "author": "Blutch", "text": "

From the New York Review of Books’ new imprint, New York Review Comics, Peplum challenges and confounds with its unorthodox story and brutalist graphical style. French artist Blutch’s line work compels the use of physical descriptors: it seizes, forces, clutches and crams. His story, a tale of ancient Rome, is challenging too. Taking off from the 1st century work The Satyricon, he crams his pages with epic battles and agonized bodies. Blutch is celebrated in Europe, but this is only the second of his books to be translated into English.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "tales from around the world", "for history lovers", "nonfiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "isbn": "1590179838", "seamus": 498439262, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781590179833, "bookshop": 9781590179833, "cover": "1590179838", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781590179833", "isbn10": "1590179838", "links": [] }, "165": { "id": 165, "title": "Pit Bull: The Battle Over An American Icon", "author": "Bronwen Dickey", "text": "

There are few animals with as terrible a reputation as the pit bull, but according to Bronwyn Dickey’s terrific, wide-ranging account of the breed, also few so tightly pegged to the shifting patterns of American culture. She does more than simply dispel the many myths around pit bulls; she strives to explore what those myths can tell us about ourselves. This beautifully written, heartbreaking book is not just for dog lovers — it’s for anyone interested in race, class, history and the complexity of media narratives.

", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "nonfiction", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Carmen Maria Machado" ], "isbn": "0307961761", "seamus": 477351460, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780307961761, "bookshop": 9780307961761, "cover": "0307961761", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780307961761", "isbn10": "0307961761", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 165, "book": "Pit Bull: The Battle Over An American Icon", "source": "NPR", "text": "Friend Or Fiend? 'Pit Bull' Explores The History Of America's Most Feared Dog", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/10/477350069/friend-or-fiend-pit-bull-explores-the-history-of-americas-most-feared-dog" } ] }, "166": { "id": 166, "title": "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History Of Punk", "author": "Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain", "text": "

I have bought this book at least a dozen times, because every time I buy it, someone borrows it and it never returns home. It’s the best oral history there is, an uncensored tour of a downtown that exists today only as legend. “This is where CBGB’s used to be,” we say now with a shrug. “I remember when you wouldn’t dare walk on the Bowery!” Well, these are the real stories, kids, told by the people who were there, creating and destroying music, art and fashion at the nexus of what became New York punk. And they seem even fresher today, in this 20th anniversary edition, because it’s so rare now to hear famous people unfiltered.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for music lovers", "for history lovers", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Nina Gregory" ], "isbn": "0802125360", "seamus": 498735325, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780802125361, "bookshop": 9780802125361, "cover": "0802125360", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780802125361", "isbn10": "0802125360", "links": [] }, "167": { "id": 167, "title": "Plutona", "author": "Emi Lenox and Jeff Lemire, illustrated by Emi Lenox", "text": "

Writer Jeff Lemire and artist Emi Lennox deliver a familiar-seeming setup: A group of awkward, misfit preteens from a suburban town stumble across a body in the woods and have their world upended. Only unlike the body in Stand By Me, this one is a dead superhero, and the secret they decide to keep becomes a tragic catalyst that not only ties them together, but sparks young love, frays friendships, and forces them all to grow up way too soon. A heart-wrenching coming-of-age story defined by vibrant characters and complex emotions, wide-eyed wonder and crackling dialogue, this mystery unfolds with a subtle economy that finds warm empathy in stirring, silent moments.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Mike Katzif" ], "isbn": "1632156016", "seamus": 498697967, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781632156013, "bookshop": 9781632156013, "cover": "1632156016", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781632156013", "isbn10": "1632156016", "links": [] }, "168": { "id": 168, "title": "Possession: The Curious History Of Private Collectors From Antiquity To The Present", "author": "Erin Thompson", "text": "

All the best art history books carry the sense that they’re telling secrets, and Erin Thompson knows it; reading Possession feels like sneaking through a dark museum late at night. From a discussion of how Roman antiquities were used centuries later to build political and cultural identity to a chapter on smuggling, Thompson’s scholarship is on display, but it’s the anecdotes that make this one a delight. If you’re looking for an art history book that also rats out a couple of popes, you’ve found it.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "for art lovers", "it’s all geek to me" ], "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "isbn": "0300208529", "seamus": 479760607, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780300208528, "bookshop": 9780300208528, "cover": "0300208529", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780300208528", "isbn10": "0300208529", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 168, "book": "Possession: The Curious History Of Private Collectors From Antiquity To The Present", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Possession' Charts The Tangled Paths Of Art And Antiquities", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/01/479728899/possession-charts-the-tangled-paths-of-art-and-antiquities" } ] }, "169": { "id": 169, "title": "Pretty Deadly Volume 2: The Bear", "author": "Kelly Sue DeConnick, illustrated by Emma Ríos", "text": "

This new chapter of Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Ríos’ supernatural epic jumps forward in time — from the sprawling Old West to the claustrophobic confines of a World War I foxhole and the war-torn devastation of the battlefield — while still retaining its gritty, gothic Western atmosphere. Blurring the lines between realism and mysticism, DeConnick ruminates on life and death, heroism and the grisly violence of war by further unfurling the fantastical world inhabited by Sissy, the female embodiment of Death. Rendered in breathtaking abstraction by Ríos and gorgeously colored by Jordie Bellaire, Pretty Deadly is the kind of compelling and layered series that rewards multiple readings, if only so you can linger over every imaginative page.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "staff picks", "for art lovers", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Mike Katzif" ], "isbn": "1632156946", "seamus": 498698259, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781632156945, "cover": "1632156946", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781632156945", "isbn10": "1632156946", "links": [] }, "170": { "id": 170, "title": "Radiant Child: The Story Of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat", "author": "Javaka Steptoe", "text": "

In this celebration of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, we discover the circumstances that ignited his passion for painting. Basquiat was determined to make his mother proud, and even as a boy his work reflected his unique and powerful style. Author Javaka Steptoe’s own vibrant art shines a light on Baquiat’s story, from youngster to superstar. And though the art phenom’s life was cut short, his legacy lives on, bringing joy and creativity to the world. (For ages 6 to 9)

", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "for art lovers", "kids’ books", "nonfiction", "family matters" ], "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "isbn": "0316213888", "seamus": 498681685, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316213882, "bookshop": 9780316213882, "cover": "0316213888", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316213882", "isbn10": "0316213888", "links": [] }, "171": { "id": 171, "title": "Raymie Nightingale", "author": "Kate DiCamillo", "text": "

Every time a favorite author comes out with a new book, I practically hold my breath as I read the first few pages: Will it measure up? I did exactly that holding Kate DiCamillo’s new book, but I shouldn’t have worried; as always, she had me howling with laughter on the Metro, marveling at how she does “it.” It’s summer 1975, and 10-year-old Raymie Clarke is trying to get her father back (he’s left with a dental hygienist). Raymie is on her own, but not alone; she has two new friends who have missions of their own. DiCamillo’s writing is straightforward, but every sentence holds the whole world as these girls navigate what’s next. Please read and share with young girls. And let them know: They are enough. (For ages 10 to 12)

", "tags": [ "fiction", "kids’ books", "funny stuff", "family matters", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "isbn": "0763681172", "seamus": 474416447, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780763681173, "bookshop": 9780763681173, "cover": "0763681172", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780763681173", "isbn10": "0763681172", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 171, "book": "Raymie Nightingale", "source": "KMUW", "text": " 'Marginalia' Interview With Kate DiCamillo", "url": "http://kmuw.org/post/marginalia-kate-dicamillo" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 171, "book": "Raymie Nightingale", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'It Takes A Lot Of Bravery To Be Kind,' Says Kids' Author Kate DiCamillo", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/18/474416269/it-takes-a-lot-of-bravery-to-be-kind-says-kids-author-kate-dicamillo" } ] }, "172": { "id": 172, "title": "Reputations", "author": "Juan Gabriel Vásquez, translated by Anne McLean", "text": "

The political cartoons of Javier Mallarino were so influential in his native Colombia that political fortunes rose and fell by the strokes of his pen. With that power came public adulation, but also death threats and ultimately the burden of responsibility for the impact of his drawings on the reputations of others. The crisis of conscience that plagues him feels very real, but Mallarino is not — he’s a fictional character, the central figure in Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s novel, Reputations. At the core of his story is a question that is never answered and that’s part of his M.O. as a novelist. Vásquez cites Anton Chekhov for the wisdom that literature’s job is not to find answers, but to find the most interesting questions possible.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "seriously great writing" ], "reviewers": [ "Robert Siegel" ], "isbn": "1594633479", "seamus": 495202880, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781594633478, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1594633479", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781594633478", "isbn10": "1594633479", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 172, "book": "Reputations", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Cartoonist Confronts The Power Of His Pen In 'Reputations'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/24/494916768/a-cartoonist-confronts-the-power-of-his-pen-in-reputations" } ] }, "173": { "id": 173, "title": "Rogue Heroes: The History Of The SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged The Nazis And Changed The Nature Of War", "author": "Ben Macintyre", "text": "

Ben Macintyre is known for superbly entertaining histories that read like good novels, and Rogue Heroes keeps his streak going. It’s the story of Britain’s Special Air Service, the commando unit that became the prototype for special forces around the world. But what you’ll remember are the characters: There’s founder David Stirling (“so lazy his comrades had nicknamed him ‘the Giant Sloth’ ") and, my personal favorite, an Egyptian butler endowed with an uncanny talent for “simultaneously mixing pink gins, obtaining ammunition and vehicle spare parts, and answering the telephone.”

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Mary Louise Kelly" ], "isbn": "110190416X", "seamus": 498690282, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "110190416X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101904169", "isbn10": "110190416X", "links": [] }, "174": { "id": 174, "title": "Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches From Turkey, Syria, And Iraq", "author": "Sarah Glidden", "text": "

Glidden chronicles the two months she spent traveling with journalists through Turkey, Syria and Iraq with a keen eye, paying particular attention to how the stories of the people who live in war zones get told. Her watercolors depict places and people with a directness that serves to subtly underscore the complexity, and humanity, of the region — and the role of journalism itself. A sensitive and thoughtful read.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world", "identity & culture", "book club ideas" ], "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "isbn": "1770462554", "seamus": 498569069, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781770462557, "cover": "1770462554", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781770462557", "isbn10": "1770462554", "links": [] }, "175": { "id": 175, "title": "Secondhand Time: The Last Of The Soviets", "author": "Svetlana Alexievich, translated by Bela Shayevich", "text": "

There is no historian who writes like Svetlana Alexievich. She’s the Studs Terkel of the former Soviet Union, composing history with the voices of others. Overheard conversations and recorded interviews weave together into a collective narrative of that great, collectivist, murderous Soviet experiment. A Russian friend tells me, with awe: Alexievich is not afraid. That which was hidden is revealed. But it’s the tiny details that stick with you, like the strong cologne passed out each evening to the men who worked as executioners in the labor camp. What else could mask the smell of so much death?

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "rather long" ], "reviewers": [ "Gregory Warner" ], "isbn": "0399588809", "seamus": 498570023, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780399588808, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0399588809", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780399588808", "isbn10": "0399588809", "links": [] }, "176": { "id": 176, "title": "Selected Poems, 1968-2014", "author": "Paul Muldoon", "text": "

The beauty of a collection this broad is the ease by which we can watch Paul Muldoon reckon with himself over the course of his life. As a poet who writes with a strange in-betweenness of state and sensation, he’s mired in a galaxy of his own verse: at once personal without being confessional, vexed without being angry, and dreamlike while remaining realistic. It is a thrill to watch his poetry reinvent itself as it matures — expanding, contracting and ballooning out in time — but what is most constant about Muldoon is his reliable capacity to startle with lines that strike us as if we’d just stuck our fingers into an electrical socket.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Mina Tavakoli" ], "isbn": "0374260826", "seamus": 498706137, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780374260828, "bookshop": 9780374260828, "cover": "0374260826", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780374260828", "isbn10": "0374260826", "links": [] }, "177": { "id": 177, "title": "Seven Brief Lessons On Physics", "author": "Carlo Rovelli", "text": "

How to explain the magic of this book? This is physics as philosophy. It’s a heartfelt appreciation of the power of the simple to explain the profound. Carlo Rovelli’s seven life lessons — derived from explorations into the origins of the universe — are beautifully written meditations that can clear our minds and bring us to the edge of the divine.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "rather short", "staff picks", "science!" ], "reviewers": [ "Felix Contreras" ], "isbn": "0399184414", "seamus": 469166722, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780399184413, "bookshop": 9780399184413, "cover": "0399184414", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780399184413", "isbn10": "0399184414", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 177, "book": "Seven Brief Lessons On Physics", "source": "KMUW", "text": " 'Marginalia' Interview With Carlo Rovelli", "url": "http://kmuw.org/post/marginalia-carlo-rovelli" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 177, "book": "Seven Brief Lessons On Physics", "source": "NPR", "text": "Mind In The Natural World: Can Physics Explain It?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/03/04/469162483/mind-in-the-natural-world-can-physics-explain-it" } ] }, "178": { "id": 178, "title": "Sex Object: A Memoir", "author": "Jessica Valenti", "text": "

In Sex Object, Jessica Valenti testifies about a flood of harassment starting when she was 12: subway gropers, catcalls, teachers trading hugs for grades, being ejaculated on on the train. Sex Object offers little redemption, and none of the familiar bubblegummy positive-thinking strategies that place the onus on women to magically think their way out of being told, on a daily basis, that public spaces are not for them. Valenti realizes that, instead of pushing solutions and angles and strategies, there is power in saying, simply: This is how bad it is.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "let’s talk about sex", "the dark side", "identity & culture", "eye-opening reads" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "0062435086", "seamus": 481410252, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062435088, "bookshop": 9780062435088, "cover": "0062435086", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062435088", "isbn10": "0062435086", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 178, "book": "Sex Object: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Yes, All Men (And Everyone Else) Need To Read 'Sex Object'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/12/480478209/yes-all-men-and-everyone-else-need-to-read-sex-object" } ] }, "179": { "id": 179, "title": "Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life", "author": "Ruth Franklin", "text": "

On the centennial of Shirley Jackson’s birth, Ruth Franklin’s new biography examines one of the most underappreciated writers of the 20th century. With meticulous research and a trove of previously undiscovered correspondence, Franklin fights to put Jackson in her rightful place in the American canon alongside her more well-known male peers. This fresh, feminist take on Jackson’s life and her blend of the domestic and the darker genres is sure to spark renewed interest in her work and her legacy.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "family matters", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "rather long" ], "reviewers": [ "Carmen Maria Machado" ], "isbn": "0871403137", "seamus": 498426736, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780871403131, "bookshop": 9780871403131, "cover": "0871403137", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780871403131", "isbn10": "0871403137", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 179, "book": "Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life", "source": "NPR", "text": "New Biography Chronicles Shirley Jackson's 'Rather Haunted Life'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/12/24/506643062/new-biography-chronicles-shirley-jacksons-rather-haunted-life" } ] }, "180": { "id": 180, "title": "Shock And Awe: Glam Rock And Its Legacy, From The Seventies To The Twenty-first Century", "author": "Simon Reynolds", "text": "

Veteran music journalist Simon Reynolds made his mark years ago with Rip It Up and Start Again, the definitive account of post-punk. He’s outdone himself with Shock and Awe, only this time, the topic is glam rock. From the gender-bending majesty of the late David Bowie to the 21st century glitter of Lady Gaga, Reynolds offers a massive, in-depth look at the music, fashion, politics and impact of glam — a genre whose reach is far deeper, and more reflective of the culture at large, than you may realize.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "for music lovers", "identity & culture", "no biz like show biz" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "isbn": "0062279807", "seamus": 498571303, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062279804, "bookshop": 9780062279804, "cover": "0062279807", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062279804", "isbn10": "0062279807", "links": [] }, "181": { "id": 181, "title": "Shrill: Notes From A Loud Woman", "author": "Lindy West", "text": "

Lindy West’s memoir is a witty and cathartic take on toxic misogyny and fat shaming. She comes to accept her body just as Internet trolls congregate en masse to try to rip this new confidence from her, but she’s rearing to fight back: ” ‘Whale’ is the weakest insult ever, by the way. Oh, I have a giant brain and rule the sea with my majesty? What have you accomplished lately, Steve?” In Shrill, West is our fat, ferocious and funny avenging angel.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "funny stuff" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "0316348406", "seamus": 498400353, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316348409, "bookshop": 9780316348409, "cover": "0316348406", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316348409", "isbn10": "0316348406", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 181, "book": "Shrill: Notes From A Loud Woman", "source": "NPR", "text": "We Did It For The LOLs: 100 Favorite Funny Books", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2019/08/20/752044550/we-did-it-for-the-lols-100-favorite-funny-books" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 181, "book": "Shrill: Notes From A Loud Woman", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Shrill,' Lindy West Made The Body Positive Show That She Never Had", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2019/03/14/703468584/in-shrill-lindy-west-made-the-body-positive-show-that-she-never-had" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 181, "book": "Shrill: Notes From A Loud Woman", "source": "NPR", "text": "Columnist Lindy West Sees 'Straight Line' From Trolls Who Targeted Her To Trump", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/11/01/561350775/columnist-lindy-west-sees-straight-line-from-trolls-who-targeted-her-to-trump" } ] }, "182": { "id": 182, "title": "Small Victories: Recipes, Advice + Hundreds Of Ideas For Home Cooking Triumphs", "author": "Julia Turshen", "text": "

Julia Turshen is one of those cooking insiders who have remained largely behind the scenes, improving recipes and making authors sound better. As a result, this meticulously crafted book may have passed you by. Her specialty is the accessible technique with a couple of smooth touches: asparagus with browned butter and hazelnuts; pilaf with roasted cabbage; peach and bourbon milkshakes. But each recipe comes with a couple of precise observations, or “small victories” (like portioning your muffins with an ice cream scoop, or whisking cocktails instead of shaking them), which will subtly transform your cooking practice for the better if you let them.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "isbn": "1452143099", "seamus": 499469177, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781452143095, "cover": "1452143099", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781452143095", "isbn10": "1452143099", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 182, "book": "Small Victories: Recipes, Advice + Hundreds Of Ideas For Home Cooking Triumphs", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Small Victories' Aims To Make Home Cooking Accessible To All", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/05/09/527589112/small-victories-aims-to-make-home-cooking-accessible-to-all" } ] }, "183": { "id": 183, "title": "Smashed, Mashed, Boiled, And Baked — And Fried, Too! A Celebration Of Potatoes In 75 Irresistible Recipes", "author": "Raghavan Iyer", "text": "

Raghavan Iyer has published some of the most inspiring Indian cookbooks on the market, but here the beloved author and teacher has eyes only for the humble spud. It’s not the first single-subject potato book ever, but it is surely the most exuberant: hot potatoes with cinnamon malt vinegar, steamed potato-chive buns and, of course, french fries so crisp and true they’ll reduce you to tears. In one magical transformation after another, the starch for all seasons reveals itself in crackly, creamy, crumbly, savory, comforting guises, each made possible and brought to your own kitchen by one of the most genial and capable cooking evangelists of our time.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "isbn": "076118547X", "seamus": 499469544, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780761185475, "bookshop": 9780761185475, "cover": "076118547X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780761185475", "isbn10": "076118547X", "links": [] }, "184": { "id": 184, "title": "Smoke: A Novel", "author": "Dan Vyleta", "text": "

