cookbooks

 

The next Reader’s Advisory Roundtable meeting will be on Zoom on Wednesday, February 10 at 9am and the topic up for discussion is inspirational fiction. 

As a reminder, you can find RART here in the blogosphere (how long has it been since you’ve seen that word?) at www.raroundtable.blogspot.com and on Facebook under RA Reading (www.facebook.com/jcplareadersadvisory.roundtable).

Yesterday, RART met to discuss cookbooks and it was lively!  And delicious!  COVID prevented us from having the usual holiday potluck, but maybe next year!

 

15 in attendance:

Holley W, O’Neal

Samuel R, BPL Springville Road

Judith W, Homewood

Leslie W, Homewood

Laura T, Homewood

Joi M, Vestavia

Melissa B, Homewood

Veronica C, Homewood

Maura D, Trussville

Heather C, Homewood

Shawn C, Pinson

Nicole L, Tarrant

Riana M, Pinson

Tamiko N, BPL

Martella N, Center Point

 

Salt Fat Acid Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat      

A visionary new master class in cooking that distills decades of professional experience into just four simple elements, from the woman declared “America’s next great cooking teacher” by Alice Waters.

Holley

The Lebanese Palate: Recipes and Traditions from Saint Elias Maronite Church

This title is not in the Jefferson County Library system, nor could I find it for sale online.  Contact St. Elias Church directly if you are interested! Recipes from The Ladies' Altar Society of St. Elias Maronite Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Includes the church history, historical photos, and blessings.

Holley

Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give a F*ck

Yeah, plenty of blogs and cookbooks preach about how to eat more kale, why ginger fights inflammation, and how to cook with microgreens and nettles. But they are dull or pretentious as hell—and most people can't afford the hype. Thug Kitchen lives in the real world. In their first cookbook, they're throwing down more than 100 recipes for their best-loved meals, snacks and sides for beginning cooks to home chefs.

Leslie

Magnolia Table by Joanna Gaines

Magnolia Table is infused with Joanna Gaines' warmth and passion for all things family, prepared and served straight from the heart of her home, with recipes inspired by dozens of Gaines family favorites and classic comfort selections from the couple's new Waco restaurant, Magnolia Table.

Leslie

Lidia’s Celebrate Like an Italian: 220 Foolproof Recipes That Make Every Meal a Party by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich

Beautifully illustrated throughout with full-color photographs and filled with her trademark warmth and enthusiasm, this is Lidia's most festive book. Whether you're planning a romantic picnic for two, a child's birthday party, a holiday gathering, or a simple weeknight family dinner, Lidia's flavorful, easy-to-follow recipes and advice will have you calling to your guests: "Tutti a tavola a mangiare!"

Samuel

The Mediterranean Slow Cooker by Michele Scicolone

With the combination of tradition, innovation, and ease that have made her recipes so popular, Michele Scicolone gathers intriguing dishes from every corner of the Mediterranean and streamlines them for the slow cooker.

Samuel

Middle Eastern Home Cooking: Quick, Easy, Delicious Recipes to Make at Home by Tess Mallos

With beautifully illustrated easy-to-follow recipes, Middle Eastern Home Cooking is the perfect guide for cooks of all abilities.

Samuel

Delish Ultimate Cocktails: Why Limit Happy to an Hour? By Joanna Saltz

100+ insanely great cocktail recipes for every occasion including margaritas, mimosas, martinis and more, each with a fresh and fun twist. Plus, super-creative boozy sweets!

Joi

Son of a Southern Chef: Cook with Soul by Lazarus Lynch

In his debut cookbook, Laz offers up more than 100 recipe hits with new takes on classic dishes. Packed with splashy color photography that pops off the page, this cookbook blends fashion, food, and storytelling to get readers into the kitchen. It's a Southern cookbook like you've never seen before.

Joi

Christmas with Kim-Joy: A Festive Collection of Edible Cuteness by Kim-Joy

Kim-Joy's baked creations have charmed fans since she was in the final of the Great British Bake Off 2018. Following on from her bestselling debut book, Baking with Kim-Joy, she's turning to everyone's favourite time of year – Christmas!

Joi

Nadiya Hussain’s “Bake Me a Story” children’s cookbook series

Join Great British Bake Off sensation Nadiya Hussain for scrumptious stories and delicious bakes that all the family can enjoy.

Laura

The Little Women Cookbook: Tempting Recipes from the March Sisters and Their Friends and Family by Wini Moranville

Here at last is the first cookbook to celebrate the scrumptious and comforting foods that play a prominent role in Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel Little Women. 

Laura

Niche/pop culture cookbooks:

The Golden Girls Cookbook, The Downton Abbey Cookbook, The Madmen Cookbook, The Harry Potter Cookbook, The Star Wars Cookbook, Chrissy Teigen’s cookbooks, the HungryGirl cookbooks

Shawn

The Power of Sprinkles: A Cake Book by the Founder of Flour Shop by Amirah Kassem

Flour Shop’s rainbow explosion cakes have become an international sensation! And now, with The Power of Sprinkles, Flour Shop Founder Amirah Kassem reveals the secrets to making her magical cakes at home.

Judith

The Wizard’s Dessert Cookbook: Magical Recipes Inspired by Harry Potter, The Hobbit, Fantastic Beasts, The Chronicles of Narnia, and More by Aurelia Beaupommier

From Hobbits to Willy Wonka to Ghostbusters, from Harry Potter to Merlin, wizards and fantastic creatures alike like to put a little sweetness in their daily lives. There are bites to snack and share, charming cookies and cakes, and divine desserts that are full of mystery!

Judith

The Perfect Cookie: Your Ultimate Guide to Foolproof Cookies, Brownies, and Bars edited by America’s Test Kitchen

America's Test Kitchen has years of experience making the very best cookies; in The Perfect Cookie, the test kitchen has collected all of that knowledge in one place for the definitive guide to cookie baking.

