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Popular Culture November 2020
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| Wild Thing: The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix by Philip NormanWhat it is: a descriptive and engaging biography of legendary rock musician Jimi Hendrix.
Read it for: fresh insights from Hendrix's family and associates, including his brother Leon Hendrix and British model Linda Keith, who helped discover him.
Book buzz: Published to mark the 50th anniversary of Hendrix's death, this evocative latest from acclaimed rock biographer Philip Norman is an "entertaining, psychedelically tinged portrait" (Publishers Weekly). |
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Let love rule
by Lenny Kravitz
What it is: a work of deep reflection. Lenny Kravitz looks back at his life with candor, self-scrutiny, and humor.
In his own words: “My life is all about opposites,” he writes. “Black and white. Jewish and Christian. The Jackson 5 and Led Zeppelin. I accepted my Gemini soul. I owned it. I adored it. Yins and yangs mingled in various parts of my heart and mind, giving me balance and fueling my curiosity and comfort."
Hear, hear: Kravitz will also narrate the audiobook version of his memoir.
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The meaning of Mariah Carey
by Mariah Carey
What it is: The global icon, award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, actress, mother, daughter, sister, storyteller, and artist finally tells the unfiltered story of her life.
In her own words: "This book is composed of my memories, my mishaps, my struggles, my survival and my songs. Unfiltered. I went deep into my childhood and gave the scared little girl inside of me a big voice."
Love, Mariah: "Writing this memoir was incredibly hard, humbling and healing. My sincere hope is that you are moved to a new understanding, not only about me, but also about the resilience of the human spirit."
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This thing called life : Prince's odyssey, on and off the record
by Neal Karlen
What it is: An in-depth portrait of the iconic music artist, including coverage of Prince's childhood in 1970s Minneapolis, his private loneliness and his complicated relationship with his father.
About the author: Neal Karlen is a former contributing editor for Rolling Stone, Newsweek staff writer, and regular contributor to The New York Times.
Inside scoop: Neal Karlen was the only journalist Prince granted in-depth press interviews to for over a dozen years, from before Purple Rain to when the artist changed his name to an unpronounceable glyph.
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| She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs by Sarah SmarshWhat it's about: country superstar Dolly Parton's musical and cultural legacy.
What sets it apart: Heartland author Sarah Smarsh's thoughtful exploration of how Parton's music resonates with working-class women and folks from marginalized communities.
For fans of: NPR's Dolly Parton's America podcast, on which Smarsh appeared as an interviewee. |
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Chemistry : a novel
by Weike Wang
Three years into her graduate studies at a demanding Boston university, the unnamed narrator finds her one-time love for chemistry is more hypothesis than reality. Tormented by her failed research, she's also reminded of her delays by her peers, her advisor, and most of all by her Chinese parents, who have expected nothing short of excellence.
But there's another, nonscientific question looming: the marriage proposal from her devoted boyfriend. Eventually, the pressure mounts so high that she must leave everything she thought she knew about her future, and herself, behind. And for the first time, she's confronted with a question she won't find the answer to in a textbook: What do I really want?
Over the next two years, this winningly flawed, disarmingly insightful heroine learns the formulas and equations for a different kind of chemistry--one in which the reactions can't be quantified, measured, and analyzed; one that can be studied only in the mysterious language of the heart.
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The regrets : a novel
by Amy Bonnaffons
For weeks, Rachel has been noticing the same golden-haired young man sitting at her Brooklyn bus stop. When she finally musters the courage to introduce herself, the chemistry between them is undeniable: Thomas is wise, witty, handsome, mysterious, clearly a kindred spirit. There's just one tiny problem: He's dead.
Stuck in a surreal limbo governed by bureaucracy, Thomas is unable to "cross over" to the afterlife until he completes a 90-day stint on earth, during which time he is forbidden to get involved with a member of the living. When Thomas and Rachel break this rule, they unleash a cascade of bizarre, troubling consequences.
Set in the hallucinatory borderland between life and death, The Regrets is a gloriously strange and breathtakingly sexy exploration of love, the cataclysmic power of fantasies, and the painful, exhilarating work of waking up to reality.
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Okay fine whatever : the year I went from being afraid of everything to only being afraid of most things
by Courtenay Hameister
For most of her life (and even during her years as the host of a popular radio show), Courtenay Hameister lived in a state of near-constant dread and anxiety. She fretted about everything. Her age. Her size. Her romantic prospects. How likely it was that she would get hit by a bus on the way home.
Until a couple years ago, when, in her mid-forties, she decided to fight back against her debilitating anxieties by spending a year doing little things that scared her -- things that the average person might consider doing for a half second before deciding: "nope."
Refreshing, relatable, and pee-your-pants funny, Okay Fine Whatever is Courtenay's hold-nothing-back account of her adventures on the front lines of Mere Human Woman vs. Fear, reminding us that even the tiniest amount of bravery is still bravery, and that no matter who you are, it's possible to fight complacency and become bold, or at least bold-ish, a little at a time.
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Recursion
by Blake Crouch
At first, it looks like a disease. An epidemic that spreads through no known means, driving its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. But the force that’s sweeping the world is no pathogen. It’s just the first shock wave, unleashed by a stunning discovery—and what’s in jeopardy is not our minds but the very fabric of time itself. In New York City, Detective Barry Sutton is closing in on the truth—and in a remote laboratory, neuroscientist Helena Smith is unaware that she alone holds the key to this mystery . . . and the tools for fighting back. Together, Barry and Helena will have to confront their enemy—before they, and the world, are trapped in a loop of ever-growing chaos.
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Resisting Happiness
by Matthew Kelly
Most of us think we are relatively happy, while at the same time knowing that we could be happier. The finest philosophers have been exploring the question of happiness for thousands of years, and theories abound. But this is not a book of theory. Resisting Happiness is a deeply personal, disarmingly transparent look at why we sabotage our own happiness and what to do about it.
Are you overwhelmed? Do you procrastinate? Do you sometimes feel like you are your own worst enemy? Have you lost the courage to truly be yourself? Do you find yourself avoiding the real issues in your life and focusing on the superficial?
We all experience these feelings and doubts from time to time. But do you know what to do when you experience them? In this fascinating book, Matthew Kelly, uses his signature combination of the profound and the practical, to help us understand why we feel these things and how to rise above them.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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