Summary: This little book will help teach you the lingo, provide tips and explore the process of the home buying experience. It can be exciting as well as anxiety inducing. But with this guide you can be a little more prepared for what is involved in this life changing event.
My Thoughts: I picked this up because the idea of buying a house seems like the next move in my life. I have spent years renting but I feel like I am ready for something more permanent. I found this book to be very informative. I learned new jargon or meanings behind the words you hear on the home buying shows. It was easily broken up into sections that follow the course of the house hunting experience. There are links, scenarios and helpful tips for how to navigate this confusing world of real estate.
If you are looking into buying a home, remodeling or find books on floor plans for a new home then the library is the place to check out. We have many books on these subjects. And if you cannot find what you are looking for then ask one of our staff for help or to do an interlibrary loan for a book we do not carry in our collection.
“So I’m not crazy?” “No. Your brain is doing exactly what you would expect it to do considering what you lived through.” ― Oprah Winfrey, What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing
Summary: Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”
Here, Winfrey shares stories from her past, understanding through experience the vulnerability that comes from facing trauma and adversity at a young age. In conversation throughout the book, she and Dr. Perry focus on understanding people, behavior, and ourselves. It’s a subtle but profound shift in our approach to trauma, and it allows us to understand our pasts to clear a path to our future—opening the door to resilience and healing in a proven powerful way.
My Thoughts: This book has something for everyone, and I highly recommend it! You absolutely should go with the audiobook for this one. Oprah narrates it along with Dr. Perry, and it is almost like listening to an in-depth podcast. There are scientific facts tied to real-life examples and experiences that keep you interested while also helping you better understand the concepts.
The discussions of the brain were well-done and easy for a layperson like me to understand. I appreciated the wide variety of stories Oprah and Perry shared that illustrate the impact trauma has on a person. Everyone has a reason as to why they are the way they are, and this is a good book to start digging deeper into that.
“It is fascinating to note how clothing so often played a role in resistance, as life-saving warmth, a heart-warming gift, a hiding place or a disguise.”
― Lucy Adlington, The Dressmakers of Auschwitz: The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive
Summary:
At the height of the Holocaust, twenty-five young women of the Auschwitz concentration camp were selected to sew fashions for elite Nazi women. It was work that they hoped would spare them from the brutalities of the camp. The Dressmakers of Auschwitz follows the fates of these brave women and their friendships. These bonds helped them endure persecution and encouraged their camp resistance. Lucy Adlington also includes an interview with the last surviving seamstress.
My thoughts:
The story starts off with their lives before the war. It details the fashion trends and how they changed with the war times. I found it fascinating that fashion played an important role promoting power and authority to the Nazis. The progression of this book was interesting. It is told from the view of multiple women, and lets you truly imagine what they were going through. Essentially, living minute by minute and never knowing what could happen tomorrow.
The author invested a lot of time researching these stories and ensuring each detail was important for the book. I really enjoyed this, and I had no clue it was non-fiction! It is written in a way that it felt like it could have been Historical Fiction, so that made it even better!
First Line: At first light, I leaned against the window and looked down at the mountains.
Summary: Matthieu Aikins is a young Canadian reporter who living in and reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan. While there, he befriends Omar, a local translator and driver who worked closely with U.S. Special Forces and found himself on the front lines more than once. Omar longs for the freedoms of Europe and the United States and he is devastated when his visa application to the U.S. is denied. Although Omar is desperate to get out, he also has a hard time committing to leaving because he is head over heels in love with Laila, whose conservative father will not permit her to marry a man of such little means.
In 2016, Omar and Matthieu decide to leave together, following the smuggler’s road to escape to Europe. Matthieu leaves his passport behind, passing as Afghan to experience the journey as a true refugee would, alongside Omar. Of course, he is also acutely aware that at any time he could call and escape the perils that so many cannot. The book details the many steps along their journey as the pair encounter cops, guards, activists, cross several borders, and get to know fellow refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and Africa–all searching for a better life for themselves and their families.
My Thoughts: This book offers a straight-forward, first-hand account of what their underground journey looks like, and it’s fascinating all the way through. So often, refugees are lumped together into a single entity in the news. In this book, we get to know who some of these people truly are. We hear about their hopes for the future, and we gain an understanding of the countless barriers to achieving freedom they encounter. As wars continue to rage and economic inequality increases across the globe, our refugee crisis only worsens. I wish anyone who had a negative view of immigrants would get to know the individuals themselves by listening to or reading their stories, and then maybe they’d have more empathy. I understand immigration is a complex issue, but in my mind, the world could use all the empathy and understanding it can get.
