Staff Picks

Adult Summer Reading Bingo Challenge ‘23, a Deep Dive into NAUTICAL READS – “Under the Sea”

Are you working on the Adult Summer Reading Bingo Challenge ‘23? Looking for inspiration for titles that will cover the square: “Book About the Ocean”? If so, read on and let’s dive “under the sea” together! (Disney’s Little Mermaid reference 100% intended). 🙂 [Read more…] about Nautical Reads

Adult Summer Reading Bingo Challenge – Overlapping Categories/Bingo Squares

Having trouble completing the rather ambitious Adult Summer Reading Bingo Challenge? Feeling overwhelmed? Fear not. I am encouraging all participants to find overlap between bingo squares and read 1 book for up to 2 squares! See below 20 recommendations of books that cover 2 squares. There are, of course, many more, but these should give you some ideas!

Note recurring themes in the lists below:

• Debut authors of novels with BIPOC Protagonists (5 titles provided)
• Debut authors of feminist retellings of myths/fairy tales (4 titles provided)
• Audiobooks narrated by the author that will also make you laugh (2 titles provided)
• Banned/challenged books that are also LGBTQ+ memoirs (2 titles provided)

There are a smattering of other, miscellaneous overlapping themes including queer romances that are also books about the ocean (or, at the very least, books with nautical themes). This is actually quite a rabbit hole one could fall into. See this bookish blog post all about “sapphic mermaid” literature, the vast majority of which is YA. Rivers Solomon, the author of a fantastic Afro-futurist novel and sapphic mermaid tale featuring a BIPOC protagonist, The Deep, was a special guest at the Maine Humanities Council (MEH)’s annual Readers’ Retreat held at SMCC this past May. I stumbled across this title a few years ago in a small indie bookstore in Minneapolis and was completely mesmerized by it. I highly recommend it!

Technically this title covers 3 bingo squares, which gives you 3 choices of where to cross-pollinate: 

• BOOK ABOUT THE OCEAN and NOVEL WITH A BIPOC PROTAGONIST
• BOOK ABOUT THE OCEAN and QUEER ROMANCE
• NOVEL WITH A BIPOC PROTAGONIST and QUEER ROMANCE

10 titles pulled from these lists:

• Bechdel’s Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (2007) – BANNED/CHALLENGED BOOKS and LGBTQ+ MEMOIR
• Kobabe, Maia’s Gender Queer (2019) – BANNED/CHALLENGED BOOKS and LGBTQ+ MEMOIR
• McNamara, Luna’s Psyche and Eros (2023) – DEBUT AUTHOR and FEMINIST RETELLING (MYTH/FAIRY TALE)
• Medina’s Sisters of the Lost Nation (2023) – DEBUT AUTHOR and INDIGENOUS HISTORY/VOICES
• Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (2008) – BANNED/CHALLENGED BOOKS and WRITER’S MEMOIR
• Patel’s Kaikeyi (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and FEMINIST RETELLING (MYTH/FAIRY TALE)
• Poehler’s Yes Please (2014) – AUDIOBOOK NARRATED BY THE AUTHOR and BOOK THAT MAKES YOU LAUGH
• See’s The Island of Sea Women (2019) – BOOK ABOUT THE OCEAN and HISTORICAL FICTION (NON-WESTERN EUROPEAN) 
• Shearer’s River Sing Me Home (2023) – DEBUT AUTHOR and NOVEL WITH A BIPOC PROTAGONIST
• West’s Shrill: Notes From a Loud Woman (2016) – AUDIOBOOK NARRATED BY THE AUTHOR and BOOK THAT MAKES YOU LAUGH

10  more recommendations:

• Fu’s Peach Blossom Spring (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and HISTORICAL FICTION (NON-WESTERN EUROPEAN)
• Gonzalez’ Olga Dies Dreaming (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and NOVEL WITH A BIPOC PROTAGONIST
• Mottley’s Nightcrawling (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and NOVEL WITH A BIPOC PROTAGONIST
• Nethercott’s Thistlefoot (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and FEMINIST RETELLING (MYTH/FAIRY TALE)
• Slocumb’s The Violin Conspiracy (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and NOVEL WITH A BIPOC PROTAGONIST
• Tan’s Daughter of the Moon Goddess (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and FEMINIST RETELLING (MYTH/FAIRY TALE)
• Tokuda-Hall’s The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea (2020) – BOOK ABOUT THE OCEAN and QUEER ROMANCE NOVEL
• Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures (2022) – BOOK ABOUT THE OCEAN and DEBUT AUTHOR
• Walter’s Malice (2021) – FEMINIST RETELLING (MYTH/FAIRY TALE) and QUEER ROMANCE NOVEL
• Wilkerson’s Black Cake (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and NOVEL WITH A BIPOC PROTAGONIST 

Good luck with your reading adventures and as always don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions you may have!

