It’s cold! See what we’re reading to take our minds off (or celebrate!) it.
Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anaparra “A novel inspired by real events, it is told in the voice of a 9-year old who goes searching for the children who are disappearing from his impoverished settlement in India.”
The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
The Tao of the Backup Catcher by Tim Brown
The Complete Poetry of Aime Cesair “A sublime bilingual collection of poems and plays in verse by the Martinican anti-colonial poet and politician.”
The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey
TRON by Brian Daley
Maria Callas An Intimate Biography by Anne Edwards. “It gives a balanced picture of one of the world’s great opera divas who was an extremely complicated and conflicted individual. If you like opera, you will enjoy the book.”
James by Percival Everett (audio) “Incredible narration.”
Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases (audiobook) by Paul Holev
Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen “A strong contender for the most frightening book I’ve ever read.”
Lisey’s Story by Stephen King “Hard to put down. Once I’m done I’ll watch the miniseries they made (and be disappointed probably).”
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai ” A very chatty time travel novel that I was on the fence about, but it just took an interesting turn and now I’m committed.”
She-Wolf: The Story of a Roman Icon by Cristina Mazzoni “A study of the legend and iconography of the lupine mother alleged to have suckled the founding sons of Rome.”
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore “I was wary of the hype, but in this rare case, it was merited (for me, anyway).”
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
Playground by Richard Powers
Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice by Cristina Rivera Garza (audiobook)
Catherine of Siena by Sigrid Undset “A biography of the 14th-century saint penned by novelist Undset, famed for her medieval Norwegian epic trilogy ‘Kristin Lavransdatter.'”
I re-read Shadow of the Wind for probably the third time. Never disappoints.
Deliciously gothic tale full of plot twists and sub plots that takes place in Barcelona 1945. Part historical fiction, mystery, and romance. In addition, the plot centers around the son of bookseller and a mysterious book that is being systematically destroyed. A book found in a secret library named “The Cemetery of Forgotten Books”. Is it surprising that a librarian loves this novel?
-Meredith, Children’s Room
If the last two Bath Climate Conversation events got you thinking about solutions in your own life, check out this list of some further reading on the subject, curated by the Reference Team.
See the List2024 was a great year to read! Below is a list of some of our favorite books that PFL staff read this past year.
O Caledonia, by Elspeth Barker
The Postcard by Anne Berest
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino
Where the Forest Meets the River by Shannon Bowring
The Ministry of Timeby Kailiane Bradley
Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns
With Dogs at the Edge of Life by Colin Dayan
Pitch Dark by Paul Doiron
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
James by Percival Everett (especially the audiobook)
My Favorite Thing is Monsters Book 2 by Emil Ferris
The Cremator by Ladislav Fuks
Billy Summers by Stephen King
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
North Woods by Daniel Mason
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory McGuire
Touched Out: Motherhood, Misogyny, Consent, and Control by Amanda Montei
The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly
Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant
Yes, another year has passed. It has been a year marked by strangeness and friction, disasters both natural and manmade, general tumult, and nonstop chatter about AI. But also, many nonfiction books were published in 2024. A number of them were even quite excellent, in my humble opinion. It is to those among the past year’s nonfiction offerings that I’d call favorites that we now turn.
The Animal is Chemical by Hadara Bar-Nadav
A collection of poems feverishly skirring through dark to darker themes, from chronic illness to miscarriage to endemic pharmaceutical dependency to Nazi medical experimentation, what drew me initially to this slim yet weighty book was the image on its cover. A dog, sharp-eared like a Doberman, shadowed into shape from a murk of electroshocked monochrome. The dog’s mouth is crowded with too many teeth, too sharp, too long, between which eeling masses of froth coil out like ectoplasm. I’ve been haunted by this spectral dog, and by these poems, too. Pain and terror seethes through them glittering as if locked under ice, held sterile but unsleeping.
A Great Disorder: National Myths and the Battle for America by Richard Slotkin
Richard Slotkin has been probing the American mythos in search of explanations for this country’s various predicaments for over 50 years, and has wrung many a must-read tome from his labors. In his latest effort, the cultural historian turns again to what he calls America’s “foundational myths,” this time to account for the dysfunction and division that characterizes our present moment of “culture wars” political impasse. Too often, we’re barely aware of the assumptions and ready-made narratives that give shape to our actions, affiliations, and affinities; we believe we’re responding to reality as it is, when in fact we are engaged in the reenactment of a myth. Slotkin dredges the myths we’re working from up into the light and dissects them, granting us the chance to decide for ourselves whether these are the stories we’d truly desire to live by, if we knew what we were doing.
