Jason

Torn apart : how the child welfare system destroys Black families--and how abolition can build a safer world

by Dorothy E. Roberts

362.7 /Roberts
Black Lives Matter, Black History, Nonfiction

An award-winning scholar exposes the foundational racism of the child welfare system and calls for radical change. Many believe the child welfare system protects children from abuse. But as Torn Apart uncovers, this system is designed to punish Black families. Drawing on decades of research, legal scholar and sociologist Dorothy Roberts reveals that the child welfare system is better understood as a 'family policing system' that collaborates with law enforcement and prisons to oppress Black communities. Child protection investigations ensnare a majority of Black children, putting their families under intense state surveillance and regulation. Black children are disproportionately likely to be torn from their families and placed in foster care, driving many to juvenile detention and imprisonment. The only way to stop the destruction caused by family policing, Torn Apart argues, is to abolish the child welfare system and liberate Black communities.

Reading this for our community book discussion here on 2/29/2024! -Jason

Beatles '66 : the revolutionary year

by Steve Turner

781.66092 /Beatles
Music, Nonfiction

On the fiftieth anniversary of this seminal year, music journalist and Beatles expert Steve Turner slows down the action to investigate in detail the enormous changes that took place in the Beatles’ lives and work during 1966. He looks at the historical events that had an impact on the group, the music they made that in turn profoundly affected the culture around them, and the vision that allowed four young men from Liverpool to transform popular music and serve as pioneers for artists from Coldplay to David Bowie, Jay-Z to U2.

Since the release of the Get Back series I've been on a Beatles kick. This book covers one of their pivotal years and contains a lot of primary source interview quotes. Turner describes local and global cultural and political landscapes to help ground us in what they were dealing with as artists at the time. -Jason

The Sandman

by Neil Gaiman

COMIC Sandman
Fiction, Graphic Novels

An attempt to summon and imprison Death, instead results in the capture of her brother, Morpheus, the Sandman, who after making his escape must regain the tools of his powers. Follow the King of Dreams, brother of the Endless, as he travels through a myriad of landscapes to meet with the gods, demons, and others who inhabit both Earth and the other realms.

I read Volume 1 after watching the Netflix series, it seems like the video series is fairly straightforward adaptation as far as the story structure goes. It was interesting to see where the art overlaps and diverges in the comic series. -Jason

Moon witch, spider king

by Marlon James

SCIENCE FICTION James, Marlon
Diverse Characters, Fiction, Fantasy

"From Marlon James, author of the bestselling National Book Award finalist Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the second book in the Dark Star trilogy, his African Game of Thrones. In Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Sogolon the Moon Witch proved a worthy adversary to Tracker as they clashed across a mythical African landscape in search of a mysterious boy who disappeared. In Moon Witch, Spider King, Sogolon takes center stage and gives her own account of what happened to the boy, and how she plotted and fought, triumphed and failed as she looked for him. It's also the story of a century-long feud-seen through the eyes of a 177-year-old witch-that Sogolon had with the Aesi, chancellor to the king. It is said that Aesi works so closely with the king that together they are like the eight limbs of one spider. Aesi's power is considerable-and deadly. It takes brains and courage to challenge him, which Sogolon does for reasons of her own. Part adventure tale, part chronicle of an indomitable woman who bows to no man, it is a fascinating novel that explores power, personality, and the places where they overlap"--

Really looking forward to this fantasy sequel to James' "Black leopard, red wolf". Good mixture of adventure, magic, and folklore. TW: the first book had some difficult sections with regards to violence against women and children. -Jason

Time to eat : delicious meals for busy lives

by Nadiya Hussain

641.5 /Hussain
Nonfiction, Cookbooks

Feeding a family and juggling a full workload can be challenging. Hussain shares recipes that are both quick and easy-- and that the whole family will love. She also shares tips and tricks for creating second meals to keep in the freezer; includes ideas for repurposing leftovers; and shows how high-quality convenience foods can cut your prep time significantly. -- adapted from inside front cover

