Upcoming Program + New Books at the DFL
Check out this upcoming program at the Duxbury Free Library:
"How to Get Involved with Community Anti-Racism Work" with DICE Massachusetts.
Monday, April 25th @ 7:00
Zoom and in the Lanman Room at the library
Join us for a fireside-chat-style conversation with volunteers from DICE Massachusetts and Community Engagement Librarian Sam Correia. We will be discussing the importance of being anti-racist and where to get started when it comes to doing anti-racism work in our communities. Founded in 2019 in Massachusetts, Diversity & Inclusion for Community Empowerment (DICE) is a network of individuals and community groups committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in local cities and towns. DICE fosters the exchange of ideas, challenges each other to think in new ways, and provides support for members to take action in our evolving communities.New Books at the Duxbury Free Library
Memphis by Tara Stringfellow
Portrait of an Unknown Lady by Maria Gainza
"In the Buenos Aires art world, a master forger has achieved legendary status. Rumored to be a woman, she specializes in canvases by the painter Mariette Lydis, a portraitist of Argentinean high society. But who is this absurdly gifted creator of counterfeits? What motivates her? And what is her link to the community of artists who congregate, night after night, in a strange establishment called the Hotel Melancólico?
On the trail of this mysterious forger is our narrator, an art critic and auction house employee through whose hands counterfeit works have passed. As she begins to take on the role of art-world detective, adopting her own methods of deception and manipulation, she warns us "not to proceed in expectation of names, numbers or dates . . . My techniques are those of the impressionist."
Driven by obsession and full of subtle surprise, Portrait of an Unknown Lady is a highly seductive and enveloping meditation on what we mean by "authenticity" in art, and a captivating exploration of the gap between what is lived and what is told."
Go Back to Where You Came From by Wajahat Ali
This is just one of the many warm, lovely, and helpful tips that Wajahat Ali and other children of immigrants receive on a daily basis. Go back where, exactly? Fremont, California, where he grew up, but is now an unaffordable place to live? Or Pakistan, the country his parents left behind a half-century ago?
Growing up living the suburban American dream, young Wajahat devoured comic books (devoid of brown superheroes) and fielded well-intentioned advice from uncles and aunties. ("Become a doctor!") He had turmeric stains under his fingernails, was accident-prone, suffered from OCD, and wore Husky pants, but he was as American as his neighbors, with roots all over the world. Then, while Ali was studying at University of California, Berkeley, 9/11 happened. Muslims replaced communists as America's enemy #1, and he became an accidental spokesman and ambassador of all ordinary, unthreatening things Muslim-y.
Now a middle-aged dad, Ali has become one of the foremost and funniest public intellectuals in America. In Go Back to Where You Came From , he tackles the dangers of Islamophobia, white supremacy, and chocolate hummus, peppering personal stories with astute insights into national security, immigration, and pop culture. In this refreshingly bold, hopeful, and uproarious memoir, Ali offers indispensable lessons for cultivating a more compassionate, inclusive, and delicious America."
Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds by Mondiant Dogon
"A stunning and heartbreaking lens on the global refugee crisis, from a man who faced the very worst of humanity and survived to advocate for displaced people around the world
One day when Mondiant Dogon, a Bagogwe Tutsi born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was only three years old, his father's lifelong friend, a Hutu man, came to their home with a machete in his hand and warned the family they were to be killed within hours. Dogon's family fled into the forest, initiating a long and dangerous journey into Rwanda. They made their way to the first of several UN tent cities in which they would spend decades. But their search for a safe haven had just begun.
Hideous violence stalked them in the camps. Even though Rwanda famously has a former refugee for a president in Paul Kagame, refugees in that country face enormous prejudice and acute want. For much of his life, Dogon and his family ate barely enough to keep themselves from starving. He fled back to Congo in search of the better life that had been lost, but there he was imprisoned and left without any option but to become a child soldier.
For most refugees, the camp starts as an oasis but soon becomes quicksand, impossible to leave. Yet Dogon managed to be one of the few refugees he knew to go to college. Though he hid his status from his fellow students out of shame, eventually he would emerge as an advocate for his people."
Amiable with Big Teeth by Claude McKay
"A monumental literary event- the newly discovered final novel by seminal Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay, a rich and multilayered portrayal of life in 1930s Harlem and a historical protest for black freedom.
The unexpected discovery in 2009 of a completed manuscript of Claude McKay's final novel was celebrated as one of the most significant literary events in recent years. Building on the already extraordinary legacy of McKay's life and work, this colorful, dramatic novel centers on the efforts by Harlem intelligentsia to organize support for the liberation of fascist-controlled Ethiopia, a crucial but largely forgotten event in American history. At once a penetrating satire of political machinations in Depression-era Harlem and a far-reaching story of global intrigue and romance, Amiable with Big Teeth plunges into the concerns, anxieties, hopes, and dreams of African-Americans at a moment of crisis for the soul of Harlem-and America."
The Devil in Silver by Victor Lavalle
"New Hyde Hospital's psychiatric ward has a new resident. It also has a very, very old one.
