The Poetry of Science: Recommended Reads for Young Learners

Children playing in science exhibit. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/139_1947244/1/139_1947244/cite. Accessed 4 Aug 2017.

A collection of poems for history, geography, science, and math is the first step to bringing a human element and a personal, often humorous touch to the topics you are studying. This helps students retain information and vocabulary — they now have vivid and/or humorous mental images that forge remembering connections... Second, poems are short and cut to the heart of a topic. You can use a poem to connect students to your content topic in powerful and memorable ways... Third, and perhaps most important, poetry helps students explore important issues in your content area, issues that extend beyond the classroom into their lives, communities, and the world.
~Laura Robb and J. Patrick Lewis,  Poems for Teaching in the Content Areas: 75 Powerful Poems to Enhance Your History, Geography, Science, and Math Lessons

Using poetry to help teach science might not be the first way you think to approach your child's education, but it has been shown to be a useful approach! Children's book publishers Scholastic and Reading Rockets, a national multimedia literacy initiative, both have suggestions for using poetry in the classroom for other subjects besides English - both organizations talk about classes reading poetry together, discussing the topics raised, and then writing their own poetic responses. Reading Rockets even mentions taking a "poetry walk," to get sensory impressions to use in writing haiku about nature. Additionally, the American Library Association [ALA] mentions that both science and poetry require "keen observation" and notes that, of  National Science Education Standard's "seven major areas of science that are critical to the K–12 curriculum...poems can serve to initiate a topic or enrich and extend it," and they have a booklist to prove it.

Want to encourage your child's power of observation and interest in science? Why not start with the following recommended picture books and see if they pique your youngster's interest?

The Blood-Hungry Spleen and Other Poems About Our Parts by Allan Wolff

Water Sings Blue by Kate Coombs

Hey There, Stink Bug! by Leslie Bulion [eBook]

Ubiquitous: Poetry and Science About Nature's Survivors by Joyce Sidman

Animal Poems of the Iguazú by Francisco X. Alarcon

Bees, Snails, and Peacock Tails by Betsy Franco

Science Verse by Jon Scieszka

Scien-trickery by J. Patrick Lewis

Spectacular Science by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars by Douglas Florian

Our Food by Grace Lin

Monarch's Progress by Avis Harley

For more science books for kids and teens, check out Picture-Perfect Science Lessons, Expanded 2nd Edition: Using Children’s Books to Guide Inquiry, 3–6 by Karen Ansberry and Emily Morgan (which explains the 5E instructional model - Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate - explaining why kids can read picture books in the classroom), the library's Science Project Help LibGuide, and the National Science Teachers Association's [NSTA] Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12 list.

Voices of Diversity

CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES. MURAL OF FACES, SHOWING ETHNIC DIVERSITY. UNION STATION SUBWAY.. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/300_1832386/1/300_1832386/cite. Accessed 4 Aug 2017.

Our culture and stories continue to evolve and expand, and our cultural production, from publishing to Hollywood, is beginning to catch up. A variety of artists develop diverse work in film, music, multimedia, and podcasting. Writers from many different backgrounds are creating romance novels, mystery, noir, speculative fiction, fantasy, comic books, literature, poetry, creative nonfiction, memoir, researched nonfiction, academic nonfiction, biography, graphic novels, and so much more. There are a great many chroniclers of the American experience. Look for them in unusual places and across every genre.
~Candice Kail, "#Ownvoices - Collection Development: Race, Diversity, and Society"

The mission and vision statement for the We Need Diverse Books campaign is "Putting more books featuring diverse characters into the hands of all children. A world in which all children can see themselves in the pages of a book." But we think it's also not too late for adults to find themselves in the pages of a book, too! Sharing our experiences is an important way to learn about, and to learn to accept, each other, despite our differences. A Google search for the word racism in the news comes back with 7 million results in .37 seconds - race, and affirming diversity, are definitely topics that continue to be debated at length, worldwide. We invite you to partake of some titles from our catalog showcasing diversity which you might have missed:

Non-Fiction

This Muslim American Life by Mustafa Bayoumi

Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.

Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming by Winona LaDuke

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi

The Making of Asian America: A History by Erika Lee

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race edited by Jesmyn Ward

Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? What It Means To Be Black Now by Touré

The Turquoise Ledge by Leslie Marmon Silko

Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by Lauret E. Savoy

Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life by David Treuer

Policing the Black Man edited by Angela J. Davis


Fiction

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez

The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf by Mohja Kahf

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

We the Animals by Justin Torres

I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita [eAudiobook]

Sons and Other Flammable Objects by Porochista Khakpour

The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar

The Turner House by Angela Flournoy

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

Grace by Natashia Deón

The Road Back to Sweetgrass by  Linda ­LeGarde Grover


As Candice Kail says in the article quoted above, "it's assumed that the classics will already be part of nearly all [library] collections because, whether acknowledged or not, cultural pluralism has always defined our society." Looking for an older book dealing with issues of diversity? Try our list of classics, all available in the library catalog.

The Food Culture of Alice Waters

When you eat fast food, you not only eat the food that is unhealthy for you, but you digest the values that comes with that food. And they're really about fast, cheap and easy. It's so important that we understand that things can be affordable, but they can never be cheap, because, if they're cheap, somebody's missing out. The fast food culture tells us that, you know, cooking is not something important, and it can be in the basement, it can be in the back, when, in fact, it's the most important work that we do. I think it is the unrealistic values of a fast food culture that are really making us very unhappy, that we're all going a little crazy. We spend as much searching for our cell phone than we do preparing a meal.
~Alice Waters, "Brief But Spectacular"

With her new memoir coming out, Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook, we thought we'd give a little blog space to Alice Waters, often called "the mother of American cooking." Alice Waters opened a little restaurant called Chez Panisse in 1971 in Berkeley, California, and in the 40-plus years since has been a tireless advocate for organic food, slow food, school lunch reform, and local sustainable agriculture. She's been the recipient of several awards and honors - her 2015 National Humanities Medal "proving that eating is a political act, and that the table is a powerful means to social justice and positive change. "

Eating at Chez Panisse looks like a tremendous experience. The Restaurant is downstairs, offering a three to four course dinner with the menu changing nightly, "each [course] designed to be appropriate to the season and composed to feature the finest sustainably sourced, organic, peak-of-their-season ingredients, including meat, fish, and poultry." The Café, upstairs, features "moderately priced à la carte menu for both lunch and dinner." The website describes the experience more poetically than we could ever hope to:

Alice and Chez Panisse are convinced that the best tasting food is organically and locally grown, and harvested in ways that are ecologically sound by people who are taking care of the land for future generations. The quest for such ingredients has always determined our cuisine. For over 45 years, Chez Panisse has invited diners to partake of the immediacy and excitement of vegetables just out of the garden, fruit right off the branch, and fish straight from the sea. In doing so, Chez Panisse has established a close network of suppliers who, like the restaurant, strive for both environmental harmony and delicious flavor.

But, don't think Alice Waters herself will be whipping up your dishes. Since the birth of her daughter in the early 1980s, Alice Waters has served as executive chef - she "contribute[s] to the collaboration of the kitchen...oversees Chez Panisse, writes cookbooks, helps design menus and tries to preserve local food traditions," but she hasn't cooked anything in their kitchen in 30 years. There are a variety of chefs at Chez Panisse - different ones for the restaurant, the café, for pastry - and alumni of the kitchens include Jeremiah Tower, Samin Nosrat, and Cal Peternell.

Are you interested in food activism? Alice Waters supports Slow Food International, which is concerned with topics such as bee population decline, food waste, protecting family farming, and GMOs, and she founded the Edible Schoolyard Project, with its mission being "to build and share a national edible education curriculum for pre-kindergarten through high school...envision[ing] gardens and kitchens as interactive classrooms for all academic subjects, and a sustainable, delicious, and free lunch for every student." Do you agree with her about the importance of "help[ing] people understand the relation of food to agriculture and relationship of food to culture?" Even if you're not as hardcore as Alice Waters, you might still enjoy her cookbooks - New York Times bestsellers and recommended for "everyone who wants to learn to cook, or wants to become a better cook." Learn more about the food culture of Alice Waters with some of the titles listed below.

For Children

Alice Waters and the Trip to Delicious by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

Fanny in France: With French Adventures and French Recipes by Alice Waters


Cookery by Alice Waters

My Pantry

The Art of Simple Food and The Art of Simple Food II

In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn By Heart

Chez Panisse Fruit

Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook

DVD

American Masters: Alice Waters and Her Delicious Revolution


In addition to her own books, Waters has provided the foreword to cookbooks by various other chefs, including Joanne Weir, David Tanis, Cecilia Chiang, the Cheese Board staff, and, one of our favorites, Niloufer Ichaporia King, if you're interested in other cookbooks with a similar ethos.


