Category: Reference

Last of the Blue and Gray by Richard Serrano

- Ann Leave a comment

last of the blue and grayIn the late 1950s, as America prepared for the Civil War centennial, two very old men lay dying. Albert Woolson, 109 years old, slipped in and out of a coma at a Duluth, Minnesota, hospital, his memories as a Yankee drummer boy slowly dimming. Walter Williams, at 117 blind and deaf and bedridden in his daughter’s home in Houston, Texas, no longer could tell of his time as a Confederate forage master. The last of the Blue and the Gray were drifting away; an era was ending.

Unknown to the public, centennial officials, and the White House too, one of these men was indeed a veteran of that horrible conflict and one according to the best evidence nothing but a fraud. One was a soldier. The other had been living a great, big lie. In The Last of the Blue and Gray, Richard Serrano weaves together American history and larger-than-life characters to create a tense and fascinating account. (description from publisher)

Dear Mary McCartney, please have me over for FOOD

- Ann Leave a comment

I require two things of a cookbook for me to check it out:

♥ There must be lots of photos.
♥ Those photos must be beautiful.

Checking out a cookbook is not the same thing as USING a cookbook. For me to actually use a cookbook, I require two additional things:

♥ Simple ingredients.
♥ Simple instructions.

Very, very few cookbooks meet these requirements (thus I am forced to make frozen pizza at least twice a week. Sigh. It is so difficult being a lazy cook with high cookbook standards). So when I discovered that Mary McCartney’s new cookbook, FOOD: Vegetarian Home Cooking, exceeded all of my requirements I just had to hug it. Yup, I hug that cookbook. On a regular basis. Because I love it. I really really love it.

For those of you who are not as obsessed with the McCartney family as I am, Mary McCartney is the daughter of Sir Paul McCartney and the late Linda McCartney, and thus grew up in arguably the most famous of vegetarian families. I was worried that Mary’s long history with vegetarian cooking (not particularly my favorite type of food) would result in complicated and unappealing fancy cuisine and thus dash my hopes that I would ever be able to comfortably tuck in if invited to sit at the McCartney supper table.

Upon opening the cookbook, I was first struck (and almost brought to tears) by Mary’s cozy photographs of lovely people and fresh food and how the photographs reminded me just enough of her mother, Linda, but were still very much the artist’s own. Wonderful and crisp.

Then I started looking at the recipes and I was like “HEY I CAN MAKE THESE!” I made a cold Quinoa salad, a Quinoa and white bean soup, granola bars, zucchini pasta, a coconut-pineapple smoothie and all were easy and successful. My favorite recipe was the hummus and hot pepper jam sandwich – So simple, right?! The recipes are delicious and appealing to even a non-Veggie lover like me. Mary McCartney managed to not only make a beautiful and delicious cookbook, but also to make me feel like a confident, capable cook. And that is why FOOD gets a frequent hug from me. You should probably hug it, too.

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

- Ann Leave a comment

boneseasonI read a lot about The Bone Season before I started reading the book, which means that I read a lot about the book’s author, Samantha Shannon.  A twenty-one year old recent graduate from Oxford University, Shannon has been marketed as a literary wunderkind. Every interview and review mentions her age or her status as a “young writer”.  As a first-time published author, that is to be expected (here I am doing the same), and I would be lying if I didn’t say that influenced my decision to pick it up.

But this novel stands on its own (well, at least until the next six books in the series are released.)  Shannon has created a fascinating near-future paranormal fantasy novel that includes elements of revisionist history and dystopian science fiction.  Set in Scion controlled London in 2059, this fast-paced novel introduces readers to Paige Mahoney, a member of the clairvoyant criminal underworld.  Scion was formed to find and eliminate clairvoyants like Paige, so being a member of Jaxon Hall’s Seven Dials based gang keeps her a protected and fed member of a family.  But when Paige commits a crime that leads to her arrest and capture, she finds herself in Sheol I, a penal colony for voyants run by Rephaim, a race of non-human clairvoyants.  While in Sheol I, Paige is assigned to the Warden for training and care and she has to decide if she can trust him, as she tries to find a way to save herself and the other humans imprisoned for life in Sheol I.

Shannon has been called the next J.K. Rowling (pressure anyone?) and The Bone Season has been compared to the Harry Potter series and The Hunger Games series.  I understand why, and I would recommend that fans of both series check out The Bone Season.  But I think that while there are elements of each in this book (magical powers, dystopian future, strong female protagonist), Shannon has created something different.  She has said that she was influenced by Margaret Atwood, and this is apparent in her intelligent, literary take on urban fantasy.  This might be my favorite read this year (but there are two more months to go, so don’t hold me to that.)

