The utterly charming From Twinkle, With Love is packed with texts, notes, blog posts, emails and the diary entries of the inspirational Twinkle Mehra. Twinkle is a geek and outsider whose mission statement is “to change lives with my films and show the world what a Desi girl can do.” But first, Twinkle teams up on a project with Sahil, her lifelong crush’s awkward twin brother. Their story is engaging, enchanting and so relatable that it’s impossible to put down. A genuine pleasure to read!
", "tags": [ "funny stuff", "love & romance", "identity & culture", "young adult", "fiction", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1481495402", "seamus": 610560967, "itunes": 9781481495400, "bookshop": 9781481495400, "cover": "1481495402", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781481495400", "isbn10": "1481495402", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 1, "book": "From Twinkle, With Love", "source": "NPR", "text": "Film-Loving 'Twinkle' Is A Star On The Page", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/20/609368632/film-loving-twinkle-is-a-star-on-the-page" } ] }, "2": { "id": 2, "title": "To Be Honest", "author": "Maggie Ann Martin", "reviewers": [ "Alethea Kontis" ], "text": "To Be Honest is not only a super sweet book, but it’s also a refreshing take on the plus-size protagonist trope. Savannah “Savvy” Alverson is chubby, book smart and has a tendency toward panic attacks. Similarly awkward George is the new guy at school who needs Savannah to tutor him. They fall for each other, adorably. Complications arise when Savvy’s mother’s reality show decides to revisit the family and life becomes even messier, but Savvy’s strength and positive self-image win the day. I only wish the world had more charming, feel-good books like this!
", "tags": [ "family matters", "love & romance", "fiction", "young adult", "book club ideas" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1250183154", "seamus": 639643728, "itunes": 9781250183156, "bookshop": 9781250183156, "cover": "1250183154", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250183156", "isbn10": "1250183154", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 2, "book": "To Be Honest", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'To Be Honest,' This Is A Sweet Book About A Savvy Young Woman", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/22/639644522/to-be-honest-this-is-a-sweet-book-about-a-savvy-young-woman" } ] }, "3": { "id": 3, "title": "Unclaimed Baggage", "author": "Jen Doll", "reviewers": [ "Alethea Kontis" ], "text": "The storytellers of Unclaimed Baggage are a bunch of lost souls: Doris (the leader), Nell (the outsider), Grant (the beautiful, complicated wreck) and a purple leopard-print suitcase. What they need to find is each other. Jen Doll weaves their tales together into a dense, rich and powerfully beautiful story. Unclaimed Baggage is the quintessential Southern Novel for Teens, bordering on Gothic, but still managing to leave the reader with a sense of wonder and optimism.
", "tags": [ "funny stuff", "fiction", "young adult", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0374306060", "seamus": 641765840, "itunes": 9780374306069, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0374306060", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780374306069", "isbn10": "0374306060", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 3, "book": "Unclaimed Baggage", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Unclaimed Baggage' Is The Quintessential Southern Novel For Teens", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/23/639601565/unclaimed-baggage-is-the-quintessential-southern-novel-for-teens" } ] }, "4": { "id": 4, "title": "The Incendiaries: A Novel", "author": "R.O. Kwon", "reviewers": [ "Alexander McCall" ], "text": "Will and Phoebe have secrets. But these two students at a well-to-do liberal arts college seem more content to keep their personal histories under wraps and build new identities. As their romance twists and turns, aimless Phoebe drifts into the orbit of a local cult, where she finds herself able to reckon with pieces of her difficult past. Suspicious and borderline obsessed, Will doggedly attempts to rescue Phoebe – against her wishes. The result is a swift, gripping story that douses secrecy, grief, love and religion with gasoline, before finally striking a match.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "love & romance", "the dark side", "staff picks", "rather short" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0735213895", "seamus": 634581521, "itunes": 9780735213890, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0735213895", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780735213890", "isbn10": "0735213895", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 4, "book": "The Incendiaries: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pop Culture Happy Hour All-Books Edition: Volume 2", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/24/651101842/pop-culture-happy-hour-all-books-edition-volume-2" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 4, "book": "The Incendiaries: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Incendiaries' Is A Poignant And Powerful Look At Campus Life", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/02/634677368/the-incendiaries-is-a-poignant-and-powerful-look-at-campus-life" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 4, "book": "The Incendiaries: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Incendiaries' Is An Angsty Back-To-School Novel About Believing In God", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/01/634581276/the-incendiaries-is-an-angsty-back-to-school-novel-about-believing-in-god" } ] }, "5": { "id": 5, "title": "Little: A Novel", "author": "Edward Carey", "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "text": "Picking up on the same themes of bodies and objects as his Iremonger trilogy, Edward Carey’s Little is a tenderly macabre fictional memoir written in the voice of Anne Marie Grosholtz, the woman who would become Madame Tussaud. From being orphaned at the age of 6 and apprenticed to a maker of wax models, to living in Versailles as the art tutor to a princess in the months before the French Revolution, her life is full of deep sadness mixed with fabulous incident, and compassionate insight punctuated by the author’s whimsical illustrations.
", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "rather long", "historical fiction", "for history lovers", "the dark side", "for art lovers", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0525534326", "seamus": 659605613, "itunes": 9780525534327, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0525534326", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525534327", "isbn10": "0525534326", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 5, "book": "Little: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Little' Considers Power, Personhood, And Wax Artistry", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/28/660732258/little-considers-power-personhood-and-wax-artistry" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 5, "book": "Little: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "You Might Learn A 'Little' About Madame Tussaud In New Novel Based On Her Life", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/23/659988718/you-might-learn-a-little-about-madame-tussaud-in-new-novel-based-on-her-life" } ] }, "6": { "id": 6, "title": "Monster Portraits", "author": "Sofia Samatar, illustrated by Del Samatar", "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "text": "Sofia and Del Samatar are siblings, and Monster Portraits is a collaboration between her writing and his art, resulting in a gorgeous collection of related vignettes musing on the nature of monsters and monstrosity. Not a bestiary so much as an antibestiary – one that considers every fantastical creature represented as a person to be encountered – Monster Portraits explores and unpacks thoughts about diaspora, race, travel and inheritance in the same sharp, spare, heartbreaking prose that characterized Sofia Samatar’s The Winged Histories.
", "tags": [ "family matters", "rather short", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "for art lovers", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1941628109", "seamus": 588343593, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781941628102, "cover": "1941628109", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781941628102", "isbn10": "1941628109", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 6, "book": "Monster Portraits", "source": "NPR", "text": "Siblings On A Strange Journey In 'Monster Portraits'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/01/587336702/siblings-on-a-strange-journey-in-monster-portraits" } ] }, "7": { "id": 7, "title": "Spinning Silver", "author": "Naomi Novik", "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "text": "In Lithvas – a medieval country ruled by a czar and bordered by a magical winter realm belonging to gold-hungry people called the Staryk – three young women struggle against their circumstances. Miryem is the Jewish daughter of a soft-hearted moneylender who would rather live in poverty than collect his debts; Wanda is the gentile daughter of an abusive alcoholic farmer; and Irina is the part-Staryk daughter of a disappointed duke scheming for the throne. Their paths cross during the most vicious winter in memory, and the fate of Lithvas depends on the choices they make and alliances they form. An absolutely beautiful expansion and reimagining of Rumpelstiltskin, Spinning Silver thinks deeply about gift and debt, capital and labor, hospitality and friendship.
", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "rather long", "identity & culture", "family matters", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0399180982", "seamus": 628884151, "itunes": 9780399180989, "bookshop": 9780399180989, "cover": "0399180982", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780399180989", "isbn10": "0399180982", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 7, "book": "Spinning Silver", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Silver' Spins Gold From The Moldiest Of Old Straw", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/07/17/628882889/silver-spins-gold-from-the-moldiest-of-old-straw" } ] }, "8": { "id": 8, "title": "Tess Of The Road", "author": "Rachel Hartman", "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "text": "Not a sequel so much as a sibling to Seraphina and Shadow Scale, this picaresque novel focuses on Tess, Seraphina’s little sister, who has spent two years atoning for a secret disgrace by smoothing her twin sister’s entry into fine society. Raised by a religiously fanatical mother and a neglectful father, Tess longs for adventure and learning, having taught herself how to speak to quigutl (smaller cousins of dragons) as a child. After a disaster at her sister’s wedding, Tess takes to the road with her quigutl best friend in search of healing and revelation. This is the most compassionate novel I’ve read since George Eliot’s Middlemarch.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "young adult", "seriously great writing", "family matters", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1101931280", "seamus": 588421254, "itunes": 9781101931288, "bookshop": 9781101931288, "cover": "1101931280", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781101931288", "isbn10": "1101931280", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 8, "book": "Tess Of The Road", "source": "NPR", "text": "Deep, Compassionate 'Tess Of The Road' Contains A Whole World", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/03/587338187/deep-compassionate-tess-of-the-road-contains-a-whole-world" } ] }, "9": { "id": 9, "title": "This Is Not A Love Letter", "author": "Kim Purcell", "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "text": "A fast-paced and heartbreaking story about racial tension, depression and loss in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. Jessie is writing letters to her boyfriend Chris, with whom she recently broke up – just before he vanished. Chris is one of very few black people in a mostly white town, and Jessie grows increasingly afraid that he’s been murdered. The first-person narration is relentless and raw, as Jessie confesses things to the absence of Chris that she never was able to say to him in person.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "fiction", "love & romance", "the dark side" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1484798341", "seamus": 580449267, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "1484798341", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781484798348", "isbn10": "1484798341", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 9, "book": "This Is Not A Love Letter", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'This Is Not A Love Letter' Really Is A (Heartbreaking) Love Letter", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/02/03/579823107/this-is-not-a-love-letter-really-is-a-heartbreaking-love-letter" } ] }, "10": { "id": 10, "title": "Trail Of Lightning", "author": "Rebecca Roanhorse", "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "text": "An apocalyptic flood has devastated most of North America – all but the Diné nation, which grew magical walls of abalone, turquoise, white shell and jet to protect itself. But in addition to the destruction, the flood has ushered in the Sixth Age, opening up the human world to spirits and monsters again. Maggie Hoskie is a monster-hunter who keeps people safe for pay – but when she defeats a monster that seems to have been crafted by magical means to malicious ends, she must team up with a silver-tongued man named Kai to find out who or what is behind it. Fast-paced and innovative, Trail of Lightning reads like an indigenous answer to questions Supernatural never thought to ask.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1534413499", "seamus": 660298079, "itunes": 9781534413498, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1534413499", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781534413498", "isbn10": "1534413499", "links": [] }, "11": { "id": 11, "title": "Witchmark", "author": "C.L. Polk", "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "text": "The nations of Aeland and Laneer have just concluded a brutal war, and Dr. Miles Singer is an Aelander surgeon treating soldiers returning from the front line – while struggling to conceal the fact that his uncanny healing skill is partly magical. In Aeland, witches must either spend their lives in hidden service to noble families or be committed to special asylums, and Miles isn’t enamored with either option. But when a mysterious stranger stumbles into the hospital with a dying civilian, Miles finds himself drawn into webs of witchy intrigue that threaten to unravel the modest life he’s built for himself.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "love & romance", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1250162688", "seamus": 660298299, "itunes": 9781250162687, "bookshop": 9781250162687, "cover": "1250162688", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250162687", "isbn10": "1250162688", "links": [] }, "12": { "id": 12, "title": "Half-Witch", "author": "John Schoffstall", "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "text": "John Schoffstall’s Half-Witch follows 14-year-old Lizbet Lenz and witch-girl Strix on a journey to retrieve a strange book and rescue Lizbet’s feckless father from prison. Lizbet inhabits a world where God, Satan and the battle between them is literally real (and being won by Satan), witches are made out of tea bags and sticks, and emotions can be physically pressed out of people’s bodies – but beyond the mountains that scrape the sky and ring the world are even stranger things. A marvelous blend of whimsy, terror and deep feeling.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "young adult", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1618731408", "seamus": 662308179, "itunes": 9781618731401, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1618731408", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781618731401", "isbn10": "1618731408", "links": [] }, "13": { "id": 13, "title": "Memphis Rent Party: The Blues, Rock & Soul In Music's Hometown", "author": "Robert Gordon", "reviewers": [ "Ann Powers" ], "text": "What does it mean to be a local writer? Just read this book. Journalist, filmmaker, record producer and Memphis native Robert Gordon has spent his life closely chronicling the lives of his hometown’s most famous and obscure sons and daughters. In this memoir-cum-anthology he revisits pieces on legends such as Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, mainstays like the North Mississippi blues master Otha Turner and travelers who touched down in his town, including Jeff Buckley and Cat Power’s Chan Marshall; Gordon weaves these tales together with cogent self-analysis, creating a narrative that’s both a biography of his city and the story of his own sentimental education.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for music lovers", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "biography & memoir" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "1632867737", "seamus": 657930162, "itunes": 9781632867735, "bookshop": 9781632867735, "cover": "1632867737", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781632867735", "isbn10": "1632867737", "links": [] }, "14": { "id": 14, "title": "She Begat This: 20 Years Of The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill", "author": "Joan Morgan", "reviewers": [ "Ann Powers" ], "text": "Cultural critic Joan Morgan’s career ran in parallel to Lauryn Hill’s in the 1990s; Morgan’s work helped define hip-hop feminist discourse, while Hill’s one studio album became the era’s sonic standard-bearer and the template for “black girl magic.” Through intimate interviews, Morgan shares her pages with other cultural critics and activists who, like her, grew up alongside Miseducation and consider Hill – who has not produced anything close to the milestone she made at 23 – both an inspiration and a puzzlement. Warm, sharp and unsparing, She Begat This is a model for cultural inquiry in the hip-hop age.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for music lovers", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "biography & memoir" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "1501195255", "seamus": 657930887, "itunes": 9781501195259, "bookshop": 9781501195259, "cover": "1501195255", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501195259", "isbn10": "1501195255", "links": [] }, "15": { "id": 15, "title": "And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready", "author": "Meaghan O'Connell", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "The memoir industry runs increasingly on the unique, the superhuman and the grotesque. People climb mountains, escape kidnappers, visit heaven and report back. And Now We Have Everything shows how the most normal thing in the world – having an ordinary, healthy baby after an ordinary, healthy pregnancy – means being visited with all possible extremes of pain, fear and love. O’Connell renders this normal and horrific experience real, in both emotional sweep and brutal particulars.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "rather short" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0316259616", "seamus": 600109914, "itunes": 9780316259613, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0316259616", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316259613", "isbn10": "0316259616", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 15, "book": "And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'And Now We Have Everything' Charts The Emotional Extremes Of An Ordinary Pregnancy", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/17/600106400/and-now-we-have-everything-charts-the-emotional-extremes-of-an-ordinary-pregnanc" } ] }, "16": { "id": 16, "title": "Crudo: A Novel", "author": "Olivia Laing", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "Olivia Laing’s The Lonely City was one of my favorite books of the past few years – a sweeping, melancholy, perceptive study of loneliness. This is her first novel, which is smaller in scope but has the same emotional acuity. In it, a woman very much like Laing prepares to get married against a backdrop of Trump, Brexit and a generalized malaise that makes everything feel out of control and bad. I can’t think of anything that has captured the feeling of the past few years so well: the ways that world historical crises coexist with daily life, making it hard for either to feel quite real.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "rather short", "seriously great writing", "love & romance" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0393652726", "seamus": 641738944, "itunes": 9780393652727, "bookshop": 9780393652727, "cover": "0393652726", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780393652727", "isbn10": "0393652726", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 16, "book": "Crudo: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Putting On Kathy Acker's Voice In Perfect, Agonizing 'Crudo'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/28/639599830/putting-on-kathy-ackers-voice-in-perfect-agonizing-crudo" } ] }, "17": { "id": 17, "title": "Feel Free: Essays", "author": "Zadie Smith", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "This essay collection, aptly called Feel Free, is elastic and smart and joyous in all the right proportions. With her diamond-cutter mind, Smith interrogates, among other things, dance, writing, taste, class, corpses, the chameleonic appeal of Key and Peele , libraries and why, “between proprietary and joy,” you should “choose joy.” Feel free, she tells us, and you will.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "eye-opening reads", "for art lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "nonfiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1594206252", "seamus": 582664548, "itunes": 9781594206252, "bookshop": 9781594206252, "cover": "1594206252", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781594206252", "isbn10": "1594206252", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 17, "book": "Feel Free: Essays", "source": "NPR", "text": "Zadie Smith Ruminates On Brexit, Bieber And Much, Much More In 'Feel Free'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/02/20/585118218/zadie-smith-ruminates-on-brexit-bieber-and-much-much-more-in-feel-free" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 17, "book": "Feel Free: Essays", "source": "NPR", "text": "From Bieber To Buber, 'Feel Free' Mixes High And Low With A Generous Spirit", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/02/06/580986860/from-bieber-to-buber-feel-free-mixes-high-and-low-with-a-generous-spirit" } ] }, "18": { "id": 18, "title": "Full Disclosure", "author": "Stormy Daniels", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "Stormy Daniels knows exactly why you are reading her book, and – a career entertainer – she gives the people what they want: to wit, “two to three minutes” and “smaller than average.” But the book also makes you look beyond the cartoonish figure Daniels cuts in headlines to the real person: a pioneering female director who writes passionately and well about her craft. Full Disclosure is a canny Trojan horse of a book that lures you in with scandal but ultimately serves as a reminder not to write people off.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "let’s talk about sex", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1250205565", "seamus": 653520206, "itunes": 9781250205568, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250205565", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250205568", "isbn10": "1250205565", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 18, "book": "Full Disclosure", "source": "NPR", "text": "Stormy Daniels Offers 'Full Disclosure' On Her Own Terms", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/02/653517069/stormy-daniels-offers-full-disclosure-on-her-own-terms" } ] }, "19": { "id": 19, "title": "Heads Of The Colored People: Stories", "author": "Nafissa Thompson-Spires", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "Nafissa Thompson-Spires’ debut story collection is uneven, but at its best, it has a sly and searching power. One story is written in passive-aggressive notes between the mothers of the only two black children in an elementary school. In another, a man engages in an escalating war with his female officemate over how bright to keep the room. These are funny sketches of petty power struggles with low stakes, but they also make a subtle argument about the ways that race and gender add charge and pain to interactions. “The pressure has to come out some kind of way,” one character says.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "rather short" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1501167995", "seamus": 601183690, "itunes": 9781501167997, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1501167995", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501167997", "isbn10": "1501167995", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 19, "book": "Heads Of The Colored People: Stories", "source": "Wisconsin Public Radio", "text": "Author Nafissa Thompson-Spires Rethinks What It Means To Be 'Authentically Black'", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/author-nafissa-thompson-spires-rethinks-what-it-means-be-authentically-black" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 19, "book": "Heads Of The Colored People: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "2018 'Ghost List' Revisits The TV, Books And Movies A Critic Wishes He Covered", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/12/17/676164870/2018-ghost-list-revisits-the-tv-books-and-movies-a-critic-wishes-he-covered" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 19, "book": "Heads Of The Colored People: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Heads Of The Colored People' Takes On The Pressures Of Being 'The Only One'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/10/601184986/heads-of-the-colored-people-takes-on-the-pressures-of-being-the-only-one" } ] }, "20": { "id": 20, "title": "Melmoth: A Novel", "author": "Sarah Perry", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "Set in Prague, Melmoth is a lush, almost camp Gothic novel about a monster who witnesses people’s worst moments, then uses them as leverage to tempt them into a Faustian bargain. It is occasionally overwrought, but it is a real pleasure to read something so full of conviction. The past few years have brought a glut of fashionably affectless and amoral fiction, to which Sarah Perry’s fierce, full-hearted books about love and ethics feel like the perfect antidote.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0062856391", "seamus": 657935121, "itunes": 9780062856395, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062856391", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062856395", "isbn10": "0062856391", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 20, "book": "Melmoth: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Melmoth' Bears Witness To Our Worst, Loneliest Moments", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/18/657523478/melmoth-bears-witness-to-our-worst-loneliest-moments" } ] }, "21": { "id": 21, "title": "Some Trick: Thirteen Stories", "author": "Helen DeWitt", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "Helen DeWitt’s The Last Samurai is one of my favorite books. Some Trick, her new short story collection, shares themes with that novel. Her characters are savants, weirdos and artists, often trying to achieve their ends against the best efforts of the well-meaning and conventional people around them. DeWitt doesn’t cater: In her fiction, she uses Greek if Greek is called for, or graphs if graphs are called for. The conventional measures of good fiction, such as accessibility or charm, seem irrelevant, if not quaint, in the face of her wonderfully irritable intelligence.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "seriously great writing", "rather short" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0811227820", "seamus": 614124420, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780811227827, "cover": "0811227820", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780811227827", "isbn10": "0811227820", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 21, "book": "Some Trick: Thirteen Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Some Trick' Takes On The Life Of The (Delightfully Irritable) Mind", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/29/613148555/some-trick-takes-on-the-life-of-the-delightfully-irritable-mind" } ] }, "22": { "id": 22, "title": "The Female Persuasion: A Novel", "author": "Meg Wolitzer", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "How are you supposed to live in a world where so many people hate women? When Greer Kadetsky is groped at a frat party her freshman year, that is the question she begins to ask, and which animates Meg Wolitzer’s wonderful novel. The characters in it ultimately answer these questions in different ways, but they all come to at least one conclusion: You have to do something, even if it’s just, as one character says, managing to “live your life and be yourself with all your values intact.”
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "rather long", "love & romance" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1594488401", "seamus": 598235681, "itunes": 9781594488405, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1594488401", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781594488405", "isbn10": "1594488401", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 22, "book": "The Female Persuasion: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Marginalia: Meg Wolitzer", "url": "http://www.kmuw.org/post/marginalia-meg-wolitzer" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 22, "book": "The Female Persuasion: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Meg Wolitzer Traces The Arc Of The Feminist Movement In 'The Female Persuasion'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/11/601370601/meg-wolitzer-traces-the-arc-of-the-feminist-movement-in-the-female-persuasion" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 22, "book": "The Female Persuasion: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Meg Wolitzer's 'Female Persuasion' Honors The Women Who Helped Her On Her Way", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/06/600095537/meg-wolitzers-female-persuasion-honors-the-women-who-helped-her-on-her-way" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 22, "book": "The Female Persuasion: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Meg Wolitzer Asks The Big Questions In 'The Female Persuasion'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/03/598234453/meg-wolitzer-asks-the-big-questions-in-the-female-persuasion" } ] }, "23": { "id": 23, "title": "The Recovering: Intoxication And Its Aftermath", "author": "Leslie Jamison", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "“With a good feeling, it was always: More. Again. Forever.” Leslie Jamison’s memoir The Recovering: Intoxication And Its Aftermath follows the story of her alcoholism in lush, almost caressing detail. “I mashed the lime in my vodka tonic and glimpsed – in the sweet spot between two drinks and three, then three and four, then four and five – my life as something illuminated from the inside.” It’s a thoughtful, nuanced and frightening look at the alcoholism that dominated much of her adult life while also digging into broader cultural and literary trends.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "rather long" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0316259616", "seamus": 598304427, "itunes": 9780316259613, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0316259616", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316259613", "isbn10": "0316259616", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 23, "book": "The Recovering: Intoxication And Its Aftermath", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Bookworm: Leslie Jamison On 'The Recovering: Intoxication And Its Aftermath'", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/leslie-jamison-the-recovering-intoxication-and-its-aftermath" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 23, "book": "The Recovering: Intoxication And Its Aftermath", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Recovering' Chronicles Addiction In Lush, Caressing Detail", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/07/597129885/the-recovering-chronicles-addiction-in-lush-caressing-detail" } ] }, "24": { "id": 24, "title": "The Silence Of The Girls: A Novel", "author": "Pat Barker", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "“Great Achilles. Brilliant Achilles, shining Achilles, godlike Achilles. … How the epithets pile up,” begins The Silence Of The Girls, Pat Barker’s tart retelling of The Iliad from the perspective of Achilles’ concubine, Briseis. “We never called him any of those things,” she continues, “we called him ‘the butcher.’ ” Though we’ve seen a raft of feminist reworkings of the classics, Barker’s is unusually skilled, showing how, while men were on the battlefield, women were fighting a very different war of their own.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0385544219", "seamus": 641747073, "itunes": 9780385544214, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0385544219", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780385544214", "isbn10": "0385544219", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 24, "book": "The Silence Of The Girls: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Homer's 'Unwilling' Women Are No Longer Quiet In 'The Silence Of The Girls'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/16/639600024/homers-unwilling-women-are-no-longer-quiet-in-the-silence-of-the-girls" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 24, "book": "The Silence Of The Girls: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "On the Books: An All-Book Edition Of Pop Culture Happy Hour", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/13/647489483/on-the-books-an-all-book-edition-of-pop-culture-happy-hour" } ] }, "25": { "id": 25, "title": "The Witch Elm: A Novel", "author": "Tana French", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "Tana French’s Witch Elm looks like a murder mystery – a brutal beating, a skull in a tree, etc. – but it is really a deeply subtle book about privilege: how clueless, apparently decent guys can float through life unaware of the injustices around them, sometimes even ones they have committed. “One gets into the habit of being oneself,” says one character. “It takes some great upheaval to crack that shell and force us to discover what else might be underneath.”
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "rather long", "the dark side", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0735224625", "seamus": 647574805, "itunes": 9780735224629, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0735224625", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780735224629", "isbn10": "0735224625", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 25, "book": "The Witch Elm: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Witch Elm' Starts Slow, Then Sucks You In", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/14/656989714/the-witch-elm-starts-slow-then-sucks-you-in" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 25, "book": "The Witch Elm: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "On the Books: An All-Book Edition Of Pop Culture Happy Hour", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/13/647489483/on-the-books-an-all-book-edition-of-pop-culture-happy-hour" } ] }, "26": { "id": 26, "title": "You Think It, I'll Say It: Stories", "author": "Curtis Sittenfeld", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "The stories in You Think It, I’ll Say It are self-interrogating and warm Midwestern social commentaries about the inner lives of women. “The Prairie Wife,” for instance, one of the collection’s best stories, is about a woman obsessed with a TV- and social media star she knew when they were teenagers at summer camp. The folksy persona of this Pioneer Woman-type celebrity fills her with rage so strong “it was almost like lust.” The story begins like a wry commentary on social media envy – but unfolds into a gentler and more complex story about the different kinds of love.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "family matters", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "rather short" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0399592865", "seamus": 604401360, "itunes": 9780399592867, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0399592865", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780399592867", "isbn10": "0399592865", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 26, "book": "You Think It, I'll Say It: Stories", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Curtis Sittenfeld", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/post/book-show-1560-curtis-sittenfeld" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 26, "book": "You Think It, I'll Say It: Stories", "source": "Aspen Public Radio", "text": "First Draft: Curtis Sittenfeld", "url": "http://www.aspenpublicradio.org/post/first-draft-curtis-sittenfeld" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 26, "book": "You Think It, I'll Say It: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'You Think It, I'll Say It,' Middle-Aged Moms Get Some Respect ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/25/603368160/in-you-think-it-ill-say-it-middle-aged-moms-get-some-respect" } ] }, "27": { "id": 27, "title": "Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, And Radicalization In American Politics", "author": "Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, and Hal Roberts", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "The 2016 election was characterized by a tidal wave of bad information, lies and conspiracy theories. In a new book, Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris and Hal Roberts argue that the fault primarily lies not with bots, Russian hackers, clickbait farms or Cambridge Analytica, but with something closer to home. Their large-scale analysis shows that right-wing media outlets such as Fox News and Breitbart are “the primary culprit in sowing confusion and distrust in the broader American media ecosystem.” If that sounds partisan, read this careful and scholarly work and be prepared to have your mind changed.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "rather long" ], "editor": "", "isbn": "0190923636", "seamus": 661016632, "itunes": 9780190923631, "bookshop": 9780190923631, "cover": "0190923636", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780190923631", "isbn10": "0190923636", "links": [] }, "28": { "id": 28, "title": "A New Reality: Human Evolution For A Sustainable Future", "author": "Jonas Salk and Jonathan Salk", "reviewers": [ "Anya Kamenetz" ], "text": "This elegant volume is like a slim lever with the power to pry open a brand-new window in your mind. It’s an updated version of a book originally released by the legendary inventor of the polio vaccine and his son in 1981, and it poses the question: In a time when growth is no longer the goal, but the human population is instead leveling off or declining, how should our values change? The answer provided is profoundly humanistic and urgent.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "science!", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1947951041", "seamus": 657936672, "itunes": 9781947951044, "bookshop": 9781947951044, "cover": "1947951041", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781947951044", "isbn10": "1947951041", "links": [] }, "29": { "id": 29, "title": "Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us And Undermines Democracy", "author": "Siva Vaidhyanathan", "reviewers": [ "Anya Kamenetz" ], "text": "Siva Vaidhyanathan, a media studies scholar at the University of Virginia, was casting a side-eye at Facebook before most of the rest of the world. This scathing volume of social criticism indicts Facebook for its “direct contribution to violent ethnic and religious nationalism, the rise of authoritarian leaders, and a sort of mediated cacophony … undermining trust in institutions and experts.” Can we reform Facebook or rein it in? It’s complicated.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "the dark side", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0190841168", "seamus": 657938426, "itunes": 9780190841164, "bookshop": 9780190841164, "cover": "0190841168", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780190841164", "isbn10": "0190841168", "links": [] }, "30": { "id": 30, "title": "Dancing Bears: True Stories Of People Nostalgic For Life Under Tyranny", "author": "Witold Szablowski, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones", "reviewers": [ "Ari Shapiro" ], "text": "Polish journalist Witold Szablowski chose an unusual form for this book: Two halves, each with the same chapter titles. The first half tells the true story of dancing bears, freed from their torment with mixed results. The second half tells the story of people, freed from oppressive governments with – well, you get the idea. Why would anyone be “Nostalgic For Life Under Tyranny,” as the subtitle of the book proposes? By the end of the book, Szablowski answers the question with some insights into universal truths about animal behavior, including our own.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0143129740", "seamus": 657939142, "itunes": 9780143129745, "bookshop": 9780143129745, "cover": "0143129740", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780143129745", "isbn10": "0143129740", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 30, "book": "Dancing Bears: True Stories Of People Nostalgic For Life Under Tyranny", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Dancing Bears' Offers A Look Into How Countries Adapted To Life After Communism", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/06/591266885/dancing-bears-offers-a-look-into-how-countries-adapted-to-life-after-communism" } ] }, "31": { "id": 31, "title": "The Most Dangerous Man In America: Timothy Leary, Richard Nixon And The Hunt For The Fugitive King Of LSD", "author": "Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis", "reviewers": [ "Ari Shapiro" ], "text": "Timothy Leary, the so-called High Priest of LSD, was an unlikely candidate for Public Enemy No. 1. Yet President Richard Nixon leveled the full force of the federal government against Leary in the 1970s, producing a globe-hopping manhunt that involved a prison break, the Black Panther Party, and more celebrity cameos than Pee Wee’s Christmas special (Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol and John Lennon, to name just a few.). In the book’s acknowledgements, authors Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis thank Leary “for leading a very interesting life.” That’s an understatement.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1455563587", "seamus": 575404190, "itunes": 9781455563586, "bookshop": 9781455563586, "cover": "1455563587", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781455563586", "isbn10": "1455563587", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 31, "book": "The Most Dangerous Man In America: Timothy Leary, Richard Nixon And The Hunt For The Fugitive King Of LSD", "source": "NPR", "text": "Nixon's Manhunt For The High Priest Of LSD In 'The Most Dangerous Man In America'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/01/05/575392333/nixons-manhunt-for-the-high-priest-of-lsd-in-the-most-dangerous-man-in-america" } ] }, "32": { "id": 32, "title": "Circe", "author": "Madeline Miller", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "I’m a junkie for retellings of Greek and Roman mythology, but the highest praise I can give Circe is that you do not have to be so to be moved by this book. It’s an extraordinarily clever reimagining of the tale of Circe, the witch of Homer’s epic, who seduces Odysseus and transforms his crew to pigs, among other things. But what Miller has created is the story of a woman, overlooked and underestimated, who slowly and painfully unearths her gifts over the course of many lifetimes. (Sound familiar, er … women?) It’s a story and a hope that resonates in dark times — for, as one character tells another, if you cannot bear this world a moment longer, “child, make another.”
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0316556343", "seamus": 599840204, "itunes": 9780316556347, "bookshop": 9780316556347, "cover": "0316556343", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316556347", "isbn10": "0316556343", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 32, "book": "Circe", "source": "NPR & WBUR", "text": "Here & Now: Novel Reimagines Homer's Malevolent Witch Circe As Powerful Feminist Deity", "url": "http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/04/23/circe-madeline-miller" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 32, "book": "Circe", "source": "Wisconsin Public Radio", "text": "The Mother Of All Witches", "url": "https://www.ttbook.org/interview/mother-all-witches" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 32, "book": "Circe", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Nerdette: The Author Of Greta’s Favorite Book! (Of 2018): Madeline Miller On 'Circe'", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/shows/nerdette/the-author-of-gretas-favorite-book-of-2018-madeline-miller-on-circe/8ef6c118-fef8-4c72-bf97-3405603d4724" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 32, "book": "Circe", "source": "WVXU", "text": " 'Circe' Is The Latest Novel From Madeline Miller ", "url": "http://www.wvxu.org/post/circe-latest-novel-madeline-miller#stream/0" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 32, "book": "Circe", "source": "NPR", "text": "Novelist And 'Book Matchmaker' Tayari Jones Shares Her Favorite Books Of 2018", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/12/05/673244863/novelist-and-book-matchmaker-tayari-jones-shares-her-favorite-books-of-2018" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 32, "book": "Circe", "source": "NPR", "text": "On the Books: An All-Book Edition Of Pop Culture Happy Hour", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/13/647489483/on-the-books-an-all-book-edition-of-pop-culture-happy-hour" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 32, "book": "Circe", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Circe' Gives The Witch Of The Odyssey A New Life", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/11/599831473/circe-gives-the-witch-of-the-odyssey-a-new-life" } ] }, "33": { "id": 33, "title": "Good And Mad: The Revolutionary Power Of Women's Anger", "author": "Rebecca Traister", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "We live in hard and sometimes angry times. Generally speaking, I’ve always shrunk from anger — men’s anger can kill you, and women’s anger – my anger – is the moment where people stop taking you seriously, right? Wrong, says Rebecca Traister, the journalist and author of the perfectly and maybe even horribly perfectly timed book, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger. There’s a specific use for that anger, Traister argues, a political use, and it has rarely gotten enough attention as a motivating response that brings about social change. It makes for galvanizing reading and a reminder that no matter how appalling the news about women being marginalized and objectified and discriminated against can get, there’s power to be harnessed in our rage.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1501181793", "seamus": 653196457, "itunes": 9781501181795, "bookshop": 9781501181795, "cover": "1501181793", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501181795", "isbn10": "1501181793", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 33, "book": "Good And Mad: The Revolutionary Power Of Women's Anger", "source": "NPR", "text": "New Book Looks At Why Women Have The Right To Be 'Good And Mad'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/02/653570004/good-and-mad-examines-how-anger-can-be-perilous-for-women" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 33, "book": "Good And Mad: The Revolutionary Power Of Women's Anger", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Good And Mad' Explores Women's Anger At A Pivotal Moment", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/01/652563101/good-and-mad-explores-womens-anger-at-a-pivotal-moment" } ] }, "34": { "id": 34, "title": "Heavy: An American Memoir", "author": "Kiese Laymon", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "If there’s a 2018 book that I believe everyone in America should read, it’s Kiese Laymon’s memoir, Heavy. It’s a gorgeously written howl of truth, directly addressed to the brilliant and sometimes violent mother who raised Laymon in Jackson, Miss. He attributes his writerly practice to her rigorous expectations, but it exacts a toll on his soul and body. He continues her abuse – gorging and starving himself – all the while knowing that there is nothing he and his mother can inflict on his body that compares with what white people can do. But while the book is, yes, heavy, it’s also a powerhouse of creative language. So read it for all it contains: electric prose, an indictment of racism and its effects on black men and women, and a searing portrait of a difficult and brilliant family.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1501125656", "seamus": 657940055, "itunes": 9781501125652, "bookshop": 9781501125652, "cover": "1501125656", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501125652", "isbn10": "1501125656", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 34, "book": "Heavy: An American Memoir", "source": "WWNO", "text": "The Reading Life: Kiese Laymon on 'Heavy'", "url": "http://www.wwno.org/post/reading-life-kiese-laymon" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 34, "book": "Heavy: An American Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Heavy' Brilliantly Renders The Struggle To Become Fully Realized", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/17/657824190/heavy-brilliantly-renders-the-struggle-to-become-fully-realized" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 34, "book": "Heavy: An American Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Heavy': Kiese Laymon's Memoir Examines How People Absorb Trauma", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/13/657109487/heavy-kiese-laymons-memoir-examines-how-people-absorb-trauma" } ] }, "35": { "id": 35, "title": "Monument: Poems New And Selected", "author": "Natasha Trethewey", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "We have seen, over a very few years, the ways language and words can so bitterly divide us. The very fact that a poet laureate can exist at all seems an act of hope — is there one writer who could possibly represent this whole country? Natasha Trethewey was a two-term laureate, and her poetry seems to fit that description, precise in word choice but wide in subject and historical memory. Her new collection is called Monument, and that’s what it feels like in some ways – patriotic, brave, honest – with a power that feels like some stanzas could slash you to ribbons.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "seriously great writing" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "132850784X", "seamus": 659608973, "itunes": 9781328507846, "bookshop": "", "cover": "132850784X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781328507846", "isbn10": "132850784X", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 35, "book": "Monument: Poems New And Selected", "source": "NPR", "text": "Natasha Trethewey: Poetry Speaks 'Across The Lines That Would Divide Us'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/11/03/663448203/natasha-trethewey-poetry-speaks-across-the-lines-that-would-divide-us" } ] }, "36": { "id": 36, "title": "My Sister, The Serial Killer: A Novel", "author": "Oyinkan Braithwaite", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "My Sister The Serial Killer is exactly what it sounds like: a sharp, slim, pulpy little thriller with gory details and a pace that will leave you with enough time to drive it over to a friend’s house to lend for the evening. It’s the story of two sisters living in a vividly described Lagos, Nigeria, and it joyfully makes use of certain tropes. Ayoola, the killer of the title, is thoughtless and beautiful, while Korede is the older, responsible, more dull sister. Ayoola has a tendency to kill her boyfriends, and when a doctor whom Korede has a crush on shows some interest in Ayoola … things get complicated. The book is darkly funny and moves at breakneck speed, but still manages to ask a hard question: Why do women kill? And … why don’t they?
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "the dark side", "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "rather short", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0385544235", "seamus": 651239293, "itunes": 9780385544238, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0385544235", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780385544238", "isbn10": "0385544235", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 36, "book": "My Sister, The Serial Killer: A Novel", "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": 2018, "id": 36, "book": "My Sister, The Serial Killer: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Just How Tight Are Family Ties When Your Sister's A 'Serial Killer'?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/11/25/669966328/just-how-tight-are-family-ties-when-your-sisters-a-serial-killer" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 36, "book": "My Sister, The Serial Killer: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pop Culture Happy Hour All-Books Edition: Volume 2", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/24/651101842/pop-culture-happy-hour-all-books-edition-volume-2" } ] }, "37": { "id": 37, "title": "That Kind Of Mother: A Novel", "author": "Rumaan Alam", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "Rumaan Alam’s first book, Rich and Pretty, wrote the intimacies of female friendship so well that I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that his second novel takes on two mothers with breathtaking insight. Rebecca, white, well-off, well-intentioned, offers to care for her nanny Priscilla’s son when Priscilla, who is black, dies in childbirth. Cheryl, Priscilla’s older daughter, who is pregnant herself, accepts Rebecca’s offer gratefully, and the arrangement becomes permanent when Rebecca adopts the baby. The book is an incredibly honest look at transracial adoption – the sometimes thoughtless way in which the white and liberal Rebecca parents her black son, contrasted with Cheryl’s clear-eyed understanding of how that thoughtlessness can become erasure. Neither woman is a caricature, however – Alam offers kindness as well as honesty about a complex situation in which love and good intentions are not necessarily enough.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0062667602", "seamus": 608330706, "itunes": 9780062667601, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062667602", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062667601", "isbn10": "0062667602", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 37, "book": "That Kind Of Mother: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'That Kind Of Mother,' A White Mom, A Black Son", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/06/608328132/in-that-kind-of-mother-a-white-mom-a-black-son" } ] }, "38": { "id": 38, "title": "The Perfect Nanny: A Novel", "author": "Leila Slimani, translated by Sam Taylor", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "Ah, The Perfect Nanny, I loved this book, I hated this book, this book changed me. Taking as its subject the murder of two children by their nanny, the novel starts with the crime and works backwards. What The Perfect Nanny does so incredibly well is plumb the essential relationship between parents and nanny — and really, mother and nanny. Our children are, to us, perfect — any other competing relationship must create imperfection in some way and point out our shortcomings as parents. Who would entrust their child to the world? None of us, truly — and yet all of us do. If you make it past the awful crime of the first chapter, you will be rewarded by a chillingly clever horror novel about class and parenting.
