Staff Recommendations
Sheryn Morris
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Soul food love : healthy recipes inspired by one hundred years of cooking in a Black family
by Randall, Alice, 1959-
February 8, 2021
Call Number: 641.5973 R1875
Mother and daughter writers, Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams, respectively, have written a family history as told through food and cooking. Caroline Randall Williams has rewritten traditional soul food recipes so that the dishes are healthier, and in some cases even tastier. Their family history is based on "five kitchens and three generations of women who came to weighing more than two hundred pounds, and a fourth generation that absolutely refused ever to weigh two hundred pounds... Read Full Review
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Spritzing to success, with the woman who brought an industry to its senses
by Green, Annette
January 27, 2021
Call Number: 338.4C8 G795
Several years ago I first heard about Annette Green because of the eponymous Annette Green Fragrance Archive at FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising), which I have not visited, even thought it is only four blocks south of Central Library. For many others she may not be well known outside an industry that she helped jumpstart and flourish, but her influence is felt in many aspects of our lives. A good deal of what happened in her life was by happenstance, and she always made the most of... Read Full Review
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Life on a String: The Yale Puppeteers and the Turnabout Puppet Theatre
by Rice, Christina
December 21, 2020
Call Number: 793.18 R495
The story of the Turnabout Puppet Theatre, and the three men who created it, is a quintessential LA story. In the 1920s people came west for adventure and opportunity, for year-round good weather, for not being hampered by history, but instead find a place where they could make their own history. Los Angeles was a city that was starting to grow and prosper, and the setting was mostly hospitable, with affordable personal and professional rental spaces. When the theatre was in its permanent place, a part of fading history was incorporated, with the discarded seats from the Pacific... Read Full Review
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The man who ate too much : the life of James Beard
by Birdsall, John
December 15, 2020
Call Number: 641.092 B363Bi
In the preface to this biography there is a quotation from Gael Greene, food and restaurant critic, and it should whet the curiosity of every foodie: "In the beginning, there was James Beard. Before Julia ..., before a wine closet in the life of every grape nut and the glorious coming of age of American wines, before the new American cooking, chefs as superstars, and our great irrepressible gourmania ... there was James Beard, our Big Daddy."I cannot quite pinpoint my initial awareness of James Beard, but I do remember a week-long-baking experience with his book, ... Read Full Review
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The escape artist
by Fremont, Helen
November 9, 2020
Call Number: 940.5315296 F8723
There are many factual accounts of people who have survived and lived through torture, terrorist attacks, wars, genocides. Many survivors go on to live productive, successful lives, but suffer residual emotional and psychological trauma that are not obvious to them or to others. In this sequel to After long silence: a memoir, Helen Fremont writes about those very effects that are not visible to anyone outside a family. She and her sister were raised as secular... Read Full Review
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On all fronts : the education of a journalist
by Ward, Clarissa, 1980-
October 19, 2020
Call Number: 809.295092 W257
War is hell for those who fight and definitely for civilian populations caught in the crosshairs. War correspondents, who are embedded with troops, have their own versions of hell, which Clarissa Ward writes about in her autobiography and chronicle of what it is like to be a broadcast journalist reporting from the world’s nastiest streets. If you think of any wars, conflicts, natural disasters that have occurred over the past 19 years, Clarissa Ward has been there to report on them: in parts of Africa, Afghanistan, Burma, China, Egypt, Gaza, Greenland, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Russia,... Read Full Review
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The well-gardened mind : the restorative power of nature
by Stuart-Smith, Sue
October 8, 2020
Call Number: 615.8515 S932
For many years Sue Stuart-Smith regarded gardening as a form of “outdoor housework.” It was the life of the mind that she sought, and states, “ … I would no more have plucked a weed than baked a scone or washed the curtains.” She knew that gardening was a part of her family’s history, which she writes about. For her, it was not until some crises and interactions took place, that Stuart-Smith changed her attitude about gardening, which resulted in a profound refocus about her personal and professional life. There were gardening connections in her past, and there would be more in her future.... Read Full Review
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Our riches
by Adimi, Kaouther, 1986-
September 29, 2020
Call Number:
Kaouther Adimi has based this historical novel on Les Vraies Richesses (Our True Wealth), a famous Algerian bookstore, which was a publishing house and a lending library. In 1935 Edmond Charlot established the store in the city of Algiers, with the motto “by the young, for the young.” The store was destroyed several times because of wars, revolutions, and changing economies. Charlot was from a French colonial family, and was born in Algeria. Those Europeans born in Algeria between 1830 and 1962 were known as Pied-Noirs, about and for whom there continues to be controversy. He was a... Read Full Review
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Zandra Rhodes : 50 fabulous years in fashion
by Rhodes, Zandra, 1940-
August 26, 2020
Call Number: 746.52 R477-1 folio
Who is that woman on the cover of the book? A holdover, punk rock fashion designer? The appearance, clothes and art are by design, but her name is not. For over 50 years, Dame Zandra Rhodes has been actively designing textiles, clothes and anything else that she has the creative impulse to work on. Friends, designers, artists, fashion designers and colleagues pay homage to her in this collection of essays. There are fond remembrances of this iconoclast, for whom originality is not a word, but a way of life. As they tell it, she was always full of surprises, and she still is.Very much... Read Full Review
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The year 1000 : when explorers connected the world -- and globalization began
by Hansen, Valerie, 1958-
July 29, 2020
Call Number: 909 H249
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “globalization” is not that old a word and refers to:“The action, process, or fact of making global; esp. (in later use) the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale, widely considered to be at the expense of national identity.” When we speak about globalization today, it is usually about international trade and the legal documents that formalize it. The concept of globalization existed centuries ago, and Valerie Hansen, scholar, writer and professor... Read Full Review
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The chiffon trenches : a memoir
by Talley, André Leon
July 7, 2020
Call Number: 746.52 T148-2
Fashion journalist André Leon Talley’s autobiography could not be more prescient, and not just for fashion followers. Written before the pandemic and recent protest movements, the four and a half page introduction validates the concerns and issues which are playing out on the streets of the world: “For so long I was the only person of color in the upper echelons of fashion journalism,but I was too busy pushing forward, making it to the next day, to really think about the responsibility that came with this role. Memories linger in the mind … Now I realize it is my duty to tell the story... Read Full Review
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Disturbance: surviving Charlie Hebdo
by Lançon, Philippe
May 26, 2020
Call Number: 363.3259074436 L251
On January 7, 2015, two gunmen forced their way into the Paris offices of the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo, and killed 12 people and injured 11 others. The newspaper was known for its criticism of individuals, organizations, governments and countries. The staff were egalitarian about whom and what they stridently satirized in images and writing, and because of this drew the attention and anger from many religious, political and ethnic groups. Their office had been attacked before, and was relocated to an unmarked building, with armed guards. With guns firing, the two male attackers... Read Full Review