Staff Recommendations
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King of the blues : the rise and reign of B.B. King
by De Visé, Daniel
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionFebruary 17, 2022
Call Number: 789.14 K514De
In this extensively researched biography, which involved interviews with family, band members, other musicians, friends, managers and others, Daniel De Visé has written a biography about one of the all-time great musicians, B.B. King. It is more than a biography of one man, his art and his calling, it is a presentation of times, places, and ways of living, many that still exist in this country, which were integral to forming King's life. In meticulous detail De Visé documents the early, disjointed life of King’s childhood and young adulthood, beginning with a genealogy of... Read Full Review
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Until I am free : Fannie Lou Hamer's enduring message to America
by Blain, Keisha N., 1985-
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionFebruary 9, 2022
Call Number: 323.4092 H214Bl
During the summer of 1964, at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Fannie Lou Hamer brought her voice of discontent about political injustice within the Democratic Party. She was asking for mandatory integrated state delegations, and spoke passionately and eloquently about voter suppression, discrimination and violence leveled at those who were fighting for their civil rights. In co-founding the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Hamer was challenging local Democratic Party methods to block Black participation and representation in state and... Read Full Review
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Unnatural habitats & other stories
by Mitchell, Angela, 1971-
Reviewed by: Michael C. Baradi, Librarian, Mid-Valley Regional Branch LibraryJanuary 31, 2022
There is a scene in Unnatural Habitats & Other Stories where a bobcat lounges on a bed between a man and a woman. It’s the couple’s first night together. The man loves animals and keeps them in his house, including birds and snakes, but the bobcat is special. Soon, awkwardness enters the scene, the moment the woman wakes up after her nap and feels the bobcat’s belly moving up and down beside her, instead of her date. She has awakened the bobcat now, looking at her like an unwanted third-party on the man’s bed, a rival. The woman feels... Read Full Review
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Real Easy
by Rutkoski, Marie
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryJanuary 24, 2022
One woman murdered. Another woman missing. A police detective traumatized by her recent past. An unidentified killer. Was this their first victim or the latest in a series of murders? Will they strike again? If so, when?
In Real Easy, Marie Rutkoski, who has been known until now for her outstanding children’s and young adult literature, makes her debut as an author of adult fiction in a thrilling novel that will not only challenge readers’ abilities to solve the crime, but their preconceptions as well.
The primary setting for Real Easy... Read Full Review
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The adventure of the peculiar protocols : adapted from the journals of John H. Watson, M.D.
by Meyer, Nicholas, 1945-
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryJanuary 18, 2022
Call Number: LT M
In 1974, author and soon to be screenwriter and director Nicholas Meyer published his first novel: The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. It was a Sherlock Holmes pastiche that not only covered the foiling of a kidnapping plot, but famously chronicled Holmes’ recovery from addiction, with the help of Sigmund Freud. Over the decades, Meyer has written two other Holmes novels: 1976’s The West End Horror and 1993’s The Canary Trainer. Now Meyer is back with another previously untold story of the great detective, one that is characterized in the author’s introductory... Read Full Review
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Keep it moving : lessons for the rest of your life
by Tharp, Twyla
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionJanuary 10, 2022
Call Number: 362.6 T367
When I was in graduate school working on my MLIS, I skipped a class to attend Push Comes to Shove, a dance work choreographed by Twyla Tharp, specifically for Mikhail Baryshnikov, a classically trained ballet dancer, who at the time had recently defected to the West. This would be a break-out work for him. Tharp's techniques and movements were innovative, fresh and challenging. Some live performances are once-in-a-lifetime events, and this was one of those. As for the skipped class, graduate classes were small and attendance was taken, so before my non-appearance, I got the nod of... Read Full Review
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The son of good fortune : a novel
by Tenorio, Lysley A., 1972-
Reviewed by: Michael C. Baradi, Librarian, Mid-Valley Regional Branch LibraryJanuary 3, 2022
Call Number: Ed.a
In Lysley Tenorio’s debut novel, a mother and son duo wrestle for social and economic mobility. They have very limited resources, a direct consequence for being undocumented immigrants. As the novel opens, the male protagonist, Excel, is fresh out of high school, itching to escape a life of invisibility imposed upon him since birth by his mother, Maxima. They breathe a life of extreme caution and secrecy, lest Immigration officials discover they’re undocumented, and deport them back to the Philippines. For a while Excel is able to leave home, thanks to a... Read Full Review
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The Mary Shelley Club
by Moldavsky, Goldy
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryDecember 27, 2021
Call Number: YA
Last year, Rachel Chavez survived a home invasion. In an attempt to provide her with a new start, her mother, who teaches at Manchester Prep, an affluent Manhattan high school, moves them from their Long Island house to a Brooklyn apartment and enrolls Rachel at Manchester Prep.
Since the attack, Rachel has found comfort in watching horror movies and become a horror fan. Being the new girl, the survivor of a violent attack, and a horror fan are not typically a winning combination for fitting in at a new school. But her observation of an anomalous act at a party... Read Full Review
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Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol
by O'Meara, Mallory
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryDecember 20, 2021
Call Number: 663.109 O55
We all know what a “girly drink” is: a drink that is sweet, brightly colored, generally served in a stemmed glass and often with an umbrella or some other type of decoration. “Serious” drinks, drinks for men, do not have or need these accoutrements. Can women not enjoy bourbon, scotch or whiskey? Are there no men that enjoy a daiquiri or a cosmopolitan? When, and how, did drinking become a gendered act? Mallory O’Meara, the author of 2019’s excellent The Lady from the Black Lagoon, is back with Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol, an ambitious,... Read Full Review
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Under the Whispering Door
by Klune, TJ
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryDecember 15, 2021
Wallace Price is a successful, driven attorney, and a founding partner of a powerful law firm. He is a person of privilege with everything he wants or needs, and then suddenly, he isn’t. Wallace dies unexpectedly. He was not particularly old and was in fairly good health, although his heart clearly had the final word on that subject.
At his funeral he meets Mei, who is a Reaper. She explains his new “status” and escorts him from the city, in which he lived and worked, to a small town, and ultimately to a place called Charon’s Crossing Tea and Treats. It is here... Read Full Review
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World travel : an irreverent guide
by Bourdain, Anthony
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionDecember 7, 2021
Call Number: e-Audiobook
Anthony Bourdain was a world-class explorer, who eagerly traveled domestically and internationally, never intending to report or write about his experiences. He traveled and sampled foods of many places, satisfying his own curiosity, therefore this collection cannot be compared to a regular travel/eatery guide. Bourdain set his own standards, which were for himself and not for the rest of us. With everything that he commented on, from food to many aspects of human behavior and history, he could, at times, be irreverent. At the same time, Bourdain was ceaselessly curious and... Read Full Review
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A Quilt for David
by Reigns, Steven
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryNovember 29, 2021
Call Number: 811 R361-2
On September 3, 1990, Dr. David Acer, a dentist who worked in Jensen Beach, Florida, died from complications from AIDS. Four days after his death, Kimberly Bergalis, a young woman who was also HIV+, accused Dr. Acer of infecting her with the AIDS virus during a recent visit to his practice. Ms. Bergalis also claimed that she was a virgin and that the only way she could have become infected was through her contact with Dr. Acer. Ultimately, Ms. Bergalis was joined by seven other individuals who all claimed that their HIV infections were the result of being treated by Dr. Acer.... Read Full Review