Links

The 10 Dishes That Made My Career: Alice Waters [First We Feast]

Alice Waters, Chez Panisse, and Her Farm-To-Table Journey [CNN]

Life's Work: An Interview with Alice Waters [HBR]

Books, Beverages, and Bites

Cup of coffee on book. Photo. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/105_264745/1/105_264745/cite. Accessed 8 Jul 2017.

Seems like almost everyone can relate to the cozy feeling of curling up with a good book and a delicious drink. Whether it be coffee, tea, or something a bit stronger, there's really nothing better than sipping while you read. That's why I was jazzed when I came across Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist by Tim Federle -- a recipe book that shares my love of cocktails, mocktails, and even snacks while simultaneously pairing them with some fantastic reads. As an added bonus, the drinks and treats are named with fantastic puns. Prepping for a book club would be especially convenient with many popular titles and hilarious drink name combinations like One Flew Over the Cosmo's Nest (p. 15) and Fahrenheit 151 (p. 97).

And if you happen to enjoy a good movie as well, you'll be pleased to know that Federle has that covered, too. Gone With The Gin: Cocktails with a Hollywood Twist is his follow-up recipe book which adds the same delicious twist of pairing beverages and foods with popular and classic movies. 

Whether you're hosting a book club, movie night, or just gearing up to enjoy some alone time, there's something for everyone. It's not just Tim Federle, either. I've found a few other entertainment and literary recipe books through my curiosity and hope you get as much enjoyment from them as I have!

Movie Night Menus: Dinner and Drink Recipes Inspired by Films We Love by Tenaya Darlington

To Have And Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion by Phillip Greene

Cocktails for Book Lovers by Tessa Smith-McGovern

Featured Author: Margaret Maron

Mystery author Margaret Maron burst onto the scene with the first novel of her Sigrid Harald series in 1981; her Deborah Knott series (for which she is beloved by us) did not begin until 1992. In the intervening years, Maron has won Edgar, Agatha, Anthony & Macavity Awards; been the President of Sisters in Crime; received the Grand Master Award from Mystery Writers of America; and many other accolades.

As of this writing, Margaret Maron has called time on both of her long-running series. She has not ruled out writing stories -which is how her career began 40 years ago -  she is "ready to be done with contracts and deadlines" though she has "learned to never say never." (!) Ohio public radio station WYSO 91.3's Book Nook program has applauded Maron's choice: "Don't you love it when somebody has the good grace to go out at the top of their game?" We'll miss Sigrid and Deborah, but we certainly applaud Margaret Maron's future plans, which include wading into her TBR pile.

If you haven't yet read any of Maron's award-winning mysteries, we encourage you to check them out! She created Sigrid Harald, a homicide detective with the NYPD, based on her experiences living in New York with her husband during the early years of their marriage. Deborah Knott is a North Carolina district judge - the change of setting reflects the author's upbringing "where the Piedmont meets the Sandhills" of that state, though she emphatically declares the character is not based on her own family life. Maron says she chose these professions for her detectives because "Other, more inventive writers can make it seem perfectly logical that a schoolteacher or real estate agent or cookie-baking mom would keep stumbling over murders that they could solve with their civilian skills, but I needed a sturdier reed on which to lean."

Sigrid Harald series
9 titles, with 2 available in the library catalog currently, Fugitive Colors and Take Out (the last 2 books of the series) 

Deborah Knott series
20 titles, beginning with Bootlegger's Daughter and ending with 2015's Long Upon the Land

These two characters of have a ying-yang relationship in Maron's mind - she created Deborah to be the opposite of Sigrid in many ways. Interestingly, Sigrid and Deborah are distantly related, and you can view Deborah's family tree - she's the youngest of a family of twelve - on Maron's website. The two detectives meet in Three Day Town, the 17th book in the Deborah Knott series.

Ms. Maron has also written a few non-series titles - try Last Lessons of Summer, for which she won North Carolina's Sir Walter Raleigh Award.

