Here is a new DVD list highlighting various titles recently added to the library’s collection.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Website / Reviews
Evelyn Wang, a flustered immigrant mother, is contacted from a parallel universe and told that only she can save the world. The unlikely hero must learn to channel her newfound powers and fight through the splintering timelines of the multiverse to save her home, her family, and herself in this big-hearted and irreverent adventure. Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert co-write and co-direct this adventure-comedy. Continue reading “New DVD List: Everything Everywhere All at Once & More”
Elaine Corum Strawn is a Columbia, MO author whose latest fiction book is “Kiddie & the Major.” The book is romantic historical fiction inspired by her real life grandparents, journalist and sports announcer Bill Corum and model socialite Kiddie Kolle. Readers can follow their ups and downs of dating, falling in love, getting married and growing together as they try to live their best lives in New York City during the decadent 1920’s. Elaine is a first grade teacher in Columbia Public Schools and is the founder of Off & Running Publications. She has written two nonfiction books, “Lessons Learned in a Primary Classroom” and “Going on a Bear Hunt.” Elaine was kind enough to take the time to be interviewed via email. Continue reading “Q&A With Elaine Strawn, Author of “Kiddie & the Major””
I met Tunde Oyeneyin while cycling on my Peloton bike and felt a strong connection with her workouts. She is authentic, strong, inspiring, compassionate, beautiful and caring. I picked up her book “Speak” because cycling is a lot like life — you experience ups and downs, highs and lows; it pushes you to your limits; you have good days and bad, but you are getting stronger from each lesson, on or off the bike. She leads with love and teaches with true grit. Her leadership comes from deep down in her Nigerian roots, her personal trauma, her love and losses in relationships, her hard work, and her passion for others.
Three words that describe this book: Love yourself first.
You might want to pick this book up if: You are in a rut in life, or your job, maybe school or a relationship. Do you want more for yourself? Have you experienced loss? Have you felt like you didn’t fit in or looked different from others, or were treated differently because of the color of your skin? Perhaps you’re looking to connect with Tunde on your Peloton?
-Roxanne
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. There is still time to submit your own book review here for a chance to have it featured on the Adults Blog.
“Raising Good Humans” was a fantastic book about parenting. As a mother of two young children, I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it included practical, tangible exercises and advice on how to move from reactive parenting to forms of gentle parenting to create win-win parenting situations. It presents ideas how we as parents can work alongside our children to aid them in nurturing emotions, investigating solutions to problems, and evaluating better problem solving methods when conflicts arise.
Three words that describe this book: Enlightening, practical, eye-opening
You might want to pick this book up if: You are a parent to young or adult children looking to build stronger relationships with your children.
-Anonymous
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. There is still time to submit your own book review here for a chance to have it featured on the Adults Blog.
The book “Chasing Science at Sea” is filled with the experiences of many, many scientists and researchers whose work brings them to the coast, the shorelines, the open seas, and underwater to coral reefs, ocean trenches and other fascinating places. In lay language, Prager helps to illuminate what these scientists are doing, and why science at sea matters to so many different fields within science. Their true stories are as gripping as any sea novel or movie. Some of the stories are funny, some are alarming, and they opened my eyes to how challenging it must be to work in these environments.
Three words that describe this book: Lively, surprising, humorous
You might want to pick this book up if: You are a Midwesterner (or anybody) wondering what it would be like to explore the oceans in real life.
-Lynn
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. Submit your own book review here for a chance to have it featured on the Adults Blog.
Here are a few of the most notable adult fiction debuts for August. These titles have all received positive reviews in library journals. For a longer list, please visit our catalog.
“Long Past Summer” by Noué Kirwan
Mikaela Marchand is living the polished life she always planned for: a successful New York lawyer, with a promotion in her sights and a devoted boyfriend by her side. She’s come a long way from the meek teen she was growing up in small town Georgia, but the memory of her adolescence isn’t far — in fact, it’s splashed across a massive billboard in Times Square. An old photograph of Mikaela and her former best friend, Julie, has landed on the cover of a high-profile fashion magazine advertised all over the city. And when Julie files a lawsuit, Mikaela is caught in the middle as defense lawyer for the magazine.
