Michelle is into sociolinguistics and anything local: history, authors, trees, or eats. You can usually find her haunting the Science section or humming in Cooking. She's almost, almost done earning her editing certification and thanks coworker/local author Troy for the awesome manuscript to help her get the rest of the way there. When not working at home on homework, she likes exploring the town and will always thank you lots for a hot cup of coffee and a good book recommendation.
Hernandez digs into her family’s story and investigates why medical staff in the United States are so unfamiliar with a disease easily identified and treated in Mexico and South America–and why migrant families in the US so often receive inadequate treatment, leaving us with skeletons in the family closet. Emotionally charged and extensively first-hand researched. Please learn about this deadly little creature!
I want to be a grandma or greaat-aunt like this one day :)
I love a good imagination story with moody illustrations! Also, who knew Dave Eggers was an excellent kids' book author too?
This book has saved my fig and hosta already!
I like how I can visually look up plants by picture at the front, and how it's full of quick, easy tips.
A plant life-saver for the total beginner!
A haunting, captivating, and very well written story following an eccentric and observant woman convinced that the strange deaths in her community are acts of revenge that Nature and the surrounding wood's animals take on disrespectful villagers. The villagers dismiss her as a "crazy old woman" but perhaps they should start taking her more seriously....
A lovely, lovely book with one of the best endings I've ever read.
The exceptionally practical title character may seem strange to the customers and coworkers around her, but you find that they have quirks and petty ways of their own in this sharp, funny, delightful slice of modern social commentary.
A genius retelling of Antigone set in the modern world, with modern issues that will make you feel the full impact of the original play. This novel is beautifully written, with deep and complicated relationships.
Rich and dark like a guilty pleasure! Three sisters that love and hate each other possess witchly gifts and are forced inot a bloody competition.
Blake deliciously balances perspectives so that you can see where the story's going but cannot stop it, and you don't know exactly how it will all turn out. Fantastically satisfying.
This smart cop-film parody had me laughing like a crazy person on the bus to work. A dry desk worker teams up with an annoying, witty supercomputer-hologram-like-being to basically save the world. Great for fans of Hot Fuzz or Red Dwarf.
This is my favorite book of poetry on our shelves, by a local writer matched so well with a local illustrator for a surreal but comforting brew.
Maya works the subtle anxieties of women with physical ailment, working the complex chemistry of a body and of surroundings. I drank up her earthy, smoky spells while healing from surgery myself.
Get a glass of your preferred summer beverage and take this treat to the patio. I loved her Zoom event, and this one is as funny and real as her first book!
I was hungry for something toothsome--this collection blew me away and hit the spot like a messy midnight fried egg sandwich. These stories grab you and bring you in close to the families, fears, yearnings of the characters in an unguarded way that might be afraid to let you know but will spill it anyway. Adroitly composed with complex emotion--this was an excellent release for the pent-up stress from the past months.
Expanding on the phrase, “Drop a girl in a body of water and let her find her depth”--this is an amazing story with full feelings. I had to take a long walk after reading it just to digest and let all the ideas inside swirl around in my head.
It follows Kirabo from girlhood to maturity and the women in her life who influenced her -- from the “witch” down the street, her step-mother, and her grandmother, to her village friends and city school friends -- all representing different traditional or modern points of view that challenged and stretched her to become a strong woman in historical Uganda full of civil unrest and growing feminist influence.
Warm and inspiring but still realistic. I will definitely be following this author in the future!
The author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House gives us the funny and fascinating science and scientists trying to bring back the beast. The best part--just why they’re doing it and how they convince the government to fund them. I won’t spoil it for you, but...Mammoths could save the world!
Here, friend. Be well.
I couldn’t believe this was her first go at graphic novels! Bui tells her family's immigration story in expressions of rusty brown that represent both the heartwarming and heartbreaking shades of her memory. I marveled how the color shows the blend of associations and intention--is it warm like spilt coffee, or broody like mud? Either way, it's as soft and deep as the fog of recollection.
This collection of short stories drops you in at different points in time and warps reality. Sometimes comic, sometimes edged in darkness, Joaquin examines colonial history, myth, modern Philippines and diaspora, and the dynamics between generations and space. Totally refreshing to read modern Philippine literature.
Girls are super scientists too! This series dips into the basics of the scientific process and the natural world with fun friends like neighborly monsters and a curious, lively cat! Perfect for grades 1-3.
For the travel, culture, and classic literature lover! Let’s critique prejudice, exoticism, and naive benevolence.
An Italian classic, this is the freaky, fantastic story of a mystery illness sweeping, howling, screaming through town. Part horror story, part social criticism in old-timey language. Good for fans of Camus, Lovecraft, Walpole.
Valente does a fantastic job creating colorful, delicious voices for scorned women sacrificed in order to further the storylines of popular superheroes. Feels like Chicago's "Cell Block Tango," and you can almost hear the noir-ish saxophone behind each story.
I was psyched when I heard about this collaboration between two of my favorite masters of dry humor in kids' lit. And it's a SUCCESS.
I really wish I could meet Niles in real life. He's kind of a mastermind who can make any scheme go down, with the suavity of James Bond and the quirks and optimism of Dr. Who.
A nervous inventor, thieving ragamuffins, a struggling actress, corrupt politicians, and a girl who has to navigate Stephenson's imaginative and complicated cyberpunk society. A story about education, resources, crime, class, privilege, and the power of books.
I love the balance of this story: Naomi pieces together her earliest childhood memories with her aging grandmother's fractured recollections. The author constructs her prose with amazing care and describes a Canadian countryside rich in symbolism and historical signifigance.
One of Ishiguro's earlier works and the one that made me read all the rest. Like his later novels, this book guides the reader through a worried but ordinary mind in extraordinary circumstances. An aging and pensive Japanese artist kneads his faulty memory to recollect and justify his life and decisions before and during WWII. Put some time aside to read this one slowly and well!
