Category Archives: What We’re Reading

What We’re Reading-Meg & Jo

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Meg & Jo by Virginia Kantra

This book was read by Susan Baker, a Reference Librarian at the Main Campus Library.

Title and Author: Meg & Jo by Virginia Kantra

Genre: Contemporary romance, domestic fiction

Read Great Things Challenge 2020 category: Recommended by a Durham Tech librarian

Description: Meg March Brooke as a stay at home mom may not stretch the imagination too far, but Jo March as a prep cook and food blogger in New York City sure does! Louisa May Alcott’s classic Little Women is delightfully re-imagined by North Carolina RITA award winning author Virginia Kantra as a contemporary tale of adult sisters from a close knit family, following their very different paths, brought together again by a family crisis.This book is told through the eyes of the older sisters, Meg and Jo; a sequel, Beth & Amy, is scheduled to follow in December 2020.

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What We’re Reading: Highfire by Eoin Colfer

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Highfire by Eoin Colfer
Available at the Orange County Campus Library [click on the book cover for catalog description]

Do you like coming-of-age stories [a.k.a. bildungsromans] and dragons, but in contemporary settings? Oh, and bad guys and mob guys and the swamp? Don’t mind a little drinking and swearing (well, more than just a little)? Want something that isn’t super depressing? Have I got the read for you!

This book was read by Meredith Lewis, the [mostly] Orange County Campus Librarian.

Title: Highfire

Author: Eoin Colfer (yes, the Artemis Fowl guy)

Genre: contemporary fantasy, dragon and boy stories, swamp capers

#ReadGreatThings2020 Category: A book with a one-word title; A bildungsroman; A book about nature or the great outdoors

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What We’re Reading-Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

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This book was read by Courtney Bippley, Reference Librarian at the Main Campus Library.

Title: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed

Author: Lori Gottlieb

Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

Why did you choose to read this book?

The book got a bunch of buzz when it came out and I knew a couple other people who had read it and said it was good. Then, I read a few of Lori Gottlieb’s advice columns in The Atlantic to see if I liked her writing style. I did, so I brought the book home with me. The idea of reading about therapy from a therapist perspective was very intriguing. Don’t we all want a deeper understanding of how people work?

What did you like about it?

I really liked how honest the author is in this book. She is honest about her own struggles with behavior that is self-sabotaging and how she came to understand her own role in the break up that led to her going to therapy herself. 

The other characters in the book, her patients and her therapist, are all really interesting. They’ve been anonymized and various real patients were combined into the supporting characters. They feel very fleshed out with real issues and I fell in love with all of them. Even the ones I didn’t like in the beginning.

And, I’m not gonna lie. I cried reading this book. Multiple times. But, I would not call this a sad book at all. If anything, I think it is a book about hope, recognizing that we all struggle with similar things, and that it’s never too late to work toward becoming a better person.

Who would you recommend this book to?

Anyone who likes a good memoir. Anyone who has been in or is thinking about going to therapy. Anyone thinking about becoming a therapist of any kind. Anyone who likes to read about real people’s lives written and explained in what is both a contextually accurate and compassionate way. 

What would you pair this book with?

A box of tissues! Preferably the extra soft kind that moisturize your nose while you wipe away snot. Bonus points for having a novelty tissue box or one with punny sayings on it.

tissue box that says sneeze the moment.
Made by Kerrbears Kreations, found on Etsy.com.

What We’re Reading: Dominicana by Angie Cruz

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Dominicana by Angie Cruz
Available in the Orange County Campus Library on the New Books shelf

This book was read by Meredith Lewis, the [mostly] Orange County Campus Librarian.

Title: Dominicana 

Author: Angie Cruz

Genre: Historical Fiction, Coming-of-age stories [a Bildungsroman]

#ReadGreatThings2019 Category: A book about an immigrant or immigration

Dominicana has been selected as Good Morning America’s Cover to Cover book club‘s inaugural pick. 

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What We’re Reading: The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

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The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Available at the Main Campus Library

This book was read by Meredith Lewis, Orange County Campus Librarian. 

