Staff Reviews: For Adults
Check out these reviews written by the staff of the Marathon County Public Library, featuring books DVDs for adults! (For reviews of books for all ages, visit our main Staff Reviews webpage.) Staff book reviews are also published at Goodreads.com; follow us for the latest updates.
"My Oxford Year"
American Ella Duran has won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University for one year. This has been a lifelong dream of hers that she has realized at the age of 24. In addition to being a student there, she is also a key political advisor to key candidates back in the U.S. Her expectations of Oxford are surpassed and more as she...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Contemporary Fiction
"Crazy Rich Asians"
Rachel Chu is invited by her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, to spend the summer in Asia. They will travel the continent and attend the wedding of Colin Khoo, Nick's best friend, in Singapore. Rachel accepts Nick's invitation and is thrown into the crazy, rich world of Nick's family and friends in Singapore. Money, status, and familial reputation are everything...
"Calypso"
In David Sedaris’ latest compilation of observational essays, he and his longtime partner have purchased a beach house on the coast of North Carolina. Many of the essays in the book take place at this house, which Sedaris and his family use as a place to vacation in the summer or to gather during the holidays.
The book contains 21 vastly different essays...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction, Humor, Essays
"Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story"
Nearly 40 years after its theatrical release, the film Caddyshack has an established spot in the history of pop culture through memorable quotes (“Did somebody step on a duck?”) and memorable characters like groundskeeper Carl Spackler, played by Bill Murray. Author Chris Nashawaty sets out to share not only the history of how the film was made and how...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction
"Hillbilly Elegy"
Author J.D. Vance grew up among what he refers to as “hillbillys” – white, working class (and mostly poor) folks in Appalachia. Vance spent his adolescence split between extended family in Jackson, Kentucky and in Middleton, Ohio, a town in a state of decline after its main source of local jobs closes, leaving thousands without a job.
In this memoir,...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
"The Immortalists"
In the summer of 1969, siblings Varya, Daniel, Klara and Simon visit a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell people the day that they will die. The siblings, just children at the time, each receive their prediction separately. Some share their supposed death date with each other while some choose to keep the information to themselves.
The book...
"VBQ: The Ultimate Vegan BBQ Cookbook"
Are you looking for healthy and delicious recipes to grill this summer? This new cookbook is a must for you! All recipes are vegan, so this cookbook is perfect for vegans, vegetarians, food allergy sufferers, or anyone who just wants some healthy alternatives this summer. Literally every recipe is fully photographed in all its delicious glory, and I just...
"All We Ever Wanted"
In the Nashville's wealthy neighborhood of Belle Meade, Nina finds her family at the center of a scandal. Nina was raised in a middle class household, with a strong sense of character and doing the right thing. When she married Kirk, she was introduced to a lavish and wealthy lifestyle where money means everything. It is what their son, Finch, has always...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Contemporary Fiction
"The Deal of a Lifetime"
When I saw this new book on the adult fiction shelf in the library, I judged it by physical size and the fact that it had less than 75 pages. I wondered, what could possibly be on the pages that makes it so popular?
A man who loved work ahead of everything else in life, including his wife and even his own son, makes a decision with the lady in the gray...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
"How To Walk Away"
Margaret Jacobsen is a normal young woman with a master's degree, a serious boyfriend, and all of a great life to look forward to. That is, until one day she and her new fiance are in a horrible accident that leaves Margaret paralyzed. In an instant her life takes a dramatic turn as her career hopes and life expectations fizzle, and all that remains is...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Contemporary Fiction
"The Abstinence Teacher"
Ruth Ramsey is a sex educator at a suburban New England high school. A divorced mother of two tween girls, Ruth has taught her classes for years with no objection from the community. After misspeaking during one of her classes, a complaint is filed against Ruth and she becomes the subject of intense public scrutiny. In order to appease those who are...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
"Love Warrior"
Since she was 10 years old, Glennon Doyle Melton didn’t feel at home in her body. Due to the pressures of society, she never felt she could be thin enough, pretty enough, accepted enough, or loved enough. So, she turned to bulimia, binge drinking and casual sex to mask her fears and insecurities.
In her twenties, Glennon finds herself pregnant and at a...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
"BOSH!: The Cookbook: Simple Recipes. Amazing Food. All Plants."
