What’s the Story?
Selection for January 18, 2022
I Came All This Way to Meet You Writing Myself Home
by Jami Attenberg
A dazzling memoir about unlocking and embracing her creativity – and how it saved her life. What does it take to devote oneself to art?
Do you enjoy this genre?
Similar reads and films are listed below, always free with a Sonoma County Library card.
Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes
by Phoebe Robinson
Author, comedian, actress, and producer Phoebe Robinson is back with a new essay collection that is equal parts thoughtful, hilarious, and sharp about human connection, race, hair, travel, dating, Black excellence, and more.
Poet Warrior
by Joy Harjo
Three-term U.S. poet laureate Harjo gives readers an in-depth look at her life and poetry. In this memoir combining narrative prose and poetry, Harjo recounts her upbringing in a Muscogee (Creek) Nation family and the trials she faced navigating the world.
The Middlesteins
by Jami Attenberg
Two siblings with very different personalities attempt to take control of their mother’s food obsession and massive weight gain to save her life after their father walks out and leaves her reeling in the Chicago suburbs.
All this could be yours
by Jami Attenberg
As Victor Tuchman, an abusive, criminal real estate developer, dies in a New Orleans hospital, his daughter, wife, son, and daughter-in-law reflect on his life and how it has impacted their own over the years.
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am
An artful and intimate meditation on the life and works of the acclaimed novelist. Toni Morrison leads an assembly of her peers, critics, and colleagues on an exploration of race, America, history and the human condition as seen through the prism of her literature.
(DVD)
Just Pretend
by Tori Sharp
Tori makes up stories all of the time, so she has never lived in just one world. Those stories might just save her when her world seems to crumble. Author Tori Sharp takes us on a journey through the many commonplace but complex issues of fractured families, as well as the beautiful fantasy narrative that helps her cope.
Ginger Kid
Mostly True Tales from a Former Nerd
by Steve Hofstetter
Comedian Steve Hofstetter grapples with life after seventh grade ... when his world fell apart. Formatted as a series of personal essays, Steve walks his readers through awkward early dating, family turbulence, and the revenge of the bullied nerds.
Selection for January 11, 2022
Red Comet
by Heather Clark
With a wealth of never-before-accessed materials, including unpublished letters and manuscripts, court, police, and psychiatric records, and new interviews, Heather Clark brings to life the woman behind the poet, Sylvia Plath.
Do you enjoy this genre?
Similar reads and films are listed below, always free with a Sonoma County Library card.
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
by Gertrude Stein, illustrated by Maira Kalman
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas was written by Gertrude Stein in the style and voice of her life partner of nearly four decades, Alice B. Toklas. Recounting the vibrant and literary life the two make for themselves among the Parisian avant-garde, Alice opens the doors to the prominent salons they held in their home, hosting writers and artists such as Ernest Hemingway, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse.
Wintering
by Kate Moses
A fictional account of the last months of Sylvia Plath’s life and the painful creation of her Ariel poems finds her moving with her two children to London after divorcing Ted Hughes, who works to remind her about happier times.
Adeline
by Norah Vincent
On April 18th, 1941, 22 days after Virginia Woolf went for a walk near her weekend house and never returned, her body was reclaimed from the River Ouse. With Adeline, a reimagining of the events that brought Virginia Woolf to the riverbank, Norah Vincent posits connections not made before and explores the interior consciousness of the most interior of authors.
Margaret Atwood a word after a word after a word is power
A film that explores Atwood’s “backstory,” her early days in the Canadian wilderness and as a poet. Atwood’s novels are explored, including her latest, The Testaments, the highly anticipated sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. Personal stories are shared by friends, family, and, of course, by Atwood herself.
(DVD)
Exquisite
The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks
by Suzanne Slade
This picture-book biography explores the intersections of race, gender, and the ubiquitous poverty of the Great Depression, all with a lyrical touch worthy of the subject. Gwendolyn Brooks was the first Black person to win the Pulitzer Prize, receiving the award for poetry in 1950. And in 1958, she was named the poet laureate of Illinois. A bold artist who from a very young age dared to dream, Brooks will inspire young readers to create poetry from their own lives.
With a Star in My Hand
Rubén Darío, Poetry Hero
by Margarita Engle
A novel in verse about the life and work of Rubén Darío, a Nicaraguan poet who started life as an abandoned child and grew to become the father of a new literary movement.
Dulce María Loynaz, llamada La Dama de las Américas, vivió en el siglo XX y es una de las poetisas más grandes que ha dado la isla de Cuba. Además de escritora, fue abogada, periodista, viajera incansable y una gran amante de los perros, que siempre la acompañaron a lo largo de su vida. Su fascinante obra literaria la hizo merecedora de importantes reconocimientos, como el Premio Nacional de Literatura de Cuba y el Premio Miguel de Cervantes.
Selection for January 4, 2022
Deep Work
by Cal Newport
Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. This book presents a series of four rules for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.
Do you enjoy this genre?
Similar reads and films are listed below, always free with a Sonoma County Library card.
A World Without Email
by Cal Newport
Outlines recommendations for business leaders on how to maximize a working team’s professional productivity by improving administrative support and streamlining digital traffic.
Four Thousand Weeks
by Oliver Burkeman
A lively philosophical guide to time and time management, setting aside superficial efficiency solutions in favor of reckoning with and finding joy in the finitude of human life.
Learning How to Learn
How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying
by Barbara Oakley and Terrence Sejnowski
This work has empowered more than 2 million learners of all ages to master subjects that they once struggled with. It explains why sometimes letting your mind wander is an important part of the learning process, having a poor memory can be a good thing, the value of metaphors in developing understanding, and more.
6 Super Skills for Executive Functioning
Tools to Help Teens Improve Focus, Stay Organized & Reach Their Goals
by Lara Honos-Webb
An ADHD expert offers six powerful super skills to help teen readers pay attention, increase productivity, and get organized so they can achieve their goals. With this guide, teens will also learn to regulate their emotions and boost motivation, so they can be their very best.
The life-changing magic of not giving a f*ck
how to stop spending time you don’t have with people you don’t like doing things you don’t want to do
by Sarah Knight
This parody of Marie Kondo’s bestseller The life-changing magic of tidying up explains how to rid yourself of unwanted obligations, shame, and guilt.
Sólo una cosa
detrás de cualquier éxito se encuentra una sencilla y sorprendente verdad: enfócate en lo único
por Gary Keller
Emplea el Mindfulness para conseguir tus objetivos. El autor nos da pautas claras sobre cómo diferenciar lo importante de lo secundario, no distraernos, priorizar, hacer todo lo posible para conseguir ser más productivos y eficaces y orientar nuestros esfuerzos solo en las cosas que nos ayudan a progresar, para centrarnos en SOLO UNA COSA.