Written by Emma V. March 21 is World Poetry Day. It’s a good moment to reflect on this beautiful and ancient art form. Poetry has been written through the ages, and it’s been brought to readers in all sorts of ways. Medieval bards recited their tales in long rhyming forms, while [...]
"A disillusioned millennial ghostwriter who, quite literally, has some ghosts of her own, has to find her way back home in this sparkling adult debut from national bestselling author Ashley Poston."
We start this ABC Staff Picks with an unusual choice: a cookbook! In recent years, we’ve seen many fandom cookbooks showing up on our shelves, and even though we might be a bit skeptical, many are actually quite good. Think about cookbooks based on TV series, games and, yes, even books!. [...]
"Jane Ellsworth and her sister Melody's lives still revolve around vying for the attentions of eligible men. While Jane's skill with glamour is remarkable, it is her sister who is fair of face, and therefore wins the lion's share of the attention. At the ripe old age of twenty-eight, Jane has resigned herself to being invisible forever."
Written by Natalia March is International Women’s History Month, during which we celebrate contributions to history, society and culture by women. The United States initiated this month in the late seventies, but the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada also celebrate it. In The Netherlands, we also celebrate International Women’s Day on [...]
Written by Lília We all have t-shirts with tears, socks with holes in the heel, jeans torn from the friction between our thighs. You get the idea. Most of the time, the garments we’ve loved to death are all still very wearable, if not for those pesky details. So, what can [...]
"All her life, seventeen-year-old Iph has protected her sensitive younger brother, Orr. But this summer, with their mother gone at an artist residency, their father decides it’s time for fifteen-year-old Orr to toughen up at a wilderness boot camp. When their father brings Iph to a work gala in downtown Portland and breaks the news, Orr has already been sent away against his will. Furious at her father’s betrayal, Iph storms off and gets lost in the maze of Old Town. Enter George, a queer Robin Hood who swoops in on a bicycle, bow and arrow at the ready, offering Iph a place to hide out while she tracks down Orr. Orr, in the meantime, has escaped the camp and fallen in with The Furies, an all-girl punk band, and moves into the coat closet of their ramshackle pink house. In their first summer apart, Iph and Orr must learn to navigate their respective new spaces of music, romance, and sex-work activism—and find each other before a fantastical transformation fractures their family forever."
Luke and Iris W. are back with our first ABC Staff Picks of 2023. Think cozy titles, biographies, science fiction novellas, a YA horror title and much more…. As the books buyer for Amsterdam’s film section, Luke chose two quite different memoirs from two famous authors. Both have similar themes about [...]
written by Lynn Forty years ago this February, I landed at Baltimore airport in the worst snowstorm they’d had in 10 years. On the way to our host Larry Boltansky’s home, the freeway was closed and we had to shovel the station wagon out from under snow to get to a side [...]
It is almost Valentine’s Day! Need some 19th century dating advice? “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife,” Jane Austen taught us in her masterwork, Pride and Prejudice. Yes, in Ms. Austen’s time, the [...]
