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Elsa Recommends More Love

posted on - January 31, 2022

Looking for some BLACK JOY? It’s right there, in the form of Alyssa Cole’s Reluctant Royals series. I’ve read them all, and they’ve made me laugh, sigh, think, and ignore the dishes in my sink. The books take place in a variety of locales, but the most interesting to me are the fictionalized African countries. They are like Black Panther’s Wakanda, only with less advanced technology and no one has superpowers. But, they are countries where Black people thrive and are valued and championed.

The series starts with A Princess in Theory which plays on the old scam email of “letters from a Nigerian prince.” Naledi doesn’t believe she’s the long lost betrothed to the prince, until she does. It’s delightful. There are subplots about her birth parents, a little political intrigue, and the workplace issues for women in STEM.

From there, the series goes on to explore the love lives and adventures of their friends and family. With each book, it’s fun to guess who is going to be next! Is it the best friend, the sister, the assistant, the barista? Only Alyssa Cole knows for sure. How will all of their relationships evolve and change, as the characters grow and learn more about themselves and their place in the world?

This is one of only a few authors who I pre-order books from. I have yet to be disappointed. If you read one and don’t like it, don’t tell me. For me, it is escapist joy.

Mary recommends a fun fantasy adventure

posted on - January 24, 2022

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames is a book about a mercenary band that has to come out of retirement to perform one last miraculous deed and try very hard not to die while doing it. The subtle (and not so subtle) nod to 1980’s rock music, the eldery mercenaries doing their best with creaking joints and guts, the whimsical and terrifying monsters all combine to create a love letter to the adventure/fantasy genre. Plenty of heart, plenty of laughs, If you’re a fan of D&D, Terry Pratchett, Robert Jordan etc. you should pick this book up, because you won’t be able to put it down!

Jeff recommends a series of films from BBC

posted on - January 7, 2022

Among the best reviewed films of 2020 were the five that make up the series called Small Axe. They were initially released to stream only on Amazon, but they finally arrived on disc in the fall of 2021. Directed by Steve McQueen (director of 12 Years a Slave, not the American actor), they are all set among the Caribbean-British community in the 1960s-1980s. Each film has a different group of characters and a different story, so each can stand separately and can be watched in any order. Broadly, they are about resistance to racism that we Americans might not be aware was so prevalent in the UK. My favorite of them was Lovers Rock, which takes place at a house party. In one really magical scene, people are enjoying the music so much that they all keep dancing and singing along, even after the DJ has faded the music away. I felt as immersed in the moment as the character on screen were. The other four films in the series, whose titles are Mangrove, Education, Alex Wheatle, and Red, White, and Blue, are also very good. The music in all of them is excellent.

posted on - December 22, 2021

Have you ever wanted to paint with watercolors? Creative Watercolor: A step by step guide for beginners by Ana Victoria Calderon is a colorful mixed media instruction and project book that can help you get started. While watercolors are the primary medium used, readers are encouraged to get creative by adding washi tape, inks, markers or even twine to their projects. If lack of drawing experience is holding you back from trying watercolors, Calderon gives several drawing tricks to get you through those fears and onto the page.

https://yarmouthlibrary.org/1420-2/

Mixtape

posted on - December 15, 2021

Public radio listeners are probably familiar with Radiolab, a show about science that originates from WNYC in New York City. It airs on Maine Public Saturdays at noon, but I tend to listen to the podcast.

In October and November, they had a fascinating series of episodes that revolved around an audio technology that many of us who grew up in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s remember with a good deal of fondness but in retrospect seems like a passing phase between records and CDs. I am talking, of course, about the cassette tape. The people sharing these stories came from around the world, and they had much more stake in the maligned medium than I could have imagined. The one story in particular (Nov. 12) that blew my mind was about how software pirates in Europe in the 1980s combined radio broadcasting and audio tapes to create a crude but effective precursor to the internet. Amazing. The series is called Mixtape.

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