Nonfiction
Racialism and the media Black Jesus, Black Twitter, and the first Black American president
Venise T. Berry
Black Lives Matter, Black History, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Nonfiction, Political
"Racialism and Media: Black-ish, Black Jesus and the First Black American President is an exploration of how the nature of racial ideology has changed in our society. Yes, there are still ugly racists who push uglier racism, but there are also popular constructions of race routinely woven into mediated images and messages. This book examines selected exemplars of racialism moving beyond traditional racism. In the Twenty-First century, we need a more nuanced understanding of racial constructions. Denouncing anything and everything problematic as racist or racism simply does not work, especially if we want to move toward a real solution to America's race problems. Racialism involves images and messages that are produced, distributed, and consumed repetitively and intertextually based on stereotypes, biased framing, and historical myths about African American culture. These images and messages are eventually normalized through the media, ultimately shaping and influencing societal ideology and behavior. Through the lens of critical race theory chapters examine issues of intersectionality in Crash, changing Black identity in Black-ish, the balancing of stereotypes in prime-time black male and female roles, the power of Black images and messages in advertising, the cultural wealth offered through Black Twitter, biased media framing of the first Black American President, the satirical parody of Black Jesus, contemporary Zip Coon stereotypes in film, the problematic popularity of ghettofabulous black culture, and finally the evolution of black representation in science fiction"
Lucy! : how Lucille Ball did it all
Amy Guglielmo
jBIOGRAPHY Ball, Lucille
Kids, Picture Books, Nonfiction, Biographies
"Lucy was not a proper little girl. She was sassy. She was bold. She was funny. She was a rule-breaking, chance-taking, comedy pioneer. Can't act? Can't sing? Can't dance? Lucy proves them all wrong - and then has the last laugh when she finally lets her inner funny girl shine. In 1951, the hit show I Love Lucy took television by storm, and has made millions laugh ever since. Lucy! is the true story of how Lucille Ball overcame the odds to become the world's Queen of Comedy"--
I appreciate this book's focus on the value and power of comedy as part of culture and history! I love to laugh and I think funny people don't get the cultural recognition they deserve beyond just entertainment - comedy is an art and a powerful agent of healing, community-building, and joy. This book highlights Lucille Ball's trailblazing career as an early female comedian, and also just shows how driven she was by the powerful feeling of making people laugh. Fun, loud, retro-style illustrations perfectly complement the text. -Anne W
Brown bears
Nick Crumpton
j599.784 Crumpton
Kids, Picture Books, Nonfiction, Animals
"Spring has arrived in Alaska, and a brown bear is waking up. She was alone when she fell asleep at the start of winter; now she is climbing out of her den with two cubs. Follow them as they discover how to survive in the wilderness, from climbing trees to catching salmon, as their mother teaches the cubs how to be bears"--Provided by publisher.
Enjoy learning about the lives of brown bears in this beautiful picture book, suitable for reading aloud to preschoolers and up. Gorgeous watercolor illustrations evoking the natural environment accompany interesting, straightforward information about bears' mother-cub bonds, behavior, hibernation, diet, and more. -Anne W
Stalking Shakespeare : a memoir of madness, murder, and my search for the poet beneath the paint
Lee Durkee
704.942 /Durkee
Nonfiction, History, Art / Art History, Biographies
"Following his divorce, down-and-out writer and Mississippi exile Lee Durkee holed himself up in a Vermont fishing shack and fell prey to a decades-long obsession with Shakespearian portraiture. It began with a simple premise: despite the prevalence of popular portraits, no one really knows what Shakespeare looked like. That the Bard of Avon has gotten progressively handsomer in modern depictions seems only to reinforce this point. Stalking Shakespeare is Durkee's fascinating memoir about an obsession gone awry, the 400-year-old myriad portraits attached to the famous playwright, and Durkee's own unrelenting search-via X-ray and infrared technologies-for a lost picture of the Bard painted from real life. As Durkee becomes better at beguiling curators into testing their paintings with spectral technologies, we get a front-row seat to the captivating mysteries plaguing the various portraits rumored to depict Shakespeare. Whisking us backward in time through layers of paint and into the pages of obscure books on the Elizabethans, Durkee takes us from Vermont to Tokyo to Mississippi to DC and ultimately to London to confront the stuffy curators forever protecting the image of the Bard. For his part, Durkee is the adversary they didn't know they had-a writer from Mississippi with nothing to lose-the "Dan Brown of English portraiture." A lively, bizarre, and surprisingly moving blend of biography, art history, and madness, Stalking Shakespeare is as entertaining as it is rigorous and sheds new light on one of history's greatest cultural and literary icons"--
A fun little escapade through the major theories of who wrote Shakespeare's plays and sonnets, via the various portraits that are purportedly of him. There's a lot of very interesting stuff here, not just literary but also in the art history sense of who created the portraits, how they've been altered, and why they look the way they do. Lee Durkee is also a strong presence in this book, and tbh I veered between thinking of him as someone I felt sympathetic and appreciative towards, for his candor about his own mental health and personal issues, and then thinking that he'd be an absolute tour guide from hell. All in all, a very (VERY) well-researched and entertaining read. -Candice
Just like Caitlin
Ally Obermeier
j796.323 Clark
Nonfiction, Sports
A picture book biography of WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark.
