Blog Post
Postcolonial Love Poem
by samanthar
In her second published work, Postcolonial Love Poem, Mojave American poet Natalie Diaz lyrically tells readers what was stolen - bodies, land, love, rivers, language - by colonialism. While her work features heavily the themes of loss and othering, she does not dwell in wishing for a pre-colonial world. Her prose pushes readers to her present day brothers and sisters, how they walk with living wounds across polluted land. Diaz’s work is powerful and unlike any other I have read, juxtaposing facts
“Native Americans make up less than
1 percent of the population of America.
Blog Post
LeJuan James Brings Humor and Gratitude through Reflection in “Definitely Hispanic”
by copelands
Definitely Hispanic is the first book from social media star LeJuan James. James is a bicultural and bilingual YouTuber who found viral success through making comedic videos of his experiences as a first-generation Hispanic-American. James uses both English and Spanish in his videos where he often parodies his parents in various scenarios from his childhood.
In addition, Definitely Hispanic is a collection of essays, each dealing with topics close to James’ heart. Written in an intimate way, he engages with readers and gives a direct visualization of life in a vibrant Hispanic family. A recurring theme throughout much of the book is gratitude, mostly to his parents. They were strict but caring and James quickly found that his house rules were very different from his American friends’. Even though he was frustrated at times with the many rules and guidelines he had to follow, James realized as he got older that he is incredibly proud of his heritage. He later understood that his parents’ strict actions were out of unconditional love. Although both of his parents often worked multiple jobs to make ends meet, James recalled never wanting for anything when growing up.
In the opening chapter #Home, James reflects on his upbringing in Central Florida. During this time he moved frequently between Puerto Rico and the U.S. and began to understand his identity as a Hispanic American. He longed for acceptance in American circles but also thoroughly enjoyed his summers in Puerto Rico. He played with his cousins and enjoyed foods like quesitos and drinking limber (fruit juice). In #LaPela, he hilariously explains the spanking his parents used on him when he misbehaved and how in many cases, he deserved to be punished. #HispanicFamilyGatherings, one of my favorite chapters, offers a look into various family celebrations. This includes telling of how competitive his family is regarding sports; celebrating the winter holidays with much fanfare; and embracing any outsiders who visit as family. In the chapter #DatingHispanicWomen, he offers his advice on dating Hispanic women and the unique situations that might arise. He advises bowing gracefully out of arguments he feels he’ll never win to embracing the loyalty and impassioned love they give.
Blog Post
5-Minute Mug Cakes
by samanthar
Do you want to eat some cake, but don’t have time for the whole, long baking process? Fret no more! With 5 Minute Mug Cakes, you can have your cake and eat it from a mug, too. Recipes like Lemon Dream, Strawberry Cream, and my personal favorite, S’mores - yum! These recipes are quick, easy, and quite delicious. Some require only 4 ingredients or less, making it so easy to have fun trying a variety of cake flavors. All you need is a mug and a microwave, and you, too, can have cake!
If you’re feeling adventurous, try Mug Meals! The clean up is a breeze.
Blog Post
Loose Parts: Inspiring Play in Young Children
by samanthar
Have you and your child ever attended a Sensation Stations program at AADL? In a Montessori style approach to hands-on learning, everyday objects are placed in bins for your little one to explore! They are a great opportunity to encourage your child to learn through using the five senses, and creating these play learning opportunities at home can be easier than you think! Loose Parts: Inspiring Play in Young Children shows how to upcycle everyday items, like egg cartons, acorns, and aluminum foil, and use them in ways that inspire your little one to explore, learn, and create!
Check out Loose Parts 2 and Loose Parts 3 for even more ideas!
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #750, Young, Black and Female
by muffy
Luster * * by Raven Leilani (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) is one of Entertainment Weekly’s 20 late-summer must-reads; Vogue’s 7 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in August; and New York Times called it “perhaps the summer’s most touted debut.”
