Staff Recommendations

Andrea Borchert

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  • Book cover for Consider the fork : a history of how we cook and eat

    Consider the fork : a history of how we cook and eat

    by Wilson, Bee.

    March 29, 2016

    Call Number: 643.309 W746

    In the library we have vegetarian cookbooks and barbecue cookbooks. We have French cookbooks and microwave cookbooks. We have cookbooks by famous chefs and famous musicians. Almost anything you’ve ever wanted to serve at a meal, we have cookbooks that will help you make those foods. But why do we cook the way we do? What influences the way you make a breakfast slice of toast or cup of coffee?Bee Wilson, author of Consider the Fork, has the answer. It isn’t simply ingredients or culture that shapes food choices. She tells us that the way we cook, the technology we use, has a profound... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for All the Birds in the Sky

    All the Birds in the Sky

    by Anders, Charlie

    February 14, 2016

    Call Number:

    All the birds in the sky is a slightly dystopian, romantic, comedic bildungsroman wrapped in a rich, creamy sci-fi, fantasy wrapper. It has everything you need from urban fantasy and science fiction: artificial intelligence, talking cats, great dialogue, flying, nerd parties, magic schools, doomsday machines, time travel, assassins posing as guidance counselors, riddles, loneliness, and love. The story, told in a series of flashbacks and in the present, follows two lonely kids: Laurence, who builds his own time machine and wears it on his wrist (it’s less useful than you’d think),... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

    Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

    by Silberman, Steve

    January 25, 2016

    Call Number: 370.157 S5825

    How do you classify a condition like autism? The condition affects so many different people in such different ways that, the saying goes, “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism”. How can a condition that may have affected as diverse a group as Alan Turing, Leonardo Da Vinci, Temple Grandin, and Emily Dickinson be treated? What, or who, is to blame? What is there to celebrate in a life with autism? Our understanding of autism has changed so much and NueroTribes: the legacy of autism and the future of neurodiversity covers every step of that change,... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for Maze : solve the world's most challenging puzzle

    Maze : solve the world's most challenging puzzle

    by Manson, Christopher.

    December 21, 2015

    Call Number: 793.4 M289

     In 1985 there was a competition to solve a puzzle--a puzzle in the shape of a book. Christopher Manson presented this strange puzzle in an eerie picture book that he wrote and illustrated. Taken all together, the book itself is the maze. You enter the maze by turning the first page. But once you do, will you be able to find the center? Will you find your way back out again? Each page of the book represents a room. Each room has multiple doors that lead to different pages, and you have to chose the right ones to walk through. As you make your way through the maze the mysterious (and... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for The traitor Baru Cormorant

    The traitor Baru Cormorant

    by Dickinson, Seth.

    November 23, 2015

    Call Number:

    The traitor Baru Cormorant is a political-military thriller set in a fantasy world crushed under the boot heels of the Empire of Masks. The Empire has conquered most of the world, and is busily remaking the world in it’s image. This means a range of different things. Sometimes it means vaccinations and functioning sewer systems for the masses, but it also entails eugenics, and setting up special schools to indoctrinate children from conquered lands.Baru Cormorant is one such child who grows up in a charitable school run by the Empire. Always looking over her shoulder and driven to... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for Welcome to Night Vale

    Welcome to Night Vale

    by Fink, Joseph

    October 26, 2015

    Call Number:

    How can I explain the wonder and terror that is Welcome to Night Vale? Welcome to Night Vale started as a podcast. In the podcast Cecil Palmer, the host of a local radio show, reports the news of his small, desert town. Community events like PTA meetings are covered, colorful local characters like Old Woman Josie or John Peters, the farmer, call in and share their colorful, local perspectives on everything from street cleaning to local elections. It’s a little like Prairie Home Companion’s News from Lake Wobegon. Mostly, sort of . . . Because, after you listen... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for Futuristic violence and fancy suits

    Futuristic violence and fancy suits

    by Wong, David, 1975 January 10-

    October 13, 2015

    Call Number:

    Futuristic violence and fancy suits is a fast-paced action adventure story set in a future boomtown, which is a place with few laws and even less taste. A poor barista named Zoey Ashe has unexpectedly inherited a fortune from a father she never knew. Rather than turning her into Cinderella at the ball, this inheritance puts her smack dab in the path of the dangerous people who killed her father. They are after something mysterious and won’t stop until they find it. In fact, they’ve already put a price on Zoey’s head. Now millions of people are watching online as various bounty... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for Shakespeare saved my life : ten years in solitary with the Bard

    Shakespeare saved my life : ten years in solitary with the Bard

    by Bates, Laura.

    September 28, 2015

    Call Number: 822.331 B329

    BID #5161545Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard is a book that warms my cold librarian’s heart. Laura Bates is an English Professor who volunteers to teach English to prisoners in maximum security, and in solitary confinement. She teaches them Shakespeare. After all, she’s already teaching her college freshmen Shakespeare. Of course, college freshmen are allowed to use pencils, so there are some differences between the two groups of students.What is amazing about Dr. Bates’ book is how the students from Wabash Valley Correctional Facility take Shakespeare’s... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for Spare parts : four Mexican American teenagers, one ugly robot, and the battle for the American dream

    Spare parts : four Mexican American teenagers, one ugly robot, and the battle for the American dream

    by Davis, Joshua, 1974-

    August 25, 2015

    Call Number: 621.80973 D262

    Who builds robots? Hypothetically, anyone with drive and talent could pick up a robot building book from the library (see books listed below), borrow a soldering iron from a friend, and use spare parts to put together something that could fight any of the robots on that television show BattleBots, or compete with robots in the robot building competitions taking place throughout the country. But when four economically disadvantaged Mexican American high school students entered the... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for Strong Female Protagonist: Book One

    Strong Female Protagonist: Book One

    by Mulligan, Brennan Lee,

    August 3, 2015

    Call Number: 740.9999 M959 v.1

    When Alison Green developed superpowers as a kid she did what anyone in her position would do, donned a costume and fought crime! But now that Alison is growing up and gaining a bit of maturity, the black and white world of superheroes and supervillains is getting more and more complicated, and even more difficult to navigate. The exact lines between hero and villain, friend and enemy keep changing, and Alison is forced to wonder if her typical wild street brawls are really doing the good she hoped they would. When Alison takes off her mask and goes to college she manages to turn her old... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for What if? : serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions

    What if? : serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions

    by Munroe, Randall,

    July 20, 2015

    Call Number: 500 M968

    I was a little kid when I saw Superman, the movie, for the very first time. It was a strange and heady experience. You see…   “There’s an alien who looks exactly like a normal human being.”  “Really, Ok!” “And he can fly.” “Yes!” “And he’s super strong.” “Of course!” “He uses his powers to fight crime” “This makes complete and utter sense!” “…in a blue and red skintight outfit.” “All right, I’ll buy it!” “And he turns back time by flying around the earth really, really fast!” “….Wait. That isn’t. That doesn’t….... Read Full Review

  • Book cover for The thrilling adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

    The thrilling adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

    by Padua, Sydney.

    June 8, 2015

    Call Number: 740.9999 P125

    Charles Babbage is widely credited with inventing the first computer, depending on your definition of “computer” and “invent”. You see, he never actually finished his masterpiece, the Analytical Engine. Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron, was a mathematician who wrote programs for this nascent computer, making her the first computer programmer. Together they were innovators and eccentrics with genuine affection for one another. What could be more fun than a book based on their lives and collaboration? How about a graphic novel based on their story? How about a graphic novel full of... Read Full Review

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