Book Bingo Round-Up! My 23 Books of 2023
Laura, Center for Brooklyn History, Center for Brooklyn History
While the very first book I finished in 2023 was for BPL’s Book Bingo game, I crammed most of the squares into the last three months of the year, furiously flipping pages to complete my bingo card. And I can very happily say that, despite my procrastination, I completed the whole thing—bonus square included! Here’s my 2023 BPL Book Bingo list in the order in which I read them, and with the corresponding bingo category in bold: I began with a classic graphic novel in January, Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman, which I purchased from Books Are Magic on Smith Street. It was a somber read, but I’…
Spoonable Wonders: Cookbooks to Carry You Through the Cold Months
A fig tree beside my building fruits in late August. If both hands are free, and private property isn’t sacred to you, either, you can munch figs while plucking their Matisse-shaped leaves to wrap fish in for dinner later. Fall begins when the fruits shrivel and plop to the sidewalk. This is now. Nature is telegraphing that it’s time for soaking beans, preheating ovens and waking the heavy beast that is the cast iron pot. Staying warm indoors is the goal of autumn cooking. So too, perhaps, is making a meal that requires one table setting: a spoon. For that, you cannot go wrong with the books…
Make Fall Fun with BPL
Ahhh....autumn in Brooklyn! Ideally the season means crunchy leaves, sugary apple cider donuts, and sunny walks through Prospect Park. I love to plan trips upstate for hiking and pumpkin picking and excitedly swap out my summer dresses and sandals for sweaters and boots. Unfortunately, a New York fall can also look like rain-soaked leaves and chilly weekends where you're better off staying inside instead of searching your closet for waterproof shoes. Luckily, the Library has tons of books and programs to carry us through the wind, chill, and precipitation so we can…
Audiobooks for Your August Adventures
It’s that time of year, when New Yorkers with a car are headed out of town for beaches, mountains, tents—anywhere that isn’t miles of uninterrupted concrete and squashed lanternflies—while those who don’t have wheels are making beelines for New York City’s great parks, equipped with cold beverages, blankets, and the desire not to use one’s eyes for anything other than cloud-gazing and staring into long, green blades of grass. If you’re like me, you like to have a story to disappear into as you do all this escaping and relaxing (and because you’re reading a library blog, you probably are like…
This Is How You Lose the Time War (and Win at Book Publicity)
It all started with a Tweet. Twitter user @maskofbun posted a picture of This Is How You Lose the Time War, a 2019 novel by Amal El Mohtar and Max Gladstone. The tweet said: read this. DO NOT look up anything about it. just read it. it's only like 200 pages u can download it on audible it's only like four hours. do it right now i'm very extremely serious. pic.twitter.com/Pzb2FWvFlg — bigolas dickolas woIfwood (@maskofbun) May 7, 2023 And the Internet paid attention. A book that got reasonable critical acclaim when it was first published has now rocketed up sales…
Celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month with Yiddish Fiction in Translation
In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month, here are some books to check out from Brooklyn Public Library that are Yiddish fiction in translation. You will find the themes in these stories are not foreign to today’s reader; they focus on the immigrant experience, women’s issues, love, fitting in and standing out, and the inner mind. Oedipus in Brooklyn and Other Stories was written by the Galician-born Yiddish female writer Blume Lempel (1907-1999) and translated from Yiddish by Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub. Lempel moved to Paris in 1929 and emigrated to the United States in…
It's Complicated: A Mother's Day Booklist
Today we’re considering literature that spotlights complex and chaotic motherhood through themes of upheaval and diaspora, shame and the supernatural. Being a mother is intense (understatement) and these titles take it seriously, using it as a springboard for creating rich, challenging art. So we don’t skim over books in which motherhood is the least complicating factor characters deal with: try Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street (1984), in which Esperanza’s artistic, kind mother is a protective presence in abrasive surroundings. Or Jan Morris’s Conundrum (1974), in which receiving…
The Poetry of Hip-Hop
What counts as poetry? Is it always tidy print marching down the path to find two roads diverging in the woods then stopping to wait for a death metaphor? Is it a barbaric yawp from the best minds of your generation from a poet who doesn’t even know it? What if we went beyond the confines of Western Lit 101 to uncover poetry that resonates with us now? At the most fundamental level, hip-hop and poetry both play with sound, turning them into meaning and then back to sound again, declaimed alone or to the sound of a drum machine or coiled inside a catchy song, verse/rhythm/rhyme from Tupac…
Make Spring Fun with Brooklyn Public Library
Let me get this out of the way first: spring is my least favorite season. I think it’s a tease. If it’s gray and frigid in the morning, you’ll be sweating through your work shirt and squinting in the sun by the afternoon. Sure, there are daffodils and magnolia trees—but are the buds really worth the sneeze sessions that come with them? Easter egg hunts were fun when we were kids, but now I contemplate lanternfly egg hunts, and spring is full of trepidation! But I don’t want to be the curmudgeon who wears turtlenecks until Memorial Day. I’d like to be the kind of person who delights in the…
A New Direction in Women's Liberation
My family thought I would be different than the other Neal women. I was born in 1979: disco was waning, hip-hop was burgeoning, and punk was morphing into New Wave. The dust was settling on many revolutions. It was a period of coasting on the waves of all that was won for the women before me. I took advantage of the opportunities afforded to Gen X women. I moved around the country at will and without care. I was the first in my immediate family to earn a bachelor's degree and then the first to receive a graduate degree. I've sat in rooms with corporate executives; I have my own stock…
Make Winter Fun with Brooklyn Public Library
Struggling with the post-holiday blues? Brooklyn Public Library offers a variety of free activities that can help you stay busy, engaged and warm this season—here are just a few! Culture Pass There are dozens of arts and cultural activities you can access completely free of charge by making a reservation through Culture Pass! Sign in with your library card credentials at culturepass.nyc and you’ll find free passes for more than 75 different locations around the city. You can use Culture Pass to visit museums, take a brisk stroll through the Brooklyn Botanic Garden or Wave…
Protect Yourself! Resources for NYC Library Privacy Week
Once again it's Library Privacy Week here in New York City! This is the time of year when New Yorkers can take advantage of an extra concentration of classes and other resources at library branches throughout the city, as well as virtually. Library Privacy Week is an initiative of NYC Digital Safety, a collaborative project of Brooklyn Public Library, the New York Public Library, Queens Public Library, and METRO Library Council that helps train library staff to be reliable sources of information on digital privacy and security. Want to dive into some of these resources yourself?…
What We’re Reading on the 10th Anniversary of Hurricane Sandy
Bound by the Atlantic Ocean and the Hudson Estuary, the land on which New York City sits has always been a place defined by water. But it wasn’t until the devastation of Superstorm Sandy, which hit New York 10 years ago this week, that many of us began to understand what being surrounded by water means for our city’s safety and future. Superstorm Sandy, which made landfall in New York City on October 29th, 2012, devastated neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs. Streets, houses and subway stations were overwhelmed with water as New York’s aging infrastructure faced historic storm surges…
Halloween BookMatch! Costume-Based Reading Recommendations
Muse, TRS, TRS
What are you going to be for Halloween?! Much like an astrological sign, a Halloween costume can reveal an awful lot about a person—so in the spirit of spooky season, step into Off the Shelf's office and we'll advise what book pairs best with your holiday attire. Psst! Don't see your costume on the list? Try the Library's free BookMatch service to receive personalized book recommendations for your friends, your family and even your most fiendish foes! VAMPIRE Fledgling written by Octavia E. Butler You thought I was going to say Dracula, right? While it is a classic, I…