Wrap Up 2022: Staff Favorites
Wrap Up 2022 with LPL Staff’s favorites! Some of our favorite things (picture books, novels, manga, DVDs, and more!) are on display on the 1st floor. Check out our recommendations and borrow some today! What were your favorite books you read this year?
Alex:
The Witches of Moonshyne Manor by Bianca Marais
This is the most sex-positive anti-ageist book I’ve ever read and it makes me very happy to have experienced it. These witches kick butt!
How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino, translated by Bruno Navasky
This book emulates the childlike amazement you get from realizing how connected humans around the world really are, through the lens of art, religion, history, politics, and science. Plus, it’s getting a Miyazaki film adaptation in the future!
Wandance v.1 by Coffee
The characters are cool and unique, and Kabo’s inner monologue as he sorts through his feelings and realizations is touching. I’m cheering for his journey toward higher confidence. I wasn’t sure how dance would translate into manga, but it worked pretty well here.
Marvel’s Secret Reverse by Kazuki Takahashi
After the author’s tragic death this year, finding this comic gave me all the Yu-Gi-Oh nostalgia with a unique story in the Marvel universe. It’s… not good. But it’s very Takahashi, and I loved it for that.
Alexis:
Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Pynchon explores the dot-com bubble, against the backdrop of New York City in the last few days before 9/11. Private Investigator Maxine Tarnow tentatively anchors Pynchon to reality as together they probe beyond known space and time, and flirt, just a little, with 9/11 trutherism.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
A delightful, irreverent, ode to the almost-ordinary; an alternate future where cloned Dodos are our closest animal companions, Shakespearean authorship is religion, and specialized worms eat prepositions and excrete apostrophes.
Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon by Spider Robinson
“Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased.” At Callahan’s, everyone is welcome, be they addicts, time travelers, aliens, ethical vampires, dogs, or anything in between. Pull up a chair, have yourself a drink, and share in the reflection on empathy, compassion, sorrow, and humanity. When you’re done, throw your glass in the fireplace and propose a toast – it’s the Callahan’s Tradition.
Ben:
Underworld by Don DeLillo
Underworld is a masterpiece and is easily one of the greatest works of fiction I have ever read. Everything about this book screams “Great American Novel.” The way DeLillo interweaves America’s love of baseball and the lurking paranoia of the Cold War is beautiful.DeLillo captures half a decade of history and explores themes that are poignant and timeless: Baseball, the history of objects, the impact of individuals on the course of history, the psychology of crowds, trash, the Cold War, & simulacrum. This book exemplifies everything I love about maximalist fiction: Information overload, a huge cast of characters, bits and pieces that you don’t know what they’re there for but their purpose and their connection is revealed in passing hundreds of pages later. “It is all falling indelibly into the past.”
Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
This is the single most important book I have read in the last decade. Stolen Focus explores our growing inability to pay attention and how our focus has been systematically stolen and monetized. Johann Hari explains how smartphones and social media were purposefully designed to keep users hooked and how this constant interruption prevents us from working on more complex tasks. Hari also explores ideas like the benefits of mind wandering, the “flow state,” and nutrition, and offers a handful of ways to help rebuild your attention.
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
In his latest novel, the first in a projected trilogy, Jonathan Franzen expertly novelizes the American family in tremendously human prose. Crossroads is set in suburban Illinois, the narrative largely taking place on a single day, December 23rd, 1971. Each member of the Hildebrant family is approaching a critical turning point (a crossroad!) in their life. The perspective shifts between this small cluster of characters and Franzen writes each of them in such vivid, living color that you end up knowing each of them better than your own family. Crossroads is heartfelt, funny, deeply sad, and incredibly moving.
Beth:
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel
Caitlin:
Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone by Diana Gabaldon
I was really glad this would not be the last book in the series!
The 355 produced by Jessica Chastain, Kelly Carmichael, Simon Kinberg
It was fast-paced and never a dull moment.
Ghosts produced by Matthew Mulot
A much-needed comedy.
Harper:
Babel, or the necessity of violence: an arcane history of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R. F. Kuang
“An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.” Without a doubt the most fascinating thing I read this year. Like dark academia filtered through the lens of colonialism and racism, blended with fascinating magic and the dangers of empire. Reads like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (the footnotes!) if the main characters weren’t all stuffy white men. Unputdownable and crucially important.