Judith

Let’s Make Ramen!: A Comic Book Cookbook by Hugh Amano

A comic book cookbook with accessible ramen recipes for the home cook, including simple weeknight bowls, weekend project stocks, homemade noodles, and an array of delicious accompaniments, with insights and tips from notable ramen luminaries.

Shawn

Cook Anime: Eat Like Your Favorite Character-From Bento to Yakisoba by Diana Ault

Learn to recreate delicious dishes referenced in over 500 of your favorite anime series with this practical guide to anime food.

Shawn

Paul Hollywood’s baking books

Heather

Sally’s Cookie Addiction: Irresistible Cookies, Cookie Bars, Shortbread, and More form the Creator of the Sally’s Baking Addiction Blog by Sally McKenney

Bake exquisite cookies, bars, and doughs perfectly every time with Sally's Cookie Addiction, the long-awaited follow-up to baking addict and food blogger Sally McKenney's popular cookbook, Sally's Baking Addiction. A world of baking wonder awaits you and all the lucky people you’ll share these treats with.

Heather

The Whole30 Slow Cooker: 150 Totally Compliant Prep-and-Go Recipes for Your Whole30 – With Instant Pot Recipes by Melissa Hartwig

The Whole30 Slow Cooker features delicious, no-fuss dinners that cook while you work; roasts that transform into tacos, salads, and soups, for easy meals throughout the week; and satisfying one-pot meals that make prep and cleanup a breeze. These creative meals use whole-food ingredients found in any supermarket, and as an added bonus, feature recipes and directions for making your meals Instant Pot-friendly!

Heather

Keto Instant Pot: 130+ Healthy Low-Carb Recipes for Your Electric Pressure Cooker or Slow Cooker by Maria Emmerich

 In this book, international bestselling author Maria Emmerich presents more than 160 delicious low-carb, high-fat keto recipes designed to be cooked in an Instant Pot or other multi-cooker. The recipes run the gamut from appetizers and sides to soups to main dishes to sweet treats and even a few drinks, along with some handy keto basics. As a bonus, Maria also includes slow-cooking instructions (which can be done either in the Instant Pot or in a separate slow cooker) for each recipe for those days when set-it-and-forget-it convenience takes precedence over the need for speed.

Heather

The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook edited by King Arthur Flour

The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion is the definitive kitchen resource. Exhaustive in scope, authoritative in style, and offering clear, practical, and encouraging instruction, it is the one book you'll turn to every time you bake. Like your set of measuring cups and favorite wooden spoon, it will become an essential kitchen tool. No kitchen in America should be without a copy.

Heather

Braided: A Journey of a Thousand Challahs by Beth Ricanati

What if you could bake bread once a week, every week? What if the smell of fresh bread could turn your house into a home? And what if the act of making the bread―mixing and kneading, watching and waiting―could heal your heartache and your emptiness, your sense of being overwhelmed? It can. This is the surprise that physician-mother Beth Ricanati learned when she started baking challah: that simply stopping and baking bread was the best medicine she could prescribe for women in a fast-paced world.

Heather

Will it Waffle?: 53 Irresistible and Unexpected Recipes to Make in a Waffle Iron by Daniel Shumski

How many great ideas begin with a nagging thought in the middle of the night that should disappear by morning, but doesn’t? For Daniel Shumski, it was: Will it waffle? Hundreds of hours, countless messes, and 53 perfected recipes later, that answer is a resounding: Yes, it will! Steak? Yes! Pizza? Yes! Apple pie? Emphatically yes.

Melissa

Cook Korean!: A Comic Book with Recipes by Robin Ha

A charming introduction to the basics of Korean cooking in graphic novel form, with 64 recipes, ingredient profiles, and more, presented through light-hearted comics.

Melissa

Bento Blast!: More Than 150 Cute and Clever Bento Box Meals for Your Kids by Li Ming Lee

With more than 160 step-by-step tutorials on how to assemble balanced bento boxes, create food art, and cook individual recipes that bridge the East and the West, Bento Blast turns food preparation into an art and makes eating fun again for both parent and child. 

Melissa

The SkinnyTaste cookbook series

Get the recipes everyone is talking about, handy nutrition facts, and stunning photographs in the cookbooks from the wildly popular blog Skinnytaste.

Riana

Cooking Light: The Essential Dinner Tonight Cookbook by the editors of Cooking Light

For quick, healthy, no-fuss recipes, home cooks count on Cooking Light The Essential Dinner Tonight Cookbook--the ultimate dinner guide for making, healthy tasty dishes in minutes using game plans, nutritional analyses, and over 350 recipes.

Riana

The Manga Cookbook, illustrated by Chihiro Hattori

Reading manga sure can make a person hungry! Food appears frequently in Japanese comics, but what exactly is it that the characters are eating? Introducing The Manga Cookbook, an illustrated step-by-step guide to preparing simple Japanese dishes using ingredients found in every Western kitchen.

Nicole

Rose Water and Orange Blossoms: Fresh & Classic Recipes from my Lebanese Kitchen by Maureen Abood

Pomegranates and pistachios. Floral waters and cinnamon. Bulgur wheat, lentils, and succulent lamb. These lush flavors of Maureen Abood's childhood, growing up as a Lebanese-American in Michigan, inspired Maureen to launch her award-winning blog, Rose Water & Orange Blossoms. Here she revisits the recipes she was reared on, exploring her heritage through its most-beloved foods and chronicling her riffs on traditional cuisine. 

Maura

See You on Sunday: A Cookbook for Family and Friends by Sam Sifton

From big meats to big pots, with a few words on salad, and a diatribe on the needless complexity of desserts, See You on Sunday is an indispensable addition to any home cook’s library. From how to shuck an oyster to the perfection of Mallomars with flutes of milk, from the joys of grilled eggplant to those of gumbo and bog, this book is devoted to the preparation of delicious proteins and grains, vegetables and desserts, taco nights and pizza parties.

