Seriously, “The Déjà Glitch” is probably the most delightful book I have read or will read this year! I loved Holly James’ writing style and found the story of Jack and Gemma’s journey out of a time loop to scratch every specific itch I have in a sweet magical realism romance!
Gemma is very relatable and lovable. I deeply understood her family issues and the lack of confidence that would naturally accompany said issues. Jack is the perfect lovesick dream boy. They are both saving each other here and the desperate collision of hearts through time and space is palpable right off the page. The scientific explanation of what is going on within the “glitch” is nothing short of poetry. I highlighted the heck out of the professor’s explanation!
I mostly want to praise the pacing of this book. Just from the little I knew before starting it, I was worried about a painful repetition of days, but the author did a wonderful job of keeping it fresh every step of the way. I genuinely enjoyed reading every page and felt a bit bereft for it to end. I highly recommend this book to those in search of wonder, heart explosions and a chance at being rescued from the mundane linear timeline we could all use a break from!
Three words that describe this book: Romantic, comedy, time loop
You might want to pick this book up if: You enjoy rom-coms and magical realism.
-Anonymous
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share reviews throughout the year.
Learn to make a beautiful luminaria with an intricate mandala design. No previous experience necessary to create some lovely ambiance for the upcoming fall nights. We will be using autumn-colored constructions paper, an awl and your hands to punch designs into paper. All materials provided, including lights to take home. This program is for adults, and we recommend that you register early as craft classes fill quickly.
For more ideas on fall crafts, check out these library resources. You can also explore CreativeBug, which is our database on arts and crafts activities. You can view tons of craft ideas with instructional videos and more are added monthly! You will need your library card and pin (your birthdate in MMDDYYYY format) to use this database.
Stay tuned for our November Crafternoon in our program guide, on our website and on social media! In the meantime, you can explore past Crafternoon crafts, too.
Ahead of the second annual Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, we’re reflecting on some of Le Guin’s works in a series of blog posts: Le Guin and Her Legacy.
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929 – 2018) was an author and poet who wrote science fiction and fantasy for adults and young adults. Her works garnered her six Nebula Awards, seven Hugo Awards, and many, many more accolades. 2023 marks the second annual Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction. The award is intended to recognize those writers Ursula spoke of in her 2014 National Book Awards speech — realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now. The Prize is given to a writer whose work reflects the concepts and ideas that were central to Ursula’s own work, including but not limited to: hope, equity, and freedom; non-violence and alternatives to conflict; and a holistic view of humanity’s place in the natural world. Continue reading “Le Guin and Her Legacy: Seasons of the Ansarac”
Alice Lindstedt is an amateur filmmaker who’s taking on a passion project about the village of Silvertjarn, a lost village where every single member mysteriously disappeared without a trace in the ’50s save for one woman who had been stoned in the town square. Alice’s grandmother had grown up in the village and told her stories of it growing up — this made Alice want to uncover the mystery. She rounds up a small crew with money from her Kickstarter backers and they drive out to scout out filming locations and get shots for the documentary trailer. Weird things immediately begin to happen and the group quickly realizes there may be a greater force at work in the village. The book bounces between present day and the 1950s, right before the disappearance took place with POVs from Alice in the present and Elsa, Alice’s great-grandmother, in the past. As Alice uncovers the secrets of Silvertjarn in the present day, Elsa explains how everything came to be in the past.
I loved the atmosphere of “The Lost Village” and it made me feel as if I was isolated from civilization with the rest of the characters — the village is creepy and unsettling to say the least. The twist at the end will have you at the edge of your seat. The climax was a little lackluster for me but it wasn’t enough for me to bump down a star in my four-star rating. It was still chilling and left me thinking about it for awhile afterward.
Three words that describe this book: Creepy, suspenseful, dark
You might want to pick this book up if: If you enjoy a good, atmospheric horror story with a dark subplot.
-Bailey
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share reviews throughout the year.
Here is a new DVD list highlighting various titles recently added to the library’s collection.
“Past Lives” – Website / Reviews
Two childhood sweethearts, after decades apart, are reunited for one fateful week in New York as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life in this dramatic modern romance.
“Poker Face” – Season 1 – Website / Reviews
A 10-episode mystery-of-the-week series following Natasha Lyonne’s “Charlie”, who has an ability to determine when someone is lying. She hits the road and encounters strange crimes she can’t help but solve.
“Spider-Man, Across the Spider-Verse” – Website / Reviews
In this animated film, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence.
“Air” – Website / Reviews
A dramatic film revealing the partnership between a then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division which revolutionized the world of sports and culture with the Air Jordan brand.
“Joyce Carol Oates: A Body in the Service of Mind” – Website / Reviews
In this documentary literary icon Joyce Carol Oates, author of more than 100 novels, provides rare insight into her life and creative process. Featuring readings by Oscar winner Laura Dern. Continue reading “New DVD List: October 2023”
As fans of the X-Files will remember, “The Truth Is Out There” was a catchphrase for the show. Recently, our government has become more interested in searching for the truth about the possibility of extraterrestrial life and UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena) or UFOs (unidentified flying objects.) Once thought of as largely a conspiracy theory, there has been more attention by Congress on observations reported by reputable professionals, such as military/commercial pilots and other individuals that have a more complex knowledge of what current technology can produce than, well, someone like me.