Courtney Kleftis (Adult Services Librarian – ckleftis@yarmouthlibrary.org) 

The Yarmouth Arts Alliance Gallery Committee is proud to present the show “Explorations” at the MML Gallery featuring former Yarmouth students Mairen O’Neill and Ashlyn Feeley who are presently pursuing art in college and post college. The opening reception was on Sunday, July 9th from 5-7 pm and the show will be up through Friday, August 25th.

Mairen O’Neill is a 2019 graduate of Yarmouth High School and a recent college graduate from Wheaton College, majoring in Visual Art, working in oil paint. Mairen, as a high school student, was instrumental in connecting YAA to Yarmouth students as a YAA student liaison.

Ashlyn Feeley is a 2021 Yarmouth High School Graduate and recipient of the YAA  Scholarship. The $500.00 scholarship recognizes passionate, disciplined and accomplished students in the arts each year and is meant to help students pursue their art after high school. Ashlyn is currently attending Tufts University in Medford, MA majoring in Clinical Psychology and Child Studies and minoring in Studio Art. Both artists are in the middle of exploring their art, their new surroundings, and interests in life.

Under the guidance and leadership of the Library Arts Committee, the second-floor gallery has grown into a two-room showing space with newly painted walls, gallery lights and a hanging system. The gallery has hosted art shows of local emerging and established artists, for more than 20 years.

The Yarmouth Arts Alliance is now managing the second-floor gallery in collaboration with library staff. Yarmouth Arts Alliance is grateful to the Library Arts Committee for all their work, and will continue the tradition of supporting local artists and bringing art and events to the community.

Yarmouth Arts Alliance is a nonprofit organization that promotes and supports arts and cultural activities in the community.

June 21st – September 21st (Solstice to Equinox)

Are you gearing up for the summer months eager to expand your reading horizons? In addition to diving into feel-good beach reads (those can be found interspersed throughout this list), I encourage adult patrons to read about topics that may challenge them and their worldviews. This summer’s Adult Summer Reading Bingo Challenge has been inspired at least in part by prominent Iranian-American writer and intellectual, Azar Nafisi’s recent manifesto Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times (2022). (You can request this from any library in the Minerva consortium; at the time of writing this blog post MML doesn’t own a copy).

While Nafisi’s argument is about the subversive power of reading fiction, especially by and about marginalized communities, MML’s bingo challenge includes nonfiction and memoir as well as novels. Nafisi compellingly writes that literature humanizes the enemy or “other”, combating our increasingly polarized society’s tendency to do the exact opposite: dehumanize anyone and everyone who thinks and lives differently from us. In her own words, “[w]ar, by nature, dehumanizes the enemy. Story gives the enemy a voice, forcing us to confront him as a human being, to look him in the eye. And through this process, we restore our own humanity” (Nafisi p. 101). Nonfiction and memoir also tell stories and have the capacity to humanize people who are all too often dehumanized and disempowered; hence this summer reading challenge.

If you, like me, the librarian writing this post, are a self-avowed “nerd,” feel free to watch Nafisi discussing her own book in this Youtube video recording of a talk she gave at the Newburyport Literary Festival a year ago. There are numerous other videos of her discussing her book available on Youtube; it is a rabbit hole that you may find yourself lost in much like our beloved Alice in Wonderland.

In any case, get ready to dive into our bingo challenge! As an extra incentive, we have prizes, including MML swag. The grand prize will be 1 free book and a $30 gift card to Royal River Books just down the street. To be eligible for this, as soon as you’ve completed the entire bingo sheet, enter your name in a raffle! For info about the other prizes, see the pamphlet available at the circ desk! (This info is also printed on the back of the bingo sheet itself).

You can view or print the Bingo Sheet here.

Too many books, too little time? No need to feel too overwhelmed! To lighten your reading load and make the challenge more manageable, here are some suggestions to hit the ground running when starting your Bingo Sheet:

• One square per row of five involves something other than reading a book!
• Partner up with someone and complete the challenge together. This could even lead to mini book discussions with a friend, partner or spouse, child, etc…
• Read 1 book for up to 2 categories. Several titles in the Banned/Challenged Books category also fall under the LGBTQ+ Memoirs square.

Pick up your bingo square at the circulation desk OR information desk at MML anytime this summer. For inspiration and reading suggestions, check out these lists. 

Enjoy your reading, “dangerous” and otherwise!

-Courtney Kleftis (Adult Services Librarian)