August 2022 Shelf Talk
ADULT
A Divine Language: Learning Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus at the Edge of Old Age by Alec Wilkinson
After his struggles with math as a boy, Wilkinson, a contributor to The New Yorker, decides to go on a journey to learn and understand math as a middle-aged man. “Part memoir, part metaphysical travel book, and part journey in self-improvement,” this book tells of “one man’s second attempt at understanding the numbers in front of him, and the world beyond.”
Review: kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/alecwilkinson/a-divine-language- algebra-geometry
Life Between the Tides by Adam Nicolson
Nicolson takes you to the coastline where he examines tidal pools that lie silent and rippling but are filled with an unknown universe. Everything is in these pools, where you can “look beyond your own reflection and find the miraculous an inch beneath your nose.” Within the pages of discovery are delicate drawings and illustrated photographs.
Review: kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/adamnicolson/ life-betweenthe- tides
The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian
An A-list actress and her new husband take their crowd of Hollywood friends along for their honeymoon on the Serengeti. They were planning to enjoy days filled with photographing memories and nights spent together at the campsite. Instead, they end up caught up in a kidnapping gone wrong. This book is a “blistering story of fame, race, love and death set in a world on the cusp of great change.”
Review: publishersweekly.com/978-0-385-54482-5
Patron Saint of Second Chances by Christine Simon
In a small Italian town, the self-appointed mayor has devised a plan to boost tourism in order to increase revenue to save his town: he is going to start a rumor that a famous movie star is filming his next big movie in their town of 212 people. The plan works a little too well, tourism off and the entire town becomes involved in the plan. The “beautifully written and hilariously funny” novel is about the ”power of community”.
Review: publishersweekly.com/9781982188771
YOUNG ADULT
Only a Monster by Vanessa Len
Joan has just learned the truth: her family are monsters, with terrifying, hidden powers. And the cute boy at work isn't just a boy: he's a legendary monster slayer, who will do anything to destroy her family. To save herself and her family, Joan will have to do what she fears most: embrace her own monstrousness. Because in this story...she is not the hero.
Review: kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/vanessa-len/only-monster
The Match Breaker Summer by Annie Rains Paisley Manning has been attending Camp Starling since she was a little girl, when her parents ran it together, before her father’s death. This year, however, will be Camp Starling's last hurrah because Paisley's mom has met a guy online and they're getting married. Enter Hayden Bennett. When Hayden catches wind of Paisley's predicament, he has an idea: if a matchmaker in some computer algorithm caused the issue, a couple of real-life matchbreakers can fix it. As they work to break up the happy couple, Paisley wonders: has she met her own perfect match?
Review: publishersweekly.com/9780593481554
Message Not Found by Dante Medema
Bailey and Vanessa shared everything. That all changed the night Vanessa ended up swerving off a cliff nowhere near her house. Now Bailey, who thought she knew Vanessa better than anyone in the world, is left with a million unanswered questions. To help grieve her loss, Bailey creates a chat bot of Vanessa, using years' worth of their shared text messages and emails. Then, the bot starts hinting there was more going on with Vanessa than Bailey realized — a secret so big, it may have contributed to Vanessa's death.
Review: kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/dante-medema/messagenot- found
Gold Mountain by Betty G. Yee
Growing up in 1860s China, Tam Ling Fan has lived a life of comfort. But Ling Fan's life is upended when her brother dies of influenza and their father is imprisoned under false accusations. Hoping to earn the money to secure her father's release, Ling Fan disguises herself as a boy and takes her brother's contract to work for the Central Pacific Railroad Company in America. When someone threatens to expose Ling Fan's secret, she must take an even greater risk to save what's left of her family . . . and to escape the Gold Mountain alive.
Review: kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/bettyg- yee/gold-mountain
CHILDREN Curveball: the year I lost my grip by Jordan Sonnenblick
Peter Friedman is looking forward to the start of high school and all the things his all-star baseball status will bring when a summer accident crashes his dreams. Without baseball, who is he? Adding to his confusion is his grandfather’s sudden gift of expensive photo equipment. Plus, a girl in his photography class is flirting with him?
Review: kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jordan-sonnenblick/curveball-year-lost-grip
Dress Up Day by Blanca Gómez
A little girl is too sick for her school’s special dress up day. A wonderful idea occurs: she will wear her rabbit costume when she returns! That idea doesn’t seem so great when she is the only one in costume. Can a little bit of confidence and an unexpected new friend turn a self-conscious moment into a wonderful one?
Review: publishersweekly.com/ 978- 1--4197-4410-5
The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be by Joanna Gaines
A picture book celebration of how creativity and acceptance can come together to make for a bright and beautiful adventure. As a group of children work together to build their own hot-air balloons, they lean into their own skills and processes. Readers discover that the same is true for life: it's more vibrant when our differences are celebrated.
Review: publishersweekly.com/9781400314232
The Snowy Owl Scientist by Mark Wilson
It's July on Alaska's North Slope, and scientist Denver Holt is in Utqiagvik surveying nests. With its mix of coastal, low-elevation tundra and a rich presence of lemmings, the North Slope is the only area in Alaska where snowy owls regularly nest. How snowy owls decide where they will nest, what drives the success of these delicate tundra ecosystems… These are the mysteries Denver is trying to solve.
Review: muse.jhu.edu/article/848087/pdf