And Picasso Painted Guernica, by Alain Serres

For most of my working hours, I catalog children’s non-fiction books. I get to see books that teach a little about a subject in clear, easy language, often illustrated with lots of pictures. One of these books was And Picasso Painted Guernica, written by Alain Serres and translated from the French by Rosalind Price. Serres [...]

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So Cold the River, by Michael Koryta

Aging millionaire Campbell Bradford is dying. He has never discussed his childhood in southern Indiana, never offered any hints as to how he got started. He has certainly never explained the story behind his decades-old bottle of spring water, which always feels chill to the touch, no matter what. It’s too late for Campbell to [...]

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The Indian Slow Cooker, by Anupy Singla

Last night I made a lamb biryani that was as good as anything I’ve ever tasted in an Indian restaurant. Do you know how awesome that is? And! Not only did I make the best lamb biryani ever, I made it yesterday to serve to a guest without testing it beforehand. I was completely confident [...]

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The Weight of Silence, by Heather Gudenkauf

Two little girls are missing. Petra’s parents make the discovery first: their seven-year-old daughter is not in her bed one morning. They beeline over to their neighbor’s house to see if Petra is with her best friend, Callie—but Callie is nowhere to be found. We as readers know where Callie has gone. Her abusive lout [...]

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Are We Born Racist?, edited by Jason Marsh, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, and Jeremy Adam Smith

Some bad news: In a study conducted by Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt, participants looked at photographs of African-American men convicted of murder; some of the men had received death sentences and others had not, but the participants weren’t told who was who. The participants were asked to rate how “stereotypically black” the faces in the [...]

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Handling the Undead, by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Zombies are hot now. Teehee! It’s funny. It’s absurd. Zombies have no right to be popular. They’re disgusting. They have rotting flesh. They smell bad. They eat people. I personally am glad to be alive in a milieu in which disgusting rotting smelly carnivores are a hot item. I am not alone in wanting an [...]

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Best of 2010 Megalist, Update 4

Our 2010 Megalist is nearing completion. I’ve completed the compilation of 121 best-of-the-year lists and awards into the Excel spreadsheet, and almost all of the major sources are now included. Download it to see how many votes each of the 1,925 books that have been listed as one of the best have received. You’re welcome [...]

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The Pericles Commission, by Gary Corby

Our colleague Ceilidh finishes out the week with this review: Athens, Greece.  461 B.C.  The fate of the world’s first democracy hangs in the balance, and Nicolaos, son of Sophroniscus, a sculptor, realizes his life is about to change when a dead man falls from the cliff above.  The Pericles Commission is the first in [...]

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The Postcard, by Tony Abbott

Today’s post is from Nancy in Circulation Services: Thirteen-year-old Jason knew his summer was shot. The phone call from his Dad meant only one thing; he had to leave Boston and go to Florida to help him sort out things after the death of his grandmother. Hot, sweaty, St. Petersburg had nothing to offer Jason, until [...]

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When Everything Changed: the Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present, by Gail Collins

Alan Bernstein of Circulation Services shares today’s review: My first real job after serving in the army began in 1966, when I started working for a small privately-owned bank.  One of its policies was that no female employee could earn more than $125 per week. However, if such an employee could convince the bank’s president that [...]

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The Odyssey, A Graphic Novel by Gareth Hinds

John Livecchi of Circulation Services shares this review: Reading Homer’s Odyssey is something I do once or twice a year. I’m lucky enough to teach Homer’s classic tale for the Christopher Wren Association every fall, and I confess that re-reading it so frequently is a pleasure. Few stories engage my imagination at such depth and [...]

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Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy, by L. A. Meyer

Elisabeth Murray of Circulation Services starts off this week’s posts with an adventure! At the age of thirteen, a slimly built orphan child, Jacky Faber, leaves the troubled streets of London behind in order to secure a position as a ship’s boy on a British warship.  In addition to learning the duties of a ship’s [...]

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after the quake, by Haruki Murakami

The aftermath of the devastating 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, is the thread that connects the six short stories in Japanese author Haruki Murakami’s 2002 collection after the quake*. While none of the stories are set in Kobe, all of the characters are affected by the catastrophe, either directly or indirectly. The stories in after the [...]

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2010 Megalist, Update 3

The 2010 Megalist, the compilation of all of the major end-of-the-year best lists and awards nominees, continues to grow. This update brings the number of compiled sources to 83, with 1,651 different books receiving at least one vote. So far, the list of books with more than 20 votes includes Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, Jennifer Egan’s [...]

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Rashomon (1950)

A samurai and his wife find their travel violently interrupted when they encounter a bandit in an isolated grove. The bandit assaults the wife, murders the samurai, then flees the scene with the samurai’s horse and possessions. Later, the bandit is thrown from the horse and arrested by a passing policeman who discovers him with [...]

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The Whole Story, by Kate Bush

Neil’s posts on underused music in the WRL collection inspired me to write about one of my favorite underused CDs,  British singer-songwriter Kate Bush’s 1986 compilation The Whole Story. She may not be a household name, but her music has influenced artists such as Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, and Muse, and her songs have been [...]

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Mystery Science Theater 3000

Besides director David Lynch’s 1990-91 series Twin Peaks, my favorite television show is Mystery Science Theater 3000. Although the series was canceled in 1999, fans and newcomers  can still enjoy the show thanks to periodic DVD releases, and WRL has several sets as well as individual episodes in its collection. Mystery Science Theater 3000 (often [...]

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The Shaking Woman, or, a History of My Nerves, by Siri Hustvedt

In 2006, novelist Siri Hustvedt traveled to her hometown in Minnesota to speak at a memorial event honoring her late father Lloyd Hustvedt, chairman of the Norwegian department at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. She was accustomed to speaking in public and had plenty of time to prepare her speech; however, she was completely [...]

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