Recipes passed down between generations, poems that live in our hearts.
Imagination and action changing the world.
In our May Staff Picks, we share what we’re reading this spring. Find books from Morgan Talty, Rhiannon Giddens, Andrea Wang, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Deborah Jackson Taffa, Rebecca K Reilly, Agnes Lee, and more great writers.
Julia’s Pick
In the new picture bookGrandma’s Roof Garden by Tang Wei (translated by Kelly Zhang), an elderly woman tends a vibrant garden atop her apartment building in a city in southwest China. “Granny sometimes does things that may seem funny or strange,” Wei tells us, such as collecting damaged produce from the market. But those wilted greens nourish her rooftop vegetable beds, providing abundant baskets of produce for her neighbors and a delectable meal for her family.
In Wei’s colored-pencil illustrations, Granny’s “gorgeous, chubby veggie children” practically burst off the page. I love books where the pictures include details never mentioned in the text; in this one, readers can trace the antics of a black cat and a mouse who follow Granny through the pages.
Cindy’s Picks
We Could Fly is a lovely picture book written by Rhiannon Giddens and illustrated by the amazing Briana Mukodiri Uchendu. Giddens was deeply inspired as a child by the famous collection of Black American folktales The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton. This is her luminous ode to that collection. The illustrations are captivating and lead you from one page to the next in a mesmerizing way.
The School for Invisible Boys is a middle grade book by Shaun David Hutchinson. There is more than meets the eye at St. Lawrence’s Catholic School for Boys, and if Hector is going to save Orson—and himself—from a terrifying creature preying on students’ loneliness and fear, he’ll need to look deeper. With the help of a mysterious new classmate, Sam, can Hector unravel the mysteries haunting his school and discover that sometimes it takes disappearing to really be seen? This magical realism novel has LGBTQ and bullying themes.
Summer at Squee is a middle grade book by Newbery-Honor-Winning author Andrea Wang. Phoenny Fang is planning to have the best summer ever. She is returning to the “Summertime Chinese Culture, Wellness and Enrichment Experience” Camp (“Squee” to campers in the know) and this year she is a senior camper, which means that she and her squad of friends will be among the coolest kids. But on the day she arrives, she discovers that not only has her squad been split up, a whole crop of new campers has arrived. She is determined to make the best of it, but quickly realizes that there are things she doesn’t understand that she must learn about.
Emily’s Pick
I found a new favorite audiobook & fictional family in Rebecca K Reilly’s Greta & Valdin, a new-to-the-U.S. book that was first published in New Zealand and thankfully has made its way here. Greta and Valdin Vladislavljevic are queer Māori and Russian siblings and roommates in Auckland. They’re both dealing with a whole slew of relationship messes, their ridiculous but loving family, and trying to get through their day-to-day lives. I listened to the audiobook and can’t recommend it enough—I loved hearing the two main narrators give voice to Greta and Valdin, with all of their emotions and wry humor, and their talents at bringing the characters to life.
In the novel, Valdin is trying really hard to get over his ex-boyfriend Xabi. While it helps that Xabi moved all the way to Buenos Aires, it doesn’t help that he is Valdin’s uncle’s husband’s brother, so Valdin still has to hear about him. Valdin’s also made a major change in his career (from studying physics to TV), and tells the listener about learning to manage his OCD. Meanwhile Greta is navigating a crush that turns into heartbreak, getting lost in the woods, and working on her graduate degree in Russian literature. She also gets to experience a quite hilarious (to the listener!) family dinner when she brings a new girlfriend along and things quickly get chaotic. Definitely one to read—and if you can, listen to!
Gabrielle’s Picks
I recently read—and loved—two very different books that struck me as similar in their quietly moving depictions of grief and joy. One, Ædnan: An Epic,is a novel in verse by Linnea Axelsson, a Sami Swedish writer. She gives voice to various Sami characters as they navigate the heartbreak of being forced to leave behind their traditional ways, language, lands, and identity. The second,49 Days, is a graphic novel by Agnes Lee which unrolls over the course of the 49 days that, in Buddhist thought, is the time between death and rebirth. The book explores the grieving process as it is experienced on both sides of the divide: by the deceased as well as by the loved ones who are still living.
Both books are beautifully written in language that felt to me both spare and lush. Neither one took long to read and yet, while I was in each book, time slowed down and the rest of the world fell into a hush (which, to me, is one of the great gifts of reading).
Vicky’s Pick
I recently listened to Deborah Jackson Taffa’s memoir Whiskey Tender on cloudLibrary. A member of both the Quechan Nation and Laguna Pueblo, Taffa describes growing up first on the Quechan reservation in eastern California and then in Navajo country when her welder father took a job in Farmington, N.M. She recounts her childhood and youth with crystalline precision: Her experiences are not some monolithic “Native Experience” but particular to her culture, setting, and family. But they are informed by the systemic injustices perpetuated by settler colonialism: the Spanish invaders who problematized her mother’s family’s sense of identity for generations, the 1887 Dawes Act that restricted her father’s family’s landownership, the 1956 Indian Relocation Act that ultimately uprooted her family from the reservation. She grew up proud to know her family’s surname was a president’s—only to learn years later that Andrew Jackson was the architect of the Trail of Tears.
Taffa twines national, family, and personal histories into a singular narrative of growing into a complicated, treasured identity. Charley Flyte, who is Oglala Lakota and Mohawk, voices this moving, immersive account. (Those who prefer print will find copies available in MaineCat.)
Fionna’s Picks
Last month I listened to Fern Brady’s memoir Strong Female Character. Brady was diagnosed as autistic as an adult, after being misdiagnosed with OCD as a teen/young adult. Her questions about autism as a teen were dismissed and she was even told she couldn’t be autistic because “she’d had loads of boyfriends and made good eye-contact.” Strong Female Character goes over the years without the diagnosis as Brady struggles to find context, validation, and support for the overwhelming sense that she experiences the world differently than most. What results is a memoir that is brutally honest and absolutely hilarious as it shines a light on one woman’s experience with autism. I haven’t stopped talking about or recommending this to people since I started listening.
I just finished listening to Kennedy Ryan’s This Could Be Us, her follow up to last year’s Before I Let Go, that works well as a stand-alone. This second-act romance was perfect listening for our ascent into springtime with the sunny and (Maine) warm days we’ve had in the last week. The narrators were fantastic and over the days I was listening I found myself feeling lighter and hopeful even when my earbuds weren’t in. Ryan wove serious topics through the story while maintaining the joy and ease of reading I look for when I pick up a romance. Try it this spring or save for a perfect beach read!
Elizabeth’s Picks
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum (translated by Shanna Tan) is a treasure—a gentle, thoughtful novel about a woman who opens a bookstore in a neighborhood in Seoul and how it changes her and the community who gathers there. There’s much coffee-drinking and chats between characters as they mull over life. It’s a relaxing read, but you’ll want to know what happens next to the characters, too.
I love Jean Valentine’s spare, searching poetry (“Where will you be going? Who will the others be?”). I’m glad for Light Me Down, the last volume of her work, with poems new and old.
Two guest picks: a friend who loves basketball and the writing of Hanif Abdurraqib is thrilled that these worlds collide in There’s Always This Year. And my mom, an avid birder in Illinois, recommends The Backyard Bird Chronicles, written and (wonderfully!) illustrated by Amy Tan.
It’s not out until June, but you might want to place a hold on Morgan Talty’s new novel Fire Exit now! More new books by favorite authors: The Dead Cat Tail Assassins. Beautyland. Bite By Bite, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. I’ve been waiting for another book from Rachel Khong—a stellar humorist and poignant observer of human foibles—since her first novel Goodbye, Vitamin. She’s back this spring with Real Americans.
I’m also looking forward to new books by debut authors. “Each evening’s menu told me what kind of stories we would hear at the dinner table.” Elaine U. Cho’s new sci-fi adventure Ocean’s Godori comes with a misfit crew and space chases, while Karla Tatiana Vasquez gathers stories from grandmothers, moms, aunts, and friends in The SalviSoul Cookbook: Salvadoran Recipes & the Women Who Preserve Them.