Unusual Detectives

Revelations of a Lady Detective. Revelations of a Lady Detective. Image taken from Revelations of a Lady Detective. Originally published/produced in George Vickers: London, 1864. George Vickers: London, 1864. . Fine Art. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/163_2964167/1/163_2964167/cite. Accessed 4 Aug 2017.

It seems like from the beginning of detective fiction, authors tried to give their detectives a hook - making them unusual, and therefore memorable. Generally regarded as the first detective in fiction, Le Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin is a gentleman detective who solves cases to amuse himself. Sherlock Holmes plays the violin and boxes; he is a master of disguise and a habitual user of cocaine. Agatha Christie seems to use her fictional author character, Ariadne Oliver, to bemoan the folly of creating a detective that is too unusual - Oliver's detective, Sven Hjerson, is Finnish and a vegetarian, and Oliver is often at her wit's end plotting her novels with those traits, which she knows little about, in mind.

Authors still like to put their detectives in unusual milieus. For every gritty police procedural out there, you can find many titles and series (particularly cozies) featuring detectives and detecting teams from every walk of life - coffeehouses managers, tea shop owners, herbalists, crossword creators, knitters, and beyond.

Here's a handful of unusual detectives to pique your interest:

Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie
1950s vicar

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by C. Alan Bradley
11-year-old sleuth and aspiring chemist

The Hearse You Came In On by Tim Cockey
Maryland morticians

Deception on All Accounts by Sara Sue Hoklotubbe
Cherokee banker

Celine by Peter Heller
elegant, aristocratic private eye

Dog On It by Spencer Quinn
Chet the dog, companion of an Arizona private investigator

Wine of Violence by Priscilla Royal
11th century prioress

Top o' the Mournin' by Maddy Hunter
tour guide

Summer of the Big Bachi by Naomi Hirahara
Japanese-American Hiroshima survivor and gardener in Los Angeles

Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
private eye and Sixties music fan 

Gun With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem
hard-boiled detective in the near future - mystery has elements of sci fi

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
detective who investigates based on the fundamental interconnectedness of all things

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
Jewish refugee and detective in the Alaska panhandle

The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov
science fiction detective

Whiskey on the Rocks by Nina Wright
real estate broker

My Heart May Be Broken, But My Hair Still Looks Great by Dixie Cash
The Domestic Equalizers, hairdressers

Wanna Get Lucky? by Deborah Coonts
customer relations representative in mega-casino

Eight of Swords by David Skibbins
tarot card reader and former activist

The Disciple of Las Vegas by Ian Hamilton
forensic accountant


Want more unusual detective choices? Check out the Job of Series Character list on the website Stop, You're Killing Me, "a resource for lovers of mystery, crime, thriller, spy, and suspense books...listing over 4,900 authors, with chronological lists of their books (over 57,000 titles), both series (5,800+) and non-series. Use the alphabetical author and character links or the special indexes." It's a favorite resource of ours! You can also search our Books & Literature guide, which provides you with links to booklists on various topics and our own literary research eResource NoveList (free with your valid library card!).

Unreliable Narrators

Used with permission of Powell's Books, Inc.

If you follow Powell's Books, a Portland, OR independent bookseller since 1971 (their flagship store is called Powell's City of Books), on Facebook, you will often find them posting pictures of in-house displays and asking you what you're reading this weekend. We were particularly intrigued by their "Unreliable Narrator" display.

We're not going to tell you in what way each of these narrators are unreliable, but don't read this post if you don't like spoilers, because all of these narrators are misleading you in one way or another - they may be the guilty party; they may be insane; they may just have personal bias. But none of these books will end up exactly where you thought they might.

Why are we writing about them, you might add, if it's  a possible spoiler situation? Well, as the web site TV Tropes attests, "As an author, this is a difficult trick to pull off. It is a lot easier to tell a straight story than it is to deliberately mislead the audience." They also list a couple of techniques - "Framing Device, ""Literary Agent Hypothesis," and "Rashomon-style," to give you specific examples. Let's give the authors credit for coming up with such inventive plots that turned their stories upside-down!

We don't really think about it normally, but when you pick up a book, "there's an element of trust that the person telling you the story is telling the truth, at least as far as they know it." That's why Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, one of our favorite unreliable narrator titles, was so startling and mystery-convention-breaking back in 1926. The reader expects to have to figure out whodunnit, but also expects to be given the facts, the truth, to work with.

