Staff Recommendations
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Darling Girl: A Novel of Peter Pan
by Michalski, Liz
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryNovember 8, 2022
We all know the story of Peter Pan, the boy who refuses to grow up. J.M. Barrie wrote and published a play and two books about Peter and his adventures in the early 20th century, recounting how Peter visited the Darling children: Wendy, John, and Michael, and spirited them away to Neverland by teaching them how to fly. But what if there is more to the story than we were told? What if Peter Pan is real? What if the ideas for the story didn’t originate with Barrie, but he merely wrote down what Wendy told him after returning from her adventure? And what if Barrie’s version,... Read Full Review
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Only a Monster
by Len, Vanessa
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryOctober 31, 2022
Call Number: YA
Joan believes herself to be a typical teenager. She spends her summers in London visiting her maternal grandmother, while her father visits his family in Malaysia. During this visit, she has been volunteering at Holland House, a historic home and museum in Kensington. Holland House is where she met Nick, the quiet and shy volunteer whom she really likes. It’s going to be a marvelous summer.
And then, over the course of a single day, Joan’s world is turned upside down. An unexpected occurrence mysteriously robs Joan of an entire afternoon and her grandmother is... Read Full Review
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Acts of Violet
by Montimore, Margarita
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryOctober 24, 2022
In early 2020, Margarita Montimore published her debut novel, Oona Out of Order. It followed a woman who awakes every January 1st at a different point in her life. She lives in that year, and in that body, until December 31st, only to awaken the following morning beginning a different year at a different age. The novel is inventive, thoughtful, and a page turner! Now Montimore is back with her new novel, Acts of Violet, and it may be better than her debut.
During the 1990s, Violet Volk becomes one of the best known, and controversial, stage... Read Full Review
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The Monster of Elendhaven
by Giesbrecht, Jennifer
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryOctober 17, 2022
A young man washes up in a harbor with no knowledge of who he is or where he came from. He doesn’t even have a name. He is tall, with dark hair and pale skin. He also possesses a strong sense of survival, driving him to do whatever is necessary to make his way on the dark and dangerous streets of Elendhaven.
Florian Leickenbloom is the antithesis of this mysterious young man. He knows his name and that he is the last surviving member of one of Elendhaven’s founding families. He is small and slight of stature with blonde hair. Florian lost his entire family, along with a majority of... Read Full Review
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Hawk Mountain
by Habib, Conner
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryOctober 12, 2022
In the late afternoon, Todd sits on the beach watching 6-year-old Anthony, his son, play in the surf. A man approaches Todd, and, after a minute, he recognizes him. It is Jack, who bullied Todd relentlessly during their senior year in high school. In spite of their shared history, Jack seems pleased at seeing Todd. He claims that their meeting is a coincidence and goes on to tell Todd that he has just left his wife, is determined to create a new life for himself, and asks if he can spend the night at Todd’s home.
Jack’s stay with Todd and Anthony extends beyond... Read Full Review
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Bad Mexicans : race, empire, and revolution in the borderlands
by Hernández, Kelly Lytle
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionOctober 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
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Mi cocina : recipes and rapture from my kitchen in México
by Martínez, Rick (Chef)
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionSeptember 26, 2022
Call Number: 641.5972 M38545
What a glorious cookbook and memoir. A little larger in size than the average book, which is perfect for the overall layout and presentation of photographs, maps and recipes. Every page is graced with marvelous color photographs, with text pages printed on lighter shades of colorful paper. Chapters are organized by regions with the accompanying recipes that are emblematic of the food and cooking traditions of each. The introductions to the chapters include information, not only about the food, but brief historical overviews of the areas and their unique contributions to... Read Full Review
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A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community
by Molina, Natalia
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionSeptember 19, 2022
Call Number: 647.9509794 M722
When is a restaurant more than a place to eat? How and why does this happen? Why is this significant? In the “Introduction: Placemaking in a New Homeland,” Natalia Molina, researcher and scholar, says it is because people recognize, “ … their home is about a feeling rooted to a particular place: a neighborhood, a park, a newsstand, a restaurant. The subjects of this story, most of them working-class immigrants who did not arrive in the United States speaking English, endeavored to make places of their own. They went to work, worshipped in church, attended school... Read Full Review
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The Extraordinaries
by Klune, TJ
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibrarySeptember 13, 2022
Nick Bell is far from an ordinary teen. He experiences attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and is required to take daily medication. Two years ago, his mother was killed in a bank robbery, leaving him and his father to reconstruct their lives together. He met his best friend, Seth Gray, when they were six years old. They’ve been inseparable ever since. Nick is a superstar in the world of Extraordinaries fan fiction. He is one of the most popular writers of stories relating to the few individuals that have super-powers known as Extraordinaries and his 250K word, and 60... Read Full Review
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A Prayer for the Crown-Shy
by Chambers, Becky
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibrarySeptember 7, 2022
Call Number: SF
In 2021, Becky Chambers introduced readers to the moon of Panga, where, centuries ago, the civilization’s robots gained consciousness and, en masse, walked off into the surrounding wilderness and were never heard from again. Until the day a robot named Splendid Speckled Mosscap walked up to Sibling Dex, a tea monk, and asked “What do people need?”
In A Prayer for the Crown Shy, Chambers returns to Panga and follows Sibling Dex and Mosscap as they travel through the different areas and settlements of Panga on their way to the City. Like our world, each... Read Full Review
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The Kaiju Preservation Society
by Scalzi, John
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryAugust 29, 2022
Call Number: SF
In early March of 2020, Jamie Gray is unceremoniously demoted from marketing executive to “deliverator” at füdmüd, an internet startup company in New York City. As the COVID pandemic worsens, Jamie struggles to get by until a chance delivery happens to be to Tom Stevens. Tom tells Jamie that he works for an “animal rights organization” and currently is in need of a last minute replacement for an upcoming field assignment. The position will require Jamie to “lift things” and is equally as glamorous as food delivery, but in a much more interesting locale and with much better pay... Read Full Review
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Cooking with the two fat ladies
by Paterson, Jennifer.
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionAugust 22, 2022
Call Number: 641.5942 P296
This is the second series of books that I rediscovered during the early months of COVID lock-down,The Two Fat Ladies. My mind is blank about how I gravitated to this one, maybe because of a book at home, or looking longingly at a collection of VHS tapes, and no longer having a recorder. Thank heavens for the internet where I found snippets and full episodes of the old TV programs with these two remarkable women. Apparently you can also find their programs on the TV Food Network. However, the Los Angeles Public Library owns the complete series on... Read Full Review