Ages 18+.
Blog Post
Short stories from Jojo Moyes: Paris For One
by eapearce
New York Times bestselling author Jojo Moyes, who penned Me Before You and After You, has just published her first short story collection, entitled Paris For One. Fans of Moyes’ charming, irresistible voice won’t want to miss it! In the title story, twenty-six-year-old Nell has never had a romantic getaway anywhere before, let alone to Paris. She’s eagerly anticipating traveling to the City of Love with her boyfriend… but when he doesn’t show up for their vacation she’s forced to make a decision. Should she return home and hole up in bed for the remainder of her time off, or stay alone in the city and prove everyone—including herself—wrong about her ability to be independent and adventurous?
Readers will be happy with the option that she chooses, and will enjoy equally the other eight stories that comprise this collection. In “Love in the Afternoon,” a sexually frustrated man tries to get his wife in the mood by suggesting that they watch “Snakes on a Plane” together. In “A Bird in Hand,” a woman is made even more uncomfortable at a stiff dinner party when she is seated next to a man with whom she had an affair with years before. Overall, the stories tell of transformations and realizations, and remind us all that nobody has it perfect, but we can make do very well with gratitude for what we do have.
Along with Paris For One, Me Before You and After You, Moyes is the author of One Plus One, The Girl You Left Behind, The Ship of Brides, and Silver Bay.
Blog Post
Fleetwood Mac: the interviews
by eapearce
Fleetwood Mac fans will be delighted with the brand new book Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac: Interviews and Encounters. The book, edited by Sean Egan, compiles over 40 years of interviews with the band members and stories of their lives. Many of these interviews come from rock magazines of the band’s heyday, like Creem, NME and Mojo, but some have never been published before. Band members Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Lindsay Buckingham have always been remarkably candid in the interviews that they give, about themselves and the band as a whole, so this compilation offers a truly in depth look into the lives of each one and the role they played in the creation of Fleetwood Mac’s music and persona. There are 40 total pieces in the book, arranged chronologically, and they span 1967 to 2014, although are certainly focused on the 1970s and 1980s. Egan opens each piece with a helpful paragraph setting the scene for the interview, but from then on the stories are completely unedited, even for corrections (although Egan points them out for readers). Fans of the band will love hearing the dramatic ups and downs of the quintet in their own words, and even casual listeners or fans of just Stevie Nicks will enjoy picking up this book and browsing through.
Not familiar with Fleetwood Mac? Get started with some of their music here!
Blog Post
A Child of Books
by manz
I am a child of books. I come from a world of stories and upon my imagination I float.
That is the first line in a beautiful new picture book, A Child of Books, written by Oliver Jeffers, with Jeffers collaborating with Sam Winston on the illustrations, which are done in watercolor, pencil, and digital collage.
Amid the words that tell the “story” are more words typed and piled up in shapes such as a wave, a mountain, a tunnel, a tree, and a monster. Also in the tiny words are nods to children’s classics – Little Red Riding Hood, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Gulliver’s Travels, and many more.
The book encourages readers to explore and imagine through books and reading, which can take you so many places on so many journeys! It’s a quiet thinker of a book, and will also be adored by adult audiences who enjoy these types of picture books, and who love books and children’s literature. The cool kids' books aren’t just for kids!
Definitely look at the catalog page for this book to check out a preview of the book just at it appears.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #617
by muffy
Mischling * * * by Affinity Konar is at once horrific and brimming with life and hope, even with humor in the most unexpected of places.
Brown-eyed and fair-haired, 12 year-old twins Pearl and Stasha Zagorski were often mistaken for "mischling" (mixed-blood, persons deemed to have both Aryan and Jewish ancestry) according to the Nuremberg Laws.
Arriving at Auschwitz with their mother and grandfather in the fall of 1944, they were immediately plucked for the experimental population of twins known as Mengele's Zoo. While Stasha was, bold, impulsive, and given to storytelling; Pearl was more restrained and observant. Narrating in alternative chapters, the twins realized early on to survive, they would have to "divide the responsibilities of living between (them) - Stasha would take the funny, the future, the bad, (Pearl) would take the sad, the past, the good". Little did they know how that would become their destiny.