I've been waiting for a Caitlin Clark picture book! In this one, a grandpa basically retells his granddaughter the highlights of Caitlin Clark's incredible collegiate career with a lesson about losing the big game with grace. Okay, I'd prefer a true picture book biography, but I'll take it! The illustrations are cute, and this book would make a great read-aloud or gift for a little women's basketball fan! -Anne W
Invisible : how young women with serious health issues navigate work, relationships, and the pressure to seem just fine
Michele Lent Hirsch
305.4 /Hirsch
Nonfiction, Health, Self Help
Lent Hirsch weaves her own harrowing experiences together with stories from other women, perspectives from sociologists on structural inequality, and insights from neuroscientists on misogyny in health research. She shows how health issues and disabilities amplify what women in general already confront: warped beauty standards, workplace sexism, worries about romantic partners, and mistrust of their own bodies. By shining a light on this hidden demographic, Lent Hirsch explores the challenges that all women face.
"Invisible" examines chronic illness through the lens of multiple women, building a full picture through their varied and intersectional experiences. This book does an excellent job of capturing the seismic feeling of becoming chronically ill, the way the people and places around you change to become stranger and more hostile. -Chelsea
There is no Ethan : how three women caught America's biggest catfish
Anna Akbari
306.730285 /Akbari
Nonfiction, True Crime
"There is no Ethan" catalogues Akbari's experiences as both victim and investigator of a catfishing scheme to emotionally con women. She joins with two other women to track down the perpetrator and explores what it means to live in a world where technology mediates relationships and truth, reality, and identity have become slippery terms.
I had the honor of cataloging this book and didn't want to put it down! We don't have a Dewey Decimal number for True Emotional Crime so I had to put it in the number for online dating. Definitely going on my TBR list. -Melody
The backyard bird chronicles
Amy Tan
598.07234 /Tan
Nonfiction
"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"--
As an avid now daily fan of watching the world of chipmunks, squirrels and birds at my feeders outside, I was fascinated by Tan's book. She describes the solace nature can provide when everything else in the world seems to be barreling out of control, yet she does not shy away from highlighting how environmental factors negatively impact our avian friends. Her sketches are delicate and prolific at times and her curiosity and wit is quite wonderful. I would recommend this for young adults and adults as well as anyone who wants a more intimate foray into the world of West Coast bound and transiting-through birds. -Victoria
The art thief : a true story of love, crime, and a dangerous obsession
Finkel, Michael, author.
364.16287 /Finkel
Nonfiction, True Crime, Art / Art History
"For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly ten years-in museums and cathedrals all over Europe-Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion. In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser's strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them to his heart's content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to assess practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtakingly number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict's need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend's pleas to stop-until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down"--
This book got rave reviews and has been very popular, but I had to give it mention...You'll be left wondering just what kind of person steals pieces of art on a weekly basis, from churches and small museums, in order to basically create their own collection of hundreds of priceless items. That they then store in their room. In their mother's house. For real. -Candice
Gentleman bandit : the true story of Black Bart, the Old West's most infamous stagecoach robber
Boessenecker, John, 1953- author.
364.1552 /Boessenecker
Nonfiction, True Crime, History
"Black Bart is widely regarded today as not only the most notorious stage robber of the Old West but also the best behaved. Over his lifetime, Black Bart held up at least twenty-nine stagecoaches in California and Oregon with mild, polite commands, stealing from Wells Fargo and the US mail but never robbing a passenger. Such behavior earned him the title of a true 'gentleman bandit.' His real name was Charles E. Boles, and in the public eye, Charles lived quietly as a boulevardier in San Francisco, the wealthiest and most exciting city in the American West. Boles was an educated man who traveled among respectable crowds. Because he did not drink, fight or consort with prostitutes, his true calling as America's greatest stage robber was never suspected until his final capture in 1883. Sheriffs searched and struggled for years to find him, and newspaper editors had a field day reporting his exploits. Legends and rumors trailed his name until his mysterious death, and his ultimate fate remains one of the greatest mysteries of the Old West. Now historian John Boessenecker sheds new light on Black Bart's beginnings, reputation and exploits, bringing to life the glittering story of the mysterious stage robber who doubled as a rich, genteel socialite in the golden era of the Wild West"--
A little western history with your crime never hurts! The extremely picky Kirkus Reviews says: "An entertaining, well-researched foray into the life of a well-known but legend-layered outlaw." -Candice
Before watching the doc, read the book! How are negative depictions of race portrayed and what can be done about it? Curious how the film will take such a broad subject and capture it in a short doc! Racialism in the Media was written by Iowa professor Venice Berry. Her brother, also in Iowa City, Steve Toriano Berry made a documentary to accompany it. This event will take place at the Library as part of the 2024 Iowa City Book Festival: https://www.icpl.org/events/52476/icbf-24-film-screening-racialism-and-media -Katie