I have found that while I read a bit from just about every genre under the sun, I tend to go through what I like to call “genre phases”. Last year I was in quite the science fiction phase and the bulk of my reading was focused in that genre. This summer has seen me in quite the horror and thriller phase. Like a ravenous undead beast I have found myself devouring whatever dark tome I can get my hands on. The following recommendations are books that I have digested over the month of July. Please, enjoy the menu!
S.A. Barnes is a wonderful author that skillfully blends the genres of science fiction and horror. In this particular novel we find ourselves with a scrappy crew of astronauts who work at the outer edges of explored space repairing communication relays. They are due to return to the company soon and be shipped off to different assignments. Before that can happen, they follow a strange distress beacon to a discovery that embroils our crew in a decades long unsolved mystery.
The Aurora was one of a kind. No ship was built like it before or since. It was supposed to be the Titanic – but in space: a state of the art cruise vessel for the rich and famous. It disappeared years ago and no one alive knows what happened to it. Hoping that the find will bring them fame and fortune, our crew boards the Aurora. The scene aboard is one of blood and violence. What happened on the Aurora that drove the passengers to their doom? Are there survivors lurking on this ghost ship? Read Dead Silence and prepare for a wild ride full of jump scares and horror worthy of a big screen movie. This is exactly what I want when I pick up a horror novel!
I was recently talking to someone about a book I’d just read and loved, and it struck me that many of my favorite books are actually translated works. That wasn’t intentional, but it got me thinking. How does literary translation work? How do translators manage to carry over the tone, the style, the vibe of the original? What happens to cultural nuances embedded in language? I imagine there are countless decisions involved at every turn, which is interesting to consider. I also just enjoy reading books from around the world. There’s something about them, rich with history and perspective, that feels full of possibility and expansion. So, if you’re in the mood for an adventure, and want to experience a new place through the magic of a novel, here are a few gems you can find in our catalog to get you started.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
I have a special place in my heart for unreliable narrators and the eerie unpredictability they bring to a book. Janina, the protagonist of this novel, lives in a remote Polish village where she spends the long winters studying astrology. She much prefers the company of animals to that of humans, so when her beloved dogs are found shot dead, she’s devastated. Her grief warps and deepens when she later discovers the body of her hunting-obsessed neighbor, Big Foot. But that’s not all…an ominous photograph is found next to the corpse. We’re not told exactly what’s in it, but it’s clearly disturbing, and it propels Janina into a fervent quest to uncover the truth. And what’s a murder mystery without the tension steadily climbing as the bodies start to pile up? As the story spirals into the bizarre, Janina becomes convinced she understands what’s really going on. The question is: will anyone else believe her? I love the stark, desolate setting, the sense of isolation, the hazy line between sanity and madness, and the cry for justice from the natural world. If you’re open to a thriller with a near-mythical twist, I can’t recommend this book enough.
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, translated by Jonathan Wright
This is a reimagining of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which is always going to be something I’m excited about. The novel follows three distinct but loosely connected characters in U.S.-occupied Baghdad. Hadi, an eccentric junk dealer, collects scattered human body parts and stitches them together into a corpse he names Whatsitsname. His hope is oddly noble: that the government will finally acknowledge these body parts as belonging to real people worthy of proper burial. What he doesn’t expect is for Whatsitsname to disappear — or for a string of murders to begin terrorizing the city soon after. Meanwhile, Mahmud, an exiled journalist, documents the unfolding chaos, unintentionally fueling widespread panic. Whatsitsname eventually finds shelter with Elishva, Hadi’s elderly neighbor, who has never fully recovered from the loss of her son during the Iran-Iraq War. Though the story is gothic at its core and cracks open some weighty social commentary, it’s also laced with fun and dark humor. I had a good time with this one, and it marked the first time I’d read something by an Iraqi author. Hopefully it’s not the last time.
Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, translated by Rosalind Harvey
At just 224 pages, Still Born isn’t a long read by any means, but I took my time with it, savoring each conversation and detail. The book tells the story of Laura and Alina, two friends living in Mexico City who are passionate about their work and largely ambivalent about motherhood. When Alina has a change of heart and decides she wants to have a child, Laura fears this shift will put their friendship at risk. Alina navigates pregnancy and devastating news, and Laura begins spending more time with the young son of her next-door neighbor. While Alina confronts medical professionals who don’t always listen, Laura becomes increasingly entangled in the complex mother-son relationship unfolding next door — a dynamic that both unsettles and captivates her. I love the sparseness of the writing, how it can be so restrained yet still land emotional blows without warning. At its heart, this is a book about motherhood in all its forms and the many ways caregiving can take shape across different lives. If you’re looking for something deeply heartfelt, and don’t mind shedding a tear or two, I do think this one is well worth your time.
