Staff Picks: Reading in Translation

Mon, 05/27/2024 - 6:37pm by lucroe

Here are some excellent books to read this summer that are all translated works. We have them in the original language as well as the English translation, both/either are requestable with their respective catalog links after each title. Enjoy reading in English translation or in the original language. 

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck | In English Request Now, In German Request Now

Recent winner of the International Booker Prize as well as nominated for the National Book Award, this novel by German writer Erpenbeck, is set during the final years of the German Democratic Republic. It tells the story of teen Katharina and the affair she has with an older married man Hans that begins in the declining days of the GDR and continues after. The historical backdrop is of course significant to the overall story, as the country faces an uncertain future so too do the characters. They exemplify the difficulty of German unification, one having been born during WWII and struggling to adapt, while the other born after WWII taking tentative steps into understanding what this new Germany has to offer, both good and bad. Hauntingly beautiful and poetic.

Staff Picks: New Dystopian Teen Fiction

Sat, 05/11/2024 - 11:00am by nicole

Dystopian fiction is a great genre for anyone who wants to read about the end of the world, or dangerous future societies like the one in The Hunger Games. AADL's Teen collection has a section dedicated to these action-packed stories. Here are some of our newest dystopian books about bad governments, magical monsters, and even sub-zero reality shows.

Hearts Still Beating by Brooke Archer | Request Now

This dark and romantic post-apocalyptic novel is about two girls who loved each other before the end of the world — and before one of them became infected with the virus that turned her into a monster. Seventeen-year-old Mara is dead...mostly. Infected with a virus that brought the dead back to life and the world to its knees, she wakes up in a facility to learn a treatment for the disease has been found. No longer a Tick, Mara is placed in an experimental resettlement program. But her recovery is complicated: she’s sent to live with the best friend she hasn’t seen since the world ended, and since their first and only kiss. Seventeen-year-old Rory is alive...barely. With impaired mobility from an injury and a dead sister, Rory’s nightmares are just as monstrous as the Ticks that turned her former best friend. Even after their surviving community rebuilds itself, Rory is prepared for the Ticks to return at any time, but she never expects them to come in the form of the only girl she’s ever loved. As the girls struggle with their pasts and the people they’ve become, and with the Island’s fragile peace in the balance, Rory and Mara must lean on each other to survive, or risk losing the girl they love all over again.

Fabulous (Non)Fiction Firsts #838, Honoring Mothers

Wed, 05/08/2024 - 9:27am by muffy

I Cannot Control Everything Forever : a memoir of motherhood, science, and art by Emily C. Bloom (also available in downloadable eBook and audiobook, read by the author), is an intimate and engaging memoir about navigating motherhood - the joy, the challenges, and lessons learned parenting an exceptional child.

In her late 30s, Emily gave birth to a daughter who is diagnosed with congenital deafness and later at 13 months, Type 1 diabetes. What follows are rounds of doctor’s visits, decisions regarding genetic testing and diagnosis, the latest technologies (cochlear implants), as well as a regimented daily routine. At one point, with a husband on a tenure track at a university-one-does-not-turn-down, she gave up her faculty appointment to care for their daughter. 

In lesser hands, this journey could have come across as bleak but in “trying to find a way out of the loneliness and individualism of 21st century parenthood, Emily finds joy in reaching outwards, towards art and literature-such as the maternal messiness of Louise Bourgeois (from whom Emily borrowed the title for this memoir), or Greek myths about the power of fate-as well as the collective sustenance of friends and community. With lyrical and enchanting prose, I Cannot Control Everything Forever is an inspired meditation on art, science, and motherhood.” (Library Journal) 

"Thoughtful reflections on technology and humanity amid difficult parenting experiences." (Kirkus Reviews)

Winner of the MSA First Book Prize for her academic title The Wireless Past: Anglo-Irish Writers and the BBC, 1931-1968 (2016), Emily's memoir is highly recommended for readers who enjoy nonfiction that reads like fiction. Raised in Ann Arbor, Emily lives in NYC and is a Mellon Public Humanities Fellow at Sarah Lawrence College.

Staff Picks: Memoirs About Moms

Mon, 04/29/2024 - 11:41am by lucroe

With Mother’s Day around the corner, here a few memoirs from our stacks that explore and celebrate what it means to be a mother in its vast and varying forms. On Mother’s Day, we honor and celebrate them all!

Where Rivers Part : A Story of My Mother by Kao Kalia Yang | Request Now
Yang writes in her latest memoir about her mother’s escape from the genocidal attacks on the Hmong people in Laos. The story provides a much-needed understanding of America’s involvement in Laos at the time of the Vietnam War when the CIA recruited Hmong men to assist in what they called Laos’s Secret War. Once the Americans left, the Hmong people were at the mercy of the Laos government who saw them as conspirators, which led many to flee. Yang was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and came to America at the age of six. Her previous memoir, The Latehomecomer is about her journey to America. In this she writes openly and beautifully about her Hmong family and her mother’s refugee life in vivid detail, truly exhibiting what courage looks like on the page. Another book, Somewhere in the Unknown World, Yang compiles stories from refugees around the world living in Minnesota (where the author resides).

Staff Picks: Family Fun

Sat, 04/27/2024 - 1:37pm by nicole

These kids graphic novels are all about families - from chosen families made up of close friends, to blended families with blended cultures, to loud houses full of countless cousins.

