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Crying in H Mart : a memoir
by Michelle Zauner
What it is: a full-length account of her viral New Yorker essay to share poignant reflections on her experiences of growing up Korean-American, becoming a professional musician and caring for her terminally ill mother.
About the author: Michelle Zauner is best known as a singer and guitarist who creates dreamy, shoegaze-inspired indie pop under the name Japanese Breakfast.
Praise: “Michelle Zauner has written a book you experience with all of your senses: sentences you can taste, paragraphs that sound like music. She seamlessly blends stories of food and memory, sumptuousness and grief, to weave a complex narrative of loyalty and loss.” —Rachel Syme
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This close to okay : a novel
by Leesa Cross-Smith
The scene: A recently divorced therapist spots a man standing on the edge of a bridge and convinces him to join her for coffee instead of jumping and the pair spend a cathartic weekend sharing secrets and angsts.
Reviewers say: "Leesa Cross-Smith is a consummate storyteller who uses her formidable talents to tell the oft-overlooked stories of people living in that great swath of place between the left and right coasts."―Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author
The author: Leesa Cross-Smith has been a finalist for the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction and Iowa Short Fiction Award. She is the author of the short story collection Every Kiss a War and lives in Louisville, KY.
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| When Women Invented Television: The Untold Story of the Female Powerhouses Who... by Jennifer Keishin ArmstrongWhat it is: a fast-paced and engaging history of television's early days and four women who pioneered the medium.
Starring: Hazel Scott, the first African American to host a primetime show; Gertrude Berg, who created The Goldbergs, TV's first depiction of a Jewish American family; Irna Phillips, creator of Guiding Light and other soap operas; and Betty White, who developed her own talk show.
Try this next: J.E. Smyth's Nobody's Girl Friday: The Women Who Ran Hollywood. |
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What's mine and yours : a novel
by Naima Coster
The story: Integrated into a predominantly white high school, an anxious young Black student and a half-Latina whose mother would have her pass as white join a bridge-building school play that shapes the trajectory of their adult lives.
Close to home: "While I lived in Durham, I worked in Winston-Salem, and I often traveled to the coast and to the mountains. During those years, I was sorting through questions about marriage and motherhood,...complicated racial dynamics within mixed families. Those preoccupations became the stuff of the novel."―Naima Coster
You may also like: What Comes After by JoAnne Tompkins, Good Company by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, Send For Me by Lauren Fox.
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| Mixed Plate: Chronicles of an All-American Combo by Jo KoyWhat it's about: Filipino American comedian Jo Koy's hard-won battle for success in the entertainment industry.
Topics include: how Koy's mixed-race and impoverished upbringing informed his comedy; his career influences and joke-writing process.
Featuring: recipes for Koy's favorite Filipino dishes, including chicken adobo and lumpia; never-before-seen photographs. |
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Caul baby : a novel
by Morgan Jerkins
What it's about: A would-be mother rendered the unexpected caregiver of a niece’s unplanned baby, who a matriarch predicts will restore their family’s prosperity.
Buzz buzz: Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by Time, BuzzFeed, Parade, O: The Oprah Magazine, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Ms. Magazine, Marie Claire, Goodreads, Lit Hub, and Electric Literature, among others.
Wonder women: “The true strength of this book has a profound impact: in conveying the life-giving and life-sustaining power of Black women’s bodies, and the blood relationships between them...The women Jerkins creates do not need men or any other outsiders to rescue them; they rescue themselves.” –New York Times Book Review
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| The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America by Isaac Butler and Dan KoisWhat it is: a moving oral history of Angels in America, published to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play's Broadway premiere.
Read it for: humorous anecdotes about the play's inauspicious early days of production; insights from actors like Meryl Streep, who remarks that Angels in America was "the Hamilton of its time."
Book buzz: The World Only Spins Forward was an NPR Best Book of 2018. |
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| Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher, and Never Stop Learning by Leslie Odom, Jr. What it is: a witty blend of memoir and self-help written by Tony and Grammy Award-winning Hamilton star Leslie Odom, Jr.
Who it's for: Though it was written for teen audiences, anyone looking for inspiration to follow their dreams will be encouraged by Odom's candid advice.
Want a taste? "The path to moments of greatness in your life will be paved, in part, with your spectacular failures." |
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| Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution by Todd S. PurdumWhat it's about: the fruitful creative partnership between composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, whose collaborations ushered in the Golden Age of musical theater in the mid-20th century.
Why you might like it: This evocative, occasionally gossipy chronicle captures the pair's creative process, tracking career highs (Pulitzer Prize wins for Oklahoma! and South Pacific), lows (flops like 1947's Allegro), and frequent personality clashes.
Reviewers say: "An exuberant celebration of musical genius" (Kirkus). |
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| Lady Romeo: The Radical and Revolutionary Life of Charlotte Cushman, America's First... by Tana WojczukStarring: charismatic American stage actress Charlotte Cushman, who eschewed rigid 19th-century gender norms to become beloved by audiences worldwide.
Read it for: a lively tribute to an unabashedly queer woman who forged a radical path both on and off stage.
Did you know? The character of Miss Cameron in Louisa May Alcott's novel Jo's Boys is based on Cushman. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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