Not only will she have to face Julie for the first time in years, Mikaela’s forced to work closely with the photographer in question: the former love of her life — and Julie’s ex-husband — Cameron Murphy. Mikaela needs to win the case to get her promotion — and as a junior partner, she has no margin for error. But unresolved feelings still exist between Cam and Mikaela, and jealousy always made Julie play dirty … Continue reading “Debut Author Spotlight: August 2022”
“In the Wild Light” follows the story of two teens from east Tennessee who get the opportunity to attend a prestigious boarding school in Connecticut. Both have experienced trauma and neglect as children and struggle to adapt to the unfamiliar world of privilege at the school. However, they both find connection and purpose by leaning on each other and the friends they find there. I enjoyed the book because I identified with the guilt of leaving home, the culture shock of attending an affluent institution and the unexpected friendships with people from very different backgrounds. The book is beautifully written. Poetry is an important theme throughout, and the prose often reads like poetry.
Three words that describe this book: Challenging, emotional, beautiful
You might want to pick this book up if: You are looking for a challenging and beautiful coming-of-age story
-Jacob
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. Submit your own book review here for a chance to have it featured on the Adults Blog.
Below I’m highlighting some nonfiction books coming out in August. 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
“Acceptance: A Memoir” by Emi Nietfeld (Aug 2)
As a homeless teenager writing college essays in her ’92 Toyota Corolla, Emi Nietfeld was convinced that an elite school was the only path away from her dysfunctional childhood. But upward mobility required crafting the perfect resilience narrative, proving that she was an “overcomer,” made stronger by all that she had endured. The truth was far murkier. Emi’s mom was a charming hoarder who had her put on antipsychotics, but believed in her daughter’s brilliance — unlike the Minnesotan foster family who banned her “pornographic” art history flashcards (of Michelangelo’s David). Emi’s other parent’s departure from her life was tied up in a gender transition that few in the mid-2000s understood. Her own past was filled with facts that she needed to hide: mental health struggles, Adderall addiction and the unbecoming desperation of a teenager fending for herself. The obstacles Emi claimed she had transcended still defined her life; even though she would go on to graduate from Harvard and become a software engineer at Google, she found that success didn’t necessarily mean safety. Told with an incisive storyteller’s eye, this searing memoir exposes the cost of trading a troubled past for the promise of a bright future. Having experienced the American Dream firsthand, Emi speaks truth to the high cost of upward mobility, the hypocrisy of elite spaces, and the harsh standards set by societal ideals of grit and resilience. Candid and often harrowing, with a ribbon of dark humor, “Acceptance” is an electrifying read that challenges our ideas of what it means to overcome — and find contentment on your own terms. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: August 2022”
You don’t have to be a woman to be angry with the current state of…*gestures vaguely at everything* So, for every human looking to burn some feminine rage, have I got some recommendations for you: Continue reading “Rage Reading”
I see a lot of book covers in my work and I totally judge those books by their covers. I have a fondness for gothic mysteries. Give me a grim landscape with a tattered tree line and a huge spooky house and I’m going to pick up that book to take a second look. I hate legal mysteries and so skip right over books with gavels or the scales of justice. They say not to do that (whomever they happen to be), but I know I’m not alone. That’s why writers want bookstores to display their books facing out instead of stacked up by the spines, and it’s why you will see so many of our new books displayed so you can view the covers.
It’s still summer out there — so much heat and stickiness. Let’s take a look at some of the resources we have that can enhance your outdoor experience. We’ll start off by looking at some books with canoes or kayaks on the covers: these books could contain water travel, watery picnics, water explorations or miles and miles of shore to watch. Fiction books may have murders or romance. Nonfiction books may have personal stories about canoe trips, or they may be guide books to help you choose your next river. (Missouri has Missouri has 51,978 miles of river so lots of opportunity to cool off!) Continue reading “Summer Fun in the Sun!”
