Nonfiction
Stalking Shakespeare : a memoir of madness, murder, and my search for the poet beneath the paint
Lee Durkee
704.942 /Durkee
Nonfiction, History, Art / Art History, Biographies
"Following his divorce, down-and-out writer and Mississippi exile Lee Durkee holed himself up in a Vermont fishing shack and fell prey to a decades-long obsession with Shakespearian portraiture. It began with a simple premise: despite the prevalence of popular portraits, no one really knows what Shakespeare looked like. That the Bard of Avon has gotten progressively handsomer in modern depictions seems only to reinforce this point. Stalking Shakespeare is Durkee's fascinating memoir about an obsession gone awry, the 400-year-old myriad portraits attached to the famous playwright, and Durkee's own unrelenting search-via X-ray and infrared technologies-for a lost picture of the Bard painted from real life. As Durkee becomes better at beguiling curators into testing their paintings with spectral technologies, we get a front-row seat to the captivating mysteries plaguing the various portraits rumored to depict Shakespeare. Whisking us backward in time through layers of paint and into the pages of obscure books on the Elizabethans, Durkee takes us from Vermont to Tokyo to Mississippi to DC and ultimately to London to confront the stuffy curators forever protecting the image of the Bard. For his part, Durkee is the adversary they didn't know they had-a writer from Mississippi with nothing to lose-the "Dan Brown of English portraiture." A lively, bizarre, and surprisingly moving blend of biography, art history, and madness, Stalking Shakespeare is as entertaining as it is rigorous and sheds new light on one of history's greatest cultural and literary icons"--
Just like Caitlin
Ally Obermeier
j796.323 Clark
Nonfiction, Sports
A picture book biography of WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark.
I've been waiting for a Caitlin Clark picture book! In this one, a grandpa basically retells his granddaughter the highlights of Caitlin Clark's incredible collegiate career with a lesson about losing the big game with grace. Okay, I'd prefer a true picture book biography, but I'll take it! The illustrations are cute, and this book would make a great read-aloud or gift for a little women's basketball fan! -Anne W
Invisible : how young women with serious health issues navigate work, relationships, and the pressure to seem just fine
Michele Lent Hirsch
305.4 /Hirsch
Nonfiction, Health, Self Help
Lent Hirsch weaves her own harrowing experiences together with stories from other women, perspectives from sociologists on structural inequality, and insights from neuroscientists on misogyny in health research. She shows how health issues and disabilities amplify what women in general already confront: warped beauty standards, workplace sexism, worries about romantic partners, and mistrust of their own bodies. By shining a light on this hidden demographic, Lent Hirsch explores the challenges that all women face.
"Invisible" examines chronic illness through the lens of multiple women, building a full picture through their varied and intersectional experiences. This book does an excellent job of capturing the seismic feeling of becoming chronically ill, the way the people and places around you change to become stranger and more hostile. -Chelsea
There is no Ethan : how three women caught America's biggest catfish
Anna Akbari
306.730285 /Akbari
Nonfiction, True Crime
"There is no Ethan" catalogues Akbari's experiences as both victim and investigator of a catfishing scheme to emotionally con women. She joins with two other women to track down the perpetrator and explores what it means to live in a world where technology mediates relationships and truth, reality, and identity have become slippery terms.
I had the honor of cataloging this book and didn't want to put it down! We don't have a Dewey Decimal number for True Emotional Crime so I had to put it in the number for online dating. Definitely going on my TBR list. -Melody
The backyard bird chronicles
Amy Tan
598.07234 /Tan
Nonfiction
"In 2016, author Amy Tan grew overwhelmed by the state of the world: Hatred and misinformation became a daily presence on social media, and the country felt more divisive than ever. In search of peace, Tan turned toward the natural world just beyond her window and, specifically, the birds flocking to the feeders in her yard. But what began as an attempt to find solace turned into something far greater--an opportunity to savor quiet moments during a volatile time, connect to nature in a meaningful way, and imagine the intricate lives of the birds she admired. Tracking the natural beauty that surrounds us, The Backyard Bird Chronicles maps the passage of time--from before the pandemic to the days of quarantine--through daily entries, thoughtful questions, and beautiful original sketches. With boundless charm and wit, Amy Tan charts her foray into birding and the natural wonders of the world"--
As an avid now daily fan of watching the world of chipmunks, squirrels and birds at my feeders outside, I was fascinated by Tan's book. She describes the solace nature can provide when everything else in the world seems to be barreling out of control, yet she does not shy away from highlighting how environmental factors negatively impact our avian friends. Her sketches are delicate and prolific at times and her curiosity and wit is quite wonderful. I would recommend this for young adults and adults as well as anyone who wants a more intimate foray into the world of West Coast bound and transiting-through birds. -Victoria
The art thief : a true story of love, crime, and a dangerous obsession
Finkel, Michael, author.
