Category Archives: Staff News

What We’re Reading: Jude the Obscure

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jude the obscure by thomas hardy
Available at the Main Campus Library
(PR 4746 .A1 1996)

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. 

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Daddies and Uncles and Faculty Authors, Oh My!

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Durham Tech faculty do great things as teachers…and as authors of really excellent children’s books about the many positive male role models in young children’s lives.

Kasham Leo-Henry and her book, Daddies and Uncles and More, Oh My!. She is wearing an excellent leather skirt with a bow belt, ablack and white polka dot blouse, and a red lip.

Kashama Leo-Henry is an Early Childhood Instructor here at Durham Tech and has recently published Daddies and Uncles and More, Oh My!

Click through to read more about her motivation and inspiration. 

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What We’re Reading: I Will Teach You to Be Rich

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I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi, Second edition

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.

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What We’re Reading: While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams

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while justice sleeps by stacey abrams
Available at the Orange County Campus
(PS 3601 .B746 W45 2021)

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. 

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What We’re Reading: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

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An American Marriage by Tayari Jones book cover
Available at the Main Campus (PS 3610 .O63 A84 2018) and as an ebook through Dogwood Digital Library

“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. 

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Happy National Library Workers Day!

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It’s still National Library Week! 

Today is National Library Workers Day, a day for library staff, users, and administrators to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers. 

Here’s your current Durham Tech Library team, including Julie, Brian, Tracey, Courtney, Charles, Rachel, Susan, Stephen, Najib, Lorell, and Meredith. 

Don’t forget to enter our National Library Week “Why I Love My Durham Tech Library” Drawing to win some sweet library prizes! Fill out our form by 5:00 on Wednesday, April 7 letting us know why you love your Durham Tech Library or Durham Tech Library staff.  

What We’re Reading: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet

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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.

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What We’re Recommending Online for Women’s History Month

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"Girlhood (It's Complicated)" courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution by artist Krystal Quiles
Girlhood (It’s Complicated) by 
Krystal Quiles

Check out some of our staff recommendations that celebrate woman authors and experiences for Women’s History Month that are also available through Dogwood Digital Library– accessible through our database list or through the Libby app. 

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What We’re Reading: Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye and some Jane Eyre-Inspired Reads

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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–

jane steele by lyndsay faye

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)

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What We’re Reading: All We Can Save

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This book. This book, y’all. 

This book gave me a big hug. It cuddled me close and told me that everything is not going to be alright. But it also gave me hope that some things can be okay if we’re willing to work hard to make it that way.

It changed my life. Not in a hyperbolic way. In the way that it shifted my thinking so much that it will have an influence on my actions for the rest of my life. 

All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkerson
Let this book hug you too.
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