Lifeform by Jenny Slate

814.6 SL

A letter to a doctor for a prescription that assigns seats for people in love? A reimagining of Ghostbusters where Sigourney Weaver is a powerful protagonist that feeds Bill Murray to hungry ghosts? A heroic raccoon named Justin who teaches Slate, and his gossipy raccoon friends, a little something about gusto? Yes, “Lifeform” is a memoir. It is a book primarily about Slate’s journey into love and motherhood, among other personal transformations written in plays, hopes, memories, and visions. These essays, whose lengths vary from sentences to pages, are a master class in making the mundane sacred and well worth celebrating. If you’re looking for pseudo-nonfiction that reminds you of how funny and impossible normality is, this book might be for you.

Merlin’s tour of the universe: a traveler’s guide to blue moons and black holes, Mars, stars & everything far by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

520 TY

Merlin was born in a distant galaxy, old enough to have seen the creation of the Earth, and therefore, the leading man to answer people’s questions about the cosmos. Neil DeGrasse Tyson created Merlin (a fictional astrophysicist) to provide answers about our world and what’s around us for readers of his Q&A column. The letters come from writers of varying ages and places on the globe, those wondering about our planet, the solar system, black holes, the sun, and distant galaxies. Stick figure drawings and Merlin’s dorky jokes create a sense of ease while one reads about complex science (you don’t need a degree to enjoy these scientific explorations). This is a good coffee table book, as each letter is less than a page and does not have to be read linearly. Feel free to bounce around the galaxy!

The Mourner’s Bestiary by Eiren Cafall

921 Cafall

Eiren Cafall has inherited a disease known as PKD (polycystic kidney disease), a legacy her family has carried for 200 years. Now looking after her son, Cafall is worried about PKD reaching him in unexpected or traumatic ways. “The Mourner’s Bestiary” takes a well-researched deep dive at oceanic lifeforms metaphorically connected to Cafall’s relationship to PKD. This books is not only a lens to understand chronic illness, but a story of one’s evolving, interpersonal, and emotional understanding of the ongoing climate crisis. This clever combination of nuanced family memoir and ecological nonfiction creates a testament to healing, and giving voice to conversations that have not been, until now, brought to the surface of our psyche. This is an important book for readers looking to be placed in a quiet, tender, and sometimes difficult contemplation of our modern world with a reminder of the miracle of change.

Sweet Nothings: Confessions of a Candy Lover by Sarah Perry

641.853 PE

Food has a way of carrying us back to special moments in time. In “Sweet Nothings,” Perry invites the reader to indulge in her memories and ponderings of nostalgic candies, as well as explore modern desire, happiness, and pleasure for pleasures sake. This book organizes its sweet stories by color from red back to pink, with doodles of the chocolates, hard candies, and gummies that are just as mouthwatering as the real thing. These assorted micro-essays are personal anecdotes or stories, others astute observations and descriptions of our world, our candies, and the types of people who enjoy them. Sure, Perry knows that most candy is a list of indecipherable ingredients, but what they have is more than flavor, they contain histories. Like sugar, this book is hard to put down, and readers will find a surprisingly poignant and powerful tale of one person’s life in a sea of sour, sweet, (and bitter-sweet) tales.

By Bella Markham

Reference Desk