In our very first episode Andrea Larson, head of our Popular Services department, recommends a book that has all the librarians talking. http://traffic.libsyn.com/cooklib/Ep._1__Book_Pick-_The_Readers_of_Broken_Wheel_Recommend.mp3…
Many teen books are stories of vampire love, being the Chosen One, or battling aliens. These books are great; I love diving into those worlds. Though sometimes it seems that every teen must be involved in some otherworldly situation. What about the rest of the high-schoolers? What about the teens who are average? They aren’t cool or indie or…
But we're admitting them now.... Some movies are just classics—cultural icons that EVERYONE has seen. These are the movies that bring shame and shock when you have to admit in public that you haven’t seen them. Those of us working at the library aren’t exempt from having missed watching some iconic films. I’ve never seen the classic Back to the…
Awards season in Hollywood -- one of my favorite times of the year! Given the ongoing controversy surrounding the lack of diversity in this year's Oscar nominees and the voting membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences itself, it's pretty easy to lose sight of the quality and variety of the…
If you enjoy a well-crafted mystery with a cast of colorful characters, I have just the book for you. Seasoned mystery author Reed Farrel Coleman is known among mystery readers for his hard-boiled detective series featuring private investigator Moe Prager. In 2014, he also took over the late Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series. Coleman’s…
Geraldine Brooks is one of my favorite authors. She has taken me to the Middle Ages during the Bubonic Plague in A Year of Wonders and to Harvard in 1666 to meet the first Native American graduate of that school in Caleb’s Crossing. She carried me across centuries and continents in The People of the…
What does it feel like to be a refugee in a foreign country? What does it mean to belong? The Illegal explores these questions within the framework of a thrilling political mystery. Keita Ali is a world-class marathon runner in the fictional state of Zantoroland, which feels like it’s modeled after a troubled African nation.…
Jane Smiley’s expansive Hundred Years Trilogy offers an entertaining look at a century of American history through the eyes of the dynamic Langdon family. Each chapter covers a year, showing how the family adapts to the changes facing the country. With Some Luck, Smiley’s family saga starts in 1920 Iowa with the Langdons trying to…
I loved this unique, unexpected novel. It starts out almost like a fairy tale, and its heroine, Veblen (don’t ask – read the book) feels just like a fairy-tale character: unconventional, gentlehearted … and she talks to squirrels. Sweet Veblen is moving through her life, working as a temp at Stanford’s School of Medicine, taking…
Calvin was born on the day that the last Calvin and Hobbes comic was released. In many ways, his entire life has been linked with Calvin and Hobbes—his grandfather gave him a stuffed tiger name Hobbes when he was born, the girl who lives two houses down is Suzy, the coincidences continue to stack up.…
