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Staff Picks and Suggestions

Washington Post Now Available

The Northeastern University Library is pleased to announce that we now offer online access to the Washington Post for all current Northeastern faculty, staff, and students.

The new subscription allows the Northeastern community to keep up with breaking news and opinion directly through the Washington Post website at washingtonpost.com or wapo.com. Northeastern readers will be able to select and read all articles without encountering a paywall, as well as share 10 “gift” articles with non-subscriber friends each month. Access includes the Washington Post app, photos, video, audio, reader comments, newsletters, and yes, games and crosswords.

The Washington Post is an important newspaper of record, with the largest circulation in the greater Washington, D.C., area. Its strengths are inside-the-beltway political coverage, national and international news, and a tradition of award-winning investigative journalism.

Setting up access to the Washington Post is easy! Create an account with your Northeastern email address and then follow these instructions to activate free digital access.

As always, we welcome your feedback and please let us know if you need assistance with your account setup.

2024 Reading Challenge Update: February Winner and What You Read This Month!

Congratulations to Jessica Gudin, whose name was drawn this month in the Northeastern prize drawing! Jessica won a gift card to More Than Words, a non-profit, youth-run bookstore based in Boston’s South End.

And thank you to everyone who read a book and told us about it this month! You still have ten more chances to win, so keep reading. (For more chances to win, make sure to submit your reading to the Massachusetts Center for the Book, as well as Northeastern!)

What You Read This Month

February’s theme was “a book with a color in the title,” which offered a full rainbow of reading possibilities (date we say, a reading rainbow?). Here’s a kaleidoscope of hues that engaged readers this month.

Cover of Red Rising

Red Rising, Pierce Brown
“I was so glad I chose this book for February. Having just read Dune in January, I was excited to explore more interstellar science fiction! Brown’s writing style and world view was starkly different than Herbert’s. While I found the story quite predictable, it was fun to reimagine an interstellar world from a different perspective. I especially like how one’s perception of themselves and others can shape their actions and relationships. The characters frequently questioned their loyalties and identities, and challenged traditional notions of allegiance and duty.” — Sudhanva

Cover of the Priory of the Orange Tree

The Priory of the Orange Tree, Samantha Shannon
“This one was a re-read for me. I’ll always remember Priory of the Orange Tree because it was the first book I ever bought at full price. I’d always go to second-hand bookshops to get my books, but this time I had to go for it. And it did not fail to deliver!” — Mit

Cover of Yellowface

Yellowface, R. F. Kuang
“This fell into the category of books where I could not get up and leave it for more than 10 minutes. I was riveted, fascinated, and continually went ‘No…No…NOOOOOO’ out loud. A perfect book club read, and one where you just want to run around and find someone else who has read it and force them to talk about it.” — Dina

“The book [was] about a white woman fictionally speaking about past hate crimes and experiences she never had to go through. She stole her friend’s fame and rose to the top, all for it to crumble in the end.” — Haiden

Cover of Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery
“I LOVED THIS BOOK. It was so funny and witty. Anne’s observations make me laugh and it’s refreshing to read.” — Amelia

Cover of All Boys Aren't Blue

All Boys Aren’t Blue, George M. Johnson
“Really good memoir that maintains a delicate balance between personal and emotional stories, and objective messages about how his story is just one way the harmful attitudes of society affects the way someone grows up.” — Sam

Cover of the Color Purple

The Color Purple, Alice Walker
“Dude…you have to read this book. I won’t give any spoilers but it is so moving to see the perspective and experiences of a black woman in the southern United States.” — Gabriella

“The book is amazing, heart-wrenching, and immensely filled with emotion.” — Valeria

Cover of White Fang

White Fang, Jack London
“Oh man, White Fang is wild! It’s all about this wolf-dog’s crazy life from wild to be domesticated. The way London dives into nature vs. nurture and survival themes is pretty dope. Really makes you think about the wild side in all of us. Plus, the journey of White Fang from the wild to understanding humans is just epic. Totally worth the read!” — Sanketh

Cover of Black Panther, Book One

Black Panther, Book One: A Nation Under Our Feet, Ta-Nahisi Coates
“Always fun to read a comic!” — Anoushka

And What to Read Next Month

The theme for March is “a book whose protagonist has a different culture or lifestyle than you.” That’s a pretty big category, but your friendly neighborhood librarians are here to help you narrow it down! Here are a few suggestions:

  • How to Say Babylon is the memoir of Safiya Sinclair, a Jamaican poet who grew up in a strictly Rastafari household. Sinclair’s story takes readers far beyond the familiar Western touchstones of Rasta culture—reggae, dreadlocks, Bob Marley—and reckons with the complexities, traditions, and legacies of Rastafarianism and its place in Jamaican culture.
  • Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body is a collection of essays by disability advocate Rebekah Taussig. Taussig, who is partially paralyzed and uses a wheelchair, longed for disability representation as a child in the 1990s and early 2000s. As an adult, her memoir-in-essays captures the nuance and humanity of disability, and shines a spotlight on the everyday ableism baked into mainstream society.
  • Rental Person Who Does Nothing is Japanese author Shoji Morimoto’s firsthand account of being, well, a rental person who does nothing. “I’m starting a service…available for any situation in which all you want is a person to be there. Maybe there’s a restaurant you want to go to, but you feel awkward going on your own. Maybe a game you want to play, but you’re one person short,” Morimoto writes. Rental Person Who Does Nothing is a strange, funny, fascinating look at Japanese culture, and at the deeply human desire for companionship—even if that companion does nothing.
  • The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight. Andrew Leland has known for many years that he will one day go blind. While he was born sighted, as a teenager, Leland was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, an incurable condition that causes a prolonged loss of vision over many years. Now in his 40s, Leland’s vision has degraded inexorably but significantly since his diagnosis, and he still doesn’t know what comes next. In the fascinating, funny, and illuminating Country of the Blind, Leland explores the history, representation, and culture of blindness, while chronicling his own journey away from sight.
  • Downeast: Five Maine Girls and the Unseen Story of Rural America follows five high school girls coming of age in Washington County, Maine—north of Bar Harbor, nestled against the New Brunswick border, and home to just 31,000 people spread across 3,260 square miles. Written over four years, Downeast explores all sides of life in rural New England, from the beauty of the craggy coastline to the devastation of opioid addiction. Recommendation: read while listening to Noah Kahan’s Stick Season on repeat.

Need more reading inspiration? Check out our suggested e-books and audiobooks for March, and the Mass Center for the Book has a list of recommended titles. For Boston folks, stop by the Snell Library lobby in person on March 12 and 13 for more recommendations, browsable books, Reading Challenge stickers, and friendly librarians who love talking about books!

And whenever you finish your next book, make sure to tell us about it for a chance to win the March prize drawing.

As always, happy reading!

Governor Dukakis and Boston’s 4-Day-Long Valentine’s Celebration

A square black and white valentine featuring Michael Dukakis' face in the middle of a heart of flowers with other flowers in the background
This Duka-KISS is for you

When you look in the Boston Globe Library Collection folder labeled “Valentines,” you might be surprised to find a photo of a Valentine whose central feature is former Governor Michael Dukakis. The reason the Globe had this Dukakis Valentine from 1978? In 1978, Valentine’s Day was four days long.

The year of 1978 is infamous in Boston history due primarily to a blizzard bringing over 27 inches of snow on February 6. With a week-long driving ban imposed by Governor Dukakis, along with families and businesses navigating the damage of the blizzard, the incredible amount of snow over such a short period of time deeply impacted and impeded the city economically and socially. This all happened leading up to Valentine’s Day, worrying businesses who heavily relied on the holiday’s sales of flowers, cards, and candies. Governor Dukakis had a creative solution.

In a February 1978 State House Press Conference, Dukakis said that “for spiritual as well as economic reasons,” the Valentine’s Day holiday would not only be observed on Tuesday, February 14th, but also February 15th, 16th, and 17th, and it would culminate with a Valentine’s party on Friday afternoon at the State House.

Thanks to Dukakis’ Valentine’s decree, sweethearts across Boston had ample time to secure flowers and chocolates for their loved ones, and stores furnishing those gifts wouldn’t be stuck with an abundance of Valentine’s stock.

The Boston Globe printed this Valentine dedicated to Dukakis in their February 14, 1978, paper, beginning their documentation of Valentine’s observances throughout the four-day-long celebration.

Gina Nortonsmith Discusses Work with CRRJ Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive in NEA Newsletter Article

Gina Nortonsmith, a smiling woman with short hair and glasses
Gina Nortonsmith

Northeastern University African American History Archivist Gina Nortonsmith had an extensive article published in the January 2024 issues of the New England Archivists Newsletter, discussing her work with the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project’s Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive.

Nortonsmith was originally hired as a Project Archivist for the CRRJ, tasked with compiling anti-Black homicide case records from the Jim Crow era into a collection to allow for accessibility and trend study by researchers. In the article, she discusses her work and the overarching goals of both representing the work of the CRRJ while also maintaining “the dignity and respect for victims and their families.”

To do this, Nortonsmith and the rest of the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive team centralized the victims’ lives and stories, not just the crime that was committed against them. In her article, she discusses approaching each record as referring to a real person and not an abstract notion. Often that included discovering and using victims’ real names, instead of alternate names or misspellings that are common in the records.

“We wanted to build an archive which illuminated CRRJ’s work and that led us to put the victim and their story foremost in arrangement, description, and access,” Nortonsmith wrote.

The Burnham-Nobles Digital Archives contains investigative records from federal and local entities as well as records from advocacy groups and letters from family and community members advocating for justice. They also included death certificates, newspaper articles, photos, and more. Taken together, these records provide a complete story of the prevalence of anti-Black violence and murder in the Jim Crow South from 1930-1954 and the failures of the justice system to solve these crimes and punish the perpetrators.

