Staff Reviews: For Adults
Check out these reviews written by the staff of the Marathon County Public Library, featuring books DVDs for adults! (For reviews of books for all ages, visit our main Staff Reviews webpage.) Staff book reviews are also published at Goodreads.com; follow us for the latest updates.
"Becoming"
Would you like to learn how a little girl from the South Side of Chicago rose above her circumstances to attend Princeton, become a successful lawyer, and eventually the First Lady of the United States? Michelle Obama did a great job writing her first book about her upbringing, who made her who she is today, and how she stays true to herself through...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction, Biography And Memoir
"The Road Ahead"
Do you need inspiration to be a better version of yourself? What if you could find it in a book? In Jane Seymour’s book, The Road Ahead, real-life stories are shared, with inspirational messages at the beginning of each section. The stories give you hope and encouragement during difficult situations that we all have in our everyday lives....
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction, Inspiration, Self-Help
"The Vegan 8: 100 Simple, Delicious Recipes Made with 8 Ingredients or Less"
Looking for quick and easy recipes that are not only delicious but healthy? This book is a must read! Brandi Doming, creator of the Vegan 8 blog, brings a cookbook to readers that is packed with fully-photographed recipes and all of them require only 8 ingredients or less (spices included!). I can personally say that the Hungarian Red Lentil Soup is...
"One-Dish Vegan"
This new vegan cookbook has a plethora of scrumptious-sounding recipes for anyone looking for healthy, satisfying meals. I literally want to make about 90% of the recipes in this book, and don't know which one I want to make first! Some of the recipes have a longer ingredient list, but there's a lot of flavorful spices included, so don't be daunted by that...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction, Cookbook
"The Ravenous"
To outsiders, the Cane girls are a lovely group of five sisters. Transferring from base to base, following their itinerant father, who is often gone, the girls stick together no matter what. So what if their home life is chaotic and dysfunctional. As long as everything looks ok, it will be. Juliet is the oldest, a pianist who gave up...
Audience: Adults, Teens | Genre: Realistic, Family Drama, Horror
"We Sold Our Souls"
Kris bought her first electric guitar with her savings, never imaging that she would eventually become the guitarist for a semi-famous heavy metal band. But on the eve of their big break, the lead singer, Terry, did something more horrible than selling out, and while he went on to achieve fame and glory, the rest of the band disappeared into...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Fiction, Adult, Horror, Heavy Metal
"The Greatest Love Story Ever Told: An Oral History"
Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman, stars of Will and Grace and Parks and Recreation respectively, open up about their successful Hollywood relationship. This is an opportunity to learn about Megan and Nick's upbringings, morals, what brought them together, as well as what keeps them together. They share advice on life and love...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction
"Something in the Water"
Erin, a filmmaker, and Mark, an investment banker, seem like the perfect couple with the perfect life. Newly married, they embark on a lavish honeymoon in Bora Bora. It's a perfect honeymoon until they find something ominous in the water while scuba diving. They have to decide whether to tell the truth about their discovery or keep it hidden. Their final...
"Open Your Eyes"
Jane leads a relatively normal life, taking care of two children and teaching a creative writing class (while she not-so-patiently waits for the day she is an officially published author). Her husband, Leon, is already an accomplished novelist and the main breadwinner of the family. When he's brutally attacked in their own driveway while Jane is only steps...
"The Overstory"
"First there was nothing. Then there was everything." So begins National Book Award-winner Richard Powers' new novel about nine interlocking characters who, in their own ways - and in ways that overlap - find themselves face to face with the natural world. Or, face to leaf, face to crown, face to root...
Each character is introduced in the first...
"Fitness Junkie"
Fitness Junkie is the story of Janey Sweet and her search for a leaner body after a lifelong friend and boss told her that she could lose her job if she didn't shed 30 pounds. Janey throws herself into the ultimatum with gusto by trying all of the fad diets, strange cult-like workouts, and self-searching. Ever hear of eating clay as a...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Contemporary Fiction
"Lethal White"
Robert Galbraith’s fourth Strike novel finds private detective Cormoran Strike and his partner, Robin Ellacott, hired by a high-ranking British official who is being blackmailed. The minister asks Strike to gather dirt that he could use against his blackmailers, which prompts Robin to go undercover in the House of Commons to do recon. When he dies of an...