When Pearl disappeared during a winter concert orchestrated by Mengele, Stasha grieved for her twin, but remained hopeful that Pearl lived. As the camp was liberated by the Red Army, Stasha escaped the death march with Feliks, a boy bent on vengeance for his own lost twin. Together, they endured starvation and unspeakable war devastation, encountered hostile villagers, Jewish and resistance fighters, sustained only by the hope that Mengele might be captured and brought to justice.
Readalikes: Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly, and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.
* * * = 3 starred reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #616
by muffy
The buzz around Brit(tany) Bennett's debut The Mothers * * * is hard to ignore. Vogue and The Washington Post are not alone in their over-the-moon praises, so richly deserved.
A wise and sad coming-of-age story set largely in Oceanside, CA, it is about the tangled destinies of three teens growing up in a tight-knit African-American community. 17 year-old Nadia Turner, smart, pretty, and ambitious is getting out - with a full ride to Michigan, away from her silent father, and away from the grief of losing her mother to suicide; but not before she realizes she is pregnant by the pastor's son, Luke. Her decision to abort creates a web of secrets that will haunt them for decades to come.
Years later when Nadia, now a successful attorney returns home to care for her ailing father, her reunion with Luke threatens his marriage to Aubrey, Nadia's childhood friend as well as the peace of their church community.
Narrated by Nadia and a Greek chorus of gossipy 'Mothers' from the local Upper Room Chapel, who "(f)ar from reliably offering love, protection, and care,...cause all the trouble." (Kirkus Reviews)
"There’s much blame to go around, and Bennett distributes it equally. But she also shows an extraordinary compassion for her flawed characters." (Publishers Weekly).
Brit Bennett (Stanford; MFA University of Michigan), winner of a Hopwood Award as well as the 2014 Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers, will be at Literati Bookstore at 7 pm on Monday, October 17, 2016 for a reading. Get there early.
* * * = 3 starred reviews
Blog Post
Washtenaw Matters: Election 2016!
by iralax
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The newsletter formerly known as CivCity EXTRA is now Washtenaw Matters: News You Can Use! The September edition is focused on the Nov. 8 election. It offers quality information about The Path to the Presidency as well as local elections and vocabulary definitions. If you have any questions or would like a copy of the Tutor Guide, please email Alison Austin, Washtenaw Literacy Program Manager, at austin@washtenawliteracy.org.
Blog Post
Organize your clothing with The Curated Closet
by eapearce
If you’re anything like me, you often find yourself staring into an overstuffed closet while also thinking “I have nothing to wear!” Anuschka Rees is here to help with that exact problem in her brand new book The Curated Closet. Rees offers tips and tricks for building a wardrobe that is functional, fits in the space that one has to contain it, and suits the reader’s personal style. It was the style cultivation aspects of The Curated Closet that I found most helpful; for those of us who are attracted to a variety of pieces, determining what we really like and what really suits us can be a challenge. Rees offers great tips for discovering your own personal style, and explains how to productively shop for pieces that won’t end up buried in the back of your closet in a few months’ time. The Curated Closet is even complete with a “closet diagnostics” flow chart that maximizes organization and “garment assessment” advice, which teaches readers how to find out if a piece of clothing is well-made. And, what better time of year to attack your closet than now, as we put away the shorts and tank tops and bring out the sweaters?
For other books on closet and clothing organization try Shop Your Closet and Home Organizing & Closet Makeovers.
Blog Post
Settling Into Fall With Quietly Suspenseful Reads
by eapearce
Perhaps you recently read The Girl on the Train, in preparation for seeing the soon-to-be-released movie version and are wondering where to turn next to get that tingly feeling of suspense that a mind-bending mystery offers. Or perhaps you’re still looking for something as good as Gone Girl to blow your reading mind. Or maybe you just like to read suspenseful stories in autumn, as I do, and are looking for the perfect one to kick off the season. No matter what the reasoning, the AADL has a slew of great psychological mysteries to send chills up your spine:
In All the Missing Girls, by Megan Miranda, Nicolette returns to her hometown after ten years away to care for her ailing father. She’d left a decade ago after her best friend disappeared without a trace. The ensuing investigation focused on Nic, her boyfriend, her brother and Corinne’s boyfriend, and since then Nic is the only one who’s left town. When another girl goes missing just days after Nic’s return, she’s determined to figure out what’s going on—and hopefully find out what really happened to Corinne so long ago. The story is told backwards from the date that the girl disappears which makes all the shocking truths that are revealed even more surprising, and plays tricks on the mind that will delight even the most unflappable of readers.
