Books, Movies, CDs

Beyond that, the sea

Laura Spence-Ash

FICTION Spence-Ash, Laura
Historical Fiction

"A sweeping, tenderhearted love story, Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash tells the story of two families living through World War II on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and the shy, irresistible young woman who will call them both her own. As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America. There, she'll live with another family for the duration of the war, where they hope she'll stay safe. Scared and angry, feeling lonely and displaced, Bea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys. Mr. and Mrs. G, and their sons William and Gerald, fold Bea seamlessly into their world. She becomes part of this lively family, learning their ways and their stories, adjusting to their affluent lifestyle. Bea grows close to both boys, one older and one younger, and fills in the gap between them. Before long, before she even realizes it, life with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than the quiet, spare life with her own parents back in England. As Bea comes into herself and relaxes into her new life-summers on the coast in Maine, new friends clamoring to hear about life across the sea-the girl she had been begins to fade away, until, abruptly, she is called home to London when the war ends. Desperate as she is not to leave this life behind, Bea dutifully retraces her trip across the Atlantic back to her new, old world. As she returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, never fully letting her go, and always pulling on her heart as she tries to move on and pursue love and a life of her own. As we follow Bea over time, navigating between her two worlds, Beyond That, the Sea emerges as a beautifully written, absorbing novel, full of grace and heartache, forgiveness and understanding, loss and love"--

I really found this novel captivating. Told from many different points of view, the novel centers on Beatrix, who is sent to the United States as part of a program to evacuate children from London during the Blitz. We hear from her parents as they wring their hands on sending her away, the family in Boston who take her in, and of course, Bea herself. Bea grows up in America, comes of age, and has hopes, triumphs, as well as disappointments. But she has to go back. This is one of those novels that you are unsure what the right course is: does she belong in London or in Boston? What does Bea want? This evacuation has consequences that reverberate through her life and the lives of her family, both paternal and found. -Anne M

The midnight news

Jo Baker

FICTION Baker Jo
Historical Fiction

"From the best-selling author of Longbourn, a gripping novel of one young woman's unraveling during the Blitz-a story of WWII intrigue, love, and danger. It is 1940 and bombs are falling on London. Watching from her attic window, Charlotte sees enemy planes flying in over the city and her neighbours' homes turning to rubble. Still grieving for her beloved brother who never returned from France, Charlotte has moved away from her overbearing father and built a new life for herself. She works as a typist for the Ministry of Information, rents a room in a ramshackle house, and shares gin and confidences with her best friend, Elena. Every day brings new scenes of devastation, and after each heartbreaking loss Charlotte comes to fear that something-or someone-else is responsible. Who is the shadow man that seems to be following her? Is her mind playing tricks? Her nerves increasingly frayed, she soon finds her very freedom under threat. . . Utterly riveting and hypnotic, The Midnight News is a love story, a war story, and an unforgettable journey into the fragile mind and fierce heart of an extraordinary young woman"--

I read a lot of fiction set during World War II. If you like historical fiction, the period is pretty unavoidable. I have never read anything quite like this take on the Blitz. Normally the Brits muddle through this experience in novels (stiff upper lip and all that). They go to work. They meet with friends. They put up their black out curtains. But Jo Baker tosses this narrative right out with this novel. Yes, the main character Charlotte goes to work, meets with friends, and puts up her black out curtains. But she experiences significant psychological distress. She isn't sleeping (who could when the neighborhood is bombed every night?). Her friends and neighbors are dying. And she isn't quite sure her ministry typing job is amounting to any help at all. She starts questioning a great deal and also believes she is being followed--catching the eye of her estranged family. Is it madness or is the Blitz covering for something menacing out there? -Anne M

