Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For November, we’re looking at rich people behaving badly, a heated tribal election on a Anishinaabe reservation, the humorous tale of an obituary writer falsely declared deceased, new science fiction and fantasy releases, a novel on audiobook about the infamous Virginia Hill, a history of the Cherokee Nation, and nonfiction about Rogers, Arkansas, just the next county over.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Contentious Divorces, Tribal Elections, Obituary Writers, Science Fiction Espionage Thrillers, Tiger Castles, Gangsters, the Cherokee, and Rogers”Category: comedy (books)
Book Buzz: Jamaican Fiction, Historical Fiction, Social Satire, Funny Romances, Outlaws, and Midwives
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For August, we’re looking at a coming-of-age novel set in Jamaica, historical fiction that ranges from the Napoleonic Era to the mid-20th century, Kevin Kwan’s latest book, an amusing contemporary romance about cyclists, new Western reads, glamorous historic true crime, and a historical romance audiobook set in the American West.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Jamaican Fiction, Historical Fiction, Social Satire, Funny Romances, Outlaws, and Midwives”Walk a Mile in My Shoes: November
This year, our theme is “Walk A Mile In My Shoes.” The idea that you can’t understand someone (and shouldn’t judge them) until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes is a pretty common sentiment. And research has shown that reading fiction is one way to really get such a walk going. So, that’s what we are going to do this year: use fiction (and some nonfiction when we just can’t resist) to take walks in someone’s shoes. We hope you join our journey. For November, our theme is self-empathy, particularly telling your own story.
Continue reading “Walk a Mile in My Shoes: November”R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface
Junie Hayward lives in the genteel poverty one might expect from a struggling professional writer. On one hand, she’s had some professional success in that she’s had a book traditionally published. On the other hand, the book didn’t sell very well, her agent and editors are indifferent to her, and she really pays the bills through a glorified tutoring job.
Her Yale classmate Athena Liu, meanwhile, is the literary establishment’s new darling. She’s wracking up an impressive reputation as a young author of note–her books are received with widespread critical acclaim, and she gets publicity that Junie couldn’t even begin to dream of. Junie resents Athena, but they also are each other’s only friend/frenemy in the DC area, so they still find themselves hanging out together–awkwardly and passive-aggressively–but hanging out together all the same.
Then one horrible night, Athena dies by accident, and Junie ends up impulsively stealing the latest manuscript from her dead “friend” and passing it off as her own. Junie knows what she’s doing is wrong, but in her mind, she’s honoring Athena’s legacy while also affirming her own greatness at writing since she revised it. The book, about Chinese laborers in Europe during WWI, is a big hit.
But as Junie experiences the fame and acclaim she so envied Athena over, she realizes it comes at a price. And to protect her initial lie, she has to craft even more lies, as Junie does everything from ambiguously cultivate the idea she’s Chinese American like Athena to spinning more made-up stories about her inspiration for the story. What should be a happy moment and the crowning achievement of her career quickly descends into paranoia that she will be caught.
Continue reading “R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface”Book Buzz: Pack Horse Librarians (Again), Poison Gardens, Hippo Mysteries, and Problem Wildlife
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For December, we’re looking at historical fiction about Kentucky pack horse libraries during the Great Depression, a fantasy about a green thumb and deadly plants, a comedic children’s mystery, and Mary Roach’s latest nonfiction romp.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Pack Horse Librarians (Again), Poison Gardens, Hippo Mysteries, and Problem Wildlife”Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona
Sir Ballister Blackheart is the resident villain. And like all resident villains, he has a backstory that totally explains how he went from a promising knight in training to a mad scientist. And like all resident villains, he often finds his brilliant plans foiled by the resident hero, Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin.
That is, until the mysterious Nimona shows up. Nimona is a shapeshifter and an agent of chaos who dramatically increases Blackheart’s effectiveness while also ramping up the destruction factor. As Nimona and Blackheart tag-team to defeat his archnemesis, the shadowy Institution that runs everything, it soon becomes clear that they might not be the most villainous characters in the land after all. . . .
Your Library Card, Your Ticket To The World: Alaska
Our library theme for 2020 is Your Library Card, Your Ticket to the World–because with the library, you truly can travel around the world without ever leaving the comfort of your own home. Every month in 2020, we’ll be landing at a new place on the globe, but we’re starting off in Alaska.
The rugged beauty of Alaska has long inspired writers (and readers!), so it is not surprising how many books set in Alaska are in our system. And there’s a little something for every reader, regardless of preferred genre.
Continue reading “Your Library Card, Your Ticket To The World: Alaska”
Maria Parr’s Adventures with Waffles
Keeping to the theme of going back to school, here’s a review of a book meant for those still having to find their desks quickly once that bell rings!
For the most part, nine year-old Trille has an idyllic childhood in rural Norway. His life is a series of never-ending adventures with his neighbor and best friend Lena. She’s far more daring and impulsive, but that doesn’t stop Trille from joining in on the fun. From snarfing down waffles to pretending to be spies to using, ahem, creative license in crafting a bonfire decoration to sledding with a chicken, they never lack for a good time. Trille can’t imagine life without Lena causing mayhem and mischief at every turn. Still, Trille harbors a disheartening suspicion that Lena is far more indifferent to him. She is his best friend, but is he her best friend?
Jasper Fforde’s The Last Dragonslayer
Dreams of bigger, better worlds don’t have to be so great that you can’t have a little bit of fun. Enter Jasper Fforde’s The Last Dragonslayer.
Jennifer Strange has her hands full overseeing a talent management company for magicians. Even when the fifteen-year-old orphan isn’t fulfilling her apprenticeship in magical management by booking wizards for plumbing jobs and magic carpet riders for food delivery, as well as soothing ruffled egos, there’s also the whole issue of magical energy becoming weaker. Strange herself doesn’t have much power, but even her once skillful clients are feeling the effects. What happens if magic runs out? How are they going to keep a roof over their heads? Where did her boss disappear to months ago when he didn’t come back home? And on top of that, there are rumors that the Last Dragonslayer is supposed to kill the last dragon in a few days. Complications ensue.
Berryville Book Buzz 