Staff Recommendations
Sheryn Morris
Pages
-
My Brilliant Friend
by Ferrante, Elena.
June 30, 2015
Call Number:
My brilliant friend is the first in the Neapolitan Novels series by Italian author Elena Ferrante. (My brilliant friend; T... Read Full Review
-
Call me Debbie : true confessions of a down-to-earth diva
by Voigt, Deborah,
June 1, 2015
Call Number: 789.14 V891
There are so many stereotypes about opera and opera singers which Deborah Voigt debunks through her own autobiography. With a wonderful sense of humor and playfulness, especially evident when writing about dire situations, she counterbalances anecdotes about her heavy drinking, eating, and live performance mishaps with sharp personal smackdowns.Deborah Voigt loved to sing and her father claims that she sang before she talked. Brought up in a strictly religious Southern Baptist family, it was fine to sing in church, but anything else was not acceptable, and the family hoped that... Read Full Review
-
The hunting gun
by Inoue, Yasushi, 1907-1991,
May 6, 2015
Call Number: Ed.a
The premise of this novel is a very old one: a man and a woman, each of them married to other people, have an ongoing long affair. However, Yasushi Inoue, a prolific writer of over fifty novels, numerous short stories, poetry and travel writing, has created something different in this very short, enigmatic and bittersweet novel.The form of the novel is unique--with three letters set within the frame of another letter which is sent to a writer who has published a poem depicting a hunter trudging along with a powerful double-barreled shotgun. The letter writer, Misugi Josuke, thinks the... Read Full Review
-
It's what I do : a photographer's life of love and war
by Addario, Lynsey.
March 16, 2015
Call Number: 770.9 A222
Lynsey Addario’s autobiography and photographs are clear, direct, candid, and not for the faint of heart, so this is a cautionary warning. Her calling is war photography and with a world rocking off its hinges with conflicts, revolts, and wars, mostly undeclared, she has been steadily employed.Her obsession with photography began when her father casually handed over a Nikon FG to the thirteen-year-old Lynsey. At university she majored in international relations, but never imagined that photography could be a profession. A student year abroad in Italy provided opportunities to earn money from... Read Full Review
-
Ada's algorithm : how Lord Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace launched the digital age
by Essinger, James, 1957-
March 3, 2015
Call Number: 92 L8978Es
Ada Lovelace was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the brilliant and disturbed poet who died at thirty-six after living a life of excessive debauchery. Her mother came from a wealthy, fairly open-minded family, and for a woman at that time she received a somewhat decent education. The marriage lasted a little over a year, when Lady Byron took the young baby, and ran away from her controlling husband. Because Lord Byron had led a most profligate life, rife with an abuse of drugs and sex, it was one of Lady Byron’s chief goals to protect Ada from her father. It was not only Lord... Read Full Review
-
The world in the curl : an unconventional history of surfing
by Westwick, Peter J,
February 3, 2015
Call Number: 797.6 W538
While surfing on a warm day near Santa Barbara, two senior surfers, each having surfed over thirty years, and who were also scholars and historians, thought it would be fun and informative to teach a class on the history of surfing to students at U.C. Santa Barbara, known for its easy access to good surfing sites. The class was "inundated" with students and most of them were non-surfers. This book evolved from the class and covers the modern history of surfing as it originated in Hawaii. There are other parts of the world (Peru, West Africa, and Polynesia) where people surfed, but... Read Full Review
-
Memos : the Vogue years, 1962-1971
by Vreeland, Diana.
December 8, 2014
Call Number: 746.52 V979-1
“I cannot imagine how anyone going through College would use me as someone to make a report on.” p.196Yes, Mrs. Vreeland, aka Dee-a-ahna, for those in college and beyond, you and your way of doing business are of interest and warrant some attention. Diana Vreeland, truly the empress of fashion, who did not go to college, but whose memos as editor-in-chief at... Read Full Review
-
A year in the life of Downton Abbey
by Fellowes, Jessica,
December 2, 2014
Call Number: 809.2954 D751Fe-2
Downton Abbey enthusiasts will be more than a bit chuffed over the latest book on their favorite PBS television series. They probably will cheer with joy! Not that avid fans need any enticement, but the book is a stunning prelude to next year’s season. In addition there will be another season after that, which will start production next year. This book is set in post-World War I England. Jessica Fellowes interweaves the story of the upstairs and downstairs characters and daily life at the fictional estate. There... Read Full Review
-
The Sultan of Byzantium
by Altun, Selçuk, 1950-
November 10, 2014
Call Number:
Halâs is a professor, book collector, poetry lover, inquisitive reader of history, with a well-ordered but lackluster life. All of this changes when he is approached by several men from the mysterious Nomo organization who offer him a challenge that will verify if he is the heir apparent to the ancient Byzantine Empire. Initially dismissive, his interest grows as he seeks to unravel the answers to a set of questions. Each individual answer has a clue that leads to the next question, with the story taking on a whirlwind pace and tour through districts in Istanbul, cities and regions in... Read Full Review
-
Mexican American Baseball in Los Angeles
by Balderrama, Francisco E.
October 12, 2014
Call Number: 796.231 B176
In 2004 at California State University, Los Angeles, an exhibit was organized by Terry Cannon, Executive Director of the Baseball Reliquary and Cesar Caballero, Associate Library Dean at California State Library, Los Angeles. The purpose was to educate students on the history of Latino baseball in Los Angeles, and its importance to the greater community. Students, faculty, and the community responded with great enthusiasm. Former players came forward with oral histories and ... Read Full Review
-
My Mexico : a culinary odyssey with recipes
by Kennedy, Diana.
September 24, 2014
Call Number: 641.5972 K35-4 2013
Yes, I do read cookbooks, but not always sequentially the way fiction and other non-fiction books are read. Sometimes when reading them I skip around looking for an author’s take on a particular type of recipe or ingredient. Well-written cookbooks provide a history and insight into the world, and this particular one can be read by anyone besides those who like to cook. Diana Kennedy is the doyenne and world renowned authority for the foods and recipes of Mexico. A highly unlikely expert with no formal training as a cook, British by birth,... Read Full Review
-
Chasing the rose : an adventure in the Venetian countryside
by Di Robilant, Andrea, 1957-
September 9, 2014
Call Number: 716.21 D599
“. . . in the springtime a beautiful white and pink rose blossoms randomly in the sunnier parts of the wood. The gardeners do not know its provenance and call it the Rosa moceniga; but it is probably a variety of the Rosa multiflora that Lucia brought from Paris, and now grows wild in the gardens of Alvisopoli.” So ends the biography, ... Read Full Review