How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future

Maria Ressa

OverDrive eBook
Technology, Memoir, Political, History

Introduction by Amal ClooneyFrom the recipient of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, an impassioned and inspiring memoir of a career spent holding power to account.Maria Ressa is one of the most renowned international journalists of our time. For decades, she challenged corruption and malfeasance in her native country, the Philippines, on its rocky path from an authoritarian state to a democracy. As a reporter from CNN, she transformed news coverage in her region, which led her in 2012 to create a new and innovative online news organization, Rappler. Harnessing the emerging power of social media, Rappler crowdsourced breaking news, found pivotal sources and tips, harnessed collective action for climate change, and helped increase voter knowledge and participation in elections.But by their fifth year of existence, Rappler had gone from being lauded for its ideas to being targeted by the new Philippine government, and made Ressa an enemy of her country's most powerful man: President Duterte. Still, she did not let up, tracking government seeded disinformation networks which spread lies to its own citizens laced with anger and hate. Hounded by the state and its allies using the legal system to silence her, accused of numerous crimes, and charged with cyberlibel for which she was found guilty, Ressa faces years in prison and thousands in fines.There is another adversary Ressa is battling. How to Stand Up to a Dictator is also the story of how the creep towards authoritarianism, in the Philippines and around the world, has been aided and abetted by the social media companies. Ressa exposes how they have allowed their platforms to spread a virus of lies that infect each of us, pitting us against one another, igniting, even creating, our fears, anger, and hate, and how this has accelerated the rise of authoritarians and dictators around the world. She maps a network of disinformation—a heinous web of cause and effect—that has netted the globe: from Duterte's drug wars to America's Capitol Hill; Britain's Brexit to Russian and Chinese cyber-warfare; Facebook and Silicon Valley to our own clicks and votes.Democracy is fragile. How to Stand Up to a Dictator is an urgent cry for Western readers to recognize and understand the dangers to our freedoms before it is too late. It is a book for anyone who might take democracy for granted, written by someone who never would. And in telling her dramatic and turbulent and courageous story, Ressa forces readers to ask themselves the same question she and her colleagues ask every day: What are you willing to sacrifice for the truth?

An inspiring, fact-filled, and necessary read from 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, journalist and co-founder of the Philippines' leading digital media company Rappler. Ressa recounts interactions with Big Tech executives and politicians that will make you feel frustrated at tech companies' prioritization of money and "growth" over stopping the spread of disinformation and misinformation. Read this to learn more about how social media can define our thoughts, actions, and feelings and how to embrace and understand our intellectual freedoms before it's too late. -Annie

Traditional Wicca : a seeker's guide book cover

The postcard

Anne Berest

FICTION Berest Anne
Historical Fiction

"Anne Berest's The Postcard is among the most acclaimed and beloved French novels of recent years. Luminous and gripping to the very last page, it is an enthralling investigation into family secrets, a poignant tale of mothers and daughters, and a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life. January, 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest's maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques--all killed at Auschwitz. Fifteen years after the postcard is delivered, Anne, the heroine of this novel, is moved to discover who sent it and why. Aided by her chain-smoking mother, family members, friends, associates, a private detective, a graphologist, and many others, she embarks on a journey to discover the fate of the Rabinovitch family: their flight from Russia following the revolution, their journey to Latvia, Palestine, and Paris. What emerges is a moving saga of a family devastated by the Holocaust and partly restored through the power of storytelling that shatters long-held certainties about Anne's family, her country, and herself." --

To cut to the chase, I couldn't put this novel down. It is a research mystery about a family past, which I loved. It is also beautifully written. It is also a novel rooted in truth. There really was a postcard and it was really sent to Anne Berest's mother. And Anne Berest and her mother did conduct this family research. But the fictionalized elements fill in the gap of the history that was erased--the stories of Berest's great-grandparents and great aunt and uncle could not pass down. Their memories were extinguished at Auschwitz If you appreciate the role that novels play in showing you something, "The Postcard" is the novel that encapsulates the idea of inherited trauma. -Anne M