I’ll leave you with Imagination: A Manifesto. Ruha Benjamin shares a vital tool for the work of transformation and collective liberation. “We can transform the hostile environments that try to trap us—whether they are literal cages, barbed wire-encircled playgrounds, or bullet-friendly classrooms. We can imagine otherwise.”
Curious about a girl and a glacier? A space thriller? Kelley’s romantic manga picks? Poets writing novels? The beyond-refreshing fantasy that Vicky loved? Read on for our February Staff Picks!
All my picks this month are brand new titles in our children’s collection. The first is the lovely, meditative, and beautifully-illustrated picture book Angela’s Glacier by Jordan Scott and illustrated by Diana Sudyka. It’s the story of a young girl learning to manage her time to include something she has loved since her birth: an Icelandic glacier called Snaefellstokull.
The dreamy illustrations are done in a multi-layered palette of blues. “This is Angela’s glacier. For weeks before Angela arrived her glacier was covered in clouds. And then…Angela came into the world and the glacier bloomed peacock indigo and duck-egg blue under the milky arctic sunlight.”
As she grows up, Angela spends much time listening to the glacier. “Her father held her still in this universe of sound.” But as Angela gets older she has violin lessons, school, homework, and friends that make the time melt away, until she hasn’t spent time with her glacier and realizes nothing feels right. Discover the way she gets back in touch with her beloved glacier.
My second choice is a sweet alternate telling of the fairy tale Rapunzel: Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu by Ying Chang Compestine and illustrated by Crystal Kung. The author grew up in China “during the late 1960s, when Western books were banned.” The rare times she could find a book, she read it in a hurry, late at night, so she could share it with the next waiting friend. She loved the story of Rapunzel and wanted to put her own spin on this tale, setting it in ancient China.
The story is humorous and sweet, and Ra Pu Zel is a very brave and wise princess who chooses the course of her life her way. There is even a recipe for Stinky Tofu!
And finally, a graphic novel I’m very interested in! Are You Afraid of the Dark? The Witch’s Wings and other Terrifying Tales by Tehlor Kay Mejia and illustrated by Junyi Wu, Justin and Alexis Hernandez, and Kaylee Rowena. The story starts around a campfire in the woods, with a group of nerdy middle schoolers who have a storytelling society—onlyscary stories. A newcomer arrives with a truly terrifying tale! The illustrations are dynamic and fun, and the text is very easy to follow and understand.
Kelley’s Romantic Manga Picks
I don’t usually gravitate towards romantic fiction, but there is something about the combination of storytelling and gorgeous art that has made me a huge fan of romantic manga. If you love romance and are new to manga, or if you love manga and want to read something new, here are my top picks:
Blue Flagby Kaito (vol. 1-8, complete): Love is already hard enough, but it becomes an unnavigable maze for unassuming high school student Taichi Ichinose and his shy classmate Futaba Kuze when they begin to fall for each other after their same-sex best friends have already falled for them.
Fangirl: The Manga by Rainbow Rowell and Sam Maggs (vol. 1-3, ongoing): Readers new to romance manga can be eased into the genre with this adaptation of Rainbow Rowell’s charming coming-of-age YA classic, Fangirl. Swoon.
Insomniacs After School by Makoto Ojiro (vol. 1-3, ongoing): Sleepless high school student Ganta Nakami begins napping in his school’s abandoned astronomy tower with classmate (and fellow insomniac) Isaki Magari in this sweet slice-of-life manga series.
Love Me, Love Me Notby Io Sakisaka (vol. 1-11, complete): Four friends, Akari, Kazuomi, Rio, and Yuna, navigate their complicated romantic feelings for each other, while trying to maintain their friendships. Fans of slow-burn-will-they-won’t-they stories will love this series.
My Love Mix-Upby Wataru Hinekure (vol. 1-8, ongoing): Aoki has a crush on Hashimoto. But he discovers she has a crush on Ida—the guy who sits in front of Aoki. When Ida accidentally comes across a love confession, Aoki protects Hashimoto’s feelings by claiming he wrote it. Hijinks (and romantic tension) ensue. It’s hard for me to choose a favorite, but this might be it.
