22 Ambassadors Recommend the One Book to Read Before Visiting Their Country

Travel | Literature from other Cultures | Reader's Advisory

Written by CNT Editors June 19, 2017 

Preparing for a visit to a foreign country can often be overwhelming, with no shortage of things to learn before you go. Where should you eat? Where should you stay? What do you tip? More so than this service information, though, is a sense of cultural understanding that's hard to put your finger on. With this in mind, language learning app Babbel asked foreign ambassadors to the U.S. to pick the book they believe first-time visitors to their country should read before they arrive. Their answers may surprise you.

“The Tobacconist (translated into English by Charlotte Collins) is set in 1937 just before the German occupation. It follows 17-year-old Franz, who moves to Vienna to become the apprentice in a tobacco shop. Its quiet wisdom and sincerity resonated with me very deeply." —H.E. Wolfgang A. Waldner

Note: "H.E." stands for His or Her Excellency, the official title for ambassadors to the U.S.

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365 Books by Women Authors to Celebrate International Women’s Day All Year

Women authors | Book lists | International Women's Day

by Gwen Glazer. Librarian, Readers Services

March 8, 2017

 

For over a century, International Women's Day has been observed on March 8 — and this year, we've compiled 365 books by women authors from across the globe to keep the celebration going all year long.

This list includes a vast range of women authors, and we hope you find some old favorites and some new discoveries. And we hope that readers can draw strength and inspiration from these 365 books — and the women who wrote them — in the year ahead.

And if you've ever heard someone say they “just couldn't find” a great woman author to read, now you have not one, but 365 suggestions.

1. Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies
2. Susan Abulhawa, The Blue Between Sky and Water
3. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun
4. Etel Adnan, Sea and Fog
5. Marjorie Agosín, A Cross and a Star

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We Are New Yorkers: A Reading List for NYC Immigrant Heritage Week | April 14, 2017

Reader's Advisory | Immigrants in the U.S. | NYPL

Elizabeth Waters, Mid-Manhattan Library

 Happy Immigrant Heritage Week! Since 2004, New York City has celebrated Immigrant Heritage Week around April 17, coordinated by the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs. April 17, 1907 is the date that New York’s immigrant receiving station, Ellis Island, saw its busiest day ever, processing a record 11,747 new arrivals in a single day. This year, New York City Immigrant Heritage Week is April 17–April 23.  Many free events celebrating our cultural diversity are scheduled for this week in NYPL branches and other locations throughout New York City.

 A great way to learn about and celebrate the histories and contributions of New York City’s diverse immigrant communities is by reading their stories. Here are some vivid representations of the New York immigrant experience in fiction,  as well as a few memoirs and biographies of New Yorkers past and present, who arrived here from all over the world and made their mark on our city. Read more...

25 Great Books by Refugees in America | By GAL BECKERMANJAN. 30, 2017

Book review | Reader's Advisory | Diversity | Immigrants in the US 

One way to regard the refugees in the news these frenzied past few days is as potential Americans, individuals and families escaping bad situations who imagine themselves building new lives here. What these particular refugees could become in this country, and how they could contribute to our society and culture, is a question stuck in suspended animation. But we do have the power to look to the past. And in the literary realm it’s unquestionable that refugees, once here, often make major contributions.

Through the 20th century and into this one, those fleeing political persecution or war have produced important works that we think of now as at least partly American, from fiction about the harrowing experiences of exile and dislocation to political treatises by thinkers who want to understand why their homelands fell apart. This is a sampling of 25 of those works.

 

Read more
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/books/review/25-great-books-by-refugees-in-america.html

16 Books About Race That Every White Person Should Read | Zeba Blay

Diversity | Reader's Advisory

The Huffington Post

Earlier this week, actor Matt McGorry gave a shout out to Michelle Alexander’s powerful book on mass incarceration, The New Jim Crow. “I’m embarrassed that I didn’t come across the information in this book sooner,” McGorry wrote on Facebook. “But that’s white privilege for ya... Burning crosses and racial slurs are not the only types of racism affecting people of color. And we owe it to our black and brown brothers and sisters to understand this.”

The “Orange is the New Black” star’s post has gained him plenty of praise for actively trying to educate himself on issues regarding race, but it also serves as a powerful example to other white people and allies on how, sometimes, one of the best ways to better understand racism is to just pick up a book.

