Staff Recommendations
Sheryn Morris
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Catching the light
by Harjo, Joy
April 18, 2023
Call Number: 811 H2816H-3
From 2019 to 2022 Joy Harjo was the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, and was the first Native American in that position. She is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation that is geographically located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Harjo is clear in affirming that the Muscogee Creek Nation Reservation is “at the border of three Native nations that also include the Osage and Cherokee. We honor and acknowledge those original keepers, past, present, and future, who care for these lands. We acknowledge the source of the gifts of... Read Full Review
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Visual thinking : the hidden gifts of people who think in pictures, patterns, and abstractions
by Grandin, Temple
April 5, 2023
Call Number: 152.1 G753
Temple Grandin did not start to speak until she was two years old and was diagnosed with brain damage. Her parents were advised to place her in an institution. She was born in 1947 and Temple says, “I was exhibiting most of the behaviors now fully associated with autism, including lack of eye contact, temper tantrums, lack of social contact, sensitivity to touch, and the appearance of deafness ... the medical profession had not started applying an autism diagnosis to children like me." However at the time Temple was diagnosed with brain damage it was her mother’s... Read Full Review
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The exceptions : Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the fight for women in science
by Zernike, Kate
March 29, 2023
Call Number: 509.73 Z58
When she was a reporter for the Boston Globe Kate Zernike wrote the breaking story that the esteemed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had discriminated against women faculty, at all levels. Based on meticulous research this book is an in-depth analysis of what took place and how sixteen women, each of whom thought they were the exception to unfair treatment, came together to realize that each of them had been treated unfairly. Over four years Zernike conducted interviews, used archival material that included letters, university reports, oral histories,... Read Full Review
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I'll build a stairway to paradise : a life of Bunny Mellon
by Griswold, Mac K.
March 20, 2023
Call Number: 712.092 M527Gr
When she died in 2014, 103 years old, it could be said that Rachel Lambert Mellon had lived a very full life, not only for her longevity but for all that she accomplished. She was born into a family of wealth and property, and she twice married men of wealth and property. Her husband Paul Mellon was one of the richest men in the United States For a woman of her time, born in 1910, not much was expected of her other than to marry well, produce children, and take care of her husband, their family, and home. However, there was a great deal more to this woman who was known as Bunny.Most... Read Full Review
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Superspy Science: Science, Death and Tech in the World of James Bond
by Harkup, Kathryn
March 6, 2023
Call Number: 823 F597Ha
"Bond's the name, Jame Bond," is how he introduces himself. In the books and films we learn that he has a license to kill, which he uses to get any number of baddies who stand in his way of eliminating super villains. He is helped in this endeavor with an arsenal of quirky, powerful weapons, gadgets, cars, planes and other paraphernalia that are beyond belief. Over the years the franchise, both book and film, has expanded and readers and viewers know they will be in for lots of thrills with Bond always the cool, calm hero. Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, said that in some ways the... Read Full Review
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The essential Dick Gregory
by Gregory, Dick
February 28, 2023
Call Number: 812.092 G822-3
According to producer and director Andrew Gaines (The One and Only Dick Gregory), “For me, the personal experiences of Dick Gregory were like listening to a walking history lesson. It took only a few hours into my journey to make this film for me to realize that Dick Gregory was one of a kind, and I became totally consumed.” According to Christian Claxton Gregory, editor of his father's thoughts, “What a life, what a blessing. Dick Gregory was many... Read Full Review
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Dr. No : a novel
by Everett, Percival
February 21, 2023
Call Number:
If you are a fan of Percival Everett, his most recent novel is for you. If you love satire then this novel is for you. It is satire on fire, by way of Everett’s genius and ingenuity to riff on various subjects: the competitive, snooty know-it-all attitude among professionals who work in subject areas and subdivisions of physics, mathematics, philosophy, and in public and private agencies. Add to this a narrative that is rich with double entendres and quadruple entendres about names, words, sentences, ideas, complex theories and novels. Percival Everett plays this like a master jazz musician,... Read Full Review
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The wind at my back : resilience, grace, and other gifts from my mentor, Raven Wilkinson
by Copeland, Misty
February 14, 2023
Call Number: 793.324 C782-2
Ballerina Misty Copeland was the first Black ballerina to become a principal ballerina in the American Ballet Theatre. In her autobiography, Life in motion: an unlikely ballerina, she wrote about her early life and how she became involved in ballet, and was accepted into American Ballet Theatre. In itself, her early life was one of struggle, but in ballet she found her calling. She has written many other books about her life and about what it takes to become... Read Full Review
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Jacques Pépin: art of the chicken : a master chef's paintings, stories, and recipes of the humble
by Pépin, Jacques.
January 17, 2023
Call Number: 641.665 P422
We all know him as a master French chef, sidekick to Julia Child in many cooking television programs, and a TV presenter for his own cooking programs. Among his many accomplishments, which include innumerable cookbooks and magazine articles, he is a prodigious artist. It is unlikely that the chicken has been portrayed, in one book, in such a vibrant, multifaceted and witty style. In this homage to the chicken and its versatility, Jacques Pépin has created a memoir with recipes, accompanied by his own paintings. Growing up in the French countryside, he learned many ways to cook a... Read Full Review
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Agent Josephine : American beauty, French hero, British spy
by Lewis, Damien
December 5, 2022
Call Number: 793.324 B167Le
On November 30, 2021, forty-six years after her death, there was a momentous, somber yet joyous, celebration as Joephine Baker was inducted into the Panthéon in Paris, France. She was the sixth woman and fourth person of color to be honored in this way. Best known as an internationally acclaimed entertainer, Baker was also a “world class spy” at a time when that job was most needed--during World War II. She is buried in Monaco, but soil from the United States, France and Monaco were in the coffin that was draped with the French flag. It was a spectacular ceremony that can be found on the... Read Full Review
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We had a little real estate problem : the unheralded story of Native Americans in comedy
by Nesteroff, Kliph
November 29, 2022
Call Number: 817.09 N468-1
Kliph Nesteroff, known as a comedy historian, covers aspects of the entertainment industry that are not well known, specifically the contributions made by Native Americans to comedy and humor. All of which debunks the stereotypes of Native Americans, who were, and still are, often depicted as sinister, poker-faced, sometimes grim and sullen, and definitely humorless. A part of this historical overview about Native Americans in entertainment precedes the movie industry, going back to the late 1800s, “ … when Native Americans were forced to tour in wild west shows as an alternative to prison.”... Read Full Review
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Bad Mexicans : race, empire, and revolution in the borderlands
by Hernández, Kelly Lytle
October 5, 2022
Call Number: 972.2 H557
The term “bad Mexicans” (malos Mexicanos) was not coined by Anglos from the United States, instead it originated with President Porfirio Díaz, the authoritarian President of Mexico who ruled for almost three decades beginning in 1876. It was a derogatory name for any person or group who opposed him. At the expense of his own citizens and to the advantage of American investors, he encouraged and facilitated the investments to take place, which resulted in those American investors having control over major Mexican industries. Because of this situation, there developed a... Read Full Review