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein
I’m not sure I have an all-time favorite book, but I definitely keep a mental list of novels that have really stuck with me. These are the stories I still think about years later. My Brilliant Friend, the first volume in the Neapolitan Quartet, is one of them. Set in 1950s Naples, it follows Lila and Lenu — two girls from a working-class neighborhood shaped by poverty, politics, and violence. From childhood, they’re bound together by mutual admiration and rivalry. Lenu is quiet, reflective, and diligent, while Lila is wild, magnetic, and intimidating. Both girls show promise early on, but when Lenu stays in school and Lila is forced out to work in her father’s shoe shop, their paths begin to diverge sharply. That crossroads marks the beginning of two very different journeys, each with their own outcomes and consequences. Their friendship, affectionate and fraught at once, remains the emotional compass for both, even as their lives pull them apart. This is a series I will gladly yell about to anyone who will listen. It’s a story about female friendship in a post-war country undergoing a tumultuous time. It’s full of sleazy and dangerous antagonists who mirror real life a little too closely. It has stunning prose and relentless intensity. Okay, I will now stop waxing poetic about this book. I hope you all read it, that’s all.
Dear readers, welcome back and thank you for letting me share with you the books that I have been enjoying. As usual, I delight in a diverse range of genres. This month’s reads come from the genres of non fiction, fantasy, and horror. I greatly enjoyed reading these titles and I hope one of these catches your eye!
A shout out to my fellow librarian, Aubrey, for recommending this title is in order. Thank you Aubrey! If you are looking for a book that stays with you long after the closing page, this one is it! It has been a week or so since I finished this book, but I still find myself thinking about it. Dear reader, this book is a work of fiction, but it could very easily be set in the real world present day. FantasticLand is a theme park in Florida built by an eccentric billionaire. What sets FantasticLand apart is that it is designed to be many mini theme parks in one. There are different sections of the park. All are designed to be their own unique world. There are places like The Pirate Cove, The Fairy Prairie, and so on. Everything is great until a super hurricane hits. In theory, the staff that stay behind to care for the park should be fine. There is enough food and water for everyone. Dear reader, if that were the case we would not have a story. What results is something that resembles a slasher movie as the young people trapped in the park turn on each other. Each faction fights for dominance as supplies dwindle. The sordid tale is told from the point of view of interviews with those who made it out alive. Only the survivors can tell the tale of what REALLY happened inside FantasticLand. What keeps me thinking about this book is that this is no ordinary slasher. It poses psychological questions about the effects of phone addiction on our young population. Yes, it is a fiction, but it makes one wonder.
Part I: Are Ghosts Real? Exploring the Supernatural
Dear reader have you ever heard the phrase “I went down a rabbit hole.”? Usually this is spoken when one looks up a fact that they do not know and are inevitably sucked deeper and deeper into a topic pulled along by their curiosity. They usually emerge from this “rabbit hole” filled with a wealth of random knowledge about this particular topic. Lately I have found myself pulled “down the rabbit hole” by the books I have been reading. One book recommends another and that book recommends yet another book on the topic I have been reading. Join me as I take you down the rabbit hole and share with you my strange journey through these books on topics of my interest.
I may have blogged about this title before as I first read this book last year. At that time I had no idea it would tie into the other books in my journey. Ghostland tells the story of famous American hauntings while exploring the real and true history behind the stories. This book features such famed paranormal places as the Winchester House, Alcatraz Prison, and the cemeteries of New Orleans to name just a few. Besides exploring the true histories of these haunted locations Colin Dickey asks some hard psychological questions. Why do we tell ghost stories? What makes a location haunted? Why is this haunting more famous than that haunting? What does the tale tell us about our values or guilt as a society? In exploring America’s tales of the paranormal, Dickey forces us to look within ourselves to discover truths about human nature, our society, and historical truths we may be too scared to face.
This was a very different read than other books on the paranormal that I have read. I would recommend this book to both believers and skeptics alike as it sheds light on the true origins of our ghost stories whether you believe in them or not.
