Part three of our Summer Reading Spotlight! Check out the newest in popular fiction and non-fiction at UVM Libraries. Be sure to visit Howe Library Lobby for even more titles on display.
Be a revolution : how everyday people are fighting oppression and changing the world--and how you can, too by Ijeoma Oluo
“With Be A Revolution: How Everyday People are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World--and How You Can, Too, Oluo aims to show how people across America are working to create real positive change in our structures. Looking at many of our most powerful systems -- like education, media, labor, health, housing, policing, and more -- she highlights what people are doing to create change for intersectional racial equity. She also illustrates various ways in which the reader can find entryways into change in these same areas, or can bring some of this important work being done elsewhere to where they live. This book aims to not only be educational, but to inspire action and change. Oluo wishes to take our conversations on race and racism out of a place of pure pain and trauma, and into a place of loving action. Be A Revolution is both an urgent chronicle of this important moment in history, as well as an inspiring and restorative call for action.”
En la boca del lobo by Elvira Lindo
"Julieta y su madre llegan a La Sabina a pasar las vacaciones. A sus once años esa aldea perdida le parece a Julieta el mejor lugar para dejar atrás problemas a los que no sabe poner nombre. Ese verano eterno lleno de primeras veces, descubrirá que los cimientos del pueblo están hechos de secretos y recuerdos; los lindes del bosque, de cuentos y leyendas; y el corazón de las personas de miedo, odio, amor y esperanza, los cuatro sentimientos que nutren sus sueños y también sus peores pesadillas"
translation: "Julieta and her mother come to La Sabina to spend the holidays. At eleven years old, that lost village seems to Julieta to be the best place to leave behind problems that she doesn't know how to name. That eternal summer full of first times, she will discover that The foundations of the town are made of secrets and memories; the edges of the forest, of stories and legends; and the hearts of the people of fear, hate, love and hope, the four feelings that nourish their dreams and also their worst nightmares."
Time shelter : a novel by Georgi Gospodinov ; translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel
"In an apricot-colored building in Zurich, surrounded by curiously planted forget-me-nots, Gaustine has opened the first "clinic for the past," an institution that offers an inspired treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces a past decade in minute detail, allowing patients to transport themselves back in time to unlock what is left of their fading memories. Serving as Gaustine's assistant, the narrator is tasked with collecting the flotsam and jetsam of the past, from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to nostalgic scents and even wisps of afternoon light. But as the charade becomes more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic to escape from the dead-end of their daily lives--a development that results in an unexpected conundrum when the past begins to invade the present. Through sharply satirical, labyrinth-like vignettes reminiscent of Italo Calvino and Franz Kafka, the narrator recounts in breathtaking prose just how he became entrenched in a plot to stop time itself."
Monica by Daniel Clowes
“Monica is a series of interconnected narratives that collectively tell the life story--actually, stories--of its title character. Clowes calls upon a lifetime of inspiration to create the most complex and personal graphic novel of his distinguished career. Rich with visual detail, an impeccable ear for language and dialogue, and thrilling twists, Monica is a multilayered masterpiece in comics form that alludes to many of the genres that have defined the medium--war, romance, horror, crime, the supernatural, etc.--but in a mysterious, uncategorizable, and quintessentially Clowesian way that rewards multiple readings.”
What happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jimenez
"The Ramirez women of Staten Island orbit around absence. When thirteen year old middle child Ruthy disappeared after track practice without a trace, it left the family scarred and scrambling. One night, twelve years later, oldest sister Jessica spots a woman on her TV screen in Catfight, a raunchy reality show. She rushes to tell her younger sister, Nina: This woman's hair is dyed red, and she calls herself Ruby, but the beauty mark under her left eye is instantly recognizable. Could it be Ruthy, after all this time? The years since Ruthy's disappearance haven't been easy on the Ramirez family. It's 2008, and their mother, Dolores, still struggles with the loss, Jessica juggles a newborn baby with her hospital job, and Nina, after four successful years at college, has returned home to medical school rejections and is forced to work in the mall folding tiny bedazzled thongs at the lingerie store. After seeing maybe Ruthy on their screen, Jessica and Nina hatch a plan to drive to where the show is filmed in search of their long lost sister. When Dolores catches wind of their scheme, she insists on joining, along with her pot-stirring holy roller best friend, Irene. What follows is a family road trip and reckoning that will force the Ramirez women to finally face the past and look toward a future-with or without Ruthy in it. What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez is a vivid family portrait, in all its shattered reality, exploring the familial bonds between women and cycles of generational violence, colonialism, race, and silence, replete with snark, resentment, tenderness, and, of course, love".