The idea of the “white lie” takes on a whole new meaning in Dan Vyleta’s Smoke. His novel imagines an alternate 19th century London where, instead of industrial smog, there is a moral one. Every lie or bad deed emanates from the body until its citizens are literally smoking. It’s also an adventure story about a pair of boarding school friends who begin to question everything the adults have ever told them about morality. That’s the most intriguing aspect of the book: It doesn’t lay down right and wrong, black and white — it revels in the gray.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "tales from around the world", "rather long", "staff picks", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Audie Cornish" ], "isbn": "0385540167", "seamus": 478880618, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780385540162, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0385540167", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780385540162", "isbn10": "0385540167", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 184, "book": "Smoke: A Novel", "source": "WUWM", "text": "Virtue And Vice Become Visible In New Novel 'Smoke'", "url": "http://wuwm.com/post/virtue-and-vice-become-visible-new-novel-smoke" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 184, "book": "Smoke: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In An Alternate 19th Century London, Sins Are Marked With 'Smoke'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/24/479349668/in-an-alternate-19th-century-london-sins-are-marked-with-smoke" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 184, "book": "Smoke: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Smoke' Is A Gloriously Murky Vision Of The Past", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/24/478679666/smoke-is-a-gloriously-murky-vision-of-the-past" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 184, "book": "Smoke: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Smoke' Author Dan Vyleta Keeps It Messy", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/22/478679677/smoke-author-dan-vyleta-keeps-it-messy" } ] }, "185": { "id": 185, "title": "So Sad Today: Personal Essays", "author": "Melissa Broder", "text": "

The name of Melissa Broder’s book of personal essays says it all; in 2012, as she struggled with anxiety and panic attacks, Broder started the Twitter account @sosadtoday. There, she anonymously shared some of her darkest thoughts — and gained a following of more than 400,000. In her conversational, confessional and (at times) explicit book, Broder takes on addictions, eating disorders, issues of self-esteem and more. You’ll find yourself rooting for her to keep pushing, keep coping, keep writing — all throughout this heartbreaking and humorous work.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "the dark side", "staff picks", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "reviewers": [ "Rommel Wood" ], "isbn": "1455562726", "seamus": 499338701, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781455562725, "bookshop": 9781455562725, "cover": "1455562726", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781455562725", "isbn10": "1455562726", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 185, "book": "So Sad Today: Personal Essays", "source": "NPR", "text": "We Did It For The LOLs: 100 Favorite Funny Books", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2019/08/20/752044550/we-did-it-for-the-lols-100-favorite-funny-books" } ] }, "186": { "id": 186, "title": "Sons And Daughters Of Ease And Plenty: A Novel", "author": "Ramona Ausubel", "text": "

The year is 1976, and a wealthy New England family learns that their inheritance has evaporated. Cast adrift, the husband and wife each leave home, unaware of the other’s actions, leaving their three young children to fend for themselves. Ramona Ausubel’s novel is both a sharp critique of class in America, and a bittersweet ode to the family, warts and all. It’s a sly, beautifully realized book from a supremely talented writer.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters" ], "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "isbn": "1594634882", "seamus": 498696158, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781594634888, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1594634882", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781594634888", "isbn10": "1594634882", "links": [] }, "187": { "id": 187, "title": "Sous Vide At Home: The Modern Technique For Perfectly Cooked Meals", "author": "Lisa Q. Fetterman", "text": "

Any chef worth her kosher salt will tell you that sous vide (or, cooking vacuum-sealed food in a water bath at a controlled temperature) is a miracle technique and easier than you think. Nowadays, there are a lot of different devices for achieving sous vide perfection (mine simply attaches to my slow cooker), but until you taste a skirt steak that has luxuriated in its own juices for hours before hitting a hot pan, you probably won’t understand what the fuss is about. Lisa Fetterman’s book makes the technique remarkably approachable with recipes that would be interesting and worthwhile even if sous vide didn’t make them easy enough to make in your sleep.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "science!" ], "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "isbn": "0399578064", "seamus": 502912160, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780399578069, "bookshop": 9780399578069, "cover": "0399578064", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780399578069", "isbn10": "0399578064", "links": [] }, "188": { "id": 188, "title": "Spill Simmer Falter Wither", "author": "Sara Baume", "text": "

The Irish Times has called Sara Baume a writer who “is touched by greatness.” That is a lot to live up to in a country that’s famous for its writers, so let’s just say she has a way with words. The book is divided into four sections, each one a different season, named to reflect what the main character, Ray, is going through. He’s a misfit in a small Irish town by the sea, but his life changes when he adopts a dog who is loving but has a vicious streak. In order to protect the dog, Ray is forced to leave his hometown, a journey that both frees him and destroys him. As you sink into the rhythms of Baume’s prose, you can almost smell the salt air and feel the sting of a small town that can be unforgiving to those who are different.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Lynn Neary" ], "isbn": "0544716191", "seamus": 470684160, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780544716193, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0544716191", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780544716193", "isbn10": "0544716191", "links": [] }, "189": { "id": 189, "title": "Standing Water: Poems", "author": "Eleanor Chai", "text": "

Triggered by the sight of Rodin’s Head of Sorrow — featured hugely on the front cover — the narrative epic coursing through Eleanor Chai’s Standing Water gives us an autobiographical genesis story with all the gravity and composure of a lake at dusk.

\n

With the calm, near-religious introspection found in the poetry of Dorothy Richardson or Virginia Woolf, Standing Water is solipsism made exquisitely tangible. Throughout, the verse seems to sigh itself loose from the pages of the collection and scent the air surrounding the reader — now somehow moist, misty and serene.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Mina Tavakoli" ], "isbn": "0374269483", "seamus": 498706514, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780374269487, "bookshop": 9780374269487, "cover": "0374269483", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780374269487", "isbn10": "0374269483", "links": [] }, "190": { "id": 190, "title": "Sweetbitter: A Novel", "author": "Stephanie Danler", "text": "

For the poet John Keats, joy was a grape bursting in the mouth: sudden, flooding and sweet. Food and feeling are natural partners; this debut, set in a Manhattan restaurant, is a feast of both. Tess is a backwaiter newly arrived in New York, the one place “large enough to hold so much unbridled, unfocused desire.” Sweetbitter balances on the edge of overwritten, of too much feeling crammed into every sentence. But it works because that is what it feels like to be young and in a big city: like it’s too much, and at the same time not nearly enough.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "let’s talk about sex", "cookbooks & food" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "1101875941", "seamus": 479175885, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101875940, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101875941", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101875940", "isbn10": "1101875941", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 190, "book": "Sweetbitter: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Former Restaurant Worker Serves Up Industry-Inspired Fiction In 'Sweetbitter'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/16/482296526/former-restaurant-worker-serves-up-industry-inspired-fiction-in-sweetbitter" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 190, "book": "Sweetbitter: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Sweetbitter' Is A Savory Saga Of Restaurant Life And Love", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/29/479769563/sweetbitter-is-a-savory-saga-of-restaurant-life-and-love" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 190, "book": "Sweetbitter: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Sweetbitter' Sings With Innocence And Experience", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/28/478679741/sweetbitter-sings-with-innocence-and-experience" } ] }, "191": { "id": 191, "title": "Swing Time", "author": "Zadie Smith", "text": "

Swing Time is Zadie Smith’s psychologically precise novel about two brown girls from North London who grow up dreaming of becoming dancers. Few things in life ever quite approach the complexity and power of female friendships. Swing Time truly catches that intimate link, the kind that stays even when years pass, the friendship ends and shared dreams wither on the vine.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "identity & culture", "for art lovers" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "1594203989", "seamus": 498399038, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781594203985, "bookshop": 9781594203985, "cover": "1594203989", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781594203985", "isbn10": "1594203989", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 191, "book": "Swing Time", "source": "NPR", "text": "Novelist Zadie Smith On Historical Nostalgia And The Nature Of Talent", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/11/21/502857118/novelist-zadie-smith-on-historical-nostalgia-and-the-nature-of-talent" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 191, "book": "Swing Time", "source": "NPR", "text": "Know Thyself? 'Swing Time' Says It's Complicated", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/11/16/501484095/know-thyself-swing-time-says-it-cant-be-done" } ] }, "192": { "id": 192, "title": "Terror In The City Of Champions: Murder, Baseball, And The Secret Society That Shocked Depression-era Detroit", "author": "Tom Stanton", "text": "

In 1930s Detroit, struggles brought by the Depression were partially offset by the championships won in that era by the Detroit Tigers, Lions and Red Wings. But the joy inside the stadium is a mere backdrop for this book’s story of the rise of a secret terrorist society patterned after the Ku Klux Klan. It was called the Black Legion, and its vast membership spread deep into City Hall and Detroit society. The group carried out murders and plotted the overthrow of the government. It was a dark chapter for the city, which, at the time, was the fourth largest in the U.S.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "the dark side", "staff picks", "for sports lovers" ], "reviewers": [ "Don Gonyea" ], "isbn": "1493015702", "seamus": 498434661, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781493015702, "bookshop": 9781493015702, "cover": "1493015702", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781493015702", "isbn10": "1493015702", "links": [] }, "193": { "id": 193, "title": "The ABCs Of How We Learn: 26 Scientifically Proven Approaches, How They Work, And When To Use Them", "author": "Daniel L. Schwartz, Jessica M. Tsang, Kristen P. Blair", "text": "

Based on a popular course at Stanford University, this book is useful for teachers, parents and all who are interested in new ways to improve teaching and learning. The book serves as a much-needed bridge between new revelations in the science of learning and everyday classroom practices. Each section is accessible, concise and well-stocked with primary references and resources.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "staff picks", "science!" ], "reviewers": [ "Eric Westervelt" ], "isbn": "0393709264", "seamus": 489187361, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780393709261, "bookshop": 9780393709261, "cover": "0393709264", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780393709261", "isbn10": "0393709264", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 193, "book": "The ABCs Of How We Learn: 26 Scientifically Proven Approaches, How They Work, And When To Use Them", "source": "NPR", "text": "L Is For Learning: A New Book On Proven Approaches And How Teachers Can Use Them", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/08/12/489184872/l-is-for-learning-a-new-book-on-proven-approaches-and-how-teachers-can-use-them" } ] }, "194": { "id": 194, "title": "The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old And New", "author": "Annie Dillard", "text": "

To my mind, this compilation of Annie Dillard’s essays would be worth reading for this line alone (from my favorite of her essays, “Total Eclipse”): “It was as though an enormous, loping god in the sky had reached down and slapped the earth’s face.” The collection includes her close observations of nature (from 1974’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek); sharply etched memories of her rough-and-tumble youth (from 1987’s An American Childhood); and much more. Earlier this year, Dillard, then 70, told me why she’s no longer writing books: “I had good innings, as the British say. I wrote for 38 years at the top of my form, and I wanted to quit on a high note.” The Abundance makes abundantly clear what a gift those good innings have been.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "seriously great writing", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Melissa Block" ], "isbn": "0062432974", "seamus": 470102657, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062432971, "bookshop": 9780062432971, "cover": "0062432974", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062432971", "isbn10": "0062432974", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 194, "book": "The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old And New", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Interview: Annie Dillard, Author of 'The Abundance'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/12/470102363/author-interview-annie-dillard-author-of-the-abundance" } ] }, "195": { "id": 195, "title": "The Angel Of History: A Novel", "author": "Rabih Alameddine", "text": "

The title of this book is also the title of a 1920 drawing by Paul Klee that was later memorialized by philosopher Walter Benjamin, who said the angel was looking back, not forward, at the devastation humankind has caused. This is the central idea of the book, the author says. We live in a culture that encourages us to forget, he told me, to keep forgetting and move on. So the main character, Jacob, who lost his lover to AIDS, is being forced to remember it all, no matter how painful, by everybody’s favorite angel — Satan.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "staff picks", "seriously great writing" ], "reviewers": [ "Kelly McEvers" ], "isbn": "080212576X", "seamus": 496583276, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780802125767, "bookshop": 9780802125767, "cover": "080212576X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780802125767", "isbn10": "080212576X", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 195, "book": "The Angel Of History: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Angel Of History' Is A Heartfelt Cry", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/08/496446525/angel-of-history-is-a-heartfelt-cry" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 195, "book": "The Angel Of History: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Angel Of History' Says 'I Will Not Forget'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/04/496583218/the-angel-of-history-says-i-will-not-forget" } ] }, "196": { "id": 196, "title": "The Arab Of The Future 2: A Childhood In The Middle East, 1984-1985: A Graphic Memoir", "author": "Riad Sattouf", "text": "

Unhappy childhoods make for riveting memoirs. This second installment of Riad Sattouf’s autobiographical graphic novels details the author’s move at age 6 to his father’s home village in Syria, along with his French mother. There, young Sattouf attends school with a monstrous teacher, a cousin falls victim to an honor killing, and anti-Semitism is as much in the air as oxygen. Some have seen Sattouf’s memoirs as a rejection of his Arab heritage, in part because he also once worked as a cartoonist for the provocative French magazine Charlie Hebdo. But his intense and complicated story resists essentializing.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Neda Ulaby" ], "isbn": "1627793518", "seamus": 494103380, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781627793513, "bookshop": 9781627793513, "cover": "1627793518", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781627793513", "isbn10": "1627793518", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 196, "book": "The Arab Of The Future 2: A Childhood In The Middle East, 1984-1985: A Graphic Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Arab Of The Future 2' Continues Risky Truth-Telling", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/20/493973489/arab-of-the-future-2-continues-risky-truth-telling" } ] }, "197": { "id": 197, "title": "The Art Of Charlie Chan Hock Chye", "author": "Sonny Liew", "text": "

The pressure-cooker country of Singapore – tiny and polyglot, globally competitive and politically repressive – seems to have been poured out into this dense book. Liew’s dazzling versatility enables him to create a lifetime’s worth of work for an artist who never really existed, ranging from shabbily printed comics pages to elegant pencil sketches. Meanwhile, he acerbically recounts Singaporean history stretching back to World War II. By documenting the career of this imaginary creator, Liew mourns all those who were never permitted to thrive under Singapore’s oppressive government.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "historical fiction", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "for art lovers", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "isbn": "1101870699", "seamus": 469215399, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101870693, "bookshop": 9781101870693, "cover": "1101870699", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101870693", "isbn10": "1101870699", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 197, "book": "The Art Of Charlie Chan Hock Chye", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Charlie Chan Hock Chye' Offers A Heartfelt Take On Aging, Art And History", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/07/469512468/charlie-chan-hock-chye-offers-a-heartfelt-take-on-aging-art-and-history" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 197, "book": "The Art Of Charlie Chan Hock Chye", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Charlie Chan:' An Imaginary Cartoonist Draws A Very Real Homeland", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/05/468941333/charlie-chan-an-imaginary-cartoonist-draws-a-very-real-homeland" } ] }, "198": { "id": 198, "title": "The Bad-Ass Librarians Of Timbuktu: And Their Race To Save The World’s Most Precious Manuscripts", "author": "Joshua Hammer", "text": "

There’s one word in the title that annoyed me, but don’t be put off by it — focus rather on the second half: and their race to save the world’s most precious manuscripts. It’s a splendid story, with a powerful moral. Joshua Hammer skillfully sketches a handful of portraits of committed cultural custodians, led by Abdel Kader Haidara of Mali, and weaves an almost desperate adventure and race against time. Talk about a thrilling and nail-biting narrative, page after page. It’s a mix of ancient history, geography, politics, passion, civilization, culture, drama — and how extremism and repression almost put an end to all that.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Ofeibea Quist-Arcton" ], "isbn": "1476777403", "seamus": 475421742, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781476777405, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1476777403", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781476777405", "isbn10": "1476777403", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 198, "book": "The Bad-Ass Librarians Of Timbuktu: And Their Race To Save The World’s Most Precious Manuscripts", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pack These Pages: 7 Professional Booksellers Select Your Summer Reading", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/02/486450408/pack-these-pages-7-professional-booksellers-select-your-summer-reading" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 198, "book": "The Bad-Ass Librarians Of Timbuktu: And Their Race To Save The World’s Most Precious Manuscripts", "source": "NPR", "text": "Timbuktu's 'Badass Librarians': Checking Out Books Under Al-Qaida's Nose", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/23/475420855/timbuktus-badass-librarians-checking-out-books-under-al-qaidas-nose" } ] }, "199": { "id": 199, "title": "The Ballad Of Black Tom", "author": "Victor LaValle", "text": "

The dedication to Victor LaValle’s book reads, “For H.P. Lovecraft, with all my conflicted feelings.” As a kid, LaValle loved reading Lovecraft’s horror stories, but when he grew older he became aware of the racism in Lovecraft’s fiction. So he took one of Lovecraft’s most xenophobic stories, “The Horror at Red Hook,” as a jumping-off point for his own weird novel about a young black man in 1920s Harlem. LaValle’s hero, Tommy Tester, has to hustle his way through a hostile world of racism, police brutality and cosmic terror. Lovecraft fans will recognize several of LaValle’s characters, including a certain ancient, octopus-headed being.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "rather short", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Sam Briger" ], "isbn": "0765387867", "seamus": 468564716, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780765387868, "bookshop": 9780765387868, "cover": "0765387867", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780765387868", "isbn10": "0765387867", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 199, "book": "The Ballad Of Black Tom", "source": "NPR", "text": "Click If You Dare: 100 Favorite Horror Stories", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/632779706/click-if-you-dare-100-favorite-horror-stories" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 199, "book": "The Ballad Of Black Tom", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Ballad Of Black Tom' Offers A Tribute To And Critique Of Lovecraft", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/29/468558238/the-ballad-of-black-tom-offers-a-tribute-and-critique-of-lovecraft" } ] }, "200": { "id": 200, "title": "The Beach At Night", "author": "Elena Ferrante, illustrated by Mara Cerri, translated by Ann Goldstein", "text": "

Are you looking for a picture book to help your darling nieces and nephews drift to dreamland, like a lost doll swept to sea? This is not that book, if you would like them to, y’know, EVER SLEEP AGAIN. The Beach at Night is Elena Ferrante’s (yep, the very same) fable about a doll’s night alone on a beach after she is abandoned by her owner. You could be forgiven for thinking this slim volume, with its dreamy illustrations, is a children’s book, and I think it might be, but many American children will not have encountered these themes (or the word “s***” for that matter) in a picture book. (There is also a vaguely sexual overtone to the abuse that Celina, the doll, is put through by her tormentor, The Mean Beach Attendant of Sunset.) That said, for American adults who have devoured Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet, it will be a pure and strange delight. It’s a wispy and weird little tale that feels familiar — another Ferrante mother and daughter pair working through the complexity, cruelty and beauty of their bond. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "isbn": "1609453700", "seamus": 498577529, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781609453701, "bookshop": 9781609453701, "cover": "1609453700", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781609453701", "isbn10": "1609453700", "links": [] }, "201": { "id": 201, "title": "The Best American Comics 2016", "author": "Roz Chast (editor)", "text": "