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "family matters", "the dark side", "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "rather short", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0143132172", "seamus": 577691423, "itunes": 9780143132172, "bookshop": 9780143132172, "cover": "0143132172", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780143132172", "isbn10": "0143132172", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 38, "book": "The Perfect Nanny: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Perfect Nanny' Is The Working Mother's Murderous Nightmare", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/01/22/579673595/the-perfect-nanny-is-the-working-mothers-murderous-nightmare" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 38, "book": "The Perfect Nanny: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "When 2 Children Are Murdered, 'The Perfect Nanny' Is Anything But", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/01/14/577691156/when-2-children-are-murdered-the-perfect-nanny-is-anything-but" } ] }, "39": { "id": 39, "title": "Girls Burn Brighter: A Novel", "author": "Shobha Rao", "reviewers": [ "Bethanne Patrick" ], "text": "Shobha Rao’s first novel, Girls Burn Brighter, details poverty in an Indian village to such an extreme that if you read only those details, you might blanch and move on – but Rao weaves them into the story of two young women, Poornima and Savitha, so elegantly that they become an essential part of the story’s cloth. Pardon the fabric metaphors used for a book about indigent sari weavers; once you’ve become involved in the characters’ efforts to live better lives, you may think the same way. An illuminating, compelling look at global trafficking.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "tales from around the world", "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1250074258", "seamus": 658987853, "itunes": 9781250074256, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250074258", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250074256", "isbn10": "1250074258", "links": [] }, "40": { "id": 40, "title": "Give Me Your Hand: A Novel", "author": "Megan Abbott", "reviewers": [ "Bethanne Patrick" ], "text": "Megan Abbott’s genius lies in showing how strong women can still be caught in the web of patriarchy. In her latest novel, Give Me Your Hand, she tells the story of two female scientists whose brilliant futures are threatened by their past secrets. The best part of this slow-burning novel is that just when you think you’ve seen the big explosion, another one happens. Abbott once again gifts her readers with an unreliable narrator whose inability to foresee disaster means readers won’t guess the denouement – even with tons of creepy foreshadowing.
", "tags": [ "the dark side", "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "science!", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0316547182", "seamus": 628217926, "itunes": 9780316547185, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0316547182", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316547185", "isbn10": "0316547182", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 40, "book": "Give Me Your Hand: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Give Me Your Hand,' A Bond Forged By Secrets Can't Be Broken", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/07/24/631790456/give-me-your-hand-shows-a-bond-forged-by-secrets-can-t-be-broken" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 40, "book": "Give Me Your Hand: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Science Of Female Anger And Ambition, In 'Give Me Your Hand'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/07/17/628218930/the-science-of-female-anger-and-ambition-in-give-me-your-hand" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 40, "book": "Give Me Your Hand: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Give Me Your Hand' Explores Female Mysteries And Monstrosities", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/07/15/628879145/give-me-your-hand-explores-female-mysteries-and-monstrosities" } ] }, "41": { "id": 41, "title": "Red, White, Blue: A Novel", "author": "Lea Carpenter", "reviewers": [ "Bethanne Patrick" ], "text": "A book combining literary sensibility with genre readability doesn’t come along often. Lea Carpenter’s Red, White, Blue is a sophomore novel without slump – a dark thriller with plenty of plot and more meaning. Protagonist Anna’s Cote d’Azur honeymoon is interrupted by a stranger who turns out to be a CIA colleague of her father’s. This nameless stranger narrates the book, and his descriptions of CIA life fascinate: the many burner phones, the cultivation of sources, the constant vigilance. Is this true? It matters not, because Carpenter maintains an internal coherence that makes the plot tauter than a violin string.
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "eye-opening reads", "fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1524732141", "seamus": 641556965, "itunes": 9781524732141, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1524732141", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524732141", "isbn10": "1524732141", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 41, "book": "Red, White, Blue: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Red, White, Blue,' High Peaks And Low Blows", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/25/641557246/in-red-white-blue-high-peaks-and-low-blows" } ] }, "42": { "id": 42, "title": "The Chalk Man: A Novel", "author": "C.J. Tudor", "reviewers": [ "Bethanne Patrick" ], "text": "If you love your mysteries chock-full of atmosphere, C.J. Tudor will be your new favorite author. In 1986, young Eddie and friends leave chalk drawings of a stick figure for each other, all around their little English village. After one such “chalk man” leads them to horror, they stop. But in 2016, adult Eddie receives a message with another chalk man. If he’s ever going to rest easy again, he’ll need to discover what happened 30 years ago. Chills and thrills, but also thoughtful humanity; Tudor’s second novel comes out in early 2019, so you won’t have to wait long for more if you like The Chalk Man. And you will.
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1524760986", "seamus": 660299616, "itunes": 9781524760984, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1524760986", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524760984", "isbn10": "1524760986", "links": [] }, "43": { "id": 43, "title": "Warlight: A Novel", "author": "Michael Ondaatje", "reviewers": [ "Bethanne Patrick" ], "text": "Some reviews have called this novel “frustrating” or “incomplete.” Michael Ondaatje probably would be pleased with either, or both. The term “warlight” refers to special sodium lamps for emergency traffic during the Blitz in London, lamps that gave off the odd pinkish-orange glow that can be seen on the book jacket. That strangeness and dimness is reflected in the story, too. Nathaniel and his sister Rachel are left behind when their parents head to Singapore for his father’s job – but they soon discover their mother may be somewhere else entirely. Hearing his mother’s story late in the book changes Nathaniel’s own story, and asks us to consider how much any of us will ever truly understand about our lives.
", "tags": [ "family matters", "tales from around the world", "historical fiction", "for history lovers", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0525521194", "seamus": 608204166, "itunes": 9780525521198, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0525521194", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525521198", "isbn10": "0525521194", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 43, "book": "Warlight: A Novel", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Bookworm: Michael Ondaatje On 'Warlight'", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/michael-ondaatje-warlight-part-i" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 43, "book": "Warlight: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Warlight' Illumines Family Secrets In Ondaatje's Latest", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/08/608203590/warlight-illumines-family-secrets-in-ondaatjes-latest" } ] }, "44": { "id": 44, "title": "The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent Of Angels In America", "author": "Isaac Butler and Dan Kois", "reviewers": [ "Bob Mondello" ], "text": "Tony Kushner’s masterpiece Angels In America is more than 6 hours of nonstop talk – about politics, drag queens, closeted lawyers, Mormons and the impact of AIDS – so it makes sense to celebrate its first quarter-century with an “oral” history. Isaac Butler and Dan Kois interviewed more than 250 actors, stage managers, directors, critics and even former congressman Barney Frank, who offer in-the-moment recollections (“when the angel turned upside down screaming and her wings fell into the audience”), as well as reflections on the legacy of a play that was – and remains – theater magic.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "no biz like show biz", "for music lovers", "identity & culture", "rather long", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "for history lovers" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1635571766", "seamus": 584549755, "itunes": 9781635571769, "bookshop": 9781635571769, "cover": "1635571766", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781635571769", "isbn10": "1635571766", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 44, "book": "The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent Of Angels In America", "source": "WUWM", "text": " 'The World Only Spins Forward' looks at the impact of 'Angels in America'", "url": "http://www.wuwm.com/post/world-only-spins-forward-looks-impact-angels-america#stream/0" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 44, "book": "The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent Of Angels In America", "source": "NPR", "text": "New Oral History Captures The Magic Of 'Angels In America'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/02/09/584369185/new-oral-history-captures-the-magic-of-angels-in-america" } ] }, "45": { "id": 45, "title": "Greeks Bearing Gifts", "author": "Philip Kerr", "reviewers": [ "Brian Naylor" ], "text": "It’s 1956, and former Berlin police Detective Bernie Gunther is living in Greece under an alias and trying to leave his homeland and the nightmares of “our National Socialist revolution” far behind. But that’s going to be impossible, as Bernie is hired to investigate an insurance claim that may, in fact, involve valuables stolen by the Nazis from Jews deported to Auschwitz. It’s an engrossing read, and Bernie is perfectly flawed and cynical. Sadly, Kerr died this year, but fans may be comforted to hear that he reportedly finished one final Bernie Gunther manuscript.
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "historical fiction", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "staff picks", "rather long", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "039917706X", "seamus": 658989508, "itunes": 9780399177064, "bookshop": "", "cover": "039917706X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780399177064", "isbn10": "039917706X", "links": [] }, "46": { "id": 46, "title": "The Fifth Risk", "author": "Michael Lewis", "reviewers": [ "Brian Naylor" ], "text": "The thought that Donald Trump may have been totally unprepared to become president after the 2016 election is one that’s familiar to anyone who has been following the day-to-day crises and dramas of the White House closely. But a new case for this argument is revealingly and startlingly made by Michael Lewis in his fascinating – and at times harrowing – new book. “Getting to know the U.S. government,” Lewis writes, “had not been high on Donald Trump’s to-do list, even after he learned that he’d be running it.” Lewis tells an important and timely story, one that all of us who pay for, care about and want government to work should hear.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "rather short" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1324002646", "seamus": 653336925, "itunes": 9781324002642, "bookshop": 9781324002642, "cover": "1324002646", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781324002642", "isbn10": "1324002646", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 46, "book": "The Fifth Risk", "source": "NPR", "text": "Michael Lewis: Trump's Approach To Government Shows 'Neglect And Misunderstanding'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/02/653607732/michael-lewis-trumps-approach-to-government-shows-neglect-and-misunderstanding" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 46, "book": "The Fifth Risk", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Fifth Risk' Paints A Portrait Of A Government Led By The Uninterested", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/02/652563904/the-fifth-risk-paints-a-portrait-of-a-government-led-by-the-uninterested" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 46, "book": "The Fifth Risk", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'A Kind Of Vague Hostility': Michael Lewis On How Trump Loyalists Run Agencies", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/01/653430567/a-kind-of-vague-hostility-michael-lewis-on-trump-loyalists-run-agencies" } ] }, "47": { "id": 47, "title": "A Room Away From The Wolves", "author": "Nova Ren Suma", "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "text": "Bina runs away from home to live in a New York boarding house for girls, only to find that the tangled demons of her past have followed her. This is Gothic mystery with all the classic elements – an old house, a cursed ring, a legacy handed from mother to daughter – but Nova Ren Suma manages to take these tropes and transform them into something modern and biting that lingers far beyond the final page. Though its mysteries remain elusive, A Room Away From The Wolves does not disappoint.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "family matters", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1616203730", "seamus": 641648140, "itunes": 9781616203733, "bookshop": 9781616203733, "cover": "1616203730", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781616203733", "isbn10": "1616203730", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 47, "book": "A Room Away From The Wolves", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pop Culture Happy Hour All-Books Edition: Volume 2", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/24/651101842/pop-culture-happy-hour-all-books-edition-volume-2" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 47, "book": "A Room Away From The Wolves", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'A Room Away From The Wolves' Makes The Gothic Bitingly Modern", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/07/639598455/a-room-away-from-the-wolves-makes-the-gothic-bitingly-modern" } ] }, "48": { "id": 48, "title": "Mariam Sharma Hits The Road", "author": "Sheba Karim", "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "text": "Three Pakistani-American teens road trip through the Deep South, looking for escape, answers, trouble and, above all, a fabulous adventure. The journey bounces gamely from fun, identity-affirming parties to deeply upsetting encounters with racism and Islamophobia. But instead of relying on outside forces to build to a climax, author Sheba Karim looks inward at every opportunity, emphasizing the traumas and triumphs within the characters’ own hearts. In this way, Mariam Sharma Hits the Road is both culturally specific and universal, making for a fast read that’s fun, political and the perfect addition to a travel bag.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "identity & culture", "fiction", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0062445731", "seamus": 614554109, "itunes": 9780062445735, "bookshop": 9780062445735, "cover": "0062445731", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062445735", "isbn10": "0062445731", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 48, "book": "Mariam Sharma Hits The Road", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Mariam Sharma' Nails The Fun Road-Trip Vibe", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/07/613465681/mariam-sharma-nails-the-fun-road-trip-vibe" } ] }, "49": { "id": 49, "title": "The Dark Descent Of Elizabeth Frankenstein", "author": "Kiersten White", "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "text": "Elizabeth Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein’s adopted sister/bride, tries to temper Victor’s morbid impulses and protect him from himself as he delves deeper and deeper into mad science. Ultimately, she is unable to stop him from creating a monster. Frankenstein asks us to consider the nature of man and God, but The Dark Descent turns instead toward a different question: What must a woman be in order to thrive in a world that denies her humanity? Kiersten White is unafraid to dig in the graveyard and piece together a creature of her own design out of old parts, and the resulting tale is dark and chilling.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "the dark side", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "family matters", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0525577947", "seamus": 651936116, "itunes": 9780525577942, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0525577947", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525577942", "isbn10": "0525577947", "links": [] }, "50": { "id": 50, "title": "Homelands: Four Friends, Two Countries, And The Fate Of The Great Mexican-American Migration", "author": "Alfredo Corchado", "reviewers": [ "Carrie Kahn" ], "text": "Love in the Time of Zero Tolerance could have been an alternative title for prize-winning journalist Alfredo Corchado’s latest book about Mexican immigration to the U.S. over the past four decades. As timely as headlines driven by President Trump’s crackdown on immigrants, Homelands is a nuanced history lesson wrapped in Corchado’s personal prose about his home country Mexico and his adopted U.S. Homelands explores it all through the tale of four friends. Corchado’s love of country, culture and tequila makes the story of Mexican immigration to the U.S., with all its contradictions and imperfections, easy reading and a lasting lesson in migration history.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1632865548", "seamus": 659496818, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781632865540, "cover": "1632865548", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781632865540", "isbn10": "1632865548", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 50, "book": "Homelands: Four Friends, Two Countries, And The Fate Of The Great Mexican-American Migration", "source": "NPR", "text": "Alfredo Corchado On Mexico, The U.S. And 'Homelands'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/03/616552054/alfredo-corchado-on-mexico-the-u-s-and-homelands" } ] }, "51": { "id": 51, "title": "Ball Lightning", "author": "Cixin Liu, translated by Joel Martinsen", "reviewers": [ "Colin Dwyer" ], "text": "This one goes out to all the nerds (like me) who swooned over the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy. Thanks to the quirks of translation, Chinese writer Cixin Liu actually wrote this before his landmark sci-fi series, but English-language readers are finally getting a glimpse now. Either way, this one bears familiar characteristics – even a familiar character – that Liu devotees will recognize quickly: uneven plot, stilted dialogue … and a boundless, mind-bending creativity that makes it all worthwhile. Ultimately, it fulfills my one major criterion for a good book: You’ll leave it seeing the world just a little bit differently.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "science!", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0765394073", "seamus": 639255629, "itunes": 9780765394071, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0765394073", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780765394071", "isbn10": "0765394073", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 51, "book": "Ball Lightning", "source": "NPR", "text": "Once 'Ball Lightning' Gets Rolling, This Sci-Fi Mind-Bender Shines", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/19/636214212/once-ball-lightning-gets-rolling-this-sci-fi-mind-bender-shines" } ] }, "52": { "id": 52, "title": "How To Change Your Mind: What The New Science Of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, And Transcendence", "author": "Michael Pollan", "reviewers": [ "Colin Marshall" ], "text": "“Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream.” In this lyric, John Lennon nods to an experience with LSD, one of the central molecules in Michael Pollan’s thoughtful exploration of psychedelic drugs. How To Change Your Mind isn’t a dissection of the counterculture, but an insight into the medicinal benefits of psychedelics in treating depression, addiction and trauma. Through historical research, contemporary case studies and even his own experimentation, Pollan makes the case for the safety and practicality of using psychedelics to expand our consciousness and enrich our lives.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "science!", "rather long", "staff picks", "it’s all geek to me" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1594204225", "seamus": 611229306, "itunes": 9781594204227, "bookshop": 9781594204227, "cover": "1594204225", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781594204227", "isbn10": "1594204225", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 52, "book": "How To Change Your Mind: What The New Science Of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, And Transcendence", "source": "KUER", "text": "RadioWest: ‘How To Change Your Mind’", "url": "http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/how-change-your-mind" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 52, "book": "How To Change Your Mind: What The New Science Of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, And Transcendence", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Reluctant Psychonaut' Michael Pollan Embraces The 'New Science' Of Psychedelics", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/05/15/611225541/reluctant-psychonaut-michael-pollan-embraces-the-new-science-of-psychedelics" } ] }, "53": { "id": 53, "title": "The Art Of Gathering: How We Meet And Why It Matters", "author": "Priya Parker", "reviewers": [ "Colin Marshall" ], "text": "This is one of those books you hope the world can read together, since we all gather regularly in some form or another – from conferences to work meetings to one-on-one coffee dates. And yet, many of these meetups fall short of our expectations to walk away feeling seen, heard and inspired. Priya Parker tells us why. Saturated with practical advice, The Art of Gathering manifests as a field guide for how to infuse any meetup with more meaning and magic. Whether at a town hall or a birthday party, this book will change how you congregate – or at least reveal the subtle ingredients that create invigorating (or dreadful) gatherings. One of my favorite tips: “Never start a funeral with logistics.”
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas", "staff picks", "it’s all geek to me" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1594634920", "seamus": 660300763, "itunes": 9781594634925, "bookshop": 9781594634925, "cover": "1594634920", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781594634925", "isbn10": "1594634920", "links": [] }, "54": { "id": 54, "title": "All The Names They Used For God", "author": "Anjali Sachdeva", "reviewers": [ "Connor Donevan" ], "text": "The stories in this collection read like fairy tales – Brothers Grimm, not Disney. Anjali Sachdeva spins wondrous universes, governed by unknowable, capricious forces. A homesteader on the American frontier is drawn into an underground world. Genetically engineered septuplets succumb, one by one, to illness. Aliens take over the Earth – they come mostly in peace but demand that humans trade their hands for metal claws. Sachdeva draws characters with such empathy and precision that they pop off the page and take up residence in your brain – months after reading, I remember these stories as if they were dreams.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "0399593004", "seamus": 595811901, "itunes": 9780399593000, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0399593004", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780399593000", "isbn10": "0399593004", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 54, "book": "All The Names They Used For God", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'All The Names They Used For God,' The Magical Meets The Harrowing", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/22/595810323/in-all-the-names-they-used-for-god-the-magical-meets-the-harrowing" } ] }, "55": { "id": 55, "title": "Severance", "author": "Ling Ma", "reviewers": [ "Connor Donevan" ], "text": "In Severance, the apocalypse arrives in the shape of a loop. It’s a disease that traps its victims in endless cycles of rote tasks: setting and resetting a table, folding luxury polos in a Fifth Avenue boutique. The pandemic knocks Candace Chen out of her own monotonous office routine and sends her on a cross-country trek with a group of survivors, led by a worryingly despotic IT worker. Like any good dystopia, it’s the familiarity that rattles you most. Ling Ma’s mischievous, unsparing prose forces you to confront your own daily rituals to consider where exactly they are taking you. It may leave you staring wistfully out your office window, hoping for signs of an impending cataclysm – just to shake things up.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "0374261598", "seamus": 637544604, "itunes": 9780374261597, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0374261598", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780374261597", "isbn10": "0374261598", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 55, "book": "Severance", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Tis The Season: We Talk Hallmark Holiday Movies", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/12/06/674108581/tis-the-season-we-talk-hallmark-holiday-movies" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 55, "book": "Severance", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Severance' Is A Sardonic Wake-Up Call For All Of Us Stuck In Routine", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/21/640570793/severance-is-a-sardonic-wake-up-call-for-all-of-us-stuck-in-routine" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 55, "book": "Severance", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Severance,' The World Ends Not With A Bang, But A Memo", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/19/639251266/in-severance-the-world-ends-not-with-a-bang-but-a-memo" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 55, "book": "Severance", "source": "NPR", "text": "In Satirical 'Severance,' A Stricken Country Works Itself To Death", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/10/637473748/in-satirical-severance-a-stricken-country-works-itself-to-death" } ] }, "56": { "id": 56, "title": "Give Me Some Truth", "author": "Eric Gansworth", "reviewers": [ "Cynthia Leitich Smith" ], "text": "So much truth! About Native blessings, burdens, beadwork and rock ’n’ roll. With wit and wonder, Eric Gansworth’s novel successfully tackles the complexities of Indigenous identity, of rez family and community ties, of big dreams and first love. Gansworth’s characters – Carson, Maggi and Lewis – spring from the page, and his storytelling is spot on. In this groundbreaking follow-up to If I Ever Get Out Of Here, Gansworth confirms that he’s an essential Native voice in YA lit.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "identity & culture", "for music lovers", "family matters", "love & romance" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "1338143549", "seamus": 658988330, "itunes": 9781338143546, "bookshop": 9781338143546, "cover": "1338143549", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781338143546", "isbn10": "1338143549", "links": [] }, "57": { "id": 57, "title": "We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga", "author": "Traci Sorell, illustrated by Frané Lessac", "reviewers": [ "Cynthia Leitich Smith" ], "text": "Gratitude is a way of life for my Cherokee Nation cousins, each day and season of the year, as they honor their traditions and take one celebratory, healing step after another. Traci Sorell’s debut picture book is both tribally specific and universal in appeal, gorgeously and lyrically rendered, steeped in authenticity and respect. Frané Lessac’s art illuminates daily life and diversity within. If I could give one book about Native people to our youngest readers, this would be it! (For ages 3 to 7)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "158089772X", "seamus": 660301307, "itunes": 9781580897723, "bookshop": 9781580897723, "cover": "158089772X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781580897723", "isbn10": "158089772X", "links": [] }, "58": { "id": 58, "title": "Turnip Greens & Tortillas: A Mexican Chef Spices Up The Southern Kitchen", "author": "Eddie Hernandez and Susan Puckett", "reviewers": [ "Debbie Elliott" ], "text": "Atlanta chef Eddie Hernandez is known for infusing the fresh flavors of his native Monterrey, Mexico, with traditions of his adopted South – think Memphis barbecue tacos and buttermilk fried chicken with green chile-horseradish sauce. The fusion started when he was gifted a mess of backyard-garden turnip greens and wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. So he approached them as he might cook wild Mexican greens – adding fresh tomatoes and chile de arbol. Ordinarily I’d say there’s no room for tomatoes in your potlikker, but these greens are addictive (just ask the regulars at his restaurant, Taqueria del Sol) Plus Angie Mosier’s photographs of Hernandez’s dishes will make your mouth water!
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0544618823", "seamus": "", "itunes": 9780544618824, "bookshop": 9780544618824, "cover": "0544618823", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780544618824", "isbn10": "0544618823", "links": [] }, "59": { "id": 59, "title": "A Hard Rain: America In The 1960s, Our Decade Of Hope, Possibility, And Innocence Lost", "author": "Frye Gaillard", "reviewers": [ "Debbie Elliott" ], "text": "Frye Gaillard offers a sweeping analysis of a “decade of hope and tragedy and blood,” detailing the forces of change at play in American society – in politics, social movements, science and the arts. What stands out are personal reflections on events that shaped Gaillard – such as Robert Kennedy’s response to Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination: “As I read over these words now … the historian’s detachment disappears into memory,” he writes. “I feel again the sense so many shared at the time that this was the heart of America laid bare – the hope on the other side of our national inclination to violence.”
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "rather long", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "158838344X", "seamus": 658920615, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781588383440, "cover": "158838344X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781588383440", "isbn10": "158838344X", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 59, "book": "A Hard Rain: America In The 1960s, Our Decade Of Hope, Possibility, And Innocence Lost", "source": "WFAE", "text": "SouthBound: Frye Gaillard On The ‘60s And What It Meant (Especially In The South)", "url": "http://www.wfae.org/post/southbound-frye-gaillard-60s-and-what-it-meant-especially-south#stream/0" } ] }, "60": { "id": 60, "title": "The Artful Evolution Of Hal & Mal's", "author": "Malcolm White, illustrated by Ginger Williams Cook", "reviewers": [ "Debbie Elliott" ], "text": "I’ve learned a lot about Mississippi from Malcolm White. When on assignment in Jackson, I’d stop by Hal & Mal’s for a plate of tamales, saltines with Comeback Sauce and some dish on the news. White’s lovely coffee-table book tells the story of the institution he started with his late brother Hal. It’s a loving family memoir – but also recounts the eclectic who’s who the brothers hosted, including acts from Albert King to Snoop Dogg. Writer and former Harper’s editor Willie Morris had a phone installed at his regular table. Elvis never played Hal & Mal’s, but the King has a place of honor, in velvet, on the wall by the men’s room.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "cookbooks & food", "for art lovers", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "family matters" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1496812034", "seamus": 660302470, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781496812032, "cover": "1496812034", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781496812032", "isbn10": "1496812034", "links": [] }, "61": { "id": 61, "title": "The Hellfire Club", "author": "Jake Tapper", "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "text": "If you’re tired of political thrillers that feel ripped from the day’s headlines, Jake Tapper has found the sweet spot to get you turning pages again. The Hellfire Club takes you back to the 1950s, but there are just enough nods to politics today to bring a wry smile as you read. The details – fact and fiction – all ring true as we watch a freshman congressman run afoul of political expediency while trying to serve the people, without losing his own soul in the process.
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "for history lovers", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "031647231X", "seamus": 605978339, "itunes": 9780316472319, "bookshop": "", "cover": "031647231X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316472319", "isbn10": "031647231X", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 61, "book": "The Hellfire Club", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Jake Tapper ", "url": "http://www.wamc.org/post/book-show-1558-jake-tapper" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 61, "book": "The Hellfire Club", "source": "NPR", "text": "CNN's Jake Tapper On McCarthyism, Trump And The 'Jar Jar Binks Principle'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/26/605978056/cnns-jake-tapper-on-mccarthyism-trump-and-the-jar-jar-binks-principle" } ] }, "62": { "id": 62, "title": "Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, And The Anatomy Of Intrigue", "author": "Ryan Holiday", "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "text": "These days, it seems some people see a conspiracy lurking around every corner, but sometimes there really is a conspiracy. Financier Peter Thiel was out for revenge after the website Gawker outed him as gay, and he found the perfect cover in a lawsuit Hulk Hogan brought against the site over a sex tape – until, as Ryan Holiday reports, loose lips revealed the motive and the deep pockets funding Hogan’s suit. This is a fascinating read that reminds us that true conspiracies have enough layers of plot to stay murky no matter what.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "let’s talk about sex", "staff picks", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0735217645", "seamus": 658972745, "itunes": 9780735217645, "bookshop": 9780735217645, "cover": "0735217645", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780735217645", "isbn10": "0735217645", "links": [] }, "63": { "id": 63, "title": "Fascism: A Warning", "author": "Madeleine Albright", "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "text": "Fascism is a label casually slapped on many agendas these days. Here, Madeleine Albright, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and secretary of state, brings her personal experience growing up in Europe during the days of Mussolini and Hitler as well as her academic and diplomatic study of dictators to parse which modern political leaders are boldly adopting fascist tactics – and which ones are skirting the edges. Albright is a stylish and smooth writer, making big thoughts less vexing, providing context beyond a healthy Socratic approach. The questions she raises are important not just for history, but the present and the future.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0062802186", "seamus": 599121053, "itunes": 9780062802187, "bookshop": 9780062802187, "cover": "0062802186", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062802187", "isbn10": "0062802186", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 63, "book": "Fascism: A Warning", "source": "NPR", "text": "Madeleine Albright Warns: Don't Let Fascism Go 'Unnoticed Until It's Too Late'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/03/599120190/madeleine-albright-warns-dont-let-fascism-go-unnoticed-until-its-too-late" } ] }, "64": { "id": 64, "title": "Indianapolis: The True Story Of The Worst Sea Disaster In U.S. Naval History And The Fifty-Year Fight To Exonerate An Innocent Man", "author": "Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic", "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "text": "The USS Indianapolis would have a place in history just for its role delivering components of the first atomic bomb to the Pacific near the end of World War II. Days after drop-off, the ship was sunk by two Japanese torpedoes leading to the worst sea disaster in U.S. naval history. Hundreds of men died, and hundreds survived in the water while fighting off sharks, dehydration and delirium. The captain was court-martialed. It took decades and an unlikely combination of dogged advocates to exonerate the captain, exposing the weaknesses of bureaucracy and face-saving command structures.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "rather long", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1501135945", "seamus": 659579533, "itunes": 9781501135941, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1501135945", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501135941", "isbn10": "1501135945", "links": [] }, "65": { "id": 65, "title": "The Soul Of America: The Battle For Our Better Angels", "author": "Jon Meacham", "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "text": "If the vitriol of today’s political rhetoric has you thinking the United States is at its lowest point, Jon Meacham is here to remind you that the nation has weathered ugly chapters before. He is not Pollyanna, but he thoughtfully walks us through Reconstruction, the anti-immigrant movement in World War I and the strength of the KKK, the McCarthy era and LBJ’s push for civil rights. These eras were chaotic – and challenged the core values of American democracy – but presidents found a path forward for the country with hope prevailing over fear.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "rather long", "staff picks", "identity & culture" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0399589813", "seamus": 607706080, "itunes": 9780399589812, "bookshop": 9780399589812, "cover": "0399589813", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780399589812", "isbn10": "0399589813", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 65, "book": "The Soul Of America: The Battle For Our Better Angels", "source": "WUWM", "text": " 'The Soul Of America' makes case for America's diversity and complexity", "url": "http://www.wuwm.com/post/soul-america-makes-case-america-s-diversity-complexity#stream/0" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 65, "book": "The Soul Of America: The Battle For Our Better Angels", "source": "NPR", "text": "Three Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historians Aim To Put American Politics In Context", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/11/656176540/three-pulitzer-prize-winning-historians-aim-to-put-american-politics-in-context" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 65, "book": "The Soul Of America: The Battle For Our Better Angels", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Soul Of America' Makes Sense Of Nation's Present By Examining Its Past", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/02/607704116/soul-of-america-makes-sense-of-americas-present-by-examining-its-past" } ] }, "66": { "id": 66, "title": "An American Marriage: A Novel", "author": "Tayari Jones", "reviewers": [ "Elise Hu" ], "text": "This book moves breathtakingly quickly while it slowly breaks your heart. It is the story of newlyweds Roy and Celestial, whose marriage is forever altered by a random encounter that thrusts them into the vastness and injustice of the American criminal justice system. As it unfolds in letters and stories told by Roy, Celestial and Celestial’s childhood friend, you switch your allegiances – the characters all seem so real, and so innocent when it comes to the tragic, systemic issue this story springs from. Lest this seem too abstract, one more thing: There’s lots of love here. So if you love love, like me, read this.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1616208775", "seamus": 586159256, "itunes": 9781616208776, "bookshop": 9781616208776, "cover": "1616208775", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781616208776", "isbn10": "1616208775", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 66, "book": "An American Marriage: A Novel", "source": "WFAE", "text": "SouthBound: Novelist Tayari Jones On Writing, Atlanta And Her Call From Oprah", "url": "http://www.wfae.org/post/southbound-novelist-tayari-jones-writing-atlanta-and-her-call-oprah#stream/0" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 66, "book": "An American Marriage: A Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Tayari Jones", "url": "http://www.wamc.org/post/book-show-1544-tayari-jones" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 66, "book": "An American Marriage: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "An American Marriage: Redefining The American Love Story", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/02/16/585928927/an-american-marriage-redefining-the-american-love-story" } ] }, "67": { "id": 67, "title": "Mastering Fear: A Navy SEAL's Guide", "author": "Brandon Webb and John David Mann", "reviewers": [ "Elizabeth Baker" ], "text": "I came across this book during a time when a new fear of heights had started to grip me in the middle of sessions at the climbing gym. Brandon Webb’s advice comes from his years as a Navy SEAL and as a CEO (two extremely high-pressure jobs), but it boils down to an accessible “trust yourself and go for it” philosophy that applies to almost any nerve-wracking situation. His techniques for turning anxiety into excitement and energy are ones that I have incorporated into training new show directors, and while I’m not exactly ready to free solo El Cap, this book has helped me push through and keep climbing.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "staff picks", "rather short" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0525533567", "seamus": 659606644, "itunes": 9780525533566, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0525533567", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525533566", "isbn10": "0525533567", "links": [] }, "68": { "id": 68, "title": "Bad Blood: Secrets And Lies In A Silicon Valley Startup", "author": "John Carreyrou", "reviewers": [ "Elizabeth Baker" ], "text": "This book is a total thriller and offers a visceral reminder: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Based on his Wall Street Journal investigative reporting, John Carreyrou expands the saga of Theranos, a Silicon Valley startup that was supposed to revolutionize health care but instead risked the health of millions of potential customers. This gripping and bizarre real-life drama has it all: a narcissistic leader drunk on power and venture capital who charms and strong-arms her employees, huge corporations, and even U.S. military generals into spending money on a too-good-to-be-true product that never worked – and the years-long cover-up and ultimate whistleblowing that saved America from a prized startup’s lies. I couldn’t put this book down.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "science!", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "9781524731656", "seamus": 623194444, "itunes": 9781524731656, "bookshop": 9781524731656, "cover": "9781524731656", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524731656", "isbn10": "152473165X", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 68, "book": "Bad Blood: Secrets And Lies In A Silicon Valley Startup", "source": "NPR", "text": "Reporter John Carreyrou On The 'Bad Blood' Of Theranos", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/23/622795416/reporter-john-carreyrou-on-the-bad-blood-of-theranos" } ] }, "69": { "id": 69, "title": "Do Not Lick This Book", "author": "Idan Ben-Barak, illustrated by Julian Frost", "reviewers": [ "Elizabeth Bird" ], "text": "Germs are everywhere, so why not move them around for fun? Meet Min. She’s a microbe living on the page of the book in front of you. By touching your teeth, clothes and bellybutton, you can move Min around and pick up more germy friends. Using a scanning electron microscope to show photographs of fibers and skin makes sure that even the youngest of readers get the message loud and clear: There is more to heaven and earth than can be seen with the naked eye. (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "science!" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1250175364", "seamus": 658977374, "itunes": 9781250175366, "bookshop": 9781250175366, "cover": "1250175364", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250175366", "isbn10": "1250175364", "links": [] }, "70": { "id": 70, "title": "Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness", "author": "Anastasia Higginbotham", "reviewers": [ "Elizabeth Bird" ], "text": "Meticulously collaged paper art and candid writing combine in this close examination of white privilege for younger readers. Not My Idea follows a white boy who witnesses a police shooting on the news, and his well-meaning parents who try to downplay both the event and everyday racism. Historical context and discussions of personal responsibility provide a solid foundation for critical discussions with kids. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1948340003", "seamus": 659910034, "itunes": 9781948340007, "bookshop": 9781948340007, "cover": "1948340003", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781948340007", "isbn10": "1948340003", "links": [] }, "71": { "id": 71, "title": "The Assassination Of Brangwain Spurge", "author": "M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin", "reviewers": [ "Elizabeth Bird" ], "text": "Just your average Middle-Earth-Cold-War-buddy-comedy with an unreliable visual narrator. With their nations experiencing a tentative peace, an elf scholar meets with a goblin scholar to exchange artifacts. Unfortunately, both are pawns for forces greater than themselves. If Hieronymus Bosch and Terry Gilliam had a love child, it couldn’t be more twisted and brilliant than the silent visual sequences you’ll find on these pages.