Title: The Nickel Boys

Author: Colson Whitehead

Genre: Historical Fiction

#ReadGreatThings2019 Category: A book suggested by a Durham Tech librarian

Also Ekpe Udoh’s October 2019 Book Club pick! 

Why did you chose to read this book? 

I read a Time Magazine interview with Colson Whitehead and had also read an article about the boy’s school in Florida on which he based the book. The final quote from a man who had been there really struck me [bolding is mine and not from the article]:

“Why would you make a fiction book — this is just me — out of something so horrible?” asked Jerry Cooper, 74, of Fort Myers, Fla., who served time at the reformatory school in 1961 as a teenager and says he was once whipped with the strap 135 times. “But I will get the book. I am going to read it. No matter how the word gets out about what happened at the school, it should just get out. I appreciate [Whitehead] doing the story.”

Overall, it seemed like an interesting book on a horrible topic.

I’ve also enjoyed Whitehead’s writing before in Underground Railroad [available in the Main and Orange County Campus Libraries]. And it was short, which sometimes ups the appeal for me, especially for a heavy topic.

What did you like about it? 

I’m not going to lie– this book was brutal at times. Elwood is such a good kid and it’s so deeply unfair how he ends up at Nickel Academy, but the strong, supportive friendship that’s at the center of this book between Elwood and Turner, two boys in terrible circumstances, is incredibly touching. I also liked that the book switches back and forth in time (clearly and in a well-organized way, if you care about that detail structurally). It wasn’t a hopeful book, but it does highlight the long-standing impact of trauma, even in people who are successful. 

Did it remind you of any other book or movie?

If you’re looking for similar fiction stories, I’d recommend either Tommy Orange’s There There or Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing— both excellent books about how history ties into the present. 

  • There There by Tommy Orange
    Available at the Main and Orange County Campus Libraries
  • Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
    Available at the Main Campus Library

 If you’re looking for something similar of the nonfiction variety, I’d recommend Killers of the Flower Moon or Radium Girls— this story is at its heart about bringing to light cruelty that was allowed to go on far too long by people in power. 

  • The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore
    Available at Main Campus
  • Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann book cover
    Available at the Orange County Campus Library

I enthusiastically recommend all four of these books. 

What We’re Reading: Hi! Have you met Murderbot?

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Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries series: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, and Exit Strategy
Available at the Main Campus Library

This series was read by Courtney Bippley, Reference Librarian, Lance Lee, Spanish Instructor and TLC Director, and Meredith Lewis, Orange County Campus Librarian. 

Title: The Murderbot Diaries (All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, and Exit Strategy), a series of 4 novellas

Author: Martha Wells

Genre: Science Fiction

#ReadGreatThings2019 Category: A book about technology [fiction counts for this category, too!]

Why did you choose to read this book? 

  • Courtney (CB): Meredith told me to and I generally trust her judgement. Plus, that fulfills my “Recommended By A Librarian” category for the 2019 Read Great Things Challenge. [And now can fulfill yours too since it’s on the blog!]
  • Lance (LL): Meredith was selling it hard, so I had to take her up on the offer.
  • Meredith (ML): I read a review of it and the book went on sale for $1.99. I bought the book and immediately loved Murderbot as a character. The story was interesting, too—terrain exploration in space,mysterious bad behavior, robots. Awesome. It is also true that I was selling this book hard because I want people to give it a chance!

What did you like about it?

  • CB: It is fun science fiction with action and mystery that lightly touches on larger themes of human consciousness and AI rights. What’s not to like?
  • LL: The philosophical question of whether or not this being was alive and should be treated like a human was really compelling.The first-person narrative from Murderbot’s point-of-view was humorous and intriguing.
  • ML: Murderbot as a character is extremely relatable, especially after a long day of interacting with people. I think Murderbot also really describes awkwardness well—those times when you don’t quite react in the most suave way? Murderbot understands (well, maybe not, but Murderbot tries to and then stops trying because understanding human behavior is hard, y’all).

Did it remind you of any other book, or a movie?