The incomparable Roz Chast puts her unique, delightful stamp on this book right up front, writing about how she once tried to get into Highlights for Children by obsessively learning to draw horses (animals that terrified her). She’s rounded up a delicious diversity of talent, particularly women: Gabrielle Bell, Kate Beaton, Nina Bunjevac. The big guys are here too: Adrian Tomine, Chris Ware, Joe Sacco, Gilbert Hernandez. Unlike in some of this series’ past volumes, the printing quality is excellent. The color is rich and the transitions are delicate in works by Richard McGuire, Ben Katchor and the late Geneviève Elverum, among many others.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "funny stuff" ], "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "isbn": "0544750357", "seamus": 498440052, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780544750357, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0544750357", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780544750357", "isbn10": "0544750357", "links": [] }, "202": { "id": 202, "title": "The Bitch Is Back: Older, Wiser, And (Getting) Happier", "author": "Cathi Hanauer (editor)", "text": "

There’s something calming about 25 accomplished, well-versed, female writers inviting you in to share their confessions and regrets. More than a decade after The Bitch in the House, this follow-up collection features essays that touch on love, sex, marriage, divorce, health, aging, money, kids (having them/not having them) and working (or not). Depending on where you are in life, you may relate to some of these essays more than others — but no matter what, you’ll want to hear these raw, honest stories, about how extraordinary women made decisions in their 30s — and in their 60s. If you’re a woman questioning your life choices 1,000 times over, these essays will give you a sense of normalcy, with a few laughs and tears along the way.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Kenya Young" ], "isbn": "0062389513", "seamus": 498581312, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062389510, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062389513", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062389510", "isbn10": "0062389513", "links": [] }, "203": { "id": 203, "title": "The Book Of Magic: From Antiquity To The Enlightenment", "author": "Brian Copenhaver (editor)", "text": "

If you’re looking for an encyclopedia of tricks, The Book of Magic might not give you much, but if you’re hoping to trace how magic has been defined and perceived, editor Brian Copenhaver has you covered. The Roman writer Pliny called magic “The Most Fraudulent of the Arts”; many in the early Renaissance both believed and feared it. This collection, nearly 600 pages of increasingly interconnected extracts, provides some thoughtful insight and covers an impressive scope (rites in Fire Temples, how to make a golem, the usual) on a subject that keeps revealing new sides just like magic.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "rather long", "for history lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "eye-opening reads" ], "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "isbn": "0241198569", "seamus": 498440897, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780241198568, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0241198569", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780241198568", "isbn10": "0241198569", "links": [] }, "204": { "id": 204, "title": "The Border Of Paradise: A Novel", "author": "Esmé Weijun Wang", "text": "

This singular debut from Esmé Weijun Wang has all the trappings of a classic gothic novel: half-siblings trapped in a decaying and isolated house, forbidden affection, suicide, a rapacious forest fire. But this family tragedy is more than just a sensational saga. Its dynamic, rotating points of view, exploration of identity and trauma, precise characterization and stunning prose make it a literary novel of the highest order.

", "tags": [ "family matters", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Carmen Maria Machado" ], "isbn": "1939419697", "seamus": 472260870, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781939419699, "bookshop": 9781939419699, "cover": "1939419697", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781939419699", "isbn10": "1939419697", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 204, "book": "The Border Of Paradise: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Gothic Family Drama At 'The Border Of Paradise'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/14/471622069/gothic-family-drama-at-the-border-of-paradise" } ] }, "205": { "id": 205, "title": "The Bricks That Built The Houses", "author": "Kate Tempest", "text": "

The novel opens with a young trio tearing away from London with an ill-gotten suitcase of cash and violence on their heels. Think you know what’s next? The novel that follows doesn’t fit the script. It’s full of crimes, but it’s no thriller; imagine aimlessness, not a chase. It’s a searing portrait of love, crushed dreams, youthful despair and stubborn longing in fast-gentrifying London. As a novel it’s far from perfect, and the meandering plot drove me bonkers. But I didn’t regret a minute I spent with the characters, drawn in agonizingly empathetic detail by a keen-eyed poet.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "book club ideas" ], "reviewers": [ "Camila Domonoske" ], "isbn": "1620409011", "seamus": 477329424, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781620409015, "bookshop": 9781620409015, "cover": "1620409011", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781620409015", "isbn10": "1620409011", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 205, "book": "The Bricks That Built The Houses", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'There Was More I Wanted To Say': Kate Tempest Turns Hit Album Into A Novel", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/10/477329398/there-was-more-i-wanted-to-say-kate-tempest-turns-hit-album-into-a-novel" } ] }, "206": { "id": 206, "title": "The Caped Crusade: Batman And The Rise Of Nerd Culture", "author": "Glen Weldon", "text": "

“Batman is an inkblot; we see in him what we want to,” writes Glen Weldon in The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture. It might as well be the book’s mantra. His hilarious, incisive history of the Dark Knight focuses equally on the character, his creators and his hordes of diehard fans as they have all changed over the decades — for better and for worse. Under that iconic cowl, Weldon sees ugliness, wonder and the undercurrents of pop culture in all their conflicting glory.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "comics & graphic novels", "identity & culture", "it’s all geek to me", "for history lovers" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "isbn": "1476756694", "seamus": 471467104, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781476756691, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1476756694", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781476756691", "isbn10": "1476756694", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 206, "book": "The Caped Crusade: Batman And The Rise Of Nerd Culture", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Many Masks Of Batman In 'Caped Crusade'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/23/471603073/the-many-masks-of-batman-in-caped-crusade" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 206, "book": "The Caped Crusade: Batman And The Rise Of Nerd Culture", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Caped Crusade' Peeks Under Batman's Iconic Cowl", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/23/471343303/caped-crusade-peeks-under-batmans-iconic-cowl" } ] }, "207": { "id": 207, "title": "The Dark Days Club", "author": "Alison Goodman", "text": "

Everyone who reads genre fiction is familiar with its habit of playing fast and loose with historical trappings: a romance set in the 19th century, but all that’s really different is corsets; a swords and sorcery fantasy set in the Middle Ages, but all that’s really different is no people of color or women with agency. It’s rare — but thrilling — to find a book that takes both generic conventions and historical accuracy seriously, as Alison Goodman’s delightful fantasy novel The Dark Days Club does. So if you’re equally excited to read about well-bred young ladies slaying demons and the tiny jugs they carried underneath their gowns in case they needed to relieve themselves while awaiting a royal audience, look no further. This is the book for you.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "love & romance", "mysteries & thrillers", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "young adult", "rather long", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "isbn": "0670785474", "seamus": 498689291, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780670785476, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0670785474", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780670785476", "isbn10": "0670785474", "links": [] }, "208": { "id": 208, "title": "The Dim Sum Field Guide: A Taxonomy Of Dumplings, Buns, Meats, Sweets And Other Specialties Of The Chinese Teahouse", "author": "Carolyn Phillips", "text": "

Small enough to fit in a handbag, Carolyn Phillips’ beautifully illustrated guide really can help a nervous diner navigate the sometimes intimidating realm of dim sum. Phillips knows her stuff: She lived in Taiwan for eight years, married into a Chinese family and spent more than a decade as a Mandarin interpreter. This book evolved out of her work for the foodie magazine Lucky Peach, and is packed with lovingly scholarly details for novice and expert alike — everything from advice on what to dip your har gao into (mixture of mustard and soy sauce) to the Chinese name for Chinese beignets, which translates to “white sugar sandy old men.”

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "it’s all geek to me" ], "reviewers": [ "Nina Gregory" ], "isbn": "1607749564", "seamus": 498733282, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781607749561, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1607749564", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781607749561", "isbn10": "1607749564", "links": [] }, "209": { "id": 209, "title": "The Dream-Quest Of Vellitt Boe", "author": "Kij Johnson", "text": "

A beautiful, thoroughly enchanting revision of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, this novella focuses on a brilliant older woman named Vellitt Boe, a professor of mathematics who undertakes an adventure-strewn quest from her dream world into our waking world in pursuit of a runaway student. To read this is to feel oneself slipping into and then waking from a rich, thick dream.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "rather short", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "isbn": "0765391414", "seamus": 490367470, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780765391414, "bookshop": 9780765391414, "cover": "0765391414", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780765391414", "isbn10": "0765391414", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 209, "book": "The Dream-Quest Of Vellitt Boe", "source": "NPR", "text": "Everything Has Meaning In The Dream World Of 'Vellitt Boe'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/27/490100328/everything-has-meaning-in-the-dream-world-of-vellitt-boe" } ] }, "210": { "id": 210, "title": "The Familiar, Volume 3: Honeysuckle & Pain", "author": "Mark Z. Danielewski", "text": "

The Familiar is a massive, ambitious, flawed, brilliant and deeply weird endeavor projected to run through 27 volumes, all centering around a special (possibly magical) little girl named Xanther and a freaky (absolutely magical) stray cat. It has a sprawling cast of outlaws, computer programmers, drug dealers and mystics, is formatted and designed as maybe 53 percent art project (to 46 percent novel and 1 percent literary LSD), and will absolutely pop your gourd no matter where you drop into it. While Volume 3 is perhaps the most readable (and least plodding) of the growing set, what saves the entire series from being some kind of annoying pure-thought experimento-novel is the fact that Mark Z. Danielewski can write. He makes characters that are beautifully drawn, grounded and relatable even amid all the madness on the page.

", "tags": [ "rather long", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "comics & graphic novels", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "isbn": "0375714987", "seamus": 481435902, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780375714986, "bookshop": 9780375714986, "cover": "0375714987", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780375714986", "isbn10": "0375714987", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 210, "book": "The Familiar, Volume 3: Honeysuckle & Pain", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Familiar Vol. 3' Will Rewire Your Brain", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/19/481391864/the-familiar-vol-3-will-re-wire-your-brain" } ] }, "211": { "id": 211, "title": "The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race", "author": "Jesmyn Ward (editor)", "text": "

Written in 1963, James Baldwin’s famed book of essays The Fire Next Time is actually a good fit for the social media age. In this similarly slim tribute The Fire This Time, editor and writer Jesmyn Ward honors Baldwin’s legacy with writers who, as rapper Biggie Smalls would have said, if you don’t know — now you know: Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Kiese Laymon, Daniel José Older, Claudia Rankine and many more poets and novelists. Writers unafraid to talk about the messy, unfinished business of race in the age of Barack Obama. As Ward told NPR, “Sometimes you get tired of fighting … but that doesn’t mean that you can give up the fight.”

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "staff picks", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "reviewers": [ "Audie Cornish" ], "isbn": "1501126342", "seamus": 488366606, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781501126345, "bookshop": 9781501126345, "cover": "1501126342", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781501126345", "isbn10": "1501126342", "links": [] }, "212": { "id": 212, "title": "The Fireman", "author": "Joe Hill", "text": "

Even though Joe Hill launched his writing career as a fully formed, highly distinctive author, he still gets compared to his father, Stephen King. But those comparisons are inevitable, given the deliberate parallels both men draw to each other’s work. In The Fireman, Hill makes a brilliant leap of imagination, creating a horrifying plague that causes victims to burst into flame. But he also illustrates the resulting apocalypse in ways that recall King’s The Stand, from his worldwide focus to his deep look at richly realized characters, particularly an infected heroine trying to bring her pregnancy to term before she dies.

", "tags": [ "rather long", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Tasha Robinson" ], "isbn": "0062200631", "seamus": 478867853, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062200631, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062200631", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062200631", "isbn10": "0062200631", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 212, "book": "The Fireman", "source": "NHPR", "text": " 'Word Of Mouth': 'Writers On A New England Stage' With Joe Hill", "url": "http://nhpr.org/post/writers-new-england-stage-joe-hill" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 212, "book": "The Fireman", "source": "NPR", "text": "Joe Hill On 'Fireman,' Family And ... Fart Cookies?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/22/478840908/joe-hill-on-fireman-family-and-fart-cookies" } ] }, "213": { "id": 213, "title": "The Fortunes", "author": "Peter Ho Davies", "text": "

A beautifully constructed novel told in four disparate though loosely linked parts, The Fortunes tackles the experience of being Chinese in America. Peter Ho Davies writes with a rare emotional resonance and a deft sense of structure about four different people, in different periods of American history, grappling with the fact that they are seen as “less than” whites. This complex, rich novel asks what it means to be a person navigating the strands of identity, the things that made us who we are, whoever that is.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "fiction", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "isbn": "0544263707", "seamus": 490369920, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780544263703, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0544263707", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780544263703", "isbn10": "0544263707", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 213, "book": "The Fortunes", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Fortunes' Is A Resonant Account Of The Chinese Immigrant Experience", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/10/490101994/the-fortunes-is-a-resonant-account-of-the-chinese-immigrant-experience" } ] }, "214": { "id": 214, "title": "The Fox Was Ever The Hunter: A Novel", "author": "Herta Müller", "text": "

An air of Soviet-era menace engulfs The Fox Was Ever the Hunter, the remarkable new novel by Herta Müller, who was described by the Swedish Academy upon her 2009 Nobel Prize win as a writer who “depicts the landscape of the dispossessed.” The Fox draws on what Müller suffered while clenched in the jaws of one of history’s most notorious dictatorships, but she infuses characters and events with surreal elements and heightened levels of metaphor. Here, dreams become extensions of life — or life itself is a dream; they are cut from the same fabric, consistently lurid and terrifying.

", "tags": [ "tales from around the world", "historical fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jean Zimmerman" ], "isbn": "0805093028", "seamus": 478286905, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780805093025, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0805093028", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780805093025", "isbn10": "0805093028", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 214, "book": "The Fox Was Ever The Hunter: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Nightmarish Reality Of Ceausescu's Romania In 'The Fox'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/17/477372412/the-nightmarish-reality-of-ceausescus-romania-in-the-fox" } ] }, "215": { "id": 215, "title": "The Gene: An Intimate History", "author": "Siddhartha Mukherjee", "text": "

Siddhartha Mukherjee is a first-rate science writer, who makes even the trickiest bits of biology easy to understand. But The Gene, his disarming study of what’s known and believed about inheritance, is really a story about people — about the way blind luck, missed opportunities and misguided ambition can win or lose the day in scientific research and life. “Science is an endurance sport,” Mukherjee writes. Take, for example, Austrian monk Gregor Mendel, who planted his famous peas only after twice failing his exams to teach high school science. There is much humor and warmth in Mukherjee’s book, but he also chronicles the devastating history of eugenics. For anyone eager to learn more about the real promise and limits of “personalized medicine,” to understand where we’ve been and where we’re headed, The Gene is an insightful guide.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "rather long", "staff picks", "it’s all geek to me", "science!" ], "reviewers": [ "Deb Franklin" ], "isbn": "1476733503", "seamus": 478204952, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781476733500, "bookshop": 9781476733500, "cover": "1476733503", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781476733500", "isbn10": "1476733503", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 215, "book": "The Gene: An Intimate History", "source": "WAMC", "text": " 'The Book Show' Interview With Siddhartha Mukherjee", "url": "http://wamc.org/post/book-show-1453-siddhartha-mukherjee" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 215, "book": "The Gene: An Intimate History", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Power Of Genes, And The Line Between Biology And Destiny ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/05/16/478204708/the-power-of-genes-and-the-line-between-biology-and-destiny" } ] }, "216": { "id": 216, "title": "The Girl From Everywhere", "author": "Heidi Heilig", "text": "

Nix has spent her whole life sailing the seas with her father, who possesses the ability to transport his ship and crew to any time and place — as long as he has a map to use as a guide. They’re on the hunt for one special map that will bring them home to Honolulu in 1868, where Nix’s mother is about to die giving birth to her. But Nix is afraid that by helping her father save the woman he loves, she’ll erase her own existence. This debut catapults delightfully from one map to the next, offering a fresh and captivating approach to time travel.

", "tags": [ "young adult", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "historical fiction", "family matters", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "isbn": "0062380753", "seamus": 498423119, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062380753, "bookshop": 9780062380753, "cover": "0062380753", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062380753", "isbn10": "0062380753", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 216, "book": "The Girl From Everywhere", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Ship Beyond Time' Sails Through The Centuries", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/04/01/522116248/ship-beyond-time-sails-through-the-centuries" } ] }, "217": { "id": 217, "title": "The Girls", "author": "Emma Cline", "text": "

You may have heard that The Girls is a fictional version of the infamous Manson Family murders. Really it is more about the toxic mixture of neediness and naiveté that can lead a young girl into a terrible situation from which there is no return. Evie, an unhappy teenager, is adrift and aimless one summer when she becomes fascinated by Suzanne, the leader of a group of girls who live in a nearby commune. As an adult Evie looks back on that summer, she sees how close she came to being part of a brutal murder, and it becomes obvious that she has never fully recovered from it. This is a chilling story, made more compelling by Cline’s ability to show us just how easily such a close encounter with evil can happen.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "the dark side", "let’s talk about sex", "book club ideas", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Lynn Neary" ], "isbn": "081299860X", "seamus": 481404149, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780812998603, "bookshop": 9780812998603, "cover": "081299860X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780812998603", "isbn10": "081299860X", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 217, "book": "The Girls", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Book Review: 'The Girls' Is Haunting", "url": "http://kmuw.org/post/book-review-girls-haunting" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 217, "book": "The Girls", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'The Girls,' A Teen's Need To Be Noticed Draws Her Into A Manson-Like Cult", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/16/482231289/in-the-girls-a-teen-s-need-to-be-noticed-draws-her-into-a-manson-like-cult" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 217, "book": "The Girls", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Power Of Seeing, And Being Seen, In 'The Girls' ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/16/481391821/the-power-of-seeing-and-being-seen-in-the-girls" } ] }, "218": { "id": 218, "title": "The Glass Universe: How The Ladies Of The Harvard Observatory Took The Measure Of The Stars", "author": "Dava Sobel", "text": "

“Pickering’s Harem” — the women hired as assistants at the Harvard Observatory — have existed on the fringes as fleeting mentions in contemporary scientific publications, or tucked into the footnotes of astronomy texts. So Dava Sobel’s The Glass Universe is a parallel discovery — of the women, and of the work. Her subjects are supernaturally intrepid; Sobel teases out their doubts, frustrations and triumphs. But the sky comes first, and the book’s true passion is the staggering impact of their work and the struggle to have it recognized. Pickering’s Harem shaped the way we organize the universe; The Glass Universe makes that discovery a joy.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "biography & memoir", "it’s all geek to me", "eye-opening reads", "science!" ], "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "isbn": "0670016950", "seamus": 498441186, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780670016952, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0670016950", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780670016952", "isbn10": "0670016950", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 218, "book": "The Glass Universe: How The Ladies Of The Harvard Observatory Took The Measure Of The Stars", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Hidden Figures,' 'The Glass Universe,' And Why Science Needs History", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/12/18/505592663/hidden-figures-the-glass-universe-and-why-science-needs-history" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 218, "book": "The Glass Universe: How The Ladies Of The Harvard Observatory Took The Measure Of The Stars", "source": "NPR", "text": "Women Astronomers Shine In 'The Glass Universe'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/12/04/503068093/women-astronomers-shine-in-the-glass-universe" } ] }, "219": { "id": 219, "title": "The Godfather Notebook", "author": "Francis Ford Coppola", "text": "

