St. Patrick’s Day will soon be upon us, and for many that’s an occasion to wear green and drink a Guinness. But I’m using the occasion to recommend books by Irish writers. Not that there’s anything wrong with green clothes. Or Guinness. Given Ireland’s history, imperialism is a compelling subject to many Irish writers. Booker-winner…
March is Women’s History Month! We hope you’ll enjoy this list of recommended reads from SPL staff. The image of three women reading above is from the Donald C. King Family Photographs in our local history collection. View the collection online at Digital Commonwealth! Formation: a Woman’s Memoir of Stepping Out of Line, by Ryan Leigh…
Wow, Somerville, you read so much this year! These are the books Somerville readers checked out the most in 2019. How many have you read? Which ones were your favorites? Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens Becoming by Michelle Obama Educated by Tara Westover Normal People by Sally Rooney Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, tied with…
I love reading published collections of letters. You get to see people at their frankest and most unguarded moments. And depending on when the letters were written, they provide a window into the past, how what we now call history looked to people as it happened. Of the many such collections we have in the…
In This Book, Craftsmanship Is a Matter of Life or Death In the underground city of Caverna, the setting of Frances Hardinge’s novel A Face Like Glass, a sip of wine can rewrite memories, a bite of cheese can spark visions, and certain perfumes make the wearer literally irresistible. Its citizens’ facial expressions, too, are…
First time novelist Angie Thomas has made a big splash with her young adult novel, The Hate U Give. Released last month, the novel has already topped the New York Times’s Best Seller List for Young Adult Hardcover Books, been optioned for a Hollywood film, and been acclaimed by critics and in numerous articles, such…
Did you know that the Somerville Public Library has a travel section? Well, if you didn’t know. We do. It’s very popular, in fact, people come in to browse all the time! Starting in the 910 section of the library, we have shelves and shelves of Fodors, Frommers, DK Eyewitness, Rough Guides, and many more….
The Dallas Buyers’ Club starring Matthew McConaughy, Jared Leto and Jennifer Gardner is about a blue collar electrician, in Texas, in the 1980’s, who is infected with the HIV virus. The movie portrays the stigmas surrounding AIDS and homosexual men of the decade. The main character, Ron Woodruff, a heterosexual man, loses his job and…
I just finished reading the most delightful book: the Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. The novel debuted on The New York Times‘ best-seller list of 2015 and has been widely popular across the country. The book is about a single woman (Rachel) whose husband has left her for another woman. After the mysterious…
If you’re a lady and have ever felt fat, thought you were fat, been or are fat, then you should read 13 Ways of Looking at Fat Girl by Mona Awad. This sadistic comedy written in the voice of Lizzie, portrays her life in adolescence to older adulthood as an overweight person and the misery…