In addition to being a story about Afghan refugees, this book is also a story of friendship, an adventure tale, and a love story. It is hopeful as much as it is heartrending.
FYI: As a follow-up, listen to this interview with Aikins on the Longform Podcast from after the release of the book, and the fall of the Afghan government.
A couple weeks ago, I was flipping through the Memoir edition of The New York Times Book Review. After reading the first sentences of Walter Kirn’s review of Foreverland by Heather Havrilesky, I had to stop, sit up a little straighter, and start again. Was this a take down?
First of all, the title of the review is
“Heather Havrilesky Compares Her Husband to a Heap of Laundry.”
Tone set. The review begins by informing the audience that Havrilesky dedicates the book to her husband. In Kirn’s words, she “pays him this brief honor as a prelude to writing endlessly about his flaws.”
In the next paragraph, Kirn describes the relationship between the author and her husband as “a marriage between a neurotic perfectionist and a formidably patient man…” Ouch. Kirn’s criticisms become less personal as he questions the universality of Havrilesky’s sweeping statements about what marriage is and means.
I was too caught up in the juiciness of the review that I hadn’t yet considered whether these criticisms were fair. It may not be my most endearing trait, but I love a good piece of author gossip. For example, this profile of actor Jeremy Strong that Michael Schulman wrote for The New Yorker and the resulting backlash from celebrities such as Jessica Chastain. And then there was the time food author Alison Roman gave an interview in which she criticized Marie Kondo and Chrissy Teigen and the internet went nuts. (There was a follow-up interview with Roman about a year later in The New Yorker where she had the chance to contextualize her comments.)
Getting back to Foreverland, a few days after reading the review, I saw Havrilesky was a guest on Longform, a podcast I regularly listen to. To my surprise, she is still married to the heap of laundry from the book. She expressed disappointment and felt her work had been misunderstood. For one thing, she is a published cartoonist and humorist. As Havrilesky points out in the interview, the book is meant to be not only truthful but also funny.
Apparently, the ladies on the TV show The View were also critical of Havrilesky for bad mouthing her husband. The author defended herself by saying that she was trying to present an honest portrait of what marriage looks like—the good bad and ugly. She suggested misogyny was at play in some people’s negative and personal attacks on both her book and her character.
My Thoughts
I should start by saying, I haven’t yet read the book. I hadn’t initially planned to, but now I feel obligated to. And I want to.
As I said, I was at first all jazzed about the bad review. I was all “yeah! Take that lady!” But after hearing her speak, I had to reconsider. It is one thing to criticize a person’s writing, but it’s quite another to decide and print in an internationally renowned newspaper that an author is a “neurotic perfectionist,” and to imply that she is a bad person and a bad wife.
I don’t doubt that misogyny has played a role in the negative reviews of Havrilesky’s book. But I also wonder if some people feel threatened by her freedom to be so honest about her feelings towards her husband and about marriage. The author apparently writes in the book about developing a crush on another man. Some may say it’s cruel to be open with her husband about that. I’m inclined to think it takes a lot of guts. It must feel freeing to have her husband truly know her. I wonder if some people don’t envy that transparency—envy her dedication to being who she is no matter the cost.
As she says in the interview, although her husband was not initially thrilled with her including this chapter in the book, ultimately, the book has brought them closer together. Now, whether Havrilesky’s marriage is something the masses want to read about depends on her writing. I’ll withhold my judgment on that until after I’ve read the book.
Foreverland can be found in the New Books section of the Derby Library.
Fun fact about me; I love Latin and Hispanic culture. I grew up in Houston, Texas where I listened to Selena’s live concert from the Astrodome on repeat and ate as many tacos and sopapillas as I could get my little hands on. That love has now manifested into a Frida Kahlo tattoo and an obsession with authors like Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Isabel Allende.
When I discovered Rosalia early this year, I knew she would be the soundtrack of my 2021. This Spanish album is phenomenal. Rosalia is a musician from Spain who incorporates traditional flamenco with urban rhythms to create a unique sound. The album is inspired by a 13th century novel about a woman who overcomes an abusive marriage. Even if you can’t understand a word that Rosalia sings, both her vocals and the production will pull you in.