Cooking with Celebrities

- Ann Leave a comment

With the purchase of his newest CD, B.O.A.T.S II, #metime, southern rapper 2 Chainz is releasing a digital Instagram cookbook with some of his favorite recipes called #mealtime.  While 2 Chainz is not the first celebrity to offer up a cookbook, he might very well be the first to include a digital cookbook with a CD (I’m going to bet that he is.) You may not be able to borrow #mealtime from the library, but we would love it if you checked out one of these celebrity cookbooks:

kinddiet

The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet by Cher Horowitz Alicia Silverstone
Silverstone is best known for playing Cher Horowitz in Clueless, but also made a name for herself in recent years for demonstrating mouth-to-mouth feeding of children to many for the first time.  This book helps vegetarians and vegans ensure that they’re getting all of the nutrition needed, while still making tasty food.

tucci cookbookThe Tucci Cookbook by Stanley Tucci
Tucci has been in a number of fantastic films, including The Devil Wears Prada, Julie and Julia, Easy A, and of course, The Hunger Games.  As the grandson of Italian immigrants, Tucci has spent his life around food.  In this cookbook he shares a mixture of family recipes and stories.

ifitmakesyou healthyIf it Makes You Healthy by Sheryl Crow
Crow’s cookbook is comprised of healthy recipes created by her personal chef, Chuck White.  As breast cancer survivor, Crow is more concerned with the health benefits of certain foods and focusing on local and organic than with calorie counts.  The title is a pun on Crow’s hit, “If it Makes You Happy” off of her 1996 eponymous album.

cookinwithcoolioCookin’ With Coolio: 5 Star Meals at a 1 Star Price by Coolio
So, apparently Coolio had a “Cookin’ with Coolio” webseries (that no one told me about!) and as a result, he had a cookbook published. The “Gangsta’s Paradise” and “Fantastic Voyage” rapper (and “Rollin’ with My Homies” featured in the aforementioned Clueless) mixes tongue-in-cheek humor, slang, vulgarity, and a plethora of drug references with simple recipes in this R-rated cookbook.

georgia cooking         tangytart         evaskitchen          my father's daughter

You can also find cookbooks from Gwyneth Paltrow, Trisha Yearwood, Padma Lakshmi, and Eva Longoria at the library!

 

I Read Banned Books.

- Ann Leave a comment

Here at the Davenport Public Library, we are celebrating our freedom to read during Banned Books Week by reading frequently challenged and banned books.  From September 22nd until the 28th, we encourage you to stop by one of the DPL locations and pick up one of the books that have been banned or challenged at libraries across the country.  We will have many of the books on display, and as always, stop by the reference desk and we’ll help you find the book you need.  You might be surprised to find one of your favorites on the list.

The 10 most frequently challenged books of 2012:

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Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie, 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Looking for Alaska by John Green, Scary Stories Series by Alvin Schwartz, The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, Beloved by Toni Morrison

Nappily Ever After by Trisha Thomas

- Ann Leave a comment

nappily ever afterIn Nappily Ever After, the first book in Trisha Thomas’ Nappily series, introduces readers to Venus Johnson.  Venus seems to have it all — a beautiful house, a great job, a loving doctor boyfriend, and “good” straight, shiny hair — but she feels like something is missing.  When her boyfriend, Clint, once again brushes off her desire to get married, Venus decides that she needs to start making changes in her life.

The first change she makes is cutting off all of her hair.  After spending most of her life in the solon having her hair chemically relaxed, she is sick of what she now sees as a painful, expensive waste.  This symbolic move of independence is important for Venus, who has always worked hard to reach the goals set by society.  She now has to fight against other’s expectations and make her own way.

Featuring love triangles, misunderstandings, and sabotage, Venus’ life is a ever changing soap opera.  Fans of Kimberla Lawson Roby and Benilde Little will want to pick up book.

Sleepwalk with Mike Birbiglia

- Ann Leave a comment

sleepwalkwithmeIn 2008, comedian Mike Birbiglia wrote a one-man off-broadway play about his experiences with rapid eye movement behavior disorder, which causes him to act out his dreams and sleepwalk.  His symptoms are exacerbated the longer he goes without expressing himself and dealing with his stress, resulting in him performing increasingly dangerous acts in his sleep.  Including a time when he ran out of a second-story window of a Walla Walla, Washington hotel room, resulting in 33 stitches in his leg.

