Tag New York

Deep blue cover with a decorative metal filigree of holly leaves and a small bird.

The Wren in the Holly Library by K. A. Linde

Kristen B. Leave a comment
Deep blue cover with a decorative metal filigree of holly leaves and a small bird.

by Kristen B.

Maybe you’ve heard? Romantasy is IT! Nevermind that it’s really a newly coined termed for something that has existed for a long time (romance in your fantasy or fantasy in your romance). If you like to read on trend, you should take a peek at The Wren in the Holly Library by K. A. Linde, published by the same group that brought you the Fourth Wing series.

The idea that the world is full of monsters is not new, whether in real life or urban fantasy. In New York, sometime in the near future, the Monster Wars have ended and the vampires, goblins, wraiths, and werewolves have signed peace accords with humanity. Basically, it’s a pact of non-interference even though everyone is in each other’s business anyway, but life has begun to return to some semblance of normality – complete with tourists in Times Square. As always, there’s more than meets the eye. I have to say that the idea of troll toll-takers in the subway made me smile.

Kierse, master-thief and child of the streets, is clearly a New Yorker, one who loves the neighborhoods and byways of her city. She’s involved in a heist to steal a huge diamond that would provide financial security for herself and two best friends. As she sneaks into a wealthy brownstone in the Upper West Side, she can’t believe there’s seemingly so little security at the mysterious Holly Library. The unthinkable happens when, despite all her preparation and all her skill, Kierse gets caught. Graves owns the Holly Library, and he is the beast in the shadows with an agenda all his own.

This Beauty and the Beast tale, complete with library and helpful staff, takes off from there. It not only follows the classic story’s desire to rehabilitate the monster, it also contains a wild mashup of another, bigger heist, training sessions, a house party, sexy times, meaningful friendships, and ancient Irish legends. For the most part, the author manages to combine it all seamlessly into the bigger picture. I could wish for fewer side stories that distract from the main action, but it’s a fun book.

Kierse and Graves are the heart of the story – beautiful and beastly each in their own way. Trust is an issue, as is loyalty. Can you have the second without the first? Tragic personal histories haunt both main characters, but in the end you can’t help but be in their corner. The ending leaves the story wide open for at least one more installment, and I’m already looking forward to it.

The Wren in the Holly Library is available in print, e-book, and e-audiobook.

Kristen B. is a devoted bookworm lucky enough to work as the graphic designer for HCLS. She likes to read, stitch, dance, and watch baseball (but not all at the same time).

A two lane road with a double yellow line runs through rolling corn fields with blue hills in the background.

American Ramble by Neil King, Jr.

Kristen B. Leave a comment
A two lane road with a double yellow line runs through rolling corn fields with blue hills in the background.

by Kristen B.

Author Works
Thu    Jul 11  7 – 8 pm   Miller
Register now.

According to Chaucer, April is the proper month for pilgrimage. Neil King agreed, and in 2021 he walked from Capitol Hill in Washington, DC to Central Park in New York, NY. His route traced up Rock Creek Park and Wisconsin Avenue through the suburbs, across Woodstock (MD), over the Mason-Dixon Line into York, PA and Amish country, then to Valley Forge, across the Delaware River, through New Jersey while finally crossing under Interstate 95, and into New York.

In his travelogue and memoir, American Ramble, he refers to these areas as “mini-nations,” and often relates them to the early history of the American colonies. He meets a wide variety of people along the way, who account for many of the anecdotes that drive the story. Some people instantly understand and bless him along his way. Others can’t even be bothered to offer the sojourner the basic necessity of water. Each night, he stays safely at planned spots – usually an AirBnB.

He acknowledges the privilege of making the trip as a White man, with the resources to finance the trip and the connections that further him along the way. He fully recognizes that not everyone would be safe on a similar trek. He also has a lifetime of travel experience and wanderlust behind him, so a month-long journey isn’t particularly daunting. Rather, it’s a fundamental reclamation of his preferred mode of living, after the pandemic and an ordeal with cancer.

King often refers back to Chaucer and other travels, and this month away from ordinary life is truly a pilgrimage for him. Not after only his own medical difficulties; he is also dealing with his brother’s diagnosis. He had been a Wall Street Journal reporter on 9/11, and the trip connects his present and his past – DC and NY. So, after the Covid pandemic and the racial unrest in the wake of George Floyd’s death, the author walked to reconnect with America itself. His goal was to meet all sorts of people where they are and to remember that we’re all part of the fabric that makes America.

