As a librarian who orders books for the collection, I get to learn about titles before they hit the shelves. Here are some that seemed unique or interesting to me. If they aren't here yet but you think they sound interesting too, put yourself on the hold list!
Walking the bowl : a true story of murder and survival among the street children of Lusaka
Lockhart, Chris, 1967- author.
968.9/Lockhart
For readers of Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Nothing to Envy, this is a breathtaking real-life story of four street children in contemporary Zambia whose lives are drawn together and forever altered by the mysterious murder of a fellow street child. Based on years of investigative reporting and unprecedented fieldwork, Walking the Bowl immerses readers in the daily lives of four unforgettable characters: Lusabilo, a determined waste picker; Kapula, a burned-out brothel worker; Moonga, a former rock crusher turned beggar; and Timo, an ambitious gang leader. These children navigate the violent and poverty-stricken underworld of Lusaka, one of Africa's fastest growing cities. When the dead body of a ten-year-old boy is discovered under a heap of garbage in Lusaka's largest landfill, a murder investigation quickly heats up due to the influence of the victim's mother and her far-reaching political connections. The children's lives become more closely intertwined as each child engages in a desperate bid for survival against forces they could never have imagined. Gripping and fast-paced, the book exposes the perilous aspects of street life through the eyes of the children who survive, endure and dream there, and what emerges is an ultimately hopeful story about human kindness and how one small good deed, passed on to others, can make a difference in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
Conversations on love : lovers, strangers, parents, friends, endings, beginnings
Lunn, Natasha, author.
152.41/Lunn
"An investigation of love in all its forms, featuring conversations with Lisa Taddeo, Esther Perel, Emily Nagoski, Kate Bowler, Alain de Botton, Stephen Grosz, Roxane Gay and others Journalist Natasha Lunn was almost 30 when she realized that there was no map for understanding love. While she was used to watching friends fall in and out of love, the older she got the more she had to acknowledge: her friends' relationship struggles could no longer be chalked up to youth, and the more she learned about her parents, grandparents, work colleagues, and mentors the clearer it became that age had not brought any of them any closer to understanding this elusive, transformative, consuming emotion. One night during the months she found this realization settling over her, she sat up in bed and jotted three words in a notebook: conversations on love. In that moment, Lunn understood that she didn't want advice about love, she wasn't looking for the answers, or evergreen wisdom but she craved candid, wide-ranging, sometimes uncomfortable conversations about the parts of love that often don't make it into our everyday discussions of marriage, sibling relationships, friendships, or mother/daughter bonds. Conversations on Love started as an experiment aimed at interviewing experts about what love meant to them, in all of it's messiness, and quickly blossomed into a newsletter that attracted thousands of subscribers and a prestigious range of interviewees. It turns out that Lunn wasn't the only person ready to talk more openly and expansively about love. Interweaving personal essays and revealing interviews with some of the most sough-after experts on love, journalist Natasha Lunn guides us through the paradoxical heart of three key questions about love--How do we find love? How do we sustain it? And how do we survive when we lose it?--to deliver a book that is a solace, a beacon, a call to arms, a tool-kit. The real-life love stories in these pages will leave you hopeful and validated, while the insights from experts will transform the way you think about your relationships. Above all, Conversations on Love will remind you what love is: fragile, sturdy, mundane, beautiful, always worth fighting for"--
What's love? How does it feel? Who do you love? What has love done to you? What about lost love? Your first love? Where's the love? People, we just don't get tired of love, and we can't get away from it, and we can't live without it. A book full of writings on love from some of the best voices should help fill any love-related curiosity or void you might be experiencing.
- Candice
You Can Have a Better Period
BROTHERS, LE'NISE.
612.662/Brothers
“You can have a period that is pain- and drama-free,” writes Period Story podcaster Brothers in her empowering debut. Explaining that one’s menstrual cycle can be used as a “fifth vital sign,” Brothers encourages readers to consider the whole cycle, not just the few days when bleeding happens. She likens its four phases to a season (menstrual is winter, follicular is spring, ovulatory is summer, and luteal autumn), each with its own moods, energy levels, and physical and emotional needs. Her explanations go deep into the hormonal and physiological changes that occur at each stage, and her recommendations—categorized into major areas of nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle—focus on balancing hormones. The menstrual phase, for example, is a good time to reflect on goals and eat foods high in iron, while calcium and tryptophan are a boon during the luteal. Organization that’s easy to follow, concise end-of-chapter summaries, and a low-key tone keep everything approachable. The result is an informative, refreshing take on women’s health. (Publisher's Weekly, Mar.)
I wish that this kind of book had existed when I was a young'un. No matter the age--just started and maybe a little freaked out, or well into your years and getting a little tired of it all--I think this little tome might offer some good advice from an appealing author.
- Candice
Blood Legacy : Reckoning with a Family's Story of Slavery.
Renton, Alex.