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "funny stuff", "seriously great writing", "rather long", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "for art lovers", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0763698229", "seamus": 660302856, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780763698225, "cover": "0763698229", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780763698225", "isbn10": "0763698229", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 71, "book": "The Assassination Of Brangwain Spurge", "source": "VPR", "text": "Three Vermonters Nominated For 2018 National Book Award", "url": "http://digital.vpr.net/post/three-vermonters-nominated-2018-national-book-award#stream/0" } ] }, "72": { "id": 72, "title": "The Dragon Slayer: Folktales From Latin America", "author": "Jaime Hernandez", "reviewers": [ "Elizabeth Bird" ], "text": "Who knew that the comic book format would provide the perfect medium for classic folktales? Three stories of smart women, clever fools and rat husbands are brought to life here with humor and an acute sense of style. Jaime Hernandez may be best known for Love And Rockets, but here his reworkings of these timeless tales pop off the page (and, happily, a bilingual Spanish edition sporting a peppy translation is also available!). (For ages 7 to 10)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "tales from around the world", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "for art lovers", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1943145296", "seamus": 660304807, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781943145294, "cover": "1943145296", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781943145294", "isbn10": "1943145296", "links": [] }, "73": { "id": 73, "title": "The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer And The Plot To Kill Hitler", "author": "John Hendrix", "reviewers": [ "Elizabeth Bird" ], "text": "This graphic biography places pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s faith squarely at its center. A good man in a world gone mad, he wrestles with the moral implications behind his role in attempted assassinations of Adolf Hitler. With art rendered in stark reds and blues, John Hendrix’s story is as much a feast to the eyes as it is a stirring, but ultimately tragic, tale. (For ages 10 to 14)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "seriously great writing", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1419728385", "seamus": 660305619, "itunes": 9781419728389, "bookshop": 9781419728389, "cover": "1419728385", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781419728389", "isbn10": "1419728385", "links": [] }, "74": { "id": 74, "title": "We Don't Eat Our Classmates", "author": "Ryan T. Higgins", "reviewers": [ "Elizabeth Bird" ], "text": "Making friends is never easy, particularly when they’re just so darn tasty! Penelope Rex is your typical T-Rex starting kindergarten, but her propensity for devouring her human seatmates lends nothing to her popularity. Only when she gets a taste of her own medicine, thanks to a particularly soulless goldfish, does she wrangle with the notion of self-control. Back-to-school stories can be a dime a dozen, but this is one hilarious take that anyone can enjoy. (For ages 5 to 6)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "funny stuff" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1368003559", "seamus": 660307513, "itunes": 9781368003551, "bookshop": 9781368003551, "cover": "1368003559", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781368003551", "isbn10": "1368003559", "links": [] }, "75": { "id": 75, "title": "The Mars Room: A Novel", "author": "Rachel Kushner", "reviewers": [ "Ellen Silva" ], "text": "If you loved Rachel Kushner’s The Flame Throwers, you might think you’re going for a similarly wild ride in her latest novel. You’re not – but you are in for another treat. And this journey is also primal: You meet protagonist Romy Hall on a night bus ride to prison. The Mars Room’s pleasures don’t rise up and slap you in the face. Instead, Kushner slowly unspools Romy’s history in rushes of memory, outlined with slow, aching details. This is a story about the underbelly of the underclass in 2003, and Romy’s intelligence and humor slowly seep into your skin in 2018. The Mars Room is beautiful and bleak; it captures this moment in time better than the many political nonfiction books I’ve read this year.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "staff picks", "the states we’re in", "seriously great writing" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1476756554", "seamus": 608279933, "itunes": 9781476756554, "bookshop": 9781476756554, "cover": "1476756554", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781476756554", "isbn10": "1476756554", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 75, "book": "The Mars Room: A Novel", "source": "NPR & WBUR", "text": "Here & Now: 'The Mars Room' Tells Story Of Those 'Invisiblized' By California's Criminal Justice System", "url": "http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/05/03/rachel-kushner-the-mars-room" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 75, "book": "The Mars Room: A Novel", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Bookworm: Rachel Kushner On 'The Mars Room'", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/rachel-kushner-the-mars-room" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 75, "book": "The Mars Room: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Brilliant But Devastating, 'The Mars Room' Chronicles Life Behind Bars", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/10/608279090/brilliant-but-devastating-the-mars-room-chronicles-life-behind-bars" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 75, "book": "The Mars Room: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Sharply Written 'Mars Room' Ventures Behind The Bars Of Women's Prison", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/07/609116989/sharply-written-mars-room-ventures-behind-the-bars-of-womens-prison" } ] }, "76": { "id": 76, "title": "Creative Quest", "author": "Questlove", "reviewers": [ "Eric Deggans" ], "text": "Questlove is king of the multi-hyphenates as an artist; he’s co-founder/producer/drummer for rap band The Roots, musical director for Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show, an in-demand DJ, album producer, author, foodie and more. So it’s a surprise to read, in the first line of his book about creativity, that Quest doesn’t know if he truly is creative. The rest of the book explores his meditations on how creativity works, from mentorship to the question of whether artists ever transcend their influences. It’s as if Questlove cracked open his mind and splashed his thoughts on the page, documenting his own restless creative journey while encouraging readers to take their own.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for art lovers", "eye-opening reads", "for music lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0062670557", "seamus": 600852920, "itunes": 9780062670557, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062670557", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062670557", "isbn10": "0062670557", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 76, "book": "Creative Quest", "source": "NPR", "text": "Questlove Aims To Save Your Brain: 'Creativity Might Be In Jeopardy'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/01/600852801/questlove-aims-to-save-your-brain-creativity-might-be-in-jeopardy" } ] }, "77": { "id": 77, "title": "Just The Funny Parts: ...And A Few Hard Truths About Sneaking Into The Hollywood Boys' Club", "author": "Nell Scovell", "reviewers": [ "Eric Deggans" ], "text": "TV writer extraordinaire Nell Scovell delivers three books in one. It’s a hilariously self-deprecating, warts-and-all showbiz memoir, combined with an insightful how-to-survive-in-Hollywood manual, mixed with an incredibly brave chronicle of the sexism and harassment she has faced in a male-dominated industry. Scovell, who created ABC’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch and has written for The Simpsons and Late Night with David Letterman, calls out Letterman for never hiring a writer of color and alleges, with detail, that Jim Stafford pressured her into sex when he was head writer for a Smothers Brothers revival series. Fortunately, the book is also so down to earth and funny – there’s an entire chapter devoted to writing jobs she didn’t get – that readers will laugh at least as much as they get angry.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "funny stuff", "eye-opening reads", "staff picks", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0062473484", "seamus": 659603181, "itunes": 9780062473486, "bookshop": 9780062473486, "cover": "0062473484", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062473486", "isbn10": "0062473484", "links": [] }, "78": { "id": 78, "title": "Stealing The Show: How Women Are Revolutionizing Television", "author": "Joy Press", "reviewers": [ "Eric Deggans" ], "text": "For many years, shows about middle-aged white guy antiheroes created by middle-aged white guy producers (called “showrunners”) took center stage in the discussion of today’s high-quality TV age. But in this book, longtime TV journalist-critic Joy Press details an important legacy of strong, creative female showrunners who challenged and changed how women were depicted. From Murphy Brown and Roseanne to Orange is the New Black and Transparent, Press outlines the backstories on how women behind some of television’s most important female-centered series subverted stereotypes, while occasionally inspiring each other, helping the TV industry move forward – sometimes, despite itself.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "staff picks", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1501137719", "seamus": 660080701, "itunes": 9781501137716, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1501137719", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501137716", "isbn10": "1501137719", "links": [] }, "79": { "id": 79, "title": "The Friend: A Novel", "author": "Sigrid Nunez", "reviewers": [ "Eric McDaniel" ], "text": "Grief, it turns out, is more domain than emotion: A new manner of thinking that subsumes you after trauma. Sadness – zoom out – thinking about sadness – zoom out – thinking about how best to be sad. And to read The Friend is to be awash in the sharp particularities of one person’s grief – a faucet of literary references that buoy and drown a writer in equal parts after her close friend’s suicide. And, thanks to the Great Dane that graces the book’s Technicolor jacket, Sigrid Nunez’s novel makes the persuasive case that grief – fully opaque – can’t be understood, but it can be accepted.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "staff picks", "rather short" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0735219443", "seamus": 579236717, "itunes": 9780735219441, "bookshop": 9780735219441, "cover": "0735219443", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780735219441", "isbn10": "0735219443", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 79, "book": "The Friend: A Novel", "source": "NPR & WBUR", "text": "Here & Now: In 'The Friend,' A Dog And A Cat Person Help Each Other Heal After A Shared Loss", "url": "http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/03/09/sigrid-nunez-the-friend" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 79, "book": "The Friend: A Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Sigrid Nunez", "url": "http://www.wamc.org/post/book-show-1548-sigrid-nunez" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 79, "book": "The Friend: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Friend' Novelist Grapples With Suicide, Grief And Student-Teacher Relationships", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2019/01/24/688185092/the-friend-novelist-grapples-with-suicide-grief-and-student-teacher-relationship" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 79, "book": "The Friend: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Friend' Is No Shaggy Dog Story", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/01/23/579233885/the-friend-is-no-shaggy-dog-story" } ] }, "80": { "id": 80, "title": "One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy", "author": "Carol Anderson", "reviewers": [ "Eric McDaniel" ], "text": "From white sheets to spreadsheets, *One Person, No Vote *documents the history of U.S. policy that has denied Americans of color their right to vote. Carol Anderson’s prose is unflinching, and she wastes no time as she marches the reader from the openly racist, clear-cutting suppression tactics of the early 20th century toward the carefully veneered, ruthlessly efficient disenfranchisement campaign of the present. Whether you only think about voting on a single Tuesday in November or you’re passionately engaged in the fight for the ballot, you will set this book down with the knowledge that it’s all so much worse than you thought.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1635571375", "seamus": 659914189, "itunes": 9781635571370, "bookshop": 9781635571370, "cover": "1635571375", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781635571370", "isbn10": "1635571375", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 80, "book": "One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy", "source": "WUWM", "text": " 'One Person, No Vote' highlights impact of voter suppression laws", "url": "http://www.wuwm.com/post/one-person-no-vote-highlights-impact-voter-suppression-laws#stream/0" } ] }, "81": { "id": 81, "title": "Palaces For The People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, And The Decline Of Civic Life", "author": "Eric Klinenberg", "reviewers": [ "Eric McDaniel" ], "text": "How do you mend a fractured nation? Fund your local library. Eric Klinenberg’s Palaces for the People makes the case that the fight for healthy communities and a vibrant democracy is won through a commitment to strong social infrastructure. Libraries, community pools, parks and the like serve as hubs for the kinds of programs and encounters that link people with a diverse range of experiences, and stitch together communities. Participating in community life is how you meet new people, escape from work and come to understand the lives that others live. And – like Klinenberg’s book – it is a lot more heartening than scrolling through Twitter.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "it’s all geek to me", "the states we’re in", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1524761168", "seamus": 659916175, "itunes": 9781524761165, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1524761168", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524761165", "isbn10": "1524761168", "links": [] }, "82": { "id": 82, "title": "Bingo Love", "author": "Tee Franklin, illustrated by Jenn St-Onge and Joy San", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "There’s a time and a place for unabashed sentimentality, and both are right in this sugar-sweet second-chance tale. In 1963, teenagers Mari and Hazel fall in love after encountering one another at a church bingo hall, but they’re separated by their families. After decades of marriage and motherhood, they run across one another again – in, of all places, another bingo hall. Who knew calling numbers and marking cards could be so romantic? Bold, bright illustrations by Jenn St-Onge and Joy San capture changing fashions and allow the star-crossed lovers to age beautifully.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "love & romance", "identity & culture" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1534307508", "seamus": 658951347, "itunes": 9781534307506, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1534307508", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781534307506", "isbn10": "1534307508", "links": [] }, "83": { "id": 83, "title": "Come Again", "author": "Nate Powell", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "Earnest and unpredictable, Nate Powell’s graphic novel fits no particular genre. A touch of the mystical keeps its slow-building true-life narrative off-kilter. Set in the 1970s, the story revolves around an “intentional community” in the Ozarks called Haven Station. Powell’s expansive compositions evoke the sheer joy of summer days and nights in such a setting, but all is not as idyllic as it seems. Powell has come up with a strange and unexpected series of events that are both diverting and symbolically relevant.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "the dark side", "family matters" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1603094288", "seamus": 636725619, "itunes": 9781603094283, "bookshop": 9781603094283, "cover": "1603094288", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781603094283", "isbn10": "1603094288", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 83, "book": "Come Again", "source": "NPR", "text": "Spooky And Off-Kilter, 'Come Again' Shows Nate Powell's Virtuosity", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/09/636725564/spooky-and-off-kilter-come-again-shows-nate-powells-virtuosity" } ] }, "84": { "id": 84, "title": "Infidel", "author": "Pornsak Pichetshote and Aaron Campbell", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "When Aisha, a Muslim woman living with her white fiancé and his daughter, begins having strange dreams and seeing horrible visions, she’s propelled into a classic haunted-house story. As the tale evolves, Pornsak Pichetshote and Aaron Campbell delve into the real-world theme of racism while simultaneously embracing the phantasmal devices of horror. Drawing on that opposition, they express a subtle message about how racism works – all while serving up scenes that will unsettle the world-weariest fan.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "identity & culture", "comics & graphic novels", "the states we’re in", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1534308369", "seamus": 636412200, "itunes": 9781534308367, "bookshop": 9781534308367, "cover": "1534308369", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781534308367", "isbn10": "1534308369", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 84, "book": "Infidel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Infidel' Uses The Supernatural To Explore Racism's Real Life Horrors", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/07/654006218/infidel-uses-the-supernatural-to-explore-racisms-real-life-horrors" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 84, "book": "Infidel", "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" } ] }, "85": { "id": 85, "title": "Luisa – Now And Then", "author": "Carole Maurel and Mariko Tamaki", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "Carole Maurel and Mariko Tamaki soften the time-travel story with their account of Luisa, whose 15-year-old self travels into the future to meet herself all grown up. The teenage Luisa is nonplussed to learn what has become of her: As an adult, she has given up on her creative dreams and failed at love. The two Luisas’ reactions to the situation provide plenty of warm, funny moments, and Maurel’s characteristically elegant and eloquent artwork heightens the drama of a familiar premise.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "identity & culture", "love & romance" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1594656436", "seamus": 620519581, "itunes": 9781594656439, "bookshop": 9781594656439, "cover": "1594656436", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781594656439", "isbn10": "1594656436", "links": [] }, "86": { "id": 86, "title": "Shade, The Changing Girl Vol. 2: Little Runaway", "author": "Cecil Castellucci and Marley Zarcone", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "This delightful continuation of the adventures of Shade, an alien who takes over the body of a teenage mean girl, serves as further evidence of the creativity of self-described “21st-century flapper” Cecil Castellucci. Sensing the limitations of the high school milieu, Castellucci has Shade head off to explore America – starting with Gotham City. Marley Zarcone’s art is perfect for Castellucci’s concept: crowded, vivid, yet subtly influenced by icy-cool stylists Adrian Tomine and Dan Clowes. Shade, the Changing Girl is both winsome and challenging – the perfect blend.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the states we’re in", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1401275451", "seamus": 659926570, "itunes": 9781401275457, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1401275451", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781401275457", "isbn10": "1401275451", "links": [] }, "87": { "id": 87, "title": "Che: A Revolutionary Life", "author": "Jon Lee Anderson, illustrated by José Hernández", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "Jon Lee Anderson’s critically acclaimed 1997 biography of Che Guevara comes to life in this graphical adaptation. Anderson’s take on Che is subtle and engages thoughtfully with the subject’s mythic status. Political cartoonist José Hernández is a phenomenal draftsman with a cinematic eye and a particular flair for drawing people; scenes of revolutionary intrigue spark in his characters’ superbly inflected faces, and he renders the midcentury time period in gorgeous, sepia hues perfect for a book of history.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "for art lovers" ], "editor": "", "isbn": "0735221774", "seamus": 662133365, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780735221772, "cover": "0735221774", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780735221772", "isbn10": "0735221774", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 87, "book": "Che: A Revolutionary Life", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Che' Graphic Biography Explores The Myths And Truths Of The Legend", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/11/20/669241445/che-graphic-biography-explores-the-myths-and-truths-of-the-legend" } ] }, "88": { "id": 88, "title": "Your Black Friend And Other Strangers", "author": "Ben Passmore", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "Passmore’s short 2016 comic “Your Black Friend” was a sensation, and this collection of his work keeps the energy high. Writing about “how to laugh in the face of a world that wants to crush us,” Passmore explores hate, indifference and how to be resilient in the face of both. He writes lavishly, piling on observations and theories until he nearly overflows his word balloons. His art, too, seems to have more motion and mise-en-scène than his panels can comfortably contain. His sense of urgency is so potent, this book is like a juggernaut.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "identity & culture", "eye-opening reads", "nonfiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1945509201", "seamus": 584644404, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781945509209, "cover": "1945509201", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781945509209", "isbn10": "1945509201", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 88, "book": "Your Black Friend And Other Strangers", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Your Black Friend' Is Back, With Plenty To Say", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/03/605001927/your-black-friend-is-back-with-plenty-to-say" } ] }, "89": { "id": 89, "title": "Small Fry", "author": "Lisa Brennan-Jobs", "reviewers": [ "Gabriela Saldivia" ], "text": "Small Fry might initally grab your attention because of the author’s famous father. But Lisa Brennan-Jobs quickly moves you past this, captivating with her honest and self-aware writing. Brennan-Jobs calls her memoir a coming-of-age story, in which she recounts growing up in Silicon Valley during the 1980s while dad Steve Jobs came in and out of her life. The book is full of anecdotes that show Brennan-Jobs’ desire for attention from her father and her fear of his unpredictability toward her. Brennan-Jobs artfully reveals her most shameful stories and intimate inner thoughts, without self-hatred or judgment. This engrossing memoir about identity and adolescence is relatable to anyone familiar with complicated family relationships.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0802128238", "seamus": 643639896, "itunes": 9780802128232, "bookshop": 9780802128232, "cover": "0802128238", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780802128232", "isbn10": "0802128238", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 89, "book": "Small Fry", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Memoir Of An '80s California Childhood — And Being Steve Jobs' Daughter", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/31/643582392/being-steve-jobs-daughter-in-small-fry" } ] }, "90": { "id": 90, "title": "Darwin Comes To Town: How The Urban Jungle Drives Evolution", "author": "Menno Schilthuizen", "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "text": "Urban spaces are an ecosystem all their own; life makes its way into the cracks between paving stones. In this fascinating book about urban evolution, biologist and ecologist Menno Schilthuizen gives us case studies of over a dozen animals and plants that are adapting quickly to a changing world, in ways that are alternately fascinating and tragic. This is an engaging, sobering read that offers plenty of food for thought and casts a new light on the weeds in your driveway, the bugs in your porch lights and the birds on your telephone wires.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "science!" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1250127823", "seamus": 599861403, "itunes": 9781250127822, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250127823", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250127822", "isbn10": "1250127823", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 90, "book": "Darwin Comes To Town: How The Urban Jungle Drives Evolution", "source": "NPR", "text": "Birds Open Bottles And Catfish Hunt Pigeons When 'Darwin Comes To Town'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/08/599861932/birds-open-bottles-and-catfish-hunt-pigeons-when-darwin-comes-to-town" } ] }, "91": { "id": 91, "title": "Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower", "author": "Brittney Cooper", "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "text": "Last year, Brittney Cooper wrote an academic history of black women as public intellectuals who fought seemingly unattainable prerequisites for being taken seriously. In Eloquent Rage, Cooper’s stakes are more personal, but the struggle is the same. “Our feminist origin stories matter,” she explains early in this book, which combines memoir and cultural observation as she traces the rocky road toward finding a feminism she can claim for herself. Sociopolitical frameworks can be hard to reconcile with the personal, and Cooper occasionally hits a needle scratch trying, but this book is otherwise smart, engaging and brings a much needed lens to contemporary feminism.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "biography & memoir" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1250112575", "seamus": 658982590, "itunes": 9781250112576, "bookshop": 9781250112576, "cover": "1250112575", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250112576", "isbn10": "1250112575", "links": [] }, "92": { "id": 92, "title": "Once And Forever: The Tales Of Kenji Miyazawa", "author": "Kenji Miyazawa, translated by John Bester", "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "text": "This collection of tales by Kenji Miyazawa (a re-release of a 1993 edition, translated by John Bester) has an enchanting sense of wildness. Miyazawa (whose Night on the Galactic Railroad is considered a modern classic) lives in the details, whether in a story of frantic preparations for the expected visit of the Buddha, or a wicked joke about a suspiciously carnivorous restaurant. These tales turn familiar fairy-tale rhythms on their hands, balancing chaos and kindness, the natural and the supernatural, the unsettling and the inspiring. It will be right at home in any library of short stories or modern folklore.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1681372606", "seamus": 654464671, "itunes": 9781681372600, "bookshop": 9781681372600, "cover": "1681372606", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781681372600", "isbn10": "1681372606", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 92, "book": "Once And Forever: The Tales Of Kenji Miyazawa", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Once And Forever' Turns Familiar Fairy-Tale Ideas Upside Down", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/08/654463731/once-and-forever-turns-familiar-fairy-tale-ideas-upside-down" } ] }, "93": { "id": 93, "title": "Split Tooth", "author": "Tanya Tagaq", "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "text": "This book, the first from Inuit musician Tanya Tagaq, defies easy categorization. (The Globe and Mail tried “mythobiography,” which seems as good as anything.) Split Tooth juxtaposes sharply-observed vignettes of puberty, heartbreaking vulnerability and vivid bursts of the supernatural; they sometimes keep uneasy company but are held together by the sheer presence of the narrator as she guides us over her icy landscape, trusting us to understand the power of storytelling — both as a literary device and as a necessity for navigating life. The result is a raw-edged tale as hypnotic and unrelenting as any of Tagaq’s performances.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "seriously great writing", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "for music lovers", "rather short" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0670070092", "seamus": 660080091, "itunes": 9780670070091, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0670070092", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780670070091", "isbn10": "0670070092", "links": [] }, "94": { "id": 94, "title": "Terra Nullius: A Novel", "author": "Claire G. Coleman", "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "text": "Jacky is running; he has escaped the residential school where children of the Natives are taken to be re-educated in the ways of the Settlers, who see the people they’ve subjugated as little better than animals. It’s a familiar colonial narrative, but Claire Coleman (a member of Australia’s Noongar Nation) deftly twists expectations. The invaders’ cruelty takes on a brutal and immediate context, and the nature of the homegrown resistance confronts some uncomfortable truths about the present. The novel was shortlisted for several Australian awards, and no wonder — it’s a debut that leaves you excited for what’s next.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "identity & culture", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1618731513", "seamus": 660079842, "itunes": 9781618731517, "bookshop": 9781618731517, "cover": "1618731513", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781618731517", "isbn10": "1618731513", "links": [] }, "95": { "id": 95, "title": "The Strange Case Of Dr. Couney: How A Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands Of American Babies", "author": "Dawn Raffel", "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "text": "At first, this tale of a midway marvel reads like true crime; certainly Dr. Couney, who ran baby-incubator sideshows, is a mysterious figure. But author Dawn Raffel quickly becomes less interested in who he was than in what he did. Couney’s incubator pavilions found homes on big-city boardwalks, wedged amid pseudo-scientific tourist exhibitions. But the babies in Couney’s incubators had a survival rate so much higher than hospitals that the book ends up exploring larger questions about social sea changes, the power of public perception and what it means to meet those incubator babies. A compelling historical footnote, compassionately told.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "eye-opening reads", "science!", "the states we’re in", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0399175741", "seamus": 634619370, "itunes": 9780399175749, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0399175741", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780399175749", "isbn10": "0399175741", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 95, "book": "The Strange Case Of Dr. Couney: How A Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands Of American Babies", "source": "WVXU", "text": "Author Dawn Raffel talks about ‘The Strange Case Of Dr. Couney’", "url": "http://www.wvxu.org/post/author-dawn-raffel-talks-about-strange-case-dr-couney#stream/0" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 95, "book": "The Strange Case Of Dr. Couney: How A Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands Of American Babies", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Strange Case Of Dr. Couney' Tells Of Fair Sideshows That Saved Babies' Lives", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/02/634577724/the-strange-case-of-dr-couney-tells-of-fair-sideshows-that-saved-babies-lives" } ] }, "96": { "id": 96, "title": "All The Answers", "author": "Michael Kupperman", "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "text": "Cartoonist Michael Kupperman’s father attained an odd and uniquely American kind of celebrity status in his youth: He was a precocious regular panelist on a televised trivia game show called Quiz Kids. His son’s attempts to understand his father’s youthful experience – and the man’s subsequent refusal to acknowledge that time of his life – form the backbone of All The Answers, which is given a sense of urgency by the fact that the father is slowly sinking into dementia. Kupperman uses archival photos and news clippings to evoke the button-down blankness of midcentury America, and he invokes the cultural status of American Jews in the postwar era to provide enlightening context. But the graphic memoir’s true subject is the frustrating unknowability of others and the tendency for our parents lives to hover perpetually beyond our reach.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "staff picks", "for history lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "book club ideas", "rather short" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1501166433", "seamus": 610557003, "itunes": 9781501166433, "bookshop": 9781501166433, "cover": "1501166433", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501166433", "isbn10": "1501166433", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 96, "book": "All The Answers", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pop Culture Happy Hour All-Books Edition: Volume 2", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/24/651101842/pop-culture-happy-hour-all-books-edition-volume-2" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 96, "book": "All The Answers", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'All The Answers' Can't Answer Its Central Questions — And That's Just Fine", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/19/609367734/all-the-answers-cant-answer-its-central-questions-and-thats-just-fine" } ] }, "97": { "id": 97, "title": "Born To Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life And Mysterious Genius Of Edward Gorey", "author": "Mark Dery", "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "text": "The late Edward Gorey was many things – an artist, a writer, a set designer, an illustrator. Also: reclusive, idiosyncratic, macabre, surreal and profoundly queer. He became a beloved fixture of American literary life, but “beloved” is not the same thing as “appreciated.” That’s why Mark Dery’s deep, clear-eyed biography of Gorey is so welcome. He pulls at the disparate threads running through Gorey’s art – influences from fusty Edwardian novelists to lusty pre-Stonewall counterculture – and unearths the artist’s gay identity, though any fan of Gorey’s work will tell you that that particular act of excavation amounts to brushing off a light layer of topsoil.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for art lovers", "staff picks", "rather long" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0316188549", "seamus": 658956522, "itunes": 9780316188548, "bookshop": 9780316188548, "cover": "0316188549", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316188548", "isbn10": "0316188549", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 97, "book": "Born To Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life And Mysterious Genius Of Edward Gorey", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Born To Be Posthumous' Brings Edward Gorey's Name To His Work", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/11/14/667432542/born-to-be-posthumous-brings-edward-goreys-name-to-his-work" } ] }, "98": { "id": 98, "title": "Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles", "author": "Mark Russell, illustrated by Mike Feehan", "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "text": "This deeply odd six-issue miniseries stars Snagglepuss (yep, that one) as a gay Southern playwright in the ‘50s – Tennessee Williams, basically – under investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee. His friend and confidant is Huckleberry Hound (a William Faulkner stand-in, because why not?). It’s such a weird idea on its (fuzzy-wuzzy) face that you could be forgiven for expecting the series to simply lunge for cheap laughs, but the more you read, the more a real, textured melancholy descends. Mark Russell and Mike Feehan place you in that place and time, and you watch lives and careers being destroyed. One of the year’s most surprising – and surprisingly wrenching – comics.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "the states we’re in", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "for art lovers", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1401275214", "seamus": 641308245, "itunes": 9781401275211, "bookshop": 9781401275211, "cover": "1401275214", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781401275211", "isbn10": "1401275214", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 98, "book": "Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles", "source": "NPR", "text": "Spike Lee's 'BlacKkKlansman'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/23/641262003/spike-lees-blackkklansman" } ] }, "99": { "id": 99, "title": "How To Invent Everything: A Survival Guide For The Stranded Time Traveler", "author": "Ryan North", "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "text": "The brilliant conceit: You’re a time-traveler, and you’ve been issued this hefty, exhaustive handbook to account for any contingency you may experience in your temporal journeying. Should you find yourself stranded in the past, you’ll find a series of chirpy instructions for creating the technology to make your stay more bearable – from planting tea and tobacco (the handbook cautions you that, while it is a mild stimulant, tobacco will eventually be responsible for billions of deaths and will also lead to the invention of vaping) to wildlife domestication and computers. With generous humor, writer Ryan North throws in helpful charts and technology trees and sprinkles useful scientific history among the jokes; the result is a slyly funny piece of popular science writing.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "science!", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "rather long", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "073522014X", "seamus": 659499686, "itunes": 9780735220140, "bookshop": "", "cover": "073522014X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780735220140", "isbn10": "073522014X", "links": [] }, "100": { "id": 100, "title": "My Brother's Husband, Volume 2", "author": "Gengoroh Tagame, translated by Anne Ishii", "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "text": "The second and final volume of Tagame’s hugely successful manga series finds single dad Yaichi coming to accept Mike, his late twin brother’s husband. In this, he is light-years behind his own young daughter Kana, who loves Mike with a joyous intensity. But Yaichi is a lot more anxious and circumspect than Kana, because Mike’s three-week stay in their home has caused him to question the cultural homophobia he has unthinkingly consumed all his life. Creator Tagame sends Yaichi on a journey of acceptance and enlightenment that feels achingly true, as it’s beset by fits and starts, advancements and reversals. The artist revels in playfully setting up scenes that hint at sexual tension, even when the only real tension lies in Yaichi’s self-lacerating inner monologue.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "tales from around the world", "identity & culture", "family matters", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1101871539", "seamus": 652132418, "itunes": 9781101871539, "bookshop": 9781101871539, "cover": "1101871539", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781101871539", "isbn10": "1101871539", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 100, "book": "My Brother's Husband, Volume 2", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'My Brother's Husband Vol. 2,' Family Values (And The Value Of Family) ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/12/639601426/in-my-brothers-husband-vol-2-family-values-and-the-value-of-family" } ] }, "101": { "id": 101, "title": "Sabrina", "author": "Nick Drnaso", "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "text": "The first graphic novel to be nominated for the Man Booker Prize, Sabrina is Nick Drnaso’s follow-up to 2016’s Beverly, a dispassionate but no less blistering indictment of the way we live now: isolated, numbed, drowning in a sea of cultural anhedonia. When the title character goes missing, an airman finds himself drawn into the void her absence creates, discovering surprising connections — and encountering those online who prove only too eager to manufacture connections of their own. It’s a chilling distillation of the way the world feels nowadays — the rejection of evidence that does not conform to pre-digested beliefs, the eager embrace of Byzantine conspiracy theories, the lurid fascination with true-crime narratives. Not a cheery read, but an unforgettably tense and vivid one.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "177046316X", "seamus": 612001241, "itunes": 9781770463165, "bookshop": 9781770463165, "cover": "177046316X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781770463165", "isbn10": "177046316X", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 101, "book": "Sabrina", "source": "NPR", "text": "Murder Is Minimal In Spooky 'Sabrina'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/22/611999980/murder-is-minimal-in-spooky-sabrina" } ] }, "102": { "id": 102, "title": "The Many Deaths Of Scott Koblish", "author": "Scott Koblish", "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "text": "Death by steamroller. Death by healthy cereal. Death by falling manatee. Cartoonist Scott Koblish has compiled the cheeriest memento mori you’re likely to come across — a series of wordless, mostly one-page comic strips in which Koblish’s bespectacled cartoon avatar dies. And dies. And dies and dies and dies, through means both prosaic (grilling accident, heart attack) and surreal (alien invasion, malevolent teddy bear, the aforementioned manatee). It should be depressing, this parade of merciless mortality, but Koblish’s style is so charming, his command of body language and facial expression so sure, and his imagination so twisted (watch out for that orange tabby, Scott!) that this funny, breezy collection ends up being one of the year’s most bizarrely life-affirming reads.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "staff picks", "funny stuff", "the dark side" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1452167125", "seamus": 660079648, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781452167121, "cover": "1452167125", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781452167121", "isbn10": "1452167125", "links": [] }, "103": { "id": 103, "title": "The Writer's Map: An Atlas Of Imaginary Lands", "author": "Huw Lewis-Jones", "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "text": "Those of us who’ve put a fantasy novel back on the shelf once we realize that its author hasn’t done the basic frickin’ work of providing us with a detailed map of the world in question know how important maps are. They both ground the reader, reinforcing the world’s reality, even as they appeal to our childlike sense of wonder that believes in buried treasure and dark forests teeming with elves. This handsome tome is a pure expression of that love and of the interplay between magical prose and imaginary cartography. Sumptuous maps of notable fantasy worlds jostle for space alongside essays from fantasy writers. The Writer’s Map charts the landscapes of literary imagination with passion and care.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "staff picks", "for art lovers", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "022659663X", "seamus": 660079276, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780226596631, "cover": "022659663X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780226596631", "isbn10": "022659663X", "links": [] }, "104": { "id": 104, "title": "Why Art?", "author": "Eleanor Davis", "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "text": "Don’t be fooled by its smallish size; this book is a journey. Cartoonist Eleanor Davis’ tongue-in-cheek attempt to answer its titular question begins with what seems to be a dispassionate, academic taxonomy of the various types of art that exist in the world, then introduces us to a handful of artists who are exhibiting their varied works together, and then … things get weird. Davis’ loopily stylized, friendly linework carries us from wry art-appreciation textbook into an increasingly untethered, surreal world where art and artist merge, separate and merge again.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "for art lovers", "comics & graphic novels", "book club ideas" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1683960823", "seamus": 660079186, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781683960829, "cover": "1683960823", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781683960829", "isbn10": "1683960823", "links": [] }, "105": { "id": 105, "title": "You're On An Airplane: A Self-Mythologizing Memoir", "author": "Parker Posey", "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "text": "Imagine settling in for a cross-country flight. Earbuds in, podcasts queued up, crossword app open. Now imagine that Parker Freaking Posey sits down next to you. Did I mention she’s wearing a turban? Because she’s wearing a turban. Plus she has her tiny dog Gracie with her. Whom she proceeds to start telling you … all about. And then she’ll tell you stories about her colorful, nigh-Faulknerian, Southern family, her early years performing offbeat characters in off-off-beat independent movies, her status as a fixture of the East Village, her favorite cocktail recipes, and much more. You’re On An Airplane captures that experience precisely, as quirky and effusive and at times puzzling as its author.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0735218196", "seamus": 632308087, "itunes": 9780735218192, "bookshop": 9780735218192, "cover": "0735218196", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780735218192", "isbn10": "0735218196", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 105, "book": "You're On An Airplane: A Self-Mythologizing Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "On the Books: An All-Book Edition Of Pop Culture Happy Hour", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/13/647489483/on-the-books-an-all-book-edition-of-pop-culture-happy-hour" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 105, "book": "You're On An Airplane: A Self-Mythologizing Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Parker Posey Writes Her Own Myth In 'You're On An Airplane'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/07/25/632277008/parker-posey-writes-her-own-myth-in-youre-on-an-airplane" } ] }, "106": { "id": 106, "title": "Enlightenment Now: The Case For Reason, Science, Humanism, And Progress", "author": "Steven Pinker", "reviewers": [ "Greg Myre" ], "text": "The world is getting better. Really. This is the premise for Steven Pinker’s sweeping book Enlightenment Now, which argues that we’re making real progress on most every front. We’re living longer, healthier lives. We’re better-educated and have higher living standards than any previous generation. Extreme poverty and deadly diseases are in sharp decline around the globe. Pinker says the facts are clear – but our politics, the media, academia and human nature lead us to dwell on the problems that remain, rather than celebrate the advances we’ve achieved. Agree or disagree, it’s a fascinating read.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "science!", "staff picks", "rather long" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0525427570", "seamus": 658983217, "itunes": 9780525427575, "bookshop": 9780525427575, "cover": "0525427570", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525427575", "isbn10": "0525427570", "links": [] }, "107": { "id": 107, "title": "Motherhood: A Novel", "author": "Sheila Heti", "reviewers": [ "Hannah Bloch" ], "text": "The narrator of Sheila Heti’s profound and provocative novel wrestles with the question of whether to have a baby. “You can’t create a person dishonestly,” she says as she interrogates herself, with the help of some coin-flipping. Some readers may be tempted to approach Motherhood as a suspense novel – will she or won’t she? I don’t recommend this. The narrator’s hard thinking is the joy of this book – a generous meditation on motherhood, daughterhood, relationships and the power of writing and art. “Living one way is not a criticism of every other way of living,” Heti writes. “Other lives should be able to exist alongside our own without any threat or judgment at all.”
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "1627790772", "seamus": 659609155, "itunes": 9781627790772, "bookshop": 9781627790772, "cover": "1627790772", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781627790772", "isbn10": "1627790772", "links": [] }, "108": { "id": 108, "title": "To Throw Away Unopened: A Memoir", "author": "Viv Albertine", "reviewers": [ "Heidi Saman" ], "text": "This sentence from Viv Albertine’s memoir says it all: “Sometimes you mess with the wrong middle-aged woman.” In 1976, Albertine, along with other musicians, formed one of the first all-women punk bands, The Slits. Now in middle age, she writes about sex, aging, feminism, the death of her mother, and why she’s done with relationships. “For sixty years I’ve been shaped by men’s point of view on every aspect of my life,” she says. Albertine’s writing cuts because her anger radiates truths that I, and so many women I know, can relate to.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for music lovers", "book club ideas", "family matters", "let’s talk about sex", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Beth/Meghan", "isbn": "0571326218", "seamus": 629454569, "itunes": 9780571326211, "bookshop": 9780571326211, "cover": "0571326218", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780571326211", "isbn10": "0571326218", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 108, "book": "To Throw Away Unopened: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Punk Legend And Memoirist Viv Albertine On A Lifetime Of Fighting The Patriarchy", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/07/16/629425002/punk-legend-and-memoirist-viv-albertine-on-a-lifetime-of-fighting-the-patriarchy" } ] }, "109": { "id": 109, "title": "A Life Of My Own: A Memoir", "author": "Claire Tomalin", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "Claire Tomalin, an accomplished literary biographer, moves smoothly between “the trivial and the tragic” and deftly braids the personal, professional and historical in this decorous but elegant memoir that is an ode to perseverance. At 85, she traces her not-always-easy path to self-fulfillment — revisiting a childhood marked by the double discontinuities of divorce and war, a tempestuous marriage that ended in widowhood at 40 with four children, and multiple family tragedies, including the loss of a child to depression. Among the book’s charms are Tomalin’s evocation of London’s vibrant literary culture of the 1960s and 1970s, in which she worked as an editor for many years before finding her true vocation as a biographer.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "nonfiction", "seriously great writing", "for history lovers" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0399562915", "seamus": 647053960, "itunes": 9780399562914, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0399562915", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780399562914", "isbn10": "0399562915", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 109, "book": "A Life Of My Own: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Claire Tomalin Moves 'Between The Trivial And The Tragic' In 'A Life Of My Own'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/12/647047722/claire-tomalin-moves-between-the-trivial-and-the-tragic-in-a-life-of-my-own" } ] }, "110": { "id": 110, "title": "Belonging: A German Reckons With History And Home", "author": "Nora Krug", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "Nora Krug, who was born more than three decades after WWII ended, doggedly investigates conflicted feelings about her German homeland and her family’s role in the Holocaust in this riveting, multilayered graphic memoir. The key question that drives Belonging is: “How do you know who you are if you don’t understand where you come from?” With its scrapbook abundance of family photographs and letters, handwritten text, cartoons, annotated archival documents and quirky tributes to practical and comforting iconic German products like brown bread, glue and bandages, there’s a lot to take in. Krug writes about mending and reparations, but doesn’t let herself — or readers — lapse into complacence or whitewashing.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "for history lovers", "family matters", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "nonfiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1476796629", "seamus": 654357366, "itunes": 9781476796628, "bookshop": 9781476796628, "cover": "1476796629", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781476796628", "isbn10": "1476796629", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 110, "book": "Belonging: A German Reckons With History And Home", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Belonging' Explores The Notion Of Homeland And Inherited Guilt", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/06/654345956/belonging-explores-the-notion-of-homeland-and-inherited-guilt" } ] }, "111": { "id": 111, "title": "Cake: A Cookbook", "author": "Maira Kalman and Barbara Scott-Goodman", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "Oh, how Maira Kalman loves pink. She also finds solace from life’s difficulties in fancy hats and cakes. While this celebration of her favorite dessert probably won’t replace your go-to baking guides, it’s a delicious, whimsical mix of memories — including the chocolate cake she remembers from childhood visits to her aunt in Tel Aviv — and easy recipes like a Pavlova with fresh berries meant to dazzle and melt away all cares. Whether you just feast on Kalman’s sunny, bright Dufy-esque illustrations or dive into Scott-Goodman’s carefully curated classics like lemon pound cake, plum torte and flourless chocolate cake, I don’t know many bakers who wouldn’t eat up this sweet reminder that “things are much nicer with cake.”
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "cookbooks & food", "family matters", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1101981547", "seamus": 658960282, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101981547", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781101981542", "isbn10": "1101981547", "links": [] }, "112": { "id": 112, "title": "Hiking With Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are", "author": "John Kaag", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "John Kaag, a professor who believes that philosophy can offer applicable relevance to personal problems, chronicles his return — with his wife and their toddler daughter — to the scene of his near-fatal teenage attempt to follow Nietzsche’s trail and thought processes through the Swiss Alps. His Alpine scrambles take us on a heady hike through his own personal issues, the peaks and valleys of Nietzsche’s life, and the philosopher’s manically prolific output in search of insights into combating despair and complacency when tested by life’s daunting slopes, including the tedium of adulthood and the challenges of parenting.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "family matters", "it’s all geek to me" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0374170010", "seamus": 651094544, "itunes": 9780374170011, "bookshop": 9780374170011, "cover": "0374170010", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780374170011", "isbn10": "0374170010", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 112, "book": "Hiking With Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Hiking With Nietzsche,' Challenges Are Seen Through The Philosopher's Teachings", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/26/651083219/in-hiking-with-nietzsche-challenges-are-seen-through-the-philosophers-teachings" } ] }, "113": { "id": 113, "title": "His Favorites: A Novel", "author": "Kate Walbert", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "This slim, timely novel about the perversities of power imbalances packs a punch. Kate Walbert’s sympathetic, credible narrator reluctantly confronts painful memories of an unwanted sexual relationship with her boarding school teacher when she was 15, and how her attempts to stop him were infuriatingly, condescendingly stymied. The result: “rage woven into my life with steel thread.” Fueled by gorgeous writing as well as moral outrage, His Favorites jitters around in time, as Walbert’s emotionally scarred narrator gradually works up the courage to articulate the most difficult parts of her story. The result is at once gallingly familiar, heartbreaking and galvanizing.
", "tags": [ "rather short", "fiction", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "book club ideas" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1476799393", "seamus": 637587192, "itunes": 9781476799391, "bookshop": 9781476799391, "cover": "1476799393", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781476799391", "isbn10": "1476799393", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 113, "book": "His Favorites: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'His Favorites' Is An Artful Argument For #MeToo — And More", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/14/637589235/his-favorites-is-an-artful-argument-for-metoo-and-more" } ] }, "114": { "id": 114, "title": "Sea Prayer", "author": "Khaled Hosseini", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "Haunted by the heartbreaking image of the 3-year-old Syrian boy whose body washed up on a Turkish beach in 2015 and the terrible fate of thousands more who have attempted that same journey, Khaled Hosseini expresses the horror of the current refugee crisis in a powerfully moving picture book for all ages. Addressing his young son as they embark on this perilous crossing, a father recalls happier times he wishes his son could remember, before bombs and starvation forced them to flee. Dan Williams’ ink-washed drawings darken along with their prospects, as the man laments how powerless he feels to protect his trusting boy from the treacherous sea and indifferent world.
