Showing posts with label Happy New Year. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Happy New Year. Show all posts

Friday, January 15, 2016

"Suffering Sappho!" Resolve to read The [awesome] Secret History of Wonder Woman this year

Comic book nerds? Book nerds? History nerds? Pop culture nerds? Nerd nerds? Not a nerd? Or are you one of those persnickety, tough-to-please folks who sniff at my recommendations? Have I got a book for all of you.

It is the 2015-2016 selection for Virginia Commonwealth University's  Common Book Program: The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore. The idea of the Common Book Program at VCU is to "support and stimulate the academic and intellectual culture of VCU through a common reading experience". This is why people seek out book clubs--for that wonderful feeling that comes from sharing a reading experience with others, and the opportunity to discuss ideas and what we learned, what may have challenged us to think in new ways. When a book thrills you, don't you immediately want other people to read it too? Wouldn't it be great if we had a huge, city-wide book discussion? A Super Book Club, perhaps? This book has something in it for everyone. Let's join in on the conversation happening at VCU about this marvelously compelling, thought-provoking book.

This story is fun and outrageous, almost unbelievable, and bawdy at times. Jill Lepore stays true to her subject by styling the book as a superhero origin story. The heroes in this case are many and the personalities are huge. Among the heroes are Margaret Sanger and her sister, Sanger's niece Olive Byrne, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, Wonder Woman of course, and at the center of our story is the fantastic and flawed hero William Moulton Marston, a fascinating and complicated man and a study in contradictions. He was a champion of women's rights (before it was cool), inventor of the lie detector test, charlatan, and polygamist. Lepore deftly uses Wonder Woman and Marston as the narrative connection between the Suffragists in the beginning of the 20th century and the women's movement decades later, making for an all around thrilling history of popular culture and American heroes.

There is something for everyone in this swift, engaging read. To be honest, I hadn't thought much one way or the other about Wonder Woman before reading this, certainly not much about her creator. I found the women behind the man behind The Woman to be especially intriguing, and although I've never really read superhero comics, I could not get enough of Wonder Woman's story. I found so much in the book to talk about that I want you all to read it too.

Run to your local library (or independent bookstore if you simply must own it) and check this one out. Join in on the conversation!


Another of Marston's contributions.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

The "Best Reads of 2013" List you've been waiting for!

If you're like us you have been obsessively poring over end of the year reading lists like it's the end of the world, adding titles to your never-ending "must read before the end of the world" list.  And surely you've been dying to see what RPL has to say.  Well, here it is: the list you have been waiting for! We have asked the staff from the Richmond Public Library to give us their top books read during 2013 and have compiled those recommendations into the end of year lists to end all lists. Enjoy! 
Happy New Year to you all!

Books for Children:
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Garcia-Williams
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
Bully by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Daisy Gets Lost by Chris Raschka
Who Goes There? by Karma Wilson
Old Mikamba Had a Farm by Rachel Isador
Don’t Push the Button by Bill Cotter




Exclamation Mark! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal 
Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg 
Trouper by Meg Kearney and EB Lewis, and 
Lost Cat by Roger Mader
When the world was waiting for you by Gillian Shields
Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead
Hold Fast by Blue Balliett
When Did You See Her Last by Lemony Snicket
That Is Not A Good Idea and I'm A Frog by Mo Willems


Books for Teens:
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Fingerprints of You by Kristen-Paige Madonia
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth
Yaqui Degado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina
Fat Angie by e. E. Charlton-Trujillo

Books for Adults:
The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure  
Foundation by Peter Ackroyd 
Kansas City Lightning: The rise and times of Charlie Parker by Stanley Crouch
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Me Before You Jojo Moyes 
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend Matthew Dicks 
The Silver Star Jeanette Walls

Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo
Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children's Literature by Philip Nel
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me by Ellen Forney
Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones
Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Second honeymoon by James Patterson
Longest ride by Nicholas Sparks
Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon
The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan
Bomb Shell and Final Cut by Catherine Coulter
Dark WitchWhiskey Beach, and The Witness by Nora Roberts
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The People in Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves Karen Joy Fowler
MaddAddam (Final book in the trilogy) by Margaret Atwood
Night Film by Marisha Pessl
Kill City Blues (A Sandman Slim #5) by Richard Kadrey

The Thicket by Joe Lansdale
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
The Good Lord Bird: A Novel by James McBride 
The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell 
Codex Seraphinianus by Luigi Serafini
Vintage Tomorrows: A Historian And A Futurist Journey Through Steampunk Into The Future of Technology by James Carrott
The Big Moo: Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
How to Be a Complete Dandy: A Little Guide for Rakes, Bucks, Swells, Cads and Wits by Stephen Robins


A Constellation Of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
The Dinner by Herman Koch
The Tenth of December by George Saunders
How To Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid
Falling To Earth by Kate Southwood

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Life After Life by Jill McCorkle
Cooked, A Natural History of Food by Michael Pollan 
Knocking On Heaven's Door, The Path To a Better Way of Death by Katy Butler
Death of Santini by Pat Conroy
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry
The Amber Room by Steve Berry
The Stand by Stephen King
World War Z by Max Brooks
One Second After by William Forstchen