Maura

The Duke’s Mayonnaise Cookbook: 75 Recipes Celebrating the Perfect Condiment by Ashley Strickland Freeman

Celebrate the South's favorite mayonnaise and learn how to cook with it in new delicious ways with this cookbook from food writer and Duke's lover Ashley Freeman.

Maura

 

GENERAL DISCUSSION

Youtube cooking shows: Sam the Cooking Guy, Mr. Make It Happen, Mandy in the Making, Roman’s Cooking Corner, FlavCity with Bobby Parrish, Joshua Weissman, Gourmet Makes

Japanese bento box cookbooks are very popular.

The Mealime meal planning website and app is fun. (www.mealime.com)

Blog: Sally’s Baking Addiction - https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/

NPR interview with author of “See You On Sunday: A Cookbook for Family and Friends,” Sam Sifton:

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/836907993/best-of-sam-sifton-on-quarantine-cooking-jason-bateman

Healthy cooking is in the bag with this list of delectable cookbooks, curated by the Homewood Public Library: https://hpladultservices.wordpress.com/2020/12/03/healthy-holiday-cooking/.  Or, abandon healthy and bake ALL THE COOKIES: https://hpladultservices.wordpress.com/2020/12/12/9777/

OUTSTANDING COOKING SHOWS

Somebody Feed Phil (Netflix)

"Everybody Loves Raymond" creator Phil Rosenthal travels the globe to take in the local cuisine and culture of Bangkok, Lisbon, Mexico City and more.

The Eater’s Guide to the World (Hulu)

Join narrator Maya Rudolph on a quest to find the most unexpected places to score an epic meal, while drinking and dining with the locals along the way.

Flavorful Origins (Netflix)

Embark on a delightful journey through the culinary traditions of China and uncover the stories of the people who create and cherish its dishes.

Ugly Delicious (Netflix)

All the flavor. None of the BS. Star chef David Chang leads friends on a mouthwatering, cross-cultural hunt for the world's most satisfying grub.      

Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi (Hulu)

In Taste the Nation, award winning cookbook author, host and executive producer Padma Lakshmi, takes audiences on a journey across America, exploring the rich and diverse food culture of various immigrant groups, seeking out the people who have so heavily shaped what American food is today.             

Samurai Gourmet (Netflix)

Recent retiree Takeshi rediscovers his passion for food and life by getting in touch with his inner warrior and eating what he truly desires.

 

 

illness and disability in fiction

The next Reader’s Advisory Roundtable meeting will be on Zoom on Wednesday, December 9th at 9am to discuss cookbooks. Our usual potluck coffee and snack meeting will be sorely missed!

Be on the lookout for a survey about the recent Staff Appreciation Week (SAW).  Please do share your thoughts and opinions with the JCPLA Executive Council.  We’ll likely be doing virtual/remote staff training for a while yet, so let us know what you’d like to see/hear and how you’d like to receive that content in the future. 

The JCPLA is in the initial stages of sharing our SAW content with the Alabama Library Association to benefit librarianship statewide!

No one volunteered or nominated another candidate for moderator, so Holley will continue as Reader’s Advisory Roundtable moderator for the 2020-2021 year. Meetings will continue on Zoom until further notice. 

The dates and topics for 2021 meetings are as follows:

February 10 – Religious/Inspirational Fiction
April 14 – Podcasts and Other Not-a-Book Recommendations
June 9 – LGBTQ Fiction & Nonfiction
August 11 – #ownvoices
October 13 – Bookclub Possibilities
December 8 – Award Winners

 

We met this week, Wednesday October 14th, on Zoom to talk about disability and mental health/illness in fiction.

11 in attendance:

Holley, O’Neal Library
Nicole, Tarrant Library
Shawn, Pinson Library
Nisha, Hoover/O’Neal libraries
Maura, Trussville Library
Laura, Homewood Library
Riana, Pinson Library
Alisha, Birmingham Public Library
Michelle, Irondale Library
Joi, Vestavia Library
Marsha, I did not record the location

 

The titles we discussed:

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick

No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine. 

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. 

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .the only way to survive is to open your heart. 

Holley, O’Neal Library
Michelle, Irondale Library

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

ONE OF TIME’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF 2019
NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2019 BY WOMAN’S DAY, NEWSDAY, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, BUSTLE, AND BOOK RIOT!

Bridget Jones’s Diary meets Americanah in this disarmingly honest, boldly political, and truly inclusive novel that will speak to anyone who has gone looking for love and found something very different in its place.

Queenie Jenkins is a twenty-five-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth. As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.

With “fresh and honest” (Jojo Moyes) prose, Queenie is a remarkably relatable exploration of what it means to be a modern woman searching for meaning in today’s world.

Shawn, Pinson Library

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, Eliza is LadyConstellation, anonymous creator of a popular webcomic called Monstrous Sea. With millions of followers and fans throughout the world, Eliza’s persona is popular. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves her digital community.

Then Wallace Warland transfers to her school and Eliza begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile. But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.

With pages from Eliza’s webcomic, as well as screenshots from Eliza’s online forums, this uniquely formatted book will appeal to fans of Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona and Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl. 

Riana, Pinson Library

The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf

Melati Ahmad looks like your typical movie-going, Beatles-obsessed sixteen-year-old. Unlike most other sixteen-year-olds though, Mel also believes that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who threatens her with horrific images of her mother's death unless she adheres to an elaborate ritual of counting and tapping to keep him satisfied.

But there are things that Melati can't protect her mother from. On the evening of May 13th, 1969, racial tensions in  her home city of Kuala Lumpur boil over. The Chinese and Malays are at war, and Mel and her mother become separated by a city in flames.

With a 24-hour curfew in place and all lines of communication down, it will take the help of a Chinese boy named Vincent and all of the courage and grit in Melati's arsenal to overcome the violence on the streets, her own prejudices, and her djinn's surging power to make it back to the one person she can't risk losing.