The enigma of Theresa Dolezal Feldwert and the Black Angel book cover

The mountain and the fathers: growing up on the Big Dry: a memoir book cover

Slow AF run club : the ultimate guide for anyone who wants to run book cover

The lost sons of Omaha : two young men in an American tragedy

Joe Sexton

364.1523 /Sexton
Nonfiction, Black Lives Matter, Biographies, History

"On May 30, 2020, in Omaha, Nebraska, amid the protests that rocked our nation after George Floyd's death at the hands of police, thirty-eight-year-old white bar owner and Marine veteran Jake Gardner fatally shot James Scurlock, a twenty-two-year-old Black protester and young father. What followed were two investigations of Scurlock's death, one conducted by the white district attorney Don Kleine, who concluded that Gardner had legally acted in self-defense and released without a trial, and a second grand jury inquiry conducted by African American special prosecutor Fred Franklin that indicted Gardner for manslaughter and demanded he face trial. Days after the indictment, Gardner killed himself with a single bullet to the head. The deaths of both Scurlock and Gardner gave rise to a toxic brew of misinformation, false claims, and competing political agendas. The two men, each with their own complicated backgrounds, were turned into grotesque caricatures. Between the heated debates and diatribes, these twin tragedies amounted to an ugly and heartbreaking reflection of a painfully divided country. Here, Joe Sexton masterfully unpacks the whole twisting, nearly unbelievable chronicle into a meticulously reported and nuanced account of the two deaths, explaining which claims were true and which distorted or simply false. The Lost Sons of Omaha carefully examines some of the most pressing issues facing America today, including our country's dire need for gun control and mental health reform; the dangerous spread of fake news, particularly on social media; and the urgent call to band together in the collective pursuit of truth, fairness, and healing"--

This is really an incredible book--the best long-form journalism I've read in a while. It's not just that the sentences are smooth, direct, and propel the story forward, it's the heart-wrenching story itself. And while technically a true crime narrative, this book goes deep into the histories of two men brought into conflict during a Black Lives Matter protest. Author Joe Sexton masterfully details the little things in these men's lives that made each of them human; a Lion King tattoo for one, war-induced PTSD for another. Both men lost their lives that night, one literally, and the tragedy extends by political factions using them as martyrs for their causes. Read this book to remember to scrutinize every "black and white" story on the internet. Given the divisiveness and tribalism of online political discourse, and the multiple lies we'll all be reading in the run-up to the 2024 election, I consider this a must-read book for the year. -Melody

The end of the world is just the beginning : mapping the collapse of globalization book cover

Unmask Alice : LSD, satanic panic, and the imposter behind the world's most notorious diaries book cover

Dances : a novel

Nicole Cuffy

FICTION Cuffy Nicole
Fiction

At twenty-two years old, Cece Cordell reaches the pinnacle of her career as a ballet dancer when she's promoted to principal at the New York City Ballet. She's instantly catapulted into celebrity, heralded for her inspirational role as the first Black ballerina in the famed company's history. Even as she celebrates the achievement of a lifelong dream, Cece remains haunted by the feeling that she doesn't belong. As she waits for some feeling of rightness that doesn't arrive, she begins to unravel the loose threads of her past: an absent father, a pragmatic mother who dismisses Cece's ambitions, and a missing older brother who stoked her childhood love of ballet but disappeared to deal with his own demons. Soon after her promotion, Cece is faced with a choice that has the potential to derail her career and shatter the life she's cultivated for herself, sending her on a pilgrimage to both find her brother and reclaim the parts of herself lost in the grinding machinery of the traditional ballet world.

Cece Cordell, newly promoted to principal dancer at the New York City Ballet, is facing history. She is the first Black ballerina for the company, knows she worked twice as hard as everyone else to get there, and is worried it isn’t enough. It is a lot of pressure—not to mention how incredibly difficult it is just to just be a professional ballet dancer. She also has to face her past, especially as a significant life decision might throw her off a course she has strived for her entire life. Dances is a novel that shows you the physical and psychological wear and tear of being an athlete. Nicole Cuffy shows you through the writing every muscle stretch and strain, every twitch, every sharp pain of Cece’s. All the reviews of this book comment on the physical nature of Cuffy’s writing in describing ballet steps and moves and they are right. It is stand out. However, Cuffy also successfully captures the minds relationship with the body. The control and inability to control. The thoughts of feeling not worthy, that you do not belong, and that you are being judged. It is a great read. -Anne M

