Publisher's description: Martin Riker's poignant and startlingly original novel asks how to foster a brave mind in anxious times, following a newly jobless academic rehearsing a speech on John Maynard Keynes for a surprising audience. In a hotel room in the middle of the night, Abby, a young feminist economist, lies awake next to her sleeping husband and daughter. Anxious that she is grossly underprepared for a talk she is presenting tomorrow on optimism and John Maynard Keynes, she has resolved to practice by using an ancient rhetorical method of assigning parts of her speech to different rooms in her house, and has brought along a comforting albeit imaginary companion to keep her on track-Keynes himself. Yet as she wanders with increasing alarm through the rooms of her own consciousness, Abby repeatedly finds herself straying from her prepared remarks on economic history, utopia, and Keynes's pragmatic optimism. A lapsed optimist herself, she has been struggling under the burden of supporting a family in an increasingly hostile America after being denied tenure at the university where she teaches. Confronting her own future at a time of global darkness, Abby undertakes a hero's quest through her memories to ideas hidden in the corners of her mind-a piecemeal intellectual history from Cicero to Lewis Carroll to Queen Latifah-as she asks what a better world would look like if we told our stories with more honest and more hopeful imaginations


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Hardly any plot, no compelling characters, and a timeline of one sleepless night make for a surprisingly compelling dive into the economics of John Maynard Keynes, the concept of Utopia, and the life of a mother, wife, economics professor, feminist, and guest lecturer. This is an intellectual gem.
This book is a list with illustrations of things that bring us joy, from coffee and rainbows, to finishing something, to getting a letter, to taking a nap. The book is filled with reminders that joy is all around us.
Sutton Foster tells us her story and weaves in the crafting she uses to relieve stress and create balance in her life. Her singing, dancing, paintings, crochet creations, and this book all fit together to show us her colorful, creative life.
You may remember Harris Wittels as a loveable and zany animal control officer from the show, Parks and Recreation. What you might not know is that he died from a drug overdose at the age of 30 right at the height of his rising star as a Hollywood comedian. In this gripping and moving memoir, Harris' sister Stephanie recounts the love and grief she holds for her brother. This is a powerful account of addiction that profoundly affected me and left me speechless.
Wonder is a book written by R. J. Palacio that explains the life of August Pullman and his first year in middle school. August has a genetic facial deformity that brings him many challenges. The book goes into August's perspective of making friends and getting settled into his new school. This book includes the perspective of other people in August's life as well. This book embodies the experiences of people who are considered different and how they go about living their lives.
What a great read for anyone familiar with Hawaii, or with surfing culture. This story tells the tale of a boy-turned-man who escapes his adolescent trials through surfing, but is then forced to grow in adulthood when he causes/encounters/endures a tragedy of his own making. He's required to look at his life and take stock. The main character wasn't always sympathetic, but I did find him realistic. Theroux has again infused his writing with an intimate understanding of Hawaii, its people, its history, and also with a very heartfelt and honest take on human nature, the ways people can get stuck, and how they journey through emotional dark places toward personal growth.
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Staff Picks
Showing 7 of 7 Results
Publisher's description:
Everyone needs things to look forward to-big things and small things, on good days and on bad days; things that will buoy our spirits and make us laugh and help us feel alive. In these pages, beloved author and illustrator Sophie Blackall has gathered a collection of joyful things for all of us: things that are always there if we look for them, like the sun coming up; things we can do if the sun is behind a cloud, like baking for other people or drawing a face on an egg; and things that can happen when we least expect them, like falling in love. Funny, compassionate, and sometimes even wise, Blackall--through personal stories, paintings, and a list of 52 Things to Look Forward To--offers us a handbook on how to make the most of our time here on Earth. There is always something bright on the horizon, and sometimes the horizon is closer than we think.
Publisher's description:
Whether she’s playing an “age-defying” book editor on television or dazzling audiences on the Broadway stage, Sutton Foster manages to make it all look easy. How? Crafting. From the moment she picked up a cross stitch needle to escape the bullying chorus girls in her early performing days, she was hooked. Cross stitching led to crocheting, crocheting led to collages, which led to drawing, and so much more. Channeling her emotions into her creations centered Sutton as she navigated the significant moments in her life and gave her tangible reminders of her experiences. Now, in this charming and poignant collection, Sutton shares those moments, including her fraught relationship with her agoraphobic mother; a painful divorce splashed on the pages of the tabloids; her struggles with fertility; the thrills she found on the stage during hit plays; her breakout TV role; and the joy of adopting her daughter, Emily. Accompanying the stories, Sutton has included crochet patterns, recipes, and so much more!
02/23/2023
Boulder Library
Publisher's description:
One phone call. That's all it took to change Stephanie Wittels Wachs' life forever.. Her younger brother Harris, a star in the comedy world known for his work on shows like Parks and Recreation, had died of a heroin overdose. How do you make sense of such a tragic end to a life of so much hilarious brilliance? In beautiful, unsentimental, and surprisingly funny prose, Stephanie Wittels Wachs alternates between her brother's struggle with addiction, which she learned about three days before her wedding, and the first year after his death, in all its emotional devastation. This compelling portrait of a comedic genius and a profound exploration of the love between siblings is A Year of Magical Thinking for a new generation of readers. A heartbreaking but hopeful memoir of addiction, grief, and family, Everything is Horrible and Wonderful will make you laugh, cry, and wonder if that possum on the fence is really your brother's spirit animal.
08/08/2021
Boulder Library
- Imani, 10th grade teen volunteer
Publisher's description:
Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student.
07/24/2021
Boulder Library
Publisher description:
Now in his sixties, big-wave surfer Joe Sharkey has passed his prime and is losing his "stoke." The younger surfers around the breaks on the north shore of Oahu still idolize the Shark, but his sponsors are looking elsewhere. One night, while driving home from a bar after one too many, Joe accidentally kills a stranger near Waimea, a tragedy that sends his life out of control. As the repercussions of the accident spiral ever wider, Joe's devoted girlfriend, Olive, throws herself into uncovering the dead man's identity and helping Joe find vitality and refuge in the waves again.
A year after getting divorced, Helen Carpenter, thirty-two, lets her annoying, ten years younger brother talk her into signing up for a wilderness survival course. It's supposed to be a chance for her to pull herself together again, but when she discovers that her brother's even-more-annoying best friend is also coming on the trip, she can't imagine how it will be anything other than a disaster. Thus begins the strangest adventure of Helen's well-behaved life: three weeks in the remotest wilderness of a mountain range in Wyoming where she will survive mosquito infestations, a surprise summer blizzard, and a group of sorority girls. Yet, despite everything, the vast wilderness has a way of making Helen's own little life seem bigger, too. And, somehow the people who annoy her the most start teaching her the very things she needs to learn. Like how to stand up for herself. And how being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes you just have to get really, really lost before you can even have a hope of being found.