Riana, Pinson Library

What Comes After by Steve Watkins

After her veterinarian dad dies, sixteen-year-old Iris Wight must leave her beloved Maine to live on a North Carolina farm with her hardbitten aunt and a cousin she barely knows. Iris, a vegetarian and animal lover, immediately clashes with Aunt Sue, who mistreats the livestock, spends Iris’s small inheritance, and thinks nothing of striking Iris for the smallest offense.

Things come to a head when Iris sets two young goats free to save them from slaughter, and an enraged Aunt Sue orders her brutish son, Book, to beat Iris senseless - a horrific act that lands Book and his mother in jail. Sent to live with an offbeat foster family and their "dooking" ferrets, Iris must find a way to take care of the animals back at the farm, even if it means confronting Aunt Sue. Powerful and deeply moving, this compelling novel affirms the redemptive power of animals and the resilience of the human spirit.

Holley, O’Neal Library

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist,and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
Now being developed as a television series with Eva Longoria and ABC!
*An O, The Oprah Magazine's Best Nonfiction Book of 2019*  
*A People Magazine Book of the Week*
*An Apple Best Books Pick for April*
*An April IndieNext Pick*
*A Book of the Month Club Selection*
*A Publishers Marketplace Buzz Book*
*A Newsday, Apple iBooks, Thrive Global, Refinery29, 
and Book Riot Most Anticipated Book of 2019*

One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose of­fice she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.

As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients' lives -- a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can't stop hooking up with the wrong guys -- she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell.

With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is rev­olutionary in its candor, offering a deeply per­sonal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly reveal­ing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.

Michelle, Irondale Library

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye by Rachel Joyce

Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does, even down to how he butters his toast. Little differentiates one day from the next. Then one morning the mail arrives, and within the stack of quotidian minutiae is a letter addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl from a woman he hasn’t seen or heard from in twenty years. Queenie Hennessy is in hospice and is writing to say goodbye.
 
Harold pens a quick reply and, leaving Maureen to her chores, heads to the corner mailbox. But then, as happens in the very best works of fiction, Harold has a chance encounter, one that convinces him that he absolutely must deliver his message to Queenie in person. And thus begins the unlikely pilgrimage at the heart of Rachel Joyce’s remarkable debut. Harold Fry is determined to walk six hundred miles from Kingsbridge to the hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed because, he believes, as long as he walks, Queenie Hennessey will live.
 
Still in his yachting shoes and light coat, Harold embarks on his urgent quest across the countryside. Along the way he meets one fascinating character after another, each of whom unlocks his long-dormant spirit and sense of promise. Memories of his first dance with Maureen, his wedding day, his joy in fatherhood, come rushing back to him—allowing him to also reconcile the losses and the regrets. As for Maureen, she finds herself missing Harold for the first time in years. And then there is the unfinished business with Queenie Hennessy.
 
A novel of unsentimental charm, humor, and profound insight into the thoughts and feelings we all bury deep within our hearts, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry introduces Rachel Joyce as a wise—and utterly irresistible—storyteller.

Michelle, Irondale Library

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori

Shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Award
Longlisted for the Believer Book Award
Longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation
A Los Angeles Times Bestseller

The English-language debut of one of Japan’s most talented contemporary writers, selling over 650,000 copies there, Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life.

In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction―many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual―and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less. Managers come and go, but Keiko stays at the store for eighteen years. It’s almost hard to tell where the store ends and she begins. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action…

A brilliant depiction of an unusual psyche and a world hidden from view, Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.

Nicole, Tarrant Library
Joi, Vestavia Library

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce

In this poignant parallel story to Harold’s saga, acclaimed author Rachel Joyce brings Queenie Hennessy’s voice into sharp focus. Setting pen to paper, Queenie makes a journey of her own, a journey that is even bigger than Harold’s; one word after another, she promises to confess long-buried truths—about her modest childhood, her studies at Oxford, the heartbreak that brought her to Kingsbridge and to loving Harold, her friendship with his son, the solace she has found in a garden by the sea. And, finally, the devastating secret she has kept from Harold for all these years.

A wise, tender, layered novel that gathers tremendous emotional force, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy underscores the resilience of the human spirit, beautifully illuminating the small yet pivotal moments that can change a person’s life.
Michelle, Irondale Library

All the Greys on Greene Street by Laura Tucker

SoHo, 1981. Twelve-year-old Olympia is an artist--and in her neighborhood, that's normal. Her dad and his business partner Apollo bring antique paintings back to life, while her mother makes intricate sculptures in a corner of their loft, leaving Ollie to roam the streets of New York with her best friends Richard and Alex, drawing everything that catches her eye. Then everything falls apart.

Ollie's dad disappears in the middle of the night, leaving her only a cryptic note and instructions to destroy it. Her mom has gone to bed, and she's not getting up. Apollo is hiding something, Alex is acting strange, and Richard has questions about the mysterious stranger he saw outside. And someone keeps calling, looking for a missing piece of art. . . Olympia knows her dad is the key--but first, she has to find him, and time is running out.

Laura, Homewood Library

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

A stunning, heartbreaking debut novel about grief, love, and family, perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson and Celeste Ng.

Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird. Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time. There, she is determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents. And as she grieves, she must try to reconcile the fact that on the same day she kissed her best friend and longtime secret crush, Axel, her mother was taking her own life.

Alternating between real and magic, past and present, friendship and romance, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a stunning and heartbreaking novel about finding oneself through family history, art, grief, and love.

Nisha, Hoover/O’Neal libraries

Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman (and podcast)

A close friendship is one of the most influential and important relationships a human life can contain. Anyone will tell you that! But for all the rosy sentiments surrounding friendship, most people don’t talk much about what it really takes to stay close for the long haul.

Now two friends, Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, tell the story of their equally messy and life-affirming Big Friendship in this honest and hilarious book that chronicles their first decade in one another’s lives. As the hosts of the hit podcast Call Your Girlfriend, they’ve become known for frank and intimate conversations. In this book, they bring that energy to their own friendship—its joys and its pitfalls.

