Uh oh . . . while my grandkids and friend herded their mother into Newton Centre’s ice cream shop, I was let loose in the local bookstore, Newtonville Books. Yes, it had started in its namesake location but moved when a larger space became available, and who wouldn’t want more room for books? It also sported these very cool rolling ladders for top shelf selections, giving me ideas for Andover Library and some stacks repositioning. 

This column’s first up is Dream Count, the latest from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi. This is a novel about four Nigerian women, two remaining in Nigeria and one working for the other, while the other women are based in the United States. The culture runs  deep, presenting opportunities and difficulties here and abroad. Adichi is a superb writer, whose language and nuances are reflective of her rich African background and the characters’ relationships.

Zoobiquity, by Dr. Barbara Natterson Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers, was published in 2013 and received a best book recommendation from Discover Magazine. The two women studied animals and humans to ascertain the ubiquity of diseases across both species — no surprises anymore! It looked very appealing in light of recent outbreaks, including avian flu, COVID, and tick-borne diseases.

I just ran across the following quote in a recent novel: “I need to read more poetry.” Well yes, April is the time for that. Paper Boat 1961-2023 is an anthology of new and selected poems by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. This woman has her fingers on the pulse of world affairs and the hearts and minds of us all. 

Whereas, by Layli Long Soldier, is a 2017 anthology of a variety of poetic forms from a Native American who describes herself as a US citizen, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation. Upon discovering this gem, I retreated to the floor in intense poetic concentration, rising only when my eyes wandered to former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins’s latest, Water Water, published in 2024. His are the most accessible of poems, although he describes them as “beginning in clarity but ending with a whiff of mystery.” How delightful!