23 year-old Edie is stumbling her way through her twenties. An art school dropout with crushing student loans, she now works as an assistant at a children’s book publisher, hardly able to afford sharing a rat-infested apartment in Bushwick. She meets Eric Walker online, a married white digital archivist twice her age who professes to have an open marriage. When Edie crashes the couple’s anniversary party, she meets Rebecca, a VA medical examiner, and Akila, their adopted daughter.
When Edie is fired from her job, in part due to office-hours promiscuity, and is evicted from her apartment, Rebecca invites Edie to stay in their New Jersey home while Eric is away. As Edie earnestly tries to make herself useful with Akila who is having a tough time adjusting to the all-white community; and to find work (clown school?), “all the while, the dynamics among the four of them keep shifting, an unstable ballet of race, sex, and power.”
“Edie's ability to navigate the complicated relationships with the Walkers exhibits Leilani's mastery of nuance, and the narration is perceptive, funny, and emotionally charged. Edie's frank, self-possessed voice will keep a firm grip on readers all the way to the bitter end.” (Publishers Weekly)
“Edie’s defeated, I-can’t-even tone has become something of an institutional voice for millennial writers, especially women: Jia Tolentino, Patricia Lockwood, Catherine Lacey, and Ottessa Moshfegh have all merged humor with anger about the gender and economic inequities their generation faces.
Luster is distinguished by its focus on race, which raises the stakes for the story. The climax emphasizes that for all of her wit and flexibility, Edie is ultimately a Black woman in a white neighborhood. She’s treated as an assistant, then an interloper and finally an invader.” (USA Today, ★★★½ out of 4)
* * = 2 starred reviews
Blog Post
The Stars and the Blackness Between Them
by PhoebeH
The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus is a YA novel told from the alternating perspectives of two young Black women, Audre from Trinidad, and Mabel from Minnesota. A cosmic thread links the two on their parallel and then interwoven journeys of love, sexuality, and self acceptance. The book does a beautiful job of illustrating the characters’ explorations into spirituality, and what it means to be human in connection to the earth and the universe that we live in. It grapples with confronting death, and what it means to live in the present while having the knowledge of one’s limited time. Even though the author presents us with these large themes, she is still able to keep the book down to earth through portrayals of family, life navigating high school, and Mabel’s relatable obsession with Whitney Houston. This book is a great read with refreshing depth.
Blog Post
From 8-bit to Infinity
by garlandz
For over forty years friends and families have been huddling in front of televisions to guide varying pixelated heroes to victory. Pac-Man, Mario, Link, and the like! But why? When dissected into code these heroes are not much more than blocks put together and programmed into motion. What has kept these retro games alive and popular over the years?
To answer, we need to ask ourselves: What was my first video game? What made it so fun? Who was I with? What was I going through at the time? These questions may very well draw out the answer. Sometimes we cling to a character we can relate to or one we can cheer for. Other times we need a place we can escape to from the affairs of life. Whether the game helped us burn through a boring afternoon or helped us make friends or helped us feel strong against a bully! Anyone who has picked up a gaming controller undoubtedly has their own story to tell. Let's keep these nostalgic memories alive by appreciating the little moments, or the pixels of life we can call them. Don't stop making memories. Here are some wonderful materials the library has to kindle such memories and experiences:
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #749
by muffy
Fans of Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz and Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson would not want to miss The Eighth Detective, * (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) by mathematician and first-time novelist Alex Pavesi.
London book editor Julia Hart arrives on a remote Mediterranean island to work on reissuing The White Murders, a series of detective stories self-published in the early 1940s, that were based on a 1937 paper by mathematics professor Grant McAllister, entitled “The Permutations of Detective Fiction,” - on the mathematical structure of murder mysteries and the specific criteria that must be met.
