I don’t normally gravitate toward short stories, and I’m not really sure why. However, this year I decided to branch out and read a few. I’m so glad I did! Here are two books of “shorts:” one a collection of essays, the other of stories, and all worthwhile reading. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green…
It’s October, the perfect time for everything supernatural, and also Hispanic Heritage month. What better choice could there be for a book blog than a paranormal novel with vampires in Mexico City? Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s book, Certain Dark Things has just been released in paperback format. This reader enjoyed the audio book @libro.fm. If you relished Moreno- Garcia’s Mexican Gothic, you…
Cloud Cuckoo Land. It is literary fiction. It is historical fiction. It is contemporary fiction. It is science fiction. It is a masterpiece. Anthony Doerr, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for his great World War II novel All the Light We Cannot See, has returned with an even better, more inventive creation. This genre-bending…
Readers' Advisor Erica O'Rourke talks up some of the season's best and most buzzed about books. If you need some new reading suggestions or just want to know what titles are worth adding to your TBR pile, you won't want to miss this episode. In This Episode Returning FavoritesColson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle Anthony Doerr, Cloud…
I now have read all three of Amor Towles’ novels, each published five years apart. The stories are as different as they can be, but all are gems in their own right. Towles’ newest, The Lincoln Highway, confirms to me that he is of one of the great novelists of our time. This road-trip tale,…
This extraordinary novel (which has nothing to do with mixed martial arts or the UFC) tells the story of three generations of women in Toronto. Swiv, the nine-year-old narrator, has a voice unlike any other I've read. Precocious and funny, parroting her relatives, she is writing a letter to her father, who has left her…
I am a firm believer that pets enrich our lives by providing comfort, companionship, purpose, and a whole host of other intangible, but still very real, benefits. If you are lucky enough to be on the receiving end of an animal’s love, then you don’t need me to tell you what’s what because you already…
Twenty years ago, on September 11, our country experienced a horrifying terrorist attack. As we look back on that day, may the following new books on our shelves help us remember and go forward. We've even included a tender picture book to help our youngest patrons understand the meaning of the day. Click on the…
There are not many moments in a person’s life when they can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing. There are the usual momentous occasions: graduation, wedding day, or the birth of a child, but Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 is seared in our nation’s collective memory. If you are an American…
Attention all trekkies! Do you remember the episode “Mirror, Mirror” with the darkside Kirk and Spock (aggressive, mistrustful and opportunistic) from a parallel universe? Trivia time: that parallel universe is used in 8 episodes of various Star Trek series. It seems that the concept of a multiverse has appeal to many sci-fi fans, including this one. In…
