Staff Picks

Feminism Is...

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Feminism Is... (Paperback)

By DK, Roxane Gay (Foreword by)
$12.99
ISBN: 9781465479556
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: DK Children - February 12th, 2019

 

Demonized by some and lauded by others, 'feminism' has been a challenging topic since it came on the scene. But what is it really? What does it address? Who has been involved? And very importantly, what does 'intersectional' actually mean? Though this book is aimed at teens, it's a great crash-course in feminist history. It touches on a wide range of topics, but doesn't shy away from bringing up some of the legitimate criticisms of the movement.

Stacey

Miseducation of Cameron Post

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The Miseducation of Cameron Post (Paperback)

By Emily M. Danforth
$9.99
ISBN: 9780062020574
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Balzer + Bray - May 28th, 2013

 

Emily M. Danforth's debut novel tells the story of a young girl growing up in rural Montana after the tragic death of both of her parents. Coming to understand her sexuality is further complicated when her conservative aunt discovers her relationship with her best friend and Cameron is sent away to a religious conversion therapy school. Danforth handles the difficulties of family life and identity with nuance and grace in this beautifully rendered coming of age tale.

Kathryn, Writer in Residence for Young Readers

Alone on the Wall

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Alone on the Wall (Paperback)

By Alex Honnold, David Roberts (With)
$16.95
ISBN: 9780393356144
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - October 2nd, 2018

 

You might recognize him as the subject of the new Oscar-winning Best Documentary, FREE SOLO, a film about his death-defying ropeless journey up 3,000 feet of vertical cliff face in Yosemite. But Alex Honnold is also an engaging writer, and this peek into his thought processes is fascinating (and accessible to people who have never touched a climbing wall in their lives). A dizzying read that will fuel your sense of adventure.  

Kate

The Volunteer

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The Volunteer: A Novel (Hardcover)

By Salvatore Scibona
$28.00
ISBN: 9780525558521
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Press - March 5th, 2019

 

A complex, peripatetic, magnificently written book about identity, war, guilt, and responsibility.  The prose is beautiful, the story is compelling, and you find yourself ripping through the pages in hopes that you will be able to dig down one more layer, to better understand this man and his motivations and demons and secrets.

 

David

That Anatomy of Melancholy

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The Anatomy of Melancholy (Paperback)

By Robert Burton, William H. Gass (Introduction by)
$29.95
ISBN: 9780940322660
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: NYRB Classics - April 30th, 2001

 

John Keats’ favorite book – with admirers ranging from Samuel Johnson to Philip Pullman, Laurence Sterne to Samuel Beckett, Washington Irving to Jorge Luis Borges, George Custer to Nick Cave – infinite in its jest, encyclopedic in its scholarship, delightful in its relish for human contradiction and wholehearted in its compassion for our folly, here lies a book for your desert island. Sample a page from the “Mind Rectified by Mirth” (II.119). If you are not convinced, I will say no more. Lætitiae cœlum vos creavit. So live merrily, O my friends.

James

Say Nothing

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Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (Hardcover)

By Patrick Radden Keefe
$28.95
ISBN: 9780385521314
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Doubleday - February 26th, 2019

 

A deep dive into the unsolved murders of the Irish Troubles, with detailed portraits of both the killers and their victims. It was the oral history archive at Boston College that provided much of the evidence to bring all the threads of the story together.

Sarah

The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food & Drink

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The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food and Drink (Hardcover)

By Kevin Young (Editor)
$25.00
ISBN: 9781608195510
Availability: Available at Warehouse
Published: Bloomsbury USA - October 16th, 2012

 

Edited by poet Kevin Young, this book serves up a feast of poems for sampling, savoring, and double-dipping. As our most memorable meals often do, the poems span a range of feeling and experience: Readers can celebrate butter and family with Elizabeth Alexander, sing a drinking/love song with Keats, revel in picking blackberries with Mary Oliver, and slurp oysters (and guilt) with Seamus Heaney. Verse connoisseurs and social poetry-readers alike will find much to share with friends of both hungry and reluctant ears.

Catherine, Writer in Residence for Adults

The Golem and the Jinni

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The Golem and the Jinni: A Novel (Paperback)

By Helene Wecker
$16.99
ISBN: 9780062110848
Availability: Available at Warehouse
Published: Harper Perennial - December 31st, 2013

 

In 1899 Manhattan, Chava is a golem who has unexpectedly lost her master, and Ahmad is a jinni who is accidentally summoned from the copper flask in which he was imprisoned. They form an odd and touching friendship, and together they navigate a strange new country and the return of an old sinister force. Part historical fiction, part mythological fantasy, and entirely wonderful.

Ari

Leading Men

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Leading Men: A Novel (Hardcover)

By Christopher Castellani
$27.00
ISBN: 9780525559054
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Viking - February 12th, 2019

 

At the heart of Christopher Castellani’s latest novel, written with moving grace, is the complicated story of playwright Tennessee Williams and his lover of 15 years, Frank Merlo.  A backward glance to 1953 and Southern Italy, this exquisite narrative explores such themes as fame, fortune, fidelity, art, tragedy and above all, love.

Nathan

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