Book: Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls by Kaela Rivera
On the topic of Latin and Hispanic culture, this middle grade novel is a fantastical journey into the world of Mexican mythology. Having been raised in neighborhoods where local women would warn me of the ghostly La Llorona, I’ve always been fascinated by the mythos of Mesoamerica, and this book captures just that.
Cece Rios lives in Tierra del Sol, a desert plagued by vengeful spirits or criaturas. While Cece’s town try to scare off the criaturas, Cece feels they might not be as dangerous as others think. But when her sister is kidnapped by El Sombreron, she teams up with the legendary Coyote to enter a dark and dangerous world.
The characters, writing, and plot are all exceptional, and I was so immersed in the supernatural world. Also, if you are looking for the same vibe in TV form, check out Victor and Valentino here at the library or on Cartoon Network or HBO Max!
TV: Dopesick
This eight-part miniseries on Hulu about Oxycotin is addictive. If you are into court dramas, mental health/health care, stories of addiction, or the insanity that is the pharmaceutical industry, I highly recommend this show, inspired by the non-fiction novel of the same name. It’s not easy to watch at times, but it’s told with such high production and performance quality and with a sincere reverence to those impacted by OxyContin in the early 2000s.
The series gives you all perspectives; members of the pharm company, a sales rep, a doctor, a patient, a DEA agent, and the lawyers who brought a case against the drug. Michael Keaton, Rosario Dawson, and Peter Sarsgaard have lead roles.
Interestingly, my mother worked as a hospital phlebotomist around the time of the drug’s release when I was about ten years old, and I remember her having pens and notepads with its logo. Never would I have imagined the scandal and deception behind it.
Company: Les Mills
Fitness has been a consistent part of my life for nearly four years. I box with Evolution Fitness Studios in Wichita (which I highly recommend), but when COVID hit last year, I had to find something else to keep both my physical and mental health intact. I stumbled upon this video on YouTube and fell in love with the New Zealand-based company called Les Mills.
I use Les Mills Plus, an on-demand subscription where I follow along with videos taught by instructors from all over the world. Les Mills has so many different programs including weight training (Body Pump), HIIT (Grit), shadowboxing (Body Combat), dance (Sh’Bam), cycling (RPM) and more.
The workouts can be tough, but they’ve pushed my fitness level in a whole new way. The instructors are motivating and helpful too. If you are hesitant to get into a gym or you are looking for something new, I recommend giving Les Mills a try.
Man, Thanksgiving hit, and all my book-related newsletters and websites have been filled with “Best of 2018” and other types of end-of-year book lists. My first response was “Can you not wait until the end of the year? What if the best book of the year gets released in December?!”
But alas, the lists have not slowed down and there are so many of them I don’t know where to start or how to decide which ones I should choose books from! In other words, all these lists have me a little paralyzed. Kind of. I mean, now that I’ve looked at so many lists of what are supposed to be the best books of the year, I have no idea how to manage my to-read list, because now I want to read everything.
So, to help you build a TBR (to be read) pile for 2019, here is a Top 10 of the lists we’ve found, from the traditional, to the not-so-traditional.
And the final list I want to share with you is one of my favorites, and it’s not technically a traditional list. NPR’s Book Concierge is a fun way to find new books that appeal to you, as you can sort using filters (and can combine filters). In addition, NPR makes its Book Concierges from 2008-2017 available as well!
The last several months have been filled with the project of weeding and shelf reading the juvenile non-fiction books. This is quite a daunting task since there are TONS of books! I was ready to take on the challenge though. As I have been working my way through the Dewey decimal system I have found some very interesting books. Even though they are titles geared towards children there is so much good information to be found here. And the fact that kids LOVE to check these out is wonderful! If you have not browsed our children’s non-fiction titles you definitely should.
I am someone who likes to learn a little bit while I read. Before I started working at the library I read mainly historical fiction. I love learning about the history of people and places. Deborah Harkness’s newest book, Time’s Convert, is my latest historical fiction but with a fantasy twist.
*May contain spoilers if you have not read the All Souls Trilogy!*
First line: On her last night as a warmblood, Phoebe Taylor had been a good daughter.
