Check These Out: January 26, 2017

For several hours a week, I work at the Huntley Library re-shelving items. During this process, opportunity presents itself for me to peruse materials I’d not see while looking on my own. Very often I say to myself, oh, that looks interesting … and then I keep it or jot down the info. I’ll share some with you that pique my interest.

The Defender
by Ethan Michaeli
071.731 MIC

Next time a snowstorm heads our way, get this hefty book for your days inside. It’s not about a lawyer, but if you grew up in Chicago or are interested in contemporary history and/or in the history of the print journalism, this might be just for you. The subtitle is: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America. I heard the author in a radio interview recently, probably because the book was published in 2016. Another subtitle hints at the time frame: From the age of Pullman porters to the age of Obama.

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake
Anna Quindlen
B Quindlen

On the opposite side of the “size” spectrum is this slim memoir; only 250 pages in the large print edition! It might make good reading at the beginning of a new year, a time we often look both back in time and forward with resolve. I’ve enjoyed this author’s fiction and some of her journalism over the years, so I thought this collection of witty essays about her 6th decade would be a good January choice.

A Field Guide to Lies: critical thinking in the Information Age
by Daniel Levitin
153.42 LEV

In view of many things that happened in 2016, I vowed to become more attuned to what passes for news. This book, found on the NEW shelf, might help me (as the inside cover says) “recognize misleading news stories…revealing the surprising ways lying weasels can make it difficult to separate the wheat form the digital chaff.”

Levitin’s introduction says we can be led astray with both numbers and/or words, so he addresses each in two separate sections of his book in short chapters. Toward the end, I see 4 case studies and after that, a glossary and source list…things I like from an author claiming to be teaching me something.

Delancey
by Molly Wizenberg
647.957 WIZ

This book looked/felt like a novel as I picked it off my non-fiction shelving cart, so I thought it was on the wrong cart. The front cover featured a view into a storefront with warm, welcoming lighting inside and the words: a man, a woman, a restaurant, a marriage. I still thought it appeared to be a novel. The endsheet depicted an apparent chalkboard with hand printed lettering. Still, I thought the book looked/felt like a novel. But no, it’s a memoir of how “opening a restaurant sparked the first crisis” in the author’s young marriage. Full disclosure: I read it and loved it.

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