The aviator by Eugene Vodolazkin ; translated from the Russian by Lisa C. Hayden
“A man wakes up in a hospital bed, with no idea who he is or how he came to be there. The only information the doctor shares with him is his name: Innokenty Petrovich Platonov. As memories slowly resurface, Innokenty begins to build a vivid picture of his former life as a young man in Russia in the early twentieth century, living through the turbulence of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath. Soon, only one question remains: how can he remember the start of the twentieth century, when the pills by his bedside were made in 1999?”
The ministry of time by Kaliane Bradley
"In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she'll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering "expats" from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible--for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. She is tasked with working as a "bridge": living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as "1847" or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin's doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he's a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as "washing machines," "Spotify," and "the collapse of the British Empire." But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts. Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry's project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how--and whether she believes--what she does next can change the future. An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? Kaliane Bradley's answer is a blazing, unforgettable testament to what we owe each other in a changing world".
Cien cuyes by Gustavo Rodríguez
"En un barrio residencial de Lima con vistas al mar languidecen unos ancianos de clase acomodada. Frasia, acuciada por sus necesidades económicas, pues tiene que sacar adelante a su hijo Nico, se ha ido convirtiendo en compañía imprescindible para algunos de ellos. Si consiguiera juntar diez cuyes, el dinero para comprar diez conejillos de Indias, podría, según le dijo siempre su tío, empezar una nueva vida. Así, todos los días cruza la ciudad en transporte público para asistir a Doña Bertha, que además de ayuda doméstica necesita un apoyo extra porque en los últimos tiempos anda baja de ánimo y casi no tiene contacto con su hija. Frasia es muy buena en eso, y es tanta la fama de su buen hacer que en poco tiempo empieza a trabajar, en el mismo edificio, para Jack Morrison, médico jubilado y viudo, aficionado al jazz y al whisky e inmerso en una soledad que le oprime el alma. Algo más tarde también lo hará en la residencia del barrio, donde un grupo de residentes han formado una familia que se hace llamar "los siete magníficos"
translation: "In a residential neighborhood of Lima overlooking the ocean, some well-to-do elderly people suffer the deterioration of their lives. Frasia, pressed by her economic needs, and who must work to raise her son Nico, has gradually become a vital companion to some of those older folks. If she could only manage to save up the money to buy ten guinea pigs, she could, as her uncle always told her, start a new life. Thus, every day she crosses the city by public transportation to help Mrs. Bertha, who, in addition to needing domestic help, also needs extra emotional support because in recent times she has been feeling a bit down and has had little to no contact with her daughter."
Anthem : a novel by Noah Hawley
"The wheels are coming off in America. Opioid addictions accelerate unstoppably. Environmental collapse can be read in every weather report. Vigilante bands take over streets at night, wearing clown face makeup. The very idea of government, of citizenship, is challenged daily. And something is happening to teenagers across the country, spreading through memes only they understand. At the Float Anxiety Abatement Center, in a suburb of Chicago, Simon Oliver is trying to recover from his sister's tragic passing. He breaks out to join a woman named Louise and a man called The Prophet on a quest as urgent as it is enigmatic. Who lies at the end of the road? A man known as The Wizard, whose past encounter with Louise sparked her own collapse. Their quest becomes a rescue mission when they join up with a man whose sister is being held captive by the Wizard, impregnated and imprisoned in a tower. Noah Hawley's new novel is a freewheeling adventure that finds unquenchable lights in dark corners. Unforgettably vivid characters and a plot as fast and bright as pop cinema blend in a Vonnegutian story that is as timeless as a Grimm's fairy tale. It is a leap into the idiosyncratic pulse of the American heart, written with the bravado, literary power, and feverish foresight that have made Hawley one of our most essential writers".
La pire amie du monde by Alexandra Matine
"Trentenaire établie à Amsterdam, Cyr vient de se faire virer de l'agence de pub dans laquelle elle travaillait après avoir appris la disparition de son meilleur ami. Et si cela ne suffisait pas, on lui demande d'écrire un discours pour la cérémonie. Pour fuir toute responsabilité, elle préfère monter à la chaine des meubles en kit et ne plus répondre à personne. Mais le monde, lui, continue de tourner. Alors, Cyr va devoir aller vers les autres, s'y confronter pour grandir un peu, enfin"
translation: "A thirty-year-old based in Amsterdam, Cyr has just been fired from the advertising agency where she worked after learning of the disappearance of her best friend. And if that wasn't enough, she was asked to write a speech for the ceremony. To escape all responsibility, she prefers to assemble kit furniture and no longer answer to anyone. But the world continues to turn. So, Cyr will have to reach out to others, to confront them in order to grow a little, finally".