Aminatou and Ann define Big Friendship as a strong, significant bond that transcends life phases, geographical locations, and emotional shifts. And they should know: the two have had moments of charmed bliss and deep frustration, of profound connection and gut-wrenching alienation. They have weathered life-threatening health scares, getting fired from their dream jobs, and one unfortunate Thanksgiving dinner eaten in a car in a parking lot in Rancho Cucamonga. Through interviews with friends and experts, they have come to understand that their struggles are not unique. And that the most important part of a Big Friendship is making the decision to invest in one another again and again.

An inspiring and entertaining testament to the power of society’s most underappreciated relationship, Big Friendship will invite you to think about how your own bonds are formed, challenged, and preserved. It is a call to value your friendships in all of their complexity. Actively choose them. And, sometimes, fight for them.

Laura, Homewood Library

Aminatou and Ann have a podcast called Call Your Girlfriend, described as “a podcast for long distance besties everywhere.” https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/call-your-girlfriend/id881487725

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases—a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.

It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice—with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan—from foreplay to more-than-missionary position...

Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but crave all of the other things he's making her feel. Their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic...

Shawn, Pinson Library

The Bride Test by Helen Kwang

Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions—like grief. And love. He thinks he's defective. His family knows better—that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships, his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride.

As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can't turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn't go as planned. Esme's lessons in love seem to be working...but only on herself. She's hopelessly smitten with a man who's convinced he can never return her affection. With Esme's time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he's been wrong all along. And there's more than one way to love.

Joi, Vestavia Library

A Child Called It: One Child’s Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer

This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it."

Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive--dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son.

Shawn, Pinson Library

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

Talia Hibbert, one of contemporary romance’s brightest new stars, delivers a witty, hilarious romantic comedy about a woman who’s tired of being “boring” and recruits her mysterious, sexy neighbor to help her experience new things - perfect for fans of Sally Thorne, Jasmine Guillory, and Helen Hoang!

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost - but not quite - dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. The next items?

Enjoy a drunken night out.
Ride a motorcycle.
Go camping.
Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
And...do something bad.

But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job. Redford "Red" Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than 10,000 Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.

But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior.... 

Joi, Vestavia Library

Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert

One of Oprah Magazine's 21 Romance Novels That Are Set to Be the Best of 2020

Danika Brown knows what she wants: professional success, academic renown, and an occasional roll in the hay to relieve all that career-driven tension. But romance? Been there, done that, burned the T-shirt. Romantic partners, whatever their gender, are a distraction at best and a drain at worst. So Dani asks the universe for the perfect friend-with-benefits - someone who knows the score and knows their way around the bedroom.

When big, brooding security guard Zafir Ansari rescues Dani from a workplace fire drill gone wrong, it's an obvious sign: PhD student Dani and former rugby player Zaf are destined to sleep together. But before she can explain that fact to him, a video of the heroic rescue goes viral. Suddenly, half the internet is shipping #DrRugbae - and Zaf is begging Dani to play along. Turns out, his sports charity for kids could really use the publicity. Lying to help children? Who on earth would refuse? Dani's plan is simple: fake a relationship in public, seduce Zaf behind the scenes. The trouble is, grumpy Zaf is secretly a hopeless romantic - and he's determined to corrupt Dani's stone-cold realism. Before long, he's tackling her fears into the dirt. But the former sports star has issues of his own, and the walls around his heart are as thick as his...um, thighs.

The easy lay Dani dreamed of is now more complex than her thesis. Has her wish backfired? Is her focus being tested? Or is the universe just waiting for her to take a hint?

Joi, Vestavia Library

self help

 

The next JPCLA Reader’s Advisory Roundtable (RART) meeting will be on Zoom on Wednesday, October 14, 2020 at 9am and we’ll be discussing mental illness and disability in fiction.

Due to the recent internet outage the cooperative is experiencing this morning, the voting agenda for topics and moderator (should any one else have a wish to run) for 2021-22 has been pushed back to the October meeting.

Keep your email eyes peeled for the upcoming JCPLA Staff Appreciation Week the end of September.  Your executive committee is hard at work crafting quality content for you! If you or your library offers online form-based reader’s advisory, or any other virtual RA, do let me know at hwesley@oneallibrary.org.

This morning, RART met on Zoom for a discussion of self-help titles. All blurbs pulled from amazon.com unless otherwise noted.

Thirteen in attendance:

Holley W, O’Neal
Paul C, BPL Southside
Loretta J, BPL Powderly
Tamiko N, BPL North Birmingham
Lynn H, BPL Central
Beth L, BPL Central Southern History
Nicole L, Tarrant
Erika W, BPL Smithfield
Jiemin F, BPL Central Circulation
Shawn C, Pinson
Leigh W, BPL North Birmingham
I did not catch a library name for Jackie N and Lawana R. 

Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney

One of the world's most esteemed and influential psychologists, Roy F. Baumeister, teams with New York Times science writer John Tierney to reveal the secrets of self-control and how to master it.

Holley, O’Neal Library

The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future by Ryder Carroll

New York Times bestseller! A powerful goal-setting and time-management system for anyone trying to organize their lives by the founder of the enormously popular Bullet Journal® planner.

Lynn, BPL Central

What a Time to Be Alone: The Slumflower’s Guide to Why You Are Already Enough by Chidera Eggerue

Peppered with insightful Igbo proverbs from Chidera's Nigerian mother and full of her own original artwork, What A Time To Be Alone will help you navigate the modern world. We can all decide our own fates and Chidera shows us how, using a three part approach filled with sass, wisdom, and charm.

Shawn, Pinson

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control – from the author of The Laws of Human Nature.

Shawn, Pinson

Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life by Henry Cloud and John Townsend

In the New York Times bestseller, Boundaries, Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend help you learn when to say yes and know how to say no in order to take control of your life and set healthy, biblical boundaries with your spouse, children, friends, parents, co-workers, and even yourself.

