Staff Recommendations
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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
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How We Go Home: Voices From Indigenous North America
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionNovember 23, 2021
Call Number: 970.1 H8475
Sara Sinclair compiled interviews and stories from twelve different Indigenous people whose ancestral tribes and families are from North America (The United States and Canada). These interviews came about because of Sinclair's work with a non-profit oral history project, Voice of Witness. Each person's point of view is unique, but there are common themes to be found in all of them: coerced residential and boarding schools; foster care; and the resulting trauma due to mistreatment, forced assimilation, loss of emotional family... Read Full Review
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Out of Character
by Albert, Annabeth
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryNovember 17, 2021
In last year’s Conventionally Yours, Annabeth Albert took readers on a virtual roadtrip, while the country was in lockdown, so that they could join tabletop gamers Alden, Conrad, and Jasper as they made their way from New England to Las Vegas for Massive Odyssey Con West, the annual national gathering and competition for Odyssey players. When Jasper is forced to return home due to a family emergency, Alden and Conrad continue on their... Read Full Review
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Out of body
by Ford, Jeffrey, 1955-
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryNovember 9, 2021
A small-town librarian, a senseless killing and a centuries-old horror have been preying on a community for over a hundred years. These are the building blocks used by Jeffrey Ford as a foundation for his chilling horror novella Out of Body.
On his way to work as the librarian at his community’s small library, Owen stops off at the Busy Bee, a local deli, for his breakfast. As he is making his purchase, a man rushes into the store with a gun. He threatens the cashier as he demands the cash from the register and then swings around and strikes Owen in the... Read Full Review
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Mankiller : a chief and her people
by Mankiller, Wilma, 1945-2010.
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionNovember 3, 2021
Call Number: 970.2 M278
Wilma Pearl Mankiller was principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, and the first woman to hold that position. In the Cherokee language, the surname “Mankiller,” Asgaya-dihi, references a traditional Cherokee rank, such as captain or major. Chief Mankiller was the least violent individual on this planet, but she was a commander, comparable to a Four-Star General, for whom the word "no" did not exist, especially when confronted with a problem. She was relentless in seeking solutions and enlisted others to help. Part of working within a group was an implicit aspect of the... Read Full Review
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An elderly lady must not be crossed
by Tursten, Helene, 1954-
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionOctober 20, 2021
She's back. Maud returns, much to this reviewer's surprise and delight. Her first, and supposedly last, appearance was in An elderly lady is up to no good, where she was taking justice into her own hands, and under scrutiny by clever Detective Inspector Irene Huss. In this group of short stories Maud fills in some blank spots about her early life, which explains how she started on this path of crime, aka justice. She was witness to unfair occurrences that took place, reacted, and... Read Full Review
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The southern book club's guide to slaying vampires
by Hendrix, Grady
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryOctober 18, 2021
At the end of the Author’s Note for The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix tells you everything you need to know before diving in to his new novel: “I wanted to pit Dracula against my mom. As you’ll see, it’s not a fair fight.”
Patricia Campbell is living the “American Dream”. She is married to an ambitious psychiatrist, has two children, a girl and a boy, and lives in a somewhat exclusive neighborhood near Charleston, South Carolina. She keeps house, runs the necessary errands, ferries her kids to their various meetings and... Read Full Review
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A farewell to Gabo and Mercedes : a son's memoir of Gabriel García Márquez and Mercedes Barcha
by García, Rodrigo, 1959-
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionOctober 6, 2021
Call Number: 863 G216Gar
Gabriel Marquez Garcia was one of the giants among modern writers and his books place him in the pantheon of writers throughout the ages. In 1982 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Not only is he significant in the world of Spanish language writers, he is beloved and respected internationally, and his books have been widely translated. In many of his books he is known for his seamless incorporation of magical realism, which was part of his grandmother's origins in Colombia, and became a literary technique for truthfulness, especially in One Hundred Years of... Read Full Review