Staff Choices

In a very personal and candid memoir, Rebekah Taussig shares what it is like to navigate the world using a wheelchair. She writes about people being over-solicitous to help, about being ignored, and to still not have access to places she may want or have to visit. She reminds us that the Americans with Disabilities Act was only signed into law in 1990.

A term called "ableism" is discussed throughout the book. In Rebekah's words:  “Ableism is the process of favoring, fetishizing, and building the world around a mostly imagined, idealized body while discriminating against those bodies perceived to move, see, hear, process, operate, look, or need differently from that vision.” 

Sitting Pretty is an eye-opening book to read.

This writing duo Christina Lauren hit it out of the park again.  I love all of their books and this one does not disappoint.  In a Holidaze is sure to be the perfect holiday read for 2020.  Everything from the cozy winter setting to the family dynamics made this a must read.  Maelyn was a flawed relatable character who was in love with her childhood family friend, Andrew, and stuck in a Groundhog Day scenario. The supporting character were quirky and added a ton of depth to the story.  I especially loved Uncle Bennie!  Chaos, laughter and little romance is the perfect mix for this crazy 2020 holiday season.

Fiona Davis is one of my favorite go-to authors of historical fiction.  She does not disappoint with her newest book, The Lions of Fifth Avenue.  As someone who works in a library and loves to visit libraries whenever I travel, I loved the setting of the New York Public Library.  The dual perspectives of Laura and Sadie, as well as the dual timelines made the reading experience feel fast-paced and weaved a bigger picture into a historical event. Davis did an amazing job of keeping the story moving with an interesting mystery, while also touching on more serious topics such as women's rights and sexism in the workplace. I will definitely be recommending this one and consider it for a future book discussion at our library.

Set in India, Jivan is a young woman trying to work her way out of poverty and the rigid, limited role she has in society. After a terrible attack on a passenger train in her city, she makes a very unfortunate decision to post a critical comment of her government on social media. This action sets in motion a chain reaction of unfortunate events. Will two people who could be character witnesses come through on her behalf? We meet her physical education instructor, PT Sir, who thought Jivan had potential when she was his student and Lovely, a young hijra who Jivan tried to help learn English. As we get to know these characters, we see the struggles they have and the compromises they make.

The way the author narrates the story left me surprised and shocked at the turn it takes. It becomes a tale as old as time told in a unique way . . . naivety, betrayal, graft, poverty, selfishness, looking the other way, power, and justice denied. This is author Megha Majumdar's debut novel and brings an awareness of serious issues. A Burning has left me still thinking about this compelling novel long after I read it.

I’ve just met Duchess Goldblat and we’ve already cried together. And yes laughed together too. This is a memoir by the anonymous author of the @duchessgoldblat twitter account. I felt as if I was sitting at a table having drinks with anonymous as she carefully unfolds her path to the successful creation of Duchess. Finding herself bereft of her marriage, home, family and job, she reaches out into the twitterverse with her heart open wide, giving love and support to those like her in desperate need of both. Her clever humor resonates with thousands and she finds herself piecing her life back together. She answers her followers, many of them celebrities, with integrity and honesty, and forms true lifelong friendships. I was deeply moved by the simple humanity of this memoir, especially at this moment in time when we are in need of kind voices. Words do matter. One of my favorite books of 2020.

No doubt there were high expectations for Yaa Gyasi's followup novel after her critically acclaimed debut, Homegoing. Transcendent Kingdom should prove that her literary stardom is in no danger of fading. But fans of her first novel, a sweeping historical saga, may be surprised by the quiet, domestic family drama portrayed here. This novel follows the story of Gifty, (a prophetically fitting name for her brilliant mind), a Stanford medical researcher studying addiction in lab mice. We also get to know Gifty as a young child of Ghanaian immigrants, growing up in practically the only Black family in Huntsville, Alabama. Her father, disenchanted with life in America, has returned to Ghana, essentially deserting Gifty, her hardworking mother, and her beloved older brother, Nana. It is Nana's own set of gifts, on athletic fields and courts, that will eventually lead to his destruction...an opioid addiction after being prescribed OxyContin at the age of 15 for a basketball injury. After his eventual death from a heroin overdose (not a spoiler), Gifty's seemingly indefatigable mother succumbs to a depression that will change her forever. 

