New Books, New Buzz

Our new book display shelves are filled with some titles that are creating quite the buzz with readers, libraries, bookstores, and literary prizes. I thought I'd introduce you to a sample of our latest buzz-worthy, accolade-earning books. 

Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina

A Newbery Medal winner follows middle school student Merci Suárez as she navigates mean girls at school and her grandfather's troubling new-found forgetfulness. This is a story about the importance of family and the stresses of being a teen. 

Against Memoir: Complaints, Confessions & Criticisms by Michelle Tea 

Winner of the 2019 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, Tea's collection of essays delves into art, music, Queer identity, and writing with humor, joy, pain, rage, and brilliance. 

Visionary Women: How Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters Changed our World by Andrea Barnet

Short-listed for the PEN/Bogard Weld Award for Biography, Barnet's book discusses how Carson, Jacobs, Goodall, and Waters broke with tradition within their professions and, as a result, radically transformed their fields of study. 

Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon 

Winner of the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Non-fiction, Laymon's work tackles difficult topics such as racial and sexual violence, poverty, addiction, and body image in the deep south. 

The Great Believers: A Novel by Rebecca Makkai

Makkai's novel is the winner of both the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the Stonewall Book Award's Barbara Gittings Literature Award. This novel follows the rise and impact of the AIDS crisis from the 1980s to the present day through the story of Yale Tishman and his friend's younger sister, Fiona. 

El Deafo by Cece Bell

After losing her hearing during a childhood illness, Cece goes to school with a bulky hearing aid that helps her hear the teacher. It's tough making friends when you're not always sure what everyone is saying and Cece feels left out and self-conscious. But she discovers that there are perks to her hearing aid and the microphone her teacher wears around her neck; she knows where her teacher is at all times! Cece transforms into "El Deafo" and becomes the hero of her study period class, warning her classmates just before the teacher returns so they can get back to their seats.

This moving autobiographical graphic novel is a fun read and gives hearing readers insight into what life is like for their deaf family and friends, in addition to exploring universal themes of childhood. Cece Bell's El Deafo is a 2015 Newberry Honor Book.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor and Park tells the story of two kids from two very different backgrounds who meet and fall in love. Eleanor is the new kid at school and Park takes pity on her, letting her sit next to him on the bus. From there they bond over comic books, music, and a mutual dislike for the popular kids at the back of the bus. As time goes on their bond grows stronger, but Park doesn't know what life is like for Eleanor when she gets off the bus each evening. Park returns to a loving and supportive home, but the opposite is true for Eleanor. Eleanor's mother is married to an abusive man and Eleanor and her siblings desperately try to avoid encountering their angry stepfather, becoming prisoners in their own home. 

Rowell's award winning young adult novel has been challenged in many libraries because it touches on topics of child abuse, domestic abuse, bullying, body image, race, sexuality, and includes profanity.

   

Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

John Howard Griffin's controversial Black Like Me was first published in 1961 and highlights Griffin's experiences with racial discrimination. Griffin, a white journalist, used medical treatments to darken his skin and journeyed throughout the segregated South. Written in epistolary style, the book chronicles his difficulties finding lodging, transportation, and hospitality as he travels throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Black Like Me won the Anisfield-Wolf Award in 1962 for its contribution to understanding racism and cultural diversity. 

Dune by Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert's Dune is regarded as the top science fiction novel of all time by many and boasts winning both the Hugo and Nebula awards. This book is a must-read for anyone who considers themselves a fan of science fiction.

Thousands of years in the future, mankind has evolved passed the need for computers and has conquered most of the universe. A hierarchy a noble families and corporations control planets and travel. Paul Atreides is a young man when his father, Duke Leto is assigned to govern the planet of Arrakis, also called Dune. It's a desert planet filled with warring tribes of Fremen, dangerous sandworms, and the most valuable substance known to man, melange. Political gambits force Paul and his mother Jessica to seek refuge with the barbaric Fremen and they're shocked to discover that the Fremen have been expecting them. They believe he and his mother are the ones their prophesies have spoken of. Paul and his mother must prove themselves to the Fremen so they can regain control of the planet, but is Paul really the messiah they've been waiting for?