Shawn, Pinson

Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself by Melody Beattie

With instructive life stories, personal reflections, exercises, and self-tests, Codependent No More is a simple, straightforward, readable map of the perplexing world of codependency--charting the path to freedom and a lifetime of healing, hope, and happiness.

Shawn, Pinson

Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too by Jomny Sun

Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too is the illustrated story of a lonely alien sent to observe Earth, only to meet all sorts of creatures with all sorts of perspectives on life, love, and happiness, all while learning to feel a little better about being an alien—based on the enormously popular Twitter account, @jonnysun.

Holley, O’Neal Library

On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy and Their Own Families by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

One of the most important psychological studies of the late twentieth century, On Death and Dying grew out of Dr. Kübler-Ross’s famous interdisciplinary seminar on death, life, and transition. In this remarkable book, Dr. Kübler-Ross first explored the now-famous five stages of death: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Through sample interviews and conversations, she gives readers a better understanding of how imminent death affects the patient, the professionals who serve that patient, and the patient's family, bringing hope to all who are involved.

Leigh, BPL North Birmingham

The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth by M. Scott Peck

Written in a voice that is timeless in its message of understanding, The Road Less Traveled continues to help us explore the very nature of loving relationships and leads us toward a new serenity and fullness of life. It helps us learn how to distinguish dependency from love; how to become a more sensitive parent; and ultimately how to become one’s own true self.

Holley, O’Neal Library

Safe People: How to Find Relationships that are Good for You and Avoid Those That Aren’t by Henry Cloud and John Townsend

Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend offer solid guidance for making safe choices in relationships, from family to friendship, romance, and work. 

Loretta, BPL Powderly

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing I the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin

In this lively and compelling account, Rubin chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. Among other things, she found that novelty and challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that money can help buy happiness, when spent wisely; that outer order contributes to inner calm; and that the very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference.

Holley, O’Neal Library

Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be by Rachel Hollis

Rachel is real and talks about real issues. More than that, she reveals the specific practical strategies that helped her move past them. In the process, she encourages, entertains, and even kicks a little butt, all to convince you to do whatever it takes to get real and become the joyous, confident woman you were meant to be. Because you really can live with passion and hustle – and give yourself grace without giving up.

Shawn, Pinson

Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals by Rachel Hollis

With a challenge to women everywhere to stop talking themselves out of their dreams, Hollis identifies the excuses to let go of, the behaviors to adopt, and the skills to acquire on the path to growth, confidence, and believing in yourself.

Shawn, Pinson

The 50th Law by 50 Cent and Robert Greene (not available in the JCLC system)

In The 50th Law, hip hop and pop culture icon 50 Cent (aka Curtis Jackson) joins forces with Robert Greene, best-selling author of The 48 Laws of Power, to write a "bible" for success in life and work, based on a single principle: fear nothing. This deeply inspirational book is perfect for entrepreneurs as well as anyone interested in the extraordinary life of Curtis Jackson.

 

Shawn, Pinson

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz

In The Four Agreements, bestselling author don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.

Jiemin, BPL Central Circuation

The Vortex: Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships by Esther & Jerry Hicks

This book uncovers a myriad of false premises that are at the heart of every uncomfortable relationship issue, and guides you to a clear understanding of the powerful creative Vortex that has already assembled the relationships that you have desired. 

Jiemin, BPL Central Circulation

What Color is Your Parachute?: A Practical Manual for Job Hunters and Career-Changers by Richard N. Bolles

With more than 10 million copies sold in 28 countries, the world's most popular job-search book is updated each year, tailoring Richard Bolles's long-trusted guidance with up-to-the-minute information and advice for today's job-hunters and career-changers.

Leigh, BPL North Birmingham

 

GENERAL DISCUSSION:

Books coauthored by Henry Cloud and John Townsend

Brene Brown’s work

Those expletives books:

The Badass series of books by Jen Sincero

Unfu*k Yourself series of books by Gary John Bishop

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson

steampunk

The next Reader’s Advisory Roundtable meeting will be Wednesday, August 12th at 9am and the topic up for discussion is the self-help collection. Feel free to choose whatever you’d like: nonfiction, documentary, audiobook, fiction…the format is up to you!

The original plan was for meeting at the Trussville Library but, of course, I have no way of predicting whether we will meet at Trussville, have the meeting on Zoom, or a combination of both.  I will go ahead and promise that if we have an in-person meeting, I will also broadcast it via Zoom as well.

Today we discussed steampunk.  It was a small, yet lively group!

Total attendance: 13

Holley W, Emmet O’Neal
Elizabeth W, BPL Southern History
Mary Anne E, BPL Southern History
Lynn H, BPL Central Info/Circ
Jiemin F, BPL Central Circ
Stephanie B, Hoover Fiction Dept
Krysten G, Hoover Fiction Dept
Leigh W, BPL North Birmingham
William D, BPL East Lake
Paul C, BPL Southside

and 3 anonymous 😊

Annotations are pulled from amazon.com unless otherwise noted.

The Steampunk Bible: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Imaginary Airships, Corsets and Goggles, Mad Scientists, and Strange Literature by Jeff VanderMeer and S.J. Chambers

Steampunk—a grafting of Victorian aesthetic and punk rock attitude onto various forms of science-fiction culture—is a phenomenon that has come to influence film, literature, art, music, fashion, and more. The Steampunk Bible is the first compendium about the movement, tracing its roots in the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells through its most recent expression in movies such as Sherlock Holmes. Its adherents celebrate the inventor as an artist and hero, re-envisioning and crafting retro technologies including antiquated airships and robots. A burgeoning DIY community has brought a distinctive Victorian-fantasy style to their crafts and art. Steampunk evokes a sense of adventure and discovery, and embraces extinct technologies as a way of talking about the future. This ultimate manual will appeal to aficionados and novices alike as author Jeff VanderMeer takes the reader on a wild ride through the clockwork corridors of Steampunk history.
Mary Anne, BPL Southern History

Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan trilogy (fabulous in audiobook!)
Leviathan
Behemoth
Goliath

Prince Aleksander, would-be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battletorn war machine and a loyal crew of men.