When Francis Ford Coppola was preparing to shoot The Godfather, he took a razor blade to Mario Puzo’s 1969 book, cut out every page and pasted them into a notebook. Then he scribbled in the margins and underlined important passages, while slashing others. For each section he planned to film, he included notes on synopsis, texture, tone and pitfalls to avoid. That 700-plus-page notebook has been made available for the first time in this reproduction, which includes an introduction by Coppola himself. It’s a stunning document of an iconic film, and a rare behind-the-scenes look at Coppola’s creative process.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for art lovers", "rather long", "staff picks", "no biz like show biz" ], "reviewers": [ "Sam Briger" ], "isbn": "168245052X", "seamus": 499338792, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781682450529, "bookshop": "", "cover": "168245052X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781682450529", "isbn10": "168245052X", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 219, "book": "The Godfather Notebook", "source": "NPR", "text": "To Make 'The Godfather' His Way, Francis Ford Coppola Waged A Studio Battle", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/11/15/502250244/to-make-the-godfather-his-way-francis-ford-coppola-waged-a-studio-battle" } ] }, "220": { "id": 220, "title": "The Greatest Of Marlys", "author": "Lynda Barry", "text": "

Lynda Barry, who with unflinching honesty chronicled the interior lives of the three Mullen children — Maybonne, Marlys and Freddie — in her syndicated comic strip Ernie Pook’s Comeek, is a gift to the world. In this best-of collection, middle child Marlys braves a host of petty pubertal travails and fleeting moments of pure, ecstatic joy. Barry’s genius lies in getting us to see — and feel — the world around her characters acutely as they do: Her sense-memory of childhood is vivid, and she expresses it with a deeply evocative, low-fi poetry.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "funny stuff", "family matters", "for art lovers", "seriously great writing" ], "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "isbn": "1770462643", "seamus": 490074114, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781770462649, "bookshop": 9781770462649, "cover": "1770462643", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781770462649", "isbn10": "1770462643", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 220, "book": "The Greatest Of Marlys", "source": "NPR", "text": "Let's Get Graphic: 100 Favorite Comics And Graphic Novels", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/07/12/533862948/lets-get-graphic-100-favorite-comics-and-graphic-novels" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 220, "book": "The Greatest Of Marlys", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Marlys' Collection Dips Back Into Lynda Barry's Sweet, Squirmy World", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/16/489497607/-marlys-collection-dips-back-into-lynda-barry-s-sweet-squirmy-world" } ] }, "221": { "id": 221, "title": "The Gustav Sonata: A Novel", "author": "Rose Tremain", "text": "

If I could make you read one book this year — 2016, year of sorrow and division and pain — it would be The Gustav Sonata. Stop reading fake news stories on Facebook and enjoy this gorgeous meditation on what it means to stand by and what it means to stand up. The book takes place in post-World War II Switzerland, where the country is still figuring out what it meant to be neutral during the horror. Young Gustav is growing up in the shadow of his mother’s anger, and his father’s death — I don’t want to say more — and he’s learned to conceal and control himself to his detriment. That’s until he meets Anton, a young Jewish boy who becomes his dearest friend. There is a moment in this book toward the end where I sobbed quietly, wrote down a line, took stock of my life and continued reading. I wish you the same.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "isbn": "0393246698", "seamus": 498413131, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780393246698, "bookshop": 9780393246698, "cover": "0393246698", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780393246698", "isbn10": "0393246698", "links": [] }, "222": { "id": 222, "title": "The Hating Game", "author": "Sally Thorne", "text": "

If you miss romantic comedies, the kind that were so funny, you would pay $15 to see them in the theater — plus the cost of popcorn and candy — this novel will make you very happy indeed. Josh and Lucy are professional rivals from two recently merged publishing houses. They share an office. They are both determined to win a coveted promotion. And they hate each other. The rising tension and Thorne’s biting dialogue will make you wish for the romantic comedies of days gone by — or just more books like this one.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "let’s talk about sex", "funny stuff", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Sarah Wendell" ], "isbn": "0062439596", "seamus": 499341185, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062439598, "bookshop": 9780062439598, "cover": "0062439596", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062439598", "isbn10": "0062439596", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 222, "book": "The Hating Game", "source": "NPR", "text": "For July, 4 Romances That'll Keep You Laughing", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2019/07/07/738976036/for-july-4-romances-thatll-keep-you-laughing" } ] }, "223": { "id": 223, "title": "The Haunting Of Falcon House", "author": "Eugene Yelchin", "text": "

Deliciously creepy, The Haunting of Falcon House is a gothic page-turner set in a cold and cavernous 19th century Russian mansion. Whether the story is about 12-year-old Lev, who is sent away to live with his emotionally distant aunt, or about the gaunt and enigmatic boy he encounters is up to the reader. As deep as it is dark, Eugene Yelchin’s artwork illuminates his haunting ghost story built on abandonment, loss and love. (For ages 9 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "mysteries & thrillers", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "historical fiction", "family matters", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "isbn": "0805098453", "seamus": 498677987, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780805098457, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0805098453", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780805098457", "isbn10": "0805098453", "links": [] }, "224": { "id": 224, "title": "The Heavenly Table: A Novel", "author": "Donald Ray Pollock", "text": "

To compare The Heavenly Table to Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian is too simple. To set it against Sam Peckinpah’s blood-and-thunder Western films is silly because Peckinpah was a product of his historical moment and Donald Ray Pollock seems to float, timeless, somewhere above all base considerations of chronology. What would be apt is to say that Pollock’s ragged-edge Western about the grinding impact of progress on a varied cast of characters who are bewildered by onrushing modernity is what might’ve come from some kind of whiskey-and-Benzedrine-fueled weekend in a mountain cabin, with McCarthy and Peckinpah passing a notebook back and forth, trying to outdo the other with madness, bloodshed and genius. You’ll feel filthy after reading it and it will stick with you in all the best and worst possible ways.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "isbn": "0385541295", "seamus": 485078363, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780385541299, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0385541295", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780385541299", "isbn10": "0385541295", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 224, "book": "The Heavenly Table: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Time Catches Up With Us All In 'The Heavenly Table'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/14/485708922/time-catches-up-with-us-all-in-the-heavenly-table" } ] }, "225": { "id": 225, "title": "The High Mountains Of Portugal: A Novel", "author": "Yann Martel", "text": "

If you loved Yann Martel’s Booker Prize-winning novel, Life of Pi, his newest novel offers some familiar pleasures. Like its blockbuster predecessor, The High Mountains of Portugal explores themes of faith, loss and what it means to be home. This book also has a charismatic animal at its center — this time a chimpanzee, not a Bengal tiger. Despite those similarities, The High Mountains of Portugal feels new. It tells three connected stories spanning a century, all converging on the oddly named location of the title. There are no literal mountains in this corner of Portugal, but Martel’s characters still manage to find, in this landscape, a path to ascend.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Ari Shapiro" ], "isbn": "0812997174", "seamus": 464924318, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780812997170, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0812997174", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780812997170", "isbn10": "0812997174", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 225, "book": "The High Mountains Of Portugal: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Life Of Pi' Author Delves Into Chimpanzee Fiction", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/02/09/466103056/life-of-pi-author-delves-into-chimpanzee-fiction" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 225, "book": "The High Mountains Of Portugal: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Confronting Loss While Scaling 'The High Mountains Of Portugal'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/05/463861486/confronting-loss-while-scaling-the-high-mountains-of-portugal" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 225, "book": "The High Mountains Of Portugal: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Yann Martel On 'That Deeply Unreasonable Phenomenon' Of Faith", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/02/464924120/author-yann-martel-on-that-deeply-unreasonable-phenomenon-of-faith" } ] }, "226": { "id": 226, "title": "The House At The Edge Of Night: A Novel", "author": "Catherine Banner", "text": "

The House at the Edge of Night is a misty Mediterranean dream of a book. It’s so simple that there is only room for the emotions found in children’s tales: sad, glad, hopeful, lonely. Women are beautiful, men are tall, the air smells of bougainvillea. Like good fictional Mediterraneans, they eat ricotta, drink limoncello and dance in the piazza. This exquisite and unabashed fulfillment of tropes is — when done as well as it is here — deeply satisfying, like a familiar recipe perfectly executed.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "love & romance" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "0812998790", "seamus": 485078688, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780812998795, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0812998790", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780812998795", "isbn10": "0812998790", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 226, "book": "The House At The Edge Of Night: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The House At The Edge Of Night' Is A Comforting, Familiar Place", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/20/486223703/the-house-at-the-edge-of-night-is-a-comforting-familiar-place" } ] }, "227": { "id": 227, "title": "The Indian Cooking Course", "author": "Monisha Bharadwaj", "text": "

Here we have the best — and maybe the only — book currently aiming to teach Indian cooking in a systematic way. (Author Monisha Bharadwaj runs an Indian cooking school in London.) Just as you’d expect, The Indian Cooking Course has recipes for rice, dals, vegetables, meats, chutneys, flatbreads, vindaloos, kormas and samosas. But it’s not just recipes; the reference material goes wide and deep, from colorful street shots and essays on regional foodways to step-by-step demo photos and instructions. The package is equally lyrical and technical, and a pleasure to use.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "tales from around the world" ], "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "isbn": "1909487465", "seamus": 502911605, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "1909487465", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781909487468", "isbn10": "1909487465", "links": [] }, "228": { "id": 228, "title": "The Jazz Of Physics: The Secret Link Between Music And The Structure Of The Universe", "author": "Stephon Alexander", "text": "

I have long been a serious jazz fan and like to think of myself as a budding armchair cosmologist. So I’ll forever be grateful to musician/physicist Stephon Alexander, who describes the profound ways in which notes and numbers are connected. Alexander chronicles the great thinkers who have explored these links in the past and shares his own journey in the two fields. He’ll help you see how our awe-inspiring universe is on a never-ending, cosmological riff.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "for history lovers", "for music lovers", "staff picks", "science!" ], "reviewers": [ "Felix Contreras" ], "isbn": "0465034993", "seamus": 481665031, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780465034994, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0465034993", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780465034994", "isbn10": "0465034993", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 228, "book": "The Jazz Of Physics: The Secret Link Between Music And The Structure Of The Universe", "source": "NPR", "text": "Scientist Stephon Alexander: 'Infinite Possibilities' Unite Jazz And Physics", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/06/11/481664722/scientist-stephon-alexander-infinite-possibilities-unite-jazz-and-physics" } ] }, "229": { "id": 229, "title": "The Latter Days: A Memoir", "author": "Judith Freeman", "text": "

Judith Freeman’s 2007 book, The Long Embrace, about Raymond Chandler’s unusual marriage, is one I dip into often for its psychological smarts and haunting images of early Los Angeles. Her evocative new memoir, The Latter Days, also focuses on the mysteries of a marriage: her own. Freeman was raised a Mormon in Utah. In the mid-1960s, at the age of 17, she married her sister’s former boyfriend and became a mother to an infant with severe heart problems. The Latter Days candidly dramatizes Freeman’s struggle to imagine other possibilities for herself beyond the ones Mormonism dictated to her.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "isbn": "0307908615", "seamus": 498692113, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "0307908615", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780307908612", "isbn10": "0307908615", "links": [] }, "230": { "id": 230, "title": "The Lesser Bohemians: A Novel", "author": "Eimear McBride", "text": "

Eily is 18, Irish, just barely removed from the “dun school skirts” of early life. She arrives in London — alive with “traffic all gadding in the midday shine” and “pigeons at infernal coo” — to audition for drama school. Eily’s live, wriggling words construe themselves without the pens of grammar. She often inverts the verb and subject (walk I) which gives a kind of precarious immediacy to her sentences, like grammar can’t stand up straight under the weight of the narrator’s wild wants. The result is a stunning modernist novel.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "let’s talk about sex", "seriously great writing", "love & romance" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "1101903481", "seamus": 494756186, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101903483, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101903481", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101903483", "isbn10": "1101903481", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 230, "book": "The Lesser Bohemians: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Lesser Bohemians' Uses Playful Language For A Classic Love Story", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/24/495206074/lesser-bohemians-uses-playful-language-for-a-classic-love-story" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 230, "book": "The Lesser Bohemians: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Love Shifts The Self In 'The Lesser Bohemians'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/21/494755868/love-shifts-the-self-in-the-lesser-bohemians" } ] }, "231": { "id": 231, "title": "The Lie Tree", "author": "Frances Hardinge", "text": "

Frances Hardinge’s Gothic fantasy The Lie Tree starts in the middle of a dreary downpour and feels like it ought only to be read during one as well. It’s the story of Faith Sunderly, her naturalist father’s mysterious murder and the magical tree that grows truth-revealing fruits only when Faith whispers lies to it. This book feels destined to be read in the middle of a dark and stormy night, preferably under the covers and with a secret flashlight. However, Hardinge’s writing is so beautiful and her atmosphere so evocative that it could probably leave you shivering even if you read it on a sunny tropical beach.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "young adult", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "isbn": "1419718959", "seamus": 498689471, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781419718953, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1419718959", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781419718953", "isbn10": "1419718959", "links": [] }, "232": { "id": 232, "title": "The Little Red Chairs", "author": "Edna O'Brien", "text": "

On a cold, dark night, a stranger arrives in an Irish village. In this novel about a Bosnian war criminal in hiding, the tragic is marbled with the quotidian, the quotidian with the tragic. A cook “plunges lobsters into vats of boiling water and prays for the repose of their soul.” During a massacre, gunmen asked for chairs to sit in, they were “so tired from killing.” Even mass murderers get sore legs, even cooking dinner has its shades of horror. Edna O’Brien captures this doubleness with eerie and nuanced precision.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "seriously great writing" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "0316378232", "seamus": 472137710, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316378239, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0316378232", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316378239", "isbn10": "0316378232", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 232, "book": "The Little Red Chairs", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Clash Of Manners And Monsters In Edna O'Brien's 'Little Red Chairs'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/12/473960427/a-clash-of-manners-and-monsters-in-edna-obriens-little-red-chairs" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 232, "book": "The Little Red Chairs", "source": "NPR", "text": "Healing And Horror Sit Side By Side In 'Little Red Chairs'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/02/472137289/healing-and-horror-sit-side-by-side-in-little-red-chairs" } ] }, "233": { "id": 233, "title": "The Lonely City: Adventures In The Art Of Being Alone", "author": "Olivia Laing", "text": "

When Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her 30s, she found herself, unexpectedly, very lonely: “You can be lonely anywhere, but there is a particular flavour to the loneliness that comes from living in a city, surrounded by millions of people,” she writes. Her meditation on loneliness and the artists who have inhabited it (Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, David Wojnarowicz and others) is a stunning marriage of empathy and intellect. The chapter on the deep loneliness of the AIDS crisis brought me to tears on the underground.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for art lovers", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "identity & culture" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "1250039576", "seamus": 468626809, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781250039576, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250039576", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781250039576", "isbn10": "1250039576", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 233, "book": "The Lonely City: Adventures In The Art Of Being Alone", "source": "NHPR", "text": " '10-Minute Writer's Workshop' With Olivia Laing", "url": "http://nhpr.org/post/10-minute-writers-workshop-olivia-laing" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 233, "book": "The Lonely City: Adventures In The Art Of Being Alone", "source": "WAMU", "text": "Writing About Taboos And ‘The Lonely City’ With Author Olivia Laing", "url": "http://wamu.org/story/16/03/25/writing_about_taboos_and_the_lonely_city_with_author_olivia_laing/" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 233, "book": "The Lonely City: Adventures In The Art Of Being Alone", "source": "NPR", "text": "Provocative Book Explores The Connection Between Loneliness And Art", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/01/468721474/provocative-book-explores-the-connection-between-loneliness-and-art" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 233, "book": "The Lonely City: Adventures In The Art Of Being Alone", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Lonely City' Is More Than A Cry For Connection", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/01/467413613/lonely-city-is-more-than-a-cry-for-connection" } ] }, "234": { "id": 234, "title": "The Lost Time Accidents: A Novel", "author": "John Wray", "text": "

The Lost Time Accidents is a manic, excessive and strange time-travel saga that samples wildly from various genres. One section is a flawless imitation of a Joan Didion essay, others look like excerpts of pulpy sci-fi novels, one is a perfect parody of bloated book reviews, and so on. It reminds me of an invention of my little brother’s called “poogle cake,” which was made by combining every ingredient in the refrigerator — savory, sweet, expired, all — and baking it for 20 minutes. The difference is that The Lost Time Accidents is a wonderful, delirious, layered confection, whereas poogle cake tasted like ketchup and eggshells.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "rather long", "family matters", "historical fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "0374281130", "seamus": 465483796, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780374281137, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0374281130", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780374281137", "isbn10": "0374281130", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 234, "book": "The Lost Time Accidents: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Taking A Timeout From Time — It's A Family Thing", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/11/463861806/taking-a-time-out-from-time-its-a-family-thing" } ] }, "235": { "id": 235, "title": "The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047", "author": "Lionel Shriver", "text": "

Brexit happened as I read The Mandibles: A Family 2029-2047. The sky-is-falling narrative that accompanied the U.K.’s vote to exit the EU turned out to be the ideal background music for this book. The dystopian tale by Lionel Shriver follows the extended and once wealthy Mandible family into a world in which the dollar is worthless, inflation skyrockets, food and basics are in short supply, the United States is no longer No. 1. Mexico builds a wall to keep indigent Americans from fleeing south. It felt all too possible. I highly recommend this compelling take on a broken, but not hopeless future.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "staff picks", "book club ideas" ], "reviewers": [ "Didrik Schanche" ], "isbn": "0062328247", "seamus": 483393410, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062328243, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062328247", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062328243", "isbn10": "0062328247", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 235, "book": "The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Mandibles' Is Financial Dystopia With A Bite", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/26/483393310/the-mandibles-is-financial-dystopia-with-a-bite" } ] }, "236": { "id": 236, "title": "The Mayor Of Mogadishu: A Story Of Chaos And Redemption In The Ruins Of Somalia", "author": "Andrew Harding", "text": "

Andrew Harding’s The Mayor of Mogadishu is an intimate and nuanced portrayal of one man’s effort to bring back to life a city destroyed by clan warfare, Islamist extremism, misrule and famine. The story follows the life of Mohamoud “Tarzan” Nur, the son of nomads who was abandoned at a Mogadishu orphanage as Somalia celebrated its independence in 1960. The orphan-turned-thug-turned-entrepreneur-turned politician sees the possibilities and promise of Mogadishu, and his optimism makes anything seem possible. Harding’s beautifully detailed writing brings it alive. I could almost feel the Indian Ocean breeze cool the city perched on Africa’s horn.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Didrik Schanche" ], "isbn": "1250072344", "seamus": 503724843, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781250072344, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250072344", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781250072344", "isbn10": "1250072344", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 236, "book": "The Mayor Of Mogadishu: A Story Of Chaos And Redemption In The Ruins Of Somalia", "source": "NPR", "text": "Getting To Know The Controversial 'Mayor Of Mogadishu'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/02/03/512006991/getting-to-know-the-controversial-mayor-of-mogadishu" } ] }, "237": { "id": 237, "title": "The Mirror Thief", "author": "Martin Seay", "text": "

Martin Seay’s debut book, part mystery novel and part philosophical meditation, comprises three separate but connected stories — one set in 16th century Venice, one in 1958 California, and one in 2003 Las Vegas. The thread that binds them together is a poetry collection about a mysterious alchemist. The Mirror Thief is as difficult to explain as it is completely original. It’s one of the most intricately plotted novels in recent years, and to call it imaginative seems like a massive understatement.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "for art lovers", "rather long", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "isbn": "1612195148", "seamus": 476512274, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781612195148, "bookshop": 9781612195148, "cover": "1612195148", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781612195148", "isbn10": "1612195148", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 237, "book": "The Mirror Thief", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Mirror Thief' Reflects 3 Transfixing Tales", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/15/476512171/the-mirror-thief-reflects-three-transfixing-tales" } ] }, "238": { "id": 238, "title": "The Mothers: A Novel", "author": "Brit Bennett", "text": "

The Mothers follows three young adults growing up in a black Southern California community. Nadia, the protagonist, loses her mother to suicide, and finds herself making the kind of choices that will affect the rest of her life. It’s hard to say more than this about the book — which delivers lines that you’ll want to savor and read out loud — because it’s a story about secrets and betrayals, and part of the pleasure is your own sighs and gasps. It’s both intimate and epic in scope. The mothers of the novel’s title are a kind of Greek chorus — the “mothers” of the church community — but the book is really about being motherless. It hums along at a brisk, emotional pace — the kind of story that feels like it’s moving fast, but really, it’s moving deep.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "isbn": "0399184511", "seamus": 497524641, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780399184512, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0399184511", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780399184512", "isbn10": "0399184511", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 238, "book": "The Mothers: A Novel", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Brit Bennett On Church, Racism, And Her Novel 'The Mothers'", "url": "http://www.wnyc.org/story/brit-bennett-on-church-racism-her-novel-mothers/" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 238, "book": "The Mothers: A Novel", "source": "WAMU", "text": "Author Brit Bennett On Writing, Race And Relationships", "url": "http://wamu.org/story/16/10/27/author_brit_bennett_on_writing_race_and_relationships/" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 238, "book": "The Mothers: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Ordinary Black Lives Are What Matter In 'The Mothers'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/13/496762082/ordinary-black-lives-are-what-matter-in-the-mothers" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 238, "book": "The Mothers: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Coming-Of Age Melodrama Is Steeped In Social Politics In 'The Mothers'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/11/497524286/the-mothers-presents-a-coming-of-age-melodrama-steeped-in-social-politics" } ] }, "239": { "id": 239, "title": "The Nest", "author": "Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney", "text": "

There was a lot of hype leading up to Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s debut novel — and it lived up! Four siblings are eyeing a sizable amount of family money, known as “the nest.” While that could be a setup for predictable family antics, it’s not. You’ll want to spend time with each and every one of these characters to figure out how they got to where they are. The suspense and humor will keep you turning pages. In the end, it’s a thoughtful look at art, families, hopes, dreams, the things we tell each other — and the things we don’t.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "funny stuff", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "isbn": "0062414216", "seamus": 471005273, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780062414212, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062414216", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780062414212", "isbn10": "0062414216", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 239, "book": "The Nest", "source": "NPR", "text": "Humor And Heart Fill 'The Nest'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/18/471005319/in-the-nest-adult-siblings-eagerly-await-their-inheritance" } ] }, "240": { "id": 240, "title": "The Night Gardener", "author": "Terry Fan and Eric Fan", "text": "

Beautifully drawn, this evocative book is deceptively simple. When a boy discovers that the tree outside his window has been magically transformed into an owl, he seeks to find the reason why. As more and more wondrous topiaries appear all along Grimloch Lane, the mystery deepens. That’s when the boy, William, meets an enigmatic man who enlists his help. In The Night Gardener, brothers Terry and Eric Fan have created a gorgeous book about a small town that comes alive, and a young boy whose life has been irrevocably changed. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books" ], "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "isbn": "1481439782", "seamus": 498681874, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781481439787, "bookshop": 9781481439787, "cover": "1481439782", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781481439787", "isbn10": "1481439782", "links": [] }, "241": { "id": 241, "title": "The Nix: A Novel", "author": "Nathan Hill", "text": "

This is the story of Samuel Andresen-Anderson. Of the boy who became him and the man that he is in 2011 — obsessed with an online game called World Of Elfscape and failing at pretty much everything else. But when the mother who abandoned him as a child suddenly reappears on every TV screen in America as a viral sensation, throwing rocks at a conservative politician, he is given a chance to write a book about her in which he must savage his own mother in lurid, tell-all fashion. It’s a job he takes, of course. Because he’s furious. And desperate. Nathan Hill’s digressive, scattershot exploration of the boy, the man, his mother and the times that shaped them is a brilliant, heartbreaking glimpse into just one of the casualties that time and memory make of us all.

", "tags": [ "rather long", "seriously great writing", "fiction", "family matters" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "isbn": "110194661X", "seamus": 490368441, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101946619, "bookshop": "", "cover": "110194661X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101946619", "isbn10": "110194661X", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 241, "book": "The Nix: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": " 'Marginalia' Interview With Nathan Hill", "url": "http://kmuw.org/post/marginalia-nathan-hill" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 241, "book": "The Nix: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Book Review: 'The Nix' Is Audacious", "url": "http://kmuw.org/post/book-review-nix-audacious" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 241, "book": "The Nix: A Novel", "source": "IPR", "text": "An Interview With The Next Charles Dickens?", "url": "http://iowapublicradio.org/post/interview-next-charles-dickens-0#stream/0 " }, { "year": 2016, "id": 241, "book": "The Nix: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Nix' Is A Vicious, Sprawling Satire With A Very Human Heart", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/31/490101821/the-nix-is-a-vicious-sprawling-satire-with-a-very-human-heart" } ] }, "242": { "id": 242, "title": "The Obelisk Gate", "author": "N.K. Jemisin", "text": "

This worthy sequel to last year’s magnificent The Fifth Season goes underground, as earth-magician Essun and her companions settle cautiously into life in a strange, crystalline community called Castrima. There Essun has to learn everything she can from Alabaster, her former mentor, before he dies (using magical obelisks to break the world in order to heal it has taken its toll, and his body is slowly turning to stone). Meanwhile, Essun’s lost daughter, Nassun, is far away receiving her own magical education — and being sharpened into a weapon against her mother. The Obelisk Gate is a lightning rod around which storm clouds gather to burst and strike in the trilogy’s final book next year.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "isbn": "0316229261", "seamus": 490215914, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316229265, "bookshop": 9780316229265, "cover": "0316229261", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316229265", "isbn10": "0316229261", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 242, "book": "The Obelisk Gate", "source": "NPR", "text": "Riveting 'Obelisk Gate' Shatters The Stillness", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/18/489497592/riveting-obelisk-gate-shatters-the-stillness" } ] }, "243": { "id": 243, "title": "The One Hundred Nights Of Hero: A Graphic Novel", "author": "Isabel Greenberg", "text": "

You don’t have to have read Isabel Greenberg’s 2013 wry, fabulist love story An Encyclopedia of Early Earth to make sense of this similarly folktale-inflected tale of smart, flinty women slyly triumphing over boorish, violent men. But it’s set in the same mythical universe, and the two books are animated by the same funny, matter-of-factly feminist sensibility. This sardonic spin on The 1,001 Nights simultaneously deconstructs and celebrates the power of storytelling.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "funny stuff", "for art lovers" ], "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "isbn": "0316259179", "seamus": 498569331, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316259170, "bookshop": 9780316259170, "cover": "0316259179", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316259170", "isbn10": "0316259179", "links": [] }, "244": { "id": 244, "title": "The Only Rule Is It Has To Work: Our Wild Experiment Building A New Kind of Baseball Team", "author": "Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller", "text": "

It’s fair to say that every baseball fan ever has grumbled over their team’s strategy, but in this era of advanced statistics, that second-guessing has given way to a new type of data-minded armchair analyst who might actually be able to do the job. So when Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller — two sabermetrically inclined writers — were handed the keys to the small-town Sonoma Stompers for a summer season, they had free rein to finally put their wildest ideas to the test. The resulting book certainly goes deep in the weeds, er, outfield grass of implementing high-concept, stat-driven theories. But it’s an idiosyncratic, compelling character study of the writers and their management challenges, and the journeymen players you can’t help but root for.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "it’s all geek to me", "for sports lovers" ], "reviewers": [ "Mike Katzif" ], "isbn": "1476978374", "seamus": 498698633, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "1476978374", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781476978376", "isbn10": "1476978374", "links": [] }, "245": { "id": 245, "title": "The Opposite Zoo", "author": "Il Sung Na", "text": "

A zoo closes down for a night, but not before a monkey sneaks out of his cage. He’s off to discover opposites! This picture book is so spacious — often with just one word per page — that kids can take in each and every drawing. The book is an invitation: Come in, observe. Watch the soft tiger reach toward the prickly hedgehog. See the wide-awake owl and the sleeping panda. After reading this book, kids will set off to find opposites in their own environments. (And, don’t worry, the monkey gets back in his cage before the zoo opens the next morning!) (For ages 2 to 5)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "isbn": "0553511270", "seamus": 498578027, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780553511277, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0553511270", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780553511277", "isbn10": "0553511270", "links": [] }, "246": { "id": 246, "title": "The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story Of Indian Enslavement In America", "author": "Andrés Reséndez", "text": "

The history of the enslavement of people from North America and the Caribbean is deliberately murky; those who practiced it often did so in places where slavery was technically illegal and went to some trouble to invent legal loopholes for it. Andrés Reséndez keeps a deliberate, scholarly distance from the material, bringing forth evidence and constructing careful — even conservative — arguments. But that evidence speaks for itself, and the horrors quietly pile up. In a country that still denies a Native American genocide ever took place, The Other Slavery is a necessary work.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "isbn": "0547640986", "seamus": 472261660, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780547640983, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0547640986", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780547640983", "isbn10": "0547640986", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 246, "book": "The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story Of Indian Enslavement In America", "source": "NPR", "text": "Horrors Pile Up Quietly In 'The Other Slavery'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/17/471622218/horrors-pile-up-quietly-in-the-other-slavery" } ] }, "247": { "id": 247, "title": "The Paper Menagerie", "author": "Ken Liu", "text": "

This is a beautifully curated collection of an award-winning author’s best work, with stories ranging from hard science fiction to historical fantasy to surreal extended metaphors. In “State Change,” a woman’s soul is an ice cube she must keep from melting; in “All the Flavors,” a child in 1870s Idaho meets the red-faced god of war and listens to his stories. The final story — appropriately named “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” — is a harrowing meditation on nations, memory, responsibility and to whom the past can rightly be said to belong. Spanning history and biology, physics and folk tales, Liu speaks the language of stories with devastating eloquence.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "isbn": "1481442546", "seamus": 469717381, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781481442541, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1481442546", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781481442541", "isbn10": "1481442546", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 247, "book": "The Paper Menagerie", "source": "NPR", "text": "No Paper Tiger, This 'Menagerie' Is Full Of Fierce Feeling", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/13/468942030/no-paper-tiger-this-menagerie-is-full-of-fierce-feeling" } ] }, "248": { "id": 248, "title": "The Point Is: Making Sense Of Birth, Death, And Everything In Between", "author": "Lee Eisenberg", "text": "

“Our stories are us,” writes former Esquire editor-in-chief Lee Eisenberg. Maybe that’s a point of view especially appealing to journalists; it certainly grabbed me. His book ventures into great thinkers’ territory, but there’s nothing stuffy here. It’s engaging as can be, and as much about the importance of memory and the stories we choose to tell about ourselves as it is about the point of our existence. The two go hand in hand: Creating and framing our life stories gives our lives meaning. For Eisenberg, the story is the point. And reading his is a pleasure.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Hannah Bloch" ], "isbn": "1455550469", "seamus": 498570372, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781455550463, "bookshop": 9781455550463, "cover": "1455550469", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781455550463", "isbn10": "1455550469", "links": [] }, "249": { "id": 249, "title": "The Portable Veblen: A Novel", "author": "Elizabeth McKenzie", "text": "

Elizabeth McKenzie’s quirky romantic comedy is a frisky charmer about a brainy, off-center couple who face up to their differences – and their difficult, eccentric families – only after they become engaged. In a nutshell, she – named for the Norwegian American economist and social critic Thorstein Veblen — values life’s simpler offerings, including the friendship of a squirrel who’s taken up residence in her attic. He’s an ambitious neurologist tempted by the spoils of his potentially lucrative life-saving invention. The novel is ultimately a morality tale about the values by which we choose to live, but it’s deliciously madcap and whimsical.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "funny stuff", "love & romance" ], "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "isbn": "1594206856", "seamus": 463228077, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781594206856, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1594206856", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781594206856", "isbn10": "1594206856", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 249, "book": "The Portable Veblen: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Portable Veblen' Puts A Quirky Spin On Marriage And Family", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/26/464380626/portable-veblen-puts-a-quirky-spin-on-marriage-and-family" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 249, "book": "The Portable Veblen: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Portable Veblen' Goes Enjoyably Nuts", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/19/463225913/the-portable-veblen-goes-enjoyably-nuts" } ] }, "250": { "id": 250, "title": "The Queen Of The Night", "author": "Alexander Chee", "text": "

At the start of Alexander Chee’s shimmering new novel, The Queen of the Night, Lilliet Berne is already an accomplished soprano. But when she gets the role that could make her immortal, a true doyenne of the Paris opera, she realizes that the libretto is based on a secret from her past. The search for the person who betrayed her transports readers to an American farm, a traveling circus, a French brothel and an opera stage, a journey made entirely possible because of Lilliet’s voice — her singing voice as well as her narrative voice, both of which are captured beautifully in this book.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "for music lovers", "rather long", "no biz like show biz", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Laila Lalami" ], "isbn": "0618663029", "seamus": 464866370, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780618663026, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0618663029", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780618663026", "isbn10": "0618663029", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 250, "book": "The Queen Of The Night", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Alexander Chee On 'The Queen Of The Night'", "url": "http://www.wnyc.org/story/alexander-chee-the-queen-of-the-night/" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 250, "book": "The Queen Of The Night", "source": "NHPR", "text": " '10-Minute Writer's Workshop' With Alexander Chee", "url": "http://nhpr.org/post/10-minute-writers-workshop-alexander-chee" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 250, "book": "The Queen Of The Night", "source": "NPR", "text": "Alexander Chee's Voice Shines Through In 'Queen Of The Night'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/30/464866350/alexander-chees-voice-shines-through-in-queen-of-the-night" } ] }, "251": { "id": 251, "title": "The Reader", "author": "Traci Chee", "text": "

The Reader by Traci Chee offers up a fantasy world where pirates sail the waves and a secret society seeks to hoard the written word. Sefia is a girl on the run from her past with a forbidden book in her pack and a strange new ability to divine the stories of the people she meets. A reader, a seer, a killer — what will she need to become if she wants to unravel the mysteries of the book? Most world-building shies away from tackling the question of literacy within fantasy cultures, but here it serves as the beating meta-heart.

", "tags": [ "young adult", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "isbn": "0399176772", "seamus": 496141322, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780399176777, "bookshop": 9780399176777, "cover": "0399176772", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780399176777", "isbn10": "0399176772", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 251, "book": "The Reader", "source": "NPR", "text": "Magic In The Air: 3 Young Adult Fantasy Reads For Fall", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/01/494916840/magic-in-the-air-3-young-adult-fantasy-reads-for-fall" } ] }, "252": { "id": 252, "title": "The Red Parts: Autobiography Of A Trial", "author": "Maggie Nelson", "text": "

One day, Maggie Nelson’s mother gets a call: Her sister’s murder, unsolved for 35 years, has been reopened. A retired nurse will be charged. What follows is Nelson’s account of the trial and her own fascination with the murder. Nelson’s resistance to the easy answer, her willingness to reach a kind of conclusion and then to break it, to probe further and further, to ask about her own complex and not entirely noble intentions instead of facilely condemning others, make The Red Parts an uneasy masterpiece.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the dark side" ], "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "isbn": "1555977367", "seamus": 472184871, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781555977368, "bookshop": 9781555977368, "cover": "1555977367", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781555977368", "isbn10": "1555977367", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 252, "book": "The Red Parts: Autobiography Of A Trial", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Red Parts' Offers No Easy Answers", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/07/471618794/the-red-parts-offers-no-easy-answers" } ] }, "253": { "id": 253, "title": "The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story Of Food And Hustle In Harlem", "author": "Marcus Samuelsson", "text": "

Marcus Samuelsson’s Red Rooster in Harlem aims to be more than a restaurant in the same way that Sylvia’s was more than a restaurant: He wants it to be a cultural epicenter of food, music and art; a place where locals and tourists can mingle; a venue for live music; the living heartbeat of a neighborhood. The menu, as featured in The Red Rooster Cookbook, showcases a heady fusion of Southern and global influences: fried chicken marinated in coconut milk; collard greens with spiced butter; grits made with white miso. And the book itself is a kind of scrapbook, filled with not just food but photographs, stories and the chef’s own playlists — a pulsing melange of blues, R&B, jazz and hip-hop.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "identity & culture", "for music lovers" ], "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "isbn": "0544639774", "seamus": 499467562, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780544639775, "bookshop": 9780544639775, "cover": "0544639774", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780544639775", "isbn10": "0544639774", "links": [] }, "254": { "id": 254, "title": "The Regional Office Is Under Attack!: A Novel", "author": "Manuel Gonzales", "text": "

The titular Regional Office of this novel refers not to a boring workplace in a corporate complex, but to an organization of highly trained female assassins who work to save the world from destruction by evil forces. It sounds crazy, and it is, in the best possible way. Manuel Gonzales’ action-packed thriller is bizarre and propulsive, and it works because the author keeps a straight face through the whole thing. It’s fun, gleefully violent and impossible to put down.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "isbn": "1594632413", "seamus": 472188421, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781594632419, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1594632413", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781594632419", "isbn10": "1594632413", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 254, "book": "The Regional Office Is Under Attack!: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "The 'Regional Office' Doesn't Quite Deliver", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/12/471621586/the-regional-office-doesnt-quite-deliver" } ] }, "255": { "id": 255, "title": "The Return: Fathers, Sons And The Land In Between", "author": "Hisham Matar", "text": "

What is it like to live in a dictatorship? What is it like when your father opposes that dictatorship and takes your family into exile? What is it like when your father is later kidnapped and imprisoned? And, finally, what is it like to go back and look for him, in the memories of your cousins and uncles, the land you left behind, the wind off the Mediterranean Sea? This is a lyrical memoir that completes the stories Matar first told in his two beautiful novels, In the Country of Men and Anatomy of a Disappearance. But you don’t need to read those first to pick up this book and let it change you forever.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "tales from around the world", "seriously great writing", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Kelly McEvers" ], "isbn": "0812994825", "seamus": 484821159, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780812994827, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0812994825", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780812994827", "isbn10": "0812994825", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 255, "book": "The Return: Fathers, Sons And The Land In Between", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Son Searches For His Missing Dissident Father In 'The Return'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/06/484820866/a-son-searches-for-his-missing-dissident-father-in-the-return" } ] }, "256": { "id": 256, "title": "The Romanovs: 1613-1918", "author": "Simon Sebag Montefiore", "text": "

Amid the gruesome deaths, grisly twists of fate and countless names with clustering consonants, a single thread seems to string this fascinating history together: Few families have been so blessed and blighted by fate as the dynasty that ruled Russia for some three centuries. Simon Sebag Montefiore tells a long — and often violent — tale so wrought with dark melodrama that it would be as comfortable on HBO as on a college syllabus. Exhaustively researched, elegantly expressed and brutal at just about every turn.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "rather long", "staff picks", "the dark side" ], "reviewers": [ "Colin Dwyer" ], "isbn": "0307266524", "seamus": 498434162, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780307266521, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0307266524", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780307266521", "isbn10": "0307266524", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 256, "book": "The Romanovs: 1613-1918", "source": "WNYC", "text": "The Lives Of The Romanov Tsars Who Ruled Russia For 300 Years", "url": "http://www.wnyc.org/story/simon-sebag-montefiore-explores-300-years-russian-history/" } ] }, "257": { "id": 257, "title": "The Second Life Of Nick Mason", "author": "Steve Hamilton", "text": "

The opening here is archetypal: An ex-con named Nick Mason walks out of prison and into a waiting limousine. Nick doesn’t know why he has been released decades early, but he knows that a crime kingpin named Darius Cole — who is still inside the prison — is responsible. The limo takes Nick to Darius’ townhouse, and the driver leaves him with ominous advice: “This isn’t freedom. This is mobility. Don’t get those two things confused.” Soon, Nick’s cellphone begins ringing with grisly assignments from Darius, spurring Nick to plot his escape. The Second Life of Nick Mason is so good, it stands shoulder to paranoid shoulder with the classics of the noir genre.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "isbn": "0399574328", "seamus": 479391949, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780399574320, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0399574328", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780399574320", "isbn10": "0399574328", "links": [] }, "258": { "id": 258, "title": "The Selfishness Of Others: An Essay On The Fear Of Narcissism", "author": "Kristin Dombek", "text": "

According to pop psychology, narcissism is Our Modern Affliction. For every charismatic attention junkie that we come across — the ex, the politico, the lifestyle blogger — charging them with this disorder is easy and explanatory.

