December book reviews by Sam Gary librarians.
Adult Non-Fiction
Feel Free
by Zadie Smith (2018)
In her newest collection of essays, Smith examines the significance of a range of cultural artifacts, high and low, well-known and obscure. Feel Free is divided into five parts: “In the World,” “In the Audience,” “In the Gallery,” “On the Bookshelf,” and “Feel Free.” The essays comprising each part, while ostensibly observations of particular subjects (from Brexit to Key and Peele, J.G. Ballard to Justin Bieber), invariably digress and expand, opening up the conversations to look at bigger issues like race, the world stage, the self, etc. Smith maintains a keen eye for the oeuvres and events we engage with and how, and what those relationships say about who we are as individuals and as communities. An incisive and charming collection.
—Review by Elsa Colon
Adult Fiction
Convenience Store Woman
by Sayaka Murata
Convenience Store Woman is a Japanese novel about a very odd woman. Keiko Furukura has always had trouble fitting in and her parents worry about how she will get by in the adult world. While attending university she takes a job at a convenience store and it ends up being perfect for her. The world of the convenience store is a predictable place where Keiko can thrive and form an identity. She is happy at the convenience store, but ends up staying there for so long that her family is even more concerned. She eventually meets an alienated and bitter man, and it ends up shaking her world—but is that a good thing? This novel is a great and quirky look into Japanese culture and the pressure to conform, along with an interesting perspective about identity and modern consumerism.
—Review by Kelly Wright
Young Adult Fiction
The Prince and the Dressmaker
by Jen Wang
This graphic novel takes place in Paris at the dawn of the modern age. Prince Sebastian’s parents are working hard to find him a bride, but he isn’t interested as he is too busy taking Paris by storm with his secret life. At night he puts on dresses and impresses Paris nightlife as the fabulous Lady Crystallia. His best friend Frances, a young seamstress, is the only one who knows his secret—she makes his beautiful and unique clothing. Sebastian wants to be able to protect his anonymity, and Frances dreams of greatness with her designs. How long will they be able to keep this a secret? This is a heartwarming and absolutely charming graphic novel that has you cheering for both of the characters.
—Review by Kelly Wright
Children’s Fiction
Brown Girl Dreaming
by Jacqueline Woodson (2014)
Brown Girl Dreaming is an autobiography-in-verse. This unique format will introduce readers aged 10 and up to different forms of poetry in a captivating, emotionally resonant story of author Jacqueline Woodson’s life as an African American girl in the 1960s and 1970s. Woodson takes readers through her formative experiences of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement as seen through a child’s eyes, detailing her familial world in South Carolina and New York. The personal details and Woodson’s own development from a struggling reader into an eloquent writer and storyteller will be relatable to anyone who’s ever had a family. Woodson proclaims, “I do not know if these hands will become Malcolm’s, raised and fisted—or Martin’s, open and asking—or James’s, curled around a pen. I do not know if these hands will be Rosa’s or Ruby’s gently gloved and fiercely folded calmly in a lap, on a desk, around a book, ready to change the world.” Once you read Brown Girl Dreaming and are impressed by Woodson’s heartfelt story, you will know what those hands have done to change the world.
—Review by Lily Kosmicki