Tuesday, November 30, 2021
Poet Warrior
Monday, November 22, 2021
Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven
Friday, November 19, 2021
Fade Out
By Nova Ren Suma
Simon & Schuster, 2009. 272 pages. YA Fiction.
By Deb Caletti
Atheneum, 2021. 375 pages. YA Fiction.
Charlotte's dream of a summer writing workshop in Venice with her favorite author brings the chance to investigate the mysterious poet in her family's past, meet fascinating new people, and learn truths about her idol.
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
Creepy Cat Volume 1
The Body: A Guide for Occupants
By Bill Bryson
Doubleday Book, 2019. 450 pages. Nonfiction
This book walks the reader through each system in the human body, noting how it functions and recounting short histories of how discoveries were made in that particular area. Bryson is well-known for taking nonfiction subjects and making them both understandable and entertaining, and this book didn't disappoint, in fact it might be one of his best.
Some aspects of anatomy, biology, and medicine can be dry or difficult to understand, but Bryson successfully repackages them into basic but compelling understandings of how the human body works and how many medical breakthroughs have been discovered. One gains a deeper appreciation of our amazing bodies while reading, as well as a deeper desire to care for them as they care so well for us, to ensure we have a little more time with them comfortably while we are here on this earth.
BHG
If you liked The Body: A Guide for Occupants, you might also like:
Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary CanalBy Mary Roach
Norton & Company, 2013. 336 pages. Nonfiction
The humor scientist behind Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife takes a tour of the human digestive system, explaining why the stomach doesn't digest itself and whether constipation can kill you.
By Dean Burnett
Norton & Company, 2016. 336 pages. Nonfiction
A delightful tour of our mysterious, mischievous gray matter from
neuroscientist and massively popular Guardian blogger Dean Burnett.
Monday, November 15, 2021
Beyond the Mapped Stars
By Rosalyn Eves
Alfred A Knopf, 2021. 371 pages. Young Adult Fiction
Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Bertelsen dreams of becoming an astronomer, but those dreams feel as far away as the stars she so deeply adores. When she unexpectedly finds herself in Colorado, she's tempted by the total eclipse of the sun that's about to happen--and maybe even meeting up with the female scientists she's long admired. Elizabeth must learn to navigate this new world of possibility: with her familial duties and faith tugging at her heartstrings, a new romance on the horizon, and the study of the night sky calling to her, she can't possibly have it all ... can she?
I really enjoyed this book. It’s a richly detailed story about Elizabeth’s struggles to follow dreams that were rarely realized by women like her in 1878. She has been raised with very set views of what a woman’s roles are, and her desire to study astronomy challenges those preconceptions head-on. Can she pursue the sciences while also being true to her faith? Does she have to give up being a wife and mother like so many other female scientists? Elizabeth’s story will inspire and serve as a reminder to follow your dreams.
If you liked Beyond the Mapped Stars, you might also like:
Under a Painted SkyBy Stacey Lee
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2015. 374 pages. Young Adult Fiction
In 1845, Sammy, a Chinese American girl, and Annamae, an African American slave girl, disguise themselves as boys and travel on the Oregon Trail to California from Missouri.
The ShakeressBy Kimberley Burton Heuston
Front Street, 2002. 207 pages. Young Adult Fiction
While searching for her true self and for the way to meet the needs of her personal sense of spirituality, an orphaned teenaged girl joins a Shaker community in mid-nineteenth century New England and learns about a new religion called Mormonism.
ACS
Friday, November 12, 2021
Tokyo Ever After
By Emiko Jean
Flatiron Books, 2021. 322 pages. Young Adult Fiction
After learning that her father is the Crown Prince of Japan, Izumi travels to Tokyo, where she discovers that Japanese imperial life--complete with designer clothes, court intrigue, paparazzi scandals, and a forbidden romance with her handsome but stoic bodyguard--is a tough fit for the outspoken and irreverent 18-year-old from northern California.
