University Libraries
Reading at Roesch II
By Scott West
In my initial Reading at Roesch post, I discussed the significant number of award-winning books that were recently added to the leisure reading collection. This month I intend to discuss bestsellers and some award winners and highlight books honored with the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
Bestsellers
Bestselling books are a high priority for the leisure reading collection. Here’s just a sampling from the Oct. 20 New York Times bestsellers:
- Divine Rivals, by Rebecca Ross, No. 1 (on its way!)
- Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros, No. 1
- Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus, No. 2
- Holly, by Stephen King, No. 3
- Night of the Witch, by Sara Raasch, No. 3
- This Winter, by Alice Oseman, No. 4
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being, by Rick Rubin, No. 6
- Long Live the Pumpkin Queen, by Shea Ernshaw, No. 6
- Build the Life You Want, by Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey, No. 7
- Five Survive, by Holly Jackson, No. 7
- Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett, No. 7
- Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, by Peter Attia, No. 8
- Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver, No. 10
It is interesting to see the draw of fantasy novels. This list includes two overall bestsellers plus another in the third spot. The genre encompasses a wide range of tastes — young adult, romance, folklore, contemporary — and I cannot help but see the appeal of escapism.
Award Winners
We continue to add award-winning books, and since the last posting, we have added A Cottage Full of Secrets, by Jane Lovering; The Earl’s Mysterious Lady, by Louise Allen; I Let You Fall, by Sara Downing; Take a Chance on Greece, by Emily Kerr; and The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre, by Natasha Lester. These four books all received Romance Novelists’ Association awards. In addition, the first volume of The Human Target, by Tom King, won an Eisner; The Black Period, by Hafizah Augustus Geter, won a Lammy; and Even Though I Knew the End, by C.L. Polk, won a Nebula Award. More forthcoming as a half-dozen graphic novels are in the works.
Dayton Literary Peace Prize
Roesch Library is a repository for all Dayton Literary Peace Prize winners, runners-up and finalists. Often, library faculty and staff serve as first readers for books submitted for the prize. This is a hugely enjoyable task, although no book I have reviewed has ever made the final groups. I don’t take it personally, as I get to read some pretty interesting books. I highly recommend We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland, by Fintan O’Toole. On Oct. 10, the 2023 winners were announced.
In the fiction category, Geraldine Brooks’s Horse was the winner, and The Light Pirate, by Lily Brooks-Dalton, was the runner-up. The finalists were Anthem, by Noah Hawley; The Immortal King Rao, by Vauhini Vara; Mecca, by Susan Straight; and Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta, by James Hannaham. Two science fiction titles!
The nonfiction category features His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice, by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, as the winner and American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis, by Adam Hochschild, as runner-up. The finalists were Asian American Histories of the United States, by Catherine Ceniza Choy; Ma & Me: A Memoir, by Putsata Reang; The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth, by Ben Rawlence; and Zarifa: A Woman’s Battle in a Man’s World, by Zarifa Ghafari.
Borrow, Read, Return, Repeat
UD faculty, staff and students can borrow any of these books using their UD ID. Alumni living in Ohio can receive a free annual borrowing card. If you’re not local, look some of these titles up in your library’s catalog.
— Scott N. West is a collections specialist in the University Libraries.