In the spirit of this, we’ve compiled a list of books that every white person and ally should read right now, and have included some of each book’s most powerful passages: Read more...

‘Book Doctors’ Say What You Need Is a Good Read

Reader's Advisory

Bibliotherapists recommend tomes they think can help what ails you; finding calm in ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ 

By

Sarah Sloat

Dec. 18, 2016 3:05 p.m. ET

 

Dutch novelist Mano Bouzamour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Photo: Sarah Sloat 

 

 

FRANKFURT—Depressed? Over-the-counter remedies abound, though some are hard to swallow. The 272-page “City of Thieves” by David Benioff, for example.

It is one palliative prescribed by Mano Bouzamour at the recent Frankfurt Book Fair, where he sat at a desk sporting a white doctor’s coat and stethoscope. The Dutch novelist, who has no medical license, was serving as a “book doctor.” After brief consultations with people who lined up in the cold drizzle outside a pop-up clinic, he pulled out a prescription pad and scribbled titles to alleviate readers’ woes.

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15 Children's Books That Teach Your Child Not To Be Entitled by Sarah Bunton

Sergey Nivens/Fotolia

A lot of critics of the millennial generation believe those born between the '80s and '90s as being entitled, spoiled, and the "me generation." With the instant gratification modern technology like smartphones, the internet, and social media can provide, it might seem like Generation Y is used to getting everything they want in a short amount of time. Obviously this isn't necessarily true and it seems millennial parents have an uphill battle to prove this isn't the case, especially with their kids. Thankfully there are children's books that teach your child not to be entitled.
A false sense that the world owes you something isn't a new thing at all. Yet it appears that topics like entitlement, empathy, and privilege have finally gotten the attention they deserve in modern society. Gone are the days of turning a blind eye to unkind behavior and not discussing real issues in polite conversation. Being able to understand the different ways in which people experience the world around them has become an increasingly necessary skill for parents to teach their children.
So if you're looking to teach your child how to be self-aware, empathetic, and patient check out these children's books that help kids understand entitlement.

1. 'Thing-Thing' by Carly Fagan

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Libraries across the country look to Hennepin County Library for response to Black Lives Matter

By Kelly Smith Star Tribune

July 14, 2016 — 10:06pm 

Libraries may seem an unlikely place to go in the search for answers after the police shooting of Philando Castile and Black Lives Matter protests in the Twin Cities.

But the Hennepin County Library, the state’s largest library system, has responded by launching a Black Lives Matter teen reading list that is now being replicated at libraries across the country. For the first time, one of its reading lists also has been picked up by national publications.

It’s part of an effort by public libraries across the country to take action after the troubling events, hoping that the power of books can help educate residents on racial issues and support the community.

“It’s in the DNA of a library to do this,” Library Director Lois Langer Thompson said. “Reading is part of the healing and helps us understand.”

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How to Read When the World Is Terrible by Jessica Woodbury. 07-13-2016

Reading & Literacy

When awful things are happening all over the news and your Facebook feed, sometimes books are exactly what you need. But how do you choose what to read when you’re feeling fragile or angry or depressed or confused? There are lots of ways to use reading to help you conquer or confront your difficult feelings, and there’s no one right way. Here are some suggestions of what to read and how it can help you.

Escape

If you want your reading to take you away from it all, consider a few things. Romance is a good genre to turn to in times of turmoil because happily-ever-after endings are required in the genre, so you know that everything will turn out okay. If you need a read to comfort and calm and remind you of what love can do in the world, Romance is a good bet. Suggestions: Our First Times: The Books That Made Us Romance Readers.

Sometimes you may just want to forget the world exists all together. In that case, go seriously speculative with Science-Fiction or Fantasy. While some books in these genres can be very similar to real life or confront difficult moral issues, others are all about world building and imagination and that’s where you should go when you need a break from the world you actually live in. Suggestions: 9 Diverse Fantasy Books That Will Challenge Your Idea of Fantasy Fiction, 7 Standalone Novels for Science-Fiction Lovers.