Dating Dr. Dil

Nisha Sharma

Nisha Sharma's hilarious new romantic comedy inspired by The Taming of the Shrew features a love-phobic TV doctor, who must convince a love-obsessed homebody they are destined to be together. Kareena Mann dreams of having a love story like her parents, but she prefers restoring her classic car to swiping right on dating apps. When her father announces he's selling her mother's home, Kareena makes a deal with him: he'll gift her the house if she can get engaged in four months. Her search for her soulmate becomes impossible, when her argument with Dr. Prem Verma, host of The Dr. Dil Show, goes viral. Now, the only man in her life is the one she doesn't want. Dr. Prem Verma is dedicated to building a local community health center, but he needs to get donors with deep pockets. The Dr. Dil Show was doing just that until his argument with Kareena went viral, and he's left short-changed. That's when Kareena's meddling aunties presented him with a solution: convince Kareena he's her soulmate and they'll fund his clinic. Even though they have conflicting views on love matches and arranged matches, the more time Prem spends with Kareena, the more he begins to believe she's the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with. But, for Prem and Kareena to find their happily ever after, they must admit that hate has turned into fate.

I really ate this audiobook up. It is one of those that inspired me do my chores more thoroughly just so I could keep listening. I enjoyed the debates about love marriages versus arranged marriages that Southeast Asian immigrant families must navigate, as well as the love-hate-love-love enemies to lovers trope. The characters were all likeable, and I found myself salivating at the aloo parathas our heroine has for breakfast. Why doesn't IHOP or Denny's offer these on their menu? I'd be there daily. Heads up that there are some profanity and steamy love scenes, if that's not your thing. The female narrator is Soneela Nankani, who also performs in Sonali Dev's Jane Austen-inspired The Rajes series. Worth the listen! -Melody

The house is on fire

Rachel Beanland

FICTION Beanland Rachel
Historical Fiction

Richmond, Virginia 1811. It's the height of the winter social season. The General Assembly is in session, and many of Virginia's gentleman planters, along with their wives and children, have made the long and arduous journey to the capital in hopes of whiling away the darkest days of the year. At the city's only theater, the Charleston-based Placide & Green Company puts on two plays a night to meet the demand of a populace that's done looking for enlightenment in a church. On the night after Christmas, the theater is packed with more than six hundred holiday revelers. In the third-floor boxes, sits newly widowed Sally Henry Campbell, who is glad for any opportunity to relive the happy times she shared with her husband. One floor away, in the colored gallery, Cecily Patterson doesn't give a whit about the play but is grateful for a four-hour reprieve from a life that has recently gone from bad to worse. Backstage, young stagehand Jack Gibson hopes that, if he can impress the theater's managers, he'll be offered a permanent job with the company. And on the other side of town, blacksmith Gilbert Hunt dreams of one day being able to bring his wife to the theater, but he'll have to buy her freedom first. When the theater goes up in flames in the middle of the performance, Sally, Cecily, Jack, and Gilbert make a series of split-second decisions that will not only affect their own lives but those of countless others. And in the days following the fire, as news of the disaster spreads across the United States, the paths of these four people will become forever intertwined.

Rachel Beanland got some buzz for her “Florence Adler Swims Forever.” Her second historical fiction novel is set in 1811 and follows four people who survive the Great Richmond Theatre Fire. There is Sally, the daughter of Patrick Henry who is recently widowed and grieving for her husband, Cecily an enslaved woman in an impossible situation, Jack a young stagehand who is looking for a career as an actor, and Gilbert, a blacksmith working extra hard to buy his freedom as well as his wife’s. These people end up getting caught in this horrific tragic event—and there are severe consequences as well as new opportunities that each person is handed in survival. I will say the first quarter of the book is grim and deals with death and mayhem as we see through the character’s eyes what it takes to survive. I needed some breaks while reading it. It is haunting. -Anne M

We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie book cover

Mei Hua shi ji = Historical record of Chinese Americans. book cover

Ab(solutely) normal : short stories that smash mental health stereotypes book cover