As archivists, Nortonsmith and her team made sure these records were catalogued and organized in a way that included and highlighted all parts of the victims’ life and story. Working with such subject matter was difficult, but “knowing that we were helping to bring these stories forward once again went a long way toward keeping us moving forward,” Nortonsmith wrote.

The January issue of the New England Archivists Newsletter is currently available for subscription-holders. Past issues are freely available on their website.

2024 Reading Challenge Update: January Winner and What You Read This Month!

In case you haven’t heard, the Northeastern University Library is an official partner for the 2024 Reading Challenge hosted by the Massachusetts Center for the Book (MCB). We launched the challenge in January with a table in the Snell Library lobby featuring stickers, bookmarks, books to browse, and even a surprise cameo from Cooper, Northeastern’s community resource dog and noted bookworm!

Cooper, a white retriever, lays on the floor of Snell Library. He is looking at the camera and his paw is resting on an open book
Cooper is ready for the 2024 Reading Challenge

Congratulations to Alex Kane, who won the January prize drawing and has been awarded a digital gift card to Bookshop.org! And a huge thank you to everyone who read a book and told us about it. You still have eleven more chances to win, so keep reading!

What You Read This Month

January’s theme was “a book you read years ago that you may feel differently about now,” and we had so much fun hearing from students, faculty, and staff about their re-reading adventures. Did that childhood fave live up to the memories? Is that classic still a classic? Was that high school snoozer better the second time around? Here are just a few of the books you read this month, and what you thought about them!

Cover of The Hunger Games

“I’m really enjoying re-reading all the Hunger Games books ever since I saw the new movie (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) that came out. I’m about halfway through Mockingjay right now and all 3 books are truly so captivating and well written. There’s never a dull moment.” — Kylie

I read [The Hunger Games] in middle school, so reading the first book again in college, I was able to see it in a very different light. Suzanne Collins wrote a series that is a great commentary on today’s society towards human inequality and consumerism as well.”Amy

“I don’t read YA anymore, but I love reading sci-fi and speculative fiction, so The Hunger Games still fits in with somethingI would read/enjoy today. I can happily say I think it still holds up! I loved all the foreshadowing Suzanne Collins includes in this book, revisiting the story, and seeing how much I remembered.”Emily

Cover of The Sun Also Rises

“I hated [The Sun Also Rises] when I first read it in high school a few years ago. I hated the pace and didn’t find it to be stimulating or enjoyable to read at all. My second reading made me realize there was a beauty in the mundaneness this book is representing. I feel more connected to the novel knowing that many of the characters and plot points are inspired by Hemingway’s own experiences! I found much more value in my second reading than my initial one!”Meg

Cover of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is “still great! 👏” — Michal

Cover of The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“I first read [The Perks of Being a Wallflower] when I was in grade 7. It is a coming-of-age young fiction novel which I really resonated with back then and still do. I found the protagonist’s lifestyle and mindset very similar to my own and have read this book more than 30 times. I feel that when I read it now, I can much better understand the motivations and behaviors of the protagonist rather than just feeling them. It all makes much more sense now. I feel the emotional parts of the book more heavily as well now.”Anish

Cover of Percy Jackson and the Olympians

“When i was reading [Percy Jackson and the Olympians] at the age of 12, all the things Percy did in the book were very cool. Now that I’m older than that, I think he’s way too young to do any of the things he did!”Ross

“When I was younger, I was obsessed with [the Percy Jackson and the Olympians] series, reading it now as an adult is a really weird experience. I still like the books very much but it feels harder to relate to the characters. It was a really nice experience to re-read this book as I felt like I haven’t read something so fun and full of myth in a while.”— Arianna

“It was great to re-read a book I haven’t read since I was in grade school. Getting to read [Percy Jackson and the Olympians] again as an adult meant I was able to pick up on new things, and it was nice to have a simple and easy read for after work. Reading books that I’ve read as a child gives me a new perspective, and also makes me proud of how far I’ve come in my reading journey from a young child to a young adult. While I didn’t think differently about the story itself, it was great to relive the memories of reading as a kid.”— Alex

Cover of Dune

“I read Dune a long time ago when the intricacies of politics and human interaction escaped my then-immature brain! But reading it again now, since the movie came out to pique my interest, I am absolutely absorbed by the story.”Sudhavna

And What to Read Next Month

February’s theme is “a book with a color in the title,” which offers so many possibilities:

Need more ideas? Check out our list of suggested e-books and audiobooks for February, or take a look at the MCB’s reading recommendations! If you’re in Boston, stop by the Snell Library lobby between 1 and 3 p.m. on February 13th and 14th for more recommendations, browsable books, and more.

Whatever you read, be sure to tell us about it for a chance to win the February prize drawing!

As always, happy reading!