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.
"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
"Emma in the Night"
Eighteen-year-old Cass stands on her mother’s doorstep, steeling herself. Her mother and the police must believe her—Emma’s life depends on it. It’s been three years since she and her older sister Emma, then age 17, disappeared. Her story—that she and Emma, who gave birth a few months after they disappeared, were held captive by a reclusive couple who had...
"Mrs."
At an Upper East Side preschool in New York City, groups of gossiping mothers and nannies gather to pick up their children day after day. Among them, is the fabulous Phillipa Lye and her childhood acquaintance, Gwen Hogan. Phillipa's life seems perfect: she is married to a wealthy banker and has three beautiful children. But, Phillipa's scandalous past...
"The Last Black Unicorn"
Stand-up comedian and actress Tiffany Haddish makes a living out of entertaining others and making people laugh. That might not seem like anything extraordinary, until you learn about all of the strife and setbacks Haddish faced in her life, especially before reaching adulthood.
While growing up, Haddish had an absentee father, a mother who verbally and...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction, Biography And Memoir, Memoir, Celebrities, Humor
"Sunburn"
Polly Costello is a striking, self-possessed woman with a complicated past who left her husband and young daughter behind at the beach, claiming to need a break from the sun, but she’s really looking for a fresh start. She stops in a bar in a small Delaware town for a drink and meets Adam, an intelligent, handsome man also just passing through, and sparks...
"Educated"
Tara Westover has an impressive academic pedigree that includes Harvard and Cambridge, but she did not set foot into a classroom until she enrolled at Brigham Young University at the age of seventeen. This compelling memoir immerses the reader into the isolated world in which she was raised in rural Idaho as the youngest of six children. Her father, a...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction
"Lady Bird"
Lady Bird's life is at a crossroads, of sorts. It’s her senior year at her Catholic high school and she yearns to spice up her life and make the year a memorable one. More than anything, though, Lady Bird (played by Saoirse Ronan) wants to make sure she gets out of Sacramento after high school and moves a place where she feels she can...
"Good As Gone"
When she was just 13 years old, Julie Whitaker was abducted from her bedroom at knifepoint. The kidnapping was witnessed by Julie’s younger sister, Jane, who watched in horror from the interior of her closet. The abduction, which was never solved, left the Whitaker family in shambles, forever changing the dynamic between Jane; her father, Tom; and mother,...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Mystery, Suspense
"The Missing"
Fifteen-year-old Billy goes missing in the middle of the night, plunging his family into a chaotic mess of unanswered questions and public appeals. Six months later and the mysterious disappearance still isn't solved, but when a public appeal goes horribly wrong, the family starts to crack. The mother, Claire, starts experiencing black-outs as the world...
"The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi"
The Star Wars universe is a vast and constantly growing thing. But did you ever stop to wonder what makes something look like it belongs in a Star Wars movie?
In The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, readers see the various stages of planning that went into creating new creatures, vehicles, costumes and locations for the latest film in the franchise....
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction, Movies, Movie Tie-ins
"The Death and Life of the Great Lakes"
Dan Egan, a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, provides a comprehensive portrayal of the Great Lakes, past and present, and a thorough analysis of the challenges the lakes have endured and continue to face. After establishing a portrait of the Great Lakes as they would have been experienced by the first European explorers, Egan traces the history...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction
"Year of Yes"
Shonda Rhimes is the creative mind behind of some of the hottest shows on television, including Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder. Though Rhimes was thriving professionally, her personal life had devolved into a cycle of sleeping, eating, working and just getting by. After being told by her older sister that “You...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction, Biography, Biography And Memoir
"The Wife Between Us"
Vanessa can’t believe that her ex-husband Richard is remarrying so quickly! She thought her replacement was going to be a short term fling, but news of their impending wedding has her in a tailspin. She’s barely holding it together as it is—she’s living in her aunt’s spare room, living off commissions as a saleswoman in a swanky department store (where she...
"Herbs for Flavor, Health, and Natural Beauty"
Looking for ideas on how to use fresh herbs? This book is covered with gorgeous, fully illustrated pages packed full of ideas on how to utilize fresh herbs, from recipes to health and wellness ideas. I grabbed a few recipes that were included that I'm excited to tweak to make vegan and try. My only critique is that I wish there was more to it! I would have...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction
"The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl"
Issa Rae is the creator, head writer and star of Insecure, a dramedy on HBO about the lives of a group of African American millennials. Watching that highly-entertaining series is what me aware of this book and Rae’s semi-autobiographical web series Awkward Black Girl (on which Insecure is based).
This book, chapter by chapter, outlines the various ways...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Humor
"American Fire"
American Fire is the true story of a five month arson spree in rural Accomack County, Virginia that started in November 2012 when four fires were set in a 24 hour period. By its conclusion, more than 60 fires were set. Hesse, a Washington Post reporter, provides a compelling account of the crimes, the public hysteria, and efforts by law enforcement to...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction
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