Best of the Year: Staff Picks
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Selections
Good Talk by Staff pick by: Malcolm, Westgate Library
Inspired by her popular BuzzFeed piece "37 Difficult Questions from My Mixed-Raced Son," here are Jacob's responses to her six-year-old, Zakir, who asks if the new president hates brown boys like him; uncomfortable relationship advice from her parents, who came to the United States from India one month into their arranged marriage; and the imaginary therapy sessions she has with celebrities from Bill Murray to Madonna. [Goodreads]
Gideon the Ninth by Staff pick by: Amy, Erna Fergusson Library
The Emperor needs necromancers. The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman. Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense. Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy. [Tor.com Publishing]
- Also recommended by Amy: In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado’s engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming. Machado’s dire narrative is leavened with her characteristic wit, playfulness, and openness to inquiry. She casts a critical eye over legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek, and Disney villains, as well as iconic works of film and fiction. The result is a wrenching, riveting book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be. [Graywolf Press]
Aurora Rising by Staff pick by: Alison, Los Griegos Library
The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the academy would touch . . . And Ty's squad isn't even his biggest problem--that'd be Aurora Jie-Lin O'Malley, the girl he's just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler's squad of losers, discipline cases, and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy. [Amazon]
- Also recommended by Alison: A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer Fall in love, break the curse. It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she's instead somehow sucked into Rhen's cursed world. Break the curse, save the kingdom. [Amazon]
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Staff pick by: Claire, Cherry Hills Library
With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is revolutionary in its candor, offering a deeply personal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing a boldly revealing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them. [Goodreads]
- Also recommended by Claire: Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions From Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty Caitlin Doughty offers factual, hilarious, and candid answers to thirty-five distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans. Readers will learn the best soil for mummifying your body, whether you can preserve your best friend’s skull as a keepsake, and what happens when you die on a plane. Beautifully illustrated by Dianné Ruz, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? shows us that death is science and art, and only by asking questions can we begin to embrace it. [Goodreads]
60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Albuquerque by Staff pick by: Lynne, East Mountain Library
The best way to experience Albuquerque is by hiking it! Get outdoors with local authors and hiking experts David Ryan and Stephen Ausherman with the new full-color edition of 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Albuquerque. These trails transport you to scenic overlooks, wildlife hot spots, and historical settings that renew your spirit and recharge your body. Each hike description features key information on length, hiking time, difficulty, configuration, scenery, traffic, trail surface, and accessibility, as well as information on the history and natural history of the area. [library catalog]
Nothing More Dangerous by Staff pick by: Joy, Cherry Hills Library
For 15-year-old Boady, it begins when Lida Poe absconds with $168,000 in embezzled cash. No one knows where she has gone until Boady discovers her body with a bullet hole in its forehead. One mystery solved, but another looms: Who killed her? Meanwhile, an African American family, the Elgins, moves in across the road. Mr. Elgin has been sent to manage the local plastics plant, dislodging the former manager, an incompetent good old boy. It being 1976 in a small Ozarks town, the shadow of Jim Crow still looms, and the Elgins are less than welcome. Eskens does an excellent job of weaving these disparate threads together into a fine blend of mystery and coming-of-age novel. [Booklist]
- Also recommended by Joy: This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger 1932, Minnesota—the Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to an orphan named Odie O’Banion, a lively boy whose exploits earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee, he and his brother Albert, their best friend Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own. Over the course of one unforgettable summer, these four orphans will journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an enthralling, big-hearted epic. [Amazon]
Who Will Write Our History? by Staff pick by: Amy, Erna Fergusson Library
Primarily, this is a study of the Oyneg Shabes Archive--the men who developed it, the documents it contained, the way it was preserved, and its recovery after the war. Secondarily, it is about the Holocaust, the Warsaw Ghetto, and Emanuel Ringelblum, the man who initiated and amassed the archive. After the occupation of Poland, even before Nazi anti-Jewish policy had crystallized, historian Ringelblum decided to amass an archive that would document Jewish life in Warsaw during the war. As the Nazi annihilation policy became more evident and the transport to Treblinka began, the accumulating archive assumed a new significance. Once the ghetto was emptied and no hope was left for the survival of Warsaw Jews, it was decided to bury the archive. Ringelblum did not survive the war. The archive, buried in milk cans and partly damaged, survived the cataclysm and was recovered in 1946. [Choice Reviews]