At a quick 360-ish pages, the book is a delightful read. King leans into his journalism background to paint sketches of people and places. Some of my favorite anecdotes took place in Pennsylvania: one where he comes across a gaggle of Mennonite school kids playing softball, and another when he’s at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. His reflections upon the connections between pilgrims and penitents are particularly well done. The other moment that has stayed with me was how he solved crossing the I-95 corridor, to continue traveling eastwards, but I don’t want to spoil the episode with more detail.

The author has a personal distinction about how some people (like himself) are from – and at home in – Anywhere, while others (like myself) are home-bodies who occupy Somewhere. Whichever you are, American Ramble has some lovely moments for you to enjoy and ponder.

The author is an older White man wearing a tweed driving cap and medium grey zip up jacket, with grey clouds behind him.

Neil King, Jr. discusses his trip and his book at an upcoming event at Miller Branch. American Ramble is available in print and e-book.

Thu    Jul 11  7 – 8 pm   Miller
Register now

Kristen B. is a devoted bookworm lucky enough to work as the graphic designer for HCLS. She likes to read, stitch, dance, and watch baseball (but not all at the same time).

A bright red cover features a color-block illustration of a woman's face in pink, with patterns of stars and flowers in her hair, all resting above a yellow and blue cityscape.

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez

Kristen B. Leave a comment
A bright red cover features a color-block illustration of a woman's face in pink, with patterns of stars and flowers in her hair, all resting above a yellow and blue cityscape.

by Kristen B.

Olga Dies Dreaming recounts the complicated story of a complicated woman. Olga Alcevedo has the life she always dreamed of – a successful business that allows her to move among the rich and famous, make guest appearances on TV, and live in an apartment of her own, a respectable distance from her large, loving Puerto Rican family in New York. Personal space is non-negotiable, especially with Olga’s cousin/best friend Mabel getting married soon – meaning that the family house is overflowing with drama. Did I mention Olga is a wedding planner? She knows about napkins!

Olga’s mother is an absent revolutionary, so she was essentially raised by her beloved grandmother (Abuelita) and her long-time single Tia Lola. Olga’s brother Prieto is a U. S. Congressman, representing their home district – another local success story. All seems right, until it doesn’t. Beneath the veneer of perfection, the Alcevedo family nurtures many hurts and secrets.

The book follows the siblings as they wrestle with their inner demons, mostly caused by their mother. Blanca is a woman with a cause: securing an independent future for Puerto Rico. Once a member of the Young Lords, Blanca has returned to her home island to orchestrate its liberation. She keeps tabs on her children and sends them long letters offering advice and indoctrination. Through Blanca’s letters, author Gonzalez imparts quite a bit of historical information about Puerto Rico (or Boriken, its pre-colonial name).

At its heart, this book might, just maybe, be a romance. Or perhaps the romance simply sets the framework for all the other heartache to develop. In the first chapter, Olga stops at a local bar after attending a funeral for a friend who has died of an untreated HIV infection. She meets and has an immediate attraction to Matteo, a successful realtor with a self-admitted hoarding issue. Their relationship winds through the story, as Olga comes to understand she has met her match – and she doesn’t know what to do with that revelation.

Even though the book is set in recent years, leading up to and dealing with Hurricane Maria in 2017, the specter of HIV/AIDS haunts the story. Maria’s friend from the opening scene died from the disease, as did her dad, having contracted it as a drug addict. Her brother Prieto is living in the closet as a gay man, and the disease becomes part of his story, too.

That’s not even everything going on in this book! There’s the rich businessman obsessed with Olga. And the champagne she’s fencing for Russian mobsters. And, and … and all the puzzle pieces eventually interlock to create a full picture of Olga’s life. I devoured the second half of the book because I wanted (needed) everyone to find their happy endings. Fortunately, the author delivered, although not in the way I was expecting, and I had to sweat the details along the way. This was a thoroughly enjoyable read, where I learned something despite it all.

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez is available in print, as an e-book, and as an e-audiobook.

Kristen B. is a devoted bookworm lucky enough to work as the graphic designer for HCLS. She likes to read, stitch, dance, and watch baseball in season (but not all at the same time).