Foster by Claire Keegan
"An international bestseller and one of The Times's "Top 50 Novels Published in the 21st Century," Claire Keegan's piercing contemporary classic Foster is a heartbreaking story of childhood, loss, and love, now released as a standalone book for the first time ever in the US. It is a hot summer in rural Ireland. A child is taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm, not knowing when or if she will be brought home again. In the Kinsellas' house, she finds an affection and warmth she has not known and slowly, in their care, begins to blossom. But there is something unspoken in this new household--where everything is so well tended to--and this summer must soon come to an end. Winner of the prestigious Davy Byrnes Award and published in an abridged version in the New Yorker, this internationally bestselling contemporary classic is now available for the first time in the US in a full, standalone edition. A story of astonishing emotional depth, Foster showcases Claire Keegan's great talent and secures her reputation as one of our most important storytellers."
Зулейха открывает глаза by Гузель Яхина
“Гузель Яхина родилась и выросла в Казани, окончила факультет иностранных языков, учится на сценарном факультете Московской школы кино. Публиковалась в журналах Нева, Сибирские огни, Октябрь. Роман Зулейха открывает глаза начинается зимой 1930 года в глухой татарской деревне. Крестьянку Зулейху вместе с сотнями других переселенцев отправляют в вагоне-теплушке по извечному каторжному маршруту в Сибирь. Дремучие крестьяне и ленинградские интеллигенты, деклассированный элемент и уголовники, мусульмане и христиане, язычники и атеисты, русские, татары, немцы, чуваши - все встретятся на берегах Ангары, ежедневно отстаивая у тайги и безжалостного государства свое право на жизнь. Всем раскулаченным и переселенным посвящается.”
translation: “Guzel Yakhina was born and raised in Kazan, graduated from the faculty of foreign languages, studies at the screenwriting department of the Moscow Film School. Published in the magazines Neva, Sibirskie ogni, Oktyabr. The novel Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes begins in the winter of 1930 in a remote Tatar village. The peasant woman Zuleikha, along with hundreds of other settlers, is sent in a freight car along the eternal penal route to Siberia. Dense peasants and Leningrad intellectuals, declassed elements and criminals, Muslims and Christians, pagans and atheists, Russians, Tatars, Germans, Chuvashes - all will meet on the banks of the Angara, daily defending their right to life against the taiga and the ruthless state. Dedicated to all the dispossessed and resettled.”
First lie wins by Ashley Elston
"Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect, doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, a fancy group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn't exist. The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she's given a name and location by her mysterious boss Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job. Evie isn't privy to Mr. Smith's real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she's starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can't make any mistakes--especially after what happened last time. Because the one thing she's worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to--her real identity--just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there's still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn't be higher--but then, Evie has always liked a challenge..."
Дети мои : роман by Гузель Яхина
"«Дети мои» -- новый роман Гузель Яхиной, самой яркой дебютантки в истории российской литературы новейшего времени, лауреата премий «Большая книга» и «Ясная Поляна» за бестселлер «Зулейха открывает глаза». «В первом романе, стремительно прославившемся и через год после дебюта жившем уже в тридцати переводах и на верху мировых литературных премий, Гузель Яхина швырнула нас в Сибирь и при этом показала татарщину в себе, и в России, и, можно сказать, во всех нас. А теперь она погружает читателя в холодную волжскую воду, в волглый мох и торф, в зыбь и слизь, в Этель-Булгу-Су, и ее "мысль народная", как Волга, глубока, и она прощупывает неметчину в себе, и в России, и, можно сказать, во всех нас. В сюжете вообще-то на первом плане любовь, смерть, и история, и политика, и война, и творчество"
translation: “In the Volga German colony of Gnadenthal in the 1920s and '30s, teacher Jacob Bach raises his only daughter, Anche, on a secluded farm while writing fairy tales that have a wonderful and tragic way of coming to life-- Interpretation and translation of the Russian synopsis.”
Spectral evidence : poems by Gregory Pardlo
"Elegant, profound, and intoxicating--this is the author's first major collection of poetry after winning the Pulitzer Prize for Digest. Moving fluidly between considerations of the hip-hop group NWA, Tituba, the only Black woman to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials, MOVE, the movement and militant separatist group famous for its violent stand-offs with the Philadelphia Police Department ("flames rose like orchids . . . blocks lay open like egg cartons") and more--Pardlo ponders the development of his own identity and sense of self as it was shaped against the glaring forces of whiteness. At times challenging and at other times warm, inviting, and deeply personal ("Only by loving every child of this earth / can we be worthy of loving our own"), Spectral Evidence forces us to consider how we think about devotion, beauty and art, about the criminalization and death of Black lives, about justice and how these have been inscribed into our present, our history, and the Western canon."
