Librarians at Baltimore County Public Library are always ready to share recommendations to help you discover your next great read.
For more suggestions, join us for our Virtual Books and Conversation on the fourth Wednesday of each month at 2 p.m. Find information on this and other book-related programs on our events page at bcpl.info/events-and-programs.
Lori Hench’s Picks
“Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools” by Mary Annette Pember
After the Civil War, the United States saw Native Americans as impeding westward expansion; one grim “solution” was the Indian boarding schools.
In “Medicine River,” Pember, a citizen of the Red Cliff Band of the Wisconsin Ojibwe and a journalist, writes about her family, particularly her mother who was placed at one such school in Wisconsin.
The schools’ overarching philosophy was “kill the Indian in him to save the man,” which meant total assimilation into white culture. Pember explores the generational trauma caused by this message, hammered into her mother, that because she was Indian, she was fundamentally wrong.
She examines historic and contemporary federal policies around Native Americans, delineating their widespread lasting damage, and she offers steps to address the acculturation and, hopefully, move toward healing.
This is a must-read for a deeper understanding of American history.
“Like Happiness” by Ursula Villarreal-Moura
Explores issues of power dynamics in an unbalanced relationship relative to age, fame and manipulation.
College student Tatum writes a letter of appreciation to famous older author M. Dominguez, whose iconic work “Happiness” was, for her, the first to mirror her experience as a Chicana.
Surprisingly, Mateo responds, suggests they meet and a long-term, intense, mostly platonic, relationship ensues … until a betrayal.
When a journalist contacts Tatum after Mateo is accused of sexual assault, Tatum reviews their relationship through her older adult perspective, understanding she’d spent 10 years as Mateo’s handmaid while sublimating her ambition, intelligence and desires into adoration and emotional support.
It’s an immersive and thoughtful story ideal for a book club.
Paula Gallagher’s Picks
“This Is the Only Kingdom” by Jaquira Díaz
Known for her raw and honest memoir “Ordinary Girls,” Díaz sets her debut novel in the same public housing project in Puerto Rico where she grew up.
In 1975, 16-year-old Maricarmen babysits and cleans apartments after school to help her single mother pay the rent. She falls hard for Rey Ojeda, a charismatic young Black man well known for his musical talent, his generosity to friends and neighbors in their tight-knit working class community, and his illegal activities.
Soon Mari is pregnant, making a home for Rey and his toddler brother Tito. Violence upends their lives, perpetuating another generation of family trauma.
Fifteen years later, her daughter Nena lives in Miami Beach with her strict maternal grandmother, struggling with her sexual identity in a culture that demonizes queerness.
Díaz crafts an engaging story of complex relationships between mothers and daughters while exploring the ongoing repercussions of colonialism in Puerto Rico.
Readers will find much to discuss in this immersive novel.
“The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” by Stephen Graham Jones
Jones’ latest novel is a literary vampire Western, a wild ride of a twisty saga based on true events.
Those who prefer horror with substance will be drawn into the newly discovered 1912 diary of Lutheran minister Arthur Beaucarne, read in 2012 by his ancestor, a junior professor who hopes the document will be her ticket to tenure.
Beaucarne relates his work with Good Stab, a disturbed member of the Blackfeet tribe. Good Stab, a second narrator, self-describes as “the worst dream America ever had,” the Indian who can’t die.
Bitten decades earlier by a caged creature brought by white settlers, Good Stab has become superhuman and immortal. He satisfies his bloodlust by preying on the hunters decimating the herds of buffalo revered by his people.
Jones gives readers much to mull over, with a complex plot, a dose of humor, and questions of morality and humanity.
Not for the faint of heart, “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” will thrill fans of Ryan Coogler’s film “Sinners.”