P.S. See more of my graphic novel picks over at YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens. The 2024 list will be published any day now!
Emily’s Picks
I always have a long TBR going for books I’m excited to read (thank you, Storygraph). Here are some forthcoming 2024 books from my list!
Kristina Forest’s The Neighbor Favor was a favorite of mine last year—it was the perfect mix of romance and humor with a lot of heart. I am anxiously awaiting her next book (coming soon to the library catalog), The Partner Plot, which will have all kinds of hijinks and feelings given that it is a second-chance romance with an accidental wedding in Vegas!
Alyssa Cole’s books are among my all-time favorites—both her romances (A Princess in Theory) and her newer foray into thrillers (When No One is Watching). I can’t wait to get my hands on One of Us Knows, a story about an historical preservationist with dissociative identity disorder working as a caretaker on a remote historic home on an island in Hudson Bay. There’s a surprise visit from a conservation trust, a storm that traps them all on the island—and of course, a murder. Alyssa’s writing is quick and smart and a lot of fun, so this is high on my list! (This title isn’t out until April, but you’ll be able to place a hold on it soon).
Micaiah Johnson’s The Space Between Worlds was an unforgettable science fiction audiobook, and I’m thrilled to read her next book, Those Beyond the Wall. It’s billed as a sci-fi thriller with a coming apocalypse, mysterious deaths, and will let me jump back into the fascinating multiverse I first met in Space.
Vicky’s Pick
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafihad me at its cover. How could I resist that image, with the humongous tentacled monster dragging a ship, quite tiny in comparison, into the depths? Happily, this is one book that can and should be judged by its cover, as the story more than lived up to that one thrilling scene.
Amina al-Sirafi, once the most-feared pirate in the Indian Ocean, leads a quiet, pastoral life with her mother and daughter, her seagoing days long behind her—until the mother of a former crewmate dangles a fortune in front of her, promised payment for completion of one extremely dangerous task. Not without regrets, Amina kisses her beloved daughter goodbye, rounds up her crew (a thoroughly delightful rogues’ gallery if ever there was one), and once again boards her beloved ship. None of this happens without incident—the plural in the title is completely accurate.
It is beyond refreshing to read a fantasy helmed (literally, in this case) by a badass middle-aged woman with bad knees. Author Shannon Chakraborty nails every landing in this riproaring adventure festooned with demons, monsters, and other otherworldly perils. I listened to the audio edition, with Lameece Issaq voicing Amina’s first-person narrative and Amin El Gamal voicing (fictional) contemporaneous commentary that adds fizz to the primary story; both are excellent, providing a totally absorbing, 100-percent enjoyable experience.
Becca’s Pick
In the introduction to the horror anthology Out There Screaming, editor Jordan Peele writes, “I view horror as catharsis through entertainment.” This statement gave me a chuckle, as the reveal in his second horror film Us shocked me straight out of catharsis and continues to haunt me five years later. So, I’m not sure what I was thinking when I decided to read a few stories in this anthology every night while in bed. Did I have a repressed urge for nightmares that shocked me out of sleep? I must have, because that’s exactly what happened.
Out There Screaming is an excellent collection that brings together newer authors and trusted voices. We have stories from horror greats, such as Nnedi Okorafor’s mythological beast, P. Djélí Clark’s truly terrifying shapeshifters, and N.K. Jemisin’s eyeballs (so many eyeballs…). However, stories from new and less well-known authors shine just as brightly. “A Grief of the Dead” by Rion Amilcar Scott explores breakups, mania, and monsters. “Flicker” by L.D. Lewis drops the reader into a world of simulation and body horror. Ezra Claytan Daniels’ “Pressure” probably scared me the most, as inexplicable dread leads to a shocking conclusion.
Much like Jordan Peele’s films, the horror in this anthology is cathartic, but the stories will stay with you long after completion. Just try not to read it past bedtime.
