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Breaking Out of Reading Ruts… Try a new genre!

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Have you read and re-read the same books and authors too many times? Are you looking for something new to break yourself out of a reading rut? Try a new genre!

See below a snapshot view of the following 10 genres (and sub-genres). Please use them as a gateway/portal to a new reading realm. 🙂 Just as an FYI, they aren’t in any particular order, though I’ve tried to place genres that are related close to one another on the list (i.e.: Fantasy, Magical Realism, and Science Fiction, etc.) Also, note that there is often a lot of overlap between genres so if you’d categorize a title or author in a different genre than I have, we are BOTH probably right. Finally, the suggested authors listed for each genre are in no way comprehensive. They are just a starting point. 

If you have any questions or would like more suggestions, don’t hesitate to reach out to Courtney at ckleftis@yarmouthlibrary.org. 

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Adult Summer Reading 2024

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Summer Reading Adult BINGO Challenge (June-Sept. 2024)

Get ready for this summer’s adult BINGO challenge!!! 🙂 The theme of Summer Reading this year is “Adventure Begins At Your Library,” so many of the activity-oriented (vs. reading) squares involve an adventure of some kind. For the squares that involve reading, Courtney has provided 10 title recommendations per category. Read on!

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Afrofuturism: A Brief Exploration…

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What is Afrofuturism? 

Think literature, art, and film with a strong drive toward social justice and Black liberation through the lens of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and/or Magical Realism (all different sub-genres of Speculative Fiction). If you’re curious to learn more about any of those literary trends in particular, stay tuned for a future blog series coming this Spring. Your friendly Adult Services Librarian is currently developing a long-term plan for this new blog series. 

Afrofuturist literature is highly innovative, politically-charged, and takes all the elements of the fantastical that could be dismissed as mere escapist “fantasies” to a much more grounded level. (Not that I have anything against fantasy that lacks a political charge or a commitment to social justice for marginalized communities. Escapism is totally valid. We live in a chaotic world from which we often want nothing more than to escape, even if the escape is only temporary and in our collective imaginations). Pardon my rant… 🙂 [Read more…] about Afrofuturism: A Brief Exploration…

MML 2024 Wellness Series Launch

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Introduction to the Series

Happy New Year (albeit half a month into 2024 at the time of writing this post) from your friendly librarians at MML!

This year we are partnering with Community Services (CS) and Aging in Place (AIP) to launch a year-long Wellness Series of programs geared towards our community elders while appealing to adults of all ages. In addition to programs hosted by the library and/or CS, the library will be providing bimonthly bibliographies and displays pertaining to:

  • Physical Wellness in JANUARY/FEBRUARY
  • Spiritual Wellness in MARCH/APRIL
  • Emotional Wellness in MAY/JUN
  • Social/Communal Wellness in JULY/AUGUST
  • Financial, Occupational & Intellectual Wellness in SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER
  • Tying up loose ends & finding an all-encompassing *Sense of Purpose* in NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

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“Strange Beasts of China” by Yan Ge: Book Review

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This month our book club, The Readers’ Circle, read the novel Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge. If you have come to any of our meetings you’ll find me often admitting that the book wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. But, I am always excited to talk about each title and learn what others got out of each book that I just might have missed.

My experience reading this month’s title couldn’t have been more different. I adored Strange Beasts of China. 

The story takes place in a fictional city of China where our protagonist embarks on a journey of sorts to chronicle exactly as the title implies: strange beasts that live in China. Only, every beast is strangely human… Each chapter is told as almost a standalone story and centers around when the main character encounters each of these beasts in odd and unexpected ways. With each encounter we learn more about her past and how her life has been inexplicably entangled with these creatures. The scifi/urban fantasy aspect of the book immediately drew me in, but the intriguing and often bizarre story kept me along for the whole ride. Ge’s writing style is very concise and readable, which for me lead to a very quick read.

Strange Beasts of China was published in Chinese and later translated into English. One criticism I have read about this novel is that there are numerous dialect conventions, wordplays, and references that are completely lost in the translation. Many of which are believed could have been addressed in the translation more effectively. That being said, I would have never known this book was translated. I thought the situation, characters, and language felt relatable in a way where the story could have taken place in any city in any country on the planet. I don’t mean that to say that anything felt generic. Quite the opposite. To me it felt like the translation was made to bridge the barriers often encountered in work translated from different languages and cultures.

I will freely admit that this book may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Scifi and Fantasy are definitely my preferred genres so seeing how an author from a different cultural tradition would approach the genre definitely added a layer of intrigue for me. I’ll also acknowledge that I enjoy interesting story more than beautifully written ones. The language used by Ge is concise and serviceable, but the story is the point here, and not so much the language. But that could be an area where her literary flourishes went missing in the translation.

All in all, a fantastic and fantastical work that I would recommend to many readers. While surely a work of fantasy, the beasts and other supernatural elements are really just the window dressings to explore what it means to be human. Which is often what my favorite works of Science Fiction and Fantasy always are.

Five Stars.

-Ben