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Running the rift : a novel / |
 Naomi Benaron was awarded the Bellwether Prize, an award recently founded by Barbara Kingsolver to support an unpublished novel that addresses social responsibility (past winners include Mudbound by Hillary Jordan and The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow). Those excellent novels are now in good company: this year's winning novel, Running the Rift, is set in the early 1990s just before the Rwandan genocide. The protagonist, Jean Patrick Nkuba, is a gifted runner with a shot at representing his country at the Olympics, but the strained relationship between Hutu and Tutsi threatens to destroy Jean Patrick's family and country. Benaron manages to create a nuanced, engaging portrait of a country on the brink and its inhabitants. Jean Patrick has the same concerns as other young men (love, school, and sports) despite the landscape of political turmoil that surrounds him. Benaron gracefully infuses a tragic moment in history with humanity and ultimately hope. Fans of the The Kite Runner will find much to admire in the work, and book clubs will find much to discuss. (Also available in additional formats.) |
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Just my type : a book about fonts / |
For centuries font knowledge was held by those ink-stained few who toiled in printing, but ever since the personal computing revolution, the masses have had direct access to fonts. Many of us have become fascinated by our options. What's their history? What does it matter which one you choose? This book is filled with breezy, bite-size chapters covering a dazzling array of fun font facts, including which ones are used by major magazines, newspapers, political campaigns (did Obama's use of Gotham give him the edge?), corporations and even the London Underground (Johnston Sans); how fonts changed in the computer age; and how experts selected which fonts to use on highway signage. You'll also learn how font geeks identify fonts on the street, grade movies for getting their fonts wrong, and create viral videos full of insider font humor. (Ever wonder why Comic Sans is considered a joke?) History's great font designers are also profiled. Fans of the recent hit documentary Helvetica (also recommended) will definitely want to check out this fun, compulsively readable tour of the world of fonts. |
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The swerve : how the world became modern / |
In this National Book Award-winning history, Greenblatt (Will in the World) focuses on the dawn of the Renaissance and one Poggio Bracciolini, a 15C Italian humanist, papal secretary and book hunter, who tracked down ancient works in danger of disappearing from civilization. Notably, Bracciolini rescued a moldering copy of Lucretius's On the Nature of Things, a Latin poem from the ancient Epicurean school of thought that posited several concepts you might be startled to learn were being thought about two thousand years ago such as: the atomic structure of the universe, natural selection, and the denial of an afterlife. Poggio and his fellow humanists rescued such texts from oblivion, setting the stage for later thinkers from Machiavelli to Montaigne to usher in the modern world. Though dealing with ancient history, Greenblatt's writing is anything but dusty, and he brings subjects from papal history to medieval monastic practice to life with verve. One of this year's much celebrated books. |
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Skipping a beat : a novel / |
Julie and Michael Dunhill are seemingly living the rags to riches American dream, but the love has gone out of their relationship. After a not-yet 40 Michael has a heart attack and spends over four minutes dead (technically, anyway), he has a complete, Scrooge-like change of heart and embarks on changing his life - including dispersing the couple's fortune. So after years of neglect, is there any reason for Julie to stay? Can Michael woo her back? Pekkanen's characters are nuanced, and this drama is a surprisingly moving look at a marriage. |
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Rules of civility / |
Katey Kotnet is visiting an art gallery in 1966 when a photograph takes her back to her younger years in New York City, when she was a smartly-dressed working girl drinking cocktails and listening to jazz bands with her pal Eve. The lives of the two young women were changed during a chance encounter with a handsome bachelor, Tinker Grey, on New Year's Eve 1937. Reminiscent of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Towles's period detail and snappy dialogue are delightful. The characters, witty and stylish, prove intoxicating in this breezy fictional narrative of glorious New York, New York. (Also available in additional formats.) |
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The warmth of other suns : the epic story of America's great migration / |
The Great Migration of African Americans in the 20C from the Jim Crow South to the relative opportunity of northern cities had an enormous impact on Chicago history and helped make our city the exceedingly diverse, cultural place that it is. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson's popular 2010 bestseller blends academic research with captivating oral history to give us a page-turning and informative narrative of this chapter of American history. Wilkerson conducted scores of interviews but focuses on the stories of three fascinating individuals, making this book lively and accessible, not like some dry homework assignment. Wilkerson visited Chicago Public Library, and gave an excellent talk, accessible online. For many more outstanding reading suggestions, see Chicago Public Library's African American History Month page. (Also available in additional formats.) |