The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoe Schlanger
Apparently, humans are uneasy with the notion that plants might be conscious, intelligent, sentient beings. Our species has long preferred to keep these qualities to ourselves, as the precious indices of our singular humanity. I’ve never been afflicted by this need to set myself and my pink and sulcate primate brain on a pedestal, personally; when I stand amidst cedars and oaks in the forest, I know acutely that I am among superiors. But per usual, alas, I find myself in the minority. Zoe Schlanger’s ebullient, vibrant breeze through the science of plant intelligence should do much to correct any shortsighted claims to a human monopoly on cleverness, however. Charming, informative, and perspective-shifting, this is pop science writing at its finest.
Honorable Mentions
In Strangers in their Own Land (2016) sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild wrote of spending parts of 5 years getting to know folks in Louisiana, where pollution is devastating but the majority oppose environmental regulations. For Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right, she spent part of several years with blue-collar men in rural Kentucky in an effort to understand why Pikeville citizens, in the political center 30 years ago, voted 80% for Donald Trump in 2016. She learned of their pride in believing anyone can succeed through hard work and their shame when life falls short of their goal. Experiencing the loss of jobs and population, the reduced value of their land, their heritage, and their hard work, they were encouraged to believe the American dream had been stolen from them.
She avoids a simple explanation such as looking for someone to blame for hard times. She listens closely and brings us to understand their political and social evolution.
-Barbara, Circulation
In 2022 a school librarian spoke at a public library board meeting about book challenges and how there are policies in place for parents who are concerned about items. She was then maligned horribly online both by people she knew and by total strangers. In That Librarian, Amanda Jones talks about her experiences, her choice to sue for defamation, and about the people who stood by her throughout the process. It’s a difficult read due to the attitudes she faced (and still does) and the unfair consequences of simply speaking up. However, she reiterates many times how important it is to speak up anyway.
-Karen, Children’s Room
A subtle yet poignant sci-fi graphic novel about a teenage girl named Amy navigating a unique grief. Amy grew up on a mining colony in deep space, but after her father is suddenly fired from his job there, her family is forced to make the 30 year long journey back to earth. Cryo-sleep technology means no one ages during the journey, but time passes all the same, and the earth Amy wakes up to is a strange and unfamiliar place. None of her classmates know her favorite songs, and her best friend back in deep space is now a mom with three kids. The only person perhaps more out of place than Amy is the nameless white-haired boy in her art class who carries with him an emptiness deep as space and tries to paint the space between the stars.
-Stephanie, Circulation
PFL staff are reading up a storm this holiday weekend! Browse the list below and find something good to read while you digest and recover from all the festivities.
Naturally Sweet by America’s Test Kitchen
Mysticism by Simon Critchley
The Mighty Red (audiobook) by Louise Erdrich
The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Cookies are Magic by Maida Heatter
Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt by Chris Hedges
Life Lessons From a Parasite by John Janovy Jr. PhD
That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America by Amanda Jones
Billy Summers by Stephen King
Space Boy by Stephen McCranie
American Royals by Katherine McGee
I Kissed Shara Wheeler (audiobook) by Casey McQuiston
Pay the Piper by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus
In Case You Get Hit by a Bus: How to Organize Your Life Now for When You’re Not Around Later by Abby Schneiderman and Adam Seifer
The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan
Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
Trouble With Lichen (audiobook) by John Wyndham on audiobook.
Monarch by Candace Wuehle
Margaret Atwood’s classic novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, has been adapted many times, including film, television, and opera, and this recent graphic novel by Renée Nault. Though initially published in 1986, this speculative dystopian novel has unsettling themes that ring true still today.
The story of an oppressed woman under an authoritarian religious government somehow makes for beautiful illustrations; mainly black, white, and red but offset with rich colors that still exist in this colorless world. The condensed adaptation of Atwood’s words is no less powerful than the original, and parts are even more striking for their simplicity paired with chilling visuals. A wonderful way to revisit a classic, or, if you have found it too daunting in the past, read it for the first time.