Nadiya is famous for her win on Great British Bake Off and subsequent Netflix cooking shows. I picked this new cookbook up after seeing an excerpt for her super simple "cheat" for chocolate puff pastry on Bon Appetit. This is full of basic recipe concepts that can be scaled up, amended in different directions, frozen as meal prep, or partially adapted to become prep for another recipe in the book. There is an efficiency I like about this concept though it is a bit heavy with meat options. -Jason

A little devil in America : notes in praise of Black performance

by Hanif Abdurraqib

791.09 /Abdurraqib
Black Lives Matter, Black History, Music, Nonfiction

"A Little Devil in America is an urgent project that unravels all modes and methods of black performance, in this moment when black performers are coming to terms with their value, reception, and immense impact on America. With sharp insight, humor, and heart, Abdurraqib examines how black performance happens in specific moments in time and space--midcentury Paris, the moon, or a cramped living room in Columbus, Ohio. At the outset of this project, Abdurraqib became fascinated with clips of black minstrel entertainers like William Henry Lane, better known as Master Juba. Knowing there was something more complicated and deep-seated in the history and legacy of minstrelsy, Abdurraqib uncovered questions and tensions that help to reveal how black performance pervades all areas of American society. Abdurraqib's prose is entrancing and fluid as he leads us along the links in his remarkable trains of thought. A Little Devil in America considers, critiques, and praises performance in music, sports, writing, comedy, grief, games, and love"--

Looking forward to reading this one! He's a poet, essayist, and cultural critic that has been a Visiting Professor at the Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program as well as taken part in past Mission Creek Festivals. -Jason

Sing, unburied, sing : a novel

by Jesmyn Ward

FICTION Ward Jesmyn
Fiction, Diverse Characters, Read Woke

"A searing and profound Southern odyssey through Mississippi's past and present"--

Ward's story grapples with the trauma of racism, gun violence, and incarceration via a multi-generational household. Her story is set in rural southern Mississippi yet these themes are familiar to many in America. Chapters are told from alternating character's point of view including those of a ghost. -Jason

Pachinko

by Min Jin Lee

FICTION Lee Min
Fiction, Historical Fiction

"A new tour de force from the bestselling author of Free Food for Millionaires, for readers of The Kite Runner and Cutting for Stone. PACHINKO follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them all. Deserted by her lover, Sunja is saved when a young tubercular minister offers to marry and bring her to Japan. So begins a sweeping saga of an exceptional family in exile from its homeland and caught in the indifferent arc of history. Through desperate struggles and hard-won triumphs, its members are bound together by deep roots as they face enduring questions of faith, family, and identity"--

Terrific historical detail, an engaging story, and compelling characters. -Jason

Utopia Avenue

by David Mitchell

Fiction, Historical Fiction

Soho, London, 1967. Folk-rock-psychedelic quartet Utopia Avenue is formed. Guitarist Jasper de Zoet, a shy, half-Dutch public-school musical prodigy, was hearing voices long before he dropped acid. Keyboardist Elf Holloway must defy the prejudices of her bank manager father, her housewife mother, and her age to forge her own career. Bassist Dean Moss cannot, will not, spend his life on the factory floor like everyone else in Gravesend. Band manager Levon Frankland--gay, Jewish, and Canadian--is not unduly burdened by conscience. The drummer is a drummer. Over two years and two albums, Utopia Avenue navigates the dark end of the Sixties: its parties, drugs and egos, political change and personal tragedy; and the trials of life as a working band in London, the provinces, European capitals and, finally, the promised land of America. What is art? What is fame? What is music? How can the whole be more than the sum of its parts? Can idealism change the world? How does your youth shape your life? This is the story of Utopia Avenue. Not everyone lives to the end.

A decent historical fiction novel from one of my favorite writers. Engaging characters with lots of cameos from classic rock heroes, nothing monumental here but solid writing and pretty fun. -Jason

Less : a novel

by Andrew Sean Greer

eBOOK
Fiction, Humor

Receiving an invitation to his ex-boyfriend's wedding, Arthur, a failed novelist on the eve of his fiftieth birthday, embarks on an international journey that finds him falling in love, risking his life, reinventing himself, and making connections with the past.