  • CB: It’s a little like The Terminator, minus the time travel and if Schwarzenegger would rather have been watching soap operas.
  • LL: Not a specific book or movie, but it belongs to the genre of “here’s this future world with these new ways of functioning, so what would happen?”
  • ML: Parts of the series reminded me a little of Marvin in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, though the two books are not similar in tone at all. I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe it’s just robots and snarkiness. And sentient space ships always remind me of that one Futurama episode with the sentient ship (duh?). I’m not going to lie–Murderbot also reminded me a little of myself as a middle and high schooler just being so over other people, like, trying to get into my business. I wasn’t a battle robot, though, so my damage count was mostly tallied in rolled eyes.

Was there anything noteworthy about the book?

  • CB: All the books are short so it’s perfect for times when you don’t want to commit to something long. And, pretty light when bringing it in your purse somewhere. 
  • LL: I found it to be a unique story that made you think a bit but also fun to read (a.k.a. not too heavy).
  • ML: All Systems Red (the first book in the series) has won both the Nebula and Hugo awards for best novella, and Artificial Condition (book two in the series) just won the Hugo award for best novella.  

What feeling did the book leave you with?

  • CB: Wanting to read the next one.
  • LL: I want to get to know Murderbot in person. I might even watch a Murderbot reality show if they starred in it.
  • ML: Excited that there’s going to be a novel to go along with these novellas! (Currently scheduled for mid-2020.)

What would you pair this book with?

  • CB: Binge watching Battlestar Galactica (the 2004 version), a show I think Murderbot would enjoy.
  • LL: A really long weekend where you wanted to binge read a series.

Does this book have any book or movie friends?

  • CB: If you want a more serious exploration of the topics in the book, I’d recommend Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick [available at the Orange County Campus Library]. Or watching Blade Runner. 
  • LL: I have to plug Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty [available through ILL]. They both are sci-fi with some elements of mystery (Six Wakes more-so) and set in a universe where new realities can unfold because of technological advances.
  • ML: If you like sentient AI, Autonomous by Annalee Newitz [available at the Main Campus Library] and the Scythe series by Neal Shusterman [available at the Orange County Campus Library] explore it in different ways. 

What We’re Reading: Wrecked

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Title: Wrecked: An IQ Novel

Author: Joe Ide

Genre: mystery, street lit

Why did you choose to read this book?

cover of Wrecked: An IQ Novel, by Joe Ide

This is the third book in the IQ series, which features protagonist Isaiah Quintabe (“IQ”), a small-time, self-styled private investigator from East Long Beach, California. I enjoyed the first two books—IQ and Righteous—so I picked up the third.

There are several traits of the main character I appreciate. IQ, motivated by the memory of his older brother Marcus, who was murdered, pursues justice rather than greed, often accepting token gifts, like a handmade Christmas sweater (in Southern California!), in lieu of money from his clients. He is also a critical thinker and careful planner. He is skilled in reading people and memorizing small details about people and his surroundings. These traits define IQ and drive the plots of the series’ books.

In Wrecked IQ becomes embroiled in a mystery and becomes attracted to his client Grace, who hires him to find her mother, whom she has not seen in 10 years. The plot and its many subplots cover IQ’s business relationship with his mismatched partner Dodson; a complicated backstory that slowly reveals itself, and encompasses family secrets; WSSI, a paramilitary U.S. government contractor, whose employees have histories of torture and cover-ups at Abu Ghraib; and a love story.

What did you like about it?

Isaiah Quintabe is one of my favorite fictional characters. Wrecked presents bigger challenges for IQ to navigate than the previous books in the series. (Spoiler alert!) The opening pages reveal tough-talking ex-military thugs brutally torturing a victim (It’s IQ!), hoping to beat information out of him. The thugs work for the CEO of the international security firm, WSSI, which provides the advantages of cash, trained killers,and security clearances. WSSI and IQ are in pursuit of the same person. Who will prevail?

Joe Ide has a knack for revealing characters through dialogue. One example is Junior, a drug dealer, speaks as if he “swallowed a dictionary sideways,” misusing big and obscure words to comic effect. Dodson’s wife Deronda, the several brutes—Jimenez, Hawkins, and Owens—from WSSI, and many others populate Wrecked with distinctive voices.

