Staff Picks - LibGuides at Boulder Public Library

Ilan recommends Rememberings by Sinead O'Connor

07/19/2025

Boulder Library

adult nonfiction, autobiography, .Ilan's reviews, mental health

Through her early childhood, adolescence and up through her famous appearance on Saturday Night Live, then into her later life, Sinéad O'Connor shares her life story with raw honesty, compassion, grit, and charm. An insightful read, with lots of musical references--I read it with YouTube at hand and watched moments, music videos, and performances as they came up in the book for a full featured multimedia reading experience!

Publisher's description:

Blessed with a singular voice and a fiery temperament, Sinéad O’Connor rose to massive fame in the late 1980s and 1990s with a string of gold records. By the time she was twenty, she was world famous -- living a rock star life out loud. From her trademark shaved head to her 1992 appearance on Saturday Night Live when she tore up Pope John Paul II’s photograph, Sinéad has fascinated and outraged millions. In Rememberings, O’Connor recounts her painful tale of growing up in Dublin in a dysfunctional, abusive household. Inspired by a brother’s Bob Dylan records, she escaped into music. She relates her early forays with local Irish bands; we see Sinéad completing her first album while eight months pregnant, hanging with Rastas in the East Village, and soaring to unimaginable popularity with her cover of Prince’s 'Nothing Compares 2U.' Intimate, replete with candid anecdotes and told in a singular form true to her unconventional career, Sinéad’s memoir is a remarkable chronicle of an enduring and influential artist.

Find Rememberings in our online catalog

Braedan recommends Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us by Jennifer Boylan

06/14/2025

Boulder Library

adult nonfiction, autobiography, LGBTQIA+, transgender, .Braedan's reviews

I had never heard of Jennifer Boylan before, and after reading Cleavage, she is a name to remember for sure! She fosters a safe space to learn about, hear, and understand transgender perspectives. A great book to explore the different experiences of transgender people, but also to become acquainted with the similarities! Boylan offers really unique insight to her life and lived experiences and captivates the reader to continue reading until the book is done!

Publishers description:

What is the difference between men and women? Jennifer Finney Boylan examines the divisions-as well as the common ground-between the genders, and reflects on her own experiences, both difficult and joyful, as a transgender American. Jennifer Finney Boylan's She's Not There was the first bestselling work written by a transgender American. Since its publication twenty years ago, she has become the go-to person for insight into the impact of gender on our lives, from the food we eat to the dreams we dream, both for ourselves and for our children. But Cleavage is more than a deep dive into gender identity; it's also a look at the difference between coming out as trans in 2000-when many people reacted to Boylan's transition with love-and the present era of blowback and fear. How does gender affect our sense of self? Our body image? The passage of time? The friends we lose-and keep? Boylan considers her womanhood, reflects on the boys and men who shaped her, and reconceives of herself as a writer, activist, parent, and spouse. With heart-wrenching honesty, she illustrates the feeling of liminality that followed her to adulthood, but demonstrates the redemptive power of love through it all. With Boylan's trademark humor and poignancy, Cleavage is a sharp, witty, and captivating look at the triumphs and losses of a life lived in two genders. Cleavage provides hope for a future in which we all have the freedom to live joyfully as men, as women, and in the space between us.

Find Cleavage in our online catalog

Izzy recommends Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

05/29/2025

Boulder Library

autobiography, humor, .Guest Post, Isabella, Teen Volunteer

Born a Crime is a hilarious and heartbreaking autobiography about Trevor Noah. It tells about Trevor’s childhood, mischief, and curiosity, woven with the challenges of apartheid. He struggles with fitting in with his classmates, as well as in his family, when his stepdad comes into the picture. His resilience keeps his relationship with his mom steady and respectful throughout his life. This book was very impactful and not just about surviving in a difficult world, but about finding humor, hope, and the strength to survive the worst-case scenario.

Publisher's Description:

One of the comedy world's fastest-rising stars tells his wild coming of age story during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.

Find Born a Crime in our online catalog.