The amazing and true story of Tooth Mouse Pérez book cover

The Maidens: A Novel

Alex Michaelides

OverDrive Audiobook
Fiction, Mystery, Thriller

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient comes a spellbinding tale of psychological suspense, weaving together Greek mythology, murder, and obsession, that further cements "Michaelides as a major player in the field" (Publishers Weekly). Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens. Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana's niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge. Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld? When another body is found, Mariana's obsession with proving Fosca's guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life. A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books

This is a great, twisty, psychological thriller that's perfect for anyone looking for something in the vein of Gillian Flynn (more Dark Places or Sharp Objects than Gone Girl, though, which is a plus imho) or Ruth Ware. It's got some nice, atmospheric elements--mysterious Greek temples, old English colleges, and a somewhat shady professor with a weird, culty vibe about him. There's also some physical and emotional trauma here, but the strong and unique characters carry it well. While some of these tropes can begin to feel a little gratuitous, I think that, on the whole, this is a fresh take and worth a listen or read. -Candice

Life on delay : making peace with a stutter book cover

The Villa

Rachel Hawkins

FICTION Hawkins Rachel
Mystery, Fiction

"From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set at an Italian villa with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware. As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls' trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend. Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce's girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album--and ends in Pierce's brutal murder. As Emily digs into the villa's complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce's murder wasn't just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred--and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind. Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge--and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends. Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castle--the birthplace of Frankenstein--The Villa welcomes you into its deadly legacy"--

I read this while on vacation in Italy, and it was SO GOOD. I flew through it in about two days, honestly couldn't wait to get back to it when I wasn't reading it. The story is modern but with a gothic feel at times, and has twists and turns that are surprising and feel real, and real-life drama that ties you to the characters. I found the writing and dialogue to be detailed when needed, while also refreshing and humorous. I highly recommend this! -Candice

How high we go in the dark : a novel book cover

Dungeons & dragons. Honor among thieves book cover

Zap! clap! boom! : the story of a thunderstorm book cover

The secret history of home economics : how trailblazing women harnessed the power of home and changed the way we live book cover

Fatherland : a memoir of war, conscience, and family secrets book cover

Awaken your genius : escape conformity, ignite creativity, and become extraordinary book cover

Breadsong : how baking changed our lives book cover

Cork dork : a wine-fueled adventure among the obsessive sommeliers, big bottle hunters, and rogue scientists who taught me to live for taste book cover

The Wager : a tale of shipwreck, mutiny and murder

David Grann

910.9164 /Grann
Literary Nonfiction, Nonfiction, History

"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z, a mesmerizing story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing 2500 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they had a very different story to tell. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous captain and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death-for whomever the court found guilty could hang. The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann's recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O'Brian, his portrayal of the castaways' desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann's work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound. Most powerfully, he unearths the deeper meaning of the events, showing that it was not only the Wager's captain and crew who were on trial - it was the very idea of empire"--

I actually bought my own copy of this book because I just couldn't wait...it was worth the splurge! It's no secret that I'm already a fan of David Grann's writing, so it should come as no surprise that I'm loving this book. It's not even like seafaring and wrecks are my thing, but the way he writes about it, they might as well be. The story comes alive, through the details of the souls on board the ships and everything they went through, their dreams, emotions, fears, and actions. The ships and the environments even become characters of a sort in the story, as they have their own powers over the fates of everyone on board and waiting at home. Thrilling history here! -Candice

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow : a novel book cover

Lost places : images of bygone America book cover

The adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi : a novel book cover

When the moon turns to blood : Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and a story of murder, wild faith, and end times book cover

There will be fire : Margaret Thatcher, the IRA, and two minutes that changed history book cover

Fit nation : the gains and pains of America's exercise obsession book cover

The moon tonight : our moon's journey around earth book cover

Numb to this : memoir of a mass shooting book cover

A fever in the heartland : the Ku Klux Klan's plot to take over America, and the woman who stopped them book cover

Mayumu : Filipino American desserts remixed book cover

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