It is that time of year again. The weather is getting warmer and most of us just want to be outside. I grew up in Dundee Wisconsin surrounded by the vast Kettle Moraine State Forest. I would spend hours as a child running through the meadows, climbing rocks and trees, and exploring the woods. When I was very little my grandfather would babysit me at his office at the Ice Age Center. He was a naturalist there. He and Grandma made sure that my cousins and I had the chance to travel and explore many of the national parks where Grandpa had worked in his younger years. Each summer they took us somewhere new. I was blessed to be able to see The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Mount Rushmore, Mesa Verde, and The South Dakota Badlands. Our grandparents also took us east to Niagara Falls, Gettysburg, The Finger Lakes of upper New York, and Washington D.C. As an adult it is more difficult to travel to these places as life is busy. This time of year I get out and explore the many beautiful natural areas closer to home. Though I am unable to travel to the national parks whenever I may like, I do still carry a deep appreciation for our country’s protected wilderness areas. These national parks deserve to be celebrated and protected for all future generations to enjoy. Dear reader, please join me on a literary tour and celebration of our national parks through the books I have selected below.
Despite hundreds upon hundreds of books being published last year, I managed to only read one book that actually came out in 2024. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t read last year. As you can imagine, working at a library gives me access to more than enough books.
So, here are some of my favorites, starting with the one book I read published in 2024.
A collection of short stories, Tulathimutte peers into the lives of people that are clearly in pain and do bad things because of it. From a women’s rights advocate-turned-incel to a girl that can’t get over a one-night stand, these people suck, but you just can’t look away. It might not be your cup of tea, so I’d recommend checking out the first story The Feminist before you grab the whole collection.
Dear readers, that is a pretty self-explanatory title is it not? There is always great anticipation when it comes to books by foreign authors, as I believe I’ve mentioned before. First you need to wait for a translation to come out in your language, and then you have to figure out if your library system has it and place a hold on it. Is there a greater thrill than placing several on hold at once and seeing which come in first? It’s like Christmas! Usually, however, they all seem to come in at once, don’t they? Which is its own kind of thrill, but also slightly terrifying because they’re new books and thus you’re now in a time crunch.
Well dear reader, I have had several books by foreign authors come and go from my comfy reading chair, and I’m here to talk about them with you.
In the spring of 1972, twelve-year-old Tomoko leaves her mother behind in Tokyo and boards a train alone for Ashiya, a coastal town in Japan, to stay with her aunt’s family. Tomoko’s aunt is an enigma and an outlier in her working-class family, and her magnificent home—and handsome foreign husband, the president of a soft drink company—are symbols of that status. The seventeen rooms are filled with German-made furnishings; there are sprawling gardens and even an old zoo where the family’s pygmy hippopotamus resides. The family is just as beguiling as their mansion—Tomoko’s dignified and devoted aunt, her German great-aunt, and her dashing, charming uncle, who confidently sits as the family’s patriarch. At the center of the family is Tomoko’s cousin Mina, a precocious, asthmatic girl of thirteen who draws Tomoko into an intoxicating world full of secret crushes and elaborate storytelling.
In this elegant jewel box of a book, Yoko Ogawa invites us to witness a powerful and formative interlude in Tomoko’s life. Behind the family’s sophistication are complications that Tomoko struggles to understand—her uncle’s mysterious absences, her great-aunt’s experience of the Second World War, her aunt’s misery. Rich with the magic and mystery of youthful experience, Mina’s Matchbox is an evocative snapshot of a moment frozen in time—and a striking depiction of a family on the edge of collapse.
Dear reader, this is one of those books that took me seemingly eons to finish. It never quite held my attention for a long span of time, so I could only read it in spurts. Why would I suggest a book to you that I essentially found boring? Because, dear reader, you may not feel the same way once you pick it up. In fact, I hope you don’t!
By the end of the book I felt like the climax passed me by like a distant thunderstorm. I also thought the matchboxes mentioned in the title would play more of a role in the story than they did. But even with all that, the atmosphere built by the author was very rich and descriptive. Having never grown up in one home during my childhood I found it fascinating how the family home in Mina’s Matchbox played such a role in each character’s life and identity. In turn, each character was well fleshed out and very real, which is important because so many books nowadays seem to write their characters names on the paper and leave it at that.
