Summer is the perfect time to knock some books off your To Be Read list. Here’s what some of the library’s faculty and staff are reading this summer.
Melba Broome, Director
Thinking For A Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People Approach Life Work by John C. Maxwell
Maxwell details the impact and practical value of 11 kinds of thinking, including reflective, shared, creative, unselfish and big picture. Clear and inspiring, this is a very good book to read to get Maxwell's wisdom on nearly 40 years of leadership.
Becoming by Michelle Obama
I feel there is a Michelle Obama who is bigger than the words on a page. She knows our pains, and she understands our lives. Her memoir is a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling.
Michael Fitzgerald, Electronic Services Librarian
The Complete Book of Marvels by Richard Halliburton
Originally published in 1937/38, this book provides amazing first-hand accounts of travel in exotic locales, detailing visits to over fifty landmarks on five continents in a witty informal style. While the book ends with him climbing Mt. Fuji and includes ancient sites such as the Great Wall of China and Machu Picchu, not everything is entirely foreign: chapter 8 is “Washington, D.C., City Beautiful.” A one-of-a-kind figure, Halliburton was lost at sea in 1939 while trying to sail across the Pacific Ocean, not yet forty years old.
Michael Hackley, Media Technician
Crushing: God Turns Pressure Into Power by T.D. Jakes
This book is about dealing with difficult situations from a Christian perspective.
Meghan Kowalski, Outreach Librarian
Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
This is the fifth book in the Throne of Glass young adult series that is very reminiscent of Game of Thrones. It’s full of action, court intrigue, romance, and mystical creatures. Perfect beach reading!
Cathy Meals, Assessment Librarian
The Night of the Gun by David Carr (one-time Washington City Paper editor)
It’s an addiction memoir, but with a twist: Knowing that memory is fragile, and especially so when looking back at a period of drug addiction, Carr uses his journalistic training to revisit the years when he was addicted to crack and then getting sober, interviewing family, friends, and former colleagues to get a clearer understanding of what really happened. Spoiler Alert: What he learns complicates the narrative he had built for himself around his addiction and early recovery.
Faith Rusk, Instruction Librarian
Broken Earth Trilogy by N. K. Jemison
I recently finished the first book, The Fifth Season, which introduces a world in which an unstable earth is racked with seismic activity. In this world, ironically called the Stillness, some people have the magical ability to control the movement of the earth. Yet, in an inversion of your normal fantasy tropes, this magic isn’t considered a blessing but a curse. For all that orogenes can (and do) stabilize the movement of the earth, they can also use the power for destruction, thus they are treated as less than human, simply a tool or a weapon to be carefully controlled. The story is well crafted and well written, and I can’t wait to see where it goes in the next two books!
Fun Fact: Jemison won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for ALL THREE books in the trilogy. She’s the first African American woman to win the Hugo in that category.
What are you reading?
0 Comments.