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Maybe try a laugh? The comedian memoir/essay genre serves pretty much just one purpose: to make you smile. Also effective: gossipy memoirs by movie stars with juicy tidbits about other movie stars. Suggestions: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Ladies Who’d Make a Sailor Blush.
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Can reading make you happier? by Ceridwen Dovey

June 9, 2015

“Can Reading Make You Happier?” by Ceridwen Dovey (June 9th)ILLUSTRATION BY SARAH MAZZETTI
Several years ago, I was given as a gift a remote session with a bibliotherapist at the London headquarters of the School of Life, which offers innovative courses to help people deal with the daily emotional challenges of existence. I have to admit that at first I didn’t really like the idea of being given a reading “prescription.” I’ve generally preferred to mimic Virginia Woolf’s passionate commitment to serendipity in my personal reading discoveries, delighting not only in the books themselves but in the randomly meaningful nature of how I came upon them (on the bus after a breakup, in a backpackers’ hostel in Damascus, or in the dark library stacks at graduate school, while browsing instead of studying). I’ve long been wary of the peculiar evangelism of certain readers: You must read this, they say, thrusting a book into your hands with a beatific gleam in their eyes, with no allowance for the fact that books mean different things to people—or different things to the same person—at various points in our lives. I loved John Updike’s stories about the Maples in my twenties, for example, and hate them in my thirties, and I’m not even exactly sure why.Read more...

7 Short Books Worth More Than an MBA By Geoffrey James Contributing editor, Inc.com

CREDIT: Getty Images

Over the past few decades, the value of an MBA has declined, probably because the academic world can't keep up with the rapid pace of change in the business world.
Relatively few entrepreneurs have MBAs, but I'll bet that almost all of the successful ones have read and truly treasure these seven short, easy-to-read classics:

1. As a Man Thinketh

Author: James Allen

What It Teaches: Most people labor under the misconception that their life is the result of fate, luck, or circumstances. This book explains that your life is what you make of it, and the only way you'll be successful in life is if you're first successful in your mind. This is the foundation of a successful career in business.  (It's also one of the top 10 motivational books of all time.)

Best Quote: "A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile, and commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life. And as he adapts his mind to that regulating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition, and builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts; ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins to use them as aids to his more rapid progress, and as a means of the hidden powers and possibilities within himself." Read more...

11 Bookish Things To Add To Your Summer Bucket List by Alex Weiss

Spencer Platt/Getty Images News /Getty Images

Ever since I was a kid, writing up a summer bucket list has been a constant tradition. My past bucket lists have included silly things like attaining the phone number of my middle school crush or reading an insane number of books before school started back up. Bucket lists can include anything from embarking on road-trip adventures to facing a big fear that's been holding you back. It's anything you want, and if you're a book lover like myself, odds are you have a bucket list that contains a lot of books, too.

Spending your summer days with a good book and glass of lemonade is what dreams are made of — at least for book nerds. It's not so much about the tan or the temperature of the beach waves, but more so about the characters and settings within the books we hold close to our hearts. While you probably have a good number of books you're adding to your bucket list this year, consider adding a couple book-related activities to it as well. After all, you will need a little time in-between books that break your heart or blow your mind.

Gather your closest book loving friends and plan for one fantastic summer full of bookstores, arts and crafts, writing, and a whole lot of reading with these 11 fun things to add to your summer book bucket list:

1. Visit A New Or Your Favorite Bookstore Once A Week

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25 Nonfiction Titles for Guys Who Aren’t Big Readers

by Eileen M. Washburn on May 16, 2016

I’m a children’s librarian at a smaller library with one reference/circulation desk, so I make recommendations to people of all ages. One of my favorite patrons is the guy who gets a new library card because he now has some time on his hands maybe due to a surgery. Or the guy who gets dragged into the library by his wife who insists he has something to read on their beach vacation. I can identify with this guy because he sounds an awful lot like my husband. As an electrical engineer, my husband reads manuals at work all day. When he’s home, he’d rather work in the yard or catch a game if he has any downtime. But what kind of librarian would I be if I didn’t bring him home books occasionally?

So with some input from my coworkers, I have compiled a list for you to recommend to that guy who might just try a nonfiction book if you bug him enough. These are titles that won’t disappoint. You’re probably already familiar with some of them, but maybe you’ll find a new gem to recommend (My husband wants you to know that Under and Alone is the only book he ever got out of bed to read to find out what happened next).
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Einstein started a book club, and here's the reading list by Ilana Strauss | Tuesday, May 10, 2016

What the beloved genius and his buddies discussed in the Olympia Academy is legendary.