- Also recommended by Amy: The Librarian's Guide to Homelessness: An Empathy-Driven Approach to Solving Problems, Preventing Conflict, and Serving Everyone by Ryan J. Dowd Dowd, the director of a Chicago-area homeless shelter, packs a wealth of useful information into this guide, which will bolster library staff in their encounters with patrons of all types. The book blends narrative with what the author calls tools, practical suggestions for defusing problem behaviors and improving communication. This covers everything from body language and handshakes to psychological strategies. Dowd eschews a punishment-based approach in favor of an empathy-driven model that relies upon personal connections and understanding to correct problem behavior. The author never strays far from the title's topic, but the approaches detailed here will be applicable to all sorts of patron-staff interactions in libraries of all sizes. [Booklist Reviews]
Stay Sexy and Don't Get Murdered by Staff pick by: Teri, Special Collections Library
The instant #1 New York Times and USA Today best seller by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, the voices behind the hit podcast My Favorite Murder! Sharing never-before-heard stories ranging from their struggles with depression, eating disorders, and addiction, Karen and Georgia irreverently recount their biggest mistakes and deepest fears, reflecting on the formative life events that shaped them. In Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered, Karen and Georgia delve into their own pasts, true crime stories, and beyond to discuss meaningful cultural and societal issues with fierce empathy and unapologetic frankness. [library catalog]- Also recommended by Teri: Chase Darkness with Me: How One True-Crime Writer Started Solving Murders by Billy Jensen Journalist Billy Jensen spent fifteen years investigating unsolved murders, fighting for the families of victims. Every story he wrote had one thing in common―they didn't have an ending. The killer was still out there. But after the sudden death of a friend, crime writer and author of I'll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara, Billy became fed up. Following a dark night, he came up with a plan. A plan to investigate past the point when the cops had given up. A plan to solve the murders himself. Gripping, complex, unforgettable, Chase Darkness with Me is an examination of the evil forces that walk among us, illustrating a novel way to catch those killers, and a true-crime narrative unlike any you've read before. [Amazon]
Patron Saints of Nothing by Staff pick by: Alysa, Cherry Hills Library
Jay Reguero plans to spend the last semester of his senior year playing video games before heading to the University of Michigan in the fall. But when he discovers that his Filipino cousin Jun was murdered as part of President Duterte's war on drugs, and no one in the family wants to talk about what happened, Jay travels to the Philippines to find out the real story. As gripping as it is lyrical, Patron Saints of Nothing is a page-turning portrayal of the struggle to reconcile faith, family, and immigrant identity. [Amazon]
The Island of Sea Women by Staff pick by: Esther, Tony Hillerman Library
Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends that come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook’s mother. The Island of Sea Women is an epoch set over many decades, beginning during a period of Japanese colonialism in the 1930s and 1940s, followed by World War II, the Korean War and its aftermath, through the era of cell phones and wet suits for the women divers. Throughout this time, the residents of Jeju find themselves caught between warring empires. A classic Lisa See story—one of women’s friendships and the larger forces that shape them—The Island of Sea Women introduces readers to the fierce and unforgettable female divers of Jeju Island and the dramatic history that shaped their lives. [Amazon]
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Staff pick by: Jen, Ernie Pyle Library
Red belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia. Blue belongs to Garden, a single vast consciousness embedded in all organic matter. Their pasts are bloody and their futures mutually exclusive. They have nothing in common—save that they’re the best, and they’re alone. Now what began as a battlefield boast grows into a dangerous game, one both Red and Blue are determined to win. Because winning’s what you do in war. Isn’t it? A tour de force collaboration from two powerhouse writers that spans the whole of time and space. [Amazon]
Children of Blood and Bone by Staff pick by: Brandon, Alamosa Library
Book one in the Orïsha Legacy trilogy, Adeyemi’s devastating debut is a brutal, beautiful tale of revolution, faith, and star-crossed love. By making tangible the power that comes from embracing one’s heritage, Adeyemi conjures a story that resonates with magic both literal and figurative while condemning apathy in the face of injustice. Complex characters, colossal stakes, and a kaleidoscopic narrative captivate, and the book’s punishing pace catapults readers to a jaw-dropping conclusion that poses as many questions as it answers. [Publisher's Weekly]
Sorcery of Thorns by Staff pick by: Nichole, Rudolfo Anaya North Valley Library
From the New York Times bestselling author of An Enchantment of Ravens comes an "enthralling adventure" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) about an apprentice at a magical library who must battle a powerful sorcerer to save her kingdom. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer's Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery--magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. Then an act of sabotage releases the library's most dangerous grimoire, and Elisabeth is implicated in the crime. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she's been taught--about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. [library catalog]