306.362/Renton (NEW shelf)
Journalist Renton (Stiff Upper Lip) tackles difficult questions about culpability and reparations in this mesmerizing and deeply personal account of his family’s legacy of slavery. Drawing on family papers, Renton describes his 18th-century ancestors’ short-lived plantation on Tobago’s Bloody Bay and a more successful Jamaican plantation known as Rozelle. Extensive research reveals the remarkable story of Augustus Thomson, an enslaved man who escaped Rozelle and traveled to London, where he met with his surprised owner to complain about his harsh treatment by an overseer, and compensation for his stolen and burned personal belongings. (The owner sent him back to Jamaica with the promise that his previous “misdemeanour” would be forgiven.) Renton also documents his own visits to the Caribbean, where he talks with descendants of the enslaved, who provide frank insight into the continuing legacy of colonialism and outline possible steps for progress, including an official apology from the British government for the injustices of the colonial era. Renton’s sincerity and dogged persistence in combing through the historical record inform this unflinching look at how the “history of Britain and slavery” provided the “foundation of comfortable, liberal life.” This earnest investigation into what it means to take responsibility for racial inequality deserves a wide readership. Agent: Jenny Brown, Jenny Brown Literary. Publisher's Weekly.
While a good number (but probably not enough) of books have been written about slavery and culpability, this is maybe the first I've seen where someone actually goes and looks at what their family members did, exploring the repercussions of how they lived their lives at the expense of the lives of others. It looks to combine some serious thought and frank communication, along with deep family history.
- Candice
Hell's half-acre : the untold story of the Benders, a serial killer family on the American frontier
Jonusas, Susan, author.
364.1523 /Jonusas
"In 1873 the people of Labette County in Kansas made a grisly discovery. Buried on a homestead seven miles south of the town of Cherryvale, in a bloodied cellar and under frost-covered soil, were countless bodies in varying states of decay. The discovery sent the local community and national newspapers into a frenzy that continued for over two decades, and the land on which the crimes took place became known as 'Hells Half-Acre.' When it emerged that a family of four known as the Benders had been accused of the slayings, the case was catapulted to infamy. The idea that a family of seemingly respectable homesteaders--one among thousands who were relocating further west looking for land and opportunity after the Civil War--were capable of operating 'a human slaughter pen' appalled and fascinated the nation. But who the Benders really were, why they committed such a vicious killing spree, and what became of them when they fled from the law is a mystery that has remains unsolved to this day--not that there aren't some convincing theories. Part gothic western, part literary whodunnit, and part immersive study of postbellum America, Hell's Half-Acre sheds new light on one of the most notorious cases in our nation's history while holding a torch to a society under the strain of rapid change and moral disarray. Susan Jonasus draws on extensive original archival material, and introduces us to a fascinating cast of characters, including the despairing families of the victims as well as the fugitives that helped the murderers escape. Hell's Half-Acre is not simply a book about a mass murder. It is a journey into the turbulent heart of nineteenth century America, a place where modernity stalks across the landscape, violently displacing existing populations and wearily building new ones. It is a world where folklore can quickly become fact, and an entire family of criminals can slip right through a community's fingers, only to reappear at the most unexpected of times"--
Oh, this is just indulgent. I first heard about this family on a podcast, and I'm intrigued enough to give this book a go. Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal both gave great reviews, so it's safe to say that the content won't just be grisly small-town history (but some will be, and that's okay).
- Candice
Last call at the Hotel Imperial : reporters of the lost generation
Cohen, Deborah, 1968- author.
070.922/Cohen
"Married foreign correspondents John and Frances Gunther intimately understood that it isn't only impersonal, economic forces that propel history, bringing readers so close to the front lines of history that they could feel how personal pathologies became the stuff of geopolitical crises. Together with other reporters of the Lost Generation--American journalists H.R. Knickerbocker, Vincent Sheean, and Dorothy Thompson--the Gunthers slipped through knots of surveillance and ignored orders of expulsion in order to expose the mass executions in Badajoz during the Spanish Civil War, the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, the millions of dollars that Joseph Goebbels salted away abroad, and the sexual peccadillos of Hitler's brownshirts. They conjured what it was like to ride with Hitler in an airplane ("not a word did he say to any soul"); broke the inside story about Mussolini's claustrophobia and superstitions (he "took fright" at an Egyptian mummy that had been given to him); and verified the hypnotic impression Stalin made when he walked into a room ("You felt his antennae"). But just as they were transforming journalism, it was also transforming them: who they loved and betrayed, how they raised their children and coped with death. Over the course of their careers they would popularize bringing the private life into public view, not only in their reporting on the outsized figures of their day, but in what they revealed about their own (and each other's) intimate experiences as well. What were intimate relationships, after all, but geopolitics writ small?"--
This combines a ton of interesting elements: reporting during tumultuous times, the cross-over of personal lives into the news, interpersonal relationships of dynamic people, and far-flung places and politics.
- Candice
I'm always interested in true crime, but this book has other elements that make me curious--the location, the age of the persons involved, the social setting, and dogged journalism.
- Candice