A biweekly selection from our shelves, as curated by your favorite SPL librarians!
For the week of September 14, 2021: Fiction | Nonfiction | Graphic Novels | Movies/TV, Music & More
Fiction
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All the Water I’ve Seen is Running by Elias Rodriques
Former high school classmates reckon with the death of a friend in this stunning debut novel. |
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The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman
Set in a world of goblin wars, stag-sized battle ravens, and assassins who kill with deadly tattoos, Christopher Buehlman's The Blacktongue Thief begins a 'dazzling' (Robin Hobb) fantasy adventure unlike any other. |
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Impostor Syndrome by Kathy Wang
Part page-turning cat-and-mouse chase, part sharp and hilarious satire, Impostor Syndrome is a shrewdly-observed examination of women in tech, Silicon Valley hubris, and the rarely fulfilled but ever-attractive promise of the American Dream. |
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Mona by Pola Oloixarac
A young Latin American author, newly successful, escapes her downward spiral of drugs and erotic detours in California only to find a fresh hell at an ultra-hip literary conference in Sweden. |
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Night, Neon: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates
Presents nine tales of psyches pushed to their limits by the expectations of everyday life--from a woman who gets lost on her drive home to her plush suburban home and ends up breaking into a stranger's house, to a first-person account of a cloned 1940s magazine pinup girl being sold at auction and embodying America's ideals of beauty and womanhood. |
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That Hair by Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida
That Hair is a family album of sorts that touches upon the universal subjects of racism, feminism, colonialism, immigration, identity and memory. |
Nonfiction
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Colombiana: A Rediscovery of Recipes & Rituals from the Soul of Colombia by Mariana Velásquez
A recipe developer and food stylist--whose work has taken her across the globe to work with clients like Michelle Obama and into the test kitchens of today's most esteemed culinary publications--pays homage to her native country with this vibrant, visually stunning cooking, the first dedicated solely to Colombian food, featuring 100 recipes that meld the contemporary and the traditional. |
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Democracy Rules by Jan-Werner Müller
A discussion of the rules and norms underlying democracy with an emphasis on the role played by elections and political parties. |
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From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement by Paula Yoo
A compelling account of the killing of Vincent Chin, the verdicts that took the Asian American community to the streets in protest, and the groundbreaking civil rights trial that followed. |
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I Am a Girl From Africa by Elizabeth Nyamayaro
A "profound and soul-nourishing memoir" (Oprah Daily) from an African girl whose near-death experience sparked a lifelong dedication to humanitarian work that helps bring change across the world. |
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Life on the Line: Young Doctors Come of Age in a Pandemic by Emma Goldberg
Weaving together in-depth interviews with doctors, their diaries, and notes, this page-turning account follows the medical students who received their degrees early to help treat thousands of critically ill COVID-19 patients in New York City during the height of the pandemic. |
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Out of the Shadows: Six Visionary Victorian Women in Search of a Public Voice by Emily Midorikawa
Queen Victoria's reign was an era of breathtaking social change, but it did little to create a platform for women to express themselves. But not so within the social sphere of the seance--a mysterious, lamp-lit world on both sides of the Atlantic, in which women who craved a public voice could hold their own. |
Graphic Novels
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The Cloven by Garth Stein
James Tucker is a genetically modified cross between a human and a goat who was conceived in a top-secret laboratory on Washington State's Vashon Island, and all he wants is to live a normal life as he takes journey across the Pacific Northwest searching for his true home. |
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Dancing at the Pity Party: A Dead Mom Graphic Memoir by Tyler Feder
Tyler Feder shares her story of her mother's first oncology appointment to facing reality as a motherless daughter in this frank and refreshingly funny graphic memoir. |
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Fat by Regina Hofer
"A narrative, in graphic novel form, of a young woman coming of age while struggling with an eating disorder and family dysfunction. Documents the author's battle with body dysmorphic disorder, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia, which plagued her from her childhood through to adulthood. |
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The Incredible Nellie Bly by Luciana Cimino
Luciana Cimino's meticulously researched graphic-novel biography tells Bly's story through Miriam, a fictionalized female student at the Columbia School of Journalism in 1921. This beautifully executed graphic novel paints a portrait of a woman who defied societal expectations--not only with her investigative journalism, but with her keen mind for industry, and her original inventions. |
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The Inheritance by Elizabeth A. Povinelli
The Inheritance is anthropologist Elizabeth A. Povinelli's graphic memoir in which she explores her family's history and the events, traumas, and social structures that define our individual and collective pasts and futures. |
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The Sacrifice of Darkness by Roxane Gay and Tracy Lynne Oliver
Follow one woman's powerful journey through this new landscape as she discovers love, family, and the true light in a world seemingly robbed of any. As she challenges notions of identity, guilt, and survival she'll find that no matter the darkness, there remains sources of hope that can pierce the veil. |
Movies/TV, Music & More
Movies/TV
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Paprika by Satoshi Kon Format: DVD A revolutionary machine has been built that allows scientists to enter and record a subject's dream. After the machine is stolen, a fearless detective and brilliant therapist join forces to recover the device before it falls into the hands of a "dream terrorist." |
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Sonja the White Swan by Daniel Voldheim Format: DVD The story of Sonja Henie, one of the world's greatest athletes and the inventor of modern figure skating, who decides to go to Hollywood in 1936 to become a movie star. |
Music
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The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers by Valerie June Format: CD Ambling with guitar in hand down creative paths less taken, Valerie and co-producer Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys) have captured a rare gem of heartfelt expression and sweet liminality. Like a modern-day Astral Weeks, The Moon and Stars filters the familiar and organic through a celestial veil with June serving as medium between the spiritual and corporeal worlds. |
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Rawer Than Raw by Bobby Rush Format: CD Bobby Rush pays homage to the great bluesmen from Mississippi on his 27th studio album. This is Bobby Rush, stripped-down; just his guitar, harmonica, singing, and foot tapping. There's a song from Skip James, Robert Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson, Willie Dixon, and Howlin' Wolf. One song is Public Domain originally recorded for the Library of Congress by Alan Lomax, but later made famous by Muddy Waters. |
& More
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The Lady Has a Past by Amanda Quick Format: Spoken CD Beauty and glamour meet deception and revenge in this electrifying novel by New York Times bestselling author Amanda Quick. |
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Persist by Elizabeth Warren Format: Spoken CD 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren writes about six perspectives that have influenced her life and advocacy: being a mother, a teacher, a planner, a fighter, a learner, and a woman. |