megan’s pick
November 2020 Staff Picks
Becky’s Pick: Caste : the origins of our discontents by Isabel Wilkerson Reading through the last chapters of Caste: the Origins of Our Discontent during the days around the 2020 US presidential election was no less than terrifying. Wilkerson uses her journalistic skills to amazing effect, the writing is both beautiful to read and brings into…
December 2019 Staff Picks
Brenda’s Pick: Maiden DVD “The finish line knows no gender.” This is a true sailing story with original footage from 1989. What makes it so unique, exciting, and inspiring is that it was the first time a crew of all women sailed in the Whitbread Round the World Race. Tracy Edwards, a 26-year-old from England…
October 2019 Staff Picks
David’s Pick : The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies by David Thomson “This book is a love letter to a lost love, I suppose” writes Thomson near the end of this imposing and very readable history of film. It’s a good mix of straight-up history, with some deep dives into the figures for whom Thomson…
June 2019 Staff Picks
David’s Pick: Rupture: The Crisis of Liberal Democracy by Manuel Castells This brief but dense book addresses the recent turn to the right, in some cases to the far right, in politics worldwide, with special attention given to the Trump presidency, Brexit, & recent upheaval in Spanish politics. It’s an excellent primer, very readable & thought-provoking.…
April 2019 Staff Picks
Jayme’s Pick: The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman People can see into the future; lives and deaths are predetermined at birth; magic, especially women’s magic, plays an important role. To give one’s life for one’s child, one’s lover, one’s friend or one’s god, is the highest honour. Suffering and death are an inescapable part of life,…
February 2019 Staff Picks
Brenda’s Pick: My brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante This novel introduces the full depth of friendship that develops between two young girls born in Naples, Italy: Lila and Lenù. Growing up in an evolving neighbourhood with rivalries, poverty and family conflict puts down the roots for the three novels that follow. The Neapolitan novels give the full…
October 2018 Staff Picks
Brenda’s Pick : No baggage: a minimalist tale of love & wandering by Clara Benson I hate packing for a trip, so this book title caught my eye. It’s an engaging story/memoir involving two people who have just met…literally…on a dating site. They are at places in their lives where they’re ready to take a risk,…
August 2018 Staff Picks
David’s Pick : The Death of Homo Economicus by Peter Fleming This blistering, hilarious, & occasionally horrifying survey of the current state of capitalism & neoliberalism will make your hair stand on end. Fleming pulls no punches and amasses evidence to show how hollowed-out the world of work has become and how crushing debt is for many people…
April 2018 Staff Picks
Brenda’s Picks – “I am not your negro” DVD by James Baldwin; Between the world and me by Ta-Nehisi Coates These two items provide a deep insight into racial politics in the US, the American identity and a personal glimpse into the lives of two men, one contemporary and the other who died almost 30 years ago. As…
February 2018 Staff Picks
Andrea’s Pick – Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys A prequel to Charlotte Bronte’s classic “Jane Eyre,” this novel unlocks the attic door to introduce the supposed “madwoman” imprisoned within. Andrea’s Pick – The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens Take a community of prairie dogs, add a lost tennis ball, and you have the perfect zany…
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