Kai Thomas’ fascinating debut novel, In the Upper Country, offers a fresh take on the Underground Railroad in Canada. The author, who is Afro-Canadian, became intrigued about historical accounts he read about the relationships of runaway slaves and Indigenous peoples in Canada. This inspired him to write his first novel, which opens in 1859. It…
Yesterday I examined fiction that received the most love in 2022 from book reviewers. Today I will look at nonfiction. I compiled 30 notable lists with more than 600 books, including our own favorites from the Cook Memorial Public Library District staffers. Thirty-seven books, from memoirs to nature to social commentary, rose to the top.…
As a long-time reader, I know one thing to be true: We often do not agree on liking the same books. Readers' tastes vary widely. This was evident once again in my annual search for the top-reviewed books of the year. For fiction, I tallied 30 lists by professional book readers, including the Cook Memorial…
Imagine learning that you inherited a house from your great-grandmother. However, this isn’t just any home. It has a mind of its own and walks on giant chicken legs. That is the premise of GennaRose Nethercott’s weird, wacky debut novel, Thistlefoot. It pays homage to Baba Yaga, a supernatural being who appears in many Russian…
Jamie Ford movingly explores the fascinating premise that trauma can be passed down from generation to generation in his fourth novel, The Many Daughters of Afong Moy. Afong Moy was the first Chinese woman known to set foot on American soil in 1836. She was forced to entertain on the stage as "The Chinese Lady.''…
I was feeling a little blue facing the long Labor Day weekend, knowing I would be stuck on the couch resting a badly sprained ankle encased in a boot. The beautiful weather beckoned me to go for a hike, but I knew I had to stay inside. Luckily, I had a couple library books to devour over…
The great Lexington The driving character of the novel Horse is Lexington, the most famous American racehorse of the 19th century. But this story is so much more than about a great stallion who sired champions. Geraldine Brooks uses Lexington as a backdrop to write about the consequences of one of this country's greatest sins, slavery. The sweeping novel effortlessly weaves back and forth…
Young Mungo begins with a camping trip from Hell, launching a gripping story of the dysfunctional, fascinating Hamilton family. Author Douglas Stuart, who won the 2020 Booker Prize for his literary debut, Shuggie Bain, returns with another coming-of-age story set in the 1990s among the working poor of Glasgow, Scotland. The matriarch of the family, Maureen, gives birth to Hamish as an…
When I read Bonnie Garmus' debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry, it triggered a memory from the 1970s that I had forgotten about. I was a teenager talking with an aunt, and I asked what her major was in college. She told me she got her M-R-S degree and married my uncle. She then went on…
I know some readers avoid sad books. Life is sad enough, they argue. I get it. Sometimes you need a fun book to help you escape the heaviness of the modern world. However, I admit I have a penchant for novels that don't sugar-coat the sorrow life can bring. The novels that long live in my book memory all had…
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