Comedic quest novel of sorts, only here the protagonist is running away from love and trips into it. Full of dry wit, I found many well crafted sentences that I would skip back to reread. -Jason

The emerald horizon : the history of nature in Iowa

by Cornelia Fleischer Mutel

508.777 /Mutel
Nonfiction, Nature, Science

A terrific overview of the natural history of Iowa. Any state would be lucky to have such a primer for residents to better understand the world outside their doors. -Jason

Burn the ice : the American culinary revolution and its end

by Kevin (Food writer) Alexander

641.509 /Alexander
Nonfiction

James Beard Award-winning food journalist Kevin Alexander traces an exhilarating golden age in American dining. Over the past decade, Kevin Alexander saw American dining turned on its head. Starting in 2006, the food world underwent a transformation as the established gatekeepers of American culinary creativity in New York City and the Bay Area were forced to contend with Portland, Oregon. Its new, no-holds-barred, casual fine-dining style became a template for other cities, and a culinary revolution swept across America. Traditional ramen shops opened in Oklahoma City. Craft cocktail speakeasies appeared in Boise. Poke bowls sprung up in Omaha. Entire neighborhoods, like Williamsburg in Brooklyn, and cities like Austin, were suddenly unrecognizable to long-term residents, their names becoming shorthand for the so-called hipster movement. At the same time, new media companies such as Eater and Serious Eats launched to chronicle and cater to this developing scene, transforming nascent star chefs into proper celebrities. Emerging culinary television hosts like Anthony Bourdain inspired a generation to use food as the lens for different cultures. It seemed, for a moment, like a glorious belle epoque of eating and drinking in America. And then it was over. To tell this story, Alexander journeys through the travails and triumphs of a number of key chefs, bartenders, and activists, as well as restaurants and neighborhoods whose fortunes were made during this veritable gold rush--including Gabriel Rucker, an originator of the 2006 Portland restaurant scene; Tom Colicchio of Gramercy Tavern and Top Chef fame; as well as hugely influential figures, such as André Prince Jeffries of Prince's Hot Chicken Shack in Nashville; and Carolina barbecue pitmaster Rodney Scott. He writes with rare energy, telling a distinctly American story, at once timeless and cutting-edge, about unbridled creativity and ravenous ambition. To "burn the ice" means to melt down whatever remains in a kitchen's ice machine at the end of the night. Or, at the bar, to melt the ice if someone has broken a glass in the well. It is both an end and a beginning. It is the firsthand story of a revolution in how Americans eat and drink.

A look at modern american cooking and restaurant/foodie entrepreneurs. Chapters follow the individual cooking journeys of influential chefs and the food scenes in various parts of America. Documents the boom/bust of some of these areas and the excesses that can come with celebrity chef status. -Jason

This poison will remain

by Fred Vargas

MYSTERY Vargas Fred
Mystery

"A murder in Paris brings Commissaire Adamsberg out of the Icelandic mists of his previous investigation and unexpectedly into the region of Nîmes, where three old men have died of spider bites. The recluse has a sneaky attack, but is that enough to explain the deaths of these men, all killed by the same venom?At the National Museum of Natural History, Adamsberg meets a pensioner who tells him that two of the three octogenarians have known each other since childhood, when they lived in a local orphanage called The Mercy. There, they had belonged to a small group of violent young boys known as the "band of recluses." Adamsberg faces two obstacles: the third man killed by the same venom was not part of the "band of recluses," and the amount of spider venom necessary to kill doesn't add up.Yet after the Nîmes deaths, more members of the old band succumb to recluse bites, leading the commissaire to uncover the tragedy hidden behind the walls of the orphanage."--Publisher description.