Raised as an Evangelical Christian, Gifty must make sense of a God who allows such tragedy to happen. She abandons the religion of her childhood, searching instead for answers in the mystery of the human brain. This theme of faith versus science is just one of the Topics with a capital T that Gyasi  so masterfully explores in this novel...such as Family, Mental Illness, Addiction, Spirituality, Racism. This is indeed a heavy book, but as Gifty grapples with the trauma both she and her mother must endure, there is incredible beauty in the truths that she uncovers. Not to mention the exquisite writing that graces every page. Highly recommended.

 Shiner is an luminous debut novel, set in the truly "off the grid" mountains of West Virginia, where coal mining jobs are disappearing and locals now turn more often to opioids than moonshine to dull their pain. At its heart, this is a story of the power of female relationships, both mother/daughter and friendships, and how these connections help the characters survive the abject poverty and despair of their lives.

The central character is Wren, a young teen, living in a ramshackle cabin with no indoor plumbing and a shed full of snakes. She is the daughter of Ruby, her beloved but downtrodden mother, and Briar Bird, her serpent-handling preacher father. Local legend has it that Briar survived a lightening strike, and awoke from this accident with mystical religious powers. He is madly in love with his wife and tolerates his daughter, but his paranoia of the outside traps them in a life of almost total seclusion.

The true love of Ruby's life, however, is not her husband but her best friend from childhood, Ivy. Despite her own fervent desire to flee the rural mountains for a new future in town, Ivy refuses to leave behind Ruby once she marries Briar. Instead, she finds herself in an equally miserable marriage to a drug addict, with more sons than she can properly care for or afford. When Briar "miraculously" heals Ivy after she accidentally falls into an open fire, a series of even more tragic events will alter the lives of both families.

The beginning and end of the story is told through Wren's voice, as she experiences both devastating loss and the sweetness of first romantic love. Other sections of the novel are told through Ruby, Ivy, and Flynn, a former friend of Wren's parents who is a "Shiner", an illegal moonshine producer and eventual savior for Wren. It is an interesting narrative choice, but I don't think it adds to the novel's strength.

Author Amy Jo Burns's descriptions of the mountain community, its natural beauty and strong inhabitants, are wonderfully evocative. I've read many other books set in Appalachia, but none as memorable or atmospheric as Shiner. The author grew up on the edges of this world, and the authenticity of the world she creates, full of beauty and ugliness, shines through on these pages.

I love a book with good banter, and Romeantically Challenged by Marina Adair does not disappoint. The two main characters, Annie and Emmit, are strong yet flawed and have a realistic chemistry. Even though the story will have you laughing, it also has depth and brings up many real life hardships, such as adoption, grief, and mixed families.  My favorite part was the three dads raising a teenage girl. Sometimes it takes a village! I cannot wait for Levi and Beckett’s story in the next book, Hopeless Romeantic of the When in Room series. I highly recommend this book to all Contemporary Romance fans.

Seventeen year old Noel Crowe arrives in Faha Ireland on the eve of the county getting electricity for the first time. Unstoppable rains, and a stranger looking for a lost love, help to set the tone for this touching coming of age story. Noel is sent to live with his grandparents after he unexpectedly leaves his seminary studies.  Narrated by Noel who is now in his 70's, the story hearkens back to a simpler time in the mid 1950's, and small communities who can all feel the winds of change. The story is a tender written beautiful tale of life, love, longings and growth.

Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, carries on  the tradition of the classic Gothic horror novel, complete with the moldering mansion, hostile caretakers, and the naive outsider who must confront the unknown terror inside.  The heroine in this tale is Noemi Taobada, a beautiful, smart, but spoiled debutante, who must leave glamorous 1950's Mexico City for the remote countryside, where her recently married cousin has been posting strange letters pleading for help from her family. When Noemi arrives at High Point, the dilapidated estate owned by the menacing English family of her cousin's husband, she encounters enemies both human and possibly otherworldly. This highly atmospheric novel starts off slowly, and takes a turn for the seriously bizarre about halfway through. But fans of novels such as Rebecca and The Little Stranger should enjoy this creepy addition to the Gothic genre, made all the more interesting with a Latin American twist.