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Two young men walking past each other, one holding a moving box and one with duffle bag over his shoulder. A city skyline fills the background.

What If It’s Us by Becky Abertalli and Adam Silvera

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Two complementary covers, featuring young men wearing jeans and short sleeve shirts. They are passing by each other in the first and sitting at a cafe table in the second. There's a city skyline in the background of both.

By Monae R.

Coming back from the holidays is always hard. Getting back into the routine of waking up, getting your morning coffee, heading to work, and dragging through the day. This is fairly universal. I have to say, though, this routine becomes a lot easier if you have just read a good book you cannot wait to tell everyone about.

Becky Albertali and Adam Silvera work together well on What If It’s Us. I am extremely passionate about this particular series. With only two books, I was on the edge of my seat deep into the romance and relatable topics. The characters are lovable, and the writing is fantastic. To make it all just that much sweeter, the icing on the cake, the Libby audiobook readers are absolutely fantastic and exactly how I imagined the characters sounding like. They do the story a huge justice and bring the characters to life in a way that took me even deeper into the story.

What If It’s Us is a romantic comedy for young adult readers told from the perspective of both main characters, who are fully experiencing the age when teenagers are angsty and looking for companionship. The characters come from different worlds and their chance encounter has them floating on the idea of fate and love at first sight. The story follows Ben and Arthur through the life trials of dates, long distance, and college in the heart of New York City.

It’s not everyday that a chance encounter leads to more, and sometimes fighting for it is the best decision. Follow these two teens and their friends and family through the trials of life. Their story continues in Here’s to Us where Arthur and Ben have gone through a lot of changes in the past two or so years. The 16 year olds are now 19 and have new perspectives on life, work, relationships, and where they want their lives to go. Follow them as they navigate adulthood and the struggles that come with being in New York together again.

Both authors have several other books. Becky Albertali is a previous psychologist famously known for her 2015 debut novel, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, which was adapted into the 2018 film Love, Simon and inspired the spin-off television series Love, Victor. Adam Silvera is known for his bestselling novels They Both Die at the End, More Happy Than Not, and History Is All You Left Me.

Monae is a Children’s Instructor and Research Specialist at HCLS East Columbia Branch.

The bright blue cover shows the sliced up illustration of white woman with short dark bobbed hair with eyes and mouth wide in suprise. The portrait is only halfway on the right side of the book and the sliced strips are disjointed.

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

Kristen B. Leave a comment
The bright blue cover shows the sliced up illustration of white woman with short dark bobbed hair with eyes and mouth wide in suprise. The portrait is only halfway on the right side of the book and the sliced strips are disjointed.

by Kristen B.

Oona Out of Order is a slightly different sort of time travel novel … Oona’s mind jumps randomly from year to year into her chronologically aging body, always on her birthday, which happens to be January 1.

Imagine never being quite sure what year you’re in, although you’re always you. What would your touchstones be? For Oona, it’s her mom and, for later years, her personal assistant.

As the novel begins, Oona enjoys a rocking New Years Eve party with her boyfriend, the band they are in, and most of her friends, and she’s about to turn 19. De rigueur teen drama plays out all around, but there are some real decisions that Oona has to make soon, decisions that set the stage for the rest of the book. She can either skip out on college and go on a European tour with the beloved boyfriend and the band (opening for other, larger acts) or she can do a year abroad in London with her bestie from childhood.

Only when the clock strikes midnight, Oona finds herself completely disoriented at age 51. That turns out to be a quiet year, taking stock and figuring out what’s what. In subsequent years, Oona jumps around from party-hard years in the New York club scene, to a brief foray into married life, to traveling the world.

Montimore was smart about creating the structure of her impressive debut. She never explains or solves the time-traveling issue; it’s just a given. She also sets up Oona as being independently wealthy after some good bets and smart stock trading given her knowledge of future years. Managing her portfolio (literally a set of folders) is her only job, leaving her free to absorb each year as it comes. Being based largely in New York helps a lot, too, as she can always find another facet of life to become immersed in.

There’s also Oona’s mom, who helps her (mostly) to bridge the years and explain what’s going on. In fact, Madeleine may be my favorite character, who is trying her best to live her own life as well as take care of her daughter’s chaos. Not always an easy relationship, it rings true in many ways as it’s the only one that Oona manages to sustain for much of the book. Oona’s love for music provides the other constant in her life, to the point that you might be tempted to listen to some Velvet Underground and Blondie as you read.