The latest in her French mystery series starring the enigmatic Commissaire Adamsberg and his odd cast of coworkers. This series is fairly slow paced, it's more about the charming characters and setting. "This Poison Will Remain" has some smaller cases being solved around a larger story of older people dying as a result of venom from recluse spider bites. There are some call backs to previous books in the series though I think you could start here without too much worry. -Jason

Anima

by Thom Yorke

COMPACT DISC PO Yorke Anima

This isn't the sunniest of albums but I'm loving it from start to finish! -Jason

Orange world and other stories

by Karen Russell

FICTION Russell Karen
Fiction

From the Pulitzer finalist and universally beloved author of the New York Times best sellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove, a stunning new collection of short fiction that showcases her extraordinary gifts of language and imagination

Just started this new short story collection, I loved her earlier books! -Jason

Meat Puppets II.

by Meat Puppets (Musical group)

COMPACT DISC PO Meat Meat

I first heard of this band while watching the famous Nirvana "Unplugged" session as a teen. I really enjoyed the three songs they performed, somehow I never sought out the original material. This year I've been making an effort to find bands/albums from past decades that I'm unfamiliar with and stumbled across Meat Puppets II on a list. Such a great album! An interesting mix of psych-punk and country twang sounds with spacey/jokey philosophical lyrics delivered in a quivering slacker voice. -Jason

Black leopard, red wolf

by Marlon James

SCIENCE FICTION James Marlon
Fantasy

"In the first novel in Marlon James's Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child"--

Adventure quest fantasy based on various African mythologies. A slow build, took me about 100 pages to really commit. I loved the unique fantasy elements and rambling storytelling writing style. Basic plot revolves around a band of mercenaries searching for a kidnapped child King. There's a very high body count. I enjoyed the world-building, looking forward to more in this series. -Jason

The legend of Zelda. Breath of the wild.

by

VIDEO GAME Switch Legend

Step into a world of discovery, exploration, and adventure in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a boundary-breaking new game in the acclaimed series. Travel across vast fields, through forests, and to mountain peaks as you discover what has become of the kingdom of Hyrule In this stunning Open-Air Adventure.

I haven't owned a video game console since the original Nintendo, seeing clips of Breath of the Wild online made me think it was time to explore the Nintendo Switch. It didn't take long to understand how to manipulate the controller (so many more buttons!) and the game does a great job introducing you to game mechanics and trains you as you play. It's fun to battle monsters but just as enjoyable is wandering around the fantasy landscape climbing trees, foraging mushrooms, and picking up rocks to see what's underneath. -Jason

The terror. The complete first season

by

DVD TV Terror 1st season

Inspired by a true story, follow the British Royal Navy's perilous voyage into unchartered territory as the crew attempts to discover the Northwest Passage. Faced with treacherous conditions, limited resources, dwindling hope and fear of the unknown, the crew is pushed to the brink of extinction. Frozen, isolated and stuck at the end of the earth, it highlights all that can go wrong when a group of men, desperate to survive, struggle not only with the elements, but with each other.

Based on the Franklin Expedition of 1845 to find the Northwest Passage, this AMC TV series historical drama combines the fascinating story of this disastrous journey with a paranormal element in the form of a Inuit spirit bear-like creature, the tuurngaq, that is hunting the crew. -Jason

Destiny of the Republic : a tale of madness, medicine and the murder of a president

by Candice Millard

973.84 /Millard
Nonfiction, History

A narrative account of the twentieth president's political career offers insight into his background as a scholar and Civil War hero, his battles against the corrupt establishment, and Alexander Graham Bell's failed attempt to save him from an assassin's bullet.

