Staff Recommendations
Pages
-
The Secret Life of Sam Holloway
by Thomas, Rhys
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryFebruary 18, 2020
Sam Holloway is a good guy, who is kind and thoughtful, with a stable, but not terribly exciting, job with an electronic parts distributor. He meets up with a couple of friends several nights a week at a local pub, where they talk about comics, movies, videogames and what it might be like to meet a nice woman. Yes, Sam is a bit of a geek, but he is also a nice guy, and everyone seems to know that. What no one knows though, is that on nights when Sam isn’t at the pub with his friends, he dons a homemade superhero costume (You can order pretty much anything off of the Internet!), and patrols... Read Full Review
-
Anthony Bourdain remembered.
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionFebruary 10, 2020
Call Number: 641.092 B768An
Anthony Bourdain was a charmer, armed with wit and brilliance, and a mischievous smile, and probably broke many female hearts with his passion for everything in life. On television, his walk was a joy to watch, with long arms and legs striding along, venturing forth to get somewhere, to see, to experience, and enticing and encouraging us to come along. With his decision to cut out early (Anthony Bourdain died in early June, 2018, an apparent suicide), he has broken all of our hearts, for those of us who watched his television programs and read his books, and delighted... Read Full Review
-
Mighty justice : my life in civil rights
by Roundtree, Dovey Johnson, 1914-2018,
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionFebruary 3, 2020
Call Number: 347.092 R859
Dovey Johnson Roundtree was an African American civil rights leader and activist, an attorney and an ordained minister. Her life and contributions are not that well known. Born in 1914, she came of age in a time when African Americans could take nothing for granted about their personal safety, and had no expectations at all about fair and equitable treatment in their personal or professional lives. Roundtree's life is a reminder of how things were, and what it took for her to endure and persist to bring about change. This is Roundtree's autobiography, a life that was rich with... Read Full Review
-
Made things
by Tchaikovsky, Adrian, 1972-
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryJanuary 27, 2020
Coppelia is not quite a thief and not quite a con-artist. What she is, or could be if she were living a different life, is an artist. A builder who could create function and beauty from raw materials, but only in a different life. A life where her parents hadn’t been taken to a workhouse, leaving Coppelia to be sent to an orphanage. A life where she hadn’t fled that orphanage with only the clothes on her back, left to scrape out a living on the streets of the Barrio in Fountains Parish. But living on the street has made Coppelia both a thief and a con-artist, and it has also given her one... Read Full Review
-
Dreamers and Schemers: How an Improbable Bid for the 1932 Olympics Transformed Los Angeles From Dusty Outpost to Global Metropolis
by Siegel, Barry
Reviewed by: Nicholas Beyelia, Librarian, History and Genealogy DepartmentJanuary 21, 2020
Call Number: 796.321 O53 1932 Si
This book follows the machinations of Los Angeles real estate mogul William May Garland as he attempts to bring the 1932 Olympic Games to Los Angeles. Barry Siegel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and UC Irvine Professor, rewards the reader with an enjoyable account of a winsome individual with a dogged determination to bring an international spotlight to a city that was still struggling for recognition.
William Garland, like most early Angelenos, was a transplant, in this case from Maine. He arrived in Los Angeles around 1890 and became involved with the real estate business... Read Full Review
-
Riot Baby
by Onyebuchi, Tochi
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryJanuary 13, 2020
Ella has what she refers to as her Thing. It allows her to see things that have not yet happened. As a young girl growing up in Compton, California, this is more of a curse than a blessing. Ella is rarely happy by the future she sees. And, as she grows older, her Thing will allow her to do more than simply see into the future.
Kev is born in the early hours of the riots that erupted in South Central Los Angeles in the spring of 1992. He and Ella are moved to the East Coast and Harlem by their mother after the riots. Life is hard for people of color in Harlem and Kev is no exception.... Read Full Review
-
Steel Crow Saga
by Krueger, Paul
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryDecember 30, 2019
A prince, a soldier, a detective, and a thief. Four very different people, with very different histories and experiences. There are two things that they all share: they have survived the war that just ended, and during that war they have all suffered significant losses. Over the course of a few days, the prince, the soldier, the detective and the thief will learn, in very real, tangible ways that they are more alike than unalike, and it is a lesson that very well may change their world.
Sergeant Tala, of the army of the Republic of Sanbu, is a warrior. She has fought in the war her... Read Full Review
-
Carrie Fisher : a life on the edge
by Weller, Sheila,
Reviewed by: David B., Librarian, InfoNowDecember 23, 2019
Call Number: 812.092 F533We
The actress and writer Carrie Fisher spent her entire life in the public eye. The daughter of two entertainment industry icons, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, she grew up in Beverly Hills when it was the epicenter of Hollywood glamour. Her parents’ relationships were frequently tabloid fodder, and she was one of the more popular kids at Beverly Hills High. She later found fame in a galaxy, far, far away as Princess Leia in Star Wars and became an unlikely sex symbol with her “take no prisoners” attitude. Fisher appeared in two critically acclaimed New York-based films in the... Read Full Review
-
The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl
by Goss, Theodora
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryDecember 16, 2019
Call Number: M
In The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, Theodora Goss introduced readers to The Athena Club whose members are Mary Jekyll, Diana Hyde, Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherine Moreau and Justine Frankenstein. They are the daughters of some of speculative fiction’s maddest scientists. In that novel, The Athena Club assisted with solving a series of murders in Whitechapel. The second novel,... Read Full Review
-
How to raise a reader
by Paul, Pamela,
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionDecember 9, 2019
Call Number: 372.4 P324
Pamela Paul and Maria Russo provide helpful advice and guidance about how parents can raise children to be readers, and how to keep those children reading. They lay out methods, guidelines, book lists and positive motivational techniques for parents to follow. In the introduction they present two different reading situations that children and parents face:
... Read Full Review
-
The Starless Sea
by Morgenstern, Erin
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryDecember 2, 2019
In 2011, Erin Morgenstern made an unforgettable impression on readers with her debut novel, The Night Circus, which is about a challenge between two ancient beings. Each selects an apprentice, whom they then raise and train to compete. The arena for the competition is the wondrous Night Circus, where each apprentice creates and enhances the shows and performances using magic. As the competition proceeds, something unexpected happens: the apprentices fall in love, but what neither of them knows is at the end of this challenge, there can be only one survivor.
The... Read Full Review
-
Midnight Chicken: (& Other Recipes Worth Living For)
by Risbridger, Ella
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionNovember 26, 2019
Call Number: 641.59 R595
Even though this book has recipes with good directions, it is not exactly a cookbook. It is part memoir with an appreciation about having a family made of friends who are reliably there for the good and bad times--no matter what. The book is wholeheartedly a paean to life and the love that makes it jubilant when things are going well, and bearable when things are not going so well. It is noticeably British; the recipes are written with a mix of metric and centigrade measurements; and there are Britishisms throughout the text which readers will be able to figure... Read Full Review