\n

With both compassionate clarity and slick, skeptical reportage, essayist Kristen Dombek reflects on how and why narcissism has become a toxic cultural obsession. As both narrator and case study, Dombek pauses often to check her own reflection in Narcissus’ pool, complicating the idea that we can reassure ourselves about who we are by first determining who we are not.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "rather short", "staff picks", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "reviewers": [ "Mina Tavakoli" ], "isbn": "0865478236", "seamus": 498706620, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780865478237, "bookshop": 9780865478237, "cover": "0865478236", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780865478237", "isbn10": "0865478236", "links": [] }, "259": { "id": 259, "title": "The Seventh Wish", "author": "Kate Messner", "text": "

Irish dancing, sibling rivalry, a talking fish and … heroin addiction? Kate Messner takes these seemingly disparate topics and weaves them into a captivating middle grade story that is unafraid to take a clear-eyed look at the impact of drugs on a family. When Charlie finds a fish (or does the fish find her?) she learns that it has the power to grant wishes. However, not everything goes her way. At once heartbreaking and heartwarming, The Seventh Wish couples magical realism with harsh reality, making this a book worth talking about. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters" ], "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "isbn": "1619633760", "seamus": 498679155, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781619633766, "bookshop": 9781619633766, "cover": "1619633760", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781619633766", "isbn10": "1619633760", "links": [] }, "260": { "id": 260, "title": "The Singing Bones", "author": "Shaun Tan", "text": "

Photographed like museum exhibits, Shaun Tan’s little sculptures pack a multilayered symbolic punch. Taking the Grimm fairy tales as his starting point, he strips each story of its encrustations of language and distills it into a single iconic image. He writes that he was inspired by Inuit stone carvings and pre-Columbian clay figurines, and he uses these styles to critique virtually every aspect of Western mythmaking. He does it all with the humblest of materials, primarily papier-mâché and air-drying clay.

", "tags": [ "for art lovers", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "isbn": "0545946123", "seamus": 497548472, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780545946124, "cover": "0545946123", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780545946124", "isbn10": "0545946123", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 260, "book": "The Singing Bones", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Singing Bones,' An Artist Recasts The Grimm Tales — Literally", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/12/496762065/in-singing-bones-an-artist-recasts-the-grimm-tales-literally" } ] }, "261": { "id": 261, "title": "The Sound Of Silence", "author": "Katrina Goldsaito, illustrated by Julia Kuo", "text": "

Simultaneously thoughtful and playful, this gem follows a young boy, Yoshio, as he searches for peace and quiet in noisy Tokyo. Yoshio’s search takes readers through a series of breathtakingly detailed scenes, until he finally finds silence by losing himself in a book. My friends are probably looking for their own peace and quiet after listening to me go on and on about this beautifully illustrated story, which has the calming effect of a guided meditation led by Christopher Robin. (Sidenote: Fans of Haruki Murakami should keep their eyes peeled for a few allusions to the author hidden in the illustrations.) (For ages 5 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world" ], "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "isbn": "0316203378", "seamus": 498707811, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316203371, "bookshop": 9780316203371, "cover": "0316203378", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316203371", "isbn10": "0316203378", "links": [] }, "262": { "id": 262, "title": "The Speed Of Sound: Breaking The Barriers Between Music And Technology: A Memoir", "author": "Thomas Dolby", "text": "

For a music/technology/gearhead geek, this book pressed all my buttons. People may remember Thomas Dolby for the ‘80s hit “She Blinded Me With Science,” but did you know he designed the synthesizer software used in billions of cellphones? The Speed of Sound chronicles Dolby’s highs and lows: his music biz beginnings dumpster-diving for synthesizer parts, busking on the streets of Paris, rock stardom then disenchantment with the music industry, a new life in Silicon Valley creating audio engines for the Internet and video games, then back to his roots, tinkering at music from his studio on a converted lifeboat on the English coast. (And when you’re finished reading, listen to this 2011 interview with him I had the pleasure of producing, in which he talks about his long and colorful journey.)

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for music lovers", "staff picks", "it’s all geek to me" ], "reviewers": [ "Ned Wharton" ], "isbn": "1250071844", "seamus": 498732159, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781250071842, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250071844", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781250071842", "isbn10": "1250071844", "links": [] }, "263": { "id": 263, "title": "The Sport Of Kings", "author": "C.E. Morgan", "text": "

In The Sport Of Kings, C.E. Morgan weaves several centuries of American history into an ambitious and epic tale of a thoroughbred racehorse born to win the Triple Crown. For seven generations — ever since Samuel Forge came to Kentucky from Virginia with one slave and a Narragansett Pacer he had raised from a colt — the Forge clan has bred horses on its Kentucky farm. In the 21st century, Henry Forge and his daughter, Henrietta, set their hopes on an almost perfect filly named Hellsmouth. They hire Allmon Shaughnessy, who discovers his talent with horses while serving prison time as a teenager, to train the unruly filly. With hypnotic language, Faulknerian scope and mounting intensity, Morgan unspools dozens of stories, past and present, into a tragic saga of race and class.

", "tags": [ "rather long", "family matters", "historical fiction", "for sports lovers", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jane Ciabattari" ], "isbn": "0374281084", "seamus": 486452108, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780374281083, "bookshop": 9780374281083, "cover": "0374281084", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780374281083", "isbn10": "0374281084", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 263, "book": "The Sport Of Kings", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pack These Pages: 7 Professional Booksellers Select Your Summer Reading", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/02/486450408/pack-these-pages-7-professional-booksellers-select-your-summer-reading" } ] }, "264": { "id": 264, "title": "The Story Of A Brief Marriage: A Novel", "author": "Anuk Arudpragasam", "text": "

My friend walked into the coffee shop where I was reading and saw the stricken look on my face. He asked what the book was. I read the first sentence to him: Most children have two whole legs and two whole arms but this little six-year-old that Dinesh was carrying had already lost one leg, the right one from the lower thigh down, and was now about to lose his right arm. The novel is set in the Sri Lankan civil war, but it could just as easily be Syria, Somalia or Yemen. I have never seen such horror rendered with such poetry. This may be the shortest book I read all year but it lodged in my brain more than almost any other.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "rather short", "the dark side" ], "reviewers": [ "Ari Shapiro" ], "isbn": "1250072409", "seamus": 502459727, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781250072405, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250072409", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781250072405", "isbn10": "1250072409", "links": [] }, "265": { "id": 265, "title": "The Story Of Hong Gildong", "author": "edited and translated by Minsoo Kang", "text": "

Hong Gildong is an iconic figure in the Korean literary canon; he is so ubiquitous his name is used as an administrative placeholder, John Doe-style. It’s noteworthy that it has taken him this long to get a substantial introduction in English, but this year he arrived in style. Minsoo Kang brings The Story of Hong Gildong to life in a fantastic translation, easily balancing the epic’s sly wit, political intrigue, Robin Hood derring-do and social commentary. Lovers of folklore should be thrilled to discover this addition to the canon.

", "tags": [ "rather short", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "isbn": "0143107690", "seamus": 470683824, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780143107699, "bookshop": 9780143107699, "cover": "0143107690", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780143107699", "isbn10": "0143107690", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 265, "book": "The Story Of Hong Gildong", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Hong Gildong': Korea's Classic Swashbuckler Gets A New Translation", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/17/469700725/hong-gildong-koreas-classic-swashbuckler-gets-a-new-translation" } ] }, "266": { "id": 266, "title": "The Storyteller", "author": "Evan Turk", "text": "

In the Kingdom of Morocco, the last storyteller sits in a Great Square by a clear fountain. A little boy comes looking for water, and the last storyteller tells him a tale of how long, long ago (as all good tales begin) there were many fountains, and many storytellers. Evan Turk illustrates his folktale with beautiful, otherworldly images. This is a children’s book, sure, but I’m recommending it for anyone who thirsts for good stories. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "staff picks", "identity & culture", "for art lovers" ], "reviewers": [ "Rebecca Hersher" ], "isbn": "1481435183", "seamus": 499338375, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781481435185, "bookshop": 9781481435185, "cover": "1481435183", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781481435185", "isbn10": "1481435183", "links": [] }, "267": { "id": 267, "title": "The Summer Before The War: A Novel", "author": "Helen Simonson", "text": "

Helen Simonson is back after Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand with The Summer Before the War, a comedy of provincial manners that rivals her first in the charm department. In the Sussex countryside just before the U.K. enters World War I, few Brits have an inkling of the changes that will befall them — their rural realm is still a place of peace and quirky goings-on. Enter a clever aspiring writer, Beatrice Nash, who falls in with an eccentric local family. The contrast between pastoral peace and the violent chaos of war is what gives this delightful book its heft.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "historical fiction", "rather long", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jean Zimmerman" ], "isbn": "0812993101", "seamus": 471494597, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780812993103, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0812993101", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780812993103", "isbn10": "0812993101", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 267, "book": "The Summer Before The War: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Shadows Haunt A Lovely Season In 'Summer Before The War'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/24/471343375/shadows-haunt-a-lovely-season-in-summer-before-the-war" } ] }, "268": { "id": 268, "title": "The Sunlight Pilgrims", "author": "Jenni Fagan", "text": "

In the very near future, amid the worst winter in recorded history, civilization has begun to freeze solid. Stella is a 12-year-old transgender girl living in a trailer park in Scotland; her mother, Constance, refurbishes thrift-store finds to get by. Armed with this rich premise, Jenni Fagan succeeds in turning her sophomore novel, The Sunlight Pilgrims, into a vision of the apocalypse that’s witty, scathingly sweet and filled with tragic beauty — and one that stares unflinchingly at the sometimes horrifying, sometimes liberating power of change.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "identity & culture", "family matters", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "isbn": "0553418874", "seamus": 485899008, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780553418873, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0553418874", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780553418873", "isbn10": "0553418874", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 268, "book": "The Sunlight Pilgrims", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Sunlight Pilgrims' Is More Than Just A Chilling Tale Of Climate Change", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/26/485864506/sunlight-pilgrims-is-more-than-just-a-chilling-tale-of-climate-change" } ] }, "269": { "id": 269, "title": "The Theoretical Foot", "author": "M.F.K. Fisher", "text": "

Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher is not just the greatest American food writer who’s ever played the game — she’s one of our greatest writers, period. And The Theoretical Foot (a forgotten manuscript that languished in a file cabinet until it was published this year) is a lost-and-found treasure. It’s a loosely fictionalized version of her romance with the artist Dillwyn Parrish — and, like an episode of The Real World: Pre-War Switzerland, it focuses on nothing more than a few days of perfect, uncorrupted youth in a house overlooking Lake Geneva, filled with food and friends and the small intrigues that come when the most significant things in the world are a lingering glance, the lighting of a cigarette or the flavor of gin on someone else’s lips.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "cookbooks & food" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "isbn": "1619026147", "seamus": 466288141, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781619026148, "bookshop": 9781619026148, "cover": "1619026147", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781619026148", "isbn10": "1619026147", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 269, "book": "The Theoretical Foot", "source": "NPR", "text": "M.F.K. Fisher Conjured Good Times That Couldn't Last", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/14/463862119/m-f-k-fisher-conjured-good-times-that-couldnt-last" } ] }, "270": { "id": 270, "title": "The Trespasser: A Novel", "author": "Tana French", "text": "

If you’re familiar with Tana French’s mysteries, I can probably just stop here and tell you her new one is called The Trespasser, so you can hop off the Internet and go buy it. Such are the pleasures of French’s books, a series of crime novels about the Dublin Murder Squad that require the reader to disappear into them immediately upon acquisition. If you’ve never read them, I’m jealous. Each book in the series is narrated by a different detective from the squad, which skews the perspective in a delicious way. This one is about Antoinette Conway, who is solving a murder with her partner Stephen Moran (he narrated the last book). The death of a pretty blond girl with a fake tan seems like a no-brainer, but French is too devilish a plotter to believe your first, second or even fifth instinct. All the mysteries by Tana French are worth your time; but this one is my favorite of all six.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "isbn": "0670026336", "seamus": 498413621, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780670026333, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0670026336", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780670026333", "isbn10": "0670026336", "links": [] }, "271": { "id": 271, "title": "The Ultimate Ambition In The Arts Of Erudition: A Compendium Of Knowledge From The Classical Islamic World", "author": "Shihab al-Din al-Nuwayri, translated by Elias Muhanna", "text": "

When Shihab al-Din al-Nuwayri wrote The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition in the 14th century — a work 15 years in the making — it comprised 33 volumes regarding the cosmos, naturalism, human nature and a brief history of the world. Don’t worry, this edition is judiciously cut down to a single volume; however, thanks to lyrical editing and translation from Elias Muhanna, it’s a marvelous glimpse of a moment in time. Romantic advice, red squirrels and the most renowned fruit in Basra: This is a book meant to savor.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "let’s talk about sex", "identity & culture" ], "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "isbn": "0143107488", "seamus": 490367567, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780143107484, "bookshop": 9780143107484, "cover": "0143107488", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780143107484", "isbn10": "0143107488", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 271, "book": "The Ultimate Ambition In The Arts Of Erudition: A Compendium Of Knowledge From The Classical Islamic World", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Beautiful Edition Of The Abridged 'Erudition'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/29/490101727/a-beautiful-edition-of-the-abridged-erudition" } ] }, "272": { "id": 272, "title": "The Underground Railroad: A Novel", "author": "Colson Whitehead", "text": "

What if the Underground Railroad, rather than being a metaphor, had been a sooty, clanking reality running through a network of tunnels dug by enslaved people? That’s the premise of Colson Whitehead’s brilliant Underground Railroad, surely the novel of the year. As he did in his singular 1999 debut, The Intuitionist, Whitehead imagines an alternative past that hews close to historical facts, but also ingeniously riffs on them. The plot focuses on Cora, an escaped slave who takes a series of harrowing rides on the Underground Railroad, only to find herself traveling further away from freedom and deeper into the mystery of American racism.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "isbn": "0385542364", "seamus": 489171723, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780385542364, "bookshop": 9780385542364, "cover": "0385542364", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780385542364", "isbn10": "0385542364", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 272, "book": "The Underground Railroad: A Novel", "source": "NHPR", "text": " 'Word Of Mouth': In Conversation With Authors Colson Whitehead & Ben Winters", "url": "http://nhpr.org/post/conversation-colson-whitehead-ben-winters" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 272, "book": "The Underground Railroad: A Novel", "source": "WUNC", "text": "Colson Whitehead Reimagines 'The Underground Railroad'", "url": "http://wunc.org/post/colson-whitehead-reimagines-underground-railroad#stream/0" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 272, "book": "The Underground Railroad: A Novel", "source": "WAMU", "text": "Colson Whitehead On The Importance Of Historical Fiction In Tumultuous Times", "url": "http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2016-09-29/colson-whitehead-on-the-import-of-historic-fiction-in-tumultuous-times" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 272, "book": "The Underground Railroad: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Underground Railroad' Traces The Terrible Wounds Of Slavery", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/09/489208871/underground-railroad-traces-the-terrible-wounds-of-slavery" } ] }, "273": { "id": 273, "title": "The Vanishing Velázquez: A 19th Century Bookseller's Obsession With A Lost Masterpiece", "author": "Laura Cumming", "text": "

Oh, to love anything as much as Laura Cumming loves Diego Velázquez. *The Vanishing Velázquez * follows a Victorian bookseller who acquires a painting that consumes him and then disappears; it’s part detective story, part meditation on the nature of art and its ability to transform us in very strange ways. But Cumming’s ineffable tenderness toward the painter elevates this to paean. By the time she describes bookseller John Snare — “He did not see the painting as a thing apart, remote from his own existence; it filled his mind as if it were a living being” — we know she is describing herself, too.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "seriously great writing", "for art lovers", "it’s all geek to me" ], "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "isbn": "147676218X", "seamus": 498441490, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781476762180, "cover": "147676218X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781476762180", "isbn10": "147676218X", "links": [] }, "274": { "id": 274, "title": "The Vegetarian: A Novel", "author": "Han Kang", "text": "