Pepper is a rambunctious big man, minor-league troublemaker, working-class hero (in his own mind), and, suddenly, the surprised inmate of a budget-strapped mental institution in Queens, New York. He's not mentally ill, but that doesn't seem to matter. He is accused of a crime he can't quite square with his memory. In the darkness of his room on his first night, he's visited by a terrifying creature with the body of an old man and the head of a bison who nearly kills him before being hustled away by the hospital staff. It's no delusion: The other patients confirm that a hungry devil roams the hallways when the sun goes down. Pepper rallies three other inmates in a plot to fight back: Dorry, an octogenarian schizophrenic who's been on the ward for decades and knows all its secrets; Coffee, an African immigrant with severe OCD, who tries desperately to send alarms to the outside world; and Loochie, a bipolar teenage girl who acts as the group's enforcer. Battling the pill-pushing staff, one another, and their own minds, they try to kill the monster that's stalking them. But can the Devil die?"
Elsewhere, California by Dana Johnson
"As a young girl, Avery escaped the violent streets of Los Angeles to a more gentrified existence in suburban West Covina. But this new life, filled with school, visits to 7-Eleven to gawk at Tiger Beat magazine, and outings to Dodger Stadium, is soon interrupted by a reminder of the past in the form of her violent cousin Keith.
When Keith moves in with her family, he triggers a series of events that will follow Avery throughout her life: to her studies at USC, to her burgeoning career as a painter and artist, and into her relationship with a wealthy Italian who sequesters her in his glass-walled house in the Hollywood Hills. The past will even intrude upon Avery's first gallery show, proving her mother's adage: Every goodbye ain't gone."
Fifth Born by Zelda Lockhart
"When Odessa Blackburn is three years old her beloved grandmother dies, and so begins her story, set in St. Louis,Missouri, and rural Mississippi. As the Þfth born of eight children, Odessa loses her innocence at Þrst when her drunken father sexually abuses her, and then again when she alone witnesses her father taking the life of his own brother.
Fifth Born is Zelda Lockhart's debut novel, lyrically written and powerful in its exploration of how secrets can tear apart lives and families. It is a story of love, longing, and redemption, as Odessa walks away from those whom she believes to be her kin to discover the true meaning of family."
The Good House by Tananarive Due
"Award-winning author Tananarive Due's spine- tingling tale of supernatural suspense weaves a stronger net than ever' (Kirkus Reviews). As a woman tries to understand her son's suicide, she uncovers startling truths about powers that she has inherited from her family and the role she must consequently play in order to save her hometown from the forces of evil. Expertly weaving a subtle tapestry of fear in this 'subtle tale of terror' (Graham Joyce), Due takes her place alongside literary horror masters such as Stephen King and Anne Rice.' "
In the Not Quite Dark by Dana Johnson
"A collection of bold stories set in downtown Los Angeles that examine large issues like love, class, and race, and how they influence and define our most intimate moments.
With deep insight into character, intimate relationships, and the modern search for personal freedom, In the Not Quite Dark is powerful collection of stories that feels both urgent and timeless from Dana Johnson, the author of the prize-winning collection Break Any Woman Down .
In "The Liberace Museum," a mixed-race couple leave the South toward the destination of Vegas, crossing miles of road and history to the promised land of consumption; in "Rogues," a young man on break from college lands in his brother's Inland Empire neighborhood during a rash of unexplained robberies; in "She Deserves Everything She Gets," a woman listens to the strict advice given to her spoiled niece about going away to college, reflecting on her own experience and the night she lost her best friend; and in the collection's title story, a man setting down roots in downtown L.A. is haunted by the specter of both gentrification and a young female tourist, whose body was found in the water tower of a neighboring building."
Passing Love by Jacqueline Luckett
"Nicole-Marie Handy has loved all things French since she was a child. After the death of her best friend, determined to get out of her rut of ordinary living and experience something new, she goes to Paris, leaving behind work, ailing parents and a proposal from her married lover. While there, Nicole chances upon an old photo of her father--lovingly inscribed, in his hand, to a woman Nicole has never heard of. What starts as a vacation for Nicole quickly becomes an investigation into her relationship to this mystery woman. Moving back and forth in time between the sparkling Paris of today and the jazz-fueled city filled with expatriates in the 1950s, PASSING LOVE is the story of two women dealing with love lost, secrets, and betrayal . . . and how the City of Lights may hold all of the answers."
Red Now and Laters by Marcus Guillory
"Meet Ti John, a young boy growing up in Texan Creole culture in the 1980s, the decade of Reaganomics, disco music, and the candy of choice--red Now and Laters. Raised in a Black Creole family by a voodoo-practicing father and strict Catholic mother, he is blessed with a special gift: spiritual healing.
But life in the Houston ghetto where he lives is never easy. Ti John struggles to remain an ordinary kid, but even with a rodeo-star father he idolizes and the help of supernatural guides, nothing can shield Ti John from the roughness of inner-city life. He witnesses violence and death, gets his heart broken by girls, feels the anger of his own embittered father, struggles to live up to his mother's middle-class aspirations--all while trying to become the man he's expected to be. Will Ti John fall prey to the bad side of life--or will he recognize and hold on to the good?"
