Ages 18+.
Blog Post
Endangered Species
by Lara
An endangered species is an animal, plant, or other species that is at risk of becoming extinct in the near future. Current scientific evidence indicates that the rate of species extinctions is increasing.
How to Save a Species by Marilyn Baillie, Jonathan Baillie, and Ellen Butcher features endangered species from around the world and the scientists who are trying to save them. It includes species on the brink of extinction, as well as those who have recovered after almost becoming extinct. To find the most current information on the endangered species highlighted in this book, see the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. To learn more about how scientists are trying to save some of the most endangered species on Earth, see the EDGE of Existence website. How to Save a Species is written for kids, but many adults will also find this information interesting.
Here are a few more books about endangered species that both kids and adults may enjoy:
Endangered Animals by Ben Hoare is part of the Eyewitness series. This book also discusses endangered species and the ways humanity can help them survive.
Save the Planet: Helping Endangered Animals by Rebecca E. Hirsch is part of the Cherry Lake Publishing collection. This informative ebook can be downloaded as a PDF when you log in to your AADL web account.
Draw 50 Endangered Animals by Lee J. Ames gives step-by-step illustrations for drawing endangered animals. There are no written instructions in this book, just drawings. This book is part of the Draw 50 series.
The following books about endangered species are geared towards younger kids:
Almost Gone: The World’s Rarest Animals by Steve Jenkins is filled with great illustrations and includes facts about fascinating endangered animals from around the world.
Endangered! by Barbara L. Webb is an informative, easy to read book with lots of photographs. This book is part of the Green Earth Discovery Library series.
Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet by David McLimans is a Caldecott Honor Book. This is a unique picture book that also includes information that may be of interest to older readers.
It Stinks to Be Extinct! by Susan Blackaby is written in an easy to read format and includes nice photographs and valuable information about endangered animals.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #643 Spotlight on Speculative Fiction
by muffy
Published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death on July 18, The Jane Austen Project * by Kathleen Flynn asks: "Given the chance, what would one give up so that Jane could live?"
Carefully selected and rigorously trained by The Royal Institute for Special Topics in Physics, 2 time-travelers from the future arrive in 1815 London with specific goals - to find Austen's rumored unfinished novel The Watsons; and to determine the cause of her death in 1817, without altering the course of history.
Rachel Katzman, a disaster-relief physician and Liam Finucane, an actor-turned-scholar pose as Dr. William Ravenswood and his sister Mary, wealthy plantation owners just arrived from the West Indies and successfully insinuate themselves into the lives of the Austen clan by charming Henry, Jane's favorite brother.
As Rachel's friendship with Jane deepens over the course of the year and the unpublished manuscript is within reach, Rachel and Liam struggle with their directive to leave history intact, exactly as they found it. With the portal to return to the future about to close, Rachel must make difficult choices - including whether she would allow Jane's fatal illness to remain undiagnosed.
(Debut novelist and New York Times editor) "Flynn skillfully delves into the later years of Austen's life in a way that is sure to please admirers of the 19th-century novelist, as well as providing a fascinating dollop of plot invention and a heartbreaking romance between the two protagonists." (Library Journal)
Fans of time-travel and romance would enjoy the series by Julie McElwain that opens with A Murder in Time; and All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai.
Fans of Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven (2014) and Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars (2012) would find much to like in The Space Between the Stars, Anne Corlett's debut.
Veterinarian researcher Jamie Allenby survives a virus that nearly wiped out humanity throughout the galaxy to find herself alone in a distant planet called Soltaire. Jamie soon meets up with other survivors, and together this ragtag group is rescued by a passing ship, heading back to Earth, and to Daniel, her estranged boyfriend whom Jamie believes, might have survived the virus as well.
However, once back on Earth, some of the fellow survivors reveal themselves to be not as they seem. Secret agendas and deadly intents if unconstrained, will have serious repercussions for the future of mankind. Jamie must take matters into her own hand.