A Place for Pauline by Anouk Mahiout | Request Now

A charming graphic novel about Pauline, the eldest child in a large family who longs for peace and quiet. Pauline lives with her mother, father, little brother and sister, and there's a new baby on the way. Her friends tell her she's lucky to be the eldest -- she's the one who gets new clothes and can stay up late -- but Pauline isn't so sure. In her busy, crowded, noisy house, she never knows what she's supposed to do. One minute she's told to help her little sister, and the next to leave her alone! It seems like she's never in the right place at the right time, and her brother seems determined to prevent her from reading in peace. So Pauline finds a secret hideaway, and in this quiet place, surrounded by her precious belongings, where she can read her favorite books, make up stories, and imagine being as free as a bird. But most of all, she dreams of sailing off to France where her grandmother lives, and one day she decides to do just that. Funny and touching, this graphic novel highlights the importance of finding our place and the comforts of home.  

Fabulous Fiction Firsts #837

Thu, 04/18/2024 - 6:30pm by muffy

The Kamogawa Food Detectives * by Hisaski Kasiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, the 2020 Harvill Secker Young Translators' Prize winner, (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook).

The first in an eight-book series, originally published in Japan in 2013, it introduces readers to Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare. On a quiet backstreet in Kyoto, behind the nondescript facade of an anonymous-looking building, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. There is no menu, no advertisement except for a cryptic one in an obscure food magazine. But that does not stop customers from seeking them out. Nagare, a retired and widowed Kyoto detective and 30-something Koishi are “food detectives,” offering their investigative services to find recipes so clients could recreate dishes from their treasured memories.   

Among their satisfied clients is one of Nagare’s fellow detectives, who is looking for the"Nabeyaki-Udon” recipe that his late wife created. A successful businessman is looking to recreate the "Mackerel Sushi, offered by a kind neighbor while he was orphaned at an early age. A piano teacher is looking for the beef stew recipe at a restaurant served to her 55 years ago when she rejected a young man’s proposal. A restauranteur's ex-wife is looking for the recipe her husband used to prepare for her now that he is dying.

“Though each of the six stand-alone chapters follows the same formulaic recipe, Kashiwai's unique blend of seasonings is more than enough to transform each into a five-star-worthy dish. Koishi and Nagare strive to re-create not only the precise dishes their clients want, but also to envelop them in a warm memory blanket of nostalgia.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Off-beat and charming, [with] more complexity of flavor than you might expect.”  (NPR – Fresh Air with Terry Gross)

For fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, and those who binged on Midnight Diner:Tokyo Stories. 

* = Starred review

Staff Picks: Intriguing Nonfiction

Mon, 04/15/2024 - 3:32pm by emjane

If reading nonfiction sometimes feels like homework to you, you’re not alone. But, also, I think it means you just haven’t found the right book to pique your interest. Here are four nonfiction titles that kept me turning pages and continue to—welcomely—take up brain space, even after I’ve returned them to the library.
 

Monsters : A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer| Request Now

How do you separate the art from the artist? Is it important to? Is it important not to? This “fan’s dilemma” provides the complicated backbone for Claire Dederer’s Monsters. An expansion of her excellent Paris Review essay “What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?”, Dederer explores how we struggle (or don’t) with engaging in work by complicated creators ranging from Woody Allen to J.K. Rowling to Pablo Picasso. If you’re looking for a book to tell you whether you can or can’t listen to Michael Jackson anymore, this isn’t it. Dederer is not writing to provide the moral path or convert you to her opinions. Rather, she’s wrestling with this complicated notion and letting you come along for the ride. This was one of the best books I read in 2023 and one I’m continually returning to in my mind. (Wondering if it’s the book for you? Read the essay linked above. If you like that, you’ll like Monsters. If you don’t, give it a pass.)

Staff Picks: Caring for Your Home

Sun, 04/14/2024 - 6:52pm by lucroe

Now that spring is here, taking care of one’s home beyond just a general spring cleaning may be of interest. Here are a few books in our collection that will help in fixing or simply improving areas of your home or take a dive into home decorating and organizing.

How Your House Works by Charles Wing | Request Now
In How Your House Works, you will find dozens of illustrations of sink drains, septic tanks, and every type of wiring in this handy book illustrated by Charlie Wing, a world-renowned home remodeling expert and founder of two house-building schools. You’ll never have to think, “What’s this and what does it do?” when working on your home, and you’ll get tips on how to keep things working.

Staff Picks: The Art of Motherhood

Sat, 04/13/2024 - 12:06pm by nicole

Motherhood, and all the feelings of joy, pain, and indifference that come with it, are perfectly represented in these graphic novels revolving around the complex experiences that come with creating new humans. These comics follow new moms, soon-to-be moms, and never-to-be moms as they explore what motherhood means to them.

I Don't Want To Be a Mom by Irene Olmo | Request Now

What does choice really mean when it comes to motherhood? In this graphic memoir, Irene Olmo recounts her coming-of-age transformation from assuming she will one day start a family to realizing that she just doesn’t want to be a mom. With an affecting mix of humor and introspection, she describes the subtle and not-so-subtle ways she was pressured to have children and the feelings of isolation and self-doubt that ensued. Her delightful color illustrations capture the maddeningly narrow-minded reactions of those around her as well as her own discomfort and frustration. A true story of liberation and self-empowerment in the face of societal prejudice, I Don’t Want to Be a Mom shows us that "choice" has more than one dimension and that, ultimately, some questions in life are more complicated than they seem. This comic gives voice to those who choose to be child-free or feel ambivalent toward motherhood, and is a fascinating exploration of the imposition of motherhood on women as both an expectation and a path toward fulfillment.  

Staff Picks: Simply Great Games

Mon, 04/01/2024 - 11:23am by emjane

If you haven’t checked out games from AADL, what are you waiting for? It’s the best way to try out a new game without committing to the purchase, and we’ve got an excellent selection. Previously I’ve highlighted Great Two-Player Games, and Great Games You Can Play in Under an Hour, but today I’m setting theme aside and recommending Simply Great Games! Check them out!

Wingspan | Request Now