Highly readable history covering the political life, assassination attempt, and subsequent slow death of President James A. Garfield. Multiple story lines follow the mental health of the assassin, the various medical blunders that hasten Garfield's decline, and Alexander Graham Bell's attempt to create a device to detect the bullet buried in Garfield's body. -Jason

Gunflint burning : fire in the boundary waters

by Cary J. Griffith

363.379 /Griffith
Science, Nature

On May 5, 2007, two days into his twenty-seventh trip to the Boundary Waters, Stephen Posniak found a perfect spot on Ham Lake and set about making a campfire. Over the next two weeks, the fire he set would consume 75,000 acres of forest and 144 buildings. More than one thousand firefighters would rally to extinguish the blaze, at a cost of 11 million dollars. Gunflint Burning is a comprehensive account of the dramatic events around the Ham Lake fire, one of the largest wildfires in Minnesota history. Cary J. Griffith describes what happened in the minutes, hours, and days after Posniak struck that fateful match--from the first hint of danger to the ensuing race to flee the fire or defend imperiled property to the incredible efforts of firefighters and residents battling a blaze that lit up the Gunflint Trail like the fuse to a powder keg. We meet locals faced with losing everything: the sheriff and his deputy tasked with getting everyone out alive; tourists caught unawares; men and women using every piece of equipment and modern firefighting technique against impossibly high winds and dry conditions to suppress a wildfire as it grew to historic proportions; and, finally, Stephen Posniak, who in the aftermath tragically took his own life--the fire's only fatality. In sharp detail, Gunflint Burning describes the key events of the Ham Lake fire as they unfold, providing readers with a sense of being on the front lines of an epic struggle that was at times heroic, tragic, and sublime.

Cary J. Griffith’s account of the 2007 Ham Lake fire that, over two weeks, burned 75,000 acres of woodlands in northern Minnesota and into Canada. Griffith opens with the fire raging towards an inhabited area of northwood cabins, a local Deputy tries to persuade a resourceful 76-year-old area resident to follow the mandatory evacuation. The story is told chronologically and from many points of view, Griffith introduces us to a variety of people involved in the fire and it’s plain to see that he was thorough in his search for first hand accounts. Over the following chapters Griffith introduces us to the camper whose fire started the blaze, resort and homeowners in the area, police and fire personnel, as well as scientists that detail the natural and climatic conditions that led to it burning so widely. His descriptions of the area’s natural history help to explain how this fire got out of hand so quickly. Those with a strong connection to the area that “Gunflint Burning” covers and can attest that Griffith was able to capture the sights and sounds that make canoe trips in the Boundary Waters so special. -Jason

The plant messiah : adventures in search of the world's rarest species

by Carlos Magdalena

581.68 /Magdalena
Science, Nature

Carlos Magdalena is not your average horticulturist. He's a man on a mission to save the world's most endangered plants. First captivated by the flora and his native Spain, he has traveled to the remotest parts of the globe in search of exotic species. Renowned for his pioneering work, he has committed his life to protecting plants from man-made ecological destruction and thieves hunting for wealthy collectors. In The Plant Messiah, Magdalena takes readers from the Amazon to the jungles of Mauritius to deep within the Australian outback in search of the rare and the vulnerable. Back in the lab, we watch as he develops groundbreaking, left-field techniques for rescuing species from extinction, encouraging them to propagate and thrive once again. Along the way, he offers moving, heartfelt stories about the secrets contained within these incredible organisms. Passionate and absorbing, The Plant Messiah is a tribute to the diversity of life on our planet, and the importance of preserving it. -- from dust jacket.

Autobiographical stories of his work as Tropical Senior Botanical Horticulturist for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, England. Carlos describes coming from a family that encouraged exploration, as well as respect and caretaking for the plants and animals of Asturias in Northern Spain. When wanderlust overtook him at 28, he travelled to London where a trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew changed his world. Their efforts to save highly endangered plants mirrored his passion for caring for the land back in Asturias. He has an energetic, driven personality that comes through in his recounts of his intense Kew education in the greenhouses and beyond. Most of the book recounts his journeys to save seeds or cuttings of rare plants found in the islands of the Republic of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, Amazon backwaters in Peru, and many other far flung locations. He’s a great storyteller and has set up each chapter as if he has to solve a puzzle with life or death stakes, how do these rare plants produce fruit, seed, and ultimately a new plant? He includes simple overviews of the science behind his a-ha moments, so even if you don’t have a botanical background you come away with an understanding for how these mysteries were solved. His passion for plants is infectious and it carries through in his writing, the stories are often zany and move quickly and you’re left feeling that we need many more people with the drive and desire of this plant messiah. -Jason

