tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49383614872785848412024-03-12T18:31:33.827-07:00msjamgochian'sinfinitebooklistone librarian's quest to read all the booksUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger332125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-75778402747166713152017-02-21T09:38:00.003-08:002017-02-21T09:38:50.985-08:00celeste by inj culbard
Craving a little sci-fi with your we all die alone ennui? I.N.J Culbard's intense depiction of the human condition post-event (although we're not certain that said event actually happened, or what said event may have been) is just the thing. Culbard tells his tale in three parallel narratives, featuring three lonely people: a young girl living with albinism in London, a Japanese comic artist on Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-14600315598585845432017-02-20T04:58:00.000-08:002017-02-20T04:58:33.734-08:00the throwback special by chris bachelder I'm not a team sports enthusiast. Truly, I'm vehemently anti-athletics of the team variety, since, among more virtuous geopolitical reasons, they remind me of being tortured by jocks as a new wave teen. Still, I relished Bachelder's book, because it isn't really about organized sport. Rather, it's a near-scientific observation of twenty-two men in the throes of middle life who have gathered Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-64196261369771756432017-02-14T09:47:00.000-08:002017-02-14T09:50:53.878-08:00saint valentine's picks
Looking for love in unusual places? I've assembled a group of picks that aren't your standard romance fare - although if it is cheesy romance that you need, I'll gladly be your supplier. In the historical fiction category are three unforgettable love stories, all of which happened to win the Booker prize: Richard Flanagan's heartwrenching The Narrow Road to the Deep North, A.S. Byatt's Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-15224084232766745812017-02-13T05:35:00.000-08:002017-02-13T05:35:52.117-08:00griffin & sabine by Nick Bantock
Need a little something-something to melt away the madness? If you unwittingly made it through the 90s without reading Griffin & Sabine, as I did, you'll find it's just the thing: a delightful anachronistic correspondence via painted carte-postale tucked into actual envelopes, a slow getting-to-know-you, a return to the possibility and pleasure of mystery between two near-strangers. It's a Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-7625845456440395462017-02-08T10:08:00.000-08:002017-02-13T10:32:27.332-08:00goodbye stranger by rebecca stead Girlfriends Bridge, Tab, and Em are a self-determined set; they have Twinkie-sworn* to remain fight-free through their seventh grade year. Their pledge is put to the test as they navigate through conflicts both candid and contemporary - Tab joins a feminist club, Em finds herself in a selfie shaming fiasco, and Bridge isn't sure if her friend Sherm is just a friend. What I love most about Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-48207857767038276462017-01-01T05:15:00.000-08:002017-02-20T05:42:13.360-08:00librarian picks 2016
Voila: my 2016 librarian picks - although there was much to be sad about in 2016, it was an exceptionally good year for reading. At the top of the list this year is Paul Beatty's latest, The Sellout, which made me laugh while I cried and made history as the first novel written by an American author to win the Booker prize; Ashley Hope Perez's Out of Darkness and Martha Brockenbrough's The Game Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-19780674109676461982016-12-05T08:04:00.000-08:002016-12-05T08:16:52.283-08:00the game of love and death by martha brockenbrough A brilliant, beguiling and beautiful book set in Depression-era Seattle in the 1930s, TGOLAD tells the at once heartbreaking and hopeful love story of African American chanteuse Flora Saudade and adopted wealthy white boy Henry Bishop. Forever foes Love and Death are playing a game: Flora and Henry are their unknowing pawns. A pitch-perfect Seattle setting, an indelible ensemble cast of Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-52501852678851934042016-12-03T05:45:00.000-08:002016-12-05T08:05:09.727-08:00the thing about jellyfish by ali benjamin
Seventh-grader Suzy Swanson is in the unenviable position of losing her childhood best friend Franny twice: once when said best friend becomes popular, leaving Suzy behind, and again, after their friendship has ended, when Franny drowns during summer vacation. When she is told about Franny's death, Suzy sets aside her tears, stops talking, and sets herself to the task of proving that Franny, anUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-84828414870893158942016-12-02T06:19:00.000-08:002016-12-05T08:04:41.782-08:00the association of small bombs by karan mahajan Living in Delhi is an unforgettable experience. Although I spent only two years of my life there, the memorable mix of scent, sounds, and suffocating yet spellbinding strangeness of the city simmers right under my skin, and delving into The Association of Small Bombs brought me right back. Unsurprisingly, the novel sets off with a bombing at Lajpat Nagar - the explosives themselves tucked into Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-49539398687460690782016-11-30T09:09:00.000-08:002016-12-05T08:12:20.980-08:00