So, here's our list of some unreliable narrators you might not have heard of (we're going to assume you all know about Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train) or may have forgotten about (we hope you haven't forgotten Rebecca, another of our favorites). But, if you're interested in twisting your brain around more titles like these, Goodreads has a pretty comprehensive list. Just know, someone in the book is probably lying to you... 😲

The Three by Sarah Lotz

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller

Fall by Colin McAdam

Atonement by Ian McEwan

How To Be a Good Wife by Emma Chapman

John Dies at the End by David Wong

Where the Moon Isn't by Nathan Filer

New & Novel: Audiobooks

Portrait of Middle Eastern woman wearing headphones. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/154_2879588/1/154_2879588/cite. Accessed 7 Jul 2017.

Audiobooks continue their meteoric rise. The Audio Publishers Association’s (APA) annual survey reports that audiobook sales in 2015 totaled more than $1.77 billion, an increase of more than 20 percent over 2014. It was the second consecutive year that audiobook sales have expanded by 20 percent, growth the APA chalks up to increasing awareness of the format and the popularity of digital downloads. The number of available titles expanded as well, from 25,944 in 2014 to 35,574 in 2015, an increase of 9,630, and the industry shows no sign of slowing down. So it’s no surprise that the tail end of 2016 and the first part of 2017 offer a dizzying array of options for audiobook fans. Some dearly departed authors will still have their voices heard in the coming months, and there’s a healthy mix of new talent and established masters in the audiobook arena.  
~Jason Puckett, "Listen & Yearn"

Whether you are looking for non-fiction crime or self-help, true stories of the famous and not-so-famous, fiction ranging from sci-fi to horror to young adult,the library system has a wide range of audiobook titles in a variety of formats! Don't limit yourself to a book on CD - you can also try a Playaway, or download an audiobook from Overdrive, hoopla, or RBDigital. Check out some of the library's more recent acquisitions, as recommended by Library Journal and BookPage (pick up a free copy of BookPage at your local library every month, while supplies last!).


Fiction

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden [eAudio]

Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton

Universal Harvester by John Darnielle [eAudio]

The Final Day by William Forstchen [eAudio]

Caraval by Stephanie Garber [YA - Playaway, eAudio]

The Wanderers by Meg Howrey [eAudio]

The Night Ocean by Paul Lafarge [eAudio]

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai [eAudio]

Recluce Tales by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. [eAudio]

The Witch’s Vacuum Cleaner by Terry Pratchett [eAudio]

New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth [eAudio]

Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran [eAudio]

The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers [eAudio]

The Wingsnatchers by Sarah Jean Horwitz [J]

The Marsh King's Daughter by Karen Dionne [eAudio]

Wolf on a String by Benjamin Black [eAudio]

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce [eAudio]

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore [YA - eAudio]

Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin [Playaway]

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney [eAudio]

Non-Fiction

Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, andthe Wickedest Town in the American West by Tom Clavin [Playaway]

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman [eAudio]

Killers of the Flower Moon: The OsageMurders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann [Playaway]

My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King [Playaway]

Own It: The Power of Women at Work by Sallie Krawcheck [eAudio]

Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy by Anne Lamott [eAudio]

The Radium Girls: They Paid with TheirLives, The Final Fight Was for Justice by Kate Moore [eAudio]

How To Be a Bawse by Lilly Singh [eAudio]

The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson [eAudio]

A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Madea Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life by Ayelet Waldman

Midlife On Life's Terms

Fork In The Road , . Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/165_3346570/1/165_3346570/cite. 

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.  

- Max Ehrman The Desiderata

At some point in our lives, if we are lucky, we will make it to forty years old....and beyond. There are unmistakable mild aches and pains and our metabolism goes out for cigarettes and never comes back. You find yourself saying insufferable things like, "What a nice young man" regarding someone in his thirties. Worst of all, the day comes when you're standing in the supermarket and the 1990s grunge music that defined the prime of your youth plays over the loud speakers as muzak while you contemplate a selection of calcium chews. The positive moments comes with deciding to take adult ballet classes, enroll in graduate school, and hearing yourself say assertive things like "no" that your people-pleasing younger self would have been unable to utter.