Wanderers by Staff pick by: Joshua, Main Library
Wendig pulls no punches in this blockbuster apocalyptic novel, which confronts some of the darkest and most divisive aspects of present-day America with urgency, humanity, and hope. Wendig challenges readers with twists and revelations that probe issues of faith and free will while crafting a fast-paced narrative with deeply real characters. His politics are unabashed—characters include a populist president brought to power by neo-Nazis, as well as murderous religious zealots—but not simplistic, and he tackles many moral questions while eschewing easy answers. [Publisher's Weekly]- Also recommended by Joshua: Kill the Farm Boy by Kevin Hearne and Delilah S. Dawson. In this pun-laden quest, first in a trilogy, Hearne (A Plague of Giants) and Dawson (Star Wars: Phasma) skewer the traditional tropes of epic fantasy sagas. Though the field is already rife with parodies and satires, the authors execute their own unique twist by killing off the titular farm boy on page 31 before his hero’s journey can ever truly begin. Now it’s up to a ragtag band of unlikely heroes—including a seven-foot-tall horticulturalist in a chainmail bikini, a cursed half-rabbit bard, a bread-conjuring would-be dark lord, a clumsy rogue, and a boot-eating talking goat—to save the kingdom from magical misdeeds. [Publisher's Weekly]
To Throw Away Unopened by Staff pick by: Shana, Special Collections Library
Like her debut, the wonderfully titled Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music Music, Music. Boys, Boys Boys, which described her journey into punk and beyond, this new volume is essentially a chronicle of outsiderness. It is driven by a relentless honesty about herself and the dysfunctional family dynamic she was born into, which she lays bare with an almost forensic eye... Her conversational style of writing is lullingly deceptive, allowing the revelations, when they come, to explode like well-placed time bombs in the narrative... It is a book, I think, that will resonate, like punk did, with anyone from a similar working-class background who is still angry with the ways in which the world had become even more weighted against them in terms of education and self-expression. Conversely, it may shock and appal anyone who doesn’t share or even understand the depth of that anger – particularly when it is expressed by a woman in her 60s. [The Guardian]- Also recommended by Shana: Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith Both mundane and magical, this book is a world away from Just Kids, though the unique artistry of her prose remains. Smith lives much of her life in the past but her account of her wanderings shows us who she is now, and the stories and dreams that occupy her. She is not without optimism – “Our quiet rage gives us wings, the possibility to negotiate the gears winding backwards” – but exists with a keen awareness that there is no overcoming the passing of time or the limits of the imagination. As she notes in the epilogue, “the trouble with dreaming is that we eventually wake up”. [The Guardian]
Die Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker by Staff pick by: Megan, Main Library
DIE is a pitch-black fantasy where a group of forty-something adults have to deal with the returning unearthly horror they barely survived as teenage role-players. [library catalog]- Also recommended by Megan: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone In the ashes of a dying world, Red finds a letter marked “Burn before reading. Signed, Blue.” So begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents in a war that stretches through the vast reaches of time and space. Red belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia. Blue belongs to Garden, a single vast consciousness embedded in all organic matter. Their pasts are bloody and their futures mutually exclusive. They have nothing in common—save that they’re the best, and they’re alone. Now what began as a battlefield boast grows into a dangerous game, one both Red and Blue are determined to win. Because winning’s what you do in war. Isn’t it? A tour de force collaboration from two powerhouse writers that spans the whole of time and space. [library catalog]
Dawn by Staff pick by: Mercedes, Cherry Hills Library
In this essential collection, Selahattin Demirtaş’s arresting stories capture the voices of ordinary people living through extraordinary times. Written with Demirtas’s signature wit, warmth, and humor, and alive with the rhythms of everyday speech, DAWN paints a remarkable portrait of life behind the headlines in Turkey and the Middle East – in all its hardship and adversity, freedom and hope.[Amazon]- Also recommended by Mercedes: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson Cussy Mary Carter is a 19-year-old from Troublesome Creek, Kentucky. She was born with a rare genetic condition, and her skin has always been tinged an allover deep blue. As part of the new governmental program aimed at bringing reading material to isolated rural Kentuckians, Cussy rides a mule over treacherous terrain, delivering books and periodicals to people of limited means. Cussy’s patrons refer to her as “Bluet” or “Book Woman,” and she delights in bringing them books as well as messages, medicine, and advice. With a focus on the personal joy and broadened horizons that can result from access to reading material, this well-researched tale serves as a solid history lesson on 1930s Kentucky. [Kirkus Review]
The Darkness by Staff pick by: Lin, San Pedro Library
First and second books [Island, see link below] in the Hidden Iceland trilogy. The books are typical Scandinavian mysteries. Dark, dark, dark and cold, cold, cold and bad, bad things happen. Where these books are unique is that the end starts at the beginning. Hulda is retiring from the Homicide squad under duress. She wants to solve one more case before she is forced out. Her story finalizes in the Mist, coming out in June, 2020.