A heart-warming story filled with gorgeous chiaroscuro illustrations that I read in one sitting, Peter Brown's debut middle-grade book is ultimately about making friends and creating family wherever you find yourself. Robot Roz wakes up on a remote island after the cargo ship she was on sinks at sea, and finds that she is anything but alone. A delightful cast of animal inhabitants make Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-9583841148402709602016-11-30T06:33:00.000-08:002016-12-05T08:06:12.957-08:00
The playlist concept was the best part of the book. Although I enjoyed Sam as a character, his reaction (and the response of the entire community) to his best friend's suicide was completely unbelievable. Add an ending that is overly complicated, throw in a new character a few chapters from said ending, and you have a book that tries hard but misses its mark. Read Jennifer Niven's spectacular Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-13585806133056362212016-08-30T11:23:00.000-07:002016-12-13T08:52:23.582-08:00marrow island by alexis m. smithMarrow Island by Alexis M. Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Twenty years after her father dies in an earthquake related disaster, journalist Lucie Bowen heads back to the island where it all happened. Although she is there to investigate the Marrow Colony, a group of environmentalists trying to remediate the damage done two decades prior, she ends up revisiting the past and rekindling a friendship Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-27136164756734524212015-11-30T18:04:00.001-08:002015-11-30T18:08:35.907-08:00her animals by emily johnston
Seattle poet, essayist, and activist Emily Johnston's unforgettable book of environmental verse is meant to be read Puget Sound-side, which is exactly how I took it in: one section at a time each morning on the beach at Vashon with eagles flying overhead and ducks paddling a stone's throw away. Her Animals begins with an apology and ends with a plea, and in that way, it's a love letter to the Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-11577077820898538712015-10-15T14:20:00.004-07:002015-10-15T14:58:52.082-07:00war of the foxes by richard siken
Richard Siken's first collection, Crush, was a transformative read for me: the exact book at the exact time during a rather exacting year. When I read Scheherazade for the first time (I am eternally grateful to Ms. Sara Kelly for putting it in my poetry-addicted hands) I got goosebumps, and they didn't go away until I finished the rest of his gorgeous, unforgettable, razor-sharp work. MaybeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-24196033588384268802015-09-08T19:36:00.000-07:002015-10-16T08:28:54.911-07:00brewster by mark slouka
Jon Mosher and Ray Cappicciano are unlikely friends. Jon is the square and silent son of Jewish immigrants who barely survived the Holocaust; Ray is the town delinquent who lives alone with his violent war-veteran father. Together, along with Ray's newly-arrived girlfriend Karen, they struggle to escape the bleak landscape of small town Brewster and survive the quiet desperation that occurs Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-10675704153741200152015-09-08T17:43:00.000-07:002015-09-09T10:18:59.517-07:00all my puny sorrows by miriam towsA gorgeous, heart-wrenching, unforgettable read from award-winning Canadian author Miriam Toews, All My Puny Sorrows tells the story of two sisters, Elf and Frieda, living in the aftermath of their Mennonite upbringing and their father's suicide, and the love between them. Ms. Toews' tale masterfully blends dark and funny: just when the heaviness becomes too much, she adds a bit of lightness to Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-619735546249555372015-09-06T19:36:00.000-07:002015-09-09T10:19:21.304-07:00euphoria by lily kingInspired by events in the life of Margaret Mead, Euphoria tells the story of three young, gifted, and passionate anthropologists in New Guinea in the 1930s and the love triangle that would be their undoing. At long last, a book that beautifully filled the void left behind by Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North! Click here for a brief interview with Ms. King and here for a Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-86247583307854842672015-08-31T19:36:00.000-07:002015-09-09T10:21:33.704-07:00the book of memory gaps by cecilia ruiz
The Book of Memory Gaps by Cecilia Ruiz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What a lovely, lyrical, little book! I'm fascinated by the multitudinous manifestations of memory; Cecilia Ruiz deftly defines, describes, and depicts its influence on our lives via pages of illustrated vignettes.
