Enjoy Westmont Public Library’s Adult Services Librarians favorite books we read in 2019!

Full Throttle by Joe Hill

My favorite story out of the anthology was “Late Returns”. In it, a man finds that not everyone to whom he delivers books for his local library are from the present. He changes each of their lives with the stories he shares. This is Hill at his most heartfelt and the story serves as a love letter to librarians that truly spoke to me. More gruesome are stories like the opening “Throttle” or the socio political commentary of “Wolverton Station”. “In the Tall Grass” was adapted into a horrific Netflix original film and the somber “By the Silver Waters of Lake Champlain” was made into a short film in the horror anthology series Creepshow (2019). Joe’s introduction to the anthology is as interesting as any of the stories in this collection. Most interesting were his anecdotes from his time on the set of the film Creepshow (1982) as a young child with his father Stephen King. Check this one out!

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Twelve years ago, a red star named Calamity appeared in the sky. Its appearance coincided with people manifesting all sorts of comic book hero style powers. These people are called Epics. Ten years ago, an Epic named Steelheart went berserk, killed a whole bunch of people and turned Chicago and Lake Michigan into solid metal. David Charleston was at ground zero of that incident. He saw Steelheart murder his father. Now, David has one goal in life. Killing Steelheart. Easier said than done. Steelheart is basically invincible. But David saw something the day of the incident that no one else alive has seen. He saw Steelheart bleed.

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

 

A unique and gentle story translated from the Japanese novel follows the relationship of a young man, Satoru, who befriends a stray cat, whom he gifts with the name of Nana. However, after five years Satoru suddenly packs up his apartment and goes travelling with Nana to visit several of his friends – who live in diverse areas in Japan. What is the reason for the suddenness of their leaving and why is there a time limit on finding another home for the cat? Told in alternating voices where the dogs and cats converse with one another (unbeknownst to the humans) I found myself caught up not in the reason behind the journeys, but with the beauty of revitalizing the friendships in our lives which comfort and delight us. Not just for cat and dog lovers!

The Volunteer: One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather

 

This is an extremely well researched story about a mostly unknown Polish war hero, Witold Pilecki, during WWII. Pilecki was a resistance fighter with the Polish Underground. In 1940 his mission was to take on a fake identity, get captured, and be sent to Auschwitz. Once he arrived he was to gather information, report back, and somehow execute an attack from within. While inside, Pilecki built an army of his own who worked to sabotage, and even assassinate, Nazi officers. Pilecki was motivated by pure patriotism and a love for Poland, but once he realized the true purpose of the camp, to exterminate all of Europe’s Jews, his mission took on a bigger and more important meaning.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

 

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Carreyrou’s deep investigation into the infamous Theranos and it’s founder Elizabeth Holmes should be on everyone’s shortlist to read. From the company’s purported benefits and research to Holmes’s practice of running Theranos on a culture of fear and paranoia, Carreyrou uncovers it all with compelling storytelling. Bad Blood is proof that sometimes truth is altogether stranger and more compelling than the best fiction.

Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s by Tiffany Midge

 

Tiffany Midge’s collection of stories of her life are piercing, uproarious, quixotic, and deep. If you’re a reader that loves quick vignettes packed with the politics of our time, from an indigenous woman’s experience, presented in snarky and profound lines that will make you laugh and think, this is a must read. In the pages are memories of her troubled father, the world of stage acting, and the author’s constant bewilderment of fitting into a white world that doesn’t understand indigenous culture except to appropriate it. Told in “tweets,” short stories, and satirical essays, there is never a dull moment in this biography. Tiffany Midge has written a book that glows brighter with every joke, if we are able to laugh at the sad truth of genocide, racism, and erasure of Native American culture. I thoroughly enjoyed this new collection, as much as any David Sedaris or Sarah Vowell book I’ve devoured. For fans of sardonic humor, dysfunctional family memoirs, and astute observers of human behavior.

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