This brand new cookbook is filled with recipes from the chefs behind the online video channel Bosh, popular in the U.K. This cookbook is packed with enticing recipes, including quick recipes, big meals, bowls, sides, desserts, breakfasts, cocktails, and meals meant to impress. I couldn't stop finding recipes I'm really excited to try, and because they're...
"What to Do When I'm Gone: A Mother's Wisdom to Her Daughter"
No one is ever really ready to lose a loved one, and this book tries to help with that in it's own unique way. As the title states, the author's mother provides preemptive advice on how to function in the event of her death. The advice walks her daughter through day-by-day instructions on what to do, days, even years, after her passing. As...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction
"The Flight Attendant"
Cassie Bowden is a seasoned flight attendant who has worked for the same airline since her early twenties. Now in her late thirties, Cassie can barely keep her life in order, having fallen into a pattern of binge drinking and hooking up with random men in the various cities she flies to.
While in Dubai, Cassie’s risky lifestyle catches up with her when...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Mystery
"The Handmaid's Tale"
In the not-too-distant future, a restrictive, invasive patriarchy has taken over and dismantled the American government. In this new society, known as Gilead, women have few roles they can play: as cooks and housekeepers, as the wives of the society’s leaders (known as Commanders), and as handmaids.
Acting as surrogates for the Commanders’ wives,...
"Chloe Flavor: Saucy, Crispy, Spicy, Vegan"
The newest cookbook from Chloe Coscarelli features a new batch of delicious vegan recipes. Included are recipes for breakfast, brunch, snacks, soups, salads, sandwiches, pasta, main meals, drinks, and dessert. Full of tantalizing photographs and snippets about Chloe's journey to veganism, this is another favorite of mine from one of my all-time favorite...
"Creative Quest"
Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson is a busy guy: drummer for the rap group The Roots, which is also the house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon; DJ; restaurateur; and author of two previous books, Mo' Meta Blues and somethingtofoodabout.
His newest book, as the title suggests, is all about creativity: what defines it, how to tap into your...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction
"The Feather Thief"
In 2009, 20-year-old American Edwin Rist broke into the Tring museum, a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. His quest: to steal rare bird specimens - some collected more 150 years earlier - with gorgeous feathers sought the world over by people who shared Edwin's obsession of the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying....
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction
"The Broken Girls"
Part ghost story, part murder mystery, this atmospheric novel captivated me from the first page. Centered around a now abandoned school for troubled girls, Idlewild Hall holds secrets of the past within its walls and grounds. The reader learns the stories of the abandoned girls who were forced to attend, the ghost who forces its victims to relive their...
"One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter: Essays"
Scaachi Koul is the daughter of Indian immigrants. She was born and raised in Canada surrounded by western culture. She is also thoughtful and hilarious. All this comes together in “One Day We’ll All Be Dead And None Of This Will Matter,” a delightful collection of essays. Many of Koul’s stories clue us in on what it is like to bear the scrutiny of being a...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Essays, Humor
"Behold the Dreamers"
For years, Jende Jonga dreamed of making a life for himself and his family in the United States. A native of Cameroon, Jende has been living and working in New York City on a temporary visa for three years when his wife, Neni, and six year-old son, Liomi, immigrate to Harlem to join him.
It’s 2007, and a world of opportunity opens up for the Jongas while...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Diverse
"The Changeling: A novel"
One night, Apollo Kagwa's wife, Emma, chains him to a chair, kills their infant son and disappears. Was it postpartum depression or something much worse? He sets out to discover whether his wife is still alive and what exactly happened to his son. Apollo has some baggage of his own that he has to grapple with along the way,...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Fantasy, Magical Realism, Fiction
"Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows"
Nikki is a modern twentysomething living and working in central London. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Nikki has spent much of her adult life embracing a life of independence and feminism while distancing herself from the traditional Sikh lifestyle that the rest of her family prefers.
While still figuring out a career path for herself, Nikki finds a...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
"I’ll Have What She’s Having: How Nora Ephron’s Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy"
This book provides readers with a brief history of Ephron’s life prior to her filmmaking years, but the main focus is a behind-the-scenes tour of the writing, filming, and releases of Nora Ephron’s three classic romantic comedies: When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail. While the spotlight is on Ephron and her transition from...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction
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