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How to be a Victorian - by Ruth Goldman -
by -alex-
Ever wondered how to wear a corset while you're swimming? Or maybe you've found yourself pondering how to groom your luscious Victorian beard, or how to tend your garden while wearing an enormous hoop skirt and crinoline. If so, How to be a Victorian has answers for you. Author Ruth Goldman offers all kinds of fascinating details, much of it drawn from her own personal experience living in, wearing, and working with the materials, clothes, and structures Victorians encountered in their daily lives. Goldman also draws from a wide array of historical sources and gives us an interesting and deeply moving picture of what it was really like living in the era, often drawn from the personal accounts of those who witnessed the excitements of the age of invention, and those who lived through the truly brutal realities of Victorian poverty.
The sheer array of subjects Goodman covers is impressive, and she knows how to mix the entertaining with the serious, and mixes the joyous in with sad truths. It's maybe the least likely page-turner you'll ever encounter, but it's a page-turner nonetheless. You'll find How to be a Victorian in our adult non-fiction section.
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Fabulous Fiction Firsts #681
by muffy
Lettie Teague’s article “Will Work for Wine: Oenophiles’ Second Acts”, about how financier, attorney, videogame designer left behind successful careers to pursue their passion in the wine business, in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal, brought to mind The Shortest Way Home by Miriam Parker - an accomplished debut (Publishers Weekly) that has been named one of the Best Books of 2018 by Real Simple.
After graduating from Haas MBA program at UC Berkeley, power couple Hannah and boyfriend Ethan are heading back to NYC - she, to a much-coveted job at Goldman Sachs and he, to start a business with friends from MIT. But on a romantic weekend trip to Sonoma (Hannah is sure he is about to propose), she realizes she wants to stay in California, and in particular, Sonoma. At the family-run Bellosguardo Winery, she impulsively accepted a marketing job offer, telling herself and everyone concerned that it is only for the summer. Determined to use her management skills to turn the failing business around, Hannah quickly becomes invaluable to owners Everett and Linda, and inevitably becomes involved in their problematic relationship. Her attraction to their son William, a budding filmmaker, forces Hannah to evaluate her own life choices.
“This debut novel about a young woman following her heart and creating her happiness is engaging and fun.” (Library Journal). Readers might also enjoy Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave.
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Audubon: On the Wings of the World
by samanthar
Audubon: On The Wings Of The World is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel that tells the life story of John James Audubon; a scientist, artist, and bird enthusiast. In the early nineteenth century, Audubon traveled across America, determined to paint and identify every bird in the country. Audubon’s work pioneered wildlife conservation and the field of Ornithology as we know it today. If you are interested in birding in real life, check out the Washtenaw Audubon Society. They do regular Fall Migration walks in Ann Arbor area parks, and all are welcome to attend.
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Vargic’s Miscellany of Curious Maps: Mapping the Modern World
by manz
“A map is the greatest of all epic poems. Its lines and colors show the realization of great dreams.” – Gilbert H. Grosvenor
That quote is found at the beginning of Miscellany of Curious Maps, which is a beautiful and bizarre book. I couldn’t help but stop, look through, giggle here and there, and read on and on. It’s a big, bold, and beautiful book of maps. But not any maps you’re accustomed to seeing. A quick glance finds the maps to look as you’d think, but they are labeled in new ways. You’ll find maps of stereotypes, video websites, internet, literature, music, gaming, disasters, corporations, and sports. There are also maps for paranormal activity, common foods, extinct, animals, and more. Some of the smaller maps also include some statistics. If you’re into maps or oddities, you need to give it a look-see.
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Throwback Thursday: A River Runs Through It
by eapearce
With so many new, buzzed-about books coming out all the time, it can be easy to forget about the oldies but goodies. In Throwback Thursday, we celebrate some of the books that are just as enjoyable now as they were when they were written years ago. This week, we’re looking at one of the classic American stories of the twentieth century, Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It.
The novella, the title story in a collection first published in 1976, tells the story of two brothers who—despite a complicated relationship in most respects—have long been able to connect over a shared love of fly-fishing. The story was recommended to me by my sister, who thought I would enjoy it because I have so long enjoyed fishing (although the art of fly-fishing has thus far eluded me). She was right that fishing enthusiasts might find a particular resonance with A River Runs Through It, but the story is much more than simply a tale about the sport.