Grant, now a recluse explains the "rules" of whodunits - there must be a victim or victims, one or more suspects, one or more detectives, etc. The seven stories in the book, variations of the "locked-room mystery ", illustrate permutations made possible by changing the mix of these character types. As sharp-eyed Julia goes through the stories with Grant, she notices inconsistencies; and the collection's title echoes an unsolved crime at the time the book was first published. She begins to suspect these might be clues to another bigger mystery - Grant himself.
“Pavesi clearly knows his classic murder mysteries, as shown by a story that evokes Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, and all his plot tricks will please readers with a similar passion. “ (Publishers Weekly)
“Enclosing all the stories like a Russian doll is the question of why the editor visits the author at all. But both hold back secret motivations that drive the grand plot... A satisfying mystery for the casual reader, even more so for the careful one.”(Kirkus Reviews)
* = Starred review
Blog Post
Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park
by samanthar
“If she were white, she wouldn’t have to wear a bonnet.
If she were white, she wouldn’t have to ask about attending school.
If she were white…”
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #748, On Body Image
by muffy
“Step Away from the Mean Girls…and say bye-bye to feeling bad about your looks. Are you ready to stop colluding with a culture that makes so many of us feel physically inadequate? Say goodbye to your inner critic, and take this pledge to be kinder to yourself and others.” ~ Oprah Winfrey
In Kate Stayman-London’s debut One to Watch, (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook), 30-year-old Bea(trice) Schumacher is a plus-size fashion and lifestyle blogger with a devoted following and a growing number of commercial sponsors. When her drunken late-night blog post raging against the lack of body diversity representation on Main Squeeze, a reality TV show (think The Bachelor) goes viral, she finds herself tapped to be the next star of the show, where 25 contestants compete for her hand. Still smarting from a hurtful break-up and hopeful the exposure will advance her brand, Bea signs on.
For 8 weeks, Bea is styled, pampered, polished and whisked off to exotic locales to be dazzled by her 25 suitors. While many are good, smart, and kind, not all of the men are there for the right reason. And a lifetime of body shaming has left her skeptical - whether she could truly find romance; and how the complex standards of female beauty affect the way we define ourselves, and who deserves to be seen...and loved.
“Peppered with chatlogs, text messages, social media reactions, and splashy People articles, Stayman-London's debut is chatty and fun, brilliantly capturing the highs, lows, and drama of reality TV.” (Publishers Weekly)
“A long and entertaining if overstuffed novel about reality TV, romance, fat-shaming, and self-esteem that will appeal to rom-com fans…” (Library Journal)
Thin Girls * by New Zealand native Diana Clarke (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) is a brutally honest examination of toxic diet culture and the tyranny of body image, but also the bond of twinhood; and the redemptive power of love and friendship.
Lily and Rose Winters have the special bond that twins share - they feel each other's emotions, and taste what the other is feeling, until high school. Peer pressure, teenage angst and family dynamics drive them towards the opposite spectrum of the eating disorder - Rose stops eating and Lily consumes everything Rose won't.
Now in their 20s, Rose, the narrator is about to mark her one-year anniversary in a rehabilitation facility when she notices Lily, her sole visitor, is also struggling. A kindergarten teacher, Lily is involved with the abusive, married father of one of her students. To please him, Lily joins a cult diet group. Rose realizes she is the only one who could save Lily. To do that, she must start eating. When Rose and Lily seem to be at their breaking point, support and kindness come from the most unlikely sources, at once cathartic and life-affirming.
“This page-turner makes for an illuminating, ultimately hopeful look at the constant struggle women face regarding their body image.” (Publishers Weekly)
“The story (Rose) tells is as gripping as a thriller, but it’s Clarke’s language that truly makes this novel special. She writes with a lyricism that not only encompasses the grotesque and the transcendent, but also sometimes commingles the two… Incisive social commentary rendered in artful, original, and powerfully affecting prose.” (Kirkus Reviews) For fans of Dietland by Sarai Walker.
* = Starred review