Tag: LIBRARY

Pratt Staff Picks Best of 2017: Nonfiction

Posted on by Meghan McCorkell

It’s Day 2 of Pratt Staff picking the best book of 2017.  Click on the cover to reserve your copy.

Today we look at….

Best Nonfiction 2017

SOVIET DAUGHTER: A GRAPHIC REVOLUTION

By Julia Alekseyeva

[Recommended by Tom Warner] Soviet Daughter provides a window into the life of a rebellious, independent woman coming of age in the USSR, and her impact on her American great granddaughter, two extraordinary women swept up in the history of their tumultuous times.

THE LIFE CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP

By Marie Kondo

[Recommended by Chelsea Shockley]  This #1 New York Times best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing.

                        HIDDEN FIGURES: THE AMERICAN DREAM AND THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE BLACK WOMEN MATHEMATICIANS WHO HELPED WIN THE SPACE RACE

By Margot Lee Shetterly

[Recommended by Jeanne Lauber]  The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space.

FENCES

By August Wilson

[Recommended by Linda Owens] Troy Maxson, is a strong man, a hard man. He has had to be – to survive. For Troy Maxson has gone through life in an America where to be proud and black was to face pressures that could crush a man, body and soul. But now the 1950s are yielding to the new spirit of liberation in the 1960s… a spirit that is changing the world Troy Maxson has learned to deal with the only way he can…a spirit that is making him a stranger, angry and afraid, in a world he never knew and to a wife and son he understands less and less…

Check back in with #PrattChat tomorrow for the best in Children’s and Graphic Novels.

Pratt Staff Picks Best of 2017: Fiction

Posted on by Meghan McCorkell

Still looking for the perfect holiday read? The Pratt Staff has you covered all this week with their top picks for 2017.   Just click on the cover to reserve your copy now.

Today we start with……

Best Fiction 2017

THE HOUSE WITHOUT WINDOWS

By Nadia Hashimi

[Recommended by Helen Bennett]: A vivid, unforgettable story of an unlikely sisterhood—an emotionally powerful and haunting tale of friendship that illuminates the plight of women in a traditional culture—from the author of the bestselling The Pearl That Broke Its Shell and When the Moon Is Low.

                                THE FIFTH SEASON

             By N. K. Jemisin

[Recommended by Ann Gordon]  After the empire Sanze collapses and the vast continent Stillness becomes ravaged by a red rift which darkens the sky, Essun, whose daughter has been kidnapped by her murderous husband, crosses Stillness in a desperate attempt to save her daughter.

 

 

LILAC GIRLS

By Martha Hall Kelly

[Recommended by Anne Calhoun]   For readers of The Nightingale and Sarah’s Key, inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this remarkable debut novel reveals the power of unsung women to change history in their quest for love, freedom, and second chances.

 

PRUSSIAN BLUE

By Philip Kerr

[Recommended by Tom Warner]  When his cover is blown, former Berlin bull and unwilling SS officer Bernie Gunther must re-enter a cat-and-mouse game that continues to shadow his life a decade after Germany’s defeat in World War 2…

   

MISS SUSIE SLAGLE’S

By Augusta Tucker

[Recommended by Holly Tominack]  Originally published in 1939, this book spent six months on the national bestseller lists and went through 23 hardcover printings. “A novel written out of love and meticulous observation” (“New York Herald Tribune”), the story recounts the trials and tribulations of a group of Johns Hopkins medical students who boarded at Miss Susie Slagle’s house on Biddle Street in Baltimore during the years before World War I.

 

CHEMISTRY

By Weike Wang

[Recommended by Lucie Ferguson]  A luminous coming-of-age novel about a young female scientist who must recalibrate her life when her academic career goes off track; perfect for readers of Lab Girl and Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You.

Check in tomorrow for Pratt Staff picks for Best Nonfiction Titles of 2017.

Pratt Staff Picks Best of 2017

Posted on by Meghan McCorkell

Looking for the perfect book to read over the holidays? The Pratt Library has you covered.  All week long, we’ll be releasing our staff’s top picks for 2017 in Fiction, Nonfiction, Children’s, Young Adult, Graphic Novels and Audiobooks.   Here’s a little sneak peek  from our Collection Management Selectors.  Click on the cover to reserve your copy now!

MY FAVORITE THING IS MONSTERS

By Emil Ferris

[Recommended by Jamequa Summerall] Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late ’60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, filled with B-movie horror and pulp monster magazines iconography

                                                                          A DIFFERENT POND

By Bao Phi

[Recommended by Kathleen Neil]  As a young boy, Bao Phi awoke early, hours before his father’s long workday began, to fish on the shores of a small pond in Minneapolis. Unlike many other anglers, Bao and his father fished for food, not recreation. Between hope-filled casts, Bao’s father told him about a different pond in their homeland of Vietnam.

THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD: A TRUE STORY

By Douglas Preston

[Recommended by Sarah Kuperman] Suspenseful and shocking, filled with colorful history, hair-raising adventure, and dramatic twists of fortune, The Lost City of the Monkey God is the absolutely true, eyewitness account of one of the great discoveries of the twenty-first century.

Come back to #PrattChat tomorrow as we release Pratt staff’s picks for Best Fiction 2017.

See Paul Butler Tonight at the Brown Lecture Series

Posted on by Meghan McCorkell

Brown Lecture Series presents Paul Butler, Chokehold: Policing Black Men

Wednesday, December 13, 6:30pm

Central Library African American Department

In his new book, former federal prosecutor Paul Butler powerfully demonstrates why current efforts to reform law enforcement will not create lasting change.  A law professor at Georgetown University, Butler provides legal commentary for CNN, MSNBC, and NPR.  He is the author of Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice, winner of the Harry Chapin Media Award.

The Brown Lecture Series is supported by a generous grant from the Eddie C. and Sylvia Brown Foundation. 

Celebrate the Sounds of the Season with the Pratt Library

Posted on by Meghan McCorkell

All December long, we’re celebrating the sounds of the season across our Pratt Library branches.  Come in to hear some holiday music.. and maybe even meet a special guest…

Govans Branch

Holiday Celebration featuring Friends School choir

Thursday, December 14, 6pm

 

Light Street Branch

Holiday Open House

Thursday, December 14, 6pm

 

Orleans Street Branch

New World Outreach Jazz Orchestra: Holiday Concert

Tuesday, December 12, 6pm

 

 

Canton Branch

‘Tis the Season, Baltimore Children’s Choir

Thursday, December 21, 4:30pm