"Corlett offers a thoughtful examination of how individuals find meaning and fulfillment in the face of an apocalyptic event then wraps up with a thrilleresque ending." (Boolist)
* = starred review
Blog Post
How to Be a Muslim: An American Story - Memoir by Haroon Moghul
by sairah513
Memoir is a “tricky genre to review”, asserted Roxane Gay during an author event for her most recent title Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body at Ann Arbor’s Hill Auditorium this past Friday.
Agreed.
Usually...
However, Haroon Moghul so creatively crafts his story that there were no tricks for me in this writing. Moghul’s memoir How to be a Muslim: An American Story artfully weaves insightful personal reflection on faith, leadership, and bipolar disorder with dry hilarity and punny chapter titles that are often nods to the musical magic of Green Day, Cat Stevens, and Jay-Z. The book makes for an emotional rollercoaster of a read as Moghul deftly describes his struggle with his two selves: the outer, public figure Haroon who was “thrust into the spotlight” as an NYU campus leader post-9/11, and the inner, personally and spiritually tormented Haroon vacillating between“amateur atheism” and God-consciousness.
Moghul addresses themes such as hypocrisy, the spectrum of mental health, bigamy, and monogamy in wildly entertaining and thought-provoking ways. Free of tired, apologetic “Intro-to-Islam” tropes, Moghul instead relies on the religious/spiritual and philosophical framework of poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal, who wrestled with Islam and the West as well as the “self” and society prior to the decisiveness of the 9/11 moment. Indeed the amorphous unit that is popularly perceived of as the “Muslim World” experienced dissonance, along with richness and cosmopolitanism prior to that moment.
Any child of the 90’s will appreciate Moghul’s apropos references to the decade’s sartorial sensibilities (JNCO jeans, anyone?) and the memorable music of Mariah Carey. Besides suggesting to read Moghul’s reference A First-Rate Madness by Nasser Ghaemi, I cannot provide a reader advisory, “If you like ‘x’, you’ll also like ‘y’” because this book occupies a place of its own. Read it.
Blog Post
What is the Reggio Emila Approach?
by Beth Manuel
The Reggio Emilia Approach is an educational philosophy based on the image of the child, and of human beings, as possessing strong potentials for development and as a subject of rights who learns and grows in the relationships with others.
This global educational project, which is carried forth in the Municipal Infant-toddler Centers and Preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy, and has inspired other schools all over the world, is based on a number of distinctive characteristics: the participation of families, the collegial work of all the personnel, the importance of the educational environment, the presence of the atelier and the figure of the atelierista, the in-school kitchen, and the pedagogical coordinating team.
Join us as Suzanne Price of Sunshine Special Children's Studio and Early Childhood Educator Heidi Harris share key components of the Reggio Emilia philosophy in this interactive session.
This program is in partnership with the Wonder of Learning: 100 Languages of Children Exhibit (at the U-M Stamps School of Art and Design & the James and Anne Duderstadt Center on North Campus) and the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance.
Blog Post
New from Arundhati Roy
by potterbee
Twenty years ago, the Booker Prize-winning novel The God of Small Things hit the shelves and has remained in demand ever since. In the years since then, Arundhati Roy has published dozens of essays and non-fiction work, made documentaries, protested against government corruption, Hindu nationalism, environmental degradation and inequality, campaigned for Kashmiri independence, Maoist rebels and indigenous land rights, and was featured on Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. To her political fans, she is the radical left voice of principled resistance; to her critics, the worst sort of adolescent idealist: unrealistic and self-indulgent. She has faced criminal charges of contempt and sedition, been imprisoned, and fled India briefly last year in fear for her life. She has not, until now, published another word of fiction.
Available this summer is a new novel from author Arundhati Roy titled The ministry of utmost happiness. This new work of literary fiction is highly anticipated. While noted as a challenging read, Roy's prosaic style is highly praised for embracing in a way that sweeps you through the story.
The complexity of Roy's writing allows for more than one thread in the story which begins with Anjum, born intersex and raised as a male. Later, she moves from her childhood home in Delhi to the nearby House of Dreams, choosing to live among a group of Hijras, transgendered women with a long, marginalized history in India. Finally, when this home fails her, she builds a home for herself in a city graveyard, where the tale begins.
