Who: Chloe Lee Rowlands, Technology & Data Journalism Manager
Recommendation: “Fuzz” by Mary Roach
Why it’s a good read: With Spring bringing all the creatures great and small into our backyards, what better time to read about the wildest interactions between humans and animals. Mary Roach’s “Fuzz” will have you laughing out loud every few pages with her explorations into all the ways that nature avoids adhering to human laws and all the ways that humans try (and fail) to make it do so.
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Who: Tom Bemis, retired editor
Recommendation: “Our Team” by Luke Epplin
Why it’s a good read: It’s a well-written account of the four people who led Cleveland to their last World Series championship. All four— Larry Doby, Satchel Paige, Bob Feller and Bill Veeck—were terrific characters on their own. This account weaves their stories together to explore what it took to win Cleveland’s last major league championship more than 75 years ago.
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Oct. 10, 2024
Who: Keith Winston, sales account executive
Recommendation: “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch” by George Plimpton
Why it’s a good read: The title character is a young, gangly kid who has one remarkable talent: he can throw a baseball with unerring accuracy at 170 (yes, 170) miles per hour—every time. He’s also an aspiring Buddhist monk. This began as a now-legendary April Fool’s magazine article that the author expanded into this novelette. It’s a delight.
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Who: Keith Burbank, journalist
Recommendation: “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson
Why it’s a good read: Like another reviewer said, “It’s choke-on-your-coffee funny.”
Synopsis: Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes—and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings.
Check if the book is available to borrow from your local public library.