Eileen’s Picks
It happens periodically, on no particular schedule. My stack of library books becomes unmanageable, a tripping hazard collapsed on the floor by a favorite chair. What is scattered there?
Just now, by my sock-swaddled foot, I see Cathie Pelletier’s Northeaster, finished and ready to return. It’s a painstaking record of the 1952 blizzard that took Maine by surprise, with devastating consequences. The historical reportage and personal profiles are related in astonishing, haunting detail. Worth reading.
An ongoing mini-obsession with woodworking and hand tools (primarily theoretical at the moment, but a person can dream) is bolstered by several books, my favorites being The Minimalist Woodworker by Vic Tesolin with its good basic information about good basic hand tools; and Aldren A Watson’s Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings, heavy on detail and glorious, instructive illustrations by the author. My interest may waver at any moment, but in the meantime I am in hand tool heaven, reading about braces and bits, egg beater drills and carcass saws. Can a well placed tenon be far behind?
On to some fiction, just to keep my checkouts well rounded: thanks to a suggestion from a friend and the marvels of MaineCat, I have discovered EM Delafield’s The Provincial Lady titles. The Provincial Lady in Wartime, published in 1940, is my favorite of the lot thus far, fictionally logging the restless, anxious inertia at the outset of WWII in Britain as the country anticipated the great unknown; it doesn’t sound like funny-fodder, I know, but trust me. These books put me in mind of Angela Thirkell’s Barsetshire series.
I am not sure what this collection of borrowed materials says about me. Every trip to the library makes the pile higher and one heedless move risks sending it in all directions. I suppose, after all, that describes my 2024 state of mind: in danger of going in any and all directions. Sounds to me more like a blessing than a hazard.
May your 2024 be a year filled with books, new and newly discovered, taking you in all directions!
Elizabeth’s Picks
My list of books and movies to check out is sky-high this leap year! Here are some picks from the pile.
February is one of my favorite times to be outside in Maine (a wise friend says February light is the most beautiful light). And nature writing is the writing I turn to the most. A Darker Wilderness is edited by Erin Sharkey; the anthology’s authors write about artifacts (“a scrapbook, a family chest, a quilt”) connected to nature, Black history and memory.
More love for February: two YA graphic novels, Lunar New Year Love Story and Basil and Oregano. For adults: a flower shop, a mysterious stranger, and magical nights in Harlem set the stage for romance in Tia Williams’ new novel A Love Song For Ricki Wilde. Kelly Link (fantastical writer of brilliant, unsettling tales) debuts a novel called The Book of Love. A “bighearted bestseller” about queer love and siblinghood arrives from New Zealand in Rebecca K. Reilly’s Greta & Valdin.
Two poets write debut novels immersed in family history: I’ve followed the work of Kaveh Akbar since he was a thoughtful writer forPoetry Rx, a poetry prescription column (“Dear poet, please send me a poem about Y because I am feeling X”), so I’m looking forward to reading his debut novel Martyr! And I’m equally looking forward to the novel-in-stories Redwood Court by DeLana R.A. Dameron.
Movies last: every winter PPL’s stellar international film collection fills my nights with incredible stories. Some recent gems include the heartrending, intense twists and turns of Return to Seoul, the stark, dreamy landscape and incredible ending of Woman at War, the marigolds, music, and unforgettable family story of Monsoon Wedding, and the bizarre noir humor of The Innocent. Next up is a film I borrowed through MaineCat: This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection.
Looking for more reading (or movie) recommendations? We’re here to help. You can reach out to readersadvisory@portlib.org or get a list of personalized recommendations tailored to your interests by using our Your Next Great Readservice (for kids, teens, or adults).
“A story I will remember
long after I’ve read it for the second, third,
tenth, hundredth time.”
-Jacqueline Woodson
Celebrate Black History at the library all year round! Here are some great booklists and resources to explore for kids, teens, and adults focused on Black History, Literature, and Culture.
For many more resources and reading ideas, and if you’re looking for a particular author or subject, please reach out to our staff at readersadvisory@portlib.org, reference@portlib.org, or give us a call at 207-871-1700.
