Blog Post
Staff Picks: A Bit of Romantasy
by lucroe
For readers craving that overlap between romance and fantasy, check out these titles that have it all: magic, creatures, and love!
Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna | Request Now
A cozy romantasy about Mika Moon, who happens to be a witch but no one knows except her coven, who don't understand how lonely she has felt throughout the years. When a mysterious message arrives asking her to come to Nowhere House to train three young witches how to control their magic, she knows it's a bad idea to go. Who knows, maybe there she'll find something worth taking a chance on like the house librarian Jamie Kelly who she is immediately attracted to but who gives her the cold shoulder. Could she melt that icy heart of his?
Blog Post
Staff Picks: New Historical Fiction at AADL
by eapearce
Historical fiction remains one of the most popular genres for local readers! Titles in the genre offer readers the opportunity to learn more about past events, especially ones you’re not familiar with, often in a less-dense manner than non-fiction books about the same events might provide. If you’re looking for your next historical fiction read, check out one of these newly added titles to the library collection and add yourself to the holds list.
The Berlin Letters, by Katherine Reay | Request Now
The Cold War is coming to a close and CIA codebreaker Luisa Voekler is frustrated. Since a young girl, she’s always enjoyed using her logical, quick mind to solve puzzles and crack codes. She expected to move up quickly in the CIA, but while her colleagues are working hard to complete assignments that will hopefully finally bring the Cold War to an end, Luisa is stuck still cracking leftover codes from back during World War II. When she analyzes a letter with symbols she recognizes from her childhood, though, something clicks into place and she begins to wonder if her long-lost father is not, in fact, dead after all, as she’s always thought. Determined to figure out the truth, Luisa travels East Germany, determined to get her father out–if he’s still alive. As the book races toward the climactic fall of the Berlin Wall, readers journey with Luisa to the heart of Berlin to experience the monumental moment with her, and to hopefully share in her discovery of answers to questions she has had her whole life. This book includes book discussion questions at the end, making it a good fit for book clubs!
Blog Post
Staff Picks: Fabulous Fiction from U-M Alum
by emjane
The Helen Zell Writers Program, University of Michigan’s MFA program, has an impressive alumni list, who—would you believe it—have written some impressively good books! Here are a few of my favorites.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett | Request Now
Twin sisters Desiree and Stella both leave home at 16 and their lives, which up until that point had been lived in tandem, dramatically diverge. Told from shifting perspectives between Desiree, Stella, and their daughters, The Vanishing Half spans generations to tell an engaging story of identity, family, and connection.
Blog Post
Staff Picks: Teen Books on TV
by nicole
Several Teen books have been adapted into shows in the past few years. If you like to read the book before you see it on TV, check out these YA stories that have been recreated for the small screen.
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman | Request Now
According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just after tea. Which means that Armageddon will happen on Saturday night. So the armies of Good and Evil are gathering, the Four Bikers of the Apocalypse are revving up their mighty hogs and hitting the road, and the world's last two remaining witch-finders are getting ready to fight the good fight, awkwardly armed with antiquated instructions and stick pins. Armageddon is in the air. Which is a major problem for Crowley, a fast-living demon, and his opposite and old friend Aziraphale, a fussy angel. They like it down here, and they're not particularly looking forward to the end of it all. So they've got no choice but to defeat the marching ranks of the Witchfinder's army and - somehow - stop the Rapture from happening. Above all, they've got to find and kill the most powerful being on earth, the Antichrist (which is a shame, as he's a really nice kid). There's just one glitch: someone seems to have misplaced him. This over-the-top story is equal parts humor and fantasy, and the TV series is also available in our catalog.
Blog Post
Staff Picks: Cooking Abroad: Explore the World With International Cookbooks
by eapearce
One way to experience other places is through food. And the great thing about food is, even if you can’t actually cross the ocean to try it in its country of origin, you can always try your hand at making a dish at home! Cooking with unfamiliar ingredients or preparing dishes that you’ve never made before can be daunting, but these cookbooks make it easy to explore other cuisines in the comfort of your own kitchen. Take a look!
Maydān: Recipes From Lebanon and Beyond, by Rose Previte | Request Now
Author Rose Previte is the owner of a restaurant in Washington, D.C. with the same name as this cookbook. At both her restaurant and in this book, she invites readers to join her on a culinary journey through North Africa and parts of the Middle East, following many of the ancient spice trading routes. In fact, Previte herself traveled extensively throughout the region learning from home cooks before opening Maydān and creating this cookbook. Of course, the old spice transport routes don’t follow modern geopolitical boundaries, and one of the foundations of the cookbook is the parallels that Previte draws in the different foods from the region. She notes that people have baked bread in clay ovens in strikingly similar ways across the region, and that many of the spice blends in one area have extremely alike counterparts in another. The cookbook offers over 150 recipes and Previte encourages readers/cooks to prepare foods the way her family did when she was growing up: scale down for a weeknight meal and up for a weekend one or a party, mix and match components from different recipes, make a simple meal pop with a delicious dip or spice blend. She also includes Georgian and Lebanese wine pairings of wines that are easy to source or find here in the U.S. This cookbook is a flavorful treat.