A recent hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability featured several testimonies from former military pilots with firsthand accounts of UAPs along with testimony from David Grusch, whistleblower and former Defense Department employee. Retired Navy commander David Fravor, the commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 41 in 2004, indicated the observation of an unrecognizable object by himself and his pilots that could rapidly descend from 80,000 to 20,000 feet and hover there for hours. There have been many visual sightings of different unexplained phenomena over the years, and part of the hearing discussed the difficulties with reporting these observations and repercussions for those that do.
Altogether it made very interesting listening, I have never thought a lot about this possibility (except during my children’s teen years). After listening to this thoughtful testimony by reputable professionals, my mind is open to some exploration, and I invite you to do the same. Continue reading “Literary Links: The Truth Is Out There”
When I saw that Box Brown was releasing a book focused on Andy Kaufman, the character that absolutely baffled me when I watched “Saturday Night Live” with my parents growing up, I could not have been more excited. “Is This Guy For Real” did not disappoint. This biography of an avant-garde, easily unlikable, enigma of a performer pulls no punches. Brown doesn’t pretend his subject is perfect, but he also doesn’t let Kaufman fall into the easy label of “stupid weirdo” (I’m looking at you, “Man on the Moon” movie). This book presents Kaufman as what he was: a performer who would stop at nothing to grab the attention of his audience.
It was not lost on me that this novel allowed Brown to return to the world of wrestling in the early days, a venue he was already intimately familiar with from his previous biography on “Andre the Giant,” where the lines between persona and life blurred all too easily. I think it was this knowledge and awareness of kayfabe that allowed Brown to truly reach for the reality of Kaufman’s life rather than falling for the trappings of who he was on TV.
Three words that describe this book: Unique, Honest, Beautiful
You might want to pick this book up if: You’ve ever had questions about the strange man you saw on “SNL.”
-Vera
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share reviews throughout the year.
“Everything’s Still There” is a beautiful and brutal book that deals with all of the unique pressures that come with being a new mom in the modern era: social media “momfluencers,” mom-shaming, and the continued pressure to ignore post-partum depression. All of this is juxtaposed with insight from a flawed mother recounting raising her children 50 years ago. It also deals beautifully with friendship between women, and the lengths people will go to in order to deal with grief and pretend everything is okay. I found myself unable to put this one down, but sobbing through certain passages.
Three words that describe this book: Heart-breaking, startling, beautiful
You might want to pick this book up if: You like books that explore the dynamics of interpersonal relationships, particularly between women.
-Erin
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share reviews throughout the year.
Below I’m highlighting some nonfiction books coming out in October. All of the mentioned titles are available to put on hold in our catalog and will also be made available via the library’s Overdrive website on the day of publication in eBook and downloadable audiobook format (as available). For a more extensive list of new nonfiction books coming out this month, check our online catalog.
Top Picks
“The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA” by Liza Mundy (Oct 17)
Created in the aftermath of World War II, the Central Intelligence Agency relied on women even as it attempted to channel their talents and keep them down. Women sent cables, made dead drops, and maintained the agency’s secrets. Despite discrimination — even because of it — women who started as clerks, secretaries or unpaid spouses rose to become some of the CIA’s shrewdest operatives. They were unlikely spies — and that’s exactly what made them perfect for the role. Because women were seen as unimportant, pioneering female intelligence officers moved unnoticed around Bonn, Geneva and Moscow, stealing secrets from under the noses of their KGB adversaries. Back at headquarters, women built the CIA’s critical archives — first by hand, then by computer. And they noticed things that the men at the top didn’t see. As the CIA faced an identity crisis after the Cold War, it was a close-knit network of female analysts who spotted the rising threat of al-Qaeda — though their warnings were repeatedly brushed aside. After the 9/11 attacks, more women joined the agency as a new job, targeter, came to prominence. They showed that data analysis would be crucial to the post-9/11 national security landscape — an effort that culminated spectacularly in the CIA’s successful effort to track down bin Laden in his Pakistani compound. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: October 2023”
“Love, it seems, arrives not only unannounced, but so accidentally, so randomly, as to make you wonder why you, why anyone, believes even fleetingly in laws of cause and effect.”
So writes Michael Cunningham in his 2014 novel “The Snow Queen.“ It is a gentle novel, the kind that builds slowly, in waves, rather than the kind that whisks you away. But there are moments like this one, observations about love and life that induce a powerful feeling of clarity and reflection, that give the story real weight.
We meet Barrett first, in his own moment of observation. To be more precise, what Barrett observes is a giant light in the sky hovering above Central Park one winter night. The light arrives at a good time — Barrett is recovering from the sudden termination of another relationship, and coping with a general feeling of floundering as an adult human living in the new millennium. The light seems to promise something, though he’s not sure what. At the very least, just bearing witness to such a thing makes him feel like there might be something special, something worth examining about his earthly experience after all. Continue reading “Staff Review: The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham”