Stereotypes abound over the specter of aging hipsters growing older gracelessly. However, midlife can also give us an opportunity to hit a reset button on our creativity, ambitions, and relationships. The new responsibilities we are entrusted with provide growth and foster deep connections with our family and friends. We are held in the center of no longer being young, but old enough to see how we need to fearlessly prepare for old age and accept our mortality. It becomes possible to mellow out, forgive ourselves and others, and prepare for the next chapter of life, equipped with abundant knowledge about the creative, emotional, and spiritual possibilities for living midlife abundantly .

The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife by Marianne Williamson

The Breaking Point: How Female Midlife Crisis is Transforming Today's Women by Sue Shellenbarger. 

Carved in Sand: When Attention Fails and Memory Fades in Midlife by Cathryn Jakobson Ramin 

Coming of Age-- All Over Again: The Ultimate Midlife Handbook by Kate Klimo and Buffy Shutt

Crossing to Avalon: A Woman's Midlife Pilgrimage by Jean Shinoda Bolen 

Crossroads At Midlife: Your Aging Parents, Your Emotions, and Your Self  by Frances Cohen Praver

Eat to Defeat Menopause: The Essential Nutrition Guide for a Healthy Midlife--With More Than 130 Recipes by Karen Giblin & Mache Seibel

Fear of Fifty: A Midlife Memoir by Erica Jong

Girl Walks Into a Bar... : Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle by Rachel Dratch

Going Gray: What I Learned About Beauty, Sex, Work, Motherhood, Authenticity, and Everything Else That Really Matters by Anne Kreamer

A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don't Plan to Die by Gail Rubin

It's Never Too Late to Begin Again: Discovering Creativity and Meaning at Midlife and Beyond by Julia Cameron

Life Reimagined : The Science, Art, and Opportunity of Midlife by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning by Claire Dederer

Menopause Confidential: A Doctor Reveals the Secrets to Thriving Through Midlife by Tara Allmen, MD

New & Novel: Debut Fiction

Shelves full of books in a cosy library corner with two empty chairs and a lamp at night University of Toronto Canada Fiction section in Hart house library. Photo. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/167_3988032/1/167_3988032/cite. Accessed 7 Jul 2017.

For a reader, there’s something magical about picking up a first novel — that promise of discovery, the possibility of finding a new writer whose work you can love for years to come, the likelihood of semi-autobiography for you to mull over. The debut is even more important for the writer — after all, you only get one first impression. Luckily, there are a lot of fantastic first impressions to be had. 
~Emily Temple, "50 of the Greatest Debut Novels Since 1950" 

Whether you are one of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 (or even famous before you were 23), Monica Ali (her book Brick Lane was shortlisted for a literary prize while still a manuscript), one-book-wonders like Margaret Mitchell and Emily Brontë, whether you were inspired to write by a writing group (Toni Morrison) or got your start as a translator (Isabel Allende), were first self-published (Virginia Woolf), didn't get your start until you were over 40 (James Michener & Raymond Chandler), or almost became a chaplain instead of a writer (John Green), or if it took you 15 years to write a book (Patrick Rothfuss), it's a big deal to get your first novel published, and especially if you make a big splash. Any of the books on this list (descriptions are taken from the library catalog) could be the next big thing, and many of these authors may have a distinguished career in letters ahead of them! Why not try out some debut fiction today? You might find your new favorite author!

The Windfall by Diksha Basu
"A heartfelt comedy of manners, Diksha Basu's debut novel unfolds the story of a family discovering what it means to make it in modern India."

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan
"When a bookshop patron commits suicide, his favorite store clerk must unravel the puzzle he left behind in this fiendishly clever debut novel from an award-winning short story writer."

Chemistry by Weike Wang
"A novel about a young Chinese woman whose graduate studies in chemistry go off track and lead her to discover the truths about her goals and desires."

Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais
"...interwoven narratives create a rich and complex tapestry of the emotions and tensions at the heart of Apartheid-era South Africa. Hum if You Don't Know the Words is a beautifully rendered look at loss, racism, and the creation of family."

Sour Heart: Stories by Jenny Zhang
"A debut collection of stories that plunge readers into the tender and chaotic hearts of adolescent girls growing up in New York City, from celebrated poet and National Magazine Award nominee Jenny Zhang."

Lola by Melissa Scrivner Love
"An astonishing debut crime thriller about an unforgettable woman who combines the genius and ferocity of Lisbeth Salander with the ruthless ambition of Walter White." 