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "tales from around the world" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0525539093", "seamus": 649286279, "itunes": 9780525539094, "bookshop": 9780525539094, "cover": "0525539093", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525539094", "isbn10": "0525539093", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 114, "book": "Sea Prayer", "source": "NPR", "text": "Khaled Hosseini Says A Succinct 'Sea Prayer' For A Refugee's Journey", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/19/649276115/khaled-hosseini-says-a-succinct-sea-prayer-for-a-refugee-s-journey" } ] }, "115": { "id": 115, "title": "Sharp", "author": "Michelle Dean", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "What do I love about this book? For starters: Dorothy Parker, Rebecca West, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, Nora Ephron, Janet Malcolm. With Sharp, Michelle Dean has gathered ten 20th century literary trailblazers for an all-female intellectual history gala that’s as stimulating and insightful as its roster of guests. Her criterion for admission – being labeled “sharp.” All these women were fearlessly, caustically outspoken writers who “openly defied gendered expectations.” This book makes literary criticism accessible and lively.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "biography & memoir" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0802125093", "seamus": 599916247, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780802125095, "cover": "0802125093", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780802125095", "isbn10": "0802125093", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 115, "book": "Sharp", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Sharp' Is A Dinner Party You Want To Be At", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/10/599841857/sharp-is-a-dinner-party-you-want-to-be-at" } ] }, "116": { "id": 116, "title": "The Library Book", "author": "Susan Orlean", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "Susan Orlean’s stirring love letter to libraries is not just for bibliophiles. In fact, one of its takeaways is that public libraries have become de facto community centers — a home away from home not just for readers and researchers but for immigrants and the homeless, offering free Internet access, social services, language instruction and much more. An obsessive researcher, Orlean has crammed reams of off-beat material into The Library Book, including an investigation into the never-solved 1986 fire that incinerated much of the Los Angeles Central Library and profiles of many passionate eccentrics and innovators who helped shape this idealist civic institution through its long history.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "the states we’re in", "for history lovers" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1476740186", "seamus": 656921920, "itunes": 9781476740188, "bookshop": 9781476740188, "cover": "1476740186", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781476740188", "isbn10": "1476740186", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 116, "book": "The Library Book", "source": "NPR", "text": "Mystery Of A Massive Library Fire Remains Unsolved After More Than 30 Years", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/13/656896695/mystery-of-a-massive-library-fire-remains-unsolved-after-more-than-30-years" } ] }, "117": { "id": 117, "title": "The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping Of Sally Horner And The Novel That Scandalized The World", "author": "Sarah Weinman", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "Sarah Weinman, a connoisseur of true crime stories, investigates the 1948 kidnapping and rape of 11-year-old Sally Horner by a convicted pedophile in order to build a convincing case that it served as an inspiration for Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita — a claim he denied. Weinman interweaves her report of Sally’s abduction and eventual rescue with Nabokov’s stop-and-go writing of Lolita, whose preoccupation with pedophilia and prepubescent girls she traces in much of his earlier work. In highlighting the horror of both Sally and the fictional Dolores Haze’s ordeals, The Real Lolita not only casts Nabokov’s most famous novel in new light but also gives Sally the posthumous literary acknowledgment she deserves.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0062661922", "seamus": 646328070, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780062661920, "cover": "0062661922", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062661920", "isbn10": "0062661922", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 117, "book": "The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping Of Sally Horner And The Novel That Scandalized The World", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Real Lolita' Investigates The True Crime Story Of Sally Horner", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/11/646656280/the-real-lolita-investigates-the-true-crime-story-of-sally-horner" } ] }, "118": { "id": 118, "title": "Educated: A Memoir", "author": "Tara Westover", "reviewers": [ "Jane Greenhalgh" ], "text": "I’ve long been fascinated by people who succeed against all odds. What enables them to overcome adversity, to conquer all the obstacles in their path? For Tara Westover the answer is education. Raised in a family that was isolated from mainstream society, Tara never goes to school, never sees a doctor. Her father’s increasing religious extremism mirrors a descent into madness, leaving his daughter vulnerable to violence and emotional abuse. And yet Tara escapes, and powered by a thirst for knowledge, she achieves the heights of academic success — Harvard and Oxford. The price she pays is severing ties with her home and the family she loves. Educated is a powerful memoir, painful, inspirational and impossible to put down.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0399590501", "seamus": 587245586, "itunes": 9780399590504, "bookshop": 9780399590504, "cover": "0399590501", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780399590504", "isbn10": "0399590501", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 118, "book": "Educated: A Memoir", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Tara Westover", "url": "http://www.wamc.org/post/book-show-1552-tara-westover" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 118, "book": "Educated: A Memoir", "source": "KUER", "text": "RadioWest: Tara Westover On ‘Educated’", "url": "http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/educated" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 118, "book": "Educated: A Memoir", "source": "Aspen Public Radio", "text": "First Draft: Tara Westover", "url": "http://www.aspenpublicradio.org/post/first-draft-tara-westover" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 118, "book": "Educated: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Memoirist Retraces Her Journey From Survivalist Childhood To Cambridge Ph.D.", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/02/20/587244230/memoirist-retraces-her-journey-from-survivalist-childhood-to-cambridge-ph-d" } ] }, "119": { "id": 119, "title": "These Truths: A History Of The United States", "author": "Jill Lepore", "reviewers": [ "Jane Greenhalgh" ], "text": "These Truths is a compelling, page-turning journey through U.S. history. From 1492 to the 2016 election, Lepore tells the nation’s story — the glory and the guts. The United States was founded on a set of truths that were supposed to be self-evident, but from the beginning, there have been bitter divisions over what those truths really mean. This vivid history is a must-read for anyone wrestling with today’s toxic political environment. “The past is an inheritance, a gift and a burden,” she writes. “It can’t be shirked. You carry it everywhere. There’s nothing for it but to get to know it.” Lepore offers us the keys to the past, so we can unlock the present.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "rather long", "seriously great writing" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0393635244", "seamus": 648740755, "itunes": 9780393635249, "bookshop": 9780393635249, "cover": "0393635244", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780393635249", "isbn10": "0393635244", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 119, "book": "These Truths: A History Of The United States", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Jill Lepore", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/post/book-show-1582-jill-lepore" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 119, "book": "These Truths: A History Of The United States", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'These Truths' Looks At America Through The Promises Of Its Beginning", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/18/648736755/these-truths-looks-at-america-through-the-promises-of-its-beginning" } ] }, "120": { "id": 120, "title": "84K", "author": "Claire North", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "The grimy, meticulously constructed and worrisomely believable dystopia Claire North has created for 84k is our world, just a few years down the path. A near-future England gone bonkers with fiscal rationalism and austerity panic — a place where every vital service has been privatized and every life assigned a monetary value. There’s nothing particularly original about the notion of such an actuarial society, but North comes to it with eyes round in terror, bringing a kind of slinking, resentful humanity to every street corner and slum. There are no heroes in this story. No glorious moments of blood and fire. There’s just a man, his past, the daughter he’s trying to find and a slow-burning revolution that sparks across 450-some pages and leaves nearly everyone we meet broken and buried in its path.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "family matters", "the dark side", "rather long", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0316316806", "seamus": 612012423, "itunes": 9780316316804, "bookshop": 9780316316804, "cover": "0316316806", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316316804", "isbn10": "0316316806", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 120, "book": "84K", "source": "NPR", "text": "In '84K,' Every Life — And Every Death — Has A Price", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/24/612011636/in-84k-every-life-and-every-death-has-a-price" } ] }, "121": { "id": 121, "title": "Florida", "author": "Lauren Groff", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "The stories in Lauren Groff’s Florida are visions of women at the ends of things, in trouble, at their breaking points. Her language is, as always, gorgeous and precise. Her ability to map the inner contours of characters who seem to exist entirely in extremis — and, almost entirely, within a fragile shell of feigned competence and normalcy — is remarkable. Her Florida is a frightening place that bends (solely through the eyes and experiences of her characters) into a discomfortingly modern Southern Gothic tradition, offering up stories that are all haunted by fear, by violence (either natural or man-made) and by the idea that life is measured in the ration of misery that you take — and the grace with which you suffer it.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "fiction", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1594634513", "seamus": 614552438, "itunes": 9781594634512, "bookshop": 9781594634512, "cover": "1594634513", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781594634512", "isbn10": "1594634513", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 121, "book": "Florida", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Bookworm: Lauren Groff On 'Florida'", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/lauren-groff-florida" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 121, "book": "Florida", "source": "NPR", "text": "In Haunted 'Florida,' The Storms And Panthers Are Always There. How Will You Survive?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/06/613465637/in-haunted-florida-the-storms-and-panthers-are-always-there-how-will-you-survive" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 121, "book": "Florida", "source": "NPR", "text": "In Lauren Groff's 'Florida,' Everything's Out To Get You", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/05/617250180/in-lauren-groffs-florida-everythings-out-to-get-you" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 121, "book": "Florida", "source": "NPR", "text": "Southern Gothic 'Florida' Spins Tales Of Hurricanes, Humidity And Humanity", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/01/616096692/southern-gothic-florida-spins-tales-of-hurricanes-humidity-and-humanity" } ] }, "122": { "id": 122, "title": "Gnomon: A Novel", "author": "Nick Harkaway", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "This is a big, ambitious book that sometimes trips over its own bigness but reads like a game of literary telephone played by Phillip K. Dick, Arthur Conan Doyle and William Gibson. It begins (and is centered, kinda) in a near-future, AI-governed, digitally interconnected London with a murder investigation but spreads out to cover the lives of a Greek banker and mathematician who is almost eaten by a shark, an ancient alchemist, an Ethiopian painter, a video-game designer, a distributed future consciousness, and more and more until the resulting story covers 20 centuries, a dozen lives and topics as varied as love, death and traffic flow patterns.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "rather long", "science!", "historical fiction", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1524732087", "seamus": 573582766, "itunes": 9781524732080, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1524732087", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524732080", "isbn10": "1524732087", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 122, "book": "Gnomon: A Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Nick Harkaway ", "url": "http://www.wamc.org/post/book-show-1541-nick-harkaway" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 122, "book": "Gnomon: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Gnomon' Starts Simply — And Then It Goes Sideways", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/01/07/573582683/gnomon-starts-simply-and-then-it-goes-sideways" } ] }, "123": { "id": 123, "title": "Grist Mill Road: A Novel", "author": "Christopher J. Yates", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "It is summer, 1982, and in a clearing in the woods outside a fictional small town, a 14-year-old boy shoots a 13-year-old girl over and over and over again with a BB gun while, close by, a 12-year-old boy stands and watches. This is the setup for Grist Mill Road, all of it contained within the first few pages. And the rest of it is a slow-burn nightmare, building to a conclusion 26 years later that is as terrible as it is inevitable.
", "tags": [ "family matters", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1250150280", "seamus": 575511400, "itunes": 9781250150288, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250150280", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250150288", "isbn10": "1250150280", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 123, "book": "Grist Mill Road: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Grist Mill Road' Bears Witness To Horror — And Its Aftermath", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/01/13/575489089/grist-mill-road-bears-witness-to-horror-and-its-aftermath" } ] }, "124": { "id": 124, "title": "Iron Gold", "author": "Pierce Brown", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "In Pierce Brown’s Red Rising universe, the rebellion begun by slaves three books ago has nearly been won. But rather than simply rolling on into more pew-pew laser gun battles between murderous teenagers turned into gods and legends, Brown does something daring in his fourth book. He makes it largely about forgotten minor characters in his war – refugees, old soldiers, the enemy. The result is surprisingly mature science fiction within the frame of blazing space opera so dramatic it borders on Shakespearean and yet still full of some of the most cinematically brilliant pulp sci-fi you’ll ever read.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "rather long", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "042528591X", "seamus": 579171496, "itunes": 9780425285916, "bookshop": 9780425285916, "cover": "042528591X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780425285916", "isbn10": "042528591X", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 124, "book": "Iron Gold", "source": "NPR", "text": "10 Years After The Rising, 'Iron Gold' Asks: What Now?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/01/21/577724779/ten-years-after-the-rising-iron-gold-asks-what-now" } ] }, "125": { "id": 125, "title": "Only To Sleep: A Philip Marlowe Novel", "author": "Lawrence Osborne", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "The story is simple the way all gumshoe novels ought to be: Rich white guy dies, leaves his wife millions in an insurance policy, Philip Marlowe is called to investigate and does. But like all great gumshoe novels, there are cavernous depths here that only look shallow from the surface. Lawrence Osborne does a remarkable impersonation of Raymond Chandler’s voice here but an even better job getting inside the character of Marlowe, making him the dogged, everyman, knight-errant that Chandler always thought he was and writing some of the most beautiful, sad and lonely sentences of the year in the process.
", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1524759619", "seamus": 632331177, "itunes": 9781524759612, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1524759619", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524759612", "isbn10": "1524759619", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 125, "book": "Only To Sleep: A Philip Marlowe Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "An Aging Philip Marlowe Returns In 'Only To Sleep'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/07/26/632332066/an-aging-philip-marlowe-returns-in-only-to-sleep" } ] }, "126": { "id": 126, "title": "Record Of A Spaceborn Few", "author": "Becky Chambers", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "The “Wayfarers” series has always had a utopian heart – a series of novels that exist to put human beings in bad situations and then watch as they think, debate, sulk, problem-solve and innovate their way out of them. Record is the third in the series, and sees the human fleet of generation ships becoming part of a larger community of space-faring species. It is brainy, tinkery sci-fi that excels at both character development and complex world-building, imagining a gritty, nuts-and-bolts working environment where everything, from orbital mechanics to the disposal of dead bodies, becomes integral parts of the plot.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0062851152", "seamus": 659924635, "itunes": 9780062851154, "bookshop": 9780062851154, "cover": "0062851152", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062851154", "isbn10": "0062851152", "links": [] }, "127": { "id": 127, "title": "Scribe: A Novel", "author": "Alyson Hagy", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "Scribe is a lean, hard wolf of a book. Vicious, merciless and with blood in its teeth. It is the story of a woman who writes letters for people in a post-apocalyptic future where war and disease have taken almost everything away and made everything that remains dangerous, untrustworthy or both. In brief, brutal passages, Alyson Hagy sketches a world that’s like an Appalachian fairy tale from the future, complete with boggy magic, mysterious men, powerful women and a quiet, mythic furiousness unlike anything else you’ll read this year.
", "tags": [ "rather short", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1555978185", "seamus": 656537964, "itunes": 9781555978181, "bookshop": 9781555978181, "cover": "1555978185", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781555978181", "isbn10": "1555978185", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 127, "book": "Scribe: A Novel", "source": "Wyoming Public Media", "text": "Spoken words: Alyson Hagy on 'Scribe' ", "url": "http://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/spoken-words-25-alyson-hagy-scribe" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 127, "book": "Scribe: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Scribe,' A World Haunted By Absences", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/14/656537187/in-scribe-a-world-haunted-by-absences" } ] }, "128": { "id": 128, "title": "Space Opera", "author": "Catherynne M. Valente", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "In any normal year, if you were looking for a book in which a has-been, gender-fluid Brit-pop glam-rock band called Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes has to compete for its collective life in an intergalactic version of the Eurovision Song Contest in order to prove that humans are, in fact, sentient and not just horrible sticky monsters that might (someday) constitute a threat to the greater universal neighborhood, you’d be SOL. But this being 2018 (and Catherynne Valente being the particularly brilliant weirdo that she is), you’re in luck because that happens to be EXACTLY what Space Opera is all about. Reading it is kinda like dropping four hits of acid, breaking into your local department store and rolling around in everything displayed behind the MAC cosmetics counter while Queen’s soundtrack to Flash Gordon plays at full volume. So, you know, be prepared.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "for music lovers", "seriously great writing", "no biz like show biz", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1481497499", "seamus": 598864529, "itunes": 9781481497497, "bookshop": 9781481497497, "cover": "1481497499", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781481497497", "isbn10": "1481497499", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 128, "book": "Space Opera", "source": "NPR", "text": "Love (And Music And Glitter) Saves The Day In 'Space Opera'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/04/598864401/love-and-music-and-glitter-saves-the-day-in-space-opera" } ] }, "129": { "id": 129, "title": "Tell The Machine Goodnight: A Novel", "author": "Katie Williams", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "Tell The Machine Goodnight is sci-fi in its most perfect expression – no robots, no explosions, no car chases, just a future indelibly altered by the application of a single unfamiliar technology: the Apricity machine. In Katie Williams’ near future, this machine can tell you what you need to do to be happy. Learn a foreign language. Get a dog. Cut off the tip of your index finger. The machine is never wrong. It works 100 percent of the time. And reading about the world in which this machine exists is like having a lucid dream of six years from next week, filled with people you don’t know yet, but will.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "family matters", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0525533125", "seamus": 620522553, "itunes": 9780525533122, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0525533125", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525533122", "isbn10": "0525533125", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 129, "book": "Tell The Machine Goodnight: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Tell The Machine' Is A Lucid Dream Of Sci-Fi Perfection", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/21/619537013/tell-the-machine-is-a-lucid-dream-of-sci-fi-perfection" } ] }, "130": { "id": 130, "title": "The Cabin At The End Of The World: A Novel", "author": "Paul Tremblay", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "Read this book and you might not sleep for a week. Maybe longer. Its deceptively simple, psychologically deep tale of the (possible) end of the world and the sacrifice required to prevent it will shape your nightmares for months because that’s what this book is built for. Like the best horror, it is soft (until it isn’t), quiet (until it isn’t) and rooted firmly in the real.
", "tags": [ "the dark side", "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0062679104", "seamus": 625376465, "itunes": 9780062679109, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062679104", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062679109", "isbn10": "0062679104", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 130, "book": "The Cabin At The End Of The World: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Read 'The Cabin At The End Of The World' And You Won't Sleep For A Week", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/07/04/623234203/read-the-cabin-at-the-end-of-the-world-and-you-wont-sleep-for-a-week" } ] }, "131": { "id": 131, "title": "The Electric State", "author": "Simon Stalenhag", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "Simon Stalenhag’s previous books – combinations of wild, gorgeous, photo-realistic alt-history art and tiny vignettes linked together into tight stories of people living in his imaginary pasts – have been focused on his native Sweden. But Electric State is his first set in America, and it reads (and looks) like a nightmare travelogue of a young woman and her robot traveling across an American West ruined by war, populated by Lovecraftian machines and haunted by technological nightmares, in search of her missing brother. It is a sick and sweaty vision of an unlived era of American history, a post-human 1997 that never was, but almost could’ve been.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "for art lovers", "family matters", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1501181416", "seamus": 658921108, "itunes": 9781501181412, "bookshop": 9781501181412, "cover": "1501181416", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501181412", "isbn10": "1501181416", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 131, "book": "The Electric State", "source": "NPR", "text": "Futuristic Dreams Turn To Nightmare In 'Electric State'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/21/658921379/futuristic-dreams-turn-to-nightmare-in-electric-state" } ] }, "132": { "id": 132, "title": "The Sky Is Yours: A Novel", "author": "Chandler Klang Smith", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "A dystopian metropolis, two kids in love, an arranged marriage and … dragons. Those are the basic building blocks that Chandler Klang Smith is playing with in her bonkers sci-fi mashup-slash-satire-cum-mythological-allegory. It is an insane, genre-defying world, imagined with a bizarre clarity and sense of solidity. It feels like it could be our future. It seems like it might be an alternate universe. It reads like nothing else out there. If you love your sci-fi weird, your love stories tragic and your skies full of fire-breathing lizards, this one was made for you.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "love & romance", "rather long", "family matters", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0451496264", "seamus": 579257765, "itunes": 9780451496263, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0451496264", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780451496263", "isbn10": "0451496264", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 132, "book": "The Sky Is Yours: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Regency Romance Crashes Into Dragon-Filled Dystopia In 'The Sky Is Yours'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/01/25/579255006/regency-romance-crashes-into-dragon-filled-dystopia-in-the-sky-is-yours" } ] }, "133": { "id": 133, "title": "The View From Flyover Country: Dispatches From The Forgotten America", "author": "Sarah Kendzior", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "In this series of essays (originally written between 2012 and 2014 while she was writing for Al-Jazeera), Sarah Kendzior looks at a variety of issues – from student debt to unpaid internships, social media and freedom of speech – which became vital talking points in the 2016 election. Now, in 2018, the collection feels both prescient and honest in the way it discusses race and gender issues, class disparity, the abject lack of concern by the wealthy for those who have less, and the failure of the so-called “elites” to understand the Midwest. In a year when all of these things have taken on such terrible importance, seeing the roots of the arguments that now dominate cable news is both fascinating and a little bit haunting in retrospect.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1250189993", "seamus": 660077394, "itunes": 9781250189998, "bookshop": 9781250189998, "cover": "1250189993", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250189998", "isbn10": "1250189993", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 133, "book": "The View From Flyover Country: Dispatches From The Forgotten America", "source": "Connecticut Public Radio", "text": "An Hour With Sarah Kendzior, Author Of ‘The View From Flyover Country’", "url": "http://www.wnpr.org/post/hour-sarah-kendzior" } ] }, "134": { "id": 134, "title": "Beneath A Ruthless Sun: A True Story Of Violence, Race, And Justice Lost And Found", "author": "Gilbert King", "reviewers": [ "Jean Zimmerman" ], "text": "In December 1957, an arctic freeze descends upon the groves of Okahumpka, Fla., and the town’s human hearts prove just as icy as the stone-cold oranges. A well-off woman has been raped, and the black community finds itself under siege by the bigots of the sheriff’s department. The biggest mystery concerns Jesse Daniels, a developmentally disabled white boy who sleeps with a teddy bear every night, and why he gets railroaded for the crime. A ripping, real-life tale, Beneath a Ruthless Sun will plunge the reader into the legal practices, civil rights battles and stubborn sexual inequalities of the mid-20th century.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "identity & culture", "for history lovers", "book club ideas", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0399183388", "seamus": 604410808, "itunes": 9780399183386, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0399183388", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780399183386", "isbn10": "0399183388", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 134, "book": "Beneath A Ruthless Sun: A True Story Of Violence, Race, And Justice Lost And Found", "source": "WYSO", "text": "Book Nook: Beneath a Ruthless Sun, by Gilbert King", "url": "https://www.wyso.org/post/book-nook-beneath-ruthless-sun-gilbert-king" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 134, "book": "Beneath A Ruthless Sun: A True Story Of Violence, Race, And Justice Lost And Found", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Beneath A Ruthless Sun,' Cruelty And Injustice Burn Hot", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/24/603366159/beneath-a-ruthless-sun-cruelty-and-injustice-burn-hot" } ] }, "135": { "id": 135, "title": "Bitter Orange", "author": "Claire Fuller", "reviewers": [ "Jean Zimmerman" ], "text": "In this finely crafted psychological thriller, the devilish novelist gives us a sunny, summery, open backdrop that nonetheless becomes a vise tightening around the throats of both the main character and the reader. Mousy, 39-year-old Frances Jellico falls in with two trendy figures at an English country house. She develops a crush, then sees ominous signs all around. Things go bump in the night. What could be tired tropes carry their psychological weight here, the writing percolates insidiously, and you may miss some sleep as you stay glued to the page.
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "historical fiction", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1947793152", "seamus": 655879773, "itunes": 9781947793156, "bookshop": 9781947793156, "cover": "1947793152", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781947793156", "isbn10": "1947793152", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 135, "book": "Bitter Orange", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Bitter Orange' Keeps The Tension Simmering", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/11/655880430/bitter-orange-keeps-the-tension-simmering" } ] }, "136": { "id": 136, "title": "The Court Dancer: A Novel", "author": "Kyung-Sook Shin, translated by Anton Hur", "reviewers": [ "Jean Zimmerman" ], "text": "It is 1891. Yi Jin is the most accomplished dancer at the court of Korea’s Joseon Dynasty, at a time when it is still largely sequestered from the rest of the world. The novel follows this orphan girl’s adventures as she moves to Paris with her Western husband and becomes celebrated as the only Korean woman in Paris. Identity is the central, defining conundrum: If Yi Jin is not a Korean lady or a French madame, what is she? Sorrow threads itself through these pages, yet there is a richness both to the period and the narrative as beautiful as any silk fan.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1681777878", "seamus": 637488164, "itunes": 9781681777870, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1681777878", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781681777870", "isbn10": "1681777878", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 136, "book": "The Court Dancer: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Graceful 'Court Dancer' Can't Escape Her Sorrows", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/11/637488722/graceful-court-dancer-cant-escape-her-sorrows" } ] }, "137": { "id": 137, "title": "The Sparsholt Affair: A Novel", "author": "Alan Hollinghurst", "reviewers": [ "Jean Zimmerman" ], "text": "Who, or what, is a Sparsholt? A student, a pilot, an engineer, a sex object, the focus of a seamy scandal? David Sparsholt inhabits all these roles and more in Alan Hollinghurst’s novel, a luscious, epic work that spans seven decades and several generations, beginning at Oxford University during the hair-raising blackout years of the Blitz. In the ‘60s pop hit “To Sir With Love,” Lulu sings of going “from crayons to perfume,” and similar transformations occur all the time in this ripe slice of British life in a bohemian, intellectual, artistic milieu, a Brideshead Revisited revisited.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "historical fiction", "family matters", "tales from around the world" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1101874562", "seamus": 592249610, "itunes": 9781101874561, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101874562", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781101874561", "isbn10": "1101874562", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 137, "book": "The Sparsholt Affair: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Sparsholt Affair' Finds Truth Somewhere Between Satire And Sentiment", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/17/591151287/the-sparsholt-affair-finds-truth-somewhere-between-satire-and-sentiment" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 137, "book": "The Sparsholt Affair: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Alan Hollinghurst On Secret Affairs, Narrative Gaps And Writing Gay Sex", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/13/593216611/author-alan-hollinghurst-on-secret-affairs-narrative-gaps-and-writing-gay-sex" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 137, "book": "The Sparsholt Affair: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Sparsholt Affair' Confirms Alan Hollinghurst's Status As A Literary Master", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/12/592868267/the-sparsholt-affair-confirms-alan-hollinghurst-s-status-as-a-literary-master" } ] }, "138": { "id": 138, "title": "Who Is Vera Kelly?", "author": "Rosalie Knecht", "reviewers": [ "Jean Zimmerman" ], "text": "In this sly, intelligent novel, the author has fun with the idea that the mindset necessary as a closeted queer woman transfers seamlessly to high-stakes espionage work – both lesbian and spy are accustomed to subverting identity, using coded language and seeking out covert action. It is the late 1960s, and the confused and lonely Vera Kelly finds herself recruited by the CIA and assigned to keep watch over a student group in lush Buenos Aires. The book smartly juxtaposes Vera’s rocky coming of age with her thrilling adventures among the glamorous young Marxists. She discovers her true self by going undercover.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1947793012", "seamus": 618301648, "itunes": 9781947793019, "bookshop": 9781947793019, "cover": "1947793012", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781947793019", "isbn10": "1947793012", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 138, "book": "Who Is Vera Kelly?", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Vera Kelly' Finds The Connections Between Deep Cover And The Closet", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/12/617238965/vera-kelly-finds-the-connections-between-deep-cover-and-the-closet" } ] }, "139": { "id": 139, "title": "Calypso", "author": "David Sedaris", "reviewers": [ "Jessica Reedy" ], "text": "I always love to visit David Sedaris’ world. Some of the stories in Calypso are wonderfully absurd, like the one in which he attempts to feed his own fatty tumor to a snapping turtle. Other stories are bleak, hilarious and moving. His ruminations on his sister’s suicide, his ailing father and his mother’s alcoholism draw on a pathos we haven’t seen from Sedaris before; it’s a new depth that makes this particular collection essential.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "short stories, essays & poetry", "family matters", "funny stuff", "the dark side", "staff picks", "nonfiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0316392383", "seamus": 614149357, "itunes": 9780316392389, "bookshop": 9780316392389, "cover": "0316392383", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316392389", "isbn10": "0316392383", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 139, "book": "Calypso", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Bookworm: David Sedaris On 'Calypso'", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/david-sedaris-calypso" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 139, "book": "Calypso", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Calypso,' David Sedaris Blends Slime And The Sublime", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/30/613149372/in-calypso-david-sedaris-blends-slime-and-the-sublime" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 139, "book": "Calypso", "source": "NPR", "text": "Forget 'Good Times,' David Sedaris Is Far More Interested In 'Bad Behavior'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/29/615132917/forget-good-times-david-sedaris-is-far-more-interested-in-bad-behavior" } ] }, "140": { "id": 140, "title": "Coyote Doggirl", "author": "Lisa Hanawalt", "reviewers": [ "Jessica Reedy" ], "text": "Coyote Doggirl is like Lisa Frank meets Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – the graphic novel follows our titular “half dog, half coyote” heroine as she wanders a technicolor Wild West and gets mixed up with a vile band of outlaw dogs. I’m a die-hard fan of cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt’s work on Netflix’s BoJack Horseman – and this book is as whimsical, funny and dark as any episode of that show.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "funny stuff", "staff picks", "the dark side" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1770463259", "seamus": 639568964, "itunes": 9781770463257, "bookshop": 9781770463257, "cover": "1770463259", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781770463257", "isbn10": "1770463259", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 140, "book": "Coyote Doggirl", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Coyote Doggirl' Is A Childlike Western With Hidden Depths", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/21/639565480/coyote-doggirl-is-a-childlike-western-with-hidden-depths" } ] }, "141": { "id": 141, "title": "Freshwater", "author": "Akwaeke Emezi", "reviewers": [ "Jessica Reedy" ], "text": "This coming-of-age story follows Ada, a young Nigerian woman, who moves to the United States for college. It’s a character study with an unusual structure — the story is told by the many “selves” that live inside her — and the writing is stunning. I love recommending this book to my friends who, without fail, always text me their favorite passages. Yes, it’s that good.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "rather short" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0802127355", "seamus": 586123040, "itunes": 9780802127358, "bookshop": 9780802127358, "cover": "0802127355", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780802127358", "isbn10": "0802127355", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 141, "book": "Freshwater", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Freshwater,' A College Student Learns To Live With Separate Selves ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/02/17/586112614/in-freshwater-a-college-student-learns-to-live-with-separate-selves" } ] }, "142": { "id": 142, "title": "Come West And See: Stories", "author": "Maxim Loskutoff", "reviewers": [ "Jolie Myers" ], "text": "Come West and See by Maxim Loskutoff is a new kind of American Western. The interconnected short stories shirk the tropes of destinies made manifest in favor of dark, interior tales of the angry, the wild and the socially impotent. This book climbs into the heads of its characters, pokes at their insecurities with a sharpened stick, then reaches out a hand to invite you in.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "identity & culture", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "rather short" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "0393635589", "seamus": 612095854, "itunes": 9780393635584, "bookshop": 9780393635584, "cover": "0393635589", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780393635584", "isbn10": "0393635589", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 142, "book": "Come West And See: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Vast And The Violent Rural Northwest, In 'Come West And See'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/18/612091623/the-vast-and-the-violent-rural-northwest-in-come-west-and-see" } ] }, "143": { "id": 143, "title": "In Pieces", "author": "Sally Field", "reviewers": [ "Jolie Myers" ], "text": "Award-winning actress Sally Field could have written a typically dishy Hollywood memoir. But her book, In Pieces, is an intensely personal, vulnerable accounting of her life and career. Field’s meditations on memory, fear and love will leave you shattered. Her lyrical prose and sly humor will glue you back together again.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "family matters", "book club ideas", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "1538763028", "seamus": 646724786, "itunes": 9781538763025, "bookshop": 9781538763025, "cover": "1538763028", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781538763025", "isbn10": "1538763028", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 143, "book": "In Pieces", "source": "NPR", "text": "Sally Field Wasn't Sure She'd Have The Guts To Publish Her New Memoir", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/11/646723297/sally-field-wasnt-sure-shed-have-the-guts-to-publish-her-new-memoir" } ] }, "144": { "id": 144, "title": "Citizen Illegal", "author": "José Olivarez", "reviewers": [ "Juan Vidal" ], "text": "Art has a way of making us see things more clearly. In a time when the demonization of immigrants — and more specifically, Mexican immigrants — is top of mind for so many, along comes a book like José Olivarez’s Citizen Illegal to set things straight. “Fun fact,” he writes in the poem “River Oaks Mall”: “When you have to try to blend in / you can never blend in.” This striking collection of poems is a testament to art’s power to shine a light on the beauty and nuance of family life and the plight of oppressed populations.
", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "family matters", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1608469549", "seamus": 658968366, "itunes": 9781608469543, "bookshop": 9781608469543, "cover": "1608469549", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781608469543", "isbn10": "1608469549", "links": [] }, "145": { "id": 145, "title": "Dactyl Hill Squad", "author": "Daniel José Older", "reviewers": [ "Juan Vidal" ], "text": "Daniel José Older’s middle-grade debut follows Cuban-born Magdalys Roca and her friends from the Colored Orphan Asylum as they navigate Civil War-era New York City … on dinosaurs. As the city descends into chaos, the gang finds themselves on the run from an evil official who has been abducting children, claiming they’re fugitive slaves. Dactyl Hill Squad is a fast-paced adventure, an enjoyable blend of fantasy and history perfect for dino-loving adults and kids alike.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "historical fiction", "kids’ books", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1338268813", "seamus": 658974041, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781338268812, "cover": "1338268813", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781338268812", "isbn10": "1338268813", "links": [] }, "146": { "id": 146, "title": "Ghosts In The Schoolyard: Racism And School Closings On Chicago's South Side", "author": "Eve L. Ewing", "reviewers": [ "Juan Vidal" ], "text": "In Ghosts in the Schoolyard, poet and sociologist Eve L. Ewing delves into the history and politics of the 2013 Chicago school closings. This superbly written and researched account is at once poignant and deeply troubling, blending the personal and the academic in a way that makes the heavy subject matter accessible. Ghosts is essential reading for anyone trying to better understand the intersection of segregation and education — as well as the importance of preserving the public institutions that help shape communities.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture", "rather short" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "022652602X", "seamus": 658987353, "itunes": 9780226526027, "bookshop": 9780226526027, "cover": "022652602X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780226526027", "isbn10": "022652602X", "links": [] }, "147": { "id": 147, "title": "Heart Berries: A Memoir", "author": "Terese Marie Mailhot", "reviewers": [ "Juan Vidal" ], "text": "Written in part while the author was living in a mental institution, Heart Berries is a fierce and poetic memoir that grips you from the start and never lets go. Each page, paragraph and sentence is more gut-wrenching than the one before it. An illuminating account of grief, abuse and the complex nature of the Native experience, it is at once raw and achingly beautiful. Terese Mailhot is a truly fearless writer, and this little book is nothing short of a gift.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "rather short", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "love & romance", "family matters", "book club ideas" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1619023342", "seamus": 584646777, "itunes": 9781619023345, "bookshop": 9781619023345, "cover": "1619023342", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781619023345", "isbn10": "1619023342", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 147, "book": "Heart Berries: A Memoir", "source": "Wisconsin Public Radio", "text": "When It's Real, The Stakes Are Higher", "url": "https://www.ttbook.org/interview/when-its-real-stakes-are-higher" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 147, "book": "Heart Berries: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Heart Berries,' An Indigenous Woman's Chaotic Coming-Of-Age", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/02/11/584643934/in-heart-berries-an-indigenous-woman-s-chaotic-coming-of-age" } ] }, "148": { "id": 148, "title": "Night Moves", "author": "Jessica Hopper", "reviewers": [ "Juan Vidal" ], "text": "Music critic Jessica Hopper plays all the right notes in this poetic memoir. Chronicling her years as a writer and DJ on Chicago’s independent music scene in the ‘00s, the book transports readers with vivid and at times hilarious descriptions of Chicago nightlife and its characters. The meandering chapters take on a cinematic tone, and Hopper’s rhythmic prose keeps the pages turning. Night Moves is a charming ode to friendship, aging and what it means to truly love the place you call home.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for music lovers", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1477317880", "seamus": 649880702, "itunes": 9781477317884, "bookshop": 9781477317884, "cover": "1477317880", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781477317884", "isbn10": "1477317880", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 148, "book": "Night Moves", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Night Moves' Captures Fleeting Moments In Chicago — And Life", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/23/649842165/night-moves-captures-fleeting-moments-in-chicago-and-life" } ] }, "149": { "id": 149, "title": "Contact High: A Visual History Of Hip-Hop", "author": "Vikki Tobak", "reviewers": [ "Juan Vidal" ], "text": "Writer Vikki Tobak delivers a coffee table book for the ages, a feast of words and iconic hip-hop portraits spanning four decades. Juxtaposed with illuminating essays from people like Fab Five Freddy, Questlove, and RZA, Contact High spotlights an array of photographers and culture makers to get the backstory on some of hip-hop’s most famous images. Oh, and the fashion! This book is not only a trip down memory lane, but a testament to the enduring power of hip-hop, a culture that’s constantly growing, constantly changing and continues to inform the world we live in.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for music lovers", "for art lovers", "identity & culture", "for history lovers", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0525573887", "seamus": 667846903, "itunes": 9780525573883, "bookshop": 9780525573883, "cover": "0525573887", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525573883", "isbn10": "0525573887", "links": [] }, "150": { "id": 150, "title": "Drawn Together", "author": "Minh Lê, illustrated by Dan Santat", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "The magic of art. The magic of grandparents. The divide of not speaking the same language. It’s all here in the art and the story of a young boy dropped off at his grandpa’s. The grandpa speaks Thai, not English, and the two don’t even like to eat the same food. Finally, the grandpa grabs his ink and brush so that he and his grandson can connect on the page. Minh Lê and Dan Santat do a beautiful job of showing the universal in this specific story. (For ages 4 to 7)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "identity & culture", "family matters", "for art lovers", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1484767608", "seamus": 620437974, "itunes": 9781484767603, "bookshop": 9781484767603, "cover": "1484767608", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781484767603", "isbn10": "1484767608", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 150, "book": "Drawn Together", "source": "NPR", "text": "Struggling For Words, A Boy And His Grandfather Are 'Drawn Together' At Last", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/15/620428253/struggling-for-words-a-boy-and-his-grandfather-are-drawn-together-at-last" } ] }, "151": { "id": 151, "title": "Everything You Need For A Treehouse", "author": "Carter Higgins, illustrated by Emily Hughes", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "Get ready for your imagination to explode! Read this book, and pass out the crayons — or set up a library fort! Everything You Need for a Treehouse is all about seeing something that’s not there and imagining your world as you want it to be. From building treehouses to just lying on your back and telling stories about clouds — anything is possible. I wasn’t surprised to get to the end and see that it was written by a librarian, because every imagined treehouse feels like a book in itself, capturing a mood or a need. The one made of glass and filled with flowers, the one that looks like a library, they’re all cozier and more fun than the next. (For ages 3 to 6)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "staff picks", "for art lovers" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1452142556", "seamus": 658984933, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781452142555, "cover": "1452142556", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781452142555", "isbn10": "1452142556", "links": [] }, "152": { "id": 152, "title": "Forever Or A Day", "author": "Sarah Jacoby", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "This is a book that plays with the idea of time and how our perception of it is so elusive — an idea that even picture book readers totally get. Many pages wink at one another, with author Sarah Jacoby picking up images from one page and dropping them on another, so a toy train turns into a real train or a dark night sky that becomes cozy when seen through a family’s window. But the point of this enchanted debut is that “we’ve only got what we’ve got, and our time with each other is the best time!” (For ages 3 to 6)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "staff picks", "for art lovers" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1452164630", "seamus": 658985896, "itunes": 9781452164632, "bookshop": 9781452164632, "cover": "1452164630", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781452164632", "isbn10": "1452164630", "links": [] }, "153": { "id": 153, "title": "Hey, Kiddo", "author": "Jarrett J. Krosoczka", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "“Everybody’s already dead” is Grandpa Joe’s rationale for teaching his grandson, Jarrett, to drive in a cemetery, and it sets Hey Kiddo up perfectly. This is Jarrett Krosoczka’s 38th book — but his first memoir, and it’s full of the humor, the tension and the reality of being raised by grandparents because your mom is addicted to heroin. Woven throughout are actual artifacts from his own childhood — drawings exchanged with his mom in prison, artwork from high school, photos, wallpaper, all of which give it gorgeous texture and poignancy. The takeaway is that Grandma Shirl, Joe, Jarrett and the rest of the family muddled through … with some yelling and some cigarettes and lots of love.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "young adult", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "staff picks", "nonfiction", "for art lovers", "book club ideas" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0545902487", "seamus": 654806064, "itunes": 9780545902489, "bookshop": 9780545902489, "cover": "0545902487", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780545902489", "isbn10": "0545902487", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 153, "book": "Hey, Kiddo", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Hey, Kiddo' Aims To Help Kids With Addicted Parents Feel Less Alone", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/16/657772230/hey-kiddo-aims-to-help-kids-with-addicted-parents-feel-less-alone" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 153, "book": "Hey, Kiddo", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Hey, Kiddo,' Jarrett Krosoczka Sketches Childhood, A Mom's Addiction", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/05/654596837/in-hey-kiddo-jarrett-krosoczka-draws-a-portrait-of-childhood-a-mom-s-addiction" } ] }, "154": { "id": 154, "title": "How To Be A Lion", "author": "Ed Vere", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "The spirit of Ferdinand the Bull is a alive and well in How to Be a Lion. Leonard loves so much of life, from reading poems to befriending ducks, but these aren’t lionlike behaviors. After building a case, the book asks “Is there just one way to be a lion? I don’t think so … do you?” I love turning over the conversation to the readers — start critical reading early — while meeting a marvelous orange lion. (For ages 3 to 7)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0525578056", "seamus": 659499156, "itunes": 9780525578055, "bookshop": 9780525578055, "cover": "0525578056", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525578055", "isbn10": "0525578056", "links": [] }, "155": { "id": 155, "title": "Listen To The Marriage: A Novel", "author": "John Jay Osborn", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "Can a marriage survive affairs and distrust? What is left to even try to salvage? That’s what husband and wife Steve and Gretchen are facing in their therapist’s office when Listen to the Marriage opens. But here’s the thing: The whole book takes place in that office, and it’s written from the point of view of the therapist. This book should be claustrophobic and could be cloying, but instead it’s a mind-expanding examination of the alchemy of two people joining in marriage. And that marriage needs tending to, just as much as — if not more than — each of the individuals who created it. Why get married? This novel is an argument in favor.