Summary: In continuation of her best-selling series, Deborah Harkness takes us on an adventure spanning from the American Revolution to modern day as we follow the early days of vampires, Phoebe Taylor and Marcus MacNeil. Marcus grew up in time of great change. He saw the birth of a new country but when he meets Matthew de Claremont on the fields of battle his life was changed forever. Phoebe, an art dealer and Marcus’s fiancé, has made the decision to become a vampire. In the early days after her rebirth, she learns that her journey to immortality is not any easier than it was for Marcus.
Highlights: I love Harkness and her writing. It is immediately engaging. I read the All Souls Trilogy several years ago which made the details of the story a little fuzzy. However, as I started this newest installment she gave tidbits that helped me remember more of the previous novels storyline. I was worried that in this new book I would not get to revisit characters like Matthew and Diana because the story focused on Marcus and Phoebe but Harkness must have known I would always want more of them. She alternates her chapters between the characters and plot lines. We jump from eighteenth century to the twenty-first and back again.
I have been fascinated with the American Revolution since middle school. I was pleased that Marcus’s story took us back to the American colonies and the fight for liberty. I enjoyed reading as Marcus met famous people of the time including the Marquis de Lafayette. After seeing Harkness at a Watermark event a few years back, I learned that her focus of study is on the history of science. It really comes through during this time when Marcus, as well as the nation, is dealing with a small pox epidemic. The history of inoculations for the disease was fascinating and fit perfectly into the story. I am so glad that small pox is not something that we have to worry about now because it looks truly frightening!
Phoebe is a character that I vaguely remember from the trilogy but I cannot say that I felt too strongly about her. In this book, she has a fascinating story. I loved seeing her progress as she fought her urges and dealt with the new strengths. Her first night out in the world interesting. In addition, her preference for the blood of middle-aged white women definitely made me laugh aloud!
Matthew and Diana’s twins were probably my favorite part of the story. Each of them have their own traits from both their mother and father. Watching their parents try to figure out how to deal with a daughter who drinks blood and son who can weave spells was entertaining. I do not want to give too much away but I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Lowlights: I wish I could get more Gallowglass! He makes a few appearances but not enough for me. Maybe the next book?! Please Deborah!!
FYI: Lots of blood, violence, magic and some sexual situations.
*I do not think it is a must but I would recommend reading her All Souls Trilogy, starting with A Discovery of Witches before picking this one up.*
The first few weeks of school are out of the way, the mornings are a little cooler, and we can always find more excuses reasons to read, right? There are some books that look like they will be great reading as fall makes its way to Kansas. So take a look at a few books we think are worth noticing as the pumpkins start to ripen.
Click on the title to go to the library catalog where you can see if the book is available and put it on hold. Grab your favorite hot drink, find a comfy chair and sit and read for a while!
Sept. 19: Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore
Jane was raised by her Aunt Magnolia, a deep sea photographer and adjunct professor. But now Jane is a year out of high school and Aunt Magnolia got lost during an expedition to Antarctica a few months ago. Jane is now obsessed with the umbrellas that reflect her dreams. When she is invited to a gala at the island mansion Magnolia told her to absolutely go to if she ever got the chance, Jane goes. What Jane doesn’t know yet is that every choice made in the mansion comes with a reward, or a price.
Meet Daniel “Mac” MacCormick, owner of a fishing boat that may be making a trek to Cuba to recover $60,000,000 hidden during the Cuban revolution.
Sept. 19: The Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille
Daniel “Mac” MacCormick is a decorated U.S. Army veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan during his 5-year stint as an infantry officer. Now he owns a 42-foot charter fishing boat and is sitting in a bar waiting to hear why he should take a $2,000,000 fare to Cuba. After hearing Sara’s story of the $60,000,000 her grandfather hid during the revolution, he knows that he’ll either come away from this job rich, or he won’t come back at all.
Stephen King co-authored “Sleeping Beauties” with his son Owen King.
This father-and-son collaboration explores the question of what might happen if the women of the world disappeared. From Goodreads: “In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep; they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent; and while they sleep they go to another place. The men of our world are abandoned, left to their increasingly primal devices. One woman, however, the mysterious Evie, is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Evie a medical anomaly to be studied, or is she a demon who must be slain? Set in a small Appalachian town whose primary employer is a women’s prison, Sleeping Beauties is wildly provocative and gloriously absorbing.”
