Title: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
Author: J.D. Vance
Genre: memoir
Why did you choose to read this book?
I am a member of a two-person book club and the other member suggested this book.
What did you like about it?
It was a quick read. J.D. Vance details his upbringing in the Rust Belt as the descendant of Appalachian migrants to Ohio. He details the culture and communities of Scots-Irish people in West Virginia and Middletown, Ohio.
Continue Reading →Don’t forget about our branch campus library offerings, including these freshly added books! Ask a librarian for help (or use the catalog to put a hold on a copy of a book) if you’d like to pick up the book at a different campus library.
Are you number 217* on the public library’s hold list for popular fiction, such as Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing?
Don’t forget to check the Durham Tech Library collection for both your fiction and non-fiction needs, including [as of 5:24 p.m., Monday, August 12] Where the Crawdads Sing.
We can’t compete head-to-head with the awesome fiction selection at your local public library, but don’t count us out.
*217 is the actual number of holds on Where the Crawdads Sing at the Durham County Public Library.
NC LIVE recently announced the addition of 495 titles to its HomeGrown e-books collection. The new titles come from five publishers, including The University of North Carolina Press.
Title: There There
Author: Tommy Orange
Genre: fiction
Why did you choose to read this book?
There There appeared on so many best-books-of-2018 lists and received rave reviews from authors and critics alike that I felt like it was following me, or the universe was telling me to read this book. Also, my book club chose it.
Continue Reading →
Pollen dust cloud got you down? Try these pollen-free* new reads in their freshly wrapped dust jackets.
*No guarantees once they leave the library. It’s brutal out there, y’all.
April is National Poetry Month, which celebrates and encourages people to read and rediscover poets and poetry in their literary lives.
How can you participate at Durham Tech? Good news! We’ve got a few easy suggestions!
Want some more poetry in your life? Check out local public libraries and independent bookstores for more events.
This book was read by Meredith Lewis, the [mostly] Orange County Campus Librarian, and is available for checkout at the Orange County Campus Library.
Title: The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century
Author: Kirk Wallace Johnson
Genre: Social Science, True Crime [against a museum and the historical record], History [of animal specimen collection and feather fashion], Ethics
#ReadGreatThings2019 Category: A social science book; A book by a person you admire; A book that features college or higher education
Check out our blog post on the Read Great Things 2019 Challenge.
Why did you choose this book?
I read a lot of book lists and this one popped up sometime last year. Plot-wise, I like museums and true crime, and a museum heist was immediately something interesting to me. I don’t fly fish, but you don’t need to in order to enjoy this book.
Really, The Feather Thief is kind of about a lot of things– recovering after personal and professional disappointment, Victorian fly fishing lures, the role of museums and museum specimens in the historical record and preservation, the ecologically destructive power of fashion, and what can happen to an insular community when something illegal impacts them. At its core, it’s about a young man who, realizing he has an opportunity to make some money in a niche community that he is a member of, breaks into a natural history museum, steals a lot of rare bird carcasses, and then sells the feathers. He gets caught (not really a spoiler). A portion of the fly fishing community reacts (or refuses to acknowledge their participation). People justify the bad behavior as not so bad and ignore the parts that don’t impact them directly. Reflection ensues.
Did it remind you of any other book or a movie?
It reminded me a little of Bad Blood by John Carreyrou (available through the OCC Library) and there’s this movie on Amazon Prime I watched a while ago about a man who forges (copies?) famous paintings and then donates them to art museums called Art & Craft. Both of them examine how people justify or try to hide behaviors that are bad or ethically just not right, but in different ways. I guess that’s a topic that interests me. Who knew?
Who would you recommend this book to?
Anyone ready to be surprised by an engaging nonfiction book that may not perfectly align with their own interests. Anyone looking to fill their social science checkbox in the Read Great Things 2019 Challenge. People who like true crime, but want to avoid the murdery ones.
Also, people who like to tie their own fly fishing lures. This book talks your talk, unless you’re sensitive about buying authentic feathers for Victorian-era lures– then you may feel exceptionally called out.
Get your read on with these new nonfiction titles at the Orange County Campus Library, most of which fit neatly into Read Great Things Challenge 2019 categories.
Remember that your Durham Tech Library card is valid at all Durham Tech Library locations and you can request to pick up a book from another campus at your home campus (though you’re always welcome to come visit).
This book was read by Meredith Lewis, the [mostly] Orange County Campus Librarian, and is available for checkout at the Main Campus Library.
Title: The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media
Author: Brooke Gladstone and illustrated by Josh Neufeld
Genre: Social Science, Graphic Novel, Historical Overview
#ReadGreatThings2019 Category: A social science book; A book about technology; A book that will help you with one of your personal goals [if increasing your media literacy is one of your goals]
Check out our blog post on the Read Great Things 2019 Challenge.
Why did you choose to read this book?W
Meredith: Well, Courtney recommended it to me. Since this book is about the history of the press/media and how it gets made and influenced in our modern world, I was especially interested from an information literacy standpoint. I mean, knowing how our news gets made matters, right? [Spoiler: The argument made in this book is yes.]
What did you like about it?
Meredith: In general, I’m interested in learning about the history and contexts of things and this book really goes into (in a pleasant visual format) how media and government have this push-pull (repeat) relationship. I really like how Brooke Gladstone (an NPR journalist) investigates things that go into our modern media marketplace like money, bias, and information overload. She also calls out problematic practices in journalism.
What feeling did the book leave you with?
Meredith: It left me feeling optimistic, actually! I genuinely believe that the world is full of the capacity for positive change and being informed and aware of the biases and structures around us matters and can help contribute towards making those positive changes.
