Wade Watts won. Game over. Except that it wasn’t….
This time, it’s more than a game to win control over a billionaire’s virtual universe. This time, real lives are at stake.
This book was read by Susan Baker, Main Campus Reference Librarian.
Title: Ready Player Two
Author: Ernest Cline
Genre: Science Fiction, Pop Culture Homage
Read Great Things 2021 Categories: A book about family; A book recommended by a Durham Tech Library staff member; Choose your own category [A sequel!]
Continue Reading →
A wide-ranging exploration of architecture and innovation, featuring floating foundations, incorporating nature into school design, how temperature can impact our perception of happiness at work, the balance between community and privacy (and choice), and the challenges of living on Mars, among other topics.
Title: The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness
Author: Emily Anthes
Genre: Nonfiction; Popular Science; Psychology of Daily Life; Architecture
Read Great Things 2021 Categories: A book about or set in space [there’s a chapter on architecture on Mars!]; A book recommended by a Durham Tech Librarian; Choose your own category [A book about places and spaces…or something like that]
This book was read by Meredith Lewis, the (mostly) Orange County Campus Librarian.
Continue Reading →
Jude Fawley is a fool trying to be an angel and is in an untenable situation: holding on to his dream and driven by passion, while trying to do the right thing.
Title: Jude the Obscure
Author: Thomas Hardy
Genres: fiction, classic literature, social commentary
Read Great Things 2021 Categories: A book that takes place outside the continental United States; A book about family; A book recommended by a Durham Tech Library staff member.
This book was read by Stephen Brooks, Main Campus Librarian.
Continue Reading →
This book was read by Courtney Bippley, Main Campus Reference Librarian and Library podcaster.
Title: I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Second Edition
Author: Ramit Sethi
Genre: Self-help/Personal finance
Read Great Things Challenge 2021 Categories: A book that will help with your self care, A book recommended by a Durham Tech Library staff member, Choose your own category (Personal finance book).
Summary: From iwillteachyoutoberich.com- Not just another boring, personal finance book. You don’t have to be perfect to be rich. Or the smartest person in the room. Or a type-A personality. In fact, with Ramit Sethi’s six-week program to financial independence, you can start with any amount of money, do just 85% of what he suggests, and succeed brilliantly through good times and bad.
Continue Reading →
A Supreme court justice in a mysterious coma puts his clever clerk in charge and in [repeated] danger in this exciting political thriller that deals with secret government dealings, bioethics, justice, regular ethics, corporate mergers, a chess move as metaphor, and complex family relationships.
Title: While Justice Sleeps
Author: Stacey Abrams (yes, that Stacey Abrams)
Genre: Contemporary fiction, political thriller, who-dunnit
Read Great Things 2021 Categories: A book about family; Choose your own category–A THRILLER; A book recommended by Durham Tech Library staff (our favorite category)
This book was read by Meredith Lewis, the (mostly) Orange County Campus Librarian.
“Atlanta is where I learned the rules and learned them quick. No one ever called me stupid. But home isn’t where you land; home is where you launch. You can’t pick your home any more than you can choose your family. In poker, you get five cards. Three of them you can swap out, but two are yours to keep: family and native land.” –Roy Othaniel Hamilton Jr in An American Marriage
Roy and his wife Celestial are a young, attractive, highly-educated African American couple on the way to living their dreams in Atlanta– he as a rising executive and she as a folk artist dollmaker. Then they find themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time, and Roy is arrested and convicted of rape, shattering their world. What will their marriage become after Roy’s incarceration, and can it possibly survive?
This book was read by Susan Baker, Main Campus Librarian.
Title: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Genre: Realistic, contemporary fiction
Reading Great Things 2021 Challenge Categories: A book recommended by Durham Tech Library staff, A book About social justice or equity, A book about family
This book was read by Susan Baker, Main Campus Librarian.
Continue Reading →
Check out Durham Library Fest’s Lunch Meetup with Brit Bennett on Tuesday, April 6 from 1:00 to 2:00.
Keep reading for a What We’re Reading review of The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and check it out from the Durham Tech Library either online as an audiobook through Dogwood Digital Library or on Main Campus).
This book was read by Julie Humphrey, Durham Tech Library Director.
Title: The Vanishing Half
Author: Brit Bennett
Genre: Literary fiction; historical fiction; generational fiction
Read Great Things 2021 Categories: A book about family; A book recommended by Durham Tech Library staff (our favorite category)
Twin African American sisters in the 1960’s run away from their small Southern town as teenagers in order to start new lives. A few years later, one returns to their hometown while the other pursues a life passing as a white woman. This character-driven and compelling novel spans generations with the twins and their daughters telling a deeply complex story of identity, race, gender, tragedy, abuse, loneliness, and motherhood.
Reader, I confess: I’ve never read Jane Eyre. I had a profoundly bad experience with another Brontë sister in high school that has biased me against the other Brontës. Fair? Nope, but sometimes reading isn’t fair when there are lots of other choices out there.
However, I did recently read Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye about a orphan-turned-governess (with some life experience in between) who keeps coming across the opportunity to murder folks. She picks up a copy of Jane Eyre and is compelled to confess her life story and misdeeds. She’s not arbitrarily murdery, but–shucks–it just keeps happening.
So let’s do this WWR thing–
Title: Jane Steele
Author: Lyndsay Faye
Genre: Historical Fiction (takes place in Victorian England)
Available at the Orange County Campus (PS 3606 .A96 J36 2016)
Read Great Things 2021 Categories: A book that takes place outside the continental United States; A book about family; Choose your own category–A book inspired by another book; A book recommended by Durham Tech Library staff (our favorite category)
Continue Reading →
Title: The Vanished Birds
Author: Simon Jimenez
Genre: science fiction; fantasy; dystopia; literary fiction
Read Great Things 2021 Categories: A book about or set in space; A book about family; A book that takes place outside the continental United States; and A book suggested by a Durham Tech Librarian
My own category: A book about travel, longing, and trying to find beauty in something that’s broken
This book was read by Meredith Lewis, the [mostly] Orange County Campus Librarian.
Earth has been ruined, so space habitation and travel to various colonies is the norm. The only problem is that it takes so long, so those who have to make the journey find themselves literally out-of-time with anyone they leave behind. A genius scientist, a lonely spaceship captain, and a boy who falls from the sky all converge in a story about ethics of technological development, love, and family. I also need to tell you that I found the writing particularly beautiful.
Continue Reading →![The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games novel, #0 in the series [a prequel]) by Suzanne Collins](https://i0.wp.com/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/6138U5s+6yL.jpg?resize=333%2C502&ssl=1)
Title: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Author: Suzanne Collins
Genre: prequel; science fiction; dystopia
Read Great Things 2020 Categories: A book that is part of a series; A bildungsroman; A controversial book; and A book suggested by a Durham Tech Librarian
This book was read by Meredith Lewis, the [mostly] Orange County Campus Librarian.
If you liked the original Hunger Games trilogy, you’ll probably enjoy or appreciate this. If you’re like me, you may need to re-read the other books, but I read this book and then re-read the series afterwards, pausing in the third book because everyone knows if you don’t keep reading, then the bad thing you know is going to happen totally won’t happen, right? (Spoiler: It still happened. Double spoiler: The series is about a society that pits its children against each other TO THE DEATH to control rebellion. Bad things happen in all. three. books.)
CLICK FOR MORE DETAILS