Lifting as they climbed : mapping a history of black women on Chicago's south side : a self-guided tour

by Mariame Kaba

977.311 /Kaba
History

This publication features a number of Black women who contributed to the development of Chicago from the mid-19th century to today. It tells a story of Black women activists and artists who lived and worked on Chicago's South Side by taking readers on a tour of relevant landmarks and locations. The vast majority of women featured on this tour were active members of multiple organizations who pursued a broad range of issues. Others were artists (writers, painters, musicians, dancers) who both documented the conditions of Black people and shaped the culture of Chicago & the entire country. Chicago's Black women activists organized to make the city work better for themselves, their loved ones and communities. There are 33 main locations, mostly centered on the South Side of Chicago, featured in this guidebook. We've also included 10 additional sites of interest. --

A self-guided walking tour of historical sites focused around the contributions made by Black women to the city of Chicago. Some great local history research went into this book! -Jason

7

by composer Beach House (Musical group)

COMPACT DISC PO Beach Seven

Added by Jason

The remains of the day

by Kazuo Ishiguro

FICTION Ishiguro, Kazuo
Historical Fiction, Fiction

The novel's narrator, Stevens, is a perfect English butler who tries to give his narrow existence form and meaning through the self-effacing, almost mystical practice of his profession. In a career that spans the second World War, Stevens is oblivious of the real life that goes on around him -- oblivious, for instance, of the fact that his aristocrat employer is a Nazi sympathizer. Still, there are even larger matters at stake in this heartbreaking, pitch-perfect novel -- namely, Stevens' own ability to allow some bit of life-affirming love into his tightly repressed existence.

Added by Jason

New energy

by composer Four Tet (Musician)

COMPACT DISC EL FourTet New

Added by Jason

David Bowie : a life

by Dylan Jones

781.66092 /Bowie

First person accounts from Bowie's friends and acquaintances. -Jason

Giovanni's room

by James Baldwin

FICTION Baldwin, James

David is a young American expatriate who has just proposed marriage to his girlfriend, Hella. While she is away on a trip, David meets a bartender named Giovanni to whom he is drawn in spite of himself. Soon the two are spending the night in Giovanni’s curtainless room, which he keeps dark to protect their privacy. But Hella’s return to Paris brings the affair to a crisis, one that rapidly spirals into tragedy. Caught between his repressed desires and conventional morality, David struggles for self-knowledge during one long, dark night—"the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life." With sharp, probing insight, Giovanni’s Room tells an impassioned, deeply moving story that lays bare the unspoken complexities of the human heart.

Added by Jason

Can't we talk about something more pleasant?

by Roz Chast

BIOGRAPHY Chast, Roz
Graphic Novels, Biographies

A graphic memoir by a long-time New Yorker cartoonist celebrates the final years of her aging parents' lives through four-color cartoons, family photos and documents that reflect the artist's struggles with caregiver challenges.

Added by Jason

A climate of fear

by Fred Vargas

MYSTERY Vargas Fred
Fiction, Mystery

Added by Jason

A wizard of Earthsea

by Ursula K. Le Guin

YOUNG ADULT FICTION LeGuin, Ursula K.
Fantasy

A boy grows to manhood while attempting to subdue the evil he unleashed on the world as an apprentice to the Master Wizard.

I'm rereading this series after the recent death of the author. -Jason

My favorite thing is monsters

by Emil Ferris

GRAPHIC NOVEL Ferris My
Fiction, Graphic Novels

"Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late '60s Chicago, and narrated by 10-year-old Karen Reyes, Monsters is told is told through a fictional graphic diary employing the iconography of B-movie horror imagery and pulp monster magazines. As the precocious Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her beautiful and enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, we watch the interconnected and fascinating stories of those around her unfold" -- Publisher.

Added by Jason