 

(Photo: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

It's hard to think about Albert Einstein without imagining an old, crazy-haired genius. But once upon a time, before he ever came up with a theory of relativity, founded Jerusalem's Hebrew University or had his brain stolen, Einstein was a 23-year-old patent clerk, working for minimum wage and bumming around Bern, Switzerland.

The young man decided to earn some extra cash tutoring physics. He put up an ad, and philosophy student Maurice Solovine responded. The two didn't do much traditional studying, but instead chatted about philosophy. Einstein's friend, mathematician Conrad Habicht, joined their debates, and the three met regularly over drinks and cigars in Einstein's bohemian apartment to read and discuss physics and philosophy, mockingly calling themselves the Olympia Academy.

Even after the club broke up a few years later, Einstein said it influenced many of his theories. We've gathered together some of the books and essays the Olympia Academy read and discussed. Maybe the literature that inspired Einstein can inspire you to be clear and clever, too. View slideshow....

3 Children’s Books That Encourage Kindness Towards Others

Kindness is one of the most important character traits, but sometimes kids need an extra reminder about the best ways to be kind to others or why kindness matters. These books provide that reminder in creative and appealing ways. Happy reading!

1. We All Sing With The Same Voice by J. Philip Miller and Sheppard M. Greene

What It’s About: This is a song book that connects kids around the world. The verses highlight differences between kids, illustrated on the pages of the book. The chorus brings all of these kids with many differences together, singing “We all sing with the same voice. The same song. The same voice. We all sing with the same voice and we sing in harmony.”

Why It’s Important: Not only will the music engage kids as young as three, but it also encourages global awareness and connection at a young age. Everyone is different and unique, and this book celebrates those differences while singing together as friends.  Read more...

When Dickens Is a Distraction

Brian Taylor for The Chronicle Review

By Ivan Kreilkamp October 25, 2015 

A recent issue of the Yale Alumni Magazine offers a promising feature: "Guilty (and not-so-guilty) reads of the Yale faculty: What your professors read when nobody’s watching." It’s a potentially juicy idea that yielded disappointingly tepid results.

The editors of the magazine admit, "The first thing we learned when we asked faculty across the campus to share their guilty reads: Not all Yale professors know how to relax. Their summer reading lists included the likes of Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin — a groundbreaking work by Yale historian Timothy Snyder, but not exactly escapist. Other books sounded suspiciously like fodder for future papers."

As I leafed through the article, I found myself mentally awarding points to any prof whose supposed "guilty reads" were in fact even remotely embarrassing or guilt-inducing.

It’s no surprise that detective fiction — long the acceptable light reading of the professoriate — often turns up in the responses. Robert Stern, dean and architecture professor, recommends Georges Simenon’s Maigret thrillers and Christopher Fowler’s Bryant and May series, documenting the Peculiar Crimes detective unit in London; Sidney Altman (biology and chemistry) likes mysteries by Philip Kerr and Andrea Camilleri; Diana E.E. Kleiner (art history and classics) suggests Diane Mott Davidson’s culinary mysteries about "a spunky heroine named Goldy Bear."

OK, the Goldy Bear whodunit does sound a little silly. But if a taste for detective fiction was possibly, once upon a time, considered mildly outré in Ivy League faculty clubs, it’s been more than 70 years since Edmund Wilson declared (in his 1944 "Why Do People Read Detective Stories?") that he was "always being reminded that the most serious public figures of our time, from Woodrow Wilson to W.B. Yeats, have been addicts of this form of fiction." Detective fiction has long been a safe harbor for professors who wish to show they can unwind without risking any true status demerit.

Read more....http://chronicle.com/article/When-Dickens-Is-a-Distraction/233854?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en&elq=c37ffb9c7d8c49b7a558f67709142014&elqCampaignId=1690&elqaid=6681&elqat=1&elqTrackId=ed0194c854254d77aa2cef02d2008094

Suffragette Movie: 3 Alternative Books to Read BY NICOLE FROIO

The movie Suffragette, featuring Helena Bonham Carter, Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan, premiered in the UK on Wednesday, October 7. In true feminist fashion, the movie was welcomed by feminists who stormed the red carpet to protest against UK government cuts that have been harming British women.

It was a badass show of activism by SistersUncut and I absolutely loved it.