Birbiglia’s one man show Sleepwalk with Me, has become the defining story of his career and has been translated to a segment on the NPR show This American Life, a book, a stand-up cd, and a movie staring Birbiglia as himself and Lauren Ambrose as his girlfriend. Birbiglia isn’t a big personality and could best be described as a sad sack, but his wit and honesty make this absurd story feel relatable.   The film, book, and stand-up cd all have similar content and are all available at the Davenport Public Library.  I would recommend any of the three, but the film is especially fantastic. Any fans of comedians Patton Oslwalt and Marc Maron and the show This American Life that somehow haven’t heard Birbiglia’s story need to check it out asap.

Embellish Me by Laurie Wisbrun

- Ann Leave a comment

embellish meIf you’re anything like me, you spend an exorbitant amount of time on Pinterest pinning projects that you’ll never finish (who am I kidding, never even start).  Of course you have all the best intentions to create that mason jar vase or handmade soaps, but last time you created something it should have ended up on Pinterest Fail.  And while many of my own Pinterest mishaps are purely the result of my impatience or inability to follow directions correctly, some are simply because I’m following the directions of another novice that lacks an editor.

Austin-based fabric designer, Laurie Wisbrun‘s book Embellish Me removes that amateur obstacle.    A professional fabric designer, Wisbrun brings expertise to the world of DIY.  As a visual person, I found Wisbrun’s step-by-step photography easy to follow and the directions complete.  The instructions make clear the tools and materials that will be needed for each project, and the interviews with other professional fabric artists were interesting and it was a treat to see their lovely works.

With a mix of instruction, ideas, and artist introductions — this is a book for crafting rookies and experts alike.

March Book One by Congressman John Lewis

- Ann Leave a comment

march book 1In 1958, the pacifist organization Fellowship of Reconciliation released a comic book to help promote the bus boycott and recruit new activists called Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story. The comic book introduced potential protesters to the Montgomery Method, a method of resistance that was adapted from the peaceful protest methods of Mahatma Gandhi and focused on taking the moral and spiritual high ground in every encounter.

With this important comic book as inspiration, U.S. Congressman John Lewis, along with congressional aide Andrew Aydin and illustrator Nate Powell (The Silence of Our Friends), has produced a stunning and important introduction to the civil rights movement and the Montgomery method. March Book One is the first book in a three part series that highlights the remarkable life of a man that was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington.

Powell’s black and white pen illustrations are fluid, easy to follow, and highlight the importance in the text.  Powell has a real talent in using light and shadow to convey mood, and his style feels modern while still hinting at the classic comic book style in  Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story. The comic book format lends itself to Lewis’ talent for oral storytelling, and would make a great introduction to a civil rights movement icon for young people and adults.

I am Overdressed

- Ann Leave a comment

Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth ClineIn Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, writer Elizabeth Cline manages to educate the reader on the current state of the worldwide garment industry and to make it a page-turner. I COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN. Cline covers the history of America’s Department Stores, the complicated ethics of a global garment industry, a trip to China’s factories for an experiment in fashion manufacturing, the effect of cheap clothes on the secondhand stores and charitable causes, and the role of social media in the “fast fashion” environment–all while unintentionally evolving herself into a “slow fashion” activist.

This is not a see-how-I’m-better-than-you-because-I-only-wear-handsewn-fair-trade-organic-cotton manifesto, but rather a conversation with a super smart friend who’s motto is I-used-to-shop-mostly-at-Forever-21-and-then-I-learned-some-stuff-and-now-prefer-not-to-shop-there. In fact, one of my favorite parts of the book is when Cline admits that only a few years before she began researching the book by sifting through her closet of cheap clothes from H&M, Target & Forever 21, she had participated in protests against her college for using sweatshops to produce their merch. If you were to ask me “Hey, are you against sweatshops and unfair labor practices?” I would say “Duh. Of course.” But then I would sheepishly look down at my clothing and have absolutley no idea how or where anything was made. It takes a lot of work not to buy cheap fasthion, and only Cline’s complete honesty, curiosity, and empathy could produce a book that could convince me to shop (a little bit) less at Target.

I highly recommend Overdressed by Elizabeth Cline to nonfiction readers, fashionistas, and fans of the slow lifestyle movement.