Lately, I’ve been catching up on some old TV dramas by starting with one of the big classics: The Sopranos. It’s a great show, but if you know even just a tiny bit of the premise, you’ll know it’s not something you’d call relaxing. When I get home from a night shift, oftentimes the last thing I want to watch is some gangsters getting in each other’s faces and screaming and pointing fingers. So, instead, I go for a sitcom that will let me wind down for the night and let me shut my brain off for a little while getting some laughs in. Here are some of my recent favorites if you care to join me!
At Veridian Dynamics, things are done differently. But that’s not necessarily a good thing. From making weaponized pumpkins to killer robots, one has to ask how and why a company like Veridian is allowed to operate the way it does. But for Ted Crisp, the head of research and development, those questions and answers don’t matter much because work still needs to be done.
Working with the scientists there and other members of his team, they get into all sorts of messes, making each episode just as ridiculous as the last. One episode they’re dealing with a hair serum that makes hair grow too fast, resulting in Ted’s desk growing hair. In another, Ted and his scientists fight in an underground medieval fight club. You never know what you’re gonna watch, but you’ll be laughing at whatever trouble they get into next!
Recently, we welcomed a new addition to our house. His name is Juno, and he’s an adorable cat who’s added a lot to our lives.
Pictured: our sweet Juno 😸
Since then, I’ve found myself slowly becoming obsessed with anything related to cats. And because I work at a library, it’s only natural that one of the things I’ve been looking at are books on cats. Here are some of the more memorable ones I’ve found recently.
If you have ever watched My Cat From Hell, you know Jackson Galaxy, the musician by night/cat behaviorist by day. And, if not, first off you’re missing out on a good show. But more importantly, I’ll give you a quick summary: Jackson comes into homes where cats are acting like complete jerks. It could be they’re scratching up their owners. Or that they’re peeing outside of their litter box. Sometimes, it’s both of these things and more. But, no matter the issue, Jackson works on figuring out how to best help the owner(s) learn to change their cat’s behavior. The answer isn’t always the same, but he always brings peace to the home!
Jackson takes his decades of experience working with cats and crams it into this comprehensive book, sharing his tips and tricks on how to best take care of your cat. The book also explores how to create a space that allows your feline friend to have “Cat Mojo”, a confidence they get from feeling comfortable in their environment. It’s chock-full of information for both first-time cat owners and those who have grown up with cats like myself. Plus, the illustrations throughout the book are just so cute!
So, whether you skim it or read it from start to finish, you’ll surely learn something from this self-proclaimed Cat Daddy.
Dear reader, today I am going to talk to you about birds. I have been a huge bird nerd for years, and even started regularly watching a live bird cam while at work and enjoying conversation with other watchers in the cam’s chat feature. All on downtime of course! Wink wink.
When you think of migratory birds that come to Wisconsin in the spring and summer, what birds do you think of? The American robin? The red-winged blackbird? These are quintessential birds that herald the arrival of warmer weather! There is also the American goldfinch that, while it is a year-round resident of Wisconsin, the males turn from their yellow-brown coloring to a brilliant, unmistakable yellow that is easily spotted in trees and at bird feeders. Listen closely for their equally bright flight song as they fly around.
But have you thought of others? There’s the rose-breasted grosbeak, the yellow-rumped warbler, the eastern towhee, and the belted kingfisher, which all arrive roughly in late March and stay through September, or November in the case of the belted kingfisher. Have you heard of these birds before? Have you just read those names and thought to yourself, now what kind of bird is that? Well, dear reader, let me help you!
The Birding Pro’s Field Guide series introduces a number of innovative, never-before-seen features to the birding field guide scene. This highly accessible field guide gives the most complete description available for each species’ daily life and behavior, and each entry also includes a month-by-month birding forecast and a full page of highly identifiable color photographs. Perfect for novices and intermediates, but also serves as an invaluable reference for advanced birders. Featuring the 138 most common birds to Wisconsin.
Dear reader, you will see lots of books about birds with the phrase ‘field guide’ in the title or subtitle. These are books intended for use out in the woods, the neighborhood, or wherever else you happen to be and want to learn more about birds! Many of these field guides have sections describing a bird’s shape, call, behavior, habit, etc., that can help you narrow down exactly which bird you saw or heard. Sounds great doesn’t it? Many of these field guides are also pocket-sized, which works great for slipping into a purse or even a pants or jacket pocket.
But dear reader, you may be thinking, I have a bird feeder in my backyard and would like to learn more about the birds that visit it and the plants in my backyard. What about me?
Mead Public Library Blog 