What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons
"An elegiac distillation, at once intellectual and visceral, of a young woman's understanding of absence and identity that spans continents and decades, What We Lose heralds the arrival of a virtuosic new voice in fiction."

Sorry to Disrupt the Peace by Patty Yumi Cottrell
"A bleakly comic tour de force that’s by turns poignant, uproariously funny, and viscerally unsettling, this debut novel has shades of Bernhard, Beckett and Bowles—and it announces the singular voice of Patty Yumi Cottrell."

Talon of God by Wesley Snipes
"The acclaimed actor makes his fiction debut with this enthralling urban fantasy in which a holy warrior must convince a doctor with no faith to help stop a powerful demon and his minions from succeeding in creating hell on earth - a thrilling adventure of science and faith, good and evil, damnation and salvation." 

Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett
"How a whip-smart young girl handles the loss of her mother and the reorientation of her family; charming and beautifully written."

Eggshells by Catriona Lally 
"Vivian doesn't feel like she fits in - and never has. As a child, she was so whimsical that her parents told her she was 'left by fairies.' Now, living alone in Dublin, the neighbors treat her like she's crazy, her older sister condescends to her, social workers seem to have registered her as troubled, and she hasn't a friend in the world. So, she decides it's time to change her life."

Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor 
"Sycamore is a coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a moving exploration of the elemental forces that drive human nature--desire, loneliness, grief, love, forgiveness, and hope--as witnessed through the inhabitants of one small Arizona town."

No One Is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts 
"No One Is Coming to Save Us is a revelatory debut from an insightful voice; with echoes of The Great Gatsby, it is an arresting and powerful novel about an extended African American family and their colliding visions of the American Dream. In evocative prose, Stephanie Powell Watts has crafted a full and stunning portrait that combines a universally resonant story with an intimate glimpse into the hearts of one family."

Taduno's Song by Odafe Atogun
"A stunning debut from a fresh Nigerian literary voice: a mesmerizing, deceptively simple, Kafkaesque narrative, resonant of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and lightly informed by the life of Nigerian musical superstar Fela Kuti--a powerful story of love, sacrifice, and courage. " 

My Sister's Bones by Nuala Ellwood
"In the vein of Fiona Barton's The Widow and Renée Knight's Disclaimer, a psychological thriller about a war reporter who returns to her childhood home after her mother's death but becomes convinced that all is not well in the house next door but is what she's seeing real or a symptom of the trauma she suffered in Syria?"

The Color of Our Sky by Amita Trasi [eBook]
"In the spirit of Khaled Hosseini, Nadia Hashimi and Shilpi Somaya Gowda comes this powerful debut from a talented new voice—a sweeping, emotional journey of two childhood friends in Mumbai, India, whose lives converge only to change forever one fateful night."

The Wages of Sin by Kaite Welsh 
"A page-turning tale of murder, subversion and vice in which a female medical student in Victorian Edinburgh is drawn into a murder investigation when she recognizes one of the corpses in her anatomy lecture."

Sonora by Hannah Lillith Assadi 
"This debut novel by Assadi, a recent MFA grad, is a hypnotic coming-of-age story set in the Southwestern Sonoran Desert and New York City. Like Assadi herself, Ahlam is the daughter of a Palestinian refugee father and an Israeli mother, and her intimate narration carries the reader effortlessly between the past and the present, through a kaleidoscope of memories, as she sits at her father's side in the hospital."

Blue Light Yokohama by Nicolás Obregón
"Nicolás Obregón balances the key components of modern detective fiction seamlessly: a damaged hero, the requisite layer of urban grittiness, a possible love interest, a taunting serial killer and a series of frustrating, misleading clues."

Almost Missed You by Jessica Strawser
"Jessica Strawser's Almost Missed You is a powerful story of a mother's love, a husband's betrayal, connections that maybe should have been missed, secrets that perhaps shouldn't have been kept, and spaces between what's meant to be and what might have been." 

The Girl from Rawblood by Catriona Ward
"Ward's layered and skillfully crafted novel weaves elements of classic gothic and horror into a remarkable story populated by unforgettable characters, palpable atmosphere, and rich lyricism. Imagine the darkest and goriest undertones of Edgar Allan Poe, the Brontës, Charles Dickens, and Shirley Jackson, and you'll have an idea of what Ward offers here."