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 October, our theme is domestic violence.
Continue reading “Walk a Mile in My Shoes: October”Category: Book Review
Book Buzz: Librarians, 19th Century and Medieval Historical Fiction, Ancient Romans, and Bandit Bios
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For September, we’re looking at historical fiction that covers everything from WWII-era librarians to the Sioux Wars to a famous figure from medieval literature, as well as nonfiction about ancient Rome and a profile of stagecoach robber Black Bart.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Librarians, 19th Century and Medieval Historical Fiction, Ancient Romans, and Bandit Bios”Walk a Mile in My Shoes: September
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 September, our theme is addiction.
Continue reading “Walk a Mile in My Shoes: September”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: Historical Fiction Galore, Nordic Noir, Romance with a DNA Twist, Audiobook Suspense, and Small Arkansas Libraries
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For August, we’re looking at historical fiction that ranges from interwar England to 1930s New Jersey to 16th century China, a new Nordic Noir series, a cute romance that hinges on DNA, an eerie audiobook about summer in Long Island, and a nonfiction profile of Arkansas libraries that highlights a couple of our sister branches.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Historical Fiction Galore, Nordic Noir, Romance with a DNA Twist, Audiobook Suspense, and Small Arkansas Libraries”Violet Jessop’s Titanic Survivor
I usually try to profile new-ish releases when I review books, movies, or TV shows here, but I found this 25-year-old memoir so compelling that I decided to make an exception for it.
Continue reading “Violet Jessop’s Titanic Survivor”Book Buzz: Book Codes, Mysterious Happenings, Haunted Crows, Environmental Disasters, Garden Composts, Awkward Vacations, and Audiobook Romances
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For July, we’re looking at a puzzle-style mystery about books and codes, a gothic mystery set in the Victorian era, a contemporary Canadian literary horror novel, a nonfiction story about an infamous environmental disaster in the 1970s, a guide to composting, and audiobooks about romances.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Book Codes, Mysterious Happenings, Haunted Crows, Environmental Disasters, Garden Composts, Awkward Vacations, and Audiobook Romances”Walk a Mile In My Shoes: July
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 July, our theme is disability.
Continue reading “Walk a Mile In My Shoes: July”David Grann’s The Wager
In 1740, when British Commodore George Anson finally set sail with his squadron of ships that were charged with disrupting Spanish maritime trade in the Pacific, many of his men were relieved to be at sea after an inauspicious and trouble-ridden start to the expedition. The numerous sick and recalcitrant sailors who’d been press-ganged into service on the ships were less than thrilled, but none of them could have expected the sheer cascade of bad fortune that would befall one ship in particular–the HMS Wager.
Continue reading “David Grann’s The Wager”Book Buzz: Canadian Indigenous Fiction, Pirates, Cairo, Poetry, Investigative Journalism, and Agatha Christie Classics
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For June, we’re looking at a novel about residential school survivors, a new fantasy series that melds history with pirates and magic, a fantastical graphic novel about modern Egypt, an anthology of poems, a new look at a tragic crime, and an audiobook of an old favorite.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Canadian Indigenous Fiction, Pirates, Cairo, Poetry, Investigative Journalism, and Agatha Christie Classics”
Berryville Book Buzz 