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
A beautiful sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built that continues the journey of Sibling Dex and their robot friend Splendid Speckled Mosscap. This series is a true balm to anyone seeking meaning in a world of mandatory productivity.
The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas
Possibly the best YA novel that I’ve read this year (and I read a lot of them as the teen librarian)! Aiden Thomas’ already great storytelling skills have gone up several levels in his third novel, a powerhouse of Mexican-inspired worldbuilding where the half-human children of gods must compete in a series of trials to protect their world. A take on the competition trope that is far from formulaic.
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
Kate Beaton brings her iconic art style from the humorous Hark! A Vagrant to this compelling graphic memoir. A must read for feminists and environmentalists alike.
Little Monarchs by Jonathan Case
If You’re a Kid Like Gavin by Gavin Grimm and Kyle Lukoff
Josh:
Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives by Adam Cesare
With this horror sequel, Cesare builds on the surprising brilliance of the first book. Combining astute social commentary and modern themes with thrilling horror, Clown in a Cornfield has a whole lot of fun with the genre while also managing to say something meaningful about the real world.
The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R. M. Romero
With lyricism and deep humanity, Romero’s fantasy captures a rich tapestry of identity, relationships, and magic in the streets of Prague past and present.
Dead Silence by S. A. Barnes
It’s haunted titanic in space, what more do I need to say?
The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez
Funny and tender contemporary romance with a delightful story, great characters, and one very good dog.
Lauren:
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Xao
I looked forward to reading this author’s debut work when I originally heard about it, but I had lost track of it until this year. The anime-lover in me enjoyed the Neon Genesis Evangelion feel to how the giant mech vehicles were created, and I can’t help but root for the fictional version of the only Chinese Empress in history, Wu Zetian.
Demon Slayer by Koyoharu Gotouge, translated by John Werry
I enjoyed the strong message of community and friendship between epic battles with demons. Tanjiro is such a wholesome character, and the friends he meets along the way have wonderful character development.
Matt:
Heat 2 by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner
Picking up immediately where Mann’s 1995 classic Los Angeles noir-action epic left off, Heat 2 captures the intensity of the film while putting on stunning display the director/ writer’s encyclopedic knowledge of the operations of the international criminal underworld, the psychology of its denizens, and the law enforcement officers tasked with bringing them to justices. Fans of the film Heat will find familiar characters like Vincent Hanna (played by Al Pacino) and Chris Shiherlis (played by Val Kilmer), but you don’t need to have seen the movie to enjoy this breathless crime story.
Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price
Based on the latest archaeological and textual evidence, Price gives provides an antidote for the images popular culture gives us of the peoples we have come to call Vikings. Discussing their beliefs, religion, technology, exploration, economics, and more, Children of Ash and Elm will immerse you in a surprisingly cosmopolitan world stretching from Scandinavia all the way to Afghanistan, the north shores of Africa, and the east coast of Canada.
The Future Earth: A Radical Vision for What’s Possible in the Age of Warming by Eric Holthaus
If you’re concerned about the biggest issue facing humanity—climate change—and are looking for a vision of the future that avoids doom-and-gloom but doesn’t shy away from the enormous challenges facing humanity, this is the book for you. I don’t agree with everything here, but Holthaus’s ideas are not only refreshing and optimistic; they’re also entirely plausible and rational. An account of how we might save the natural world for the future by forging a just and fair political-economic system.
Ron:
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Rose:
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
It was a fairy tale the Stephen King Way!
Sarah H:
The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean
This story is a heart-rending tale of generational trauma, oppression, and abuse among a culture of beings that eat books for nourishment while retaining their content as a side effect. I love this book and all of its horror/fantasy elements but it was more of an impactful and emotional read than I was planning on. Fully recommended but proceed with tissues and give yourself time to process after.
House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson
A deliciously gothic novel featuring a Sapphic vampire and her blood maidens.
A Spindle Splintered & A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow
In these fun novellas, Zinnia Gray travels through the fairy-tale universe rescuing damsels in distress and attempting to escape her own fate as long as she can.