Deryn Sharp is a commoner, disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She’s a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered. With World War I brewing, Alek and Deryn’s paths cross in the most unexpected ways, taking them on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure that will change both their lives forever.

Holley, Emmet O’Neal

Clockwork Century series by Cherie Priest

Boneshaker
Dreadnought
Ganymede
The Inexplicables
Fiddlehead
Jacaranda

In 2011, this book was optioned by Hammer Films (of Hammer House of Horror fame). IMDB shows it is still optioned, but I find nothing else definitive about the possibility of film (htw).

In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska's ice. Thus was Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue's widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.
Holley, Emmet O’Neal

Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger
Soulless
Changeless
Blameless
Heartless
Timeless

Five books chronicling the exploits of Alexia Tarabotti, a lady of considerable assets including a large Scottish werewolf, a battle-parasol, and treacle tart. Oh, and she has no soul.
Stephanie, Hoover

The Black God’s Drums by P. Djeli Clark

In an alternate New Orleans caught in the tangle of the American Civil War, the wall-scaling girl named Creeper yearns to escape the streets for the air -- in particular, by earning a spot on-board the airship Midnight Robber. Creeper plans to earn Captain Ann-Marie’s trust with information she discovers about a Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black God’s Drums.

But Creeper also has a secret herself: Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, speaks inside her head, and may have her own ulterior motivations.

Soon, Creeper, Oya, and the crew of the Midnight Robber are pulled into a perilous mission aimed to stop the Black God’s Drums from being unleashed and wiping out the entirety of New Orleans.
Riana, Pinson

Monstress graphic novel series by Marjorie M. Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda

Steampunk meets Kaiju in this original fantasy epic for mature readers, as young Maika risks everything to control her psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, placing her in the center of a devastating war between human and otherworldly forces.
Riana, Pinson

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Nemo trilogy by Alan Moore, illustrated by Kevin O’Neill
Nemo: Heart of Ice
Nemo: The Roses of Berlin
Nemo: River of Ghosts

It's 1925, fifteen long years since Janni Dakkar first tried to escape the legacy of her dying science-pirate father, only to accept her destiny as the new Nemo, captain of the legendary Nautilus. Now, tired of her unending spree of plunder and destruction, Janni launches a grand expedition to surpass her father's greatest failure: the exploration of Antarctica. Hot on her frozen trail are a trio of genius inventors, hired by an influential publishing tycoon to retrieve the plundered valuables of an African queen. It's a deadly race to the bottom of the world -- an uncharted land of wonder and horror where time is broken and the mountains bring madness. Jules Verne meets H.P. Lovecraft in the unforgettable final showdown, lost in the living, beating and appallingly inhuman HEART OF ICE.
Jon, Avondale

Joe Golem and the Drowning City by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden

In 1925, earthquakes and a rising sea level left Lower Manhattan submerged under more than thirty feet of water, so that its residents began to call it the Drowning City. Those unwilling to abandon their homes created a new life on streets turned to canals and in buildings whose first three stories were underwater. Fifty years have passed since then, and the Drowning City is full of scavengers and water rats, poor people trying to eke out an existence, and those too proud or stubborn to be defeated by circumstance. 

Among them are fourteen-year-old Molly McHugh and her friend and employer, Felix Orlov. Once upon a time Orlov the Conjuror was a celebrated stage magician, but now he is an old man, a psychic medium, contacting the spirits of the departed for the grieving loved ones left behind. When a seance goes horribly wrong, Felix Orlov is abducted by strange men wearing gas masks and rubber suits, and Molly soon finds herself on the run. Her flight will lead her into the company of a mysterious man, and his stalwart sidekick, Joe Golem, whose own past is a mystery to him, but who walks his own dreams as a man of stone and clay, brought to life for the sole purpose of hunting witches. 

Jon, Avondale

A Red Sun Also Rises by Mark Hodder (not available in the JCLC system)

Transported to the alien world of Ptallaya by a strange and terrifying ritual, Victorian missionary Aiden Fleischer and his brilliant but damaged assistant Clarissa Stark are stranded.

Befriended by the Yatsill, a race of bizarre telepathic alien mimics, the travellers watch in amazement as the society around them transforms into a parody of London.

But as the dual yellow suns of this new world slowly set, a red sun is also rising, and with it come the Blood Gods, an ancient and indestructible evil...
Jon, Avondale

The Doctor and the Kid by Mike Resnick

Welcome to a West like you've never seen before! With the O. K. Corral and the battle with the thing that used to be Johnny Ringo behind him, the consumptive Doc Holliday makes his way to Deadwood, Colorado. But when a gambling loss drains his bankroll, Doc aims for quick cash as a bounty hunter. The biggest reward? Young, 20-year-old desperado known as Billy the Kid. With a steampunk twist on these classic characters, nothing can be as simple as it seems.
Jon, Avondale

Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare
Clockwork Angel
Clockwork Prince
Clockwork Princess

The series follows Tessa Gray, an orphaned teenage girl who discovers she has the power to shape-shift, but doesn't bear a mark that shows she is a warlock. She is forced to learn how to control this newly established power and navigate the new world she was forcefully introduced into.
Kristen, Hoover

Steampunk Chronicles series by Kady Cross
The Girl in the Steel Corset
The Girl in the Clockwork Collar
The Girl with the Iron Touch
The Girl with the Windup Heart

When a young lord tries to take advantage of Finley, she fights back. And wins. But no normal Victorian girl has a darker side that makes her capable of knocking out a full-grown man with one punch. Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside her that says she's special, says she's one of them. The orphaned duke takes her in from the gaslit streets, against the wishes of his band of misfits. And Finley thinks she might finally be a part of something, finally fit in—until a criminal mastermind known as the Machinist threatens to tear the group apart….
Leigh, North Birmingham

Custard Protocol series by Gail Carriger
Prudence
Imprudence
Competence
Reticence

Rue and her crew of miscreants charge about in their high-tech dirigible trying to fix the British Empire - mainly with tea. A four book series that explores how the supernatural evolved throughout the Parasolverse.