"Hearts Beat Loud"
Frank (Nick Offerman) is a middle-aged single father whose life is on the verge of change. He’s considering closing his small Brooklyn record store due to poor sales and his daughter, Sam (Kiersey Clemons), is just weeks away from going off to college in California to study medicine. Both lovers of music, Frank and Sam write and record a song one night in...
"China Rich Girlfriend"
Set two years after the conclusion of Crazy Rich Asians¸ Rachel Chu and her fiancée, Nick Young, are still happily living in New York City. On the eve of their wedding, the couple receives a visit from Nick’s mother, Eleanor, whom he hasn’t spoken to in years (and who crashes the wedding rehearsal and amazingly dramatic fashion). Eleanor tells Rachel that...
"Dietland"
Plum Kettle has struggled with her weight for as long as she can remember. Now in her late 20s, she weighs over 300 pounds and has isolated herself away from most of society. But she’s formulated a plan to change her life completely: get lap band surgery, shed the weight and adopt an entirely new, more confident personae.
Plum lives in New York City and...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
"An American Marriage"
Roy and Celestial have been married for just one year. As part of their first anniversary, the couple visits Roy’s parents and the small Louisiana town where he grew up. After a disagreement in their hotel room, Roy decides to give Celestial some space and go for a walk. Later that night, the police burst into their room and arrest Roy, accusing him of rape...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
"Sex and the City and Us"
Are you a Carrie, a Samantha, a Charlotte or a Miranda? If you know the answer to that question, chances are you’re a fan of Sex and the City.
Airing on HBO from 1998-2004, Sex and the City followed the lives of four women living in New York City as they navigated the worlds of dating, sex and relationships. The show became beloved for its witty dialog...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction
"The Other Mother"
In this new novel by Carol Goodman, the reader is immediately gripped by new mother Daphne’s doubt after the birth of her daughter Chloe. When she meets and strikes up a friendship with Laurel, one of the mothers in her new support group, Daphne finally feels hope and reassurance. Unfortunately, events that Daphne never could of predicted lead her to run....
"David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants"
This non-fiction selection is really a discussion about the art of winning (success). The author starts with a description and analysis of the original (Biblical) "battle" between David and Goliath. The author hypothesizes that, seemingly weaker David, won over the giant (in physical respects) Goliath because quite actually, he used his already...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction
"The Soup & Bread Cookbook"
'Whether you love hearty stews and warm bread in the winter or cold soups in the summer, this is the book for you. This cookbook is subdivided into chapters for Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter based on what fresh produce is available. The soups are impressive and sophisticated (like my favorite the apple-brie soup) but may not appeal to everyone; children...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction, Cookbook
"The Boleyn Deceit"
In this sequel to “The Boleyn King,” Minuette, a lady in waiting to the future Elizabeth I, is caught between her love for Dominic Courtenay and William (the fictional King Henry IX of England), who becoming increasingly obsessed with her and wants to make her his queen. Treasonous plots add a political undercurrent to the love triangle.
Andersen...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction
"Jack The Ripper: The Terrible Legacy"
Many know of the five women brutally killed by Jack the Ripper in London in 1888. However, the failure to bring the killer to justice left many unintentional victims in its wake. Conspiracies abounded about who was responsible for the crime. Numerous men were falsely accused of being Jack the Ripper. Many more were tainted by connections, however tenuous,...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction, History, True Crime
"The Far Away Brothers"
Author Lauren Markham's deeply reported book tells the story of identical twins, the Flores brothers, who migrate from their home in El Salvador to California, not only to escape the violence of their native land but also in an effort to help their parents and siblings who stay behind in El Salvador. A mix of Markham's own firsthand accounts and...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction, Biography
"The Kiss Quotient"
Stella Lane is a 30-year-old econometrician who is better at predicting customer purchase trends than dating. Stella is fine with this, despite her parents wishes for her to find a mate. As a person with Asperger's, dating does not come as easy to Stella as math does. In fact, Stella compares French kissing to a shark getting it's teeth...
"Magnolia Table: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering"
This is a cookbook straight out of the very real kitchen of Joanna Gaines with recipes you know that she has made many times! I am, in general, a fan of the Gaines Family and have watched several installments of their TV show Fixer Upper. I picked up this cookbook more out of curiosity than anything else. These days I have found that many...
Audience: Adults | Genre: Nonfiction, Cookbook
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