Das Kind in mir will achtsam morden : roman by Karsten Dusse
“Björn Diemel hat die Prinzipien der Achtsamkeit erlernt, und mit ihrer Hilfe sein Leben verbessert. Er hat den stressigen Job gekündigt und sich selbstständig gemacht. Er verbringt mehr Zeit mit seiner Tochter und streitet sich in der Regel liebevoller mit seiner Frau. Ach ja, und nebenbei führt er noch ganz entspannt zwei Mafia-Clans, weil er den Chef des einen ermordet und den des anderen im Keller eines Kindergartens eingekerkert hat. Warum nur kann Björn das alles nicht genießen? Warum verliert er ständig die Beherrschung? Hat er das Morden einfach satt? Ganz so einfach ist es nicht. Sein Therapeut Joschka Breitner bringt ihn endlich auf die richtige Spur: Es liegt an Björns innerem Kind!”
translation: "Björn Diemel learned the principles of mindfulness and with their help improved his life. He quit the stressful job and started his own business. He spends more time with his daughter and usually argues more lovingly with his wife. Oh yes, and by the way, he is still running two mafia clans in a relaxed manner because he murdered the boss of one and incarcerated the other in the basement of a kindergarten. Why can't Björn enjoy all of this? Why does he keep losing his temper? Is he just sick of killing? It's not that easy. His therapist Joschka Breitner finally puts him on the right track: It's up to Björn's inner child!"
La bestia : Madrid, 1834 by Carmen Mola
"Corre el año 1834 y Madrid, una pequeña ciudad que trata de abrirse paso más allá de las murallas que la rodean, sufre una terrible epidemia de cólera. Pero la peste no es lo único que aterroriza a sus habitantes: en los arrabales aparecen cadáveres desmembrados de niñas que nadie reclama. Todos los rumores apuntan a la Bestia, un ser a quien nadie ha visto pero al que todos temen. Cuando la pequeña Clara desaparece, su hermana Lucía, junto con Donoso, un policía tuerto, y Diego, un periodista buscavidas, inician una frenética cuenta atrás para encontrar a la niña con vida. En su camino tropiezan con fray Braulio, un monje guerrillero, y con un misterioso anillo de oro con dos mazas cruzadas que todo el mundo codicia y por el que algunos están dispuestos a matar."
translation: "The year is 1834 and Madrid, a small city trying to make its way beyond the walls that surround it, suffers a terrible cholera epidemic. But the plague is not the only thing that terrifies its inhabitants: corpses appear in the suburbs dismembered girls that no one claims. All the rumors point to the Beast, a being whom no one has seen but whom everyone fears. When little Clara disappears, her sister Lucía, along with Donoso, a one-eyed police officer, and Diego, a man. hustler journalist, they begin a frantic countdown to find the girl alive. On their way they stumble upon Brother Braulio, a guerrilla monk, and a mysterious gold ring with two crossed maces that everyone covets and for which some are eager. ready to kill."
Here in Avalon by Tara Isabella Burton
"Rose investigates the disappearance of her irresponsible and impetuous sister who fell followed a cult-like cabaret troupe that only appears at night on a mysterious red boat that sails around New York and is blamed for several disappearances".
Butcher : [father of modern gyno-psychiatry] by Joyce Carol Oates
"In the 1840s, a young man named Silas Weir begins practicing medicine in Pennsylvania. Though he is considered inept by family, neighbors, and even his mentor, Dr. Weir discovers he has a gift for phlebotomy, treating patients by bleeding them to purify their bodies. But when an experimental procedure goes horribly wrong, Dr. Weir is forced to start over, relocating his family to Trenton, New Jersey, and taking a position at the New Jersey State Asylum for Female Lunatics. There, in the hopes of proving his detractors wrong, Dr. Weir continues practicing dangerous procedures, and soon becomes infatuated with Brigit--a pregnant woman he treats--whom he tries to take her under his wing as an apprentice. As Dr. Weir's experiments grow more intense--and as he isolates himself from his family and the world beyond the facility--he grows obsessed with Brigit and the other residents who remain at his mercy, and before long, establishes himself as 'the father of gyno-psychiatry'".
Some people need killing : a memoir of murder in my country by Patricia Evangelista
"'My job is to go to places where people die. I pack my bags, talk to the survivors, write my stories, then go home to wait for the next catastrophe. I don't wait very long.' Journalist Patricia Evangelista came of age in the aftermath of a street revolution that forged a new future for the Philippines. Three decades later, in the face of mounting inequality, the nation discovered the fragility of its democratic institutions under the regime of strongman Rodrigo Duterte. Some People Need Killing is Evangelista's meticulously reported and deeply human chronicle of the Philippines' drug war and Duterte's assault on the country's struggling democracy. For six years, Evangelista had the distinctive beat of chronicling the killings carried out by police and vigilantes in the name of Duterte's war on drugs - a war that has led to the slaughter of thousands - immersing herself in the world of killers and survivors and capturing the atmosphere of fear created when an elected president decides that some lives are worth less than others".