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "love & romance", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0374192022", "seamus": 659605336, "itunes": 9780374192020, "bookshop": 9780374192020, "cover": "0374192022", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780374192020", "isbn10": "0374192022", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 155, "book": "Listen To The Marriage: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Listen To The Marriage,' A Case For Spending Time In The Counselor's Office", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/29/661842852/in-listen-to-the-marriage-a-case-for-spending-time-in-the-counselor-s-office" } ] }, "156": { "id": 156, "title": "Louisiana's Way Home", "author": "Kate DiCamillo", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "What happens next? When a book ends and leaves you wanting more, it has succeeded. And when an author gives you another book as a follow-up, it’s the best! So I was thrilled to find out that Kate DiCamillo followed up 2016’s Raymie Nightingale with this year’s Louisiana’s Way Home. This story centers on Louisiana Elefante — the most ethereal of the three friends from the first book. I was worried that this fragile girl couldn’t carry her own novel, but DiCamillo reveals the strength and fight in Louisiana. So grab a PayDay bar (plot point!) and know that once again Louisiana finds just the right people to help ground her. (For ages 10 and up)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0763694630", "seamus": 659606107, "itunes": 9780763694630, "bookshop": 9780763694630, "cover": "0763694630", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780763694630", "isbn10": "0763694630", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 156, "book": "Louisiana's Way Home", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Book Review: 'Louisiana's Way Home'", "url": "http://www.kmuw.org/post/book-review-louisianas-way-home" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 156, "book": "Louisiana's Way Home", "source": "NPR", "text": "Kate DiCamillo, Chronicler Of The Hard Truths Of Youth", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/11/26/670837994/kate-dicamillo-chronicler-of-the-hard-truths-of-youth" } ] }, "157": { "id": 157, "title": "Love", "author": "Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Loren Long", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "Love – it’s an abstract emotion, right? Not even close. These pictures and words describe a zillion ways to think of love: Your parents’ voices, your uncle’s stories, your home turning different colors in the sun. Laughter, burnt toast and your own image? Yep, all love. For readers, this book is a lifelong challenge to ask: What is love? And how can we create more of it in what we think and do and say? (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "staff picks", "love & romance", "for art lovers" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1524740918", "seamus": 578374541, "itunes": 9781524740917, "bookshop": 9781524740917, "cover": "1524740918", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524740917", "isbn10": "1524740918", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 157, "book": "Love", "source": "WVXU", "text": "Loren Long tells us about his new book, 'Love'", "url": "http://www.wvxu.org/post/loren-long-tells-us-about-his-new-book-love#stream/0" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 157, "book": "Love", "source": "NPR", "text": "Picture Book Author Says 'I Had To Be Real' When Writing 'Love'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/01/15/578172727/new-picture-book-illustrates-how-love-is-always-around" } ] }, "158": { "id": 158, "title": "The Rough Patch", "author": "Brian Lies", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "You have to move through grief. There’s no other way. But how do you tell a kid that? Try this picture book. It opens with Evan and his dog, who do everything together, in bright, sun-filled pictures. But when the dog dies, Evan shuts the world out. We are witness to his anger and sadness, but finally the time comes when Evan is able to to take one step and then another back out into the world. The Rough Patch is gorgeous and straightforward and so true to life. Life has seasons, and the happy ones will help lift you out of the dark ones. And yes, there is an incredibly fitting and happy ending. Life throws a lot at you, but it’s going to be OK. (For ages 5 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0062671278", "seamus": 660076510, "itunes": 9780062671271, "bookshop": 9780062671271, "cover": "0062671278", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062671271", "isbn10": "0062671278", "links": [] }, "159": { "id": 159, "title": "Arthur Ashe: A Life", "author": "Raymond Arsenault", "reviewers": [ "Karen Grigsby Bates" ], "text": "Raymond Arsenault spent almost a decade researching and writing his biography of Arthur Ashe. The result, Arthur Ashe: A Life, takes in the entirety of that life, from the skinny, motherless boy who grew up in segregated Richmond, Va., to the svelte athlete who triumphed on tennis courts around the globe while advocating for global human rights. Arsenault shows us how Ashe evolved into the revered figure he was when he died, far too young, at age 49. “I think we still don’t understand exactly how much we lost with his death,” Arsenault sighs. His excellent biography gives some indication of the depth of that loss.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "rather long", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "for sports lovers" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1439189048", "seamus": 658939482, "itunes": 9781439189047, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1439189048", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781439189047", "isbn10": "1439189048", "links": [] }, "160": { "id": 160, "title": "Brown: Poems", "author": "Kevin Young", "reviewers": [ "Karen Grigsby Bates" ], "text": "Kevin Young told me that he wanted to explore brownness in a number of ways, “both in sort of a literal name, like Brown in Brown v. Board … but also James Brown and John Brown.” Young is looking at different aspects of brown American life, and he describes it in easily accessible language that is as recognizable as it is sublime: A favorite high school teacher’s “Crayola cardigans.” The regulars at his home church are “the hatless holy who pin lace to their hair.” For me, this work was as welcome and familiar as my grandmother’s pound cake.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "the states we’re in", "seriously great writing" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "1524732540", "seamus": 606008756, "itunes": 9781524732547, "bookshop": 9781524732547, "cover": "1524732540", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524732547", "isbn10": "1524732540", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 160, "book": "Brown: Poems", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Book Review: 'Brown'", "url": "http://www.kmuw.org/post/book-review-brown" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 160, "book": "Brown: Poems", "source": "NPR", "text": "Filtering American History Through A 'Brown' Lens", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/04/26/605548558/filtering-american-history-through-a-brown-lens" } ] }, "161": { "id": 161, "title": "Washington Black: A Novel", "author": "Esi Edugyan", "reviewers": [ "Karen Grigsby Bates" ], "text": "George Washington Black – Wash to one and all – is an enslaved 11-year-old who lives and toils on a Barbados sugar plantation. When the plantation master’s brother visits, he “borrows” Wash as ballast for a hot-air balloon he has constructed, but he also becomes Wash’s mentor and protector. Something happens that forces the two to flee in the balloon, first to the United States, then to the Article Circle; Wash eventually travels the globe. As he grows into a talented naturalist, he learns that freedom is not a one-time thing and that there are many ways to be enslaved – by fear, by anger, even by love. Edugyan’s prose mesmerizes.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "science!", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0525521429", "seamus": 657451364, "itunes": 9780525521426, "bookshop": 9780525521426, "cover": "0525521429", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525521426", "isbn10": "0525521429", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 161, "book": "Washington Black: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Novelist Esi Edugyan On Black Genius And What Comes After Slavery", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/16/657616443/novelist-esi-edugyan-on-black-genius-and-what-comes-after-slavery" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 161, "book": "Washington Black: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Novelist Esi Edugyan On Depicting The 'Forgotten Figures' Of Scientific History", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/15/657459749/novelist-esi-edugyan-on-depicting-the-forgotten-figures-of-scientific-history" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 161, "book": "Washington Black: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Washington Black' Is A Soaring Tale Of Enslavement And Escape", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/15/657451187/washington-black-is-a-soaring-tale-of-enslavement-and-escape" } ] }, "162": { "id": 162, "title": "A Place For Us: A Novel", "author": "Fatima Farheen Mirza", "reviewers": [ "Kat Chow" ], "text": "In Fatima Farheen Mirza’s debut novel, we first meet Amar at his sister’s wedding and discover that he has long been estranged from his family and that for much of his life, he has struggled to figure out his place within his family, the U.S. and his religion. It’s Amar’s story that helps drive the complicated plot of A Place For Us, and it’s his story — his downfall and his redemption — that keeps us reading. If you’re searching for an ambitious look at how multiple generations of an Indian-American Muslim family navigate their insider-outsider status and immigration to this country, this is the book for you.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "1524763551", "seamus": 618352912, "itunes": 9781524763558, "bookshop": 9781524763558, "cover": "1524763551", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524763558", "isbn10": "1524763551", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 162, "book": "A Place For Us: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'A Place For Us' Is A Skillfully-Drawn Family Saga", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/14/618351821/a-place-for-us-is-a-skillfully-drawn-family-saga" } ] }, "163": { "id": 163, "title": "Back Talk: Stories", "author": "Danielle Lazarin", "reviewers": [ "Kat Chow" ], "text": "This is the collection to read if you’re hungering for the stories of women who subvert, who flick at the misogyny that surrounds them. I found myself shouting in recognition as Danielle Lazarin’s expertly crafted characters extricate themselves from hostile relationships or snatch back the power that has been taken from them. Lazarin has a talent for crafting dynamics that are so real; the friendships, the families, the insidious ways women are undermined is all on display. Reading her work, and seeing her characters take up — and sometimes win — the fights I know so well is like taking sips of an antidote for the many things that afflict us women.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "0143131478", "seamus": 658940599, "itunes": 9780143131472, "bookshop": 9780143131472, "cover": "0143131478", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780143131472", "isbn10": "0143131478", "links": [] }, "164": { "id": 164, "title": "Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir", "author": "Jean Guerrero", "reviewers": [ "Kat Chow" ], "text": "In Jean Guerrero’s gorgeous memoir, the KPBS reporter investigates her father’s life — and the stories he has spent his life telling — with a thoughtful eye. Guerrero’s father claims the U.S. government is testing out its mind control techniques on him as he battles an addiction to crack cocaine. While others say her father is mentally ill, Guerrero instead traces his journey across three continents to better understand him — and what has shaped his state of mind. In trying to illuminate her father’s story with reporting, cultural analysis and dives into neuroscience, Guerrero tells her own. The result is a moving, complicated look at the human psyche.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "staff picks", "the states we’re in", "tales from around the world" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "0399592393", "seamus": 629972608, "itunes": 9780399592393, "bookshop": 9780399592393, "cover": "0399592393", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780399592393", "isbn10": "0399592393", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 164, "book": "Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "In Memoir 'Crux,' Journalist Crosses Borders To Understand Troubled Father", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/07/29/633686820/in-memoir-crux-journalist-crosses-borders-to-understand-troubled-father" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 164, "book": "Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Crux,' A Journalist Investigates The Troubled Life Of Her Own Father", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/07/18/629670487/in-crux-a-journalist-investigates-the-troubled-life-of-her-own-father" } ] }, "165": { "id": 165, "title": "Number One Chinese Restaurant: A Novel", "author": "Lillian Li", "reviewers": [ "Kat Chow" ], "text": "Lillian Li’s Number One Chinese Restaurant draws the reader to suburban Maryland, where the Beijing Duck House, owned and operated by one family, has been a fixture of the town for years. After a fire tears through the restaurant, tensions among the various generations that manage and staff the place flare, and questions of loyalty, romance and what should remain or go — old or new — surface. Li has a wonderful knack for using place to tell the backstory of an immigrant and Chinese-American family.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "cookbooks & food", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "125014129X", "seamus": 628611908, "itunes": 9781250141293, "bookshop": "", "cover": "125014129X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250141293", "isbn10": "125014129X", "links": [] }, "166": { "id": 166, "title": "The Last Cowboys: A Pioneer Family In The New West", "author": "John Branch", "reviewers": [ "Kirk Siegler" ], "text": "I don’t read a lot of nonfiction because, well, I’m a journalist who works in it full time and I like the escapism of fiction. But John Branch’s portrait of a longtime Mormon ranching and champion rodeo family has all the trappings of a can’t-put-it-down modern Western. Don’t be turned away if you don’t like cows or ranching or rodeos. This is a smart portrayal of a way of life that’s slipping away even in the rural West. The Last Cowboys conveys an almost mythical area that has long been woven tightly in American identity, and there’s a lot in these pages that could help us better understand what’s behind this country’s deepening urban-rural divisions.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "no biz like show biz", "for sports lovers" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0393292347", "seamus": 660077055, "itunes": 9780393292343, "bookshop": 9780393292343, "cover": "0393292347", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780393292343", "isbn10": "0393292347", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 166, "book": "The Last Cowboys: A Pioneer Family In The New West", "source": "KUER", "text": "RadioWest: ‘The Last Cowboys’", "url": "http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/last-cowboys" } ] }, "167": { "id": 167, "title": "The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, And The Invention Of Los Angeles", "author": "Gary Krist", "reviewers": [ "Kirk Siegler" ], "text": "As I type this, I’m coming up on my sixth year living in Los Angeles, which is to say about four years longer than I ever expected to be here. I doubt I’m alone among many transplants to this confusing and exciting city with an, erm, complicated past. Gary Krist gets at that complicated past by expertly telling the stories of three iconic turn-of-the-century Angelenos, themselves once transplants: William Mulholland, the water engineer; the Canadian evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson; and the filmmaker D.W. Griffith. They’re all visionaries and leaders sharing another more dubious thing in common, their lives end in disgrace. Exported pop culture is just one layer of a much bigger symbol of American identity and free spirit that has long been wrapped up in the illusion — and invention — of LA. After reading this, I was torn between putting down roots — and driving to the airport and leaving on the next available flight.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0451496388", "seamus": 660076321, "itunes": 9780451496386, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0451496388", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780451496386", "isbn10": "0451496388", "links": [] }, "168": { "id": 168, "title": "Like A Mother: A Feminist Journey Through The Science And Culture Of Pregnancy", "author": "Angela Garbes", "reviewers": [ "LA Johnson" ], "text": "After reading Angela Garbes’ thorough, scientific investigation into the biology and business of pregnancy, you may find yourself picking up the phone to call your mom … just to say thanks. Nonpregnant and a nonmother, I still found this book fascinating. My favorite part? Learning that the placenta is an entirely new, roughly 2-pound organ that the female body creates during pregnancy to feed itself and the baby. Just – wow.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "it’s all geek to me", "let’s talk about sex", "science!", "staff picks", "it’s all geek to me" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0062662945", "seamus": 613043390, "itunes": 9780062662941, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062662945", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062662941", "isbn10": "0062662945", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 168, "book": "Like A Mother: A Feminist Journey Through The Science And Culture Of Pregnancy", "source": "NPR", "text": "New Book Explores The Science Of Pregnancy 'Like A Mother'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/22/613314968/a-feminist-journey-through-the-science-and-culture-of-pregnancy" } ] }, "169": { "id": 169, "title": "Happiness: A Novel", "author": "Aminatta Forna", "reviewers": [ "Laila Lalami" ], "text": "In Aminatta Forna’s masterful Happiness, an American scientist and a Ghanaian psychiatrist meet by chance on Waterloo Bridge. Both have devoted their lives to the study of how people and animals survive trauma and displacement. Now they, too, find themselves uprooted in London, but they come together to help a woman whose son may have been swept up in an immigration raid. With beautiful prose and unsparing honesty, Forna explores the repercussions of war and trauma, the power of love and friendship, and ultimately the ties that bind people and animals together.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "the dark side" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "080212755X", "seamus": 670959669, "itunes": 9780802127556, "bookshop": 9780802127556, "cover": "080212755X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780802127556", "isbn10": "080212755X", "links": [] }, "170": { "id": 170, "title": "A Lucky Man: Stories", "author": "Jamel Brinkley", "reviewers": [ "Laila Lalami" ], "text": "Jamel Brinkley’s debut, A Lucky Man, is a masterful exploration of love and masculinity. The nine stories in this collection are set in New York and focus on black men struggling to save their relationships with their partners, families or friends. Often this means having to revisit painful moments in their past, even as every instinct tells them to turn away from it. Brinkley portrays not only their expectations, hopes and disappointments with great honesty, but also with great tenderness. His characters are indelible. A Lucky Man is a book that will be read for years to come.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "love & romance" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1555978053", "seamus": 606432786, "itunes": 9781555978051, "bookshop": 9781555978051, "cover": "1555978053", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781555978051", "isbn10": "1555978053", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 170, "book": "A Lucky Man: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "Code Switch's 2018 Book Guide", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/12/12/674672972/code-switchs-2018-book-guide" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 170, "book": "A Lucky Man: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'A Lucky Man' Challenges Masculinity — With Love", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/02/605001067/a-lucky-man-challenges-masculinity-with-love" } ] }, "171": { "id": 171, "title": "Those Who Knew: A Novel", "author": "Idra Novey", "reviewers": [ "Laila Lalami" ], "text": "Idra Novey’s Those Who Knew is a timely and timeless novel about sex and power. The story begins in an unnamed country 10 years after the fall of a dictatorial regime supported by foreign powers. When a young woman who is involved with a powerful senator is killed, Lena is immediately suspicious. Years earlier, when she was herself a young activist involved with the same man, she remained silent about his abuse. What if she had spoken then? What if she speaks out now? The result is a completely riveting and elegantly constructed story.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "the dark side", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0525560432", "seamus": 661040856, "itunes": 9780525560432, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0525560432", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525560432", "isbn10": "0525560432", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 171, "book": "Those Who Knew: A Novel", "source": "WUWM", "text": "Before Kavanaugh hearings there were 'Those Who Knew'", "url": "http://www.wuwm.com/post/kavanaugh-hearings-there-was-those-who-knew#stream/0" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 171, "book": "Those Who Knew: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Those Who Knew' Is An Explosive Moral Molotov Cocktail", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/11/06/664406805/those-who-knew-is-an-explosive-moral-molotov-cocktail" } ] }, "172": { "id": 172, "title": "Emergency Contact", "author": "Mary H.K. Choi", "reviewers": [ "Lauren Migaki" ], "text": "Penny is an awkward college freshman, adrift in a sea of students who all seem to be better at navigating campus social life. Sam works at the local coffee shop and is fighting his own battles with anxiety. Their story could be a classic boy-meets-girl (cue the montage of ice cream dates and hand-holding), but instead, Sam and Penny strike up a relationship that exists only in the text bubbles on their phones – and the romance is no less rich for it. In texts, they can be both playful and deeply vulnerable. It’s clear that Mary H.K. Choi isn’t leering at our digital age disapprovingly. She gets it, and with Sam and Penny, she explores the ways in which our phones can help us forge a deeper connection.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "love & romance", "family matters", "fiction", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1534408967", "seamus": 596529952, "itunes": 9781534408968, "bookshop": 9781534408968, "cover": "1534408967", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781534408968", "isbn10": "1534408967", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 172, "book": "Emergency Contact", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Emergency Contact,' Finding A Safe Space In Texts", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/29/606382240/in-emergency-contact-finding-a-safe-space-in-texts" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 172, "book": "Emergency Contact", "source": "NPR", "text": "Stumbling (And Texting) Toward Love In 'Emergency Contact'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/29/594964035/stumbling-and-texting-toward-love-in-emergency-contact" } ] }, "173": { "id": 173, "title": "Achtung Baby: An American Mom On The German Art Of Raising Self-Reliant Children", "author": "Sara Zaske", "reviewers": [ "Lauren Migaki" ], "text": "Sara Zaske is an American mom who spent several years raising her kids in Germany. She explains, with incredulity, that German kids walk to school alone in the first grade – and explains why she eventually let her kids do the same. She describes kindergarten classes where children learn to play safely with matches and a week when toys are removed from the class so kids are forced to use their imaginations. Zaske describes German childhoods as freewheeling and playful, in stark contrast to American kindergartens, where so much emphasis is placed on safety and academic achievements.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "tales from around the world", "family matters", "eye-opening reads", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1250160170", "seamus": 658923670, "itunes": 9781250160171, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250160170", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250160171", "isbn10": "1250160170", "links": [] }, "174": { "id": 174, "title": "A Duke By Default: Reluctant Royals", "author": "Alyssa Cole", "reviewers": [ "Lily Meyer" ], "text": "Alyssa Cole’s Reluctant Royals series is peak romance for 2018: multicultural, socially conscious, consent-driven and as sexy as it gets. In A Duke By Default, her heroine, Portia Hobbs, flees her glamorous but chaotic Manhattan life for a sword-making apprenticeship in Scotland – as one does – and discovers that her new boss, Tavish McKenzie, has a lot more to offer than blacksmithing lessons. But even better than watching Portia fall for Tavish is watching her discover her own intelligence. Portia might not have royal blood, but she’s the real catch in this story.
", "tags": [ "love & romance", "let’s talk about sex", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0062685562", "seamus": 647574232, "itunes": 9780062685568, "bookshop": 9780062685568, "cover": "0062685562", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062685568", "isbn10": "0062685562", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 174, "book": "A Duke By Default: Reluctant Royals", "source": "NPR", "text": "On the Books: An All-Book Edition Of Pop Culture Happy Hour", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/13/647489483/on-the-books-an-all-book-edition-of-pop-culture-happy-hour" } ] }, "175": { "id": 175, "title": "America Is Not The Heart: A Novel", "author": "Elaine Castillo", "reviewers": [ "Lily Meyer" ], "text": "Elaine Castillo’s blazing debut America Is Not The Heart springs alive from the first page. Her characters – Filipina and Filipina-American women living in San Francisco’s South Bay – are Technicolor-vivid, flawed and heroic, and her prose is as good as it gets. Castillo’s food writing will make your mouth water, and her love scenes will make your heart pound. Ambitious, sexy, sprawling and open-armed, America Is Not the Heart is the start of a phenomenal career.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "identity & culture", "cookbooks & food", "book club ideas", "the states we’re in", "let’s talk about sex" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "073522241X", "seamus": 658937651, "itunes": 9780735222410, "bookshop": "", "cover": "073522241X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780735222410", "isbn10": "073522241X", "links": [] }, "176": { "id": 176, "title": "Junk", "author": "Tommy Pico", "reviewers": [ "Lily Meyer" ], "text": "Ever wanted to read a book-length breakup poem? A few lines into Junk, your answer will be a resounding, “Yes!” Whiting Award-winner Tommy Pico follows his cult favorites Nature Poem and IRL with a gloriously wide-ranging monologue on love and friendship, queer and indigenous identity, Janet Jackson and nacho cheese. Pico builds his own 21st-century poetics, junk and all — and as he writes, “It’s important / to value the Junk, Junk has the best stories.”
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1941040977", "seamus": 579004547, "itunes": 9781941040973, "bookshop": 9781941040973, "cover": "1941040977", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781941040973", "isbn10": "1941040977", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 176, "book": "Junk", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Personal Is Always Political: A 2018 Poetry Preview", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/01/28/578981995/the-personal-is-always-political-a-2018-poetry-preview" } ] }, "177": { "id": 177, "title": "The House Of Broken Angels", "author": "Luis Alberto Urrea", "reviewers": [ "Lily Meyer" ], "text": "The House of Broken Angels is a party in book form. The novel opens with Big Angel de la Cruz, the patriarch of a sprawling Mexican-American family, preparing to bury his mother. But Big Angel is dying, too. He has late-stage cancer, and so he gathers his relatives for one last birthday party, which turns into a raucous, joyful, irrepressibly high-spirited celebration of a novel. Even when it breaks your heart, reading about Big Angel and his family is a delight.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "the states we’re in", "family matters", "book club ideas" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0316154881", "seamus": 590332190, "itunes": 9780316154888, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0316154881", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316154888", "isbn10": "0316154881", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 177, "book": "The House Of Broken Angels", "source": "NPR", "text": "Despite A Sad Setup, 'House Of Broken Angels' Hums With Joy", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/07/590072624/despite-a-sad-setup-house-of-broken-angels-hums-with-joy" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 177, "book": "The House Of Broken Angels", "source": "NPR", "text": "Mexican-American Author Finds Inspiration In Family, Tragedy And Trump", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/05/590839936/mexican-american-author-finds-inspiration-in-family-tragedy-and-trump" } ] }, "178": { "id": 178, "title": "Your Duck Is My Duck: Stories", "author": "Deborah Eisenberg", "reviewers": [ "Lily Meyer" ], "text": "There is no keener observer of American strangeness than Deborah Eisenberg. The stories in Your Duck Is My Duck, her first new story collection since 2007’s Twilight of the Superheroes, spin our infinite sorrows and failings into gorgeous meditations on love, responsibility and the many ways we fail to take care of one another. Eisenberg’s got a sly sense of humor and perfect dialogue-writing pitch, and her stories shine with intelligence and rueful, against-the-odds joy.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "fiction", "the states we’re in", "rather short" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0062688774", "seamus": 660076283, "itunes": 9780062688774, "bookshop": 9780062688774, "cover": "0062688774", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062688774", "isbn10": "0062688774", "links": [] }, "179": { "id": 179, "title": "A Stitch In Time", "author": "Daphne Kalmar", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "There’s nothing ordinary about a high-spirited 11-year-old orphan named Donut who adores taxidermied mice. However, her inconsolable grief over the recent loss of her father is compounded when disagreeable Aunt Agnes shows up, intent on dragging Donut back to Boston with her. Fearing losing even more — her friends, community and the rural Vermont life she has come to love — Donut runs away into the woods. Set in 1927, Daphne Kalmar’s * A Stitch In Time* introduces you to a heroine who will find a way into your heart as she searches for home. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "historical fiction", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1250154987", "seamus": 658922160, "itunes": 9781250154989, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250154987", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250154989", "isbn10": "1250154987", "links": [] }, "180": { "id": 180, "title": "Amal Unbound", "author": "Aisha Saeed", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "Amal’s loving home life in Pakistan is irrevocably shaken when she defends herself against the son of her village’s corrupt landlord. Forced into indentured servitude, she must adjust to a harsh new life and new enemies, while longing for her family, her books and her freedom. Amal’s resilient spirit and unwavering determination for an education keep her dreams alive in Aisha Saeed’s beautifully written ode to the power of hope and determination. Amal Unbound is a book to share, especially in today’s world. (For ages 10 to 13)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "family matters" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0399544682", "seamus": 658925661, "itunes": 9780399544682, "bookshop": 9780399544682, "cover": "0399544682", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780399544682", "isbn10": "0399544682", "links": [] }, "181": { "id": 181, "title": "Ana Maria Reyes Does Not Live In A Castle", "author": "Hilda Eunice Burgos", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "Ana Maria is determined to win a scholarship to an elite private school. But first she must impress the judges at a Lincoln Center piano recital. With her big, boisterous family crammed into a tiny apartment, her life feels crowded and chaotic. Ana Maria is frustrated, but her view of life changes during a visit to the Dominican Republic, where she witnesses the deep chasms between rich and poor. Hilda Eunice Burgos’ Ana Maria Reyes Does Not Live in a Castle will have you rooting for this girl, her dreams and her goals. (For ages 9 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "identity & culture", "for music lovers", "family matters", "tales from around the world" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1620143623", "seamus": 658938966, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781620143629, "cover": "1620143623", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781620143629", "isbn10": "1620143623", "links": [] }, "182": { "id": 182, "title": "Ivy Aberdeen's Letter To The World", "author": "Ashley Herring Blake", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "The tornado that leaves Ivy’s family homeless only compounds a whirlwind of emotions in Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World. Feeling invisible and adrift, Ivy has been expressing herself in her drawings, and she’s devastated when her notebook disappears. It eventually resurfaces – one page at a time, with notes encouraging Ivy to talk about her feelings. But Ivy doesn’t know who’s trying to get her to reveal that she feels “fluttery” around her new friend, June. Ashley Herring Blake’s novel captures the confusion, thrills and heartache of a first crush so perfectly that you will hold this book close to your heart. (For ages 10 to 13)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "love & romance", "family matters", "for art lovers" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0316515469", "seamus": 659581339, "itunes": 9780316515467, "bookshop": 9780316515467, "cover": "0316515469", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316515467", "isbn10": "0316515469", "links": [] }, "183": { "id": 183, "title": "The Benefits Of Being An Octopus", "author": "Ann Braden", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "This accomplished debut novel looks at poverty and domestic violence through the eyes of Zoey, who helps take care of three younger siblings for her overworked mother. While author Ann Braden tackles complex issues without being preachy, this is ultimately the story of a girl who wants better for her family — and the risks she’s willing to take to achieve it. Zoey’s voice is funny without self-pity, and it’s easy to see how a perceptive debate teacher might notice her when others don’t. The Benefits of Being an Octopus will change the way you see things, too. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "eye-opening reads" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1510737480", "seamus": 660074673, "itunes": 9781510737488, "bookshop": 9781510737488, "cover": "1510737480", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781510737488", "isbn10": "1510737480", "links": [] }, "184": { "id": 184, "title": "The House That Lou Built", "author": "Mae Respicio", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "It’s cramped in the room she shares with her mother in her grandmother’s house, yet that hasn’t squelched Lou Bulosan-Nelson’s big dream: She longs to have a tiny house to call her own. The reality of building one from the ground up is sobering, yet with the support of her friends and her large and colorful Filipino family, maybe, just maybe, Lou will succeed. Warm, funny and affirming, Mae Respicio’s The House that Lou Built will have you reaching for your hammer so you can pitch in and help Lou turn her dream into a reality. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "identity & culture", "it’s all geek to me", "funny stuff" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1524717940", "seamus": 660074989, "itunes": 9781524717940, "bookshop": 9781524717940, "cover": "1524717940", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524717940", "isbn10": "1524717940", "links": [] }, "185": { "id": 185, "title": "The Miscalculations Of Lightning Girl", "author": "Stacy McAnulty", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "Being 12 years old is hard enough, but when a lightning strike has turned you into a super math genius with OCD, that’s a formula for rejection. Lucy has been home-schooled since her electrical accident, but now her grandmother has set a challenge: Lucy must attend one year of middle school, make one friend and join one activity. That means she has to step out of her comfort zone and into a world that can be cruel to those who are different. Readers will rejoice when Stacy McAnulty’s The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl adds up to an inspiring one-of-a-kind story. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "it’s all geek to me", "family matters" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1524767573", "seamus": 660075299, "itunes": 9781524767570, "bookshop": 9781524767570, "cover": "1524767573", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524767570", "isbn10": "1524767573", "links": [] }, "186": { "id": 186, "title": "The Parker Inheritance", "author": "Varian Johnson", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "The Parker Inheritance weaves together a generations-old mystery, a modern-day treasure hunt and a tender story about family and friendship. When Candice discovers an old letter in the attic, she is unprepared for the drama of race and racism, past and present, that confronts her. Author Varian Johnson doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of growing up African-American in the 1950s and seamlessly goes back and forth in time, building tantalizing clues to a stunning conclusion. Be warned, once you pick up this book, you’re not going to be able to put it down. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "seriously great writing" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0545946174", "seamus": 660075434, "itunes": 9780545946179, "bookshop": 9780545946179, "cover": "0545946174", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780545946179", "isbn10": "0545946174", "links": [] }, "187": { "id": 187, "title": "The Science Of Breakable Things", "author": "Tae Keller", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "How do you deal with a parent who’s depressed? When Mr. Neely tells his class they must enter a science contest, Natalie is annoyed — until she realizes the prize money can fund her secret plan to help her mom. But first, she has to win. Tae Keller’s The Science of Breakable Things offers a firsthand look at mental illness and its effect on families, but it’s also a winning tale of science, emotion and empathy, full of humor and heart, that’ll have you cheering Natalie on. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "it’s all geek to me", "science!" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1524715662", "seamus": 660075777, "itunes": 9781524715663, "bookshop": 9781524715663, "cover": "1524715662", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524715663", "isbn10": "1524715662", "links": [] }, "188": { "id": 188, "title": "The Season Of Styx Malone", "author": "Kekla Magoon", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "When Caleb and Bobby Gene trade their baby sister for a sack of fireworks, you would think that was enough trouble for one summer — but it’s just the beginning. The sheltered, small-town brothers are smitten with their new neighbor, Styx, and his big-city stories — and when Styx launches a scheme to turn the fireworks into a huge profit, the boys eagerly go along, until Styx’s secrets start to unravel and trouble takes over. In Kekla Magoon’s rollicking novel The Season of Styx Malone, lives are challenged and changed forever — and yours will be, too. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "funny stuff" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1524715964", "seamus": 660075925, "itunes": 9781524715960, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1524715964", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524715960", "isbn10": "1524715964", "links": [] }, "189": { "id": 189, "title": "Packing My Library: An Elegy And Ten Digressions", "author": "Alberto Manguel", "reviewers": [ "Luis Clemens" ], "text": "I bet in his dreams Alberto Manguel never leaves his beloved library; the disassembling and packing of which gives title to this brilliant book. The author describes his mind as capricious. I call it capacious. He references Al-Mutanabbi, Du Fu, Heisenberg, Homer, Pushkin and Verne — all in one paragraph. “I feel so deeply the loss of the books that my hands knew so well,” Manguel writes. “I’m like Thomas, wanting to touch in order to believe.” I doubt the loss of books has inspired a more beautiful work. Read this book — and hold onto it.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "it’s all geek to me", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "rather short" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0300219334", "seamus": 659915503, "itunes": 9780300219333, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0300219334", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780300219333", "isbn10": "0300219334", "links": [] }, "190": { "id": 190, "title": "The Carrying: Poems", "author": "Ada Limón", "reviewers": [ "Lulu Garcia-Navarro" ], "text": "Ada Limón’s lush and vivid new collection of poetry tackles motherhood in all its forms – not being able to carry a child and also the relationship she has with her own mother. My favorite poem is called “Wonder Woman” – and if you are ever feeling sad, I suggest you read it. It ends with these lines: “She strutted by in all her strength and glory, invincible, eternal, and when I stood up to clap (because who wouldn’t have), she bowed and posed like she knew I needed a myth – a woman, by a river, indestructible.“ Limón writes her poetry by reading the words out loud, and it’s obvious in the glowing cadence in her work.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "staff picks", "seriously great writing", "family matters" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1571315128", "seamus": 660074502, "itunes": 9781571315120, "bookshop": 9781571315120, "cover": "1571315128", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781571315120", "isbn10": "1571315128", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 190, "book": "The Carrying: Poems", "source": "NPR", "text": "Can't Find Time To Read? Poetry Might Make The Perfect Gift", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/12/06/673271563/cant-find-time-to-read-poetry-might-make-the-perfect-gift" } ] }, "191": { "id": 191, "title": "Unsheltered: A Novel", "author": "Barbara Kingsolver", "reviewers": [ "Lulu Garcia-Navarro" ], "text": "In Unsheltered, Barbara Kingsolver flits back and forth between two turbulent times in America, right after the Civil War and during the 2016 campaign. The strong female protagonists in both epochs struggle with issues of race and class and making sense of a world that increasingly looks to strongmen to guide it. In an interview with NPR, she said, “I wanted to write about how people behave when their world seems to be coming apart. And why do we keep trying old solutions to new problems when it looks like they’re not working anymore? “She provides no answers but allows us to look at how our past can guide us in our present.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "fiction", "book club ideas", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "rather long", "family matters" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0062684566", "seamus": 658944804, "itunes": 9780062684561, "bookshop": 9780062684561, "cover": "0062684566", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062684561", "isbn10": "0062684566", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 191, "book": "Unsheltered: A Novel", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Barbara Kingsolver Calls Her New Novel ‘My Love Letter To Millennials’", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/shows/nerdette/barbara-kingsolver-calls-her-new-novel-my-love-letter-to-millennials/5ed8829f-1ef6-4255-84bb-ed8ab1105197" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 191, "book": "Unsheltered: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Barbara Kingsolver Captures The Feeling Of Being 'Unsheltered'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/21/658945241/barbara-kingsolver-captures-the-feeling-of-being-unsheltered" } ] }, "192": { "id": 192, "title": "Asymmetry: A Novel", "author": "Lisa Halliday", "reviewers": [ "Lynn Neary" ], "text": "Asymmetry is a novel that requires the reader to fill in some blanks. Like, what exactly do its three sections have in common? The first is about a May-December romance between a famous novelist and young woman who wants to be a writer. The second is the story of an Iraqi-American who is detained at Heathrow airport while en route to see his brother in Iraq. The third reveals the link between the two, though you can miss it if you blink. Taken as a whole, the book is at once entertaining and provocative, forcing you think about dichotomies that often dominate our lives: old vs. young, East vs. West, the powerful vs. the powerless.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "150116676X", "seamus": 584304948, "itunes": 9781501166761, "bookshop": "", "cover": "150116676X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501166761", "isbn10": "150116676X", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 192, "book": "Asymmetry: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Book Review: 'Asymmetry'", "url": "http://www.kmuw.org/post/book-review-asymmetry" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 192, "book": "Asymmetry: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Asymmetry' Is A Guide To Being Bigger Than Yourself", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/02/15/583438115/asymmetry-is-a-guide-to-being-bigger-than-yourself" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 192, "book": "Asymmetry: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Debut Author Imagines Herself Into Other Lives In 'Asymmetry'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/02/08/584267385/a-debut-author-imagines-herself-into-other-lives-in-asymmetry" } ] }, "193": { "id": 193, "title": "The Overstory: A Novel", "author": "Richard Powers", "reviewers": [ "Lynn Neary" ], "text": "*The Overstory *begins with the nine characters whose lives will intersect as the novel unfolds. Each has some kind of connection with a tree. These stories, so beautifully told and intricately crafted, perfectly set the stage for this saga about a small band of radical environmentalists who are determined to save an old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest. They pay a heavy price for their determination. As Richard Powers pulls you into their lives and fills you with astonishing facts about trees, he deftly pits that price against the cost of allowing these magnificent forests to be destroyed.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "science!", "the states we’re in", "rather long", "staff picks", "it’s all geek to me", "family matters" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "039363552X", "seamus": 602874926, "itunes": 9780393635522, "bookshop": 9780393635522, "cover": "039363552X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780393635522", "isbn10": "039363552X", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 193, "book": "The Overstory: A Novel", "source": "Wisconsin Public Radio", "text": "Writing the Inner Life of Trees", "url": "https://www.ttbook.org/interview/writing-inner-life-trees" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 193, "book": "The Overstory: A Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Richard Powers", "url": "http://www.wamc.org/post/book-show-1555-richard-powers" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 193, "book": "The Overstory: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Novelist And 'Book Matchmaker' Tayari Jones Shares Her Favorite Books Of 2018", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/12/05/673244863/novelist-and-book-matchmaker-tayari-jones-shares-her-favorite-books-of-2018" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 193, "book": "The Overstory: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Novelist Richard Powers Finds New Stories Deep In Old Growth Forests", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/19/602903697/novelist-richard-powers-finds-new-stories-deep-in-old-growth-forests" } ] }, "194": { "id": 194, "title": "The Winter Soldier", "author": "Daniel Mason", "reviewers": [ "Lynn Neary" ], "text": "In this novel set during WWI, a young medical student named Lucius joins the military and finds himself in a remote outpost where he is expected to be in charge. With virtually no medical experience, he has to treat unspeakable injuries under hideous circumstances. At his side is a nurse, Sister Margarete, who is more his mentor than assistant. As the two work together, a bond grows between them, but then Lucius decides to take a shellshocked solider under his wing — a decision that turns into a life-altering mistake. This is a great war novel, plunging you into the chaos of conflict and the unexpected consequences of love that begins amid that chaos.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "love & romance", "book club ideas", "staff picks", "for history lovers", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0316477605", "seamus": 660073695, "itunes": 9780316477604, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0316477605", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316477604", "isbn10": "0316477605", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 194, "book": "The Winter Soldier", "source": "NPR & WBUR", "text": "Here & Now: 22-Year-Old Medical Student Witnesses World War I's Horrors In 'The Winter Soldier'", "url": "http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/10/04/winter-soldier-daniel-mason" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 194, "book": "The Winter Soldier", "source": "WUWM", "text": " 'The Winter Soldier' Gives New Perspective Of Medicine During World War I", "url": "http://www.wuwm.com/post/winter-soldier-gives-new-perspective-medicine-during-world-war-i#stream/0" } ] }, "195": { "id": 195, "title": "There There: A Novel", "author": "Tommy Orange", "reviewers": [ "Lynn Neary" ], "text": "Tommy Orange begins his debut novel There There with an essay. He takes the iconic image of the Indian head, well-known from coins and late-night TV, and transforms it into a searing symbol of the mistreatment of Native Americans. It’s a devastating and brilliant piece of writing. What follows is an equally compelling work of fiction. Orange has created a large cast of characters, all connected in some way to the Native community of Oakland, Calif., and each heading inexorably toward a powwow where the climax of the story takes place. They represent different aspects of the Native American community, but as their connections to one another and to their traditions become clear, each emerges as a fully realized human you will come to care about deeply.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "seriously great writing" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0525520376", "seamus": 617719001, "itunes": 9780525520375, "bookshop": 9780525520375, "cover": "0525520376", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525520375", "isbn10": "0525520376", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 195, "book": "There There: A Novel", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Bookworm: Tommy Orange On 'There There'", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/tommy-orange-there-there" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 195, "book": "There There: A Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Tommy Orange", "url": "http://www.wamc.org/post/book-show-1561-tommy-orange" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 195, "book": "There There: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Book Review: 'There There'", "url": "http://www.kmuw.org/post/book-review-there-there" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 195, "book": "There There: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pithy And Pointed 'There There' Puts Native American Voices Front And Center", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/18/621011107/pithy-and-pointed-there-there-puts-native-american-voices-front-and-center" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 195, "book": "There There: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Native American Author Tommy Orange Feels A 'Burden To Set The Record Straight'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/08/617604580/native-american-author-tommy-orange-feels-a-burden-to-set-the-record-straight" } ] }, "196": { "id": 196, "title": "Transcription: A Novel", "author": "Kate Atkinson", "reviewers": [ "Lynn Neary" ], "text": "Transcription is a spy novel that at first seems pretty tame. At the start of WWII, Juliet Armstrong is recruited by MI5 to eavesdrop on a group of Nazi sympathizers in Britain and transcribe their conversations. It’s not the exciting kind of mission most spy thrillers are made of, but in a profession that has deceit at its core, even the dullest job can veer into dark corners that will haunt its practitioners for as long as they live. Kate Atkinson is a great storyteller, and while this doesn’t quite measure up to the emotional rollercoaster of her previous novel, Life After Life, it is still a jolly good read.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "mysteries & thrillers", "for history lovers", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "031617663X", "seamus": 641768885, "itunes": 9780316176637, "bookshop": "", "cover": "031617663X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316176637", "isbn10": "031617663X", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 196, "book": "Transcription: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Wartime Sins And Secrets Haunt 'Transcription'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/27/639601599/wartime-sins-and-secrets-haunt-transcription" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 196, "book": "Transcription: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Secrets Of A Teenage WWII Spy In 'Transcription'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/23/650580261/secrets-of-a-teenage-wwii-spy-in-transcription" } ] }, "197": { "id": 197, "title": "Varina: A Novel", "author": "Charles Frazier", "reviewers": [ "Lynn Neary" ], "text": "Who has given a second thought to the wife of Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederacy? Not me, I must confess. Still, Charles Frazier centers his new Civil War novel on the story of her life, taking us from her heady days at the center of the nation’s political and social circles in Washington, D.C., to her failed attempt to escape to Havana at the end of the war. A smart woman, who might have achieved a lot in different times, Varina never had much control over her own life. But looking back on it, she knows she won’t be forgiven for the part she played on the wrong side of history.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "for history lovers", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0062405985", "seamus": 599278609, "itunes": 9780062405982, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062405985", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062405982", "isbn10": "0062405985", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 197, "book": "Varina: A Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Charles Frazier", "url": "http://www.wamc.org/post/book-show-1551-charles-frazier" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 197, "book": "Varina: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Varina,' A Confederate Contemplates Her Complicity", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/10/599425714/in-varina-a-confederate-contemplates-her-complicity" } ] }, "198": { "id": 198, "title": "A Thousand Beginnings And Endings", "author": "Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman (editors)", "reviewers": [ "Mallory Yu" ], "text": "Edited by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman, this anthology focuses on retellings of South and East Asian myths and folktales, with contributors mostly of South and East Asian heritage. An author’s note appears at the end of each story, with a summary of the original tale and the reasons the author had for choosing to retell it. It’s an easy book to pick up and put down, and the stories vary widely in tone, theme, emotion, setting. A Thousand Beginnings and Endings is a special anthology; for those of us who may have heard these legends at home but never in an academic or literary setting, or for those of us who never heard them at all, letting us discover these tales through different lenses.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0062671154", "seamus": 658922951, "itunes": 9780062671158, "bookshop": 9780062671158, "cover": "0062671154", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062671158", "isbn10": "0062671154", "links": [] }, "199": { "id": 199, "title": "Children Of Blood And Bone", "author": "Tomi Adeyemi", "reviewers": [ "Mallory Yu" ], "text": "Children of Blood and Bone is a high fantasy set in a land called Orisha, ruled by a cruel and oppressive king. Maji, people who once had the ability to wield magic, live as second-class citizens. Zelie is one of the Maji, and she jumps at the chance to restore magic to her people. Author Tomi Adeyemi’s world-building is so compelling, it’s hard to put the book down — she weaves in African deities, the Yoruba language and what it’s like to live in a society that, as she says, “teaches you to hate what makes you magical.” A warning about this book: It’s the first of a planned trilogy, and it ends on a serious cliffhanger.
", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "rather long", "staff picks", "young adult", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1250170974", "seamus": 590356850, "itunes": 9781250170972, "bookshop": 9781250170972, "cover": "1250170974", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250170972", "isbn10": "1250170974", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 199, "book": "Children Of Blood And Bone", "source": "NPR & WBUR", "text": "Here & Now: YA Author Tomi Adeyemi Wants To Show Black People 'They Can Be The Heroes'", "url": "http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/07/31/children-of-blood-and-bone-tomi-adeyemi" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 199, "book": "Children Of Blood And Bone", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Tomi Adeyemi Calls Her New Book ‘Black Panther With Magic’", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/shows/nerdette/tomi-adeyemi-calls-her-new-book-black-panther-with-magic/106cc2a6-128d-4148-9015-31b7af5f6dfe" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 199, "book": "Children Of Blood And Bone", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pop Culture Happy Hour All-Books Edition: Volume 2", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/24/651101842/pop-culture-happy-hour-all-books-edition-volume-2" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 199, "book": "Children Of Blood And Bone", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Children Of Blood And Bone' Is A Feast For Hungry Readers", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/10/590073021/children-of-blood-and-bone-is-a-feast-for-hungry-readers" } ] }, "200": { "id": 200, "title": "Eternity Girl", "author": "Magdalene Visaggio, illustrated by Sonny Liew", "reviewers": [ "Mallory Yu" ], "text": "DC’s Eternity Girl follows Caroline Sharp, a superspy with superpowers that make her both immortal and so depressed she’s not really living, merely killing time. Creator Magdalene Visaggio has crafted a deeply personal story about a superpowered woman at odds with her body and struggling with her identity and place in the world/universe/eternity. Artist Sonny Liew’s interior pages visualize the abstract vastness of time and space, as well as the tiny, surreal and soul-crushing ways depression can manifest. Visaggio’s razor-sharp writing grounds the book in real but difficult emotion, arch and gentle at times, funny and melancholic at others, with a kind of dark humor that made me laugh and whisper “oh no, too real” at the same time.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1401285201", "seamus": 658983793, "itunes": 9781401285203, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1401285201", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781401285203", "isbn10": "1401285201", "links": [] }, "201": { "id": 201, "title": "Seafire", "author": "Natalie C. Parker", "reviewers": [ "Mallory Yu" ], "text": "As a kid, I was obsessed with books about lady pirates on grand adventures, so *Seafire * is right up my alley. It follows Caledonia Styx as she wages war against the ruthless warlord Aric Athair, who killed her family when she was 14. Now 19, Styx captains her own ship with an all-female crew, all of whom have lost families to Athair. The pace of the book is fast and relentless, and the action sequences tense and believable, but the best moments are the ones in which the female relationships shine – and in recent times, it’s all the more heartening to see a crew of young women growing into their awful responsibilities and kicking butt along the way.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "family matters", "staff picks", "young adult", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0451478800", "seamus": 659925630, "itunes": 9780451478801, "bookshop": 9780451478801, "cover": "0451478800", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780451478801", "isbn10": "0451478800", "links": [] }, "202": { "id": 202, "title": "The Prince And The Dressmaker", "author": "Jen Wang", "reviewers": [ "Mallory Yu" ], "text": "Jen Wang’s The Prince and the Dressmaker is a delight from start to finish. When Frances is hired to be a mysterious client’s personal designer, she doesn’t expect her client to be Prince Sebastian. But she promises to design dresses for his secret identity, Lady Crystallia, and keep his most precious secret. Wang’s story is lively, her characters are three-dimensional and expressive, each immediately lovable. Of course, Crystallia wears lots and lots of beautiful garments, all so full of movement, you can practically hear the swish of fabric. Frances and Sebastian’s paths aren’t easy, but Wang handles their desires and motivations — and gender fluidity — with ease and joy.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "eye-opening reads", "love & romance", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "for art lovers", "family matters" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1250159857", "seamus": 659996706, "itunes": 9781250159854, "bookshop": 9781250159854, "cover": "1250159857", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250159854", "isbn10": "1250159857", "links": [] }, "203": { "id": 203, "title": "Small Animals: Parenthood In The Age Of Fear", "author": "Kim Brooks", "reviewers": [ "Marc Rivers" ], "text": "American moms and dads may find Small Animals covers some all-too-familiar territory – the unhealthy fear that parents face every day. “There’s now the expectation that to be a good parent in this country you have to have your eyes on your children every second – or you have to pay another adult to have eyes on your children every second,” Kim Brooks told NPR. Drawing from extensive research, as well as from her own experience as a mom, Brooks explores how parenting in fear can have troubling consequences for everyone in the family.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Beth/Meghan", "isbn": "1250089557", "seamus": 641352539, "itunes": 9781250089557, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250089557", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250089557", "isbn10": "1250089557", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 203, "book": "Small Animals: Parenthood In The Age Of Fear", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Small Animals,' A Mom Grapples With Parenting In An 'Age Of Fear' ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/01/643948548/in-small-animals-a-mom-grapples-with-parenting-in-an-age-of-fear" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 203, "book": "Small Animals: Parenthood In The Age Of Fear", "source": "NPR", "text": "Raising Kids In An 'Age Of Fear' Results In Impossible Choices For Parents", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/27/641351421/raising-kids-in-an-age-of-fear-results-in-impossible-choices-for-parents" } ] }, "204": { "id": 204, "title": "Be Prepared", "author": "Vera Brosgol", "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "text": "In her graphic memoir Be Prepared, Vera Brosgol has demonstrated just how many ways it’s possible for an awkward tween to feel excluded. Calling on her own childhood memories as a comparatively poor Russian immigrant, Brosgol writes about herself at 10: a child who has given up, reluctantly, on fitting in with her American peers, but has identified her last best hope: Russian Orthodox sleepaway camp. Which she absolutely hates. What results is a sweet, funny story about the inescapability of cliques and learning to value yourself and the people who value you, and a perfect read for any fans of Raina Telgemeier in your life. (For ages 10 to 14)
", "tags": [ "family matters", "comics & graphic novels", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "kids’ books", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "young adult" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1626724458", "seamus": 658947487, "itunes": 9781626724457, "bookshop": 9781626724457, "cover": "1626724458", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781626724457", "isbn10": "1626724458", "links": [] }, "205": { "id": 205, "title": "Check, Please!: Book 1: # Hockey", "author": "Ngozi Ukazu", "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "text": "Confronted with the toxic masculinity that riddles sports practice and fandom, many women throw up their hands up and retreat. With Check, Please!, graphic novelist Ngozi Ukazu argues, very persuasively, that there is a different, better approach: Leaven that atmosphere by filtering it through an impossibly sweet, Southern figure-skater-turned-collegiate-hockey-star named Eric “Bitty” Bittle, who loves 1) baking and 2) Jack Zimmerman, his intimidating (and extremely handsome) team captain. Through Bittle’s eyes (and Uzaku’s adorable, manga-style images), the lumbering lunkheads of the Samwell University hockey team — and their homosocial bonding — are rendered precious instead of toxic, which turns out to be a very potent and comforting fantasy indeed.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "for sports lovers" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1250177952", "seamus": 641759090, "itunes": 9781250177957, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250177952", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250177957", "isbn10": "1250177952", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 205, "book": "Check, Please!: Book 1: # Hockey", "source": "NPR", "text": "Life, Love and Hockey (Oooh, And Pie) In 'Check, Please!'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/30/639601217/life-love-and-hockey-oooh-and-pie-in-check-please" } ] }, "206": { "id": 206, "title": "Dragons In A Bag", "author": "Zetta Elliott, illustrated by Geneva B", "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "text": "This quick caper of a novel — perfect for kids who’ve moved beyond “Easy Readers” but aren’t quite ready for Harry Potter yet — tells the story of Jaxon, a little boy from Brooklyn whose family is on the brink of being evicted. While his mom fights for their home, she must leave him with a strange old woman named Ma … who just happens to be a witch … who just happens to have three baby dragons who must escape magic-less Brooklyn … and who just happens to disappear mid-task, leaving Jax and his friends to finish the job. Delightful chaos ensues, demonstrating that there might be more magic in Brooklyn than anyone (including other authors) has ever imagined. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "family matters", "funny stuff", "kids’ books", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1524770450", "seamus": 658980545, "itunes": 9781524770457, "bookshop": 9781524770457, "cover": "1524770450", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524770457", "isbn10": "1524770450", "links": [] }, "207": { "id": 207, "title": "Front Desk", "author": "Kelly Yang", "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "text": "Based on Yang’s own experiences as a new immigrant to the U.S. from China in the 1990s, Front Desk is a perfectly rendered child’s-eye view of the perils and joys of that life. Sitting at the front desk of the Calvista Motel in Southern California, 10-year-old Mia Tang sees everything, from the big injustices (like how the motel owner bullies and scams her parents, who manage and clean the motel) to the small (like her mom’s conviction that Mia, as a non-native speaker, will never succeed as a writer), and often feels helpless in front of them. But by learning the value of her voice and refusing to compromise on kindness, Mia builds a community strong enough to bring change. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "family matters", "identity & culture", "kids’ books", "fiction", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1338157795", "seamus": 658986750, "itunes": 9781338157796, "bookshop": 9781338157796, "cover": "1338157795", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781338157796", "isbn10": "1338157795", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 207, "book": "Front Desk", "source": "NPR & WBUR", "text": "Here & Now: Kelly Yang Taps Memories Of Her Immigrant Childhood For YA Novel 'Front Desk'", "url": "http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/06/19/kelly-yang-front-desk" } ] }, "208": { "id": 208, "title": "Intercepted (Playbook, The)", "author": "Alexa Martin", "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "text": "To a drama lover like me, the world of Professional Sports Wives and Girlfriends is a scintillating one. Big hair, bedazzled jerseys, secret Botox and covert bitchery – every part of that picture is something I’m here for, and every part of it is delivered by Alexa Martin’s Intercepted. Better yet, they are just the trappings for a sweet, surprisingly grounded romance between Marlee, a graphic designer/delighted EX-professional football girlfriend, and Gavin Pope, the new quarterback of her ex’s team – the one man she can’t date, and the only man she wants. Whether you read it instead of Sunday football or in addition to it, it’s sure to keep you highly engaged.
", "tags": [ "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0451491955", "seamus": 641071009, "itunes": 9780451491954, "bookshop": 9780451491954, "cover": "0451491955", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780451491954", "isbn10": "0451491955", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 208, "book": "Intercepted (Playbook, The)", "source": "NPR", "text": "3 Required Romances For Your September Reading Pleasure", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/09/641066098/3-required-romances-for-your-september-reading-pleasure" } ] }, "209": { "id": 209, "title": "My Life As A Goddess: A Memoir Through (Un)Popular Culture", "author": "Guy Branum", "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "text": "If you know Guy Branum through his work as a stand-up comic or his TV and podcast appearances, you already know how funny he can be, and this memoir is no exception. But what makes it remarkable is Branum’s rare ability to balance lacerating insight (into himself, others, art and the world at large) with profound compassion – whether he’s writing about his father’s love for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance or obliquely sharing his contentious history with his sister through a lesson about (no joke) Canadian history. The result is a book that’s nuanced, eye-opening and deeply moving – in addition to being very, very funny.
", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "family matters", "funny stuff", "seriously great writing", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1501170228", "seamus": 659610484, "itunes": 9781501170225, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1501170228", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501170225", "isbn10": "1501170228", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 209, "book": "My Life As A Goddess: A Memoir Through (Un)Popular Culture", "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": 2018, "id": 209, "book": "My Life As A Goddess: A Memoir Through (Un)Popular Culture", "source": "NPR", "text": "Comedian Guy Branum Wants To Change the Boys Club of Comedy", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/11/13/667448012/comedian-guy-branum-wants-to-change-the-boys-club-of-comedy" } ] }, "210": { "id": 210, "title": "Odd One Out", "author": "Nic Stone", "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "text": "In Odd One Out, Nic Stone shows generations of teen dramas all the fun they could have had if only they had been less heteronormative. She gives us Coop, an adorable 16-year old basketball player, male cheerleader and utter lummox, who’s either in love with his lifelong best friend Jupiter Charity-Sanchez, noted lesbian, or Rae Evelyn Chin, the new cheerleader/science geek who has dazzled both of them – and isn’t sure which of them she prefers. Their story is warm, intoxicating and surprisingly emotionally resonant, and told in turn from each of the three characters in perfectly executed first-person perspective – I couldn’t put it down, and I doubt you’ll be able to resist it either.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "love & romance", "fiction", "funny stuff" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1101939532", "seamus": 659911921, "itunes": 9781101939536, "bookshop": 9781101939536, "cover": "1101939532", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781101939536", "isbn10": "1101939532", "links": [] }, "211": { "id": 211, "title": "Sadie", "author": "Courtney Summers", "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "text": "In Sadie, Courtney Summers imitates a Serial-style true crime podcast with such pitch perfection that her publishers actually produced segments of it. The book — which alternates between transcripts of this high-brow podcast about the murder of a teen girl and the disappearance of her big sister, Sadie Hunter, and chapters narrated by Sadie herself — absolutely merits such care. It’s a dark, crushingly beautiful story about the costs of being a young woman on the margins, the way addiction ravages a family and the devastating impact of abuse. Sadie is both a book and a character you won’t soon forget.
", "tags": [ "family matters", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1250105714", "seamus": 659924981, "itunes": 9781250105714, "bookshop": 9781250105714, "cover": "1250105714", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250105714", "isbn10": "1250105714", "links": [] }, "212": { "id": 212, "title": "The Summer Of Jordi Perez (And The Best Burger In Los Angeles)", "author": "Amy Spalding", "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "text": "If your heart sings for teen rom-coms, then stop reading right here – this book delivers every bit of the fizzy fun the genre promises, from perfect first kisses to the heady joy that only a crush reciprocated can bring. Better yet, though, is its focus on the kinds of teen lovebirds we rarely see: Abby Ives, a queer plus-size fashion blogger who hates having her picture taken, and Jordi Perez, a Latinx photographer, who fall for each other while competing for the same dream job. Their intersecting identities provide fresh angles for conflict, development and emotional release – and bring depth to a genre not always known for it, creating a book that will delight true believers and convert skeptics.
", "tags": [ "family matters", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "fiction", "young adult" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1510727663", "seamus": 659996331, "itunes": 9781510727663, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1510727663", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781510727663", "isbn10": "1510727663", "links": [] }, "213": { "id": 213, "title": "The Way You Make Me Feel", "author": "Maurene Goo", "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "text": "Clara Shin, 17, is a consummate prankster, an expert in mocking others’ enthusiasms and in hiding all of her own – until a prank gone wrong nearly burns down her school, leaving Clara on summer-long probation running her dad’s food truck with her arch nemesis: Rose Carver, student body president and Queen of the Try Hards. Watching the two girls’ complex personalities unfold as their mutual loathing slowly builds to real friendship is as fun as reading any love story – especially as it happens in tandem with a particularly charming actual love story between Clara and another food truck employee named Hamlet. If you (or Netflix) are looking for the next To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, your search can stop here.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "love & romance", "fiction", "cookbooks & food" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0374304084", "seamus": 659996173, "itunes": 9780374304089, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0374304084", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780374304089", "isbn10": "0374304084", "links": [] }, "214": { "id": 214, "title": "American Hate: Survivors Speak Out", "author": "Arjun Singh Sethi", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "“Hate comes in many forms,” Arjun Singh Sethi writes in American Hate, a collection of testimonials from survivors of hate crimes – mostly women and young people. Sethi proposes that to “move past hate,” we need the counsel of marginalized people and of the survivors themselves; community responses to their suffering contain the roots of hope and action. Read American Hate for the faces Sethi puts on our national epidemic of hatred. But read it as well for the antidote: We must understand and own our history. We must speak out, for in community is power and love.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "eye-opening reads", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1620973715", "seamus": 636644097, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781620973714, "cover": "1620973715", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781620973714", "isbn10": "1620973715", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 214, "book": "American Hate: Survivors Speak Out", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'American Hate' Profiles Survivors, But Also Brings Hope ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/08/636635641/american-hate-profiles-survivors-but-also-brings-hope" } ] }, "215": { "id": 215, "title": "Deviation: A Novel", "author": "Luce D'Eramo, translated by Anne Milano Appel", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "In Deviation, Luce D’Eramo unravels a complicated life through a combination of autobiographical fiction and memoir, from her early life in a bourgeois Italian Fascist family to volunteering in the hell of German labor camps during World War II to wandering stateless and ending up paralyzed from the waist down at the age of 19 after a wall falls on her as she rescues people from bombed-out rubble. D’Eramo’s teenage years stand out in sharp relief even against the great conflagration. Not only a personal story, but also a ruthless quest for self-knowledge, Deviation is a literary tour de force.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0374138451", "seamus": 641754605, "itunes": 9780374138455, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0374138451", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780374138455", "isbn10": "0374138451", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 215, "book": "Deviation: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Deviation,' Luce D'Eramo Rejects Her Past And Faces An Uncertain Future", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/18/639600655/in-the-powerful-deviation-luce-d-eramo-rejects-her-past-and-faces-an-uncertain-f" } ] }, "216": { "id": 216, "title": "How To Write An Autobiographical Novel: Essays", "author": "Alexander Chee", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "How to Write an Autobiographical Novel is not so much a writing primer as a deeply considered memoir; half-European-American and half-Korean-American, Chee writes about coming to terms with his ethnic identity and his painful teens, during which his father died of complications from a car accident. He interrogates a history of childhood sexual abuse, embraces his homosexuality, becomes an activist during the tragic early years of the AIDS epidemic and learns to thrive as a writer and a man. Chee’s language is lyrical and accessible, whimsical and sad, often all at the same time.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "family matters" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1328764524", "seamus": 602190633, "itunes": 9781328764522, "bookshop": 9781328764522, "cover": "1328764524", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781328764522", "isbn10": "1328764524", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 216, "book": "How To Write An Autobiographical Novel: Essays", "source": "NHPR", "text": "The Bookshelf: Alexander Chee on Identity, Class, and the Writing Life", "url": "http://www.nhpr.org/post/bookshelf-alexander-chee-identity-class-and-writing-life" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 216, "book": "How To Write An Autobiographical Novel: Essays", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'How To Write,' Yes — But Alexander Chee's Latest Is More Mesmerizing Memoir", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/18/600903235/how-to-write-yes-but-alexander-chees-latest-is-more-mesmerizing-memoir" } ] }, "217": { "id": 217, "title": "The Fighters", "author": "C.J. Chivers", "reviewers": [ "Mary Louise Kelly" ], "text": "C.J. Chivers is no ordinary war correspondent. Unlike most journalists covering combat, he’s also a former Marine Corps infantry officer, and as you read The Fighters, you get the sense these fighters are opening up to him in a way they would only do with one of their own. The book asks big, hard policy questions about Iraq and Afghanistan, wars that Chivers has reported on extensively for The New York Times. But he organizes his narrative around human moments, the stories of six combatants. Through them, Chivers poses one of the biggest, hardest questions of all: How many lives have these wars wrecked?
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world", "the dark side" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "1451676646", "seamus": 659972064, "itunes": 9781451676648, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1451676646", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781451676648", "isbn10": "1451676646", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 217, "book": "The Fighters", "source": "NPR", "text": "Correspondent Reflects On Nearly 17 Years Of War In Afghanistan In 'The Fighters'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/13/638306913/correspondent-reflects-on-nearly-17-years-of-war-in-afghanistan-in-the-fighters" } ] }, "218": { "id": 218, "title": "Barracoon: The Story Of The Last \"Black Cargo\"", "author": "Zora Neale Hurston", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "Zora Neale Hurston wrote Barracoon in 1931, but the book generated little interest from publishers back then. Known only to scholars until it was published this year, Barracoon is an extraordinary find: It’s an account of the interviews Hurston conducted in 1927 with 86-year-old Cudjo Lewis, then the last known living person who could recount firsthand the experience of having been taken captive in Africa and transported on a slave ship to the United States. Barracoon illuminates aspects of the slave trade that largely went unrecorded and also vividly dramatizes two extraordinary voices in conversation.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "rather short" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0062748203", "seamus": 608206932, "itunes": 9780062748201, "bookshop": 9780062748201, "cover": "0062748203", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062748201", "isbn10": "0062748203", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 218, "book": "Barracoon: The Story Of The Last \"Black Cargo\"", "source": "NPR", "text": "Code Switch's 2018 Book Guide", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/12/12/674672972/code-switchs-2018-book-guide" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 218, "book": "Barracoon: The Story Of The Last \"Black Cargo\"", "source": "NPR", "text": "Opinion: What Zora Neale Hurston's Best-Seller Taught This African About Slavery", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/07/04/625329085/opinion-what-zora-neale-hurstons-best-seller-taught-this-african-about-slavery" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 218, "book": "Barracoon: The Story Of The Last \"Black Cargo\"", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Barracoon' Offers A Vivid, First-Hand Account Of Slavery In America", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/08/609399133/barracoon-offers-a-vivid-first-hand-account-of-slavery-in-america" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 218, "book": "Barracoon: The Story Of The Last \"Black Cargo\"", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Barracoon' Brings A Lost Slave Story To Light", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/08/608205763/barracoon-brings-a-lost-slave-story-to-light" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 218, "book": "Barracoon: The Story Of The Last \"Black Cargo\"", "source": "NPR", "text": "In Zora Neale Hurston's 'Barracoon,' Language Is The Key To Understanding", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/08/609126378/in-zora-neale-hurstons-barracoon-language-is-the-key-to-understanding" } ] }, "219": { "id": 219, "title": "Death Of A Rainmaker: A Dust Bowl Mystery", "author": "Laurie Loewenstein", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "When this striking historical mystery opens, a dust storm is bearing down on the small town of Jackson, Okla. Housewives hurry to hang wet sheets over the doors and windows of their farmhouses, moviegoers huddle in the aisles of the Jewel Movie House, and, on the outskirts of town, workers with the CCC – FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps – scramble for their bunkhouses. When the dust settles, the body of a stranger – a con artist claiming to be a “rainmaker” – is discovered in the alley outside the Jewel. Laurie Loewenstein’s Depression-era mystery is brooding and gritty and graced with authenticity.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "for history lovers", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1617756652", "seamus": 658977017, "itunes": 9781617756658, "bookshop": 9781617756658, "cover": "1617756652", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781617756658", "isbn10": "1617756652", "links": [] }, "220": { "id": 220, "title": "Lake Success: A Novel", "author": "Gary Shteyngart", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "You would think The Great American Road Trip Novel might have run out of gas by now, but with Gary Shteyngart behind the wheel, this vintage vehicle still proves capable of taking readers to places far outside the range of other literary tracking systems. The antihero of this tale is a crooked Wall Street tycoon who hops aboard a Greyhound to escape the feds and his own family. Shteyngart’s take on America on the verge of a Trump presidency is satirical and incisive.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0812997417", "seamus": 644558344, "itunes": 9780812997415, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0812997417", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780812997415", "isbn10": "0812997417", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 220, "book": "Lake Success: A Novel", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Bookworm: Gary Shteyngart On 'Lake Success'", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/gary-shteyngart-lake-success" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 220, "book": "Lake Success: A Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Gary Shteyngart", "url": "http://www.wamc.org/post/book-show-1576-gary-shteyngart" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 220, "book": "Lake Success: A Novel", "source": "Aspen Public Radio", "text": "First Draft: Gary Shteyngart ", "url": "http://www.aspenpublicradio.org/post/first-draft-gary-shteyngart" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 220, "book": "Lake Success: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Lake Success' Is A Roadside View Of America On The Verge Of Trump", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/04/644546989/lake-success-offers-a-roadside-view-of-america-on-the-verge-of-trump" } ] }, "221": { "id": 221, "title": "My Ex-Life: A Novel", "author": "Stephen McCauley", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "After reading the first few chapters of My Ex-Life, I texted a friend who is an independent college counselor and said, “Read this book!” Two days later, she replied, “I’m reading and I can’t stop laughing: It’s all true!” One of the main characters in McCauley’s sparkling and droll novel is also an independent counselor, which means he reads a lot of college application essays – about 99 percent of which, we’re told, begin by mentioning a grandparent and/or cancer. Part romance, part social comedy, My Ex-Life is wise about the screwball paths that people take to finding their callings and their soulmates.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "funny stuff", "love & romance", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1250122430", "seamus": 606621990, "itunes": 9781250122438, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250122430", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250122438", "isbn10": "1250122430", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 221, "book": "My Ex-Life: A Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Stephen McCauley", "url": "http://www.wamc.org/post/book-show-1564-stephen-mccauley" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 221, "book": "My Ex-Life: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Sexuality, Mortality, Failure — 'My Ex-Life' Has Fun Asking Big Questions", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/30/612204443/sexuality-mortality-failure-my-ex-life-has-fun-asking-big-questions" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 221, "book": "My Ex-Life: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'My Ex-Life,' A Snappy, Enjoyable Look At Love's Many Splendors", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/03/605002091/in-my-ex-life-a-snappy-enjoyable-look-at-loves-many-splendors" } ] }, "222": { "id": 222, "title": "The Death Of Mrs. Westaway", "author": "Ruth Ware", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "This is the mystery I’ve been raving about to everyone, but particularly to fans of Daphne du Maurier’s masterpiece, Rebecca. The novel opens on a dark and stormy night when our young heroine, Harriet “Hal” Westaway, a tarot card reader in a seedy English resort town, receives news of an unexpected inheritance. The catch is that Hal knows the inheritance can’t possibly belong to her, but she’s so desperate for money that she steels herself impersonate the rightful heir. A gloomy ancestral mansion, never-ending rainstorms, a maniacal killer and plot twists aplenty grace this standout suspense novel.
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "the dark side", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1501156217", "seamus": 618902227, "itunes": 9781501156212, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1501156217", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501156212", "isbn10": "1501156217", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 222, "book": "The Death Of Mrs. Westaway", "source": "NPR", "text": "2 First-Rate Suspense Novels Deliver Chills, Thrills — And Stunning Endgames", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/11/618894559/2-first-rate-suspense-novels-deliver-chills-thrills-and-stunning-endgames" } ] }, "223": { "id": 223, "title": "White Fragility: Why It's So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism", "author": "Robin DiAngelo", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Pao" ], "text": "Robin DiAngelo wants white people to understand why it’s so hard for them to talk about racism – and to understand why it’s so vital to overcome that discomfort. In White Fragility, the sociologist and antiracism educator meticulously maps out how the interplay of core Western ideas such as individualism, meritocracy and objectivity worked to create, propagate and protect white supremacy, and insulate white people from the realities of – and their role in – racism. I came to White Fragility from a place of deep frustration, anger and grief. DiAngelo’s straightforward prose, built on decades of thinking and lecturing about racism, provided powerful inspiration: “[G]rief must lead to sustained and transformative action.” White Fragility is an important launching pad, at once an explication of white people’s complicity in racist systems and an exhortation to do the hard but necessary work of breaking down those systems.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "rather short", "identity & culture" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0807047414", "seamus": 659967551, "itunes": 9780807047415, "bookshop": 9780807047415, "cover": "0807047414", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780807047415", "isbn10": "0807047414", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 223, "book": "White Fragility: Why It's So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism", "source": "NPR", "text": "Code Switch Book Club, Summer 2019", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/06/20/733808217/code-switch-book-club-summer-2019" } ] }, "224": { "id": 224, "title": "Making Up", "author": "Lucy Parker", "reviewers": [ "Maya Rodale" ], "text": "Acrobat Trix Lane and makeup artist Leo Magasiva have a long history of mutual loathing – and a definite knack for showing up at each other’s lowest moments. In the vibrant theater world of London’s West End, Trix is up for a starring role and Leo has something to prove. They bicker and spar, and every interaction sends sparks flying – leading to (spoiler alert) moments of empathy and decency and yes, hot sexy times. But it’s nothing serious, or so they tell themselves!
", "tags": [ "love & romance", "let’s talk about sex", "no biz like show biz", "tales from around the world", "fiction", "rather short" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1335007059", "seamus": 620362036, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "1335007059", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781335007056", "isbn10": "1335007059", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 224, "book": "Making Up", "source": "NPR", "text": "In June, Make Your Escape With These 3 Hot Reads", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/16/620351900/in-june-make-your-escape-with-these-3-hot-reads" } ] }, "225": { "id": 225, "title": "My So-Called Bollywood Life", "author": "Nisha Sharma", "reviewers": [ "Maya Rodale" ], "text": "New Jersey high school student Winnie Mehta sees everything in her life through the lens of her beloved Bollywood films, especially her romantic ups and downs. Winnie had thought Raj was The One – but not only did he just dump her; he’s stealing her thunder when it comes to arranging the film club’s big festival. Ah, teenage drama! Enter Dev, a fellow film nerd who has loved her since freshman year. This isn’t your typical love triangle; Winnie isn’t torn between two boys as much as she’s trying to forge her own path. She is the sassy, save-the-day-herself, get-the-guy-she-wants heroine we all need sometimes.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "fiction", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0553523252", "seamus": 610476710, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "0553523252", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780553523256", "isbn10": "0553523252", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 225, "book": "My So-Called Bollywood Life", "source": "NPR", "text": "April Showers Bring These 3 May Romances", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/13/610475223/april-showers-bring-these-3-may-romances" } ] }, "226": { "id": 226, "title": "Pride", "author": "Ibi Zoboi", "reviewers": [ "Maya Rodale" ], "text": "Set in Brooklyn’s rapidly gentrifying Bushwick neighborhood, Pride breathes new life into Pride And Prejudice. Zuri Benitez and her four sisters watch warily as the Darcy brothers — two handsome black teenagers, Ainsley and Darius – move into the newly and expensively renovated house down the block. Zuri and Darius initially dislike each other, wouldn’t you know it, before her pride and his prejudices get out of the way of love. This is a gorgeously written story, worth reading for so many reasons – but particularly for Zuri’s description of Darius as a “cranky bodega cat.”
", "tags": [ "young adult", "love & romance", "identity & culture", "fiction", "book club ideas" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0062564048", "seamus": 656958275, "itunes": 9780062564047, "bookshop": 9780062564047, "cover": "0062564048", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062564047", "isbn10": "0062564048", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 226, "book": "Pride", "source": "NPR", "text": "For October, 3 Romances To Keep You On The Path To Happily Ever After", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/13/656955792/for-october-3-romances-to-keep-you-on-the-path-to-happily-ever-after" } ] }, "227": { "id": 227, "title": "Rage Becomes Her: The Power Of Women's Anger", "author": "Soraya Chemaly", "reviewers": [ "Maya Rodale" ], "text": "It shouldn’t be a surprise that women are angry these days: We’re underpaid, overworked, harassed and impossibly judged. The modern woman may identify her feelings as stress or fatigue – but really, they’re rage. And Soraya Chemaly makes the case that rather than something to soothe, anger is a powerful tool to fight injustice; women should feel the burn and use it for good. At turns enraging, comforting and inspiring, Rage Becomes Her is a must read.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas", "identity & culture" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1501189557", "seamus": 659916846, "itunes": 9781501189555, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1501189557", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501189555", "isbn10": "1501189557", "links": [] }, "228": { "id": 228, "title": "The Wedding Date", "author": "Jasmine Guillory", "reviewers": [ "Maya Rodale" ], "text": "After a classic meet-cute – they get stuck in an elevator on the way to a wedding – pediatric surgeon Drew Nichols asks Alexa Monroe to be his fake girlfriend for the big day. Drew and Alexa hit it off and hot sexy times ensue – conflicts, too, like managing long-distance dating, balancing two high-powered careers, navigating an interracial romance and, OMG, trying to figure out what he meant by that text. This novel reads like a truly contemporary romance in that the couple grapples with issues anyone dating today will relate to – but with the promise of happily ever after.
", "tags": [ "love & romance", "let’s talk about sex", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0399587667", "seamus": 584092641, "itunes": 9780399587665, "bookshop": 9780399587665, "cover": "0399587667", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780399587665", "isbn10": "0399587667", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 228, "book": "The Wedding Date", "source": "NPR", "text": "For February, 3 Swooningly Romantic Reads", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/02/08/584093049/for-february-3-swooningly-romantic-reads" } ] }, "229": { "id": 229, "title": "When Katie Met Cassidy: A Novel", "author": "Camille Perri", "reviewers": [ "Maya Rodale" ], "text": "Katie is on her own after her fiancé, John Michael, dumps her, but she is crushing it at work negotiating a big contract – which is where she meets opposing counsel Cassidy. Things might have stayed strictly professional if not for a chance encounter that leads to a night of drinking at the coolest lesbian bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. First, Katie and Cassidy become friends. Then, Katie starts to develop feelings, which Cassidy is totally into helping her explore. Camille Perri’s lively, funny voice makes for a fresh take on the beloved old story of single girl finding love in the big city.
", "tags": [ "love & romance", "let’s talk about sex", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0735212813", "seamus": 626599431, "itunes": 9780735212817, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0735212813", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780735212817", "isbn10": "0735212813", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 229, "book": "When Katie Met Cassidy: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "For July, 3 Romantic Reads That Prove Summer Is For Lovers", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/07/08/626597954/for-july-3-romantic-reads-that-prove-summer-is-for-lovers" } ] }, "230": { "id": 230, "title": "The Wrong Heaven", "author": "Amy Bonnaffons", "reviewers": [ "Meghan Keane" ], "text": "Being a woman in the world can be a surreal experience, and Amy Bonnaffons perfectly bottles that feeling in this collection of short stories about women trying to square their desires with societal restrictions. The Wrong Heaven is a compelling, sometimes bizarre read; I identified deeply with characters doing things such as voluntarily becoming horses – something I didn’t realize could stir such rich emotions.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "031651621X", "seamus": 662096251, "itunes": 9780316516211, "bookshop": "", "cover": "031651621X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316516211", "isbn10": "031651621X", "links": [] }, "231": { "id": 231, "title": "Ninety-Nine Glimpses Of Princess Margaret", "author": "Craig Brown", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Block" ], "text": "She was the Princess who would not be Queen. Margaret was glamorous where her older sister, Elizabeth, was sensible; acid-tongued and downright rude, where Elizabeth was unfailingly, royally polite; scandalous and wild, where Elizabeth could never dream of it. For many years, Margaret seemed to be everywhere, enticing admirers from Pablo Picasso to Peter Sellers. She was easily caricatured, and famously unlucky in love. In this breezy series of vignettes – some real, some hilariously imagined – author and satirist Craig Brown gives us intimate glimpses of her intriguing life.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0374906041", "seamus": 641393650, "itunes": 9780374906047, "bookshop": 9780374906047, "cover": "0374906041", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780374906047", "isbn10": "0374906041", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 231, "book": "Ninety-Nine Glimpses Of Princess Margaret", "source": "NPR", "text": "2018 'Ghost List' Revisits The TV, Books And Movies A Critic Wishes He Covered", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/12/17/676164870/2018-ghost-list-revisits-the-tv-books-and-movies-a-critic-wishes-he-covered" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 231, "book": "Ninety-Nine Glimpses Of Princess Margaret", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Ninety-Nine Glimpses Of Princess Margaret': A Woman Who Watched The Throne", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/28/641371322/ninety-nine-glimpses-of-princess-margaret-a-woman-who-watched-the-throne" } ] }, "232": { "id": 232, "title": "The Personality Brokers: The Strange History Of Myers-Briggs And The Birth Of Personality Testing", "author": "Merve Emre", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Block" ], "text": "Are you an INTJ? Or maybe an ESFP? If you know what I’m talking about, you’re among the multitudes who have taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. (For the uninitiated, that’s a series of questions designed to reveal your core personality type.) Author Merve Emre charts the unlikely origin of the personality test and the myriad ways it’s been put to use since (in college admissions, corporate hiring and firing, and matching spies to secret missions.) Emre spins a compelling tale about the mother-daughter team who gave the test its name, and along the way she raises fascinating questions about just what makes us who we are.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "science!", "staff picks", "for history lovers", "it’s all geek to me" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0385541902", "seamus": 650018627, "itunes": 9780385541909, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0385541902", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780385541909", "isbn10": "0385541902", "links": [] }, "233": { "id": 233, "title": "Housegirl: A Novel", "author": "Michael Donkor", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "I hate novels. This is a strong statement, I know – but here’s why I make it before telling you about Housegirl: I hate novels because too often, I know exactly where the story is heading, where the characters are heading. I loved Housegirl because Michael Donkor’s storytelling and character building were so exquisite. I wanted to see how the might-as-well-be-orphaned 17-year-old Ghana-born Belinda was going to fare in London, where she was not expected to be a domestic, but to accomplish a job far harder: figuring out sullen, withdrawn Amma, who’s not living up to the expectations of her traditional Ghanian parents. Two days after I finished the book, I found myself actually missing the characters. This is a rare accomplishment for a first-time author, which is why I recommend Housegirl – even though it’s a novel.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "tales from around the world", "book club ideas", "family matters", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1250305179", "seamus": 646335943, "itunes": 9781250305176, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1250305179", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250305176", "isbn10": "1250305179", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 233, "book": "Housegirl: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Ghanaian 'Housegirl' Navigates A Complex Maze Of Culture And Class", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/10/646320923/a-ghanaian-housegirl-navigates-a-complex-maze-of-culture-and-class" } ] }, "234": { "id": 234, "title": "Tigers & Tea With Toppy", "author": "Barbara Kerley and Rhoda Knight Kalt, illustrated by Matte Stephens", "reviewers": [ "Meghan Collins Sullivan" ], "text": "In this delightful, informative adventure, the granddaughter of wildlife artist Charles R. Knight narrates the life story of her “Grandpa Toppy” through their visits to museums and the zoo. During these trips, Toppy explains how, despite poor eyesight, he spent hours examining animals so that he could render them lifelike in drawings – and how he went on to imagine animals that are no longer living, bringing mastodons and dinosaurs back to life through art. The book manages to wrap natural history, family and lovely art into one inspiring package. After reading Tigers & Tea With Toppy, my 6-year-old son grabbed his paper, paint and brush and started creating his own “never-before-seen-extinct animals.”
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "kids’ books", "family matters", "for art lovers", "science!", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1338134272", "seamus": 662604300, "itunes": 9781338134278, "bookshop": 9781338134278, "cover": "1338134272", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781338134278", "isbn10": "1338134272", "links": [] }, "235": { "id": 235, "title": "American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey Into The Business Of Punishment", "author": "Shane Bauer", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer spent four months working as a corrections officer at a private prison in Louisiana, and his new book tells the shocking story of what he observed. Bauer contends that the prison companies have no interest in trying to rehabilitate the incarcerated, or even treat them like real people. It’s an enraging, necessary look at the private prison system, and a convincing clarion call for prison reform.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0735223580", "seamus": 648748821, "itunes": 9780735223585, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0735223580", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780735223585", "isbn10": "0735223580", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 235, "book": "American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey Into The Business Of Punishment", "source": "NPR", "text": "Investigative Journalist Aims To Expose Ills Of Privately Run Prisons", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/19/648748114/investigative-journalist-aims-to-expose-ills-of-privately-run-prisons" } ] }, "236": { "id": 236, "title": "God Save Texas: A Journey Into The Soul Of The Lone Star State", "author": "Lawrence Wright", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "You don’t have to be a Texan to enjoy Lawrence Wright’s witty, sharp look at the state he has called home for decades. Wright considers the Lone Star State through its past and present, its politics and culture, and explores what makes Texas so unique and divisive. Wright is one of Texas’ most talented journalists, and his book is essential reading or anyone who wants to understand how one state changed the trajectory of the country, for better and for worse.
", "tags": [ "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0525520104", "seamus": 602177709, "itunes": 9780525520108, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0525520104", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525520108", "isbn10": "0525520104", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 236, "book": "God Save Texas: A Journey Into The Soul Of The Lone Star State", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'God Save Texas' Is Essential Reading For Everyone — Even Non-Texans", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/19/600902732/god-save-texas-is-essential-reading-for-everyone-even-non-texans" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 236, "book": "God Save Texas: A Journey Into The Soul Of The Lone Star State", "source": "NPR", "text": "After A Journey Through The Lone Star State, Author Concludes: 'The Future Is Texas' ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/16/602831066/after-a-journey-through-the-lone-star-state-author-concludes-the-future-is-texas" } ] }, "237": { "id": 237, "title": "How Are You Going To Save Yourself", "author": "JM Holmes", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "JM Holmes’ powerful short story collection follows four young friends in Pawtucket, R.I.: Gio, Rolls, Dub and Rye, who are forced to grapple with issues including race, sex, families and what happens when communications suddenly break down. The book is a stunning accomplishment, a debut that reads like the work of a writer with decades of experience. It’s an unflinching look at themes that not too many authors are eager to tackle, and a book that asks important questions and challenges the reader to answer them honestly, as uncomfortable as those answers might be.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "the states we’re in", "family matters" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0316514888", "seamus": 639650532, "itunes": 9780316514880, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0316514888", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316514880", "isbn10": "0316514888", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 237, "book": "How Are You Going To Save Yourself", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'How Are You Going To Save Yourself' Asks The Hard Questions", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/23/639650000/how-are-you-going-to-save-yourself-asks-the-hard-questions" } ] }, "238": { "id": 238, "title": "My Own Devices: True Stories From The Road On Music, Science, And Senseless Love", "author": "Dessa", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "Minneapolis/New York rapper Dessa has a reputation for original, incisive and often heartbreaking music, and with her new memoir-in-essays, she proves that her writing talent isn’t confined to songs. Dessa writes beautifully about a wide range of topics, including science, music and the pain that comes with being in love; it’s a surprising and generous memoir by a singular voice.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "for music lovers", "love & romance", "short stories, essays & poetry", "seriously great writing", "nonfiction", "science!", "funny stuff", "no biz like show biz", "let’s talk about sex" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1524742295", "seamus": 659610853, "itunes": 9781524742294, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1524742295", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524742294", "isbn10": "1524742295", "links": [] }, "239": { "id": 239, "title": "Ohio", "author": "Stephen Markley", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "The sprawling, angry debut novel from Stephen Markley follows four high school acquaintances who return to their Midwestern hometown of New Canaan on the same day for very different reasons. Markley deftly addresses issues such as war, PTSD and sexual assault in this book that races toward a horrifying conclusion – it’s a beautiful novel that explores the aftermath of the Great Recession and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the tenuous bonds that hold people together at their best and at their worst.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "rather long" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1501174479", "seamus": 640671447, "itunes": 9781501174476, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1501174479", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501174476", "isbn10": "1501174479", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 239, "book": "Ohio", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Ohio' Is A Wild, Angry, Devastating Debut", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/28/639597285/ohio-is-a-wild-angry-devastating-debut" } ] }, "240": { "id": 240, "title": "Sketchtasy", "author": "Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "The third novel from author and activist Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore follows 21-year-old Alexa and her group of young queer friends as they use drugs, alcohol and sex to escape from their difficult lives in 1990s Boston. Sycamore paints an unsparing and unsentimental portrait of survival in a homophobic era, and her writing is beyond beautiful. Sketchtasy is a powerful firecracker of a novel; it’s not just one of the best books of the year, it’s an instant classic of queer literature.
", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "fiction", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1551527294", "seamus": 659927381, "itunes": 9781551527291, "bookshop": 9781551527291, "cover": "1551527294", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781551527291", "isbn10": "1551527294", "links": [] }, "241": { "id": 241, "title": "The Largesse Of The Sea Maiden: Stories", "author": "Denis Johnson", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "Nobody ever wrote like Denis Johnson, the hardcore minimalist author who died last May at 67. His last book might be the best one he ever wrote – it’s an unceasingly bleak but beautiful collection of short stories, focusing on the lost, the hurting and the downtrodden. Johnson always embraced the dark, but reluctantly; he refused to shy away from the brutal, the violent and the desperate. He was the last of his breed, and it was a breed of one. His final collection is stunning, brilliant and as unique as the author himself.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "fiction", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "rather short" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0812988639", "seamus": 576784356, "itunes": 9780812988635, "bookshop": 9780812988635, "cover": "0812988639", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780812988635", "isbn10": "0812988639", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 241, "book": "The Largesse Of The Sea Maiden: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "Denis Johnson Leaves Us With His Best In 'Largesse Of The Sea Maiden'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/01/20/577724646/denis-johnson-leaves-us-with-his-best-in-largesse-of-the-sea-maiden" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 241, "book": "The Largesse Of The Sea Maiden: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "Posthumously Published 'Sea Maiden' Affirms Denis Johnson's Eternal Voice", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/01/09/576776332/posthumously-published-sea-maiden-affirms-denis-johnsons-eternal-voice" } ] }, "242": { "id": 242, "title": "The Order Of The Day", "author": "Éric Vuillard, translated by Mark Polizzotti", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "A novel told as a series of short vignettes, Éric Vuillard’s book examines Hitler’s rise to power in Germany through the people who enabled it through their greed, apathy or cowardice. Vuillard’s writing is spare, angry and powerful, and it suffuses the novel with an effective sense of impending doom. It’s a chilling, brilliant look at the rise of fascism in the 1930s that also works as a warning for today.
", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "historical fiction", "rather short", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "1590519698", "seamus": 659965146, "itunes": 9781590519691, "bookshop": 9781590519691, "cover": "1590519698", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781590519691", "isbn10": "1590519698", "links": [] }, "243": { "id": 243, "title": "There Will Be No Miracles Here: A Memoir", "author": "Casey Gerald", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "Even if you didn’t love This Town, Mark Leibovich’s takedown of Washington, D.C. (I didn’t), then you might love this book (I did). Football is America’s most-watched sport – but the NFL is remarkably opaque. Leibovich gets behind the curtain, and his way in is through his beloved New England Patriots (I hate them). Somehow, he manages to describe the inner workings of the league in a way that a fan of any team or even a non-fan can appreciate and understand. The picture is both hilarious and depressing. His sendups of league bigwigs make for a hilarious read, and his analysis of the racial and other dynamics help illuminate the stories now on the sports pages.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "for sports lovers" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0399185429", "seamus": 658947878, "itunes": 9780399185427, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0399185429", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780399185427", "isbn10": "0399185429", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 244, "book": "Big Game: The NFL In Dangerous Times", "source": "WUWM", "text": "Football & Politics: 'Big Game' delivers inside look at NFL", "url": "http://www.wuwm.com/post/football-politics-big-game-delivers-inside-look-nfl" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 244, "book": "Big Game: The NFL In Dangerous Times", "source": "NPR", "text": "The 'Dangerous Times' For The NFL", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/01/643921984/the-dangerous-times-for-the-nfl" } ] }, "245": { "id": 245, "title": "Heartland: A Memoir Of Working Hard And Being Broke In The Richest Country On Earth", "author": "Sarah Smarsh", "reviewers": [ "Michel Martin" ], "text": "Whether you’ve loved or hated her newspaper columns filled with diatribes about what she says “liberal elites” get wrong about the white working class, this book is worth a read. Part memoir, part socio-economic analysis, Sarah Smarsh sets her own story and that of her family against the backdrop of the major economic forces that have shaped the Midwest in recent decades. From stories of improvised fun – “sledding” on the flat plains by hitching up to a tractor in the snow – to the devastating impact of sexual abuse and too early pregnancies – Smarsh brings you into her world with equal parts deep compassion and clear eyes. It’s a good read, funny and heartbreaking.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1501133098", "seamus": 647987062, "itunes": 9781501133091, "bookshop": 9781501133091, "cover": "1501133098", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501133091", "isbn10": "1501133098", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 245, "book": "Heartland: A Memoir Of Working Hard And Being Broke In The Richest Country On Earth", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Sarah Smarsh: On Growing Up Working-Poor In America's Heartland", "url": "http://www.kmuw.org/post/sarah-smarsh-growing-working-poor-americas-heartland" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 245, "book": "Heartland: A Memoir Of Working Hard And Being Broke In The Richest Country On Earth", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Book Review: 'Heartland'", "url": "http://www.kmuw.org/post/book-review-heartland" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 245, "book": "Heartland: A Memoir Of Working Hard And Being Broke In The Richest Country On Earth", "source": "NPR", "text": "Smart, Unsentimental 'Heartland' Pays Tribute To America's Working Class", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/03/653809066/smart-unsentimental-heartland-pays-tribute-to-americas-working-class" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 245, "book": "Heartland: A Memoir Of Working Hard And Being Broke In The Richest Country On Earth", "source": "NPR", "text": "She Thought Her Family Was Middle Class, Not Broke In The Richest Country On Earth", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/16/648112378/she-thought-her-family-was-middle-class-not-broke-in-the-richest-country-on-eart" } ] }, "246": { "id": 246, "title": "On The Other Side Of Freedom: The Case For Hope", "author": "DeRay Mckesson", "reviewers": [ "Michel Martin" ], "text": "DeRay Mckesson, one of the best-known leaders of the Ferguson protests and the Black Lives Matter movement, offers a theology of hope that can be understood and embraced even by people who are not religious. He describes his journey from middle-class professional striver to radical disciple of social change. Somehow he pulls this off in language so simple and clear, even a middle-schooler can understand it (as long as you are comfortable with a blunt discussion of his grappling with his sexual orientation). I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand why this movement resonates so deeply with so many, especially if you disagree with it.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "biography & memoir", "rather short" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0525560327", "seamus": 659912660, "itunes": 9780525560326, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0525560327", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525560326", "isbn10": "0525560327", "links": [] }, "247": { "id": 247, "title": "Inner City Pressure: The Story Of Grime", "author": "Dan Hancox", "reviewers": [ "Mina Tavakoli" ], "text": "By Y2K, people the world over were dreaming of either collapse or revolution. London, a city fairly recently besieged by Tory politics, pimpled by postindustrial docklands and newly in the grip of Tony Blair, got the latter in the form of grime music – perhaps one of the more elegant symbols of a Britain in flux. Author and grime savant Dan Hancox lovingly considers this chaotic genre (which he unforgettably describes as “a tension headache you can dance to”) as a case study on the way that music can simmer disparate cultures into one neural stew, measure socioeconomic change, or sum the heart of a nation more accurately than any anthem can.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for music lovers", "for history lovers", "staff picks", "identity & culture" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0008257132", "seamus": 659580317, "itunes": 9780008257132, "bookshop": 9780008257132, "cover": "0008257132", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780008257132", "isbn10": "0008257132", "links": [] }, "248": { "id": 248, "title": "New Poets Of Native Nations", "author": "Heid E. Erdrich", "reviewers": [ "Mina Tavakoli" ], "text": "In this first collection of Native-focused poetry since 1988, editor Heid E. Erdrich’s careful criterion for “nativeness” focuses less on the contributors’ “blood quantum” and more on the very American experiences they shared. For moments in which voices of people from tribal and native nations are searingly, explicitly, particularly necessary, New Poets Of Native Nations makes clear their song with verse as diverse and twisty as the lives of the writers themselves.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1555978096", "seamus": 659611460, "itunes": 9781555978099, "bookshop": 9781555978099, "cover": "1555978096", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781555978099", "isbn10": "1555978096", "links": [] }, "249": { "id": 249, "title": "All The Animals Where I Live", "author": "Philip C. Stead", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "Moving at a pace that could be described as “the opposite of Twitter,” Philip C. Stead’s engaging book is quiet but thought-provoking. As the narrative floats gently from animal to animal, it lingers just long enough in places to consider a number of issues: country vs. city life, a beloved grandmother (including a touching reverie about what kind of animal she would have been), and how we mark the steady passage of time. A welcome breath of fresh air – I actually felt my blood pressure go down while sinking into this book. (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1626726566", "seamus": 658924139, "itunes": 9781626726567, "bookshop": 9781626726567, "cover": "1626726566", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781626726567", "isbn10": "1626726566", "links": [] }, "250": { "id": 250, "title": "Blue", "author": "Laura Vaccaro Seeger", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "Beginning with a baby and a puppy snuggled side by side beneath the words “baby blue,” Laura Vaccaro Seeger follows these two friends as they grow together over the years. By the time you realize where this is headed, you have no choice but to let the wave of emotions wash over you. So be warned: You’ll probably want to have a box of tissues nearby. (For ages 3 to 6)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "for art lovers" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1626720665", "seamus": 658953808, "itunes": 9781626720664, "bookshop": 9781626720664, "cover": "1626720665", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781626720664", "isbn10": "1626720665", "links": [] }, "251": { "id": 251, "title": "The Party: And Other Stories", "author": "Sergio Ruzzier", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "A worthy heir to the classic Frog And Toad or Elephant & Piggie early readers, these playful vignettes have a subversive sense of humor that never becomes mean-spirited. The first in a planned series, the friendship between Fox and Chick already feels nicely worn-in, and I’m looking forward to seeing what mischief these two get into in the years to come. (For ages 5 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "funny stuff" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1452152888", "seamus": 658986429, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "1452152888", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781452152882", "isbn10": "1452152888", "links": [] }, "252": { "id": 252, "title": "Mommy's Khimar", "author": "Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, illustrated by Ebony Glenn", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "A young Muslim-American girl goes into her mother’s closet, where she is surrounded by a rainbow of flowing khimars, or headscarves. She tries on different scarves before settling on a favorite yellow khimar, at which point she imagines herself as a queen, a shooting star and a golden bird. The child’s exuberance is clear (and infectious), and her face bursts with joy and pride as she connects deeply with her mother, her community and her faith. (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "identity & culture" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1534400591", "seamus": 659608579, "itunes": 9781534400597, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1534400591", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781534400597", "isbn10": "1534400591", "links": [] }, "253": { "id": 253, "title": "New Shoes", "author": "Chris Raschka", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "You wouldn’t think that a book about getting new shoes would be particularly noteworthy, but Chris Raschka creates something special here with his bold colors and swirling brushwork. Painting from the point of view of the child (most of the pages are actually looking down at the child’s own feet), Raschka captures the sense that for children, something as mundane as getting a pair of shoes is a joyous new experience that contains within it a world of wonder. (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "eye-opening reads", "for art lovers" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0062657526", "seamus": 659615443, "itunes": 9780062657527, "bookshop": 9780062657527, "cover": "0062657526", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062657527", "isbn10": "0062657526", "links": [] }, "254": { "id": 254, "title": "Photographic: The Life Of Graciela Iturbide", "author": "Isabel Quintero, illustrated by Zeke Peña", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "Near the beginning of this gorgeous book, the celebrated photographer Graciela Iturbide says: “I photograph and exist in the in-between: those spaces where unknown worlds, real and imagined, intersect.” This also is an apt description of the book itself, which revels in the in-between; mixing elements of photo essay, memoir and graphic novel to create a powerful biography that – like Iturbide herself – defies convention. (For ages 12 and older)
", "tags": [ "young adult", "kids’ books", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "for art lovers", "tales from around the world", "comics & graphic novels" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1947440004", "seamus": 659916541, "itunes": 9781947440005, "bookshop": 9781947440005, "cover": "1947440004", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781947440005", "isbn10": "1947440004", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 254, "book": "Photographic: The Life Of Graciela Iturbide", "source": "KPBS", "text": "Graphic Novel Follows Artistic Journeys Of Iconic Mexican Photographer Graciela Iturbide ", "url": "https://www.kpbs.org/news/2018/aug/23/graphic-novel-follows-artistic-journeys-iconic-mex/" } ] }, "255": { "id": 255, "title": "The Poet X", "author": "Elizabeth Acevedo", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "A novel-in-verse that is as devastating as it is beautiful. Whether it’s standing up to her mother, questioning her religion or pushing back against unrelenting waves of sexual harassment, young Xiomara Batista has to spend every day fighting. When a teacher encourages her to join a poetry club, Xiomara discovers a powerful new weapon of choice. Pro-tip: Please do yourself a favor and listen to the audiobook. It’s a truly special experience to hear these lines directly from a master like Elizabeth Acevedo, a National Poetry Slam champion, whose profound delivery will sear itself into your memory.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "young adult", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0062662805", "seamus": 659964934, "itunes": 9780062662804, "bookshop": 9780062662804, "cover": "0062662805", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062662804", "isbn10": "0062662805", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 255, "book": "The Poet X", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Roma' Deserves Its Oscar Buzz", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2019/01/24/688197603/roma-deserves-its-oscar-buzz" } ] }, "256": { "id": 256, "title": "They Say Blue", "author": "Jillian Tamaki", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "Following an inquisitive young child as she playfully considers how to view the world around her, Jillian Tamaki’s flowing artwork and lyrical text capture the feeling of both a quiet meditation and a surreal dream sequence. Diving into what we can and cannot take for granted, They Say Blue reminds readers that it’s important to engage thoughtfully with the world if you want to see its true colors. (For ages 5 to 7)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "eye-opening reads", "for art lovers" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1419728512", "seamus": 659963837, "itunes": 9781419728518, "bookshop": 9781419728518, "cover": "1419728512", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781419728518", "isbn10": "1419728512", "links": [] }, "257": { "id": 257, "title": "Dreamers", "author": "Yuyi Morales", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "Given the dehumanizing rhetoric currently surrounding immigration, Dreamers, which radiates humanity on every page, could not be more timely. Bursting with powerful imagery, this masterful book is so many things: a family’s journey to a new country, a thank-you letter to libraries, the stirring origin story of one of today’s greatest children’s authors. But at its heart, it is a joyous celebration of humanity and the importance of the dreams that lift us up – dreams that will never be bound by borders. (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "for art lovers", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0823440559", "seamus": 658981134, "itunes": 9780823440559, "bookshop": 9780823440559, "cover": "0823440559", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780823440559", "isbn10": "0823440559", "links": [] }, "258": { "id": 258, "title": "Bachelor Nation: Inside The World Of America's Favorite Guilty Pleasure", "author": "Amy Kaufman", "reviewers": [ "Molly Seavy-Nesper" ], "text": "I’ll admit it: Like millions of other Americans, I watch The Bachelor. Its mass appeal is both troubling and intriguing, which is why Amy Kaufman’s unauthorized, behind-the-scenes look at the franchise is so satisfying. The book provides an almost neverending collection of crazy factoids – from how producers construct a narrative (including engaging a manipulative style of editing dubbed “Frankenbiting”), to the application process, to the wild contract contestants must sign. Bachelor Nation examines America’s fascination with “falling in love” on TV. Readers, will you accept this rose?
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "love & romance", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1101985909", "seamus": 591154247, "itunes": 9781101985908, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101985909", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781101985908", "isbn10": "1101985909", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 258, "book": "Bachelor Nation: Inside The World Of America's Favorite Guilty Pleasure", "source": "NPR", "text": "New Book Dives Into How 'The Bachelor' Wooed The Nation", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/07/591143649/new-book-dives-into-how-the-bachelor-wooed-the-nation" } ] }, "259": { "id": 259, "title": "The Golden State: A Novel", "author": "Lydia Kiesling", "reviewers": [ "Nancy Pearl" ], "text": "Lydia Kiesling’s gorgeously written, deeply engaging, character-driven debut novel outlines 10 days in the life of Daphne, mother to toddler Honey. Due to a bureaucratic snafu, Daphne’s husband has been denied re-entry to the U.S. from his native Turkey, so she’s on her own, trying to balance work with caring for Honey (whom she both profoundly loves and sometimes resents), and trying not to fall apart completely. To save herself, she abandons her job in San Francisco and heads for the high desert town and the mobile home where her grandparents once lived. It’s been a very long time since my daughters were toddlers, but Daphne’s trenchant observations of her complicated feelings brought it all back. Plus, it was nice to read a California novel set in neither Los Angeles nor San Francisco.
", "tags": [ "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "fiction", "love & romance" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0374164835", "seamus": 659963451, "itunes": 9780374164836, "bookshop": 9780374164836, "cover": "0374164835", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780374164836", "isbn10": "0374164835", "links": [] }, "260": { "id": 260, "title": "The Great Believers", "author": "Rebecca Makkai", "reviewers": [ "Nancy Pearl" ], "text": "I’ve long been a fan of Rebecca Makkai’s work (don’t miss The Hundred-Year House), but nothing prepared me for her moving new novel. Set in two distinct time periods and locales (Chicago in the 1980s and Paris in 2015), the Chicago chapters revolve around a group of gay men in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, while the Paris sections involve a mother searching for her missing daughter. These two seemingly dissimilar plots gradually reflect and refract upon one another, giving additional depth and meaning to each. I’ve read a lot of novels and nonfiction dealing with AIDS, but no book since Randy Shilts’ And The Band Played On has affected me so powerfully as this one.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "for history lovers", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0735223521", "seamus": 659962920, "itunes": 9780735223523, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0735223521", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780735223523", "isbn10": "0735223521", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 260, "book": "The Great Believers", "source": "WUWM", "text": "Lake Effect: 'The Great Believers' turns the blind eye back to the AIDS crisis", "url": "http://www.wuwm.com/post/great-believers-turns-blind-eye-back-aids-crisis#stream/0" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 260, "book": "The Great Believers", "source": "NPR & WBUR", "text": "Here & Now: Rebecca Makkai Tells Story Of Chicago AIDS Crisis In 'The Great Believers'", "url": "http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/06/27/great-believers-aids-rebecca-makkai" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 260, "book": "The Great Believers", "source": "VPR", "text": "Three Vermonters Nominated For 2018 National Book Award", "url": "http://digital.vpr.net/post/three-vermonters-nominated-2018-national-book-award#stream/0" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 260, "book": "The Great Believers", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Marginalia: Rebecca Makkai", "url": "http://www.kmuw.org/post/marginalia-rebecca-makkai-0" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 260, "book": "The Great Believers", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Fresh Air' Favorites: Our Critics Pick 2018's Best Books, Movies, Music And TV", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/12/18/674538584/fresh-air-favorites-our-critics-pick-2018-s-best-books-movies-tv-and-music" } ] }, "261": { "id": 261, "title": "The Infinite Blacktop: A Novel", "author": "Sara Gran", "reviewers": [ "Nancy Pearl" ], "text": "This is the third in a series of noirishly existential mysteries featuring Claire DeWitt (introduced with panache in Claire DeWitt And The City Of The Dead, but it’s not absolutely necessary to read them in order), a brilliant private eye with a complicated backstory and a conveniently flexible moral compass. Here, we meet her at three points in her life as she attempts to solve three mysteries, one in the present and two from various points in her past. Sara Gran subverts all the tropes of mystery novels to ask readers to ponder the one question that Claire’s always trying to find the answer to: What is the purpose of life? These are mysteries like you’ve never read before.
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1501165712", "seamus": 659961770, "itunes": 9781501165719, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1501165712", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501165719", "isbn10": "1501165712", "links": [] }, "262": { "id": 262, "title": "1947: Where Now Begins", "author": "Elisabeth Åsbrink, translated by Fiona Graham", "reviewers": [ "Nancy Pearl" ], "text": "Elisabeth Åsbrink, a Swedish journalist, takes readers month by month through this epochal year and tells us what in the world was going on. The coverage isn’t limited to the political realm (which saw, among much else, the opening of the Nuremberg trials and HUAC’s arrival in Hollywood) but also includes such events as Nelson Algren and Simone de Beauvoir’s love affair, the fight to have genocide recognized by the U.N. as an international crime, the appearance of flying saucers over the Cascades in Oregon and much more. In Fiona Graham’s smooth translation, parallels between 1947 and 2018 are frighteningly obvious. Even though I have a history degree and already knew at least a little about many of the events Åsbrink details, I found so much that was eye-opening in every month’s account.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1590518969", "seamus": 621096435, "itunes": 9781590518960, "bookshop": 9781590518960, "cover": "1590518969", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781590518960", "isbn10": "1590518969", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 262, "book": "1947: Where Now Begins", "source": "NPR", "text": "Librarian Nancy Pearl Picks 7 Books For Summer Reading", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/21/621081170/librarian-nancy-pearl-picks-7-books-for-summer-reading" } ] }, "263": { "id": 263, "title": "Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga Of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, And The Dream Of Becoming A World-Class Metropolis", "author": "Sam Anderson", "reviewers": [ "Nancy Pearl" ], "text": "It’s hard to believe that any biography of any American city could be more consistently interesting, entertaining and informative than this one. Boom Town chronicles Oklahoma City’s unusual beginnings – in the Land Rush of 1899 white settlers ran into the state at noon on April 22 to “claim” areas that had been home to many American Indian tribes. The book goes on to describe the events and characteristics that shaped the city over the next century plus, including the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building, the tempestuous weather in the epicenter of Tornado Alley and the drama surrounding the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team. This wildly engaging civics lesson brings the city and its residents alive.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "eye-opening reads", "for sports lovers" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0804137315", "seamus": 658954257, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "0804137315", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780804137317", "isbn10": "0804137315", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 263, "book": "Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga Of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, And The Dream Of Becoming A World-Class Metropolis", "source": "KGOU", "text": "Author Sam Anderson Discusses His Book About Oklahoma City", "url": "http://www.kgou.org/post/author-sam-anderson-discusses-his-book-about-oklahoma-city" } ] }, "264": { "id": 264, "title": "Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine And Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, And Sick", "author": "Maya Dusenbery", "reviewers": [ "Natalie Friedman Winston" ], "text": "Sadly, too many women who read this book will be nodding to themselves the whole way through. If your pain has ever been dismissed by a doctor, if you’ve ever been told that your problems are simply anxiety or stress-related, this book will resonate. Through anecdotes and study results, Maya Dusenbery reveals all the ways that the medical system has ignored or dismissed women’s health issues for decades. Like this statistic: “Young women are seven times more likely to be sent home from the hospital in the middle of having a heart attack.” Why is that? And why is there so little research into diseases such as chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia? And why are women often excluded from drug studies and clinical research? This book may not make you feel hopeful, but it will make you a better advocate for your own health care.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "science!", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0062470809", "seamus": 597174597, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062470809", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062470805", "isbn10": "0062470809", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 264, "book": "Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine And Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, And Sick", "source": "NPR", "text": "How 'Bad Medicine' Dismisses And Misdiagnoses Women's Symptoms", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/03/27/597159133/how-bad-medicine-dismisses-and-misdiagnoses-womens-symptoms" } ] }, "265": { "id": 265, "title": "Two Sisters: A Father, His Daughters, And Their Journey Into The Syrian Jihad", "author": "Åsne Seierstad, translated by Seán Kinsella", "reviewers": [ "Natalie Friedman Winston" ], "text": "This is a true story pulled from the headlines: Two Somali sisters living in Oslo, Norway, run away to fight with the Islamic State in Syria, and their dad tries to find them and bring them home. You understand the girls’ perspectives through essays they wrote in school, conversations with their family members and online chats they had with friends. Through exhaustive research, journalist Åsne Seierstad tries to shed light on how two well-adjusted immigrants got wrapped up in the Syrian civil war.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "family matters", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0374279675", "seamus": 598252545, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "0374279675", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780374279677", "isbn10": "0374279675", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 265, "book": "Two Sisters: A Father, His Daughters, And Their Journey Into The Syrian Jihad", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Two Sisters' Leave Home For Syria, Tearing A Family Apart", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/04/597127616/two-sisters-leave-home-for-syria-tearing-a-family-apart" } ] }, "266": { "id": 266, "title": "Who Is Michael Ovitz?", "author": "Michael Ovitz", "reviewers": [ "Neal Carruth" ], "text": "Talent agent Michael Ovitz sat at the pinnacle of Hollywood power for some two decades, representing many of the biggest names in entertainment. Ovitz instilled fear among executives, agents, colleagues and friends. Then he disappeared from the public eye after a brief tenure at Disney. In Who Is Michael Ovitz?, Ovitz reemerges to dish about the TV and movie businesses during a period of cultural dominance. He offers a fascinating account of how he built Creative Artists Agency into a global juggernaut. The tone is controlled and the storytelling episodic. But there are poignant flashes of a man grappling with the consequences of the ruthless persona that he created.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1591845548", "seamus": 659961229, "itunes": 9781591845546, "bookshop": 9781591845546, "cover": "1591845548", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781591845546", "isbn10": "1591845548", "links": [] }, "267": { "id": 267, "title": "My Year Of Rest And Relaxation", "author": "Ottessa Moshfegh", "reviewers": [ "Nina Gregory" ], "text": "Sharp wit is softened by heavy narcotics in My Year Of Rest And Relaxation. A pretty-on-the-outside 20-something blonde living in New York City in the months before Sept. 11 wants to hibernate and sleep off her psychic pain. She pops a cornucopia of pills and somehow lightly tiptoes through grief, ennui and shades of addiction and depression. The book is dark but not heavy and has the kind of narrator who stays with the reader long after the book is finished.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "the dark side" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "0525522115", "seamus": 627450152, "itunes": 9780525522119, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0525522115", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525522119", "isbn10": "0525522115", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 267, "book": "My Year Of Rest And Relaxation", "source": "NPR", "text": "Daring New Novel Fetishizes A Desperate Desire For Sleep", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/07/10/627512147/daring-new-novel-fetishizes-a-desperate-desire-for-sleep" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 267, "book": "My Year Of Rest And Relaxation", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Rest And Relaxation' Is As Sharp As Its Heroine Is Bleary", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/07/10/627447444/rest-and-relaxation-is-as-sharp-as-its-heroine-is-bleary" } ] }, "268": { "id": 268, "title": "The Foreign Cinema Cookbook: Recipes And Stories Under The Stars", "author": "Gayle Pirie and John Clark", "reviewers": [ "Nina Gregory" ], "text": "This cookbook explains the concept behind Foreign Cinema, the quintessential San Francisco food-and-film restaurant, and offers a loving history of the Mission District neighborhood it calls home. Fun fact: The “Black Sabbath” cocktail – the ingredient list includes Prosecco and blood orange liqueur – was a nod to Italian horror film I Tre Volti della Paura, later called Black Sabbath. Renowned chef Alice Waters wrote the introduction, and film references are woven between recipes for seared sea scallops with Champagne butter sauce, brown sugar-smoked bacon and Tahitian vanilla Pavlova with strawberry coulis and rose-scented rhubarb.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "staff picks", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "1419729047", "seamus": 659960748, "itunes": 9781419729041, "bookshop": 9781419729041, "cover": "1419729047", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781419729041", "isbn10": "1419729047", "links": [] }, "269": { "id": 269, "title": "The Prison Letters Of Nelson Mandela", "author": "Nelson Mandela, Sahm Venter (editor)", "reviewers": [ "Ofeibea Quist-Arcton" ], "text": "The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela is a compelling, large volume. Dip in and out at your leisure and learn much from it. This often poignant collection of Mandela’s missives gives us a deeper insight into how he struggled with being an absent and incarcerated father and husband. Edited by Sahm Venter, the book – featuring previously mainly unpublished prison letters from 1962-1990 to his family, friends and associates – sheds light on a Mandela determined to parent from behind bars. Prison Letters paints an intimate portrait of the anti-apartheid stalwart lovingly writing long, detailed letters in his distinctive, easily readable script, as well complaints to the authorities demanding rights for political prisoners under harsh apartheid rule in South Africa.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "rather long" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1631491172", "seamus": 630131344, "itunes": 9781631491177, "bookshop": 9781631491177, "cover": "1631491172", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781631491177", "isbn10": "1631491172", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 269, "book": "The Prison Letters Of Nelson Mandela", "source": "NPR", "text": "Nelson Mandela's Prison Letters: 'One Day I Will Be Back At Home'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/07/17/629742101/nelson-mandelas-prison-letters-one-day-i-will-be-back-at-home" } ] }, "270": { "id": 270, "title": "If You See Me, Don't Say Hi: Stories", "author": "Neel Patel", "reviewers": [ "Parth Shah" ], "text": "Of all the words written in Neel Patel’s 11 surprising, funny short stories, these three, from the dedication page, struck me as particularly brave: “For my parents.” In his debut collection, Patel introduces readers to brown Americans – mostly first-generation Indian Americans – whose stories of love and yearning are defined by the secrets they keep. As an Indian American, when I was growing up, the two people I kept secrets from the most were my mom and dad. If You See Me, Don’t Say Hi is a reminder that messiness makes the human experience beautiful.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "family matters", "the states we’re in", "rather short" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "1250183197", "seamus": 659578688, "itunes": 9781250183194, "bookshop": 9781250183194, "cover": "1250183197", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781250183194", "isbn10": "1250183197", "links": [] }, "271": { "id": 271, "title": "Playing Changes: Jazz For The New Century", "author": "Nate Chinen", "reviewers": [ "Patrick Jarenwattananon" ], "text": "Jazz music: It’s as interesting now as ever! Who knew? If you have any opinion about that assessment, you may have read writing by Nate Chinen, perhaps in The New York Times or through NPR Music and WBGO. Playing Changes is better: an ever-broader contemporary scene portrayed through its prime movers and movements (Brad Mehldau, Jason Moran, Esperanza Spalding, etc.). It’s music criticism with suggested listening but considers emergent forces – moneyed institutions, Big Jazz Education, hip-hop – which have sneakily shaped the sounds. So it’s not only a first stab at a playlist for our times; it’s also a first draft of our times’ history.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "for music lovers", "nonfiction", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1101870346", "seamus": 637198706, "itunes": 9781101870341, "bookshop": 9781101870341, "cover": "1101870346", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781101870341", "isbn10": "1101870346", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 271, "book": "Playing Changes: Jazz For The New Century", "source": "NPR", "text": "Jazz In The 21st Century Is All About 'Playing Changes'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/14/637199001/jazz-in-the-21st-century-is-all-about-playing-changes" } ] }, "272": { "id": 272, "title": "The Field Of Blood: Violence In Congress And The Road To Civil War", "author": "Joanne B. Freeman", "reviewers": [ "Peter Overby" ], "text": "If you look at our nation’s dysfunctional capital and wonder where things might be headed, noted historian Joanne Freeman chronicles the path once taken. Early regional rivalries (see her earlier Affairs of Honor) hardened into a 30-year debate, often physical, over slavery. Southerners were quick to defend it; Northerners slowly came to oppose. In the House of Representatives (Freeman’s focus), bullying and fistfights disrupted legislative business. Congressmen came to work packing pistols or even Bowie knives. A Maine congressman was shot dead in a duel. Freeman doesn’t suggest that history repeats itself, but there are plenty of echoes across The Field of Blood.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "the dark side", "staff picks", "rather long" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0374154775", "seamus": 659960427, "itunes": 9780374154776, "bookshop": 9780374154776, "cover": "0374154775", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780374154776", "isbn10": "0374154775", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 272, "book": "The Field Of Blood: Violence In Congress And The Road To Civil War", "source": "KUER", "text": "Congressional Violence And The Road To The Civil War ", "url": "http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/congressional-violence-and-road-civil-war" } ] }, "273": { "id": 273, "title": "Bloody Rose", "author": "Nicholas Eames", "reviewers": [ "Petra Mayer" ], "text": "The idea of mapping the roles of a Dungeons & Dragons-style adventuring party onto the roles in a rock band is so intensely perfect, it’s a marvel that no one came up with it before Nicholas Eames. (It’s less perfect for the bards, though, who keep meeting Spinal Tap drummer-esque fates.) Bloody Rose follows bored barkeep Tam Hashford as she chucks her job and takes off for a life of monster-slaying glory. It’s the second volume in a series, but I have no compunctions about telling you to go read the first book, Kings of the Wyld, too – Eames blends both a love of music and fantasy adventure with surprisingly deep, serious storytelling for a thoroughly satisfying read. And, of course, catching all the music in-jokes is just gravy.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "for music lovers", "rather long", "staff picks", "no biz like show biz", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0316362530", "seamus": 647517085, "itunes": 9780316362535, "bookshop": 9780316362535, "cover": "0316362530", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316362535", "isbn10": "0316362530", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 273, "book": "Bloody Rose", "source": "NPR", "text": "Getting 'The Band' Together: Questions For Nicholas Eames", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/15/656626213/getting-the-band-together-questions-for-nicholas-eames" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 273, "book": "Bloody Rose", "source": "NPR", "text": "On the Books: An All-Book Edition Of Pop Culture Happy Hour", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/13/647489483/on-the-books-an-all-book-edition-of-pop-culture-happy-hour" } ] }, "274": { "id": 274, "title": "Chesapeake Requiem: A Year With The Watermen Of Vanishing Tangier Island", "author": "Earl Swift", "reviewers": [ "Petra Mayer" ], "text": "Journalist Earl Swift spent more than a year living on Tangier Island, an isolated – and swiftly eroding – scrap of land in the Chesapeake Bay. He went out with the watermen searching for crabs, watched the summer tourists descend and leave again, and dug into the island’s unique history of religious revivalism to produce this deep, nuanced portrait of a place that’s already profoundly affected by stronger storms and rising seas, but where the islanders went solidly for Donald Trump, resist the idea of climate change, and trust in God to keep them safe.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "the states we’re in", "science!", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0062661396", "seamus": 640572351, "itunes": 9780062661395, "bookshop": 9780062661395, "cover": "0062661396", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062661395", "isbn10": "0062661396", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 274, "book": "Chesapeake Requiem: A Year With The Watermen Of Vanishing Tangier Island", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Chesapeake Requiem' Chronicles Life On An Endangered Island", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/27/640347154/chesapeake-requiem-chronicles-life-on-an-endangered-island" } ] }, "275": { "id": 275, "title": "How Long 'Til Black Future Month?: Stories", "author": "N.K. Jemisin", "reviewers": [ "Petra Mayer" ], "text": "Let’s say you’ve read everything N.K. Jemisin ever wrote (ME) and you can’t face the wait for her next series (ALSO ME). Luckily, there’s How Long ‘Til Black Future Month?, which collects her powerful short fiction. Special notice goes to the Hugo Award-nominated story “The City Born Great,” which imagines a young homeless man in Manhattan who becomes the living avatar of his city and does battle against eldritch horrors. And if you, like me, have raged and shaken your fist at the false choice presented in Ursula K. Le Guin’s famed “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” Jemisin’s “The Ones Who Stay And Fight” is a welcome retort.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "seriously great writing", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "0316491349", "seamus": 659499066, "itunes": 9780316491341, "bookshop": 9780316491341, "cover": "0316491349", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316491341", "isbn10": "0316491349", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 275, "book": "How Long 'Til Black Future Month?: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "Gorgeous 'Black Future Month' Tracks A Writer's Development", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/11/29/671583610/gorgeous-black-future-month-tracks-a-writers-development" } ] }, "276": { "id": 276, "title": "The Girl In The Green Silk Gown", "author": "Seanan McGuire", "reviewers": [ "Petra Mayer" ], "text": "Seanan McGuire takes hoary old urban legends, midnight neon diners and weepy 1950s dead-teenager ballads and warps them into something magic, dark and strange. The Girl in the Green Silk Gown is Rose Marshall, the Phantom Prom Date, doomed forever to hitchhike along America’s highways, one step ahead of the supernatural villain who ran her off the road. If you’re the kind of person who pats your car on the dashboard and encourages it on long trips – and even if you’re not – this is the book for you. (For added enjoyment, track down and listen to the music McGuire writes and performs about these stories.)
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "staff picks", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "for music lovers", "fiction" ], "editor": "Rose", "isbn": "075641380X", "seamus": 659959966, "itunes": 9780756413804, "bookshop": 9780756413804, "cover": "075641380X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780756413804", "isbn10": "075641380X", "links": [] }, "277": { "id": 277, "title": "Underbug: An Obsessive Tale Of Termites And Technology", "author": "Lisa Margonelli", "reviewers": [ "Richard Harris" ], "text": "Despite their homewrecking reputation, most termites are ingenious builders, constructing mounds that are strong, utilitarian and even air-conditioned. They’re just dumb insects, right? So they should have simple rules that guide their palatial building projects. Underbug makes a convincing case that’s not so. Robotics experts who thought they could co-opt termite tricks for their own ends are humbled by these remarkable insects. Lisa Margonelli’s story toggles back and forth between two quirky social worlds: that of the insects, and that of the scientists and technologists who are seduced by them.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "science!", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0374282072", "seamus": 659959291, "itunes": 9780374282073, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0374282072", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780374282073", "isbn10": "0374282072", "links": [] }, "278": { "id": 278, "title": "Fear: Trump In The White House", "author": "Bob Woodward", "reviewers": [ "Ron Elving" ], "text": "Many readers will find veteran investigator and author Bob Woodward’s depiction of President Trump and his presidency so devastating that it can only be described as an indictment. Woodward’s Trump is uncouth, uninformed and unprepared for the demands of his office. Moreover, he appears convinced that the same braggadocio that made him rich and made him president will make the world conform to his own view of it. And, while Fear has been a runaway bestseller, it has produced no direct political ramifications and little shift in public opinion – which may be a measure of our times and the uniqueness of Trump’s political appeal. This book focuses on the 2016 campaign and Trump’s first year in office, and it carries a strong scent of a sequel in the works. Many of Woodward’s apparent sources for this work have left Trump’s ambit, but others surely remain.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "rather long", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Beth/Meghan", "isbn": "1501175513", "seamus": 645928859, "itunes": 9781501175510, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1501175513", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781501175510", "isbn10": "1501175513", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 278, "book": "Fear: Trump In The White House", "source": "Connecticut Public Radio", "text": "The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is 'Fear' Itself ", "url": "http://www.wnpr.org/post/only-thing-we-have-fear-fear-itself" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 278, "book": "Fear: Trump In The White House", "source": "NPR", "text": "Bob Woodward: 'Great Washington Denial Machine' Driven By Politics, Not Truth", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/10/646247472/woodward-great-washington-denial-machine-driven-by-politics-not-truth" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 278, "book": "Fear: Trump In The White House", "source": "NPR", "text": "Bob Woodward Paints A Presidential Portrait Like No Other For Donald Trump", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/09/09/645896829/bob-woodward-has-written-about-presidencies-but-trump-book-is-his-1st-indictment" } ] }, "279": { "id": 279, "title": "Feast: Food Of The Islamic World", "author": "Anissa Helou", "reviewers": [ "Rose Friedman" ], "text": "There are cookbooks that teach you how to cook, and there are others that just teach you, period. Feast is definitely the latter. Anissa Helou has assembled an astonishing treatise on food of the Islamic world, which includes recipes from countries as far flung as Iran, Somalia, India, Turkey, Oman and Nigeria. Her chatty, almost breezy voice belies what an effort this book must have been, and when she draws connections – say, between the supposed favorite meal of the prophet Muhammad (“tharid … layers of dry bread topped with a stew of meat and vegetables”) and Indonesian roti – you pay attention.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0062363034", "seamus": 661880983, "itunes": 9780062363039, "bookshop": 9780062363039, "cover": "0062363034", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062363039", "isbn10": "0062363034", "links": [] }, "280": { "id": 280, "title": "Israeli Soul: Easy, Essential, Delicious", "author": "Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook", "reviewers": [ "Rose Friedman" ], "text": "Michael Solomonov had a hit in 2015 with Zahav, a cookbook named after his Philadelphia restaurant. The recipes from that book still felt so fresh to me, I wondered whether he would have anything new to add – but of course he did. This book is organized around things you might find on or next to a falafel sandwich, each one a perfect building block for interesting meals of all kinds: Chicken salad with tehina that can top hummus, a slice of toast, or a mess of greens, a Moroccan tomato-and-pepper sauce that would be lovely on almost anything, and a dead-simple, two-ingredient recipe for fried mushrooms that’s the most impressive thing I’ve cooked all year.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0544970373", "seamus": 667827193, "itunes": 9780544970373, "bookshop": 9780544970373, "cover": "0544970373", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780544970373", "isbn10": "0544970373", "links": [] }, "281": { "id": 281, "title": "The Word Is Murder: A Novel", "author": "Anthony Horowitz", "reviewers": [ "Rose Friedman" ], "text": "One of my coworkers refers to books she knows she should read (but doesn’t want to) as “nutritious,” which makes Anthony Horowitz’s detective novels roughly equivalent to a deeply satisfying piece of dark chocolate – candy, but with a hint of real depth. Horowitz was the creator of the cult-favorite British TV show Foyle’s War, and the novels he’s put out since deliver similar gumshoe pleasures, updated with new twists on the formula. In The Word Is Murder, a fictional Anthony Horowitz is ghostwriting a book in real time for a private eye on the case of a woman who seems to have predicted her own murder. What could be cozier?
