Happy February, dear lovers of books! This month in addition to our usual list of books and films, we have added a few words from our catalog about each title. Enjoy – and remember, they are all available from our collection.
Sherlene
- Table 19 – film
“Ex-maid of honor Eloise, after being unceremoniously dumped by the best man via text, decides to hold her head up high and attend her oldest friend’s wedding anyway. She finds herself seated at the ‘random’ table in the back of the ballroom with a disparate group of strangers.” - Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story – film
“What do the most ravishingly beautiful actress of the 1930s and ’40s and the inventor whose concepts were the basis of cell phone and Bluetooth technology have in common? They are both Hedy Lamarr, the glamour icon whose ravishing visage was the inspiration for Snow White and Cat Woman and a technological trailblazer who perfected a radio system to throw Nazi torpedoes off course during WWII.” - All is True – film
Kenneth Branaugh brings magic to “a biopic of legendary playwright William Shakespeare during his final years.” - The Tomorrow Man – film
“A budding romance between two retirees, a conspiracy theorist and a hoarder.” - The Red Shoes – film
“A Hans Christian Andersen’s tragic fairy tale forms the basis of this film about betrayal, love and art.”
- Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
“An emotionally resonant, fiercely imaginative new novel about a family whose road trip across America collides with an immigration crisis at the southwestern border–an indelible journey told with breathtaking imagery, spare lyricism, and profound humanity.” - My Sister, the serial killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
“A short, darkly funny, hand grenade of a novel about a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends.”
Katie
- Everest by Sangma Francis
Kids non-fiction picture book
“Stunning nonfiction picture book – a compendium of facts about the world’s highest mountain.” - Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self Love by Jonathan Van Ness
Memoir. “A laugh-and-cry-out-loud memoir from the beloved star of Netflix’s Queer Eye.”
Diana T
The Brain: The story of you by David Eagleman
“A journey into the questions at the mysterious heart of our existence. What is reality? Who are “you”? How do you make decisions? Why does your brain need other people? How is technology poised to change what it means to be human?”
Scott
- Our Better Angels by Jonathan Reckford
Nonfiction. “Jonathan Reckford, the CEO of Habitat for Humanity, has seen time and again the powerful benefits that arise when people from all walks of life work together to help one another.” - Rabbits for Food by Binnie Kirshenbaum
Novel. “A brilliant and brutally funny dive into the disordered mind of a woman who sees the world all too clearly.” - One Long River of Song by Brian Doyle
Doyle’s “essays manage to find, again and again, exquisite beauty in the quotidian, whether it’s the awe of a child the first time she hears a river, or a husband’s whiskers that a grieving widow misses seeing in her sink every morning.”
Gail
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummings
Very controversial novel about immigration – and – Oprah’s book club selection.
Many have hailed it as extraordinary, and others have labeled it as written through a racist lens.