However, I am the feminist killjoy who pops your suffragette-admiring bubble to say that Emmeline Pankhurst (and other suffragettes) was kind of racist (and very pro-colonisation in her later years). As much as the suffragettes were absolutely essential to the fight for equality, they often compared (white) women’s lack of rights to slavery – effectively excluding black women from their fight for women’s suffrage. This was extensively pointed out in social media after Suffragette actresses were picturedwearing shirts with one of Pankhurst’s most famous (and offensive) quotes: “I’d rather be a rebel than a slave.” (As if slavery was a choice but OK EMMELINE, WELL DONE). (ALSO, can we talk about why these actresses thought wearing this quote across their chest was OK?!!? Meryl, I thought you were cool.)

There’s a lot to be said about whether it’s right or wrong to admire the suffragettes if we look at the movement with an intersectional feminist lens, but I believe the best way to make that decision is to educate yourself. All of our idols will be problematic in one way or another and while I will definitely be watching the movie, I will also be reading some additional materials to make sure I understand the full picture of the suffragette movement in terms of intersectionality (or lack thereof). Below are the books I will be reading to seek this knowledge.

On a quick side note, it’s important to say that the racism in the British and American suffragette movements were very different (it was definitely more overt in the US, with suffragettes arguing against black men having the right to vote) but that it existed in both countries.

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10 Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Choose Your Next Book by Allison Bowsher

Choosing a new book can be a big investment. You’re going to put in time getting to know characters, learning their names, their personalities, their stories. You’re going to likely shell out money, whether it’s buying a novel at your local bookstore, or taking the bus to the library. You’re going to offer up your emotions, hopefully because you've picked a book that engulfs your senses and transports you somewhere new within its pages.

It’s a lot to ask of something that usually measures 8 by 5 inches. Whereas a bad movie or TV show may take at most two hours of your life, a book can last weeks or even months (I'm looking at you, George R.R. Martin). So it better be good. (Plus, imagine being stuck on, like, a seven-hour plane ride with one book that you can't get into. THE HORROR.)

So, if you have to make sure you choose the right one, how, exactly, do you do it? It's not as easy as just picking one off the shelf; whether or not you enjoy a book can be actually affected by a long list of surrounding factors. Here are 10 things to consider when choosing your next read.

What Time Of Year Is It? Read more...

Go Set A Watchman - An Opinion Piece

To Fans of "To Kill A Mockingbird"
We at Brilliant Books want to be sure that our customers are aware that “Go Set A Watchman” is not a sequel or prequel to ‘To Kill A Mockingbird'. Neither is it a new book.  It is a first draft that was originally, and rightfully, rejected. The book, and some of the characters therein, are very much a product of this era in the South.

We suggest you view this work as an academic insight rather than as a nice summer novel. This situation is comparable to James Joyce's stunning work 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man', and his original draft 'Stephen Hero'. 'Hero' was initially rejected, and Joyce reworked it into the classic 'Portrait'. 'Hero' was eventually released as an academic piece for scholars and fans—not as a new 'Joyce novel'. We would have been delighted to see “Go Set A Watchman” receive a similar fate.

It is disappointing and frankly shameful to see our noble industry parade and celebrate this as “Harper Lee’s New Novel”.  This is pure exploitation of both literary fans and a beloved American classic (which we hope has not been irrevocably tainted.) We therefore encourage you to view “Go Set A Watchman” with intellectual curiosity and careful consideration; a rough beginning for a classic, but only that.

Go to homepage: http://www.brilliant-books.net/go-set-watchman-opinion-piece

How to talk to your kids about prejudice with the help of 12 of our favorite books

It’s been a big few weeks for America, hasn’t it? From the heartbreak of the Charleston shootings to the landmark #LoveWins Supreme Court decision to the Girl Scouts donor dust-up, people everywhere are talking about prejudice.

While I’ve seen such a beautiful swell of love, support and compassion for all kinds of people all over my social media this past month, I’ve also talked to lots of moms who are wondering how to talk to kids about prejudice and racism. Because even as my kids help me pick out wedding presents for all our friends, prejudice most definitely still exists whether it’s because of the color of your skin or the country your family came from.

Related: 10 outstanding Black History Month books for kids of all ages

One of my favorite go-to tools for starting hard conversations with my kids is by reading books together. Reading a great story is an easy way for me to get my kids talking about concepts like open-mindedness, embracing people who are different from them, and fighting for the rights of people who have been marginalized. Even if marginalization is still a word that’s a little over their heads.

Read more: http://coolmompicks.com/blog/2015/07/07/12-childrens-book-help-talk-to-kids-about-prejudice/