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Six of Crows

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Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Format: Book, eBook, Audiobook
Who it’s for: Teens, Adults

In Ketterdam, a center of international trade, Kaz Brekker and his crew fight to survive in the underworld of the city. At its core, Six of Crows is a heist story. A wealthy merchant offers an obscene amount of money if Kaz and the others can travel to a nearby nation, break into the Ice Court, and free a scientist being held prisoner. Complicating matters is disagreement among the crew about what should be done with the prisoner when (if) they get him out.

The crew is Jesper, Matthias, Wylan, Nina, Inej, and Kaz: “a gambler, a convict, a wayward son, a lost Grisha, a Suli girl who had become a killer, a boy from the Barrel who had become something worse.” The story is told in alternating viewpoints and you really get to know these characters and their backgrounds. Six of Crows takes place in the Grishaverse, the same fantasy world featured in Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone trilogy, and some of the characters will be familiar to those who’ve read her other works.

Six of Crows is the first book in a duology. It ends in a cliffhanger – be ready to immediately dig in to Crooked Kingdom! Netflix is creating a series based on Bardugo’s Grishaverse, so these characters will soon be making their way to our television screens as well.

Find Six of Crows in the catalog.

Pink is for Boys

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Pink is for Boys by Robb Pearlman
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Kids

This delightful picture book has one simple but important message: “all the colors are for everyone.” It opens with the title “pink is for boys” but is quickly followed by “and for girls” and the accompanying illustrations tenderly depict all genders of children enjoying pink bow ties and party dressed. Each color of the rainbow is then presented in turn and coupled with bright illustrations showing that yes indeed, anyone can enjoy any color that their heart desires, making it a perfect read for anyone who wants to challenge gender stereotypes.

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This is Your Brain on Birth Control: The Surprising Science of Women, Hormones, and the Law of Unintended Consequences

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This is Your Brain on Birth Control: The Surprising Science of Women, Hormones, and the Law of Unintended Consequences by Sarah E. Hill
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Adults and Teens

Will your moods go up—or down—once you’re on the pill?

Does using hormonal birth control change your ability to remember events in your life?

Can being on the pill influence who you choose to marry?

Scientists have found the answers, but the vast majority of women have no idea that they should even be asking these questions. This is Your Brain on Birth Control aims to change that situation. Sarah Hill, a psychologist (and birth-control user) explains how a seemingly simple decision about which method of pregnancy prevention to use can affect far more of your life than you’d ever suspect.

This book is no anti-birth-control polemic, though. Hill argues that the best path forward is not the restriction of access, but the spread of information. Women, once adequately informed, can make the best decisions for themselves about this matter of critical importance to women’s (and, it turns out, men’s) lives.

This is Your Brain on Birth Control feels like a conversation with your witty best friend who happens to have a PhD. If you’ve ever used hormonal birth control, plan to use it in the future, or are close to someone who does, you just might want to find it in the catalog.

Anya and the Dragon

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Cover of the book "Anya and the Dragon"Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack

Publication Date: September, 2019

Format: Book

Who it’s for: Kids

Set in a fantasy world based on 10th-century Russia, this is the story of Anya, the only Jewish girl in a small village. Things are already hard for her family- other villagers discriminate against them for their faith, and her father was drafted into the Tsar’s army. Now the family is about to be evicted from their home if they can’t pay the tax, and they don’t have the money. But the Tsar is offering a reward for anyone who can find a dangerous river dragon that’s said to live nearby, and Anya is determined to do whatever it takes to get the prize and save her family. She teams up with a boy named Ivan (who has seven older brothers also named Ivan), and they set out to hunt for the monster. There are others on the same quest, including a cold-hearted Viking named Sigurd who wants to kill the dragon before it can be captured. Anya and Ivan discover that the lands around their village are full of hidden magical creatures, and that nothing is what it seems- not even the dragon. They’ll have to make choices about right and wrong, duty and loyalty, and fight to save what they hold dear.

Find this book in the catalog.

 

From Twinkle, With Love

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Recommended Book
From Twinkle, With Love by  Sandhya Menon
Publication Date: May 22, 2018
Format: Book or ebook
Who it’s for: Teens

“In this delightful romantic comedy from the New York Times bestselling author of When Dimple Met Rishi, told through the letters Twinkle writes to her favorite female filmmakers, From Twinkle, with Love navigates big truths about friendship, family, and the unexpected places love can find you.

Aspiring filmmaker and wallflower Twinkle Mehra has stories she wants to tell and universes she wants to explore, if only the world would listen. So when fellow film geek Sahil Roy approaches her to direct a movie for the upcoming Summer Festival, Twinkle is all over it. The chance to publicly showcase her voice as a director? Dream come true. The fact that it gets her closer to her longtime crush, Neil Roy-a.k.a. Sahil’s twin brother? Dream come true x 2.

When mystery man N begins emailing her, Twinkle is sure it’s Neil, finally ready to begin their happily-ever-after. The only slightly inconvenient problem is that, in the course of movie-making, she’s fallen madly in love with the irresistibly adorkable Sahil.

Twinkle soon realizes that resistance is futile: The romance she’s got is not the one she’s scripted. But will it be enough?” – Publisher’s blurb

This took a bit for me to get into. It was soooooooo High School. The crush, the BFF drama, the awkwardness, the ‘Woe is me’ angst, etc. So very HS, so stereotypical; it made me cringe, laugh, and smh. I would have stopped reading it by like chapter two, if not for Books for the Beast (a YA reader’s advisory conference in Maryland) and the fact her first book got so much praise. I powered through.

It was very amusing with a couple of lil life lessons to boot. If this was a Disney Channel movie, I could have made it through without cringing so much or smh at the mistakes they made. I still would have lol at the awkward moments. Despite all those things it was a great read.

The Indian culture that was in the book was completely natural and did not feel forced. It was just a part of Twinkle’s life, her story. The gay friends felt forced, like an afterthought. I liked the text messages and emails. They made it feel epistolary. The supposed diary entries where Twinkle is writing to directors never really felt like letters. They did not really feel like a diary entries, either. Only at the beginning of the diary entry and when she closed the “letter” did it ever feel like she was writing a letter to somebody.  It felt more like just a first POV novel.

I was considering reading her debut novel but when I was talking about From Twinkle, With Love with a coworker, she said this plot sounds almost identical to When Dimple Met Rishi. Now if they made movies from her novels on Disney Channel, I would watch them all and enjoy. If I was in middle/high school and liked romance novels, I would read all her novels as well. Def geared for upper middle school and High School girls.

Read a High School Rom-Com starring a cute Indian Girl!

 

Renegades Series

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Renegades by Marissa Meyer
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Teens, Adults

What if superheroes were real? The Renegades are an organization led by the heroes who saved the world from anarchy, and made up from prodigies who are humans with extraordinary abilities. The Renegades are champions of justice and peace, a symbol of hope and courage to most – just not the ‘villains’ who they overthrew to gain power.

Nova is a prodigy on a mission for vengeance. The Renegades weren’t there for her when she needed them most, and therefore she wants to show the world who they truly are. As she infiltrates the ranks of the Renegades, she learns that not everything is as it seems and that it’s hard to paint anyone as all hero or all villain.

Book 1: Renegades
Book 2: Arch Enemies
Book 3: Supernova

Find it in the catalog