Staff Picks

There isn't any shying away from the hard edges of the world in this slim little tale, but it also features themes of justice, hope, and redemption. The writing is crisp and lovely. The characters and setting are absolutely believable. And though this may not matter to other readers, the Christmasy scenes and descriptions rank up there with those of Capote, O. Henry, and even Dickens. They are why I picked this book up in the first place. But I stayed for the story and will read that story again, many times. This is truly a read for all seasons.

 

Publisher's description:

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

 

Based on a D&D podcast done by the McElroy family, this graphic novel (first in a series) is extremely funny, has eye-catching visuals, is self-referential, and Meta with a capital "M". You don't have to play D&D or know anything about it (I certainly fall into both of those camps) to enjoy this.

 

Publisher description: 
Welcome to the Adventure Zone!
SEE! The illustrated exploits of three lovable dummies set loose in a classic fantasy adventure!
READ! Their journey from small-time bodyguards to world-class artifact hunters!
MARVEL! At the sheer metafictional chutzpah of a graphic novel based on a story created in a podcast where three dudes and their dad play a tabletop role playing game in real time!
Join Taako the elf wizard, Merle the dwarf cleric, and Magnus the human warrior for an adventure they are poorly equipped to handle AT BEST, guided ("guided") by their snarky DM, in a graphic novel that, like the smash-hit podcast it's based on, will tickle your funny bone, tug your heartstrings, and probably pants you if you give it half a chance.
With endearingly off-kilter storytelling from master goofballs Clint McElroy and the McElroy brothers, and vivid, adorable art by Carey Pietsch, The Adventure Zone: Here There be Gerblins is the comics equivalent of role-playing in your friend's basement at 2am, eating Cheetos and laughing your ass off as she rolls critical failure after critical failure.

 

This moving, character-driven novel by acclaimed author Kathryn Ma centers on the experiences of a young Chinese immigrant. Kirkus, in a starred review, calls this a "rollicking contemporary picaresque," and adds, "Ma knows how to twist a plot in unexpected, deeply satisfying directions."

 

Publisher's description:

Eighteen-year-old Shelley, born into a much-despised branch of the Zheng family in Yunnan Province and living in the shadow of his widowed father's grief, dreams of bigger things. Buoyed by an exuberant heart and his cousin Deng's tall tales about the United States, Shelley heads to San Francisco to claim his destiny, confident that any hurdles will be easily overcome by the awesome powers of the "Chinese groove," a belief in the unspoken bonds between countrymen that transcend time and borders. Upon arrival, Shelley is dismayed to find that his "rich uncle" is in fact his unemployed second cousin once removed and that the grand guest room he'd envisioned is but a scratchy sofa. The indefinite stay he'd planned for? That has a firm two-week expiration date. Even worse, the loving family he hoped would embrace him is in shambles, shattered by a senseless tragedy that has cleaved the family in two. They want nothing to do with this youthful bounder who's barged into their lives. Ever the optimist, Shelley concocts a plan to resuscitate his American dream by insinuating himself into the family. And, who knows, maybe he'll even manage to bring them back together in the process.

 

There would have been no Mexican revolution without the women. Las Soldaderas: women of the Mexican Revolution compiles stories and photographs from some of the most infamous Soldaderas, offering a glimpse into the back story of the fight for Mexican civil rights.

 

Publisher description:
The photographs of Las Soldaderas and Elena Poniatowska’s remarkable commentary rescue the women of the Mexican Revolution from the dust and oblivion of history. These are the Adelitas and Valentinas celebrated in famous corridos mexicanos, but whose destiny was much more profound and tragic than the idealistic words of ballads. The photographs remind Poniatowska of the trail of women warriors that begins with the Spanish conquest and continues to Mexico’s violent revolution. These women are valiant, furious, loyal, maternal, and hardworking; they wear a mask that is part immaculate virgin, part mother and wife, and part savage warrior; and they are joined together in the cruel hymn of blood and death from which they built their own history of the Revolution.