Set in rural western Montana, A River Runs Through It is semi-autobiographical and loosely describes the relationship that Maclean had with his younger brother, Paul. Sons of a preacher, there were two religions in the boys’ household growing up: Christianity and fly-fishing. As the boys grow older, the Maclean character settles into to a somewhat hardscrabble but ultimately modest and content life with his wife and family. Paul, however, remains hard-drinking, hard-living and trouble-causing and the two disagree often over life’s moral quandaries. Even during the midst of their worst arguments, however, the two can always find common ground on the river, where Maclean remains in awe of his younger brother’s fishing prowess. The story is beautiful not only for the stunning descriptions of the natural world (Maclean worked on a forest crew in the western United States for years and clearly knew the land well), but also for the author’s ability to intersperse profundity into what could otherwise be a simple short story.
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One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
by manz
What a fun, new, popular mystery teen novel! It's described as "Pretty Little Liars" meets "The Breakfast Club," and that totally suits this book. In One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus five high school students are sent to detention and one of the teens mysteriously dies during the session. We have now four murder suspects. Did one of them actually kill Simon? Is one of them lying?
The book is told in alternating chapters from the POV of each of the four main suspects. With each chapter you think you have more insight into who the killer might be, but then more clues from more people are revealed and you come up with new conclusions. It's a quick read and the format keeps the suspense going! If you like teen stories set in high school, or quick murder mysteries, give it a try!
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Fabulous Fiction Firsts #680
by muffy
A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder * * by Dianne Freeman
April, 1899. After a year of mourning her philandering husband, Reggie, American heiress Frances Wynn, Countess of Harleigh was finally able to leave the crumbling family manor and money-grubbing in-laws to start a new life for herself and her young daughter in London, just in time to sponsor her younger sister Lily Price for her first London Season. When Inspector Delaney of the Metropolitan Police informed her that her husband’s death was being investigated as a possible murder, she turned to her new neighbor and brother of her best friend, George Hazelton for support.
Then a string of mysterious burglaries, a murder in her garden, and a clumsy attempt on her life convinced Frances that one of her sister’s aristocratic suitors might not be whom he claimed to be, and a killer was in their midst.
"Fans of witty, lighthearted Victorian mysteries will be enthralled." (Publishers Weekly)
A suggested read-alike : A Useful Woman, the first in the Rosalind Thorne series by Darcie Wilde (a pseudonym for Sarah Zettel) is inspired by Jane Austen’s works. It introduces a charming and resourceful heroine,  privy to the secrets of high society—including who among the ton is capable of murder.
* * = 2 starred reviews
Blog Post
Wolves - by Emily Gravett -
by -alex-
This fun and surprising story follows a rabbit as it walks out from its local public library, its nose buried deep in a book. Tension grows as it learns about the most terrifying thing a rabbit can imagine: WOLVES!!
Emily Gravett's clever illustrations and unique story-telling style are sure to keep your little one entertained. While it's definitely designed to create a feeling of suspense, this fantastic picture book is just the right amount of scary for young children. Will Rabbit realize the danger in time? There is only one way for you to find out. You'll find the answer in our youth picture book section.
Blog Post
Back to School Already?!
by mbt
Back To School Books
Do you have children starting kindergarten this year? Older kids going back to school? Well, here are some books to read to get you in the back-to-school-spirit.
By searching our public lists, I found a wonderful collection of Back To School books.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #679
by muffy
A. J. Pearce’s chance discovery of a 1939 women’s magazine is the inspiration behind her debut novel, Dear Mrs. Bird. Among the things she loved most was “The Problem Page” where women would write for advice as they faced “unimaginably difficult situations in the very toughest of times.”
London, 1940. Emmeline Lake, typist by day and a volunteer telephone operator with the Auxiliary Fire Services by night, answered a want-ad for a “junior” at London Evening Chronicle, finally realizing her dream to be a lady war correspondent. In actual fact, she was hired as a junior typist for Mrs. Henrietta Bird, the advice columnist of a weekly women’s magazine in the same building. Emmeline could almost overlook the overbearing and rude Mrs. Bird if not for her long and unreasonable list of UNACCEPTABLE TOPICS that would not be published or responded to. Feeling sorry for these women who were often lonely and faced with difficult decisions, Emmeline began answering their letters in secret.
“Vividly evocative of wartime life, with its descriptions of bombed streets, frantic fire stations, and the desperate gaiety and fortitude of ordinary souls enduring nightly terror, Pearce’s novel lays a light, charming surface over a graver underbelly. With its focus on the challenges and expectations placed on those left behind, it also asks: Who is supporting the women in a world turned upside down by war?” (Kirkus Reviews)
For fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, The Chilbury Ladies' Choir and Chris Cleave’s Everyone Brave Is Forgiven.