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0062676784", "seamus": 659955431, "itunes": 9780062676788, "bookshop": 9780062676788, "cover": "0062676784", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062676788", "isbn10": "0062676784", "links": [] }, "282": { "id": 282, "title": "The Immortalists", "author": "Chloe Benjamin", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "If you knew the exact date of your death, how would you live your life? In 1969, four siblings visit a psychic, and it’s either a catalyst for everything that happens next, or it was destiny all along. The youngest moves to San Francisco to find love. He lives an expansive life and dies young at the dawn of the AIDS crisis. The oldest becomes a scientist obsessed with researching longevity. She lives a long time, cautious and alone. This book might not surprise you, but it does raise a lot of questions: Is what happens to the siblings a self-fulfilling prophecy or predetermined? Is knowledge freeing or limiting? If you knew your fate, would you pursue your wildest dreams? Would you want to know?
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "historical fiction", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0735213186", "seamus": 576301274, "itunes": 9780735213180, "bookshop": 9780735213180, "cover": "0735213186", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780735213180", "isbn10": "0735213186", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 282, "book": "The Immortalists", "source": "Wisconsin Public Radio", "text": "Drawing Inspiration For The Fantastical From The Everyday", "url": "https://www.ttbook.org/interview/drawing-inspiration-fantastical-everyday" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 282, "book": "The Immortalists", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Marginalia: Chloe Benjamin", "url": "http://www.kmuw.org/post/marginalia-chloe-benjamin" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 282, "book": "The Immortalists", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Chloe Benjamin", "url": "http://www.wamc.org/post/book-show-1545-chloe-benjamin" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 282, "book": "The Immortalists", "source": "WUWM", "text": " 'The Immortalists' Suspends Readers Between Knowledge & Uncertainty", "url": "http://www.wuwm.com/post/immortalists-suspends-readers-between-knowledge-uncertainty#stream/0" } ] }, "283": { "id": 283, "title": "A River Of Stars: A Novel", "author": "Vanessa Hua", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "A River of Stars is the best of all worlds: part buddy cop adventure, part coming-of-age story and part ode to female friendship. Scarlett Chen is pregnant with Boss Yeung’s baby. He desperately wants U.S. citizenship for his future son, so he sends Scarlett from her home in China to wait out her pregnancy in a secret maternity center in Los Angeles. But Scarlett escapes – along with a teenage stowaway named Daisy. Now they’re on the lam, and they’ll have to figure out how to raise their kids and achieve the American dream on their own, with Boss Yeung hot on their heels. How will it all work out? The (funny, moving) twist at the end is perfection.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0399178783", "seamus": 641627145, "itunes": 9780399178788, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0399178783", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780399178788", "isbn10": "0399178783", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 283, "book": "A River Of Stars: A Novel", "source": "Capital Public Radio", "text": "CapRadio Reads: Vanessa Hua’s 'A River of Stars'", "url": "http://www.capradio.org/news/insight/2018/09/07/capradio-reads-vanessa-huas-a-river-of-stars/" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 283, "book": "A River Of Stars: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Marginalia: Vanessa Hua", "url": "http://www.kmuw.org/post/marginalia-vanessa-hua" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 283, "book": "A River Of Stars: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Code Switch's 2018 Book Guide", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/12/12/674672972/code-switchs-2018-book-guide" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 283, "book": "A River Of Stars: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'A River Of Stars' Is An Asian-American, 'Pregnant Thelma & Louise'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/25/641622076/a-river-of-stars-is-an-asian-american-pregnant-thelma-louise" } ] }, "284": { "id": 284, "title": "Census", "author": "Jesse Ball", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "A widower learns he doesn’t have long to live. But he wants to show some of the world to his son, who has Down syndrome. So he signs up as a census taker (for a dystopian government in an unnamed land), and they head north. As they get closer to the edge of civilization, the father has to learn how to say goodbye to his son and consider the world he will be leaving behind. Jesse Ball wrote Census in honor of his late brother, who had Down syndrome, in order to help people “see what it is like to know and love a Down syndrome boy or girl.” Through his spare yet beautiful writing, Ball does just that.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "006267613X", "seamus": 592367532, "itunes": 9780062676139, "bookshop": 9780062676139, "cover": "006267613X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062676139", "isbn10": "006267613X", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 284, "book": "Census", "source": "NPR", "text": "One Final Road Trip Takes A 'Census' Of The Hurt In The World", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/10/592073879/one-final-road-trip-takes-a-census-of-the-hurt-in-the-world" } ] }, "285": { "id": 285, "title": "Social Creature: A Novel", "author": "Tara Isabella Burton", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "Lavinia is exceptionally wealthy. Louise is not. Lavinia has a glittering circle of friends and endless parties to attend. Louise is a failed writer working three jobs – until she meets Lavinia. By New Year’s Eve, Lavinia and Louise have known each other for 10 days. Louise moves into Lavinia’s apartment. They take a lot of selfies, they wear each other’s clothes. (This becomes important later.) It’s all Louise has ever wanted. Until Lavinia becomes obsessed with Louise. Or is it the other way around? Soon, Lavinia will be dead. But Louise can’t let everything fall apart now. Social Creature is Tara Isabella Burton’s unputdownable debut novel. (Seriously, I read this book in one day.)
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0385543522", "seamus": 659927994, "itunes": 9780385543521, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0385543522", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780385543521", "isbn10": "0385543522", "links": [] }, "286": { "id": 286, "title": "The Merry Spinster: Tales Of Everyday Horror", "author": "Daniel Mallory Ortberg", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "In The Merry Spinster, the stories might be a mix of classic fairy tales and Old Testament, but they’re not the bedtime stories you remember. They’re darker, bloodier and messier. They also subvert traditional roles – princess, daughter, king and husband are all untied completely from gender. The frog in “The Frog’s Princess” falls in love with a daughter, who is male. It’s liberating. Can you see those tropes more clearly now? And author Daniel Mallory Ortberg has said it wasn’t just an interesting thought experiment; Ortberg was in the process of coming out as transgender while writing these stories.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "staff picks", "rather short", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1472154118", "seamus": 591671694, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "cover": "1472154118", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781472154118", "isbn10": "1472154118", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 286, "book": "The Merry Spinster: Tales Of Everyday Horror", "source": "NPR", "text": "In Daniel Mallory Ortberg's Version, The Little Mermaid Inhales Souls ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/17/593877665/in-daniel-mallory-ortbergs-version-the-little-mermaid-inhales-souls" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 286, "book": "The Merry Spinster: Tales Of Everyday Horror", "source": "NPR", "text": "Evil, Antic And Modern, 'The Merry Spinster' Puts A Dark Spin On Fairy Tales", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/13/591150416/evil-antic-and-modern-the-merry-spinster-puts-a-dark-spin-on-fairy-tales" } ] }, "287": { "id": 287, "title": "The Night Diary", "author": "Veera Hiranandani", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "Nisha is a 12-year-old girl growing up in India. But it’s 1947, the year of Partition. India is being torn in two. And Nisha, who is half Hindu and half Muslim, is forced to flee newly created Pakistan with her family. Told in diary entries to her late mother, The Night Diary is everything you want in a young adult novel. There’s history and religion. An empathetic heroine who is very brave (but also sometimes scared) and loves her family (but still fights with her brother). And lessons, about how it feels to be displaced and what it means to be a refugee, unable to be safe in your own homeland – themes that, though the author started writing this novel years ago, are all the more relevant today. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "kids’ books", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "identity & culture", "family matters", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0735228515", "seamus": 592392048, "itunes": 9780735228511, "bookshop": 9780735228511, "cover": "0735228515", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780735228511", "isbn10": "0735228515", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 287, "book": "The Night Diary", "source": "NPR", "text": "Partition, Through A Child's Eyes, In 'The Night Diary' ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/11/592392633/partition-through-a-childs-eyes-in-the-night-diary" } ] }, "288": { "id": 288, "title": "All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir", "author": "Nicole Chung", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "Nicole Chung was born into a Korean immigrant family and adopted by a white couple when she was an infant. All You Can Ever Know is partially about Chung’s search as an adult for her birth family, and who she found. But it’s also a thoughtful look at transracial adoption and a meditation on identity and culture. What did it mean, for example, for Chung to grow up in rural Oregon as the only nonwhite kid in her school, and without the language to recognize racism for what it was? Her memoir is a sometimes heartbreaking, always unflinching look at what it means to feel rootless.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "the states we’re in", "rather short" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1936787970", "seamus": 654243633, "itunes": 9781936787975, "bookshop": 9781936787975, "cover": "1936787970", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781936787975", "isbn10": "1936787970", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 288, "book": "All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir", "source": "WBUR", "text": "On Point: Identity, Acceptance Permeate Nicole Chung's New Memoir Of Adoption", "url": "http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2018/10/10/identity-acceptance-permeate-nicole-chungs-new-memoir-of-adoption" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 288, "book": "All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'All You Can Ever Know' Offers A Personal Account Of Transracial Adoption", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/04/654240953/all-you-can-ever-know-offers-a-personal-account-of-transracial-adoption" } ] }, "289": { "id": 289, "title": "Here To Stay", "author": "Sara Farizan", "reviewers": [ "Sarah Handel" ], "text": "Bijan Majidi is a pretty typical high school kid – he gets good grades, plays basketball and reads comics. He has friends but isn’t super popular. That changes after Bijan scores the winning basket in a big game. But as he becomes more popular, he also becomes the target of a smear campaign that paints him as a terrorist. Sara Farizan’s YA novel feels true both to the moment and the teenage experience – and I suspect both adults and teens will tear right through it.
", "tags": [ "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "young adult", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1616207000", "seamus": 658990242, "itunes": 9781616207007, "bookshop": 9781616207007, "cover": "1616207000", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781616207007", "isbn10": "1616207000", "links": [] }, "290": { "id": 290, "title": "Julián Is A Mermaid", "author": "Jessica Love", "reviewers": [ "Sarah Handel" ], "text": "Julián is a dreamy, creative little soul with a passion for mermaids, sparked by an encounter with three of them on the New York subway one day. Later, as his abuela showers, he crafts his own elaborate mermaid costume from found items around her home. There’s a moment of tension when abuela emerges and catches him – will she embrace his transformation? To my delight (and my 4-year-old’s), she does, and adds the perfect finishing touch. This story, written and illustrated by Jessica Love, glows with warmth and acceptance, and is a favorite read before bed. (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "identity & culture", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0763690457", "seamus": 659601727, "itunes": 9780763690458, "bookshop": 9780763690458, "cover": "0763690457", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780763690458", "isbn10": "0763690457", "links": [] }, "291": { "id": 291, "title": "A Gift From Darkness", "author": "Patience Ibrahim and Andrea C. Hoffmann", "reviewers": [ "Sarah Handel" ], "text": "Patience Ibrahim was kidnapped twice by Boko Haram in Nigeria – and this is her story, as told to journalist Andrea C. Hoffmann. The atrocities Ibrahim endured are almost unimaginable, and, as one might expect, her story is hard to read, though told well. But it’s important, not only to understand the horrific reign of Boko Haram, but also as an act of support for women like Ibrahim, who Hoffmann says are never asked about what they have witnessed.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1590518497", "seamus": 579523108, "itunes": 9781590518496, "bookshop": 9781590518496, "cover": "1590518497", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781590518496", "isbn10": "1590518497", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 291, "book": "A Gift From Darkness", "source": "NPR", "text": "Patience Ibrahim Thought No One Would Care About Her Story As A Boko Haram Captive", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/01/21/579500374/patience-ibrahim-thought-no-one-would-care-about-her-story-as-a-boko-haram-capti" } ] }, "292": { "id": 292, "title": "The Hollow Of Fear", "author": "Sherry Thomas", "reviewers": [ "Sarah Wendell" ], "text": "The third book in Sherry Thomas’ Charlotte Holmes series, The Hollow Of Fear delivers a thoughtful subversion of gender identity in Victorian England, housed within a cracking good mystery. Do you need to read the first two? Yes. Is that a hardship? Nope. In this installment, Charlotte must go undercover in plain sight to unearth a killer who is trying to frame Lord Ingram, her closest and yet most forbidden friend. Thomas matches her mystery elements with deliberate revelations about each character for a story that is personally engrossing and difficult to put down. Block off time and lay in snacks, because once you start this series, you won’t stop.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0425281426", "seamus": 659957179, "itunes": 9780425281420, "bookshop": 9780425281420, "cover": "0425281426", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780425281420", "isbn10": "0425281426", "links": [] }, "293": { "id": 293, "title": "The Kiss Quotient", "author": "Helen Hoang", "reviewers": [ "Sarah Wendell" ], "text": "This book is every magical element of your favorite romantic comedy (don’t pretend like you don’t have one) enhanced with genuine contemporary complications and exquisite emotional detail. After too many terrible dates, Stella, a brilliant and successful econometrician, hires Michael, an escort, to teach her about sex and relationships. Upon this familiar foundation, Helen Hoang builds a romance which centers autism and neurodivergence, sex work, the intricacies of the Asian-American cultural experience and the diplomacy required to manage family expectations. This is the kind of story that romance readers will wordlessly hand to someone who asks why people love this genre.
", "tags": [ "love & romance", "let’s talk about sex", "identity & culture", "eye-opening reads", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "0451490800", "seamus": 614566899, "itunes": 9780451490803, "bookshop": 9780451490803, "cover": "0451490800", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780451490803", "isbn10": "0451490800", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 293, "book": "The Kiss Quotient", "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" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 293, "book": "The Kiss Quotient", "source": "NPR", "text": "Sweet And Hot, 'The Kiss Quotient' Really Adds Up", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/06/10/613466426/sweet-and-hot-the-kiss-quotient-really-adds-up" } ] }, "294": { "id": 294, "title": "Into The Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, And The Sinking Of El Faro", "author": "Rachel Slade", "reviewers": [ "Scott Detrow" ], "text": "Rachel Slade’s book sucked me in. There’s no other way to put it. I devoured it in three days, engrossed by her dramatic re-creation of the worst American maritime disaster in 40 years. In addition to a gripping narrative of a cargo ship’s tragic voyage into the eye of a hurricane, Slade explains the fascinating world of commercial shipping and the essential – but often hidden – role it plays in our economy.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0062699709", "seamus": 659580955, "itunes": 9780062699701, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062699709", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062699701", "isbn10": "0062699709", "links": [] }, "295": { "id": 295, "title": "Leadership: In Turbulent Times", "author": "Doris Kearns Goodwin", "reviewers": [ "Scott Detrow" ], "text": "Transformational and inspirational political leadership is in short supply these days – especially the kind of leadership that builds broad coalitions across parties and ideological divides. Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book reminds us that it is possible, and that when it happens, it can change American history. She recaps the lives of four transformational presidents and closely analyzes one key moment where each one’s leadership moved the country forward. The book is uplifting and informative – and a relatively quick read compared with other similarly smart history books.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "the states we’re in", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "rather long" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "1476795924", "seamus": 656203093, "itunes": 9781476795928, "bookshop": 9781476795928, "cover": "1476795924", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781476795928", "isbn10": "1476795924", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 295, "book": "Leadership: In Turbulent Times", "source": "WVXU", "text": "A talk with Pulitzer-winning presidential biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin ", "url": "http://www.wvxu.org/post/talk-pulitzer-winning-presidential-biographer-doris-kearns-goodwin#stream/0" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 295, "book": "Leadership: In Turbulent Times", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Doris Kearns Goodwin", "url": "http://www.wamc.org/post/book-show-1577-doris-kearns-goodwin" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 295, "book": "Leadership: In Turbulent Times", "source": "NPR", "text": "Three Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historians Aim To Put American Politics In Context", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/10/11/656176540/three-pulitzer-prize-winning-historians-aim-to-put-american-politics-in-context" } ] }, "296": { "id": 296, "title": "The Red And The Blue: The 1990s And The Birth Of Political Tribalism", "author": "Steve Kornacki", "reviewers": [ "Scott Detrow" ], "text": "Even before the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, I’ve had a growing suspicion that the United States is not only reliving 1990s politics, but unexpectedly reaping political seeds sown two decades ago. Steve Kornacki confirms this in his entertaining history of the rise of Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich and tribal partisan politics as we know it today. The book combines blow-by-blow recaps of political battles such as the 1992 presidential election with smart analysis about how confrontational and oppositional politics became the norm.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "the states we’re in", "for history lovers", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "rather long" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0062438980", "seamus": 659956842, "itunes": 9780062438980, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062438980", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062438980", "isbn10": "0062438980", "links": [] }, "297": { "id": 297, "title": "Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins And Their Rendezvous With American History", "author": "Yunte Huang", "reviewers": [ "Seth Kelley" ], "text": "Chang and Eng were brought to America in 1829 at the age of 17 and were forced to perform in a freak show. They eventually negotiated their independence, bought land, married sisters, fathered 21 children and became slave owners. Take a deep breath because, on top of that, author Yunte Huang uses this bonkers narrative to broach issues related to otherness, capitalism and hypocrisy. The result is a sensitive and affecting – if not slightly overwhelming – portrait.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "family matters", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0871404478", "seamus": 598797152, "itunes": 9780871404473, "bookshop": 9780871404473, "cover": "0871404478", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780871404473", "isbn10": "0871404478", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 297, "book": "Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins And Their Rendezvous With American History", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Inseparable' Recounts The Unusual Lives Of Conjoined Twins Chang And Eng Bunker", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/02/598796873/inseparable-recounts-the-unusual-lives-of-conjoined-twins-chang-and-eng-bunker" } ] }, "298": { "id": 298, "title": "City Of Ash And Red: A Novel", "author": "Hye-young Pyun, translated by Sora Kim-Russell", "reviewers": [ "Silvia Moreno-Garcia" ], "text": "A man working for a pest control company is transferred to a dystopian nation ravaged by a mysterious virus, beginning a descent into a waking nightmare. Grim, disturbing and telegraphing a constant sense of anxiety, City of Ash and Red straddles the categories of thriller and speculative fiction novel, and succeeds in keeping us interested in a protagonist who becomes increasingly more loathsome as he scrabbles for his survival. Murder, rats, disease, rape and literal trash fires festoon this book. Not a pleasant read, but definitely a novel that deserves attention.
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1628727810", "seamus": 658970276, "itunes": 9781628727814, "bookshop": 9781628727814, "cover": "1628727810", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781628727814", "isbn10": "1628727810", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 298, "book": "City Of Ash And Red: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'City Of Ash And Red' Will Pull You Into Its Nightmare", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/11/10/665751817/city-of-ash-and-red-will-pull-you-into-its-nightmare" } ] }, "299": { "id": 299, "title": "Unholy Land", "author": "Lavie Tidhar", "reviewers": [ "Silvia Moreno-Garcia" ], "text": "The always daring Lavie Tidhar wades into the waters of alternate history once more. Unholy Land takes off from a real, early 20th-century British plan to settle Jews in East Africa. It was unsuccessful in our world, but there are many other parallel worlds where things turned out differently – and the walls between those realities are collapsing. The key to this erosion of worlds might lie with a pulp fiction writer turned amateur detective who is simply trying to find his missing niece. It’s the kind of smart, intertextual science fiction that would make Philip K. Dick giddy.
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "editor": "Petra", "isbn": "1616963042", "seamus": 659956383, "itunes": 9781616963040, "bookshop": 9781616963040, "cover": "1616963042", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781616963040", "isbn10": "1616963042", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 299, "book": "Unholy Land", "source": "NPR", "text": "This 'Unholy Land' May Not Even Be Real", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/11/08/665308878/this-unholy-land-may-not-even-be-real" } ] }, "300": { "id": 300, "title": "A Carnival Of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety", "author": "Donald Hall", "reviewers": [ "Susan Stamberg" ], "text": "Big, bearded, blowsy Donald Hall died in June, at age 89. In New Hampshire, the former U.S. poet laureate spent decades writing of the earth, his farm, his beloved poet wife Jane Kenyon and getting old. This book collects short, personal observations and essays on the theme of aging. Simple and sincere, they’re also, often, witty. For instance: “When I was young, my language wore coats and shirts and trousers, neckties, bespoke shoes. In my lifetime as a writer I have cast off layer after layer of clothing in pursuit of nudity.” Right there, in a single sentence, he reflects some of his themes. Hall is funny, sad, rueful, melancholic and, most important, a practiced observer and writer of truth. It’s a wonderful book to pick up and put down at random. I suggest you do it!
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "identity & culture", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "rather short" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "1328826341", "seamus": 658918057, "itunes": 9781328826343, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1328826341", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781328826343", "isbn10": "1328826341", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 300, "book": "A Carnival Of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety", "source": "NHPR", "text": "The Bookshelf: Donald Hall Holds Nothing Back In Final Collection", "url": "http://www.nhpr.org/post/bookshelf-donald-hall-holds-nothing-back-final-collection#stream/0" } ] }, "301": { "id": 301, "title": "Cravings: Hungry For More", "author": "Chrissy Teigen", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "Make no mistake: cover model and TV personality Chrissy Teigen has serious chops in the kitchen. Crisp textures, sweet and sour flavor profiles from her Thai childhood, umami from here to eternity – these are some of Teigen’s specialties. Her dishes are freewheeling, globe-trotting collisions of comfort and taste: pad thai carbonara, short rib beef rendang, kung pao roasted broccoli. Even standards get renewed – like the homely chicken tender, now coated in coconut and served with pineapple sauce. This is high adventure brought home to roost, for homebodies and globe-trotters alike.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "1524759724", "seamus": 664679131, "itunes": 9781524759728, "bookshop": 9781524759728, "cover": "1524759724", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524759728", "isbn10": "1524759724", "links": [] }, "302": { "id": 302, "title": "Everyday Dorie: The Way I Cook", "author": "Dorie Greenspan", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "If I had Dorie Greenspan’s baking skills and track record, I reckon I’d be resting on my sweet golden-brown laurels at this point and gorging on cookies from dawn till dusk. Not so, Dorie. With 2010’s Around My French Table, she proved she knew her way around dinner just as well as dessert. This year, she does it again. Classics abound: chowders, roasts, stews, even spaghetti and meatballs. But even better are the surprises: pork stir-fried with tahini and cider vinegar, burgers with a whole container of sautéed mushrooms chopped into the mix, corn with miso butter. The final chapter, almost as an afterthought, features low-pressure crumbles, bars, easy cakes. (After all, it’s Dorie, which means you always save room for dessert.)
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "0544826981", "seamus": 664680119, "itunes": 9780544826984, "bookshop": 9780544826984, "cover": "0544826981", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780544826984", "isbn10": "0544826981", "links": [] }, "303": { "id": 303, "title": "Milk Street: Tuesday Nights: More Than 200 Simple Weeknight Suppers That Deliver Bold Flavor, Fast", "author": "Christopher Kimball", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "“Tuesdays are the new Saturdays,” says the press release – referring, I think, to the quest for Saturday-level flavor on a busy school night. As usual, Chris Kimball has an answer: replace hours of culinary labor with dramatic, high-flavor ingredients. And no, I don’t mean Hamburger Helper. We’re talking about the Sichuan peppercorns in addictive salt-and-pepper shrimp, the coconut water-based caramel in a ginger-lime braised chicken, the cashews and shredded coconuts processed into the meatballs. It almost makes you wish every day could be Tuesday. Actually, why shouldn’t it be?
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "031643731X", "seamus": 664716205, "itunes": 9780316437318, "bookshop": 9780316437318, "cover": "031643731X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780316437318", "isbn10": "031643731X", "links": [] }, "304": { "id": 304, "title": "Now & Again: Go-To Recipes, Inspired Menus + Endless Ideas For Reinventing Leftovers", "author": "Julia Turshen", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "2016’s Small Victories, by Julia Turshen, was one of those sleeper hits that somehow feel inevitable. Turshen’s talent was palpable; I knew she’d be back sooner rather than later. After a break for last year’s bite-sized Feed the Resistance, Turshen’s back with 300 pages of big, beautiful food. Now & Again’s organization is unconventional: 10 multicourse menus, followed by leftovers ideas. It makes for weird browsing, but bookmark the contents page and dive in anywhere. Some suggestions? Celebration chicken with sweet potatoes and dates. Kale salad with pepita dressing. Stuffed mushrooms with walnuts, garlic and parsley. If you have leftovers, you can turn them into chicken salad, kuku sabzi, and penne ai funghi – but that’s a big if.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "1452164924", "seamus": 664684024, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781452164922, "cover": "1452164924", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781452164922", "isbn10": "1452164924", "links": [] }, "305": { "id": 305, "title": "Searing Inspiration: Fast, Adaptable Entrées And Fresh Pan Sauces", "author": "Susan Volland", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "Susan Volland describes this book as a “wheel-screeching U-turn” from her über-meticulous work as a recipe editor for Nathan Myhrvold’s Modernist Cuisine projects. And while her 2016 Mastering Sauces garnered critical acclaim, trust me: This is the book that’s destined for hard use in your kitchen. This is fast-cooked protein, amped up with devastatingly effective in-the-pan flavor-building techniques. I still don’t quite know how Volland pulls it off, but it’s one 45-minute miracle after another: cod with warm beet, sour cream and dill sauce; tamarind-glazed chicken heaped with fresh mint and cilantro; lamb chops with pomegranate reduction and spiced yogurt drizzle. Despite the title (ironically, the word “inspire” in a cookbook title consistently uninspires me), it’s my favorite book this year – and it just might be yours, too.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "039329241X", "seamus": 664684823, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780393292411, "cover": "039329241X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780393292411", "isbn10": "039329241X", "links": [] }, "306": { "id": 306, "title": "A Common Table: 80 Recipes And Stories From My Shared Cultures", "author": "Cynthia Chen McTernan", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "Lawyer/food blogger Cynthia Chen McTernan’s primary food influences are Southern (from her childhood), Korean (from her mother-in-law) and Chinese (from her family). Sound promising? For good reason. Some of these recipes flaunt their passport stamps for all to see: lion’s head meatballs, tea eggs, fried kimchi. But others fall in the “only in America” category: collard wontons, Chinese cola chicken wings, Korean cheesy corn. This is McTernan’s first cookbook, and it has that feeling about it: hopeful, eclectic, conversational. I very much doubt it will be her last.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "tales from around the world" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "163565002X", "seamus": 664669038, "itunes": 9781635650020, "bookshop": 9781635650020, "cover": "163565002X", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781635650020", "isbn10": "163565002X", "links": [] }, "307": { "id": 307, "title": "Comfort In An Instant: 75 Comfort Food Recipes For Your Pressure Cooker, Multicooker, And Instant Pot", "author": "Melissa Clark", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "It almost feels like cheating to recommend a Melissa Clark book. You know the recipes will be fast and flavorful, and they’ll definitely work. Although I’m not 100 percent sure I could tell you the difference between this book and last year’s Dinner In An Instant, these are recipes that confidently put the “multi” in “multifunction cooker.” Did you know you can make cheesecake in an Instant Pot? Pasta, with its sauce, all in one go? Clark’s techniques shave hours off slow dishes such as ribs, pho and lamb shanks. I’m not sure you really need to make chipotle brown sugar salmon in an Instant Pot – it’s not like it takes very long on the stovetop. I suppose it’s easy to get carried away by the Instant Pot’s speedy, techy allure. But as long as “gee whiz” is followed by “yum,” who cares?
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "0525576150", "seamus": 664669976, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780525576150, "cover": "0525576150", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780525576150", "isbn10": "0525576150", "links": [] }, "308": { "id": 308, "title": "Ottolenghi Simple: A Cookbook", "author": "Yotam Ottolenghi", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "Every few years since 2008, Yotam Ottolenghi has published a cookbook. Each time, the same question arises: Can he do it again? Last year’s Sweet with Helen Goh yielded a resounding yes, and so does this year’s offering. If you have an Ottolenghi palate – i.e., you like tahini, pomegranate molasses, sumac, preserved lemons – add this to your wishlist. “Why didn’t I think of that?!” you’ll ask as you roast chicken in miso, maple and lime, or as you toss blueberries and lemon zest in an almond-flour-based loaf cake, or as you shallow-fry the quartered fingerlings with whole garlic cloves. You didn’t think of it because, alas, you are (still) not Ottolenghi. But none of that matters now – just relax, and enjoy.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "1607749165", "seamus": 667816393, "itunes": 9781607749165, "bookshop": 9781607749165, "cover": "1607749165", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781607749165", "isbn10": "1607749165", "links": [] }, "309": { "id": 309, "title": "Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, And One Intact Glass Ceiling", "author": "Amy Chozick", "reviewers": [ "Tamara Keith" ], "text": "New York Times reporter Amy Chozick’s memoir is less an insider’s account of presidential campaign drama and more a dramedy about covering what turned out to be a pretty joyless campaign led by a candidate who had no use for the press corps following her around. (Full disclosure: I was part of that press corps in 2016 and make a couple small cameos in the book.) With humor, humility and charm, Chozick processes the decade of her life she spent covering the woman who hoped to become the first female president. I was fully engrossed reading Chozick’s accurate and engaging account – even though I knew what was coming next.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "biography & memoir", "the states we’re in", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas" ], "editor": "Beth/Meghan", "isbn": "0062413597", "seamus": 658965160, "itunes": 9780062413598, "bookshop": 9780062413598, "cover": "0062413597", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062413598", "isbn10": "0062413597", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 309, "book": "Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, And One Intact Glass Ceiling", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Chasing Hillary,' Reporter Chronicles A Decade Spent Covering Hillary Clinton", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/04/21/604638987/in-chasing-hillary-reporter-chronicles-a-decade-spent-covering-hillary-clinton" } ] }, "310": { "id": 310, "title": "A Cruelty Special To Our Species: Poems", "author": "Emily Jungmin Yoon", "reviewers": [ "Tess Taylor" ], "text": "In this searing debut collection, Emily Jungmin Yoon uses poetry to trace the history of Korean “comfort women,” who were forced into sexual servitude for Japanese soldiers during World War II. Yoon’s poems understand this fate as both harrowing and also historically ordinary; they reverberate with a tenderness that enlarges them out of their place or moment and also invites us in to empathize, to consider the deep links between war and sexual violence. “On Wednesdays, it rains// for the children they bore. For the children/ they could not bear For the children/ they were.” This is a skilled, rich, mesmerizing opening to a new poetic career.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "for history lovers" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "0062843680", "seamus": 658918780, "itunes": 9780062843685, "bookshop": 9780062843685, "cover": "0062843680", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062843685", "isbn10": "0062843680", "links": [] }, "311": { "id": 311, "title": "Cenzontle", "author": "Marcelo Hernandez Castillo", "reviewers": [ "Tess Taylor" ], "text": "The title of Marcelo Hernandez Castillo’s collection comes from the Nahuatl centzontleh, or mockingbird, meaning possessor of 400 words. Like the bird he references, Castillo has (at least) 400 words and a gift for lyric fragment; his verses stretch a vibratory skin over the life’s ordinary, challenging or painful surfaces. These are poems of borders and border crossing, but they also are poems that confound easy boundaries – between the inner and outer, the real and the felt, between violence and peace. In “Immigration Interview with Don Francisco,” Castillo writes: “(please say more)// Perhaps the butterflies are mute because /noone would believe their terrible stories.” These poem shapes linger in the mind long after the book is shut.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "1942683537", "seamus": 658962977, "itunes": 9781942683537, "bookshop": 9781942683537, "cover": "1942683537", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781942683537", "isbn10": "1942683537", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 311, "book": "Cenzontle", "source": "NPR", "text": "Can't Find Time To Read? Poetry Might Make The Perfect Gift", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/12/06/673271563/cant-find-time-to-read-poetry-might-make-the-perfect-gift" } ] }, "312": { "id": 312, "title": "Midden", "author": "Julia Bouwsma", "reviewers": [ "Tess Taylor" ], "text": "Midden, by Julia Bouwsma, investigates a site of historic violence: Malaga Island, Maine, a mixed-race fishing community that was destroyed and disbanded by devastating state violence. Shuttling between the early 20th century and the cabin in Maine where Bouwsma now lives and farms, the poems summon and live with their ghosts with enormous, deliberate tenderness. “All winter, I tried to write the island/ to life, labored// these voices, the people torn/ up” she writes, before adding “all winter, the beaver hung in my shed,/ her body frozen and still, / upside down in the dark.”
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "the states we’re in", "for history lovers", "identity & culture" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "0823280985", "seamus": 659608263, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780823280988, "cover": "0823280985", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780823280988", "isbn10": "0823280985", "links": [] }, "313": { "id": 313, "title": "Famous Father Girl: A Memoir Of Growing Up Bernstein", "author": "Jamie Bernstein", "reviewers": [ "Tom Huizenga" ], "text": "Jamie Bernstein’s courageous and frank account of family life under the massive shadow of her father, Leonard Bernstein, is a bulk load of dirty laundry, lovingly unfolded. Yet amid the scandals – from Black Panther fundraisers to Lenny’s emerging homosexuality – we discover a surprisingly standard family, struggling with careers, fears, affairs, unfulfilled dreams and a mother’s ghastly battle lost to cancer. Through Jamie’s eyes and her fluid writing style, the memoir offers an insider’s view of the legendary conductor-composer and his first-born daughter who labored, sometimes bitterly, but finally found herself.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "for music lovers", "staff picks", "identity & culture", "no biz like show biz" ], "editor": "Meghan", "isbn": "0062641352", "seamus": 641324928, "itunes": 9780062641359, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0062641352", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780062641359", "isbn10": "0062641352", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 313, "book": "Famous Father Girl: A Memoir Of Growing Up Bernstein", "source": "NPR", "text": "Life With Lenny: Leonard Bernstein's Daughter Explains Her Famous Father", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2018/08/25/638625561/life-with-leonard-bernstein" } ] }, "314": { "id": 314, "title": "The Line Becomes A River: Dispatches From The Border", "author": "Francisco Cantú", "reviewers": [ "Tom Gjelten" ], "text": "At a time of overheated rhetoric about the threat along the border, Francisco Cantú relates what it means to police it. He is an empathetic witness to the desperation felt by those driven to cross it. But as a Border Patrol agent, he also knows the fear of those charged with guarding it. A sad tale, beautifully written.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture", "family matters", "seriously great writing" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "0735217718", "seamus": 582730044, "itunes": 9780735217713, "bookshop": 9780735217713, "cover": "0735217718", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780735217713", "isbn10": "0735217718", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 314, "book": "The Line Becomes A River: Dispatches From The Border", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Book Review: 'The Line Becomes A River'", "url": "http://www.kmuw.org/post/book-review-line-becomes-river" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 314, "book": "The Line Becomes A River: Dispatches From The Border", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Line Becomes A River' Chronicles Life In The Border Patrol", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/02/08/580988104/the-line-becomes-a-river-chronicles-life-in-the-border-patrol" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 314, "book": "The Line Becomes A River: Dispatches From The Border", "source": "NPR", "text": "Former Agent Says, 'Border Patrol Does Good Work ... But There's Tension There'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/02/06/582706287/former-agent-says-border-patrol-does-good-work-but-there-s-tension-there" } ] }, "315": { "id": 315, "title": "Jam Session: A Fruit-Preserving Handbook", "author": "Joyce Goldstein", "reviewers": [ "Wynne Davis" ], "text": "Before I picked up Joyce Goldstein’s Jam Session, I had never attempted to make jam. Despite my inexperience, I wasn’t worried; Goldstein lays it all out from the beginning. From the supplies you need to how much fruit to buy and when to buy it, she answers all the questions you’ll inevitably have. Even when your preserves don’t look just right, she’ll reassure you that your batch is probably salvageable. Making fruit preserves takes time. It takes a lot of time. But while you’re waiting on the … fruits of your labor, Jam Session provides a place where creativity can be sealed into jars for you and others to enjoy immediately – or much later.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "staff picks" ], "editor": "Beth", "isbn": "0399579613", "seamus": 659581719, "itunes": 9780399579615, "bookshop": 9780399579615, "cover": "0399579613", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780399579615", "isbn10": "0399579613", "links": [] }, "316": { "id": 316, "title": "Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution And Triumph Of Modern Female Friendship", "author": "Kayleen Schaefer", "reviewers": [ "Wynne Davis" ], "text": "“Text me when you get home.” Those six words aren’t just about getting home safely at the end of the night – they’re really a story about how special and fierce friendships are between women. Through interviews with experts and friends, Kayleen Schaefer dissects how our friendships provide support, and how that support changes throughout our lives. She debunks the idea that girls can’t be friends with other girls, but she’s frank about the fact that not every girlfriend you have will be there for a lifetime. This book – while not without its flaws – celebrates the love we have for each other and the friends who make sure we get home safely.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "staff picks", "identity & culture" ], "editor": "Beth/Meghan", "isbn": "1101986123", "seamus": 584667492, "itunes": 9781101986127, "bookshop": "", "cover": "1101986123", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781101986127", "isbn10": "1101986123", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 316, "book": "Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution And Triumph Of Modern Female Friendship", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Text Me When You Get Home' Celebrates The Complexities Of Female Friendship", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/02/11/583440731/text-me-when-you-get-home-celebrates-the-complexities-of-female-friendship" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 316, "book": "Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution And Triumph Of Modern Female Friendship", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Text Me When You Get Home'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/02/11/584896238/text-me-when-you-get-home" } ] }, "317": { "id": 317, "title": "Becoming", "author": "Michelle Obama", "reviewers": [ "Danielle Kurtzleben" ], "text": "Michelle Obama’s book is, first and foremost, a story about how she became who she is – a highly accomplished lawyer-turned-public-servant-turned-hospital administrator, a fiercely protective mother, a devoted wife – and then the story about the struggle to hold onto that identity, to maintain a semi-sane life, even after she agrees to let that life be hijacked by politics. Obama often gets didactic, even social science-y, but her excellent writing shines through in sections about her childhood and college years. Obama describes the profound frustration of being misunderstood – of being pegged as an “angry black woman” – and the discomfort of being a hyperaccomplished woman only recognized through her connection to a powerful man. Becoming is about the power in telling one’s own story, on one’s own terms.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture", "family matters", "love & romance", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "rather long" ], "editor": "Beth/Meghan", "isbn": "1524763136", "seamus": 663568665, "itunes": 9781524763138, "bookshop": 9781524763138, "cover": "1524763136", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781524763138", "isbn10": "1524763136", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 317, "book": "Becoming", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Michelle Obama Shares Her Chicago Lessons", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/michelle-obama-shares-her-chicago-lessons/6ba20ab1-686d-4b31-b9f9-1e95ffc18aa2" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 317, "book": "Becoming", "source": "NPR", "text": "Code Switch's 2018 Book Guide", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/12/12/674672972/code-switchs-2018-book-guide" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 317, "book": "Becoming", "source": "NPR", "text": "Novelist And 'Book Matchmaker' Tayari Jones Shares Her Favorite Books Of 2018", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/12/05/673244863/novelist-and-book-matchmaker-tayari-jones-shares-her-favorite-books-of-2018" }, { "year": 2018, "id": 317, "book": "Becoming", "source": "NPR", "text": "Michelle Obama Tells The Story Of 'Becoming' Herself — And The Struggle To Hang On", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/11/09/666093279/michelle-obama-tells-the-story-of-becoming-herself-and-the-struggle-to-hang-on" } ] }, "318": { "id": 318, "title": "Milkman: A Novel", "author": "Anna Burns", "reviewers": [ "Ari Shapiro" ], "text": "Anna Burns just won the Man Booker Prize for this novel, set in 1970s Northern Ireland, and it’s easy to see why. Take the first sentence: “The day Somebody McSomebody put a gun to my breast and called me a cat and threatened to shoot me was the same day the milkman died.” The book is interested in bigger questions than just: What happened to the milkman? Burns explores what happens when the divide between us and them becomes too wide to cross. She asks whether we believe women, and why. And she digs into these heavy, timely themes with humor and light. The young woman who narrates the story buries her head in books as she walks home each night. With a book like this in hand, I’d do the same.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "family matters", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "editor": "", "isbn": "1644450003", "seamus": 669107486, "itunes": 9781644450000, "bookshop": 9781644450000, "cover": "1644450003", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9781644450000", "isbn10": "1644450003", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 318, "book": "Milkman: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Brutally Intelligent 'Milkman' Depicts Lives Cramped By Fear", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/12/04/672956730/brutally-intelligent-milkman-depicts-lives-cramped-by-fear" } ] }, "319": { "id": 319, "title": "Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World", "author": "Anand Giridharadas", "reviewers": [ "Jessica Smith" ], "text": "The past years have seen some outstanding books on how philanthropists and their dollars have shaped public policy. On the heels of last year’s The Givers by David Callahan, we now have Anand Giridharadas’ Winners Take All. The author zeros in on what he sees as a glaring hypocrisy among affluent elites: that while many well-meaning (and well-off) Americans claim to want to improve society’s inequalities, they don’t challenge the structures that preserve that inequality, not wanting to jeopardize their own privileged positions. Giridharadas even numbers today’s elites “among the more predatory in history.”
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "the dark side", "the states we’re in" ], "editor": "", "isbn": "0451493249", "seamus": 642687784, "itunes": 9780451493248, "bookshop": "", "cover": "0451493249", "year": 2018, "isbn13": "9780451493248", "isbn10": "0451493249", "links": [ { "year": 2018, "id": 319, "book": "Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World", "source": "NPR", "text": "Generous Giving Or Phony Philanthropy? A Critique Of Well-Meaning 'Winners'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/08/29/642688220/generous-giving-or-phony-philanthropy-a-critique-of-well-meaning-winners" } ] } }