My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not yet read.
-Attributed to Abraham Lincoln
If you’re still in search of a good book to read this summer, check out the books that our librarians are reading and recommending. For more information about the books our librarians chose, click the hyperlink in the descriptions to read a synopsis and other reviews on GoodReads.
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Rhonda Altonen (Touro Harlem Campus)
“Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. She writes about what happens when you donate your body to science, with a dose of edutainment. Mary Roach manages to take a subject that gives many people the heebie-jeebies, donating one’s remains to science and making it humorous at times. She covers such topics as learning surgical techniques via practicing on cadavers, human decomposition, ingesting human remains for medicinal purposes, using corpses in car crash tests, using cadavers for ballistics tests, crucifixion experiments, and even head transplants. The talk of decomposition and quack remedies of the Middle Ages was fascinating. The funeral bits were also pretty enlightening. Stiff is a very interesting read for those interested in what happens when you donate your body to science, softened somewhat by Roach’s sense of humor and humanity. It takes some of the mystery out of death, and replaces it with honesty and humor.”
Mark Balto (Cross-River Campus)
“The book, American Prometheus, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, on which the movie “Oppenheimer” is based, is on my reading list.
Part of the title, (“Prometheus”) is taken from an ancient Greek God and myth. Prometheus was a Titan in Hesiod’s mythology.
Oppenheimer had a profound impact on shaping the 20th century… but perhaps more interestingly and strikingly was his strenuous and vigorous moral/ethical grappling with what he had created and the future consequences the atom bomb would have on humanity.
As Oppenheimer rightly quotes the Bhagavad Gita after the Trinity Test in New Mexico: “Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Lara Frater (Touro Harlem Campus)
“Who knew bugs could become demonic?”
Touro’s own Lara Frater released a sci-fi novel this year! Paranormal Pest Control follows “Frank Carver and Hector Ramirez, two exterminators, and Jenny Blake, a woman who can talk to ghosts,” who have a business to exterminate demonic bugs after “a series of earthquakes hit around the world. The damage and loss of life were devastating, and the world became weird but no more in the quake zone known as Broken Brooklyn. Bugs became demonic, demons invaded, and people with psychic abilities grew stronger.”
You can get Lara’s book from Amazon here or download it via Kindle Unlimited!
Helen Hill (Kings Highway Campus)
“Lately, I’ve been obsessed with Joy Williams, particularly her book Harrow. It’s set in a post-climate collapse landscape, and the characters undergo a surreal series of events that lacks linear logic because the environment is so ruined that time no longer exists. Sounds dark, and it is dark, but it’s also really funny and witty and impressively written.”
Natasha Hollander (Cross-River Campus)
“I am currently reading Dinner with the President: Food Politics and a History of Breaking Bread at the White House by Alex Prud’Homme. I read it in sections so it is taking me longer to finish it. It is a very interesting look at culinary practices and cuisines throughout history. I highly recommend it.
I love learning about history, presidents, and food so this book is perfect!”
Sarah Keene (Midwood/Flatbush Campus)
“I just finished a fascinating non-fiction book, How to Think Like a Woman by Regan Penaluna, after attending a recent METRO-community NYPL Virtual Work/ Cited presentation where she was featured. It’s both a history of women in Philosophy (or women omitted from the philosophical canon) and a personal journey of the author.
In Fiction, I’m reading Tenderness By Alison Macleod, which traces the story of DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover, from its inspirations to the landmark obscenity trial. Macleod counterpoints the tale with reimagined intrigue of Jacqueline Kennedy during her husband’s presidential campaign and a 1959 love story of a Cambridge literature student and a historical archivist. It’s a long read but I’m enjoying the interplay of fact and fiction.”
Toby Krausz (Cross-River Campus)
Image via of author’s website.
“Currently enjoying rereads of the YA book series (there are multiple!) of Rick Riordan, he does mythology transferred to the present day. He has done Greek, Roman, Norse, and Egyptian so far. I do enjoy his Greek and Roman books especially.”
Emma Larson-Whittaker (Starrett City Campus)
“I’m currently re-reading one of my favorite series, the Abhorsen Chronicles, by Garth Nix. I’m currently on the second book, Lirael, which fittingly is about a librarian. This is one of the best fantasy worlds I’ve come across and it’s a really great blend of magic, horror, and adventure. The audiobooks are also narrated by Tim Curry and are absolutely fantastic.”
Christine Leddy (Central Islip Campus)
“I thoroughly enjoyed this unique story, The Music of Bees: A Novel by Eileen Garvin, with its quirky and realistically flawed characters. Not only is the author a great storyteller, but at the same time, she uses her authentic knowledge of beekeeping to inform about bees, and also about the toxic effects of pesticide use. This novel makes me seriously want to become a beekeeper and strive for a cleaner environment!”
Genesis Nieves (Cross-River Campus)
“I am currently enjoying David Grann’s new book, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder. If you like British naval history or survival stories, this is the book for you.
Grann is also the author of the much-praised Killers of the Flower Moon, also an excellent read, and soon to have its film adaptation premiere in October.”
Philip Papas (Cross-River Campus)
“I am currently re-reading The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions by Thorstein Veblen. One might expect a quaintly outdated treatise of stodgy norms from the Gilded Age, given its nineteenth-century publication date. Instead, the work reads as if it were written yesterday, with timeless observations and insight into human nature and how material wealth affects our status, as individuals and members of social groups. Veblen’s theoretic concepts such as “conspicuous consumption” have become established methods to examine intentional displays of power and prestige. It’s an eye-opening deep dive into aspects of our lives that we often participate in as a matter of course. I have found myself reassessing many decisions and practices at different stages of my own life after reflecting on this fascinating work.”
Kirk Snyder (Cross-River Campus)
“This summer I am looking forward to reading Andrew Leland’s The Country of the Blind which will be published July 18th by Penguin Random House.
Andrew is a friend from my time living in San Francisco in the ’00s. The company I was working for shared office space with the magazine he edited, The Believer. Andrew is a kind, smart, very funny, and creative person whose book The Country of the Blind is part memoir, part cultural critique. It is about his own journey with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that causes one to gradually lose sight over several years. Andrew’s writings on blindness have recently appeared in The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker.”
Alexandra Weinstein (Lander College for Women Campus)
“One of my favorites is Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. The author, John Carreyrou, is the Wall Street Journal reporter who investigated Theranos and gives a detailed account of the rise and fall of the corporation and Elizabeth Holms.
Also, I’m finally reading the Shadow and Bone Trilogy! Right now, I’m in the middle of the second book, Siege and Storm.”
Marina Zilberman (Cross-River Campus)
“I read a book which was very popular in my childhood and now I’m reading it in the original language. It is an English classic: Montezuma’s Daughter by Henry Rider Haggard. This is a historical fictional romance. Very touching.”
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Thank you to all our library staff who shared a book! What’s your favorite book you’ve read so far this year?
[Post and editing by Emma Larson-Whittaker, Library and Outreach Assistant, Starrett City]
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