A Hollywood costumer designer shares insider tips on getting the most out of your wardrobe, from the many uses of double-sided tape to keeping old clothes in good shape.
SARAH
If you're like me, and love to eat but hate cooking and cleaning, this is the cookbook you’ve been waiting for! Delicious, healthy single serving meals that take less than 20 minutes to prepare and don’t use anything that can’t be put in the dishwasher. I recommend the scrambled eggs!
SHANA
This hilarious book is chock full of all sorts of juicy tidbits on writers, illustrators, editors, and even librarians. With language and content that's R-rated, this is the ultimate beach read for children's lit lovers.
MARIKA
The inaugural poet Blanco’s memoir of his childhood in Miami is both a quintessentially American immigrant family story and his own singular story of his awakening to his identity as a young gay man. Warm, tenderhearted, and often hilarious, Blanco captures the unique essence of the Cuban exile community in which he grew up.
DALE
Spend some time with a charmingly self-deprecating entomologist, who compares himself at times to a silverfish, a literary nudist, a trigger-happy hunter, a caliph in a pleasure garden, a drunken Polish translator, a pygmy owl and a dancer. Rather than anthropomorphizing the hover flies he studies, Sjöberg hymenopterizes himself and other collectors. “Fly people,” he assures us, are a species of their own.
Jamie
So much more of our planet is covered by salt water it should be called Ocean, not Earth. By far the biota of the sea is greater than of land yet much remains unknown about life under the waves. In a book that’s a delight to read Montgomery introduces us to the remarkable octopus, not the monster of the deep to be feared, but a wondrously intelligent, fascinating creature with real personality.
Dale
Dive with Sy Montgomery and a team of scientists in Moorea to discover as much as possible about the unique and amazing Pacific day octopus, and many other octopus species along the way. For animal lovers of all ages.
Carol
Remember the MBTA this winter? Kanter explains why infrastructure matters, and makes a basic topic into a fascinating one.
Sarah
WARNING: This book will make you want to quit your job! MacLaughlin describes how she tired of her desk job, and without experience responded to a craigslist job posting to be a contractor's/carpenter's assistant. This is an excellent blend of various styles of essays, and it's fun to read about the Boston area homes she has worked in. My favorite aspect is that MacLaughlin doesn't stress 'do what you love' so much as 'do what feels important'.
Heather
Through smart, funny, irreverent, and thoughtful diary entries, Julavits turns the mundane into mini meditations on self, art, family, and the passing of time (and occasionally reality TV and Maine yard sale politics). I was constantly thinking yes, exactly that or laughing out loud while reading.
Katie