Unbecoming, written by Rebecca Sherm and published last year, offers readers a seemingly tragic story: after two men that she loves attempt to rob a historical mansion and land in prison, a woman flees to Paris to try and start a new life away from them and their memory. Living under an assumed identity and working in a shady antiques-repair shop, readers follow along as her lies unravel and the truth behind her past, the heist and her future plans come to light. Fans of The Girl on the Train will enjoy this one in particular.
Lisa Jewell paints an initially idyllic scene in The Girls in the Garden, of a picturesque communal park in urban London, but the image is quickly shattered when a girl finds her sister’s potentially lifeless body among the rose bushes. The book backs up from this moment, introducing us to the sisters and telling the story of how they and their single mother came to live in one of the small flats by the park. As we make it forward to the night of the attack, readers are introduced to a series of suspicious characters and find out about the disappearance of another teenaged girl who lived by the park twenty years before. Are the crimes linked? Or have two separate criminals graced the park with their presences?
Blog Post
Very Impressive Brand New Cookbook
by mansii
If you have ever had an inkling that you might like to try your hand at authentic Chinese food, a very impressive cookbook has hit AADL's shelves just for you! All Under Heaven by Carolyn Phillips takes a comprehensive look at Chinese cuisine, and by comprehensive I mean over 500 pages containing over 300 recipes, and weighing approximately 4 pounds!
This woman is serious about her cooking, and as authentic as you can get. All 35 different cuisines of China are represented, divided into five different regions. Each section of this volume relays a fascinating and well-researched food history of the region it represents. If you don't know where a recipe title like "Ignored by the Dog" came from Phillips will tell you--along with many other crazy tidbits.
Over 100 pages of "fundamentals" in the back provide essential know-how, like a basic Chinese flour recipe for stickier baked goods results. A thorough glossary explains what the different ingredients mentioned throughout the book are and where to find them. Very detailed technique descriptions, as well as helpful tips on almost every page enable cooks of any level to enter into this whole new culinary world. One of my favorite parts is the sample menu ideas in the back for pairing recipes.
Phillips writes with a love for food and for culture that is contagious. My mouth is watering for some battered and caramelized apples or Drunken Chicken. This book is an education all right, and an invitation to the adventurous!
If 35 cuisines in five regions is a little much to swallow for a first stab at Chinese cooking, check out the rest of AADL's cookbooks on Chinese cuisine here!
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #615
by muffy
Referred to as The Dollhouse * by the Manhattanites, the Barbizon Hotel for Women is where aspiring models and secretaries who often come from small towns, try to make it on their own in the 1950s.
Darby McLaughlin arrived from Ohio to take up secretarial studies at the Katherine Gibbs School . Compared to the glamorous Eileen Ford housemates, she was plain, self-conscious, and homesick. Befriended by Esme, a Barbizon maid, she was introduced to an entirely new side of New York City: seedy downtown jazz clubs.
Over half-a-century later, journalist Rose Lewin is evicted from one of the Barbizon condos when her divorced boyfriend decides to reunite with his family. Rose is forced to take refuge with her reclusive downstairs neighbor Darby, one of the original tenants. As Rose's life implodes around her, she is consumed with the story behind the rumors that Darby was involved in the grisly death of Esme. Yet as Rose's obsession deepens, the ethics of her investigation become increasingly murky, and neither woman will remain unchanged when the shocking truth is finally revealed.
"Darby and Rose, in alternating chapters, weave intricate threads into twists and turns that ultimately bring them together; the result is good old-fashioned suspense," (Publishers Weekly) by debut novelist Fiona Davis.
Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar was based upon her time working at Mademoiselle and living at the Barbizon (called The Amazon in the novel). This historical landmark, built in 1927 is now upscale condos under the name Barbzon 63.
Readalike: Searching for Grace Kelly by Michael Callahan (another FFF) and Suzanne Rindell's Three-Martini Lunch will captivate readers with a strong sense of time and place as the authors bring a legendary New York building to life and populates it with memorable characters who find themselves in unusual situations.
* = starred review