Han Kang’s slim and surreal book won the Man Booker International Prize for fiction this year. Yeong-hye has a bloody and frightening dream that causes her to become a vegetarian, to the shock of her husband and family. Soon she refuses to eat, and she is committed to a psychiatric hospital where she does handstands in the hallway so that she can become a tree. Yeong-hye’s determination leads her to madness, and her enlightenment brings her closer to death. The Vegetarian reads like a modern telling of “The Yellow Wallpaper” — so if you are looking for a literary fever dream, this one’s for you.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "rather short" ], "reviewers": [ "Jordana Hochman" ], "isbn": "1101906111", "seamus": 498389041, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101906118, "bookshop": 9781101906118, "cover": "1101906111", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101906118", "isbn10": "1101906111", "links": [] }, "275": { "id": 275, "title": "The Wangs Vs. The World", "author": "Jade Chang", "text": "

The setup for Jade Chang’s debut novel, The Wangs vs. the World, is so rich in conflict and pathos, it’s hard to realize at first that it’s a comedy. Not that she takes too long to get the hilarity rolling. Revolving around a Chinese-American family on a cross-country roadtrip after losing its fortune in the crash of 2008, the book pulls no tragicomic punches as it re-imagines the immigrant experience — and the American experience — as a 75-mile-per-hour parade of humor, heartbreak and soul-deep revelation.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "isbn": "0544734092", "seamus": 496454488, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780544734098, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0544734092", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780544734098", "isbn10": "0544734092", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 275, "book": "The Wangs Vs. The World", "source": "NPR", "text": "We Did It For The LOLs: 100 Favorite Funny Books", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2019/08/20/752044550/we-did-it-for-the-lols-100-favorite-funny-books" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 275, "book": "The Wangs Vs. The World", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Wangs' Is Sparkling Family Travelogue — With Teeth", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/05/496446345/the-wangs-is-sparkling-family-travelogue-with-teeth" } ] }, "276": { "id": 276, "title": "The White Donkey: Terminal Lance", "author": "Maximilian Uriarte", "text": "

Over the past few years, American veterans of the war in Iraq have published quite a few works of fiction that focus on the moral quandaries of soldiers and their struggles for redemption. Maximillian Uriarte’s graphic novel, The White Donkey, stands out from the rest in that it is told from the perspective of a simple infantryman, explores the psychological costs of combat, and confronts the discomfort that comes from encounters with civilians in an occupied country. The artwork is clean and sober, with a distinct color palette for different places and times. A fresh and affecting book.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "comics & graphic novels", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side" ], "reviewers": [ "Laila Lalami" ], "isbn": "0316362832", "seamus": 489516316, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316362832, "bookshop": 9780316362832, "cover": "0316362832", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316362832", "isbn10": "0316362832", "links": [] }, "277": { "id": 277, "title": "The Widow: A Novel", "author": "Fiona Barton", "text": "

Looking at crimes from a different angle has become something of a trope these days, but Fiona Barton’s years as a British journalist make this debut novel — told from a reporter’s point of view — assured and compelling. That’s no small feat, given that both the crime and the death of the man convicted of it happen by page three. What remains is the perspective of his widow, and Barton understands the power of a previously silent voice — as well as how frustrating it is when that voice won’t speak up. She knows that the lies we tell ourselves can be more devastating than those we tell others.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Bethanne Patrick" ], "isbn": "1101990260", "seamus": 467124867, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101990261, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101990260", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101990261", "isbn10": "1101990260", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 277, "book": "The Widow: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Lies We Tell Ourselves Propel 'The Widow'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/18/467124835/lies-we-tell-ourselves-propel-the-widow" } ] }, "278": { "id": 278, "title": "The Winged Histories", "author": "Sofia Samatar", "text": "

A companion novel to Samatar’s A Stranger in Olondria, this is a faceted jewel of a book that looks at the land of Olondria from the perspective of four of its women: One is a soldier, fighting a war of independence; one is a scholar, musing on sectarianism, violence and loneliness; one is a poet, singing her people’s songs, and one is a socialite struggling to survive. Their lives cut across each other like scripture on a stone, written in stunningly beautiful language that left me breathless.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "isbn": "1618731149", "seamus": 470563615, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781618731142, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1618731149", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781618731142", "isbn10": "1618731149", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 278, "book": "The Winged Histories", "source": "NPR", "text": "With Beauty And Wonder, 'The Winged Histories' Soars", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/16/469700127/with-beauty-and-wonder-the-winged-histories-soars" } ] }, "279": { "id": 279, "title": "The Wonder", "author": "Emma Donoghue", "text": "

For Emma Donoghue, big stories thrive in small spaces. The type of setting Donoghue made her signature in 2010’s Room is one she returns to in The Wonder. Set in 19th century Ireland, The Wonder explores the relationship between a young girl and her nurse, who are both confined to a bedroom. Locals call the girl “the living marvel” because she doesn’t eat, yet seems “unchanged.” The girl, Anna, says she is living on manna from heaven, and the nurse is there to verify her claim. Donoghue engages mysteries of faith and doubt without sacrificing the lyricism of her language or the suspense of her storyline. Anna may or may not be a “living marvel,” but The Wonder certainly is.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "historical fiction", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "isbn": "0316393878", "seamus": 494917767, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316393874, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0316393878", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316393874", "isbn10": "0316393878", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 279, "book": "The Wonder", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Tight, Intense Drama Unfurls Within The Confines Of A Sick Room In 'The Wonder'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/03/496402843/a-tight-intense-drama-unfurls-within-the-confines-of-a-sick-room-in-the-wonder" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 279, "book": "The Wonder", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Wonder' Is A Hard-To-Believe Tale Of Belief", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/09/22/494916738/the-wonder-is-a-hard-to-believe-tale-of-belief" } ] }, "280": { "id": 280, "title": "The Year Of The Runaways: A Novel", "author": "Sunjeev Sahota", "text": "

If you think literature is at its best when it combines the political with the personal, this is the perfect book for you. Sunjeev Sahota humanizes harrowing news headlines in the most intimate way; stories about migrant workers and so-called “Untouchables” are carefully captured with painterly details and empathy. The characters — three Indian men and a British-Indian woman they meet as they emigrate from India to England — lodged in my brain and stayed there, months after I put this book down to engage with others that I soon forgot. This book is best for a particular kind of reader who can withstand unrelentingly grim portrayals of the challenges its characters confront. It’s not an easy read, intellectually or emotionally, but it’s an important story about duty and love, beautifully told. Do not expect this author to spoon-feed you. The first page will likely contain words that are not in your vocabulary. My advice, just keep reading …

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "identity & culture", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "seriously great writing", "staff picks", "rather long" ], "reviewers": [ "Ellen Silva" ], "isbn": "1101946105", "seamus": 476070719, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101946107, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101946105", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101946107", "isbn10": "1101946105", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 280, "book": "The Year Of The Runaways: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'I Want The Pages To Turn': Librarian Nancy Pearl's Summer Reading List", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/06/29/534709986/i-want-the-pages-to-turn-librarian-nancy-pearls-summer-reading-list" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 280, "book": "The Year Of The Runaways: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Weeping For All That Is Lost: A Harsh Migration Out Of India", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/30/476070048/weeping-for-all-that-is-lost-a-harsh-migration-out-of-india" } ] }, "281": { "id": 281, "title": "The Yid", "author": "Paul Goldberg", "text": "

Paul Goldberg’s audacious first novel begins after midnight on Feb. 24, 1953, when a state security officer and two soldiers in a Black Maria — a car used to transport prisoners through the night — attempt to arrest a Red Army veteran and onetime Moscow State Jewish Theater actor named Solomon Shimonovich Levinson. When they arrive, Levinson performs for them as if in a vaudeville skit, first baffling his antagonists, then killing all three in a theatrical stunt he calls a “pirouette with smallswords,” before gathering an “ensemble of actors” and setting off in the Black Maria on a journey to assassinate Stalin. Goldberg, a Russian emigre to the U.S. in 1973 whose parents’ names were on Stalin’s lists, draws upon historic fact in this tragicomic tour de force.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "no biz like show biz", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jane Ciabattari" ], "isbn": "1250079039", "seamus": 464923010, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781250079039, "bookshop": 9781250079039, "cover": "1250079039", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781250079039", "isbn10": "1250079039", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 281, "book": "The Yid", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Yid' Blends Soviet Fact And Fiction", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/03/463861313/the-yid-blends-soviet-fact-and-fiction" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 281, "book": "The Yid", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Yid' Puts A Brash, Screwball Spin On Soviet Anti-Semitism ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/02/465262985/the-yid-puts-a-brash-screwball-spin-on-soviet-anti-semitism" } ] }, "282": { "id": 282, "title": "They All Saw A Cat", "author": "Brendan Wenzel", "text": "

“Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” is a tough lesson to get across to the under 7 set; they’re fairly certain they are the center of the universe. But Brendan Wenzel’s stunning picture book stealthily embraces that theme with a sense of secret and wonder. As a brown tabby moves through the world on soft paws, readers see the cat through the eyes of other characters: a boy sees a pet, a fox sees a meal, a flea sees a forest of fur, and a mouse sees a terrifying monster — but they all see a cat. This simple, satisfying book was a great jumping-off point for discussions with my kids about how we all perceive the world in different ways. (For ages 3 to 6)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads" ], "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "isbn": "1452150133", "seamus": 498693191, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781452150130, "bookshop": 9781452150130, "cover": "1452150133", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781452150130", "isbn10": "1452150133", "links": [] }, "283": { "id": 283, "title": "They May Not Mean To, But They Do: A Novel", "author": "Cathleen Schine", "text": "

Cathleen Schine’s charming novel takes a wise, witty look at a potentially unfunny subject: the upset that occurs when the seesaw of care tilts from elderly parents to their grown offspring. Recently widowed 86-year-old Joy Bergman is exhausted, bereft and “hanging on by a bourgeois thread” after the grueling death of her husband from Alzheimer’s. Clinging to her independence, she strives to reassure her well-meaning children that she’s OK. The novel plays the situation – a fridge filled with what look like petri dishes; a suitor who alarms Joy’s family even more than the piles of unpaid bills — for a combination of mirth and pathos. But it’s Schine’s sensitivity to the losses and fears of both generations that really hits home.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "funny stuff", "book club ideas" ], "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "isbn": "0374280134", "seamus": 480659914, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780374280130, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0374280134", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780374280130", "isbn10": "0374280134", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 283, "book": "They May Not Mean To, But They Do: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Novelist Grapples With The Conflicted Feelings Of Caring For Aging Parents", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/18/486461000/novelist-grapples-with-the-conflicted-feelings-of-caring-for-aging-parents" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 283, "book": "They May Not Mean To, But They Do: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'They May Not Mean To, But They Do' Is A Sparkling, Sad Family Affair", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/29/483022887/sparkling-and-sad-they-may-not-mean-to-but-they-do-is-a-family-affair" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 283, "book": "They May Not Mean To, But They Do: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'They May Not Mean To' Is A Wry, Warm Look At The Indignities Of Aging", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/08/480478013/they-may-not-mean-to-is-a-wry-warm-look-at-the-indignities-of-aging" } ] }, "284": { "id": 284, "title": "Things From The Flood", "author": "Simon Stålenhag", "text": "

Last year, Simon Stalenhag’s beautiful art book, Tales from the Loop, gave us a peek into the alternate history of a small town in Sweden full of snow, distantly glowing lights and giant robots. This year, we have Things from the Flood — a darker sequel to that mind-blowing first visit to the Swedish suburbs where time, space and memory were altered by “The Loop.” If anything, this second installment is even more affecting, offering a more complete narrative backbone, and a vision of the machine-haunted world that came after the collapse of The Loop. No one who spends any time traveling in Stalenhag’s universe comes out the same on the other side. The words will mess with your head, but the illustrations (of the rusted shells of robots, floppy disks, suburban tract housing and portable stereos bubbling with horrible life) will climb right inside you and screw with your dreams.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "isbn": "1624650465", "seamus": 501465452, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781624650468, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1624650465", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781624650468", "isbn10": "1624650465", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 284, "book": "Things From The Flood", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Things From The Flood' Is Gorgeously Creepy And Strangely Human", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/11/10/500419641/things-from-the-flood-is-gorgeously-creepy-and-strangely-human" } ] }, "285": { "id": 285, "title": "This Census-Taker", "author": "China Miéville", "text": "

This Census-Taker is the book you read when you’re looking for something that will haunt your dreams for weeks (or months) after you put it down. It is a grown-up fairy tale with a black and murderous heart, about a boy convinced that his father is a murderer. One of China Miéville’s greatest strengths is his ability to see his imaginary worlds through the eyes of his characters, not of his readers. The boy is young. He understands things as a child does — which is to say not really at all. But his is the only voice we have to hold to in a broken world filled with decaying machines, feral orphan children and war. This is Miéville at his most sparse, his most controlled and restrained.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "family matters", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "isbn": "1101967323", "seamus": 461632167, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101967324, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101967323", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101967324", "isbn10": "1101967323", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 285, "book": "This Census-Taker", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'This Census-Taker' Is A Quiet Book With A Murderous Heart", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/06/461419132/this-census-taker-is-a-quiet-book-with-a-murderous-heart" } ] }, "286": { "id": 286, "title": "Thomas Jefferson Dreams Of Sally Hemings: A Novel", "author": "Stephen O'Connor", "text": "

Everyone knows the story — or thinks they do — of Thomas Jefferson and his enslaved paramour, Sally Hemings. Stephen O’Connor gives us a vision of how that relationship began (yes, in sexual assault) and, given the obvious inequities in the relationship, grew into something approaching a meeting of minds. His Sally is sharply astute, and sees Jefferson more clearly than he sees himself. Makes you wonder what their relationship would have been like if they’d met today.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "for history lovers", "rather long", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Karen Grigsby Bates" ], "isbn": "0525429964", "seamus": 472187376, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780525429968, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0525429964", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780525429968", "isbn10": "0525429964", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 286, "book": "Thomas Jefferson Dreams Of Sally Hemings: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Agonizing Collision Of Love And Slavery In 'Thomas Jefferson'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/06/471619275/the-agonizing-collision-of-love-and-slavery-in-thomas-jefferson" } ] }, "287": { "id": 287, "title": "Thunder Boy Jr.", "author": "Sherman Alexie, illustrated by Yuyi Morales", "text": "

Thunder Boy Smith Jr. loves his dad but hates having the same name. Or, rather, he hates that since people call his father “Big Thunder,” they call him “Little Thunder.” He doesn’t want to be a little anything, “like a burp or a fart.” Brought to life with Yuyi Morales’ warm, energetic illustrations, Sherman Alexie’s picture book is refreshingly contemporary, radiant with emotion and packed with humor. It’s a loving and empowered story of a young Native American boy of today. (A note for parents: If this book inspires your child to play with Native American naming traditions, you may want to talk with them about why that can be offensive. There’s more about that issue here.) (For ages 2 to 5)

", "tags": [ "funny stuff", "kids’ books", "identity & culture" ], "reviewers": [ "Cynthia Leitich Smith" ], "isbn": "0316013722", "seamus": 478225637, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316013727, "bookshop": 9780316013727, "cover": "0316013722", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316013727", "isbn10": "0316013722", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 287, "book": "Thunder Boy Jr.", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pack These Pages: 7 Professional Booksellers Select Your Summer Reading", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/02/486450408/pack-these-pages-7-professional-booksellers-select-your-summer-reading" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 287, "book": "Thunder Boy Jr.", "source": "NPR", "text": "Sherman Alexie On His New Kids' Book And The Angst Of Being A 'Jr.'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/05/23/478223827/sherman-alexie-on-his-new-kids-book-and-the-angst-of-being-a-jr" } ] }, "288": { "id": 288, "title": "Today Will Be Different", "author": "Maria Semple", "text": "

If you loved Where’d You Go, Bernadette, let’s be friends! Also, look, a new Maria Semple novel! You’ll enjoy this one in a single day, which is significant since the book’s action takes place in a 24-hour period. It reads fast and you’ll laugh aplenty alongside its difficult heroine, whom the author draws so sharply you’ll wince. Eleanor Flood is a beleaguered TV writer with a husband and son — and her life is spinning out of control. She begins the day with the mantra of the title, which I think we can all recognize: Who hasn’t made promises to live life differently and do more yoga, only to give it all up by breakfast? Eleanor’s day, of course, goes haywire, and while it has some good old-fashioned laughs, it’s also serious about its message of reinvention, and forgiveness.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "funny stuff", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "isbn": "0316403431", "seamus": 496062635, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316403436, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0316403431", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316403436", "isbn10": "0316403431", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 288, "book": "Today Will Be Different", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Today Will Be Different' Tackles Parenting Fatigue And Middle-Aged Marriage", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/12/06/504549855/today-will-be-different-tackles-parenting-fatigue-and-middle-aged-marriage" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 288, "book": "Today Will Be Different", "source": "NPR", "text": "Moving, Memorable 'Today Will Be Different' Balances Humor And Tragedy", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/04/496446313/moving-memorable-today-will-be-different-balances-humor-and-tragedy" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 288, "book": "Today Will Be Different", "source": "NPR", "text": "Overwhelmed Mom Seeks 'A Basic Amount Of Dignity' In 'Today Will Be Different'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/10/02/496062584/overwhelmed-mom-seeks-a-basic-amount-of-dignity-in-today-will-be-different" } ] }, "289": { "id": 289, "title": "Trouble Boys: The True Story Of The Replacements", "author": "Bob Mehr", "text": "

In a tome the size of a hardcover Bible, Bob Mehr charts the births, deaths and small resurrections of Minneapolitan rock icons The Replacements. It is the sort of music journalism that reminds you why people bother with music journalism in the first place: Mehr gives us tales of granite-jawed, precocious boys getting drunk, commercially successful and self-destructive through voluminous reportage with seemingly everyone who ever crossed their path.

\n

For a band that attracts a cultish level of adoration, this is a welcome quality. Mehr fortifies the book against the typical melodrama of the music biography with a willingness to be fully absent from the work. Objectively, thoroughly and tragically, he shows us trouble.

", "tags": [ "for music lovers", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "no biz like show biz" ], "reviewers": [ "Mina Tavakoli" ], "isbn": "0306818795", "seamus": 498698767, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780306818790, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0306818795", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780306818790", "isbn10": "0306818795", "links": [] }, "290": { "id": 290, "title": "Umami", "author": "Laia Jufresa, translated by Sophie Hughes", "text": "

Umami is a debut novel that I am afraid has been criminally under-read, a slim book about community and loss that somehow doesn’t feel as heavy as it could. Told from multiple perspectives within a building complex in Mexico City, it feels as if the early chapters are short stories with little in common, but Laia Jufresa magically layers them on top of each other, illuminating the secret sorrows that connect them all. It’s beautifully translated by Sophie Hughes, a tall order because of the different kinds of language all of the characters use. In the end, Umami isn’t resolved in the ways a traditional novel would be — but it’s satisfying and moving.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "isbn": "1780748914", "seamus": 498413008, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781780748917, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1780748914", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781780748917", "isbn10": "1780748914", "links": [] }, "291": { "id": 291, "title": "Underground Airlines", "author": "Ben H. Winters", "text": "

Ben Winters’ work of alternate history imagines the Civil War never happened. Instead, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated before he took office and, in an act of compromise, four states were allowed to maintain slavery. The other states all agreed that any escaped “Persons Bound to Labor” must be returned to their corporate plantation. That’s where Victor comes in: He’s a bounty hunter who’s adept at his job because he’s black.