Monnie recommends The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

03/29/2025

Boulder Library

adult nonfiction, autobiography, biography, .Monnie's reviews, nature

Tan diverges from her normal fare to share personal bird observations. I read this during a time when I added my own backyard birdfeeders and began observing my avian neighbors up close. Tan's book makes one understand the amazing intricacies that are easily missed if we don't observe closely!

Publisher's description:

In 2016, author Amy Tan grew overwhelmed by the state of the world: Hatred and misinformation became a daily presence on social media, and the country felt more divisive than ever. In search of peace, Tan turned toward the natural world just beyond her window and, specifically, the birds flocking to the feeders in her yard. But what began as an attempt to find solace turned into something far greater--an opportunity to savor quiet moments during a volatile time, connect to nature in a meaningful way, and imagine the intricate lives of the birds she admired. Tracking the natural beauty that surrounds us, The Backyard Bird Chronicles maps the passage of time--from before the pandemic to the days of quarantine--through daily entries, thoughtful questions, and beautiful original sketches. With boundless charm and wit, Amy Tan charts her foray into birding and the natural wonders of the world.

Find The Backyard Bird Chronicles in our online catalog

Brandon recommends There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

02/28/2025

Boulder Library

adult nonfiction, autobiography, history, teen, sociology, sports, lived experiences, BIPOC, Black, mental health, .Brandon's reviews

Abdurraqib's writing is passionate, jumps off the page at times, and has rhythm and meaning for every word and at the corners of every sentence. He articulates what it means to be a true fan, how that fandom is intertwined with the city you're from, and how a lot of times that city lets you down but you keep showing up, because you've always dreamed of the day your team, your city, can rise above it and get national recognition for redemption, even if it's just for that moment.

Publisher's description:

While Hanif Abdurraqib is an acclaimed author, a gifted poet, and one of our culture's most insightful music critics, he is most of all, at heart, an Ohioan. Growing up in Columbus in the '90s, Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron were forged, and countless others weren't. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tensions between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role-models, all of which he expertly weaves together with memoir: "Here is where I would like to tell you about the form on my father's jumpshot," Abdurraqib writes. "The truth, though, is that I saw my father shoot a basketball only one time.

Find There's Always This Year in our online catalog.

Brandon recommends Into the Soul of the World: My Journey into Healing by Brad Wetzler

02/15/2025

Boulder Library

adult nonfiction, autobiography, mental health, .Brandon's reviews

If you're captivated by Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air or tales of mountaineering disasters, this story of a local editor for Outside Magazine offers a profound exploration of healing, humility, and self-discovery. A compelling narrative of personal growth amidst perilous journeys.

Publisher's description:

Suffering from PTSD and severe depression from past trauma, battling an addiction to overprescribed psychiatric medication, and at the rock bottom of his career, journalist Brad Wetzler had nowhere to go. So he set out on a journey to wander and hopefully find himself and the world again. Into the Soul of the World is Wetzler’s thrilling, impactful, and heartrending memoir of healing -- physically, emotionally, and spiritually. An adventure journalist at heart, Wetzler mixes travelogue with empowering insights about his inner journey to better care for his own mental health. Journey with him as he travels across Israel and the West Bank, before moving on to India, a candle-lit cave on a mountaintop in the Himalayan foothills, and a life-changing encounter with a 100-year-old yogi. Wetzler's writing is full of the poignant, amusing, and occasionally heart‑breaking situations that unfold when we finally decide to confront depression (or any mental health struggle) and declare ourselves ready to heal: How do we heal our past and thrive again? What does it mean to live a good life? How can we transform our suffering and serve others? His answer: live to tell the story and find the humility and courage to be the best human you can be.