364.16287 /Finkel
Nonfiction, True Crime, Art / Art History
"For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly ten years-in museums and cathedrals all over Europe-Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion. In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser's strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them to his heart's content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to assess practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtakingly number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict's need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend's pleas to stop-until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down"--
This book got rave reviews and has been very popular, but I had to give it mention...You'll be left wondering just what kind of person steals pieces of art on a weekly basis, from churches and small museums, in order to basically create their own collection of hundreds of priceless items. That they then store in their room. In their mother's house. For real. -Candice
Gentleman bandit : the true story of Black Bart, the Old West's most infamous stagecoach robber
Boessenecker, John, 1953- author.
364.1552 /Boessenecker
Nonfiction, True Crime, History
"Black Bart is widely regarded today as not only the most notorious stage robber of the Old West but also the best behaved. Over his lifetime, Black Bart held up at least twenty-nine stagecoaches in California and Oregon with mild, polite commands, stealing from Wells Fargo and the US mail but never robbing a passenger. Such behavior earned him the title of a true 'gentleman bandit.' His real name was Charles E. Boles, and in the public eye, Charles lived quietly as a boulevardier in San Francisco, the wealthiest and most exciting city in the American West. Boles was an educated man who traveled among respectable crowds. Because he did not drink, fight or consort with prostitutes, his true calling as America's greatest stage robber was never suspected until his final capture in 1883. Sheriffs searched and struggled for years to find him, and newspaper editors had a field day reporting his exploits. Legends and rumors trailed his name until his mysterious death, and his ultimate fate remains one of the greatest mysteries of the Old West. Now historian John Boessenecker sheds new light on Black Bart's beginnings, reputation and exploits, bringing to life the glittering story of the mysterious stage robber who doubled as a rich, genteel socialite in the golden era of the Wild West"--
A little western history with your crime never hurts! The extremely picky Kirkus Reviews says: "An entertaining, well-researched foray into the life of a well-known but legend-layered outlaw." -Candice
The angel makers : arsenic, a midwife, and modern history's most astonishing murder ring
McCracken, Patricia Nell, author.
364.1523 /McCracken
Nonfiction, True Crime, History
"THE ANGEL MAKERS is a true-crime story like no other--a 1920s midwife who may have been the century's most prolific killer, leading a murder ring of women responsible for the deaths of at least 160 men"--
A story that seems unlike any other, with an old-world, clandestine feel that could easily be the plot of a fiction book--but it isn't. -Candice
College girl, missing : the true story of how a young woman disappeared in plain sight
Cohen, Shawn, author.
363.2336 /Cohen
Nonfiction, True Crime
"When Lauren Spierer-a gregarious young woman at a crossroads in her life-vanished from Indiana University in 2011, her story drew global attention from celebrities and news outlets such as People magazine, CNN, Fox News, and USA Today. What made the case so confounding to those outlets was that the 20-year-old was out with dozens of classmates in a bustling university town on the night she went missing. She was seen in public by witnesses and security cameras, and ended up in a townhouse complex with several wealthy, well-connected male students-never to be seen again. Despite the media frenzy surrounding the case, the police investigation went nowhere and her body was never found. Armed with the support of Lauren's parents and never-before-seen evidence that chronicles a cover-up, a botched investigation, conflicting testimony, and new interviews, Cohen leads readers through a gripping narrative before finally shining a light on those often forgotten in true crime: the innocent people left behind. College Girl, Missing will provide an incisive look at "Missing White Woman Syndrome" to expose the prejudice in true crime reporting and demonstrate how the excessive media coverage that Lauren received, paradoxically, damaged the quest to bring her home"--
One of those stories that continues to haunt years later, not only for because of the missing person, but also because of *how* people are searched for, and *who* gets searched for (or rather, who doesn't). -Candice
The King of Diamonds : the search for the elusive Texas jewel thief
Pederson, Rena, author.
364.162 /Pederson
True Crime, Nonfiction
"As a string of high profile jewel thefts went unsolved during the Swinging Sixties, the press dubbed the elusive thief "the King of Diamonds" because he eluded police and the FBI for more than a decade."--
Get your fill of crime with a side-helping of glitz! Jewel thieves are in a class of their own, and the setting of mid-century Dallas should be interesting. -Candice
A fun little escapade through the major theories of who wrote Shakespeare's plays and sonnets, via the various portraits that are purportedly of him. There's a lot of very interesting stuff here, not just literary but also in the art history sense of who created the portraits, how they've been altered, and why they look the way they do. Lee Durkee is also a strong presence in this book, and tbh I veered between thinking of him as someone I felt sympathetic and appreciative towards, for his candor about his own mental health and personal issues, and then thinking that he'd be an absolute tour guide from hell. All in all, a very (VERY) well-researched and entertaining read. -Candice