Did it remind you of any other book, or a movie?

The first detective stories I enjoyed were Hardy Boys and Encyclopedia Brown books. Using evidence at hand to solve mysteries fed my appreciation both for books and for applying critical thinking skills. As a child, I fantasized that I, too could be a successful detective. Maybe that helped drive me to a career as a librarian: I help people use information to solve their own problems and answer their own questions.

Was there anything noteworthy about the book?

There is a rumor that Ide is in contract with Alcon Television Groupto develop a television series around IQ.

With what feeling did the book leave you?

Frankly, I have enjoyed each book in the series less than the one that came before it. Ide’s trick of revealing how a problem was solved—after the action that depended on having solved the problem—wears thin. Rather than a feeling of suspense-then-relief, I experience bewilderment followed by a magician showing me exactly how easy it is to make a building disappear. I also found the love story between Isaiah and Grace to be little more than a plot device.

I hope the next book in the series, Hi Five, is better. I’m not ready to give up on Joe Ide yet, and definitely not ready to give up on IQ.

To whom would you recommend this book?

Fans of gritty mystery writing will probably enjoy this book.

With what would you pair this book?

Let me recommend an old film noir flick, The Third Man, released in 1949, which features protagonist Holly Martins bumbling through an investigation into the circumstances around an old friend’s death. Based on a novella by Graham Greene, it is a whodunit with a surprising twist and the story resolves through successively-increasing climaxes.

Observe how the film’s suspense is maintained while information is revealed to Martins and the viewer at the same time. Contrast that with how Wrecked keeps secret information about IQ’s investigative tactics until after the story plays out.

What We’re Reading: The Library Book

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This book was read by Julie Humphrey, Library Director.

Title: The Library Book

Author: Susan Orlean

Genre: Nonfiction

#ReadGreatThings2019 Category: Social Science book

The Library Book cover

Why did you choose to read this book? 

I always enjoy Susan Orlean’s writing in the New Yorker magazine and really liked her book The Orchid Thief.  This is an ode to libraries so how could I resist?  It also has a beautiful cover!

What did you like about it? 

This book provides a fascinating account of the Los Angeles’s Central Library fire of 1986 as well as the process of rebuilding and restoring the library and the ongoing investigation of a primary suspect.  It’s also a love letter to libraries, library staff, and books.  

Did it remind you of any other book, or a movie? 

Susan Orlean’s writing reminds me a lot of Mary Roach’s writing. She sometimes dives deep into a rabbit hole and goes on strange and wacky tangents that are completely compelling. Orlean and Roach both weave in interesting stories, history, and trivia that are so entertaining and fun. This reminded me a lot of Packing for Mars, not in subject matter, but in style. 

Was there anything noteworthy about the book?

I especially appreciated her extensive research, interviews, and visits to libraries.  I loved Orlean’s own personal stories of her library experiences when she was growing up in Ohio and the stories of visiting her local public library with her young son.  She also explores the library as a vital public institution and discusses challenges that many libraries face today.  She profiles inspiring librarians and library staff working in libraries across the country.

Who would you recommend the book to?

Nonfiction readers, book lovers, library supporters, anyone interested in fire and arson investigation, true crime readers, and all bibliophiles.

What would you pair this book with?

A working fire alarm, a fire extinguisher, a good sprinkler system, and a library card!  Also, I’m excited to read her previous book, The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People which we just ordered for the library and is on the new book shelf.

What We’re Reading: Hillbilly Elegy

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Title: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

Author: J.D. Vance

cover of book Hillbilly Elegy

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.

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What We’re Reading: Meal

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Three figures hold cooking implements surrounded by meal worms.
Get it? Meal

Title: Meal

Author: Blue Delliquanti with Soleil Ho

Format: Graphic Novel

Genre: Fiction

Why did you choose to read this book?

The cover drew me to it at first. I like food and I like books about food and the images of the characters looked fun. Then, once I realized it was about eating bugs I was even more fascinated. 

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