So Much Blue by Percival Everett
"Kevin Pace is working on a painting that he won't allow anyone to see: not his children; not his best friend, Richard; not even his wife, Linda. The painting is a canvas of twelve feet by twenty-one feet (and three inches) that is covered entirely in shades of blue. It may be his masterpiece or it may not; he doesn't know or, more accurately, doesn't care.
What Kevin does care about are the events of the past. Ten years ago he had an affair with a young watercolorist in Paris. Kevin relates this event with a dispassionate air, even a bit of puzzlement. It's not clear to him why he had the affair, but he can't let it go. In the more distant past of the late seventies, Kevin and Richard traveled to El Salvador on the verge of war to retrieve Richard's drug-dealing brother, who had gone missing without explanation. As the events of the past intersect with the present, Kevin struggles to justify the sacrifices he's made for his art and the secrets he's kept from his wife."
Team Seven by Marcus Burke
"Just south of Boston in Milton, Massachusetts, Andre Battel is growing away from his Jamaican family, discovering genuine prowess on the basketball court, and eventually falling into dealing drugs for the local street gang, Team Seven. But when Andre and his crew fall behind on payments, dire and violent consequences await. Around Andre swirls a cast of characters and voices: Ruby, a hardworking medical secretary; Nina, his older sister; Eddy, his mostly-not-there father; and Reggie and Smoke, the kingpins of competing drug crews. As these individual lives clash and come together, the novel weaves an intricate and unflinching portrait of a black family, a black community, and one young man poised between youthful innocence and ambiguous experience."
The Untelling by Tayari Jones
"Aria is no stranger to tragedy -- as a young girl, she and her older sister and mother survived a car crash that took the lives of their father and beloved baby sister. And although relations with her remaining family are strained, she's done her best to establish a solid, normal life for herself, living in Atlanta and teaching literacy to girls who have fallen on hard times.
But now she has a secret that she's not yet ready to share with Dwayne, her devoted boyfriend, or Rochelle, her roommate and best friend: Aria is pregnant. Or so she thinks. The truth is about to make her question her every assumption and reevaluate the life she has worked so hard to build for herself...as it sends her reeling in a direction she had no idea she was destined to go."
Disgruntled by Asali Solomon
"Kenya Curtis is only eight years old, but she knows that she's different, even if she can't put her finger on how or why. It's not because she's black - most of the other students in the fourth-grade class at her West Philadelphia elementary school are, too. Maybe it's because she celebrates Kwanzaa, or because she's forbidden from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Maybe it's because she call her father -a housepainter-slash-philosopher - "Baba" instead of "Daddy," or because her parents' friends gather to pour out libations "from the Creator, for the martyrs" and discuss "the community."
Disgruntled , effortlessly funny and achingly poignant, follows Kenya from West Philadelphia to the suburbs, from public school to private, and from childhood through adolescence, as she grows increasingly disgruntled by her inability to find any place or thing or person that feels like home."
Conversations with People Who Hate Me by Dylan Marron
"From the host of the award-winning, critically acclaimed podcast Conversations with People Who Hate Me comes a thought-provoking, witty, and inspirational exploration of difficult conversations and how to navigate them.
Dylan Marron's work has racked up millions of views and worldwide support. From his acclaimed Every Single Word video series highlighting the lack of diversity in Hollywood to his web series Sitting in Bathrooms with Trans People , Marron has explored some of today's biggest social issues.Yet, according to some strangers on the internet, Marron is a "moron," a "beta male," and a "talentless hack." Rather than running from this online vitriol, Marron began a social experiment in which he invited his detractors to chat with him on the phone--and those conversations revealed surprising and fascinating insights.
Now, Marron retraces his journey through a project that connects adversarial strangers in a time of unprecedented division. After years of production and dozens of phone calls, he shares what he's learned about having difficult conversations and how having them can help close the ever-growing distance between us."
All Are Welcome: How to Build a Real Culture of Inclusion That Delivers Results by Cynthia Owyoung
"All Are Welcome takes you beyond the mere practice of hiring a diversity of staff to make inclusion part of the equation, too. The author argues that a strong practice of inclusion is necessary to keep employee retention up, make diversity efforts stick, and cultivate an organization that outperforms its peers. All Are Welcome covers:
Why Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Matters Understanding the Problem: Hiring - Retention = Zero Progress Focusing on Inclusion and Equity A Framework for Change Increasing Workforce Diversity: Hiring and Development Building an Inclusive Workplace: Culture and Accessibility Serving a Diverse Marketplace's Needs: Product, Customers and Marketing Supporting our Communities: Social Impact and Legislative Advocacy Conditions for Success: Courage, Accountability, Respect, and Empowerment The Future of Work and the Role of DEI Pressure to make equity, diversity, and inclusion an organizational priority--on par with the pursuit of profits and growth--is greater today than ever."
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