#Jax Stacks - October 2023
Welcome to a new month of the 2023 Jax Stacks Reading Challenge! We are going to give you suggestions for each* category in the challenge every month so that you always have a great library book waiting for you when you need it. Check our blog every month for a new round of ideas, and feel free to share your progress and recommendations on social media using #jaxstacks.
Never miss a book recommendation or event!
#Jax Stacks Book Club
Share what you're reading with other Jax Stacks readers at our monthly Jax Stacks Reading Challenge Book Club. Each month we will highlight and discuss one or two categories at the book club. You are welcome to share whatever books you’re reading as long as they count for the challenge.
New Location!
Join us at West Branch Library on Saturday, October 14 @ 2 p.m., to discuss “A book banned in the last 10 years” and “A book by a Nobel Prize winner.”
A book written before 2000:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff. Growing up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn, New York demanded fortitude. Often scorned by neighbors for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior―such as her father Johnny’s taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce―no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans’ life lacked drama.
A book in a genre you don't usually read:
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
There are a lot of different levels of gore and existential fear in horror, and this book hits generally in the middle as it shares the story of four men targeted for revenge by a supernatural enemy.
A historical book set in Africa:
The Wanderer: The Last American Slave Ship and the Conspiracy That Set Its Sails by Erik Calonius
Built in 1856, the Wanderer began life as a luxury racing yacht. But within a year of its creation, the Wanderer was secretly converted into a slave ship, and, with the New York Yacht Club pennant still flying above as a diversion, sailed off to Africa. In 1858, it unloaded its cargo of over 400 African slaves onto Jekyll Island, Georgia, 38 years after the African slave trade had been made illegal.
A book in translation:
Bolla was written by Pajtim Statovci and translated by David Hackston (originally published in Finnish)
April 1995. Arsim is a twenty-four-year-old, recently married student at the University of Pristina, in Kosovo, keeping his head down to gain a university degree in a time and place deeply hostile to Albanians. In a café he meets a young man named Miloš, a Serb. Before the day is out, everything has changed for both of them, and within a week two milestones erupt in Arsim’s married life: his wife announces her first pregnancy and he begins a life in secret.
A book written by an author when they were under 30:
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
This novel was published in 2016, when Gyasi was 26
Two half sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into two different tribal villages in 18th century Ghana. Effia will be married off to an English colonial, and will live in comfort in the sprawling, palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle, raising half-caste children who will be sent abroad to be educated in England. Her sister, Esi, will be imprisoned beneath Effia in the Castle's women's dungeon and then shipped off on a boat bound for America, where she will be sold into slavery.
A book set in a place you want to visit:
Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
When her notorious, hilarious, volatile, talented, troubled, and agoraphobic mother goes missing, teenage Bee begins a trip that takes her from Seattle to the ends of the earth to find her.
A book read by a Library Book Club in 2023:
The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah
Sweetbitter meets The Nightingale in this page-turner about a woman who returns to her family's ancestral vineyard in Burgundy to study for her Master of Wine test and uncovers a lost diary, a forgotten relative, and a secret her family has been keeping since WWII.
Selected for the Nuts About Reading Book Club at West Branch Library. Join the discussion on November 21 at 6 p.m.
A book by a 2023 Lit Chat author:
The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian
Kit Webb has left his stand-and-deliver days behind him. But dreary days at his coffee shop have begun to make him pine for the heady rush of thievery. When a handsome yet arrogant aristocrat storms into his shop, Kit quickly realizes he may be unable to deny whatever this highborn man desires.
Appearing live at the Willow Branch Library and on Zoom October 17 at 6:30 p.m. Register for this and other October Lit Chats here!
A self-improvement, how-to or DIY book:
Whiplash: How to Survive our Faster Future by Jōichi Itō
The future will run on an entirely new operating system-- with a steep learning curve. The director of MIT's Media Lab and a contributor to "Wired" present a set of working principles for adapting and thriving in the face of the twenty-first century's rapidly changing and unpredictable digital environments.
A book with a non-human protagonist:
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
This story is like many others: It is the tale of a family dealing with the death of their father, of a son who goes to law for his inheritance, a son who agonizes over his father's deathbed confession, a daughter who falls in love, a daughter who becomes involved in the abolition movement, and a daughter sacrificing herself for her husband. Except you've never read a story like this. In this story, everyone is a dragon... red in tooth and claw!
A book banned in the last 10 years:
Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds
The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.
A book by a Nobel Prize winner:
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
Written by the winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature
Death in Venice is a novella written by the German author and Nobel laureate Thomas Mann, first published in 1912. The work follows the story of Gustav von Aschenbach, a successful but aging writer, who visits Venice and is liberated, uplifted, and then increasingly obsessed by the sight of a beautiful youth, a Polish teenage boy named Tadzio.
A book with illustrations:
Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel: A Biography by Judith Morgan
California journalists Neil and Judith Morgan present the authorized biography of the late Ted Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, the phenomenally successful, beloved author and illustrator of dozens of memorable children's books, including The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham.
A book under 300 pages:
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania. What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. From T. Kingfisher comes a gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's classic "The Fall of the House of Usher."
Reward Yourself
Are you close to completing the Jax Stacks Reading Challenge? You now have your choice between a Jax Stacks-branded tumbler or sunglasses (while supplies last). Be sure to send a picture with your completed bookmark to us at jplprograms@coj.net to claim your prize!
More Recommendations
Note: We can’t help you with “A book you’ve read and loved before”, but we’re happy to have you share them with us on social media! We love to see what folks are reading.
Second note: All of these recommendations can fit in the category “A book recommended by a library staff member," and we encourage you to seek out your local branch staff or request a personalized booklist for more recommendations.