View all my reviews
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-46828777573649050252015-07-22T19:35:00.000-07:002015-09-09T10:22:48.823-07:00spark by amy kathleen ryan
Spark picks up right where Glow left off: a diminished Waverly has returned to the Empyrean, after escaping Anne Mather's clutches on enemy spaceship the New Horizon, to nurse her wounds and assess conditions. Wracked with guilt over the acts she was forced to commit on the New Horizon, she is surprised to find her boyfriend, Kieran, in self-imposed charge of the ship, acting as a Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-54494231735012573802015-05-19T17:35:00.001-07:002015-05-19T17:46:03.027-07:00the man who ate everything by jeffrey steingartenA delectable and delightful collection of 40 essays about food around the world, brought to you by the erudite and entertaining Vogue food critic, Jeffrey Steingarten (whose credentials include a host of James Beard awards, a Chevalier of the Order of Merit appointment by the Republic of France, and a stint as a judge on Iron Chef). Both informative and hilarious, TMWAE is the perfect dish for Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-5754171133741124602015-05-06T06:27:00.000-07:002016-11-21T06:29:57.207-08:00all the bright places by jennifer niven
If you only read one ya novel this year, All The Bright Places should be it. Theodore, suffering from bipolar disorder, and Violet, griefstruck after her beloved sister's untimely death, meet on top of a tower: he's about to jump off and she's considering it. He pulls her back from the edge, beginning a friendship that turns into a sweet, sad, intense romance as the two of them pair up on a Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-91886935163497022222014-12-31T17:53:00.000-08:002015-05-19T18:02:58.909-07:00Librarian Picks 2014Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven made both of our top picks lists this year. A gorgeous, haunting, lyrical novel that made us nostalgic for the future. We were both equally enamored with The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, by Leslye Walton. Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach Trilogy and Ramez Naam's Nexus enchanted us with scintillating and supernatural Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-38068531342760269622012-12-18T22:14:00.000-08:002013-01-06T22:16:12.172-08:00marbles: mania, depression, michelangelo, and me by ellen forney
A compelling, crafty, and often times funny look at Seattle comic artist Ellen Forney's battle with bipolar disorder, from diagnosis to finally finding the correct medication cocktail. Forney doesn't allow personal vanity to get in the way of this raw depiction of mental illness, and her beautiful artwork stands on its own. She deftly confronts the questions that many artists face when weighingUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-51220353878294096722012-12-14T19:01:00.000-08:002013-01-06T22:12:44.086-08:00the yellow birds by kevin powers
"The war tried to kill us in the spring." So begins this unforgettable, unflinching, uncompromising look at the Iraq war and its impact on the life of a soldier from debut novelist, national book award finalist, and former soldier Kevin Powers. 21 year-old Private John Bartle unravels his story in poetic prose that shifts between his preservice days in 2003, his time as a private in Al Tafar inUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938361487278584841.post-48661556772520703892012-10-16T21:06:00.004-07:002012-10-16T21:13:56.059-07:00glaciers by alexis m. smith Glaciers by Alexis M. Smith from gerard donaghy on Vimeo. This little book was just the thing after a long day of noise and action. Ms. Smith's writing has the soothing effect of a massage:
"The cool fabric settles over her skin, and she thinks how this might be the first time in decades that a warm body has filled this space. She reaches behind her for the zipper and feels the fabric tighten Unknownnoreply@blogger.com