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman is a Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel that tackles a big subject; the Holocaust. Spiegelman interviews his father Vladek Spiegelman and illustrates his history as a Jew during World War II. 

Artie's relationship with Vladek is strained, especially since his mother's suicide. Vladek is now an old man with a new wife, who he can't stand. He requires more attention that Artie is willing to give, but they do find one way to bond. Artie wants to hear about Vladek's experience in Auschwitz and create a graphic novel based on his father's life. Vladek begins his story with how he met and fell in love with Artie's mother Anja. She came from a wealthy family and with her family's support, Vladek became a successful businessman. His standing in the community didn't protect him when the Nazis started moving Jews to ghettos and later concentration camps, but his connections and savvy helped him survive in deplorable conditions.Vladek triumphantly tells the story of one man fighting to survive and succeeding, but the tragedy of the Holocaust overshadows his victories and colors his life after Auschwitz and his relationship with his family.

Vladek's story is heartbreaking and the graphic novel format gives readers a more intimate glimpse of what life like, while creating a comfortable distance with the use of mice and other creatures to represent different peoples affected by the Nazi's rise to power.

American Vampire by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, and Stephen King

American Vampire by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, and Stephen King won the 2011 Eisner Award for Best New Series and has graced the New York Times bestseller list. 

Volume one tells the stories of Skinner Sweet and Pearl Jones; the first vampires born on American soil. Sweet is a notorious outlaw in 1880 Colorado, recently captured by the Pinkerton Agency. During transport, his gang devises an accident and Skinner is able to escape from the wreckage. A bloody battle ensues between the outlaws and the detectives, ending with Sweet laying dead on the plains. No one expects that he'll become one of the undead.

A single drop of a vampire's blood in his system was all it took for Sweet to be reborn as one of the undead, but he's not like the Old World vampires. For one, he can walk in the daylight. The European vampires are baffled by him and hope that the local gunmen will be able to finish him, but no one can believe what Sweet can survive. He's been waiting in the shadows, waiting for revenge but is forced to act in 1925 when he meets Pearl Jones. 

Pearl is an aspiring actress, but she'll never have her chance at Hollywood stardom. The Old World vampires take advantage of her ambition and she's brutally murdered. But before she dies, Sweet pays her a visit. He leaves her on her own to learn what she is and to take revenge. Afterwards, Pearl thinks she may just get her happily ever after, but Sweet has bigger plans for her and their future together...

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

Intrigued by the ethics and motivations of modern politicos? Then Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, All the King's Men, is a must read.

Willie Stark just wanted to build a schoolhouse. As Treasurer, he fought to hire the best guy at the best price for the job, but his sincerity gets him voted out of office by the political machine. Discouraged, Willie returns to work his family farm. Unfortunately, Fate has a vindictive streak. After a tragic accident at the school, lives are lost and the electorate remembers that Willie spoke out against the builder. People start to believe that God is on Willie's side and Willie starts to believe it himself when he's selected to run in the state-wide elections for governor by Tiny Duffy.

Reporter Jack Burden follows him on his political campaign and is a first hand witness to Willie's unraveling when someone clues him into the fact that he is again being used as a pawn in a political game. But this time Willie doesn't go back to his farm. He decides he's going to play the game and he's going to win.

Canada by Richard Ford

Dell Parsons leads an uneventful life. That is, until his parents decide to rob a bank. His parents are the unlikeliest of criminals, but Dell and his twin sister Berner never doubt that they're guilty. After their parents are taken away to prison, Dell and Berner are left to fend for themselves. Berner makes plans to run away with neighborhood hot shot, Rudy, but ends up making her way to California alone. Dell obeys their mother's command and waits. Eventually, he's whisked off by a family friend to Canada and taken in by Arthur Remlinger. Remlinger owns a hotel in the desolate Candadian town of Fort Royal. Dell is forced to fend for himself, living in a run down shack and helping host the hotel guests who've come to shoot wild geese. He's lonely and frightened, but is content when Remlinger begins to pay him attention. But his contentment doesn't last long. Remlinger wants something from him. Something Dell doesn't want to find out about. Will he be courageous like his sister Berner and strike out on his own? Or will he stick to his mother's plan no matter the consequences?

Canada by Richard Ford won the 2013 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in fiction.