This book was incredibly hard for me to put down. I loved it! Izumi has a hard time feeling like she fits in anywhere. Her Japanese ancestry makes her stand out from others in her small town of Mount Shasta, and when she travels to Japan she stands out because she doesn’t know the language or much of the culture. Despite trying to meet the expectations of those around her, it’s not until she accepts her own uniqueness that she’s really able to flourish.
While the plot doesn’t break new ground in the YA romance genre, it was still charming and I loved the setting. First in a planned series, I will definitely be looking for #2 when it comes out next year.
If you liked Tokyo Ever After, you might also like:
The Princess DiariesBy Meg Cabot
Harper Avon, 2000. 238 pages. Young Adult Fiction
Fourteen-year-old Mia, who is trying to lead a normal life as a teenage girl in New York City, is shocked to learn that her father is the Prince of Genovia, a small European principality, and that she is a princess and the heir to the throne.
American PandaBy Gloria Chao
Simon Pulse, 2018. 310 pages. Young Adult Fiction
A freshman at MIT, 17-year-old Mei Lu tries to live up to her Taiwanese parents' expectations, but no amount of tradition, obligation, or guilt prevent her from hiding several truths--that she is a germaphobe who cannot become a doctor, she prefers dancing to biology, she decides to reconnect with her estranged older brother, and she is dating a Japanese boy.
ACS
Aetherbound
Aetherbound
by E.K. Johnston
Dutton Books, 2021. 244 pages. Young Adult Fiction.
After escaping her abusive family's interstellar merchant ship,
seventeen-year-old Pendt lands on a remote space station run by the Brannick
twins, and together they make plans to thwart the destinies they never wanted.
Johnston packs a lot of world building into a really small space with this book. Each thread of point of view adds to the history of the Pendt’s galaxy, like the brutality of long spacer missions and the unfair gene manipulation of the Staevenger Empire. The characterization is solid; each character shows growth as Johnston reveals facets of their personalities. The story is fast paced and compelling; it will keep you thinking long after you have finished the book.
If you liked Aetherbound you might also like:
Aurora Rising
by Amie Kaufman
Alfred A. Knopf, 2019. 470 pages. Young Adult Fiction
2380. The graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned
their first missions. Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams,
but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the
Academy would touch, from a sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting
her bunkmates to an alien warrior with anger management issues. But Ty's
biggest problem is Aurora Jie-Lin O'Malley, who he just rescued from interdimensional
space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time--
but she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the
making.
The Darkness Outside of Us
by Eliot Schrefer
Katherine Teegan Books, 2021. 397 pages. Young Adult
Fiction.
Two boys, alone in space. Sworn enemies sent on the same
rescue mission. Ambrose wakes up on the Coordinated Endeavor with no memory of
a launch. There's more that doesn't add up: evidence indicates strangers have
been on board, the ship's operating system is voiced by his mother, and his
handsome, brooding shipmate has barricaded himself away. But nothing will stop
Ambrose from making his mission succeed--not when he's rescuing his own sister.
In order to survive the ship's secrets, Ambrose and Kodiak will need to work
together and learn to trust each other . . . especially once they discover what
they are truly up against.
AGP
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Monday, November 8, 2021
The Dark Net: Inside the Digital Underworld
By Jamie Bartlett
Melville House, 2015. 320 pages. Nonfiction
Beyond the familiar online world that most of us inhabit — a world of Google, Facebook, and Twitter — lies a vast and often hidden network of sites, communities, and cultures where freedom is pushed to its limits, and where people can be anyone, or do anything, they want. This is the world of Bitcoin and Silk Road, of radicalism and pornography. This is the Dark Net. In this important and revealing book, Jamie Bartlett takes us deep into the digital underworld and presents an extraordinary look at the internet we don't know.
This is honestly a hard book to read at times. While some aspects of the Dark Net can be liberating, it's hard to read how people's worst instincts and inclinations can be manifested as well. And yet, there is something to be said for being aware of what is happening in "the Dark Net." If we live in ignorance of it, we risk never being equipped to deal with how it can impact our lives offline. A challenging but thought-provoking read.
BHG
If you liked The Dark Net you might also like:
By Kevin Mitnick with Robert Vamosi
Little, Brown and Company, 2017. 320 pages. Nonfiction
A world-famous hacker reveals unsettling truths about information vulnerability while outlining affordable online and offline strategies for maximizing privacy and computer security.