Monitmore gives us a fun book that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but nonetheless asks questions about what it means to live a good, meaningful life. It does also give some closure to the big questions facing Oona at the beginning of the book – which she gets to answer with a lot more maturity and experience than most 19-year-olds have at their disposal. Don’t you wish you could tell your teenage self a few things?

Oona Out of Order is available as a book, an eBook, and an eAudiobook.

Kristen B. is a devoted bookworm lucky enough to work as the graphic designer for HCLS. She likes to read, stitch, and make soup in the winter.

A woman dressed in a bright yellow dress walks while reading through a grand lobby with well-lit doors and windows behind her.

Home is Where the Library Is: The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis

chtasker 1 Comment
A woman dressed in a bright yellow dress walks while reading through a grand lobby with well-lit doors and windows behind her.

by Cherise T.

I have a favorite photo of my kids where my son is wearing his baseball cap backwards and my daughter is wearing a poncho as a skirt. Today, my son’s visors often still point in reverse and my daughter never misses the opportunity to transform an article of clothing into something original and extraordinary. 

Where, you ask, was this photo taken? In front of the New York Public Library, the revered Fifth Avenue building guarded by two marble lions. A library with an eight-room apartment on the mezzanine.

Having never read a novel by the popular historical fiction author Fiona Davis, I was attracted to the plotline of The Lions of Fifth Avenue, not only because of my love for libraries but because I have entertained the fantasy of enjoying unlimited access to stacks and stacks of books. Deep, dark stacks with first editions and handwritten notes by famous authors. One of my favorite books in the HCLS collection is The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson’s Envelope Poems because I can sink into Dickinson’s creative process and believe, for phrases at a time, that I am sharing a word journey into an otherwise fathomless mind. 

Told through the dual lenses of 1993 and 1913-18, The Lions of Fifth Avenue reads both as historical fiction and mystery. The plot weaves the interconnected stories of a family with a deep multigenerational connection to the New York Public Library. In 1993, Sadie Donovan strives for an ever more significant leadership role as an NYPL librarian and curator. In 1913, Sadie’s grandmother, Laura Lyons, aspires to be a journalist in a society where women’s professional opportunities were limited. Whereas Sadie works at the NYPL, Laura actually lives there in the apartment reserved for the family of the superintendent of the NYPL, who happens to be Laura’s husband, Jack. Laura and Jack live in the apartment with their children, Henry and Pearl. Both Sadie and Laura walk up the same steps and pass the same stone lions, and they face parallel hurdles in their careers and their romantic relationships. They share devotion to family and an insatiable attraction to investigation and knowledge. And Sadie and Laura contend with the theft of treasured library materials, setting them up as witnesses and suspects. 

Although the protagonists of the novel are fictional, the framework has historical roots. At one time, NYPL superintendents resided in the library, and the first superintendent who lived in the Fifth Avenue building raised children there. True as well is the unfortunate fact that rare books have been stolen from the library over the years. Fascinated by NY’s architectural landmarks, Davis writes novels revolving around different city buildings including the Barbizon Hotel, Dakota apartments, Chelsea Holtel, and Grand Central Terminal. Her writing has a real feel for New York City, and the plot twists in The Lions of Fifth Avenue make it a page turner. Climb the stairs between the lions, settle in to live in a library for a bit, and see if you can solve a few mysteries. 

Cherise Tasker is an Adult Instructor and Research Specialist at the Central Branch. When not immersed in literary fiction, Cherise can be found singing along to musical theater soundtracks. 

A black and white photo shows James Baldwin sits at a table gesturing with one hand with a coffee pot and glasses in front of him.

Another Country

Ben Leave a comment
The Penguin Classic cover features red cut-outs of figures layered over a neutral background.
Penguin Classic edition

by Ben H.

“Beneath them Rufus walked, one of the fallen – for the weight of this city was murderous” 

James Baldwin

Another Country is a novel that’s more like a play or a poem. Short descriptions set scenes like flashes of light, and dialogue propels us through the story. James Baldwin is brilliant and empathetic; his depiction of humanity is beautiful. Passages that make you weep are followed immediately by passages that make you laugh. Dark episodes in the cold rain follow erotic passages in warm apartments. Baldwin’s relentless prose attack zigs and zags at the reader, and he never lets up. He pulls the threads of the tangled ball of relationships at the center of the novel tighter and tighter. Another Country is addictive and almost unbearably tense. 

