Looking for your next great read? See what the Newfields librarians are reading and loving this month…
Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo
One of my favorite classes in grad school was an American Lit course that focused exclusively on Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville. The grand finale was reading Moby Dick, something I had attempted a couple of times previously and never finished (let’s face it, there’s a LOT of talk about cetology, which…meh). But, courtesy of that class, I finally succeeded and actually enjoyed it, discussing symbolism, language, character development, and, of course, cetology.
Since that deep dive (sorry), I’ve been rather obsessed with the novel, delighting in all the memes about it and getting excited about the covers of different editions. So when “Call Me Ishmaelle” arrived at the library, I checked it out and was quickly hooked (again, sorry). It’s not a book that makes a big splash (really, truly sorry), but this small novel definitely blew me out of the water (I’ll see myself out).
In all seriousness, Call Me Ishmaelle is a loose retelling of Moby Dick in which the narrator is a woman who disguises herself as a man in order to work on a whaling ship (the Nimrod, not the Pequod). The broad strokes are the same, but the novel is a fraction of the length of Melville’s classic (which, it should be noted, was very much NOT a success in its time). Its focus is not on whaling (a good thing) or even on the monomaniacal quest of the deranged Captain Seneca, but on a teenage girl’s experiences on a ship. It can be harrowing at times, but there is a satisfaction in Ishmaelle’s journey, both literal and figurative—a journey not available to most women for the bulk of history.
📖📲🎧This book is available to check out in our collection and on audiobook and ebook on the Libby app.
–Susan M.
Journey by Aaron Becker
When an unnamed girl finds a magical crayon (or marker like my daughter adamantly claims) she’ll venture into a new world of potential and adventure. Journey is the first chapter in a trilogy of wordless picture books illustrated by Aaron Becker.
The beauty of wordless picture books comes with the interpretation of the pictures and storyline. You’re not told what to feel but instead shown it with beautifully detailed illustrations. I find myself getting stuck on just about every page to take in all the intricacies of the world being created. You’ll follow this unnamed hero as she harnesses the power of the magical red crayon (or marker) to create anything she can draw and imagine.
My favorite part of reading wordless books is that my daughters and I get to decide what the dialogue is and what we think the characters are motivated by. I get very different experiences reading this book with either of my daughters. It’s amazing to see the way their imagination and understanding of the world directs the messages and tones of the book itself. If you’ve ever read Tuesday by David Weisner, this book will give you the same feelings of wonder, magic, and innocence while also taking you on a journey you’ll never forget.
📖 This picture book is available in our collection.
–Andy S.
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
A deliciously funny, sharply observed debut of family, love, and class, this zeitgeisty novel follows three women in one wealthy Brooklyn clan.
Darley, the eldest daughter in the well-connected old money Stockton family, followed her heart, trading her job and her inheritance for motherhood but giving up far too much in the process; Sasha, a middle-class New England girl, has married into the Brooklyn Heights family, and finds herself cast as the arriviste outsider; and Georgiana, the baby of the family, has fallen in love with someone she can’t have, and must decide what kind of person she wants to be.
Rife with the indulgent pleasures of life among New York’s one-percenters, Pineapple Street is a smart, escapist novel that sparkles with wit. Full of recognizable, loveable—if fallible—characters, it’s about the peculiar unknowability of someone else’s family, the miles between the haves and have-nots, and the insanity of first love—all wrapped in a story that is a sheer delight. -Publisher
I’m going back in the archives to press a book in your hands that I thoroughly enjoyed reading a few summers ago. Pineapple Street is a great character-driven, satirical family drama that puts us in the midst of upper crust New York society. Sasha, the outsider marrying into the Stockton family, serves as a useful stand-in for the reader as we follow her tentatively into this new world of elites. While the family puts on a good front, under the surface, each character has secret fears, griefs, and uncertainties that threaten to unravel their careful family network.
Darley, the eldest daughter, is also married to an “outsider,” a Korean-American man named Malcolm who grew up middle class and has since made a lucrative career for himself. Darley sacrificed her inheritance (the trust will go to her children instead), rather than having Malcolm sign an prenup. But when Malcolm loses his job and her future is threatened, Darley must grapple with her choices.
Georgiana, the youngest daughter, is a more classic trust-fund baby. She works at a non-profit but she doesn’t have career ambitions and is unsure of her life path. She finds herself entangled in a tawdry affair with an older married man, which forces her to reflect on the kind of person she is.
Both Darley and Georgiana confide these secrets to Sasha, who hopes this is a sign of trust and a chance to bond with her future sisters-in-law. But getting into the good graces of the Stockton clan is not so easy.
I won’t give more away, but will just say that I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with these characters and following Sasha as she tries to navigate this new world—and ultimately has to choose what she is willing to sacrifice to be part of it.
This is a great beach read. While it is not exactly “rich people behaving badly” per se, this is a peek into rich people acting rich—and all the pretension and absurdity that comes with it.
📖 🎧This book is available to check out in our collection and on audiobook on the Libby app.
-Brittney T.