Staff Picks: February 2021
Staff Picks for February are up and ready. We’ve got everything from a book about random stuff you should know, through post-apocalyptic fiction, to Edward Snowden’s tell all autobiography. We hope you find something to add to your reading list.
AVAILABLE AT THE LIBRARY
RACHEL: “Stuff You Should Know: An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things” by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant
GENRE: Non-fiction
WHY SHE CHOSE IT: I don’t read a lot of non-fiction, but this book caught my interest. It’s an easy read for those with commitment issues (like myself) due to it’s format – each chapter covers a different topic, making it the kind of book that you can read at your own pace. Stuff You Should Know covers a wide range of subjects and answers questions that you didn’t even know you had, like the science of aging and the history of Mr. Potato Head. (did you know that the original Mr. Potato Head only came with his various attachments, like the facial features, and you had to supply your own potato? True story.) The authors, Josh Clark and Josh Bryant, have a long-running podcast by the same name, so if you like trivia but crave a deeper understanding of the material, I would recommend giving it a try also!
THE SYNOPSIS: Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant started the podcast Stuff You Should Know back in 2008 because they were curious—curious about the world around them, curious about what they might have missed in their formal educations, and curious to dig deeper on stuff they thought they understood.
As it turns out, they aren't the only curious ones. They've since amassed a rabid fan base, making "Stuff You Should Know" one of the most popular podcasts in the world. Armed with their inquisitive natures and a passion for sharing, they uncover the weird, fascinating, delightful, or unexpected elements of a wide variety of topics.
The pair have now taken their near-boundless "whys" and "hows" from your earbuds to the pages of a book for the first time—featuring a completely new array of subjects that they’ve long wondered about and wanted to explore. Each chapter is further embellished with snappy visual material to allow for rabbit-hole tangents and digressions—including charts, illustrations, sidebars, and footnotes. Follow along as the two dig into the underlying stories of everything from the origin of Murphy beds, to the history of facial hair, to the psychology of being lost.
Have you ever wondered about the world around you, and wished to see the magic in everyday things? Come get curious with Stuff You Should Know. With Josh and Chuck as your guide, there’s something interesting about everything (…except maybe jackhammers).
EDEN: “Birthmarked (Birthmarked #1)” by Caragh M. O’Brien
GENRES: Young Adult, Dystopian
WHY SHE CHOSE IT: I chose Birthmarked because it’s a completely new spin on the dystopian genre.
THE SYNOPSIS: In the future, in a world baked dry by the harsh sun, there are those who live inside the walled Enclave and those, like sixteen-year-old Gaia Stone, who live outside. Following in her mother's footsteps Gaia has become a midwife, delivering babies in the world outside the wall and handing a quota over to be "advanced" into the privileged society of the Enclave. Gaia has always believed this is her duty, until the night her mother and father are arrested by the very people they so loyally serve. Now Gaia is forced to question everything she has been taught, but her choice is simple: enter the world of the Enclave to rescue her parents, or die trying.
CLICK TO RESERVE “Birthmarked (Birthmarked #1)” by Caragh M. O’Brien
ABBEY: “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck
GENRE: Romance
WHY SHE CHOSE IT: It’s a book I wanted to read for a long time but I didn’t because it’s a classic and I thought it would be hard to get in to. I was so wrong. The characters were all so unique and completely essential to the story. I loved comparing the novel to the original story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
THE SYNOPSIS: Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness.
AVAILABLE ON THE LIBBY APP
LISA G.: “Permanent Record” by Edward Snowden
GENRE: Autobiography
WHY SHE CHOSE IT: Part autobiography of former CIA employee/subcontractor and part whistle blower account of the capabilities of the CIA to spy on any citizen in the world. If you've ever opened a bank account, email account, or bought a computer and used the internet with it, the CIA has access to you. A sobering account of what it cost one young man to let the world know exactly how unsafe our personal data is and who really has access to it.
THE SYNOPSIS: In 2013, twenty-nine-year-old Edward Snowden shocked the world when he broke with the American intelligence establishment and revealed that the United States government was secretly pursuing the means to collect every single phone call, text message, and email. The result would be an unprecedented system of mass surveillance with the ability to pry into the private lives of every person on earth. Six years later, Snowden reveals for the very first time how he helped to build this system and why he was moved to expose it.
Spanning the bucolic Beltway suburbs of his childhood and the clandestine CIA and NSA postings of his adulthood, Permanent Record is the extraordinary account of a bright young man who grew up online—a man who became a spy, a whistleblower, and, in exile, the Internet’s conscience. Written with wit, grace, passion, and an unflinching candor, Permanent Record is a crucial memoir of our digital age and destined to be a classic.
CLICK BELOW TO RESERVE “Permanent Record” by Edward Snowden:
ELIZABETH: “The Broken Earth Series” by N.K. Jemisin
GENRE: Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic
WHY SHE CHOSE IT: As a fan of post-apocalyptic stories, how could I not dive head first into a story whose first sentence of the synopsis starts with, "This is the way the world ends…for the last time"?
Trilogies can often be iffy with the first book being AMAZING, the second okay (but a let down nevertheless), and the third being "meh". But rest assured, since all three of these books won a Hugo Award for Fiction in the year they were published, you will not be disappointed.
Jemisin is the first African American author to win the Hugo in Fiction, the first writer to win three years in a row, AND the first writer to win for all three books in a trilogy. Also, the third book, "The Stone Sky", also won the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novel.
I can't tell you much about the second and third books as it will spoil the first book so let me say, this is one of those series where I wish I could re-read it without knowing what I know now.
THE SYNOPSIS: This is the way the world ends. Again.
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.
CLICK BELOW TO RESERVE “The Fifth Season (Broken Earth #1)” by N.K. Jemisin:
AVAILABLE THROUGH INTER-LIBRARY LOAN
LISA S.: “The One” by John Marrs
GENRE: Thriller, Suspense, Science Fiction
WHY SHE CHOSE IT: “The One” has been on my to-be-read list for awhile, and when I saw Netflix was adapting it into a series, I knew I needed to read it before watching. The book follows the five newly matched individuals: an engaged man, a serial killer, a divorcee, a woman stuck in a job she hates, and the female scientist who created Match Your DNA. This book is a bit “soapy” but in a great way because with five plots, I was racing toward more than one finale. I read this book in two sittings, and it would have been one, if I hadn’t started it on my lunch break at work.
THE SYNOPSIS: A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you’ll be matched with your perfect partner; the one you are genetically made for.
That’s the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance and love.
Now five very different people have received the notification that they’ve been “Matched.” They’re each about to meet their one true love. But “happily ever after” isn’t guaranteed for everyone. Because even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking than others…
CLICK HERE TO EMAIL OUR ILL CLERK ABOUT “The One” by John Marrs
Did anything pique your interest? What was your favourite read this month? Share with us in the comments below.
Lisa S.