Blog Post
Staff Picks: Breakfast Bonanza: Cookbooks for the Start of Your Day
by eapearce
Whether or not you believe that the most important meal of the day is breakfast, as the old adage goes, there is something to be said about having a delicious beginning to your morning. In the following cookbooks, you’ll get ideas for how to make breakfast unique, yummy, easy, and all three!
Breakfast: The Cookbook, by Emily Miller | Request Now
This delightful and comprehensive book shares recipes for home-cooking breakfasts from all over the world. Hundreds of recipes are compiled here with straightforward and simple instructions, so that you can prepare a dish that you’ve perhaps never even heard of before (a good thing, if you’re cooking at 7am!). Culinary notes and backgrounds on the origins of the recipes add a nice touch and provide the reader with interesting insight as to where the recipe they are preparing comes from and how people in that region might enjoy it. Conveniently, the index is organized by both food and country, so you can search for what you’re looking for by either categorization. Recipes are divided by food type as well as dietary restriction, such as gluten-free, vegetarian or vegan, quick and easy, under five ingredients and more. Lovely photographs accompany the recipes. This is a great book for any breakfast-lover, or even for anyone who is breakfast-curious and looking to up their morning meal routine.
Blog Post
Staff Picks: Motown Turns 65
by lucroe
Berry Gordy founded Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, later adding the Motown Records label. We celebrate the immense contribution to music with some books, CDs, and a movie. To learn more about Motown go to Detroit’s own Motown Museum.
Where Did Our Love Go? : the Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound by Nelson George | Request Now
Originally written in the 1980s, this is a well-researched and straightforward account of Motown’s history. George traces Berry Gordy’s career as well as the vocalists, songwriters and musicians who made the Motown sound synonymous with the 1960’s. In the end, according to accounts, Gordy lost touch with his artists and Motown became “…just another record company…”. George has written a book that shows great appreciation for the Motown that was once a powerhouse of the music industry.
Blog Post
Staff Picks: New Music by Black Artists in Celebration of Black History Month
by eapearce
AADL is always adding new music to our collection in the form of both CDs and LP records! This month we’ve got a feature on newly added titles by Black artists, in celebration of February being Black History Month. Enjoy!
Afro Futuristic Dreams, by Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids | Request Now
This new jazz album, the first by Idris Ackamoore since 2020, draws influences from a wide variety of artists: you’ll hear elements of Parliament Funkadelic, Sun Ra and Fela Kuti along with more traditional jazz sounds and combinations. The smoothness of Afro Futuristic Dreams doesn’t take away from its politically charged message, aided by Ackamoor delivering straightforward lyrics about current events. Ackamoor, who came of age in the 1960s, has always felt that making music is about “making change happen,” and it’s clear on this new record that he’s pushing for change in the United States in lots of ways. The Pyramids were founded in the early 1970s in Ohio, and became known for combining African rhythms with the psychedelic jazz that was particularly popular in the U.S. at the time. Known for being one of the few bands who actually spent time traveling and playing in Africa to best capture the authentic sounds they were seeking, they’re just as strong as ever accompanying Ackamoor on this record (he was a founding member of the band back in the day). This record is well worth a listen.
Blog Post
Staff Picks: A Library Card: Your Ticket to Free Streaming!
by emjane
Peeved that your streaming service is adding commercials? Luckily there is a whole slew of commercial-free streaming content available to you via your aadl.org catalog. You can browse the whole collection of more than 10,000 videos, or check out some recommended picks below:
Travel Documentaries
Travel the world without leaving your couch! BBC’s Emmy-winning Seven Worlds One Planet is a beautiful look at all of the continents. Don’t Forget Your Passport is more causal viewing, but its charming host and highlight of tours across the world is a great way to add future trips to your bucket list. And, of course, you can’t forget the King of Travel, Rick Steves – we have quite a few titles from his Rick Steves’ Europe series!
Blog Post
Staff Picks: Into The Woods - Middle-Grade Wilderness Comics
by nicole
Looking for adventure, but stuck at home in the snow? Travel to magical jungles and frontier forests with these wild wilderness graphic novels.
Mighty Jack, Book 1 by Ben Hatke | Request Now
Jack might be the only kid in the world dreading summer. But he's got a good reason: summer is when his single mom takes a second job and leaves him at home to watch his autistic kid sister, Maddy. It's a lot of responsibility. And it's boring, too, because Maddy never talks. Not ever. But then, one day at the flea market, Maddy does talk: she tells Jack to trade their mom's car for a box of mysterious seeds. It's the best mistake Jack has ever made. Soon Jack finds himself planting a very unusual garden, one that produces a crop of strange and bizarre creatures. What starts as a normal little garden out back behind the house quickly grows up into a wild, magical jungle with tiny onion babies running amok, huge, pink pumpkins that bite, and, on one moonlit night that changes everything…a dragon. If you love Ben Hatke's great storytelling or want more Mighty Jack, check out the rest of his books in the AADL Catalog.