This month, check out new nonfiction titles coming to the Pratt ranging from art and travel to politics and history.
The 2019 Summer Challenge continues this July! Here’s a few recent books that our Adult participants enjoyed reading.
L. H. on Not in My Neighborhood by Antero Pietila:
Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods, but did you ever think how those neighborhoods were formed? It’s easy to look at the conditions of blighted areas around the city and blame the current residents.
In Not in My Neighborhood you will learn that there were real and law-based, enforced practices that not only segregated the city of Baltimore but destroyed homes, development and created the very crime, blight and other issues that plague us all today. Red lining, criminal and deceptive real-estate practices and forced compliance are all in this book. You will never look at Baltimore and the people that live here the same again.
Kennedy M. on Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine:
I would recommend this to any Black person engaging with white supremacy today. Reading Rankine’s work, I felt so seen and so heard.
Allie P. on The Other Americans by Laila Lalami:
Framed around an investigation of a hit-and-run, this is a gripping story about what it means to come home. Lalami subtly illustrates what it means to be American today.
Sarah B. on Skyscraping by Cordelia Jensen:
When 1993 teenager Mira catches her dad with his male lover, it marks the beginning of her family’s unraveling as she struggles first with her parents’ secrets, then her father’s contraction of HIV.
The writing evokes lovely imagery, especially surrounding astronomy and the New York City setting, while laying Mira’s conflicted emotions bare and sugar-free. The tone shifts halfway through as Mira’s family issues evolve with her perspective. The free-verse narrative style makes for a relatively fast, but not light, read.
Charles H. on The Master Plan: My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose by Chris Wilson:
Love this book. Such an inspiring autobiography of how to choose a life of faith over a life of fear. Also an excellent Insider’s view on how to make improvements in the justice system in this country.
Join the fun! For a chance to win fabulous prizes in the Adult Summer Challenge, create a free Beanstack account and log each book you finish between June 12 and August 14.
More good news about books from Adult Summer Challenge participants….
Catherine C. on The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante:
This is the second book in the Neopolitan series, and it’s a riveting page-turner that spans the young adult years of best friends Lenu and Lila as they try to negotiate their dreams against the harsh realities of the impoverished neighborhood they grew up in.
Taking place in Naples, Italy, in the 1960s, this book illustrates, with stunning detail, the struggle of feminine creativity in a strictly patriarchal world. The two close friends, now in their late teens, continue down the divergent paths that began in My Brilliant Friend, each one hoping to transcend their poverty and live lives that are better than their parents’. But it’s far from easy, and as they confront the social and historical forces at work in their world, they become increasingly disillusioned and cynical, but also practical, resilient, and cunning. This series so far has been perfect; a true epic.
Dell W. on Before We Were Wicked by Eric Jerome Dickey:
Highly sexual young couple trekking their path as a married couple, parents, students, and descendants of Africa, while living in America all falls to pieces.
Brooke J. on The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides:
What an unexpected ending! I have been surprised by endings before but never like this. Definitely a great psychological thriller with a mind-blowing twist.
Jane S. on The Temptation of Forgiveness by Donna Leon:
Fellow readers of Donna Leon’s Venice series featuring the charming, principled, classics-loving Commissario Guido Brunetti won’t be disappointed with this 2018 addition. As always, the narrative reveals as much about contemporary Italy—Venice in particular—as it does about the crime. Always a pleasure to be in the company of Brunetti, his colleagues, and his family.
Nancy P. on Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens:
A wonderful book full of beautiful images of life in the backwater marshes of North Carolina with a storyline about the life of a wild child of that environment. Part drama, part adventure, part science. Loved it!
Join the fun! For a chance to win fabulous prizes in the Adult Summer Challenge, create a free Beanstack account and log each book you finish between June 12 and August 14.
Happy July! We’re about half way through the Summer Challenge though it’s not too late to join. Here are a few books new to the Pratt’s shelves that are great picks for a long summer day.
Go for the Moon: A Rocket, A Boy and the First Moon Landing
By Chris Gall
In this beautiful picture book, a young boy explains the design of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, the flight from the earth to the moon, and the drama of touching down–while shadowing the astronaut’s voyage with one of his own.
When Jingwen moves to a new country, he feels like he’s landed on Mars. School is torture, making friends is impossible since he doesn’t speak English, and he’s often stuck looking after his (extremely irritating) little brother, Yanghao. To distract himself from the loneliness, Jingwen daydreams about Pie in the Sky, the bakery his father had planned to open before he unexpectedly passed away.
The Last Last-Day-of-Summer
By Lamar Giles
Otto and Sheed are the local sleuths in their zany Virginia town. As the first day of school looms, the boys are craving just a little bit more time for fun until a mysterious man appears with a camera that literally freezes time. Now, with the help of some very strange people and even stranger creatures, Otto and Sheed will have to put aside their differences to save their town before time stops for good.
Also new this month:
School’s out for the summer! In between fun at camp or maybe a summer job, stop by the Pratt to see what’s new for Young Adults. This July, we have dramas, sci-fi, thrillers, graphic novels and more waiting to be checked out.
From the award-winning author of If I Was Your Girl comes a heart-wrenching story of identity, first love, and fate. Six years of shared birthdays reveal best friends Eric and Morgan’s destiny as they come together, drift apart, fall in love, and discover who they’re meant to be—and if they’re meant to be together.
The Things She’s Seen
By Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina
Nothing’s been the same for Beth Teller since the day she died. Her grieving dad is the only one who has been able to see and hear her since the accident. But now she’s got a mystery to solve. As Beth and her father unravel the mystery, they find a shocking and heartbreaking story lurking beneath the surface of a small town.
K-pop and K-drama fans will enjoy this fun fantasy-romance set in modern day Seoul from debut author Cho. Eighteen-year-old Gu Miyoung has a secret–she’s a gumiho, a nine-tailed fox who must devour the energy of men in order to survive. When she saves the life of a human boy, Jihoon, the two develop a tenuous friendship that blooms into romance, setting them down a path that will soon force Miyoung to choose between her immortal life and Jihoon’s.
Also new this month:
