Staff Picks

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.

 

Skulduggery Pleasant is a story about a girl and a skeleton detective who solve mysteries together, after the death of her uncle. It takes place in Ireland and is filled with humor, action, and magic. The author is a brilliant writer, who excels at witty banter and fight scenes.

 

Publisher description:

Stephanie's uncle Gordon is a writer of horror fiction. But when he dies and leaves her his estate, Stephanie learns that while he may have written horror it certainly wasn't fiction. Pursued by evil forces, Stephanie finds help from an unusual source--the wisecracking skeleton of a dead sorcerer.

 

Magical realism meets radical trans liberation meets rock 'em sock 'em New York, a big city tumultuous ride to freedom and self actualization. A fun, heart-breaking romp through Kai Cheng Thom's take on what it takes to be trans in America.

 

Publisher's description:

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir is a coming-of-age story about a young Asian trans girl, pathological liar, and kung-fu expert who runs away from her parents' abusive home in a rainy city called Gloom. Striking off on her own, she finds her true family in a group of larger-than-life trans femmes who make their home in a mysterious pleasure district known only as the Street of Miracles. Under the wings of this fierce and fabulous flock, she blossoms into the woman she has always dreamed of being, with a little help from the unscrupulous Doctor Crocodile. When one of their number is brutally murdered, our protagonist joins her sisters in forming a vigilante gang to fight back against the transphobes, violent johns, and cops that stalk the Street of Miracles. But when things go terribly wrong, she must find the truth within herself in order to stop the violence and discover what it really means to grow up and find your family.

 

With decades of professional experience and research to source from, Van der Kolk digs intensely into the sources and impacts of trauma. He reveals a landscape of the human mind and body that will leave you with a deeper understanding and greater empathy for people living with the effects of trauma.

 

Publisher's description:

An expert on traumatic stress outlines an approach to healing, explaining how traumatic stress affects brain processes and how to use innovative treatments to reactivate the mind's abilities to trust, engage others, and experience pleasure.

 

Find The Body Keeps the Score in our online catalog

Will Sherman, a donkey on the brink of death, find the courage, stamina, and determination to run a grueling 15-mile race in the Colorado Rockies? Filled with joy, sorrow, triumph, and nuggets of wisdom on life, animals, and the human spirit, this book will take you on a journey like none other.

Publisher's description:

When Chris McDougall agreed to take in a donkey from an animal hoarder, he thought it would be no harder than the rest of the adjustments he and his family had made after moving from Philadelphia to the heart of Pennsylvania Amish country. But when he arrived, Sherman was in such bad shape he could barely move and his hair was coming out in clumps. Chris decided to undertake a radical rehabilitation program designed not only to heal Sherman's body, but to heal his mind as well. It turns out, the best way to soothe a donkey is to give it a job and so Chris decided to teach Sherman how to run. He'd heard about burro racing -- a unique type of race out west where humans and donkeys run together in a call-back to mining days. In the course of Sherman's training, Chris would have to recruit several other runners, both human and equine, and call upon the wisdom of burro racers, goat farmers, Amish running club members, and a group of irrepressible female long-haul truckers. Along the way, he shows us the life-changing power of animals, nature, and community.

Find Running with Sherman in our online catalog

Part autobiography, part manifesto on gender and sexuality, part guidebook on FTM transition, part blueprint for effective activism. Jamison Green lays it all out in this eye opening read based on his decades of experience and personal journey. Read with pencil and paper at hand! And tissues!

 

Publisher description:
At least two generations of transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people have emerged since Becoming a Visible Man was first published in 2004, but the book remains a beloved resource for trans people and their allies. Since the first edition's publication, author Jamison Green's writings and advocacy among business and governmental organizations around the world have led to major changes in the fields of law, medicine, and social policy, and his (mostly invisible) work has had significant effects on trans people globally. This new edition captures the changes of the last two decades, while also imparting a message of self-acceptance and health. With profoundly personal and eminently practical threads, Green clarifies transgender experience for transgender people and their families, friends, and coworkers. Medical and mental health care providers, educators, business leaders, and advocates seeking information about transgender concerns can all gain from Green's integrative approach to the topic. This book candidly addresses emotional relationships that are affected by a transition, and brings refined integrity to the struggle to self-define, whether one undergoes a transition or chooses not to. Emphasizing the lives of transgender men-who are often overlooked-he elucidates the experience of masculinity in a way that is self-assured and inclusive of feminist values. Green's inspirational wisdom has informed and empowered thousands of readers. There is still no other book like Becoming a Visible Man in the transgender canon.