It’s just one week until our next session of Rave Reviews at Riverside Branch! Last month we had a particularly nice meeting with lots of lively discussion about books and reading. As always, I shared some of my favourite recent reads but this month I was lucky enough to take down a few suggestions from participants too!
It’s always a pleasure running this program but I do particularly enjoy when others bring favourite and opinions. Most of us had read Margaret Atwood‘s The Testaments.
This month’s picks are as follows
The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel
by Margaret Atwood with art by Renee Nault
A visual retelling of one of my all-time favourite books. This interpretation is beautiful and haunting and is a nice, quick way to be introduced to Atwood’s work as well as a fun refresher for fans of the book. The graphic format allows Nault’s imagery to provide another immersive world for the book that’s different from the film and television series and is quite haunting.
by Jen Beagin
A cute book with a vaguely suggestive cover and some of the most surprising and naughty stories I’ve read in ages. I read it back to back with Maid by Stephanie Land and found the juxtaposition fascinating.
After the death of her mother a social worker finds the bodies of two adolescent girls in a deep freezer. Needless to say, it’s dark.
by Rosella Postorino; translated from the Italian by Leah Janeczko
This story is based loosely on that of Margot Wölk, a young German who was among 15 women whose job it was to taste test Hitler’s food to ensure that it was safe from poison. The women eat together — testing delicious foods not normally available during the war — and then sit for hours to determine whether or not the food is poisoned. Rivetting.
by Kate Walbert
After causing the death of her best friend in a reckless accident, a teenager finishes her studies at a boarding school. She quickly finds her guilt and loneliness makes her easy bait for a predatory faculty member. Reports of the abuse do nothing to ameliorate the situation. It’s easy to tell this was written during the height of the #metoo movement and it’s yet another example of why it was necessary.
Join us on Wednesday March 11th at 2:30pm for more Rave Reviews. We’ll be meeting in the downstairs meeting room at the Riverside branch of the Windsor Public Library located at 6305 Wyandotte St E. I hope to see you there!