Baldwin explores race, gender, sexuality, religion, art, and life in America in the 1950s through the interactions of a group of memorable characters. First, we meet Rufus Scott, a black jazz drummer, stumbling out of a movie theater in New York, disheveled and desperate. His experience as a black man in America is really the central pillar of the story. His wretched love/hate relationship with Leona, a white woman from the south, ruins both of their lives and sets a grim tone for a serious book. Vivaldo, a white man, is arguably the main character. Vivaldo is a struggling writer and Rufus’ best friend. Vivaldo is everywhere. He felt to me like a stand-in for James Baldwin himself.

France offers the reader a brief respite from the grimness of New York. We first meet Eric and his boyfriend Yves on a French beach. The passages set abroad are lovely and warm, while the scenes in New York are often brutal and freezing or unforgiving and sizzling. Baldwin’s depiction of France juxtaposed with that of America neatly illustrates the way Baldwin, a gay black man, felt in France versus the way he felt in the United States.

The many protagonists provide a narrative richness I really loved. Besides Rufus and Vivaldo, Cass (maybe my favorite character), Ida (Rufus’s sister and an incredible character), and Eric (in his own way the heartbeat of the book) are the other main players in this story of relationships and race. The New York Times compared Another Country to T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, and I think it’s a great comparison. Baldwin also brings the furious pace of a sax solo to his poetic novel. If you want to know what it’s like to read Another Country, listen to “Countdown” off of John Coltrane’s Giant Steps.

Another Country really does have a momentous heft to it. Baldwin, like an alchemical wordsmith, achieved something magical with everyday material. On the surface, it’s just the story of a few overlapping relationships during the 50s. But by the time you turn the last page, it feels like you’re holding something vital in your hands. I really do believe that books like this can change the way people view and treat one another.

If you’ve already read Another Country, visit HCLS and see if we have a Baldwin that you haven’t yet read (or if we can recommend something similar). If you haven’t read Another Country, you have money in the bank. You can’t go wrong with Mr. Baldwin.

Ben Hamilton works at Project Literacy, Howard County Library’s adult basic education initiative, based at HCLS Central Branch. He loves reading, writing, walking, and talking (all the basics).

Jacqueline Woodson: Brown Girl Dreaming and Another Brooklyn

Kristen B. 3 Comments

Reviews by Kristen B.

Brown Girl Dreaming may be one of the most beautifully poignant books I’ve ever had the privilege to read. This autobiographical text told in verse relates Woodson’s childhood memories of both Brooklyn, NY and her grandparents’ home in rural South Carolina. I loved the glow of fireflies appearing in the summer dusk, and my heart ached with the understanding that her brother had been lead poisoned by paint in an old tenement. This lovely volume brings us the complete open-hearted bewilderment of a child learning about her world. Dirt driveways and city asphalt combine into a mesmerizing memoir that, while it might be labelled for teens and children, brings truth to all its readers (also available as an eBook and eAudiobook). Woodson received a 2020 MacArthur Fellows Grant.

Woodson continues the coming-of-age theme in her novel, Another Brooklyn. In some ways, I read this as the grown-up version of Brown Girl Dreaming even though its more novel and less memoir. August is returning to Brooklyn for a funeral, and as she travels she can’t help but remember her childhood – the lives of the four fast friends growing up in the 1970s in Brooklyn. The storytelling is still lyrical, if not exactly in verse. The vignettes of the girls’ lives gave me both the feeling of being a young teen again, with all those emotions and upsets, as well as a glimpse of the bigger, national picture that was unfolding around them. Like in the previous book, you get the family nostalgia for an unkind South as well as the hard edges of the northern city. The author does not pull any punches as the girls get older, the problems get thornier, and the solutions ever more doubtful. (also available as an eAudiobook).

These are dreaming books, a little beautiful and a little disturbing, with a haze of remembering to them. But they carry truth, and truth can be hard to hear. Both of these books live on my keeper shelves, and I revisit them periodically. I hope you love them, too.

Kristen B. has worked for HCLS for more than 15 years, and currently hosts the Books on Tap discussion group at Hysteria Brewing Company. She loves reading, Orioles baseball, and baking.