The other major narrative thread concerns an unorthodox South Indian woman named Tilo. “She gave the impression that she had somehow slipped off her leash,” observes a friend. “As though she was taking herself for a walk while the rest of us were being walked — like pets.” Tilo studies architecture in Delhi in the 1980s and through a beloved college classmate, Musa, is caught up in the long, violent struggle for independence in the disputed northern territory of Kashmir.
"Shifting fluidly between moods and time frames, Roy juxtaposes first-person and omniscient narration with "found" documents to weave her characters' stories with India's social and political tensions, particularly the violent retaliations to Kashmir's long fight for self-rule. Sweeping, intricate, and sometimes densely topical, the novel can be a challenging read. Yet its complexity feels essential to Roy's vision of a bewilderingly beautiful, contradictory, and broken world." - Publisher's Weekly Review
“Roy’s novel will be the unmissable literary read of the summer. With its insights into human nature, its memorable characters and its luscious prose, Ministry is well worth the wait.” –Sarah Begley, TIME
Reader's may enjoy this interview with John Cusak from November 2015, about her popular non-fiction book, Things that can and cannot be said while you await your copy!
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #642, Spotlight on Women's Fiction
by muffy
The Garden of Small Beginnings * by Abbi Waxman is a story of loss but also the joy of second chances.
It has been three year since Lilian watched her husband died in a car accident 50 feet from her front door. After a breakdown and hospitalization, she is back at her job as a textbook illustrator in a small LA publishing house, and making a life with her two young daughters, Annabel and Clare.
With the industry downturn, she could save the company by branching out to illustrate a new series on vegetable gardening. Having agreed to take a 6-weeks Saturday morning gardening class with the author, Edward Bloem, "(m)any life lessons are learned in the garden, and not just by Lilian."
"The plot is straightforward, but it is Waxman’s skill at characterization that lifts this novel far above being just another "widow finds love” story. Clearly an observer, Waxman has mastered the fine art of dialogue as well. Characters ring true right down to Lilian’s two daughters, who often steal the show." (Kirkus Review)
For readers who are charmed by such titles as Good Grief, Heat Wave; Lost Lake, and recent debuts like Happy People Read & Drink Coffee and Angelina's Bachelors.
Gail Honeyman's debut Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine * is a "smart, warm, uplifting" story about a young woman's journey toward wholeness.
Scarred inside and out, 29 year-old Eleanor aspires to be unremarkable and normal all her adult life. An accounting clerk at a small Glasgow graphic design firm, her lack of social skills makes her the butt of office jokes. She finds comfort in strict routines, solitude, copious amount of vodka on the weekends, and will insist to all who care to inquire that she is "completely fine".
Almost simultaneously Eleanor falls for a gorgeous, out-of-her-league bar singer and begins an almost frenzied (and hilarious) self-improvement program, while striking up a tentative friendship with Raymond, the slovenly IT guy after they saved Sammy, an elderly retired postal clerk on the street. The three become the kind of friends who rescue each other from the lives of isolation, and it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.
"Walking in Eleanor’s practical black Velcro shoes is delightfully amusing, her prudish observations leavened with a privately puckish humor. But readers will also be drawn in by her tragic backstory, which slowly reveals how she came to be so entirely Eleanor. Witty, charming, and heartwarming." (Booklist)
For readers of Jojo Moyes and Helen Simonson.