\n

The world Winters conjures up is chillingly credible. As a white author, he has imagined himself into the consciousness of Victor. These days, that’s a controversial move, but the exceptional novel that results seems justification enough for this act of creative crossing.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "isbn": "0316261246", "seamus": 484067521, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316261241, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0316261246", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316261241", "isbn10": "0316261246", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 291, "book": "Underground Airlines", "source": "NHPR", "text": "In the Spotlight With Authors Colson Whitehead & Ben Winters", "url": "http://nhpr.org/post/conversation-colson-whitehead-ben-winters" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 291, "book": "Underground Airlines", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Underground Airlines' Presents A Scarily Realistic Alternate History", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/07/484012349/underground-airlines-presents-a-scarily-realistic-alternate-history" } ] }, "292": { "id": 292, "title": "Urban Forests: A Natural History Of Trees And People In The American Cityscape", "author": "Jill Jonnes", "text": "

Next time you’re outside, look up. Trees are so ubiquitous that it’s easy to take them for granted. But Urban Forests makes you stop and pay attention to the “living landmarks” standing tall in America’s cities. From Thomas Jefferson’s time to present day, Jill Jonnes explores the essential roles trees play in urban centers — filtering air, providing habitat, offering shade, calming nerves and more. I loved this book because it’s both for history lovers and for tree devotees. It’s a good read — best done under the canopy of your favorite tree.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "staff picks", "science!", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Jeanine Herbst" ], "isbn": "0670015660", "seamus": 498575707, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780670015665, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0670015660", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780670015665", "isbn10": "0670015660", "links": [] }, "293": { "id": 293, "title": "Utopia For Realists: The Case For A Universal Basic Income, Open Borders, And A 15-hour Workweek", "author": "Rutger Bregman, translated by Elizabeth Manton", "text": "

In a political season full of grim portent, Rutger Bregman’s rigorous optimism is as refreshing and exhilarating as a Dutch-brewed iced coffee. Could global technocapitalism really transition toward offering open borders, universal basic income and a 15-hour workweek? Whether or not he convinces you of the details, Bregman makes a case for actively imagining a future we’d like to see — not just the futures we fear.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas", "staff picks" ], "reviewers": [ "Anya Kamenetz" ], "isbn": "9082520303", "seamus": 502458774, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "9082520303", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9789082520309", "isbn10": "9082520303", "links": [] }, "294": { "id": 294, "title": "Version Control: A Novel", "author": "Dexter Palmer", "text": "

If you share my anxiety about the imminence of self-driving cars (let’s be honest; it freaks me out), Dexter Palmer has already got your number. Version Control is hard to classify: science fiction, literary fiction, thriller. It takes place in a recognizable near-future; our experiments are its reality. Rebecca Wright is married to a physicist who is endeavoring to create a “causality violation device.” (He hates when you call it a “time machine.”) Rebecca’s growing unease with the world around her clearly relates to that device, those self-driving cars and the Wrights’ strange yet lovely son — but I’ll let you find out the rest.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "rather long", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Alison MacAdam" ], "isbn": "0307907597", "seamus": 467413651, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780307907592, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0307907597", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780307907592", "isbn10": "0307907597", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 294, "book": "Version Control: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Version Control' Is A Dizzying Elevation Of The Time-Travel Tale", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/26/467133235/version-control-is-a-dizzying-elevation-of-the-time-travel-tale" } ] }, "295": { "id": 295, "title": "Vision Volume 1: Little Worse Than A Man", "author": "Tom King, illustrated by Gabriel Hernandez Walta", "text": "

Writer Tom King has taken the Marvel Universe’s resident robot-with-a-heart-of-gold and crafted a smart, funny, deeply emotional and slyly trenchant examination of the all-too-human need to fit in. In the series, the Vision constructs a happy suburban family for himself and moves to suburban Arlington, Va., where their presence stokes bigotry and fear. Gabriel Hernandez Walta’s deceptively simple art pivots deftly with the book’s tonal transitions from light comedy to heart-wrenching tragedy. A hugely impressive series with something to say.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "family matters", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "the dark side" ], "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "isbn": "0785196579", "seamus": 488892134, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "0785196579", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780785196570", "isbn10": "0785196579", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 295, "book": "Vision Volume 1: Little Worse Than A Man", "source": "NPR", "text": "Let's Get Graphic: 100 Favorite Comics And Graphic Novels", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2017/07/12/533862948/lets-get-graphic-100-favorite-comics-and-graphic-novels" } ] }, "296": { "id": 296, "title": "Ways To Disappear", "author": "Idra Novey", "text": "

Idra Novey’s smart, beguilingly playful debut novel is a fast-paced noirish literary mystery that explores the way a writer’s words can both hide and reveal deep truths. When Beatriz Yagoda, a famously unpredictable, cigar-smoking, 60-something Brazilian writer goes missing, her devoted young American translator drops everything — including a suffocatingly dull boyfriend — to fly down to Rio to search for her. In the process, the young woman finds adventure, danger, unexpected love, long-buried secrets, and lessons about both the importance of close reading and what makes a satisfying life.

", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "fiction", "family matters" ], "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "isbn": "0316298492", "seamus": 465442622, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316298490, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0316298492", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316298490", "isbn10": "0316298492", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 296, "book": "Ways To Disappear", "source": "KMUW", "text": " 'Marginalia' Interview With Idra Novey", "url": "http://kmuw.org/post/marginalia-idra-novey" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 296, "book": "Ways To Disappear", "source": "NPR", "text": "Scouring Brazil For A Celebrated Novelist", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/04/463861933/scouring-brazil-for-a-celebrated-novelist" } ] }, "297": { "id": 297, "title": "What Belongs To You: A Novel", "author": "Garth Greenwell", "text": "

I sat down to read a chapter of What Belongs to You one afternoon and ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting, hunched over my kitchen table until dark. Garth Greenwell’s devastatingly beautiful novel about a gay American expat in Bulgaria and his on-again, off-again relationship with a sex worker named Mitko has been one of the year’s breakout hits, and for good reason. It’s a virtuosic, tender exploration of loneliness and desire, with sentences so breathtaking you’ll find yourself returning to them over and over again.

", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Carmen Maria Machado" ], "isbn": "1250117895", "seamus": 498427739, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781250117892, "bookshop": 9781250117892, "cover": "1250117895", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781250117892", "isbn10": "1250117895", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 297, "book": "What Belongs To You: A Novel", "source": "KAJX", "text": " 'First Draft' Interview With Garth Greenwell", "url": "http://aspenpublicradio.org/post/first-draft-garth-greenwell" } ] }, "298": { "id": 298, "title": "What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours", "author": "Helen Oyeyemi", "text": "

Like the title itself, the stories in this collection are poetic and puzzling. Keys — what we use to open doors, start cars and, more metaphorically, open hearts and minds — are the connective thread. One story is even called “If a Book is Locked There’s Probably a Good Reason For That Don’t You Think.” Get ready to tumble through the doors of this beautifully challenging and satisfying collection.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "staff picks", "book club ideas" ], "reviewers": [ "Shannon Rhoades" ], "isbn": "0143197835", "seamus": 469531258, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780143197836, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0143197835", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780143197836", "isbn10": "0143197835", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 298, "book": "What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours", "source": "NPR", "text": "Mysterious Keys Unlock Surreal Landscapes In 'What Is Yours Is Not Yours'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/23/471362915/mysterious-keys-unlock-surreal-landscapes-in-what-is-yours-is-not-yours" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 298, "book": "What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours", "source": "NPR", "text": "Keys Are The Key To 'What Is Not Yours'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/21/470878476/keys-are-the-key-to-what-is-not-yours" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 298, "book": "What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'What Is Not Yours' Is Flawless", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/03/09/468941989/what-is-not-yours-is-flawless" } ] }, "299": { "id": 299, "title": "When Breath Becomes Air", "author": "Paul Kalanithi", "text": "

Neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi received a diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer when he was just 36. He had less than two years to live, and in that time he had a baby girl with his wife — and he wrote this book. When Breath Becomes Air is about facing death, but, oh, what life bursts from its pages. Profound and moving, it is a gift.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "family matters", "staff picks", "science!" ], "reviewers": [ "Shannon Rhoades" ], "isbn": "081298840X", "seamus": 463803406, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780812988406, "bookshop": 9780812988406, "cover": "081298840X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780812988406", "isbn10": "081298840X", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 299, "book": "When Breath Becomes Air", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Facing Death, A Young Neurosurgeon Celebrated Life", "url": "http://www.wnyc.org/story/when-breath-becomes-air/" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 299, "book": "When Breath Becomes Air", "source": "NPR", "text": "Inside A Doctor's Mind At The End Of His Life", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/02/12/466189316/inside-a-doctors-mind-at-the-end-of-his-life" } ] }, "300": { "id": 300, "title": "When The Sea Turned To Silver", "author": "Grace Lin", "text": "

When the Sea Turned to Silver reads like a modern-day classic. Quiet Pinmei rushes to find her kidnapped grandmother, known as the Storyteller, and her adventures build to epic proportions. Chinese folktales effortlessly combine with the young girl’s journey as she meets with unforgettable characters who help her solve a mystery that could lead to her grandmother’s salvation. Beautiful art accentuates this fantasy, but it’s author Grace Lin’s words that prove she herself is a master storyteller. (For ages 9 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "identity & culture", "mysteries & thrillers", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "isbn": "031612592X", "seamus": 498681253, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316125925, "bookshop": 9780316125925, "cover": "031612592X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316125925", "isbn10": "031612592X", "links": [] }, "301": { "id": 301, "title": "Where Am I Now?: True Stories Of Girlhood And Accidental Fame", "author": "Mara Wilson", "text": "

You might know her best as Matilda, or the youngest daughter in Mrs. Doubtfire, but Mara Wilson is all grown up now. In her new memoir, Where Am I Now? she thoughtfully traces her journey from child actress to Hollywood dropout to average college student (with a slightly above-average Twitter following). Wilson is uncommonly self-aware as she reflects on losing her mother to cancer, no longer passing as “cute” in Hollywood and learning to let go of — and thank — the iconic character of Matilda. In doing so, she also answers another question: Who is she now? She’s a writer.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "no biz like show biz" ], "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "isbn": "0143128221", "seamus": 493290689, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780143128229, "bookshop": 9780143128229, "cover": "0143128221", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780143128229", "isbn10": "0143128221", "links": [] }, "302": { "id": 302, "title": "Where It Hurts", "author": "Reed Farrel Coleman", "text": "

Where It Hurts is the first in what promises to be a new, standout series by veteran mystery writer Reed Farrel Coleman. Coleman makes standard hard-boiled elements seem as fresh as a newly peroxided blonde. His main character, Gus Murphy, is yet another ex-cop who has been chewed up by life. Gus’ son dies, his marriage falls apart and he finds numbness — and a job — at the Paragon Hotel on New York’s Long Island. But it isn’t long before Gus gets drawn into solving a murder. Along the way, he not only stirs up more violence but also stirs himself back to life.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "isbn": "039917303X", "seamus": 479393959, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780399173035, "bookshop": "", "cover": "039917303X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780399173035", "isbn10": "039917303X", "links": [] }, "303": { "id": 303, "title": "White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History Of Class In America", "author": "Nancy Isenberg", "text": "

As a British-born American citizen, I bought wholeheartedly into one of America’s founding myths: That Americans, through some rare good fortune, escaped the burdens of class that plagued mother England. In her brilliant new book White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, Nancy Isenberg shatters the illusion that, at least if you were white and male, you could achieve whatever you wanted in this vast new land of opportunity. Instead, Isenberg introduces us to the “lubbers,” the “clay-eaters,” the “crackers” — all the marginalized people who were shipped off to the Colonies, “simply to throw down manure and die in a vacuous muck.” Isenberg tells a fascinating story of the troubling pervasiveness of class throughout American history, and it’s a must read for anyone who wants to understand the role classism still plays in today’s politics.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "staff picks", "rather long", "the states we’re in" ], "reviewers": [ "Jane Greenhalgh" ], "isbn": "0670785970", "seamus": 498571177, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780670785971, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0670785970", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780670785971", "isbn10": "0670785970", "links": [] }, "304": { "id": 304, "title": "Why We Came To The City", "author": "Kristopher Jansma", "text": "

The second novel from Jansma follows a tightknit group of friends living in New York who are suddenly forced to confront mortality when one of them falls ill. The book is both a love note and a breakup letter to New York, and Jansma captures perfectly the way young people give themselves to the city, and what the city gives to — and takes from — them. It’s a heartfelt novel, tender and painful and cathartic all at once, and even if the characters belong to New York, the story belongs to us all.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "love & romance" ], "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "isbn": "0525426604", "seamus": 466328473, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780525426608, "bookshop": 9780525426608, "cover": "0525426604", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780525426608", "isbn10": "0525426604", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 304, "book": "Why We Came To The City", "source": "KMUW", "text": " 'Marginalia' Interview With Kristopher Jansma", "url": "http://kmuw.org/post/marginalia-kristopher-jansma" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 304, "book": "Why We Came To The City", "source": "NPR", "text": "What The Sitcoms Don't Tell You About New York City Friendships", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/02/15/463862414/what-the-sitcoms-dont-tell-you-about-new-york-city-friendships" } ] }, "305": { "id": 305, "title": "Wolf Hollow", "author": "Lauren Wolk", "text": "

In your lifetime as a reader, you have probably heard many books likened to Harper Lee’s classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, and you’ve probably been let down by most of them. Not all books with literary aspirations told from a child’s point of view are created equal. But when reviewers draw a parallel between Mockingbird and Lauren Wolk’s Wolf Hollow, they are being neither hyperbolic, nor lazy. They are merely doing justice to Wolk’s beautiful story about 11-year-old Annabelle and the year she spends terrorized by the town bully, attempting to protect the shell-shocked World War I veteran who has retreated to Annabelle’s corner of rural Pennsylvania to try and find himself again. (For ages 10 and up)

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "historical fiction", "kids’ books", "fiction", "seriously great writing" ], "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "isbn": "1101994827", "seamus": 498686345, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781101994825, "bookshop": 9781101994825, "cover": "1101994827", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781101994825", "isbn10": "1101994827", "links": [] }, "306": { "id": 306, "title": "Yashim Cooks Istanbul", "author": "Jason Goodwin", "text": "

Jason Goodwin writes the terrific Yashim detective series, about an intrepid sleuth chasing mysteries in 19th century Istanbul. To help him think — and because a man needs to eat — Investigator Yashim Togalu cooks while he puzzles over clues. The books are filled with scenes where Yashim is busily chopping garlic, drizzling olive oil and sauteing aubergines. Apparently, I’m not the only one who got hungry while reading: So many readers clamored for the recipes that Goodwin finally collected them in this glossy volume. And, really, how can you resist a cookbook that includes recipes for Assassin’s Steak Tartare, Sultan’s Ramadan Eggs and Ladies’ Thighs?

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "mysteries & thrillers", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Mary Louise Kelly" ], "isbn": "0957254016", "seamus": 498690082, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "0957254016", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780957254015", "isbn10": "0957254016", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 306, "book": "Yashim Cooks Istanbul", "source": "NPR", "text": "Assassin's Steak Tartare: Popular Detective Series Gets Its Own Cookbook", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/11/15/501588281/assassins-steak-tartare-popular-detective-series-gets-its-own-cookbook" } ] }, "307": { "id": 307, "title": "You Will Know Me", "author": "Megan Abbott", "text": "

There is a moment in this thriller/mystery/work of literary fiction (enough with the labels — it’s a good book, people!) when a mother discovers the diary of her teenage daughter, a star gymnast. Of course, she reads it. Wouldn’t you? How much does this mother know, or not know about her daughter? How much can we ever know about those closest to us? Author Megan Abbott will draw you in with plot — there’s a crime, a hit-and-run — and keep you reading with weightier questions.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "staff picks", "for sports lovers", "fiction" ], "reviewers": [ "Shannon Rhoades" ], "isbn": "031623107X", "seamus": 485899303, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9780316231077, "bookshop": 9780316231077, "cover": "031623107X", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9780316231077", "isbn10": "031623107X", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 307, "book": "You Will Know Me", "source": "NPR", "text": "Novel Explores The Fierce And Frenzied World Of Competitive Gymnastics", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/08/08/489194410/novel-explores-the-fierce-and-frenzied-world-of-competitive-gymnastics" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 307, "book": "You Will Know Me", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'You Will Know Me' Says No, You Won't", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/28/485865091/you-will-know-me-says-no-you-wont" } ] }, "308": { "id": 308, "title": "You'll Grow Out Of It", "author": "Jessi Klein", "text": "

As I read You’ll Grow Out of It, I kept saying to myself: “I’ve been there! This is my life!” In this smart, funny collection of essays, Jessi Klein describes disastrous wedding dress fittings, her dislike of baths, and why she still attends exercise classes, knowing full well she’ll never look like the instructor. Even when she tackles serious topics — including her struggles with infertility and ageism in Hollywood — Klein will keep you laughing.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "funny stuff", "let’s talk about sex", "staff picks", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "reviewers": [ "Natalie Friedman Winston" ], "isbn": "1455531189", "seamus": 485701020, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781455531189, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1455531189", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781455531189", "isbn10": "1455531189", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 308, "book": "You'll Grow Out Of It", "source": "NPR", "text": "We Did It For The LOLs: 100 Favorite Funny Books", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2019/08/20/752044550/we-did-it-for-the-lols-100-favorite-funny-books" }, { "year": 2016, "id": 308, "book": "You'll Grow Out Of It", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Schumer' Writer Jessi Klein On Barbies, Ageism And Pumping At The Emmys", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/07/12/485633729/schumer-writer-jessi-klein-on-barbies-ageism-and-pumping-at-the-emmys" } ] }, "309": { "id": 309, "title": "Zero K", "author": "Don DeLillo", "text": "

First, a word of warning: I’m biased. As a longtime evangelist for Don DeLillo’s novels, I brought to Zero K some baked-in affection for its author — but also the lurking fear that the long-awaited novel wouldn’t meet my expectations. Happily, those fears were misplaced, and then soon replaced by others of DeLillo’s own making. This novel is an eerie descent into a secret collective that seeks to elude death through cryonic freezing. It blends DeLillo’s typical mix of introspection and creeping dread with something else — a menacing sense of the absurd, borrowed from Kafka. Combine this with a wry sense of humor and you’ve got a dive into the murky boundary between life and death that’s as amusing as it is alarming.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing" ], "reviewers": [ "Colin Dwyer" ], "isbn": "1501135392", "seamus": 476071107, "asin": "", "oclc": "", "itunes": 9781501135392, "bookshop": 9781501135392, "cover": "1501135392", "year": 2016, "isbn13": "9781501135392", "isbn10": "1501135392", "links": [ { "year": 2016, "id": 309, "book": "Zero K", "source": "NPR", "text": "DeLillo's 'Zero K' Freezes At The Edge Of Immortality", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/04/30/476062916/zero-k-freezes-at-the-edge-of-immortality" } ] } }