Sept. 26: The Last Castle by Denise Kiernan (non-fiction)
If you have been to Asheville, North Carolina, and visited the Biltmore Estate, or if you’ve never been to North Carolina and only seen pictures of the Biltmore Estate, this book tells the magnificent story of how the country’s grandest residence was built. However, the book is more than just the story of how a 175,000-square-foot home was built. You’ll also learn the story of George Vanderbilt and Edith Stuyvessant Dresser.
This book for middle grade readers is a wonderful story about relationships.
Sept. 26: Wishtree by Katherine Applegate (for young readers)
From Goodreads: “Red is an oak tree who is many rings old. Red is the neighborhood ‘wishtree’—people write their wishes on pieces of cloth and tie them to Red’s branches. Along with her crow friend Bongo and other animals who seek refuge in Red’s hollows, this ‘wishtree’ watches over the neighborhood. You might say Red has seen it all. Until a new family moves in. Not everyone is welcoming, and Red’s experiences as a wishtree are more important than ever. “
Aaahhhh. Summer is finally here! The kids are out of school, the pools are open and the sun is (we hope!) shining. Summer just screams at me to pick up a new book — or several! — and climb into the hammock under the tree and ignore everything else for a while as I lose myself in the pages. When I was a teenager, we lived just a couple blocks from the local public library, so I would ride my bike over, pick up a few novels, come home and jump in the hammock to read. My family always knew where to find me in the backyard.
And now that I am, well, let’s just say not a teenager any longer, and my summers aren’t nearly as free as they were when I was 14, my heart still yearns for the hammock, a light breeze and a stack of good books. Luckily, with all the new releases to look forward to this month, my stack will stay nice and tall.
Here are a few titles we are looking forward to that will be released the first couple of weeks of June.
June 6: Once and For All by Sarah Dessen
This, the 13th novel from Sarah Dessen, takes place in the world of wedding planning, so a crisis is just about guaranteed. Louna is the daughter of a famous wedding planner, so she has seen weddings at beaches, hotels, and fancy clubs. After her first love ended tragically, Louna is pretty cynical about happy endings. So when she meets Ambrose, she works to keep her distance. However, now that he’s met a girl he really wants, Ambrose is hard to discourage.
“The Alice Network” is the newest historical novel by Kate Quinn.
June 6: The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
This new historical novel by Kate Quinn brings together the stories of a 1915 woman, Eve Gardiner, recruited as a spy in France, and a 1947 unconventional American socialite, Charlie St. Clair. Charlie is sent to Europe to have a “little problem” taken care of, but while there she goes on the hunt for her cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war. There, Charlie meets Eve, who, desperate to fight against the Germans, is trained by the “Queen of Spies” and sent into enemy-occupied France during the World War I.
June 6: Camino Island by John Grisham
A daring heist from a vault deep below an Ivy League university’s library. A dealer in rare books, who also occasionally dabbles in the black market of stolen books and manuscripts. A young female novelist who goes undercover. Eventually, people learn too much. Suspense as only Grisham can deliver.
June 13: Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
From the author of Bad Feminist comes an emotionally raw memoir of food, weight, self-image, and self-care. From Goodreads: “As a woman who describes her own body as ‘wildly undisciplined,’ Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she explores her own past—including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life—and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself.”
Take a trip to Old Hollywood in this story of one actress’s story of her life, secrets, and all seven husbands.
June 13: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Evelyn Hugo, one of the most glamorous actresses of Old Hollywood, has decided the time has come to tell her story, and the truth, about her scandalous life. To do so, she chooses unknown magazine report Monique Gray, who is not exactly at the top of her own world, but is determined to use this chance to jump start her career. As Evelyn’s life unfolds, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s surprisingly in tragic and irreversible ways.
June 13: The Lost Letter by Jillian Cantor
Kristoff, an apprentice stamp engraver in Austria, is forced to work for the Germans after his teacher, a master stamp engraver, disappears during the Kristallnacht. Fifty years later, Katie Nelson discovers a stamp collection of her father’s, which includes an unusual stamp from World War II Austria. The discovery leads Katie and Benjamin, an appraiser, on a journey to find the origins of the stamp.
From The New York Times Book Review, here’s 
ime’s Convert
