Staff Picks | James V Brown Library

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

by JVBrown | February 26, 2021 | Dana, Staff Picks | 0 Comments

This is the first book in the Drowning Empire trilogy and is a fantasy book inspired by Asian cultures. Lin is heir to the throne but her father, the current emperor, wants her to prove herself to him. Her father rules with the mysterious Bone Shard Magic in which...

Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson

by JVBrown | February 26, 2021 | Dana, Staff Picks | 0 Comments

This book-in-verse companion to Halse Anderson’s 1999 bestselling 1999, “Speak.” This book details Anderson’s life, from her childhood in upstate New York to her rape at age 13 to her college years and beyond. Anderson shares how “Speak” has changed her life and the...

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

by JVBrown | February 26, 2021 | Dana, Staff Picks | 0 Comments

What began as an Instagram challenge called #MeAndWhiteSupremacy, is now a best-selling book and free downloadable workbook. This is not a book you breeze through, even though it is only 210 small pages. No, if you are going to read this book and take it seriously, be...

Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon

by JVBrown | February 26, 2021 | Robin, Staff Picks | 0 Comments

Nancy Wake is an Australian expat living in Paris 1936, trying to make her way as a freelance journalist, when she witnesses Nazi atrocities first hand while in pursuit of a story in Vienna. This well-researched historical novel follows her life story from her...

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

by JVBrown | February 26, 2021 | Robin, Staff Picks | 0 Comments

A middle-class white couple and their two teenage children from Brooklyn rent a house on Long Island for a week’s vacation near the beach. On their second night, there is a knock at the door and the owners, a black couple from Manhattan, arrive, seeking shelter...

The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal

by JVBrown | February 26, 2021 | Robin, Staff Picks | 0 Comments

Two sisters, born and raised on a Minnesota farm, follow two very different paths, but somehow wind up in the same place. Edith, the older sister, marries a truck driver and becomes famous for the pies she bakes for her job in the kitchen of a nursing home. Helen is...

Catherine House by Elizabeth Thomas

by JVBrown | February 26, 2021 | Amanda, Staff Picks | 0 Comments

Set in a secluded wood in the depths of rural Pennsylvania, Catherine House is a school unlike any other. The undergraduates attending this school sacrifice a lot. Students must remain on campus for 3 years without communicating with friends or family of the outside...

Breaking Night by Liz Murray

by JVBrown | February 26, 2021 | Staff Picks, Tracey | 0 Comments

She was born to loving but drug-addicted parents in the Bronx. At the age of 15, she was living on the streets. While homeless, Liz got her high school diploma and eventually made it into Harvard. This book is so inspiring. Against all odds, this unforgettable woman...

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