* = Starred review
Blog Post
The Bright Hour
by Lucy S
Nina Riggs’ stunning memoir, The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying, was written in the last two years of her life. At the age of 37, with two young boys and a dying mother to care for, Riggs was diagnosed with breast cancer, “just a spot,” that accelerated rapidly to become terminal. This astonishingly moving, never maudlin book, is not filled with the sadness that one might expect to find in these circumstances, but instead is made up of episodes, small and large, presented to us in Riggs’ forthright and humored tone. Riggs, once a poet, writes of hours and days simply and eloquently, reminding us that these moments are the ones making up her life, no matter their content. This book is infused with anecdotes from the front lines of motherhood and marriage, which just happened to be peppered with “dispatches” from the world of a fast-moving cancer and its treatments. Riggs is no stranger to the disease. Her mother has been living with and dying from cancer for the past 8 years. As her mother passes her last days in hospice she relays her regrets for Riggs, that she (Riggs) had been nicer and seen a dentist more often. This pairing of the profound with the trifling details of everyday runs throughout Riggs’ memoir and lends itself to the poetry of Riggs’ words. “I’m terrified. I’m fine. The world is changed and exactly as before. There are crows in my hair. I have no hair.”
Riggs is brave to face cancer with as much acceptance and wit as she does. One wonders if some of her bravery stems from the precept passed down through generations by her great-great-great grandfather, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “always do what you are afraid to do.” Riggs looks to, and sites, Emerson often, as well as the French philospher Michel de Montaigne, and finds comfort in their viewpoints toward the natural world, life, and death. There are moments though, when Riggs finds it difficult to summon courage and understanding, and they are heartbreaking, as when she thinks of leaving her children. “Their very existence is the one dark piece I cannot get right within all this. I can let go of a lot of things: plans, friends, career goals, places in the world I want to see, maybe even the love of my life. But I cannot figure out how to let go of mothering them.”
Also heartbreaking is that we will never get more writing from Riggs. This book reads as if she is in conversation with her reader, often in the present tense, imbued with humor and fine points, so that when it’s over we are left mourning the book’s conclusion as well as the life of its writer.
Blog Post
Seeing Red...Or Saw it Once...
by LibraryLiz
This one time at the library...there was that book you saw on a shelf, with a red cover, that piqued your interest - but, for whatever reason, you had to pass it by. Well now! If you find yourself hankering for that long lost spark of interest, I may have the book for you! I've recently been compelled to create a list of books that have, or have had, red covers - whether or not their most recent editions have red covers now, they did at some point! Plus, this list is welcome to all kinds of red covers...
Whether it be a fire-engine red of the debut novel Push, a pinkish-red hue of the biography Georgia, or perhaps an orange-red of the best-seller turned film The Circle, all reds are welcome on this compilation list. But this list isn't just for the adults on the internets! There's also a wide age range available for the younger reader seeing red...
Be it from the Teen section like Ruby Red, The Burning Bridge, or maybe Eldest this list has many red hot reads that you might have left on the shelf for a later date. Even the youth may have left an enchanting book resting on it's display, such as The Battle of the Labyrinth. This list also provides you with options from every genre in the library...
Maybe you were browsing through Science Fiction and found Red Rising or Ready Player One? Could have been possibly perusing Mystery and seen False Picture on the shelf? What about the non-fiction readers, who may have browsed through the stacks seeing covers that advertised career development or scientific marvels!
This list has ALL THE THINGS (or would like to have) and is growing each day!!! Please feel free to take a look, and make comments of other red-covered books you think others may be searching for, so the list can continue to grow! Just think: someone out there could be looking for a red-covered jacket that you've read before - maybe you have the answer they've been looking for as the search the numerous volumes we have here at AADL. Or perhaps you yourself have been searching, and the book is in this list already!!! Only one way to find out!
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #640 Love in Any Language
by muffy
Winner of the prestigious Prix Renaudot in 1988 and available for the first time in English (translated from the French by Kaiama L. Glover), Hadriana in All My Dreams * * * by Rene Depestre, combines magic, fantasy, eroticism, and delirious humor to explore universal questions of race and sexuality.
Set in the coastal town of Jacmel (the author's hometown) during the carnival season of 1938, when Hadriana Siloé, a sensuous pale-skinned Creole woman, collapses at her wedding altar. Two days later, when her corpse goes missing from her grave, zombification is suspected and it is feared that she had earlier taken a mysterious potion. Before we could hear directly from Hadriana herself, this traumatic event is observed from different angles - the locals are convinced a local villain, Balthazar Granchire is to blame, having been turned into an ugly butterfly by his sorcerer father, for his relentless lechery. Patrick, one of Hadriana’s many young admirers, narrates much of the novel, acting as a surrogate for the now-90-year-old Depestre, showing himself throughout to be a true savant on all things zombie.