Find Into the Soul of the World in our online catalog

Ethan recommends Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

02/13/2025

Boulder Library

autobiography, .Guest Post, .Teen Picks, Ethan, 12th Grade

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes is an intriguing and thoughtful memoir written by famous mortician Caitlin Doughty. It's my go-to recommendation to anyone because of its dry humor, conversational style that gives the story flow, and content that addresses many sides of a subject not often talked about--death. In the book, Caitlin Doughty explains her life experiences going into the funeral business, and how her thoughts on death changed. She walks the reader through not just personal experience and her arguments, but also the fascinating history of the industry. Even if you don't agree with her views, the book provokes thoughtful discussions and presents the morbid subject in a fascinating and entertaining way.

Publisher's description:

Most people want to avoid thinking about death, but Caitlin Doughty―a twenty-something with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre―took a job at a crematory, turning morbid curiosity into her life’s work. Thrown into a profession of gallows humor and vivid characters (both living and very dead), Caitlin learned to navigate the secretive culture of those who care for the deceased. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes tells an unusual coming-of-age story full of bizarre encounters and unforgettable scenes. Caring for dead bodies of every color, shape, and affliction, Caitlin soon becomes an intrepid explorer in the world of the dead. She describes how she swept ashes from the machines (and sometimes onto her clothes) and reveals the strange history of cremation and undertaking, marveling at bizarre and wonderful funeral practices from different cultures.

Find Smoke Gets in Your Eyes in our online catalog.

Christophe recommends Rememberings by Sinead O'Connor

02/05/2025

Boulder Library

music, adult nonfiction, autobiography, .Christophe's reviews

Rememberings is a nice quick memoir of the powerful singer, songwriter, and activist Sinead O'Connor. While it covers her childhood, music, family, and controversies, it also shows how sincere and deep her talent and convictions were. She is an artist that I'll miss.

Publisher description:

Blessed with a singular voice and a fiery temperament, Sinéad O’Connor rose to massive fame in the late 1980s and 1990s with a string of gold records. By the time she was twenty, she was world famous—living a rock star life out loud. From her trademark shaved head to her 1992 appearance on Saturday Night Live when she tore up Pope John Paul II’s photograph, Sinéad has fascinated and outraged millions. In Rememberings, O’Connor recounts her painful tale of growing up in Dublin in a dysfunctional, abusive household. Inspired by a brother’s Bob Dylan records, she escaped into music. She relates her early forays with local Irish bands; we see Sinéad completing her first album while eight months pregnant, hanging with Rastas in the East Village, and soaring to unimaginable popularity with her cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2U.” Intimate, replete with candid anecdotes and told in a singular form true to her unconventional career, Sinéad’s memoir is a remarkable chronicle of an enduring and influential artist.

Find Rememberings in our online catalog

Monnie recommends Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gotlieb

02/01/2025

Boulder Library

adult nonfiction, autobiography, .Monnie's reviews, mental health

This bestseller made me laugh out loud, and I like to think it made me a tad smarter about emotions, life circumstances, and self-awareness (no guarantee!). It definitely made me think differently about what's not visible, and having more empathy for... everyone! A fun and relatable eye-opener.

Publisher's description:

A behind the scenes look at a therapist's world--where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she). One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but. As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients’ lives — she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell. With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change. A candid, yet deeply personal tour of our hearts and minds, this book is a boldly revealing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.

Find Maybe you should talk to someone in our online catalog

Grace recommends Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne

12/07/2024

Boulder Library

adult nonfiction, autobiography, lived experiences, .Grace's reviews, mental health

I am so glad this book exists and that I read it. I learned so much and found Patric's personal experiences to be incredibly enlightening. Gagne provides an honest perspective of living with sociopathy and breaks down some of the stigmas around mental health and sociopathy.

Publisher's description:

A fascinating, revelatory memoir revealing the author’s struggle to come to terms with her own sociopathy and shed light on the often maligned and misunderstood mental disorder. Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other kids did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing” felt. She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She was occasionally violent. She became an expert lock-picker and home-invader. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with...something. In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified -- well over 200 years ago -- sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen and evil villains who are considered monsters. Her future looked grim. But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a monster. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either. This is the inspiring story of her journey to change her fate and how she managed to build a life full of love and hope.

Find Sociopath in our online catalog