Future Crimes: Everything is Connected, Everyone is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
By Marc Goodman
Doubleday, 2015. 392 pages. Nonfiction
An FBI futurist and senior advisor to Interpol analyzes the digital underground to reveal the alarming ways criminals, corporations and countries are using emerging technologies to target individuals and wage war.
Thursday, November 4, 2021
Rakes and Roses
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Hunt, Gather, Parent
by Michaeleen Doucleff
The oldest cultures in the world have mastered the art of raising happy, well-adjusted children, so why don't these cultures have the same problems with children that Western parents do?
By breaking down the bias surrounding current "common sense" parenting practices in the United States, as well as the recent history of the majority of these suggestions, Hunt, Gather, Parent provides a wealth of perspectives and comprehensive research about how we relate to our children and actionable methods that can be applied immediately. Easy to read with a wealth of information, I definitely recommend this book for parents looking for more cross-cultural information, as well as readers of anthropology and family science.
If you liked Hunt, Gather, Parent, then you may also like:
Most modern parents work. We are seldom at our best at the end of a long working day when the parenting shift kicks in. This book suggests ways to tune in to the needs of our children and families by focusing on the quality of time (not the quantity) needed to cultivate better family wellbeing. Written by an expert in child development, the book walks you through strategies for maximizing what time you have with your family to best meet your family's needs.
Do Parents Matter?: Why Japanese Babies Sleep Well, Mexican Siblings Don't Fight, and American Parents Should Just Relax
by Robert A. LeVine
When we're immersed in news articles and scientific findings proclaiming the importance of some factor or other, we often miss the bigger picture: that parents can only affect their children so much. Robert and Sarah LeVine, married anthropologists at Harvard University, have spent their lives researching parenting across the globe-starting with a trip to visit the Hausa people of Nigeria as newlyweds in 1969. Their decades of original research provide a new window onto the challenges of parenting and the ways that it is shaped by economic, cultural, and familial traditions. Their ability to put our modern struggles into global and historical perspective should calm many a nervous mother or father's nerves.
Monday, November 1, 2021
K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches
Más Allá del Invierno
Por Isabel Allende
Vintage Español, 2017. 749 páginas. Ficción
Isabel Allende parte de la célebre cita de Albert Camus -"en medio del invierno aprendí por fin que había en mí un verano invencible"- para urdir una trama que presenta la geografía humana de unos personajes propios de la América de hoy que se hallan "en el más profundo invierno de sus vidas": una chilena, una joven guatemalteca indocumentada y un maduro norteamericano. Los tres sobreviven a un terrible temporal de nieve que cae en pleno invierno sobre Nueva York y acaban aprendiendo que más allá del invierno hay sitio para el amor inesperado y para el verano invencible que siempre ofrece la vida cuando menos se espera.
1989. La sociedad salvadoreña vive sumida en el horror de la Guerra Civil. Una fatídica madrugada de noviembre, un grupo de hombres armados entra en las instalaciones de la Universidad Católica y asesina a seis jesuitas y dos mujeres a sangre fría. El padre Tojeira se ve entonces obligado por las circunstancias a tomar las riendas de la Compañía en esos días siniestros tras la masacre, con el deseo y la obligación de descubrir la verdad que se esconde detrás de estas muertes. Sin embargo, la única testigo que podría ayudar a resolver el caso es acallada por las autoridades.
Starr es una chica de dieciséis años que vive entre dos mundos: el barrio pobre de gente negra donde nació, y su escuela situada en un elegante barrio residencial blanco. El difícil equilibrio entre ambos se hace añicos cuando ella es testigo de la muerte a tiros de su mejor amigo, Khalil, a manos de un policía. A partir de ese momento, todo lo que Starr diga acerca de la aterradora noche que cambió su vida podrá ser usado de excusa por unos y como arma por otros. Y lo peor de todo es que, tanto los de un lado como los de otro, la tienen en el punto de mira y amenazan con poner en riesgo su vida.
MEB