"The truth of Hadriana’s fate proves more poignant than horrifying, but in Depestre’s hands, this incident is a touchstone of a culture in which distinctions between the empirical and spiritual are obscured, and whose traditional celebrations and beliefs introduce an element of the mythic into the everyday. Eroticism and humor course through his narrative." (Publishers Weekly)
Season of Crimson Blossoms * by writer and journalist Abubaker Adam Ibrahim, won the 2016 NLNG Prize for Literature, one of the world's richest ($100,000) literary prizes. Set in Northern Nigeria, it is the story of an illicit affair between a devout widow and a young gang leader.
55 year-old Binta Zubairu, a devout Muslim, a widow and grandmother met the 25 year-old Hassan Reza, a street gang leader when he scaled her fence and robbed her at knife point. Mysteriously, most of the stolen goods were returned, and when Reza appeared to apologize, the two were overcome by their inexplicable desire and began an illicit romance that brought on disastrous consequences.
"A powerful and compelling debut. The taboo subject of an older woman's sexuality, portrayed with courage, skill and delicacy, is explored in the context of the criminal underworld and the corrupt politics that exploits it. This is a novel to be savoured. " ~ Zoe Wicomb
* * * = 3 starred reviews
* = starred review
Blog Post
Wonder Woman!!!
by PizzaPuppy
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The new Wonder Woman movie hits theaters today! This demigoddess, superhero and warrior princess has been delighting audiences since 1941 and has had a huge cultural impact across the globe. We have TONS of Wonder Woman materials for all age groups here at AADL to help you celebrate Princess Diana of Themyscira's first feature length movie.
The Secret History of Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman Unbound both give us an in-depth look at the history of Wonder Woman and her impact on popular culture throughout the years.
Although this is her first foray into the world of feature films, Wonder Woman has previously graced the screen in many different TV shows and movies. There are several animated movies, including the 2017 Wonder Woman film and the 2008 Wonder Woman film. The Wonder Woman TV series ran for three years (Seasons 2 and 3 are available here at AADL as well). Wonder Woman has also been featured in many Justice League and Super Friends films and television shows, as well as her cameo in the recent Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice movie (played by Gal Gadot in the cameo as well as in the newly released movie).
We have tons of Wonder Woman materials for kids! There is a lengthy Wonder Woman chapter book series, with titles like The Fruit of All Evil, Creature of Chaos, and Trial of the Amazons, and a graphic novel called DC Super Hero Girls: Hits and Myths. We have stand-alone chapter books like Amazon Warrior and Wonder Woman vs. Circe. Younger readers may enjoy the Readers Wonder Woman to the Rescue and Warrior for Justice, while babies may enjoy the DC Super Friends Lift-the-Flap book. The DC Super Hero Girls movie: Hero of the Year features Wonder Woman as well.
Teens will want to take a look at the Superman/Wonder Woman series (with Vol 2, Vol 3 and Vol 4). Our most recent additions include The Legend of Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman and the Justice League America Vol. 1, Wonder Woman by Mike Deodato, and Wonder Woman Vol. 1 by Greg Rucka. Other teen titles include The Hiketeia, The True Amazon, Down to Earth, The Circle, and Bitter Rivals.
Adults have plenty to choose from as well, with many of the titles released recently, such as Wonder Woman: Vol 1 The Lies and Wonder Woman, Earth One Vol 1. We have the full series by Brian Azzarello, comprised of Vol 1: Blood, Vol 2: Guts, Vol 3: Iron, Vol 4: War, Vol 5: Flesh, and Vol 6: Bones. Older series on hand at AADL include Wonder Woman: Odyssey Vol 1 and Love and Murder.
For more awesome Wonder Woman materials, take a look at this public list.