Lynn, BPL Central Info/Circ

GENERAL DISCUSSION AND MOVIES: (film annotations pulled from rottentomatoes.com unless otherwise noted):

The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (2003)

Allan Quatermain, the world's greatest adventurer, leads a legion of superheroes the likes of which the world has never seen. Quatermain's extraordinary League is comprised of Captain Nemo, Dracula vampiress Mina Harker, an invisible man Rodney Skinner, American secret service agent Sawyer, Dorian Gray, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde and M--the League's enigmatic recruiter. The League members are staunch individualists, outcasts in fact, with checkered pasts and singular gifts that have been both blessing and curse. Now they must learn to trust each other and work as a team for the very hope of civilization. With little preparation and no time to lose, they will be transported via Captain Nemo's extraordinary submarine, the Nautilus, to the frontline of defense: Venice, Italy. There, a masked madman known as the Fantom plans to sabotage a conference of world leaders by setting off a domino chain of explosions, sinking the entire city. The threat is catastrophic, the risks are staggering. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has 96 hours to save the world.

Hugo (2011)

Throughout his extraordinary career, Academy Award-wining director Martin Scorsese has brought his unique vision and dazzling gifts to life in a series of unforgettable films. This holiday season the legendary storyteller invites you to join him on a thrilling journey to a magical world with his first-ever 3-D film, based on Brian Selznick's award-winning, imaginative New York Times best-seller, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret." Hugo is the astonishing adventure of a wily and resourceful boy whose quest to unlock a secret left to him by his father will transform Hugo and all those around him, and reveal a safe and loving place he can call home. -- (C) Paramount

The Time Machine

A progressive scientist builds a machine that allows him time travel in this adaptation of the classic from H.G. Wells.

The Prestige (2006)

In 1878, two young stage magicians clash in a darkened salon during the course of a fraudulent seance. From this moment on, their lives become webs of deceit and exposure, secrets and revelations, as they feud to outwit and destroy one another. Their rivalry takes them both to the peak of their careers, but with terrible consequences.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

This 1954 Disney version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea represented the studio's costliest and most elaborate American-filmed effort to date. Kirk Douglas plays a trouble-shooting 19th century seaman, trying to discover why so many whaling ships have been disappearing of late. Teaming with scientist Paul Lukas and diver Peter Lorre, Douglas sets sail to investigate--and is promptly captured by the megalomaniac Captain Nemo (James Mason), who skippers a lavish, scientifically advanced submarine. The film's special effects, including a giant squid, were impressive enough in 1954 to win an Academy Award. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Castle in the Sky

(Disney.com) Pazu, an engineer's apprentice, finds a young girl, Sheeta, floating down from the sky, and discovers they are both searching for a legendary floating castle, Laputa. Together, they embark on a daring quest and encounter greedy pirates, secret agents and astounding obstacles that keep them from the truth - and from each other.

Stardust

The sleepy English village of Wall is so named for the cobblestone wall that has, for eons, kept the villagers safely apart form the supernatural parallel universe that lies just on the other side. It is here that young Tristan Thorne makes a wild-eyed promise to the prettiest girl in the village, whose heart he hopes to win: that he will bring her back a fallen star. Now, in order to make good on his promise, Tristan will have to cross the forbidden wall, and enter a mysterious kingdom lit by unending magic and unfolding legends. In this fantastical realm known as Stormhold, Tristan discovers that the fallen star is not at all what he expected but a spirited young woman injured by her cosmic tumble. Now, she is in terrible danger--sought after by colossal powers including the King's scheming sons for whom only she can secure the throne; and a chillingly powerful witch desperate to use the star to achieve eternal youth and beauty. As Tristan sets out to protect the star and bring her back to his beloved on the other side of the wall, he encounters with a pirate captain and a shady trader, among other surprises. But if he can survive, Tristan will also uncover the secret key to his own identity and a fate beyond his wildest dreams.

Doctor Who episode: The Next Doctor (2008 Christmas special, not sure if it’s in here or not!)

(imdb.com) The Doctor arrives in London on Christmas Eve in 1851 where he encounters the Cybermen and a man who claims he's a Time Lord called the Doctor.

Tv show “Hidden Killers”

Dr. Suzannah Lipscomb reveals the hidden killers that lurk in every room across the ages. From the Victorian (this is the episode I watched!) to the Post War era, we discover the lethal inventions and the ‘safe’ domestic home life of households from the past. Episodes available on Amazon Prime Video and streaming freely on Tubi TV.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Cora is a young slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood—where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him. In Colson Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight from one state to the next, encountering, like Gulliver, strange yet familiar iterations of her own world at each stop. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is both the gripping tale of one woman's will to escape the horrors of bondage—and a powerful meditation on the history we all share.

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack: A Burton & Swinburne Adventure by Mark Hodder

London, 1861. Sir Richard Francis Burton - explorer, linguist, scholar, and swordsman; his reputation tarnished; his career in tatters; his former partner missing and probably dead. Algernon Charles Swinburne - unsuccessful poet and follower of de Sade, for whom pain is pleasure, and brandy is ruin! They stand at a crossroads in their lives and are caught in the epicenter of an empire torn by conflicting forces: Engineers transform the landscape with bigger, faster, noisier, and dirtier technological wonders; Eugenicists develop specialist animals to provide unpaid labor; Libertines oppose repressive laws and demand a society based on beauty and creativity; while the Rakes push the boundaries of human behavior to the limits with magic, drugs, and anarchy. The two men are sucked into the perilous depths of this moral and ethical vacuum when Lord Palmerston commissions Burton to investigate assaults on young women committed by a weird apparition known as Spring Heeled Jack, and to find out why werewolves are terrorizing London's East End. Their investigations lead them to one of the defining events of the age, and the terrifying possibility that the world they inhabit shouldn't exist at all!