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Fiction A to Z February 2019
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Adam and Kizzie Roots of African American Music
Saturday, February 23,
2:00 pm
Bethany, Rooms A-B (AB)
An entertaining and informative musical journey through the socioeconomic, spiritual, and artistic struggle and triumph of Black Americans
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Pageturners! Tween Book Club
Wednesday, March 20,
6:30 pm
Downtown Library, Children's Program Room (1104)
Join us every 3rd Monday for The Pageturners Tween Book Club. In addition to the book discussion, there will be an activity related to a theme(s) from the book. Please call for monthly book selections.
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| The Weight of a Piano by Chris CanderWhat it's about: quite literally, a piano. And a series of chance events surrounding that piano that bring two flawed people together.
Starring: an immigrant from the Soviet Union; an orphaned mechanic; a talented photographer. Though their time with the piano is separated by decades, their attachment to it links them together.
For fans of: Annie Proulx's Accordion Crimes;
Digital Format: Available as an Overdrive eBook and Audiobook. |
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| Elsey Come Home by Susan ConleyStarring: American expat Elsey, who lives in China with her Dutch husband and their kids. A frustrated painter, Elsey's also a heavy drinker.
What happens: At the request of her husband, Elsey attends a yoga retreat. There, she's forced to face her drinking and her fears about parenting, painting, and so much else.
Why you might like it: Straightforward, vulnerable Elsey is a sympathetic heroine at a crossroads. |
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| Unmarriageable by Soniah KamalWhat it is: a retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice set in modern-day Pakistan.
What else do you need to know? Scene-by-scene recreations will delight Janeites, but the setting also provides both humor and thought-provoking insight into Pakistani culture.
Want a taste? "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a girl can go from pauper to princess or princess to pauper in the mere seconds it takes for her to accept a proposal."
Digital Format: Available as an Overdrive eBook and Audiobook. |
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| An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie ObiomaWhat it is: a devastating account of Nigerian poultry farmer Chinonso's attempts to win the woman he loves, as told by his chi (guardian spirit).
Why you might like it: A contemporary twist on Homer's The Odyssey, Chinonso's quest invokes Nigerian history and cosmology; this heartbreaking slow burn is both tense and tragic.
Reviewers say: "magnificently multilayered" (Booklist); "a rare treasure" (Seattle Times).
Digital Format: Available as an Overdrive eBook and Audiobook. |
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| Golden State by Ben H. WintersIn a world... where everything is documented and even tiny lies are a punishable offence, Golden State is an independent nation that values truth above all else, even though its history is murky.
What happens: In the wake of a suspicious death, veteran special agent Lazlo Ratesic begins to doubt the laws he's always upheld.
Why you might like it: Part police procedural, part dystopian fiction, this thought-provoking tale explores terrifying territory similar to George Orwell's 1984.
Digital Format: Available as an Overdrive eBook and Audiobook. |
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Focus on: Recent Short Stories
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| How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia ArthursWhat it is: a debut collection of vignettes set in Jamaica, New York, and the American Midwest, which together embody the variety in the Jamaican experience.
Starring: Multicultural main characters varying in age, gender, sexual orientations, and values who navigate evolving senses of race, family, history, and tradition.
Kudos: One story won the Paris Review's Plimpton Award; the book was named a "top 15" book of 2018 by O: The Oprah Magazine.
Digital Format: Available as an Overdrive eBook and Audiobook. |
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| The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis JohnsonWhat it is: a witty, edgy collection of five short stories by National Book Award-winning Denis Johnson, published posthumously.
Why you might like it: From mental illness and self-destruction to old age and mortality, these are melancholy and offbeat tales. And while there's a masculine bent to the collection, you needn't be a man to enjoy it.
Reviewers say: "an instant classic" (Publishers Weekly); "incisive" (Booklist).
Digital Format: Available as an Overdrive eBook and Audiobook. |
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| Beautiful Days by Joyce Carol OatesWhat it is: Dark and complex, this new collection from the prolific Joyce Carol Oates includes the Pushcart Prize-winning "Undocumented Alien" and 12 other devastating stories.
Featuring: awkward encounters, violent clashes, acts of defiance; broken characters and flawed relationships; secret inner lives and overweening guilt.
Fan favorites: "Fleuve Bleu," "Undocumented Alien," and "Fractal."
Digital Format: Available as an Overdrive eBook and Audiobook and always available as a Hoopla Audiobook. |
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| Property: Stories Between Two Novellas by Lionel ShriverWhat it is: two novellas and ten short stories, all focusing on belongings -- whether real estate or more personal possessions.
Read it for: precise language and well-developed characters, wry humor, and clever takes on co-habitation and home ownership in the U.S. and U.K.
Want a taste? "She enjoyed being in his physical company the way she enjoyed sitting in a smartly decorated restaurant."
Digital Format: Available as an Overdrive eBook. |
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| You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis SittenfeldWhat it is: a collection of both original and previously published short stories, generally focusing on white middle class characters with humor and honesty.
Why you might like it: Conversational and witty, these stories explore contemporary issues (social media addiction) and familiar quandaries (ambivalence towards motherhood).
Fan favorites: "Gender Studies," "The Prairie Wife," "Off the Record."
Digital Format: Available as an Overdrive eBook and Audiobook. |
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E-Resources @ your Library!
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African American Heritage
Search historical records for African Americans that include the Federal Census, Marriage and Cohabitation Records, Military Draft and Service Records, Registers of Slaves and Free(d) Persons of Color, Freedman's Bank, and more.
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Poetry & Short Story Reference Center
This database provides a historically rich collection of full-text classic and contemporary poems, as well as short stories, biographies and authoritative essays on poetic forms, movements, techniques and more; includes contemporary content from the finest publishers.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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