 

After being deported for violating obscenity laws by publishing a book of short stories titled Lesbian Love, Eve Adams (a queer, Jewish immigrant) would be murdered by Nazis at Auschwitz. Her story is important queer history about America's early lesbian culture and the indominable spirit of love.

 

Publisher's description: 

"On these pages, Eve Adams rises up, loves, rebels—her times, eerily resembling our own." —Joan Nestle, cofounder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives and author of A Restricted Country

2022 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist
 

Born Chawa Zloczewer into a Jewish family in Poland, Eve Adams emigrated to the United States in 1912,took a new name, befriended anarchists, sold radical publications, and ran lesbian-and-gay-friendly speakeasies in Chicago and New York. Then, in 1925, Adams risked all to write and publish a book titled Lesbian Love.
Adams's bold activism caught the attention of the young J. Edgar Hoover and the US Bureau of Investigation, leading to her surveillance and arrest. Adams was convicted of publishing an obscene book and of attempted sex with a policewoman sent to entrap her.
Adams was jailed and then deported back to Europe, and ultimately murdered by Nazis in Auschwitz. In The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams, acclaimed historian Jonathan Ned Katz has recovered the extraordinary story of an early, daring activist.

This book follows podcaster West McCray, a mid-20s man investigating a two-sister disappearance for posterity. Although there is not a wide cast of characters in this novel, Sadie makes up for it. She is such a fantastic lead and I absolutely adored her. By the end of the book my heart was broken but I think it was worth it. This is the mystery to end all mysteries, I highly recommend. 

- Addie, eleventh-grade teen volunteer

Publisher's description:

 

Told from the alternating perspectives of nineteen-year-old Sadie who runs away from her isolated small Colorado town to find her younger sister's killer, and a true crime podcast exploring Sadie's disappearance.

 

Kate Atkinson's new novel Shrines of Gaiety is a thrilling mix of crime, romance, and satire. The story is set in 1920's London, and the action rotates around night club owner Nellie Coker, the queen of Soho nightlife. Deftly crafted, a totally engaging read.

 

Publisher description:

1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time. The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven, whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie's empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho's gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost.

 

Young George and his family live a peaceful life in Los Angeles in the 1940s until armed guards arrive at their home after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. People of Japanese descent are quickly rounded up and punished by the U.S. Government during a period of strong anti-Japanese sentiment. Forced to live in work camps in California and Arkansas, the Takei family strives to maintain a normal upbringing for their three young kids. Packed with real historical details, a gripping autobiographical narrative, and beautiful illustrations, this book exemplifies the best of historical fiction and graphic novels alike.

 

Publisher's description:

A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei's childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. As a four-year-old boy, George Takei found his own birth country at war with his father's -- and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future. In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten "relocation centers," hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard. This is Takei's firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the joys and terrors of growing up under legalized racism, his mother's hard choices, his father's faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future.

 

Judith Heumann offers a fascinating insight into a pivotal part of the disability rights movement, particularly in her role in the Section 504 Sit-In. If you love a good autobiography and want to learn more about an often-overlooked portion of American history and society, this is the book for you.

Publisher description:

Paralyzed from polio at eighteen months, Judy’s struggle for equality began early in life. From fighting to attend grade school after being described as a “fire hazard” to later winning a lawsuit against the New York City school system for denying her a teacher’s license because of her paralysis, Judy’s actions set a precedent that fundamentally improved rights for disabled people. As a young woman, Judy rolled her wheelchair through the doors of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in San Francisco as a leader of the Section 504 Sit-In, the longest takeover of a governmental building in US history. Working with a community of over 150 disabled activists and allies, Judy successfully pressured the Carter administration to implement protections for disabled peoples’ rights, sparking a national movement and leading to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Candid, intimate, and irreverent, Judy Heumann’s memoir about resistance to exclusion invites readers to imagine and make real a world in which we all belong.