Library News

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

Happy fall semester! Can you believe classes are already starting?

Courtney Mazzei is the August Reading Challenge winner! Congrats to Courtney, who won a gift card to Moments Cooperative and Community Space in Oakland, Calif. Moments is a volunteer-led not-for-profit bookstore and community center that lifts the voices of authors and Oakland community members who identify as queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color.

And congratulations to everyone who read a book this month and told us about it. There are four months left in the 2024 Reading Challenge, so keep reading! Hint: for more chances to win, make sure you track your reading with the Massachusetts Center for the Book, too!

August’s theme was “a book with a title that begins with the same letter as your birthday month.”

What You Read This Month

Collage of Book Covers

The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
Find it at Snell | Find it at F. W. Olin
“Inspiring to say the least. Read the book and realized that while the fruits of labor may not show the effort, the process in fact changes the man, and brings out the better in him.” — Anshuman

Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo
Find it at F. W. Olin | Read the e-book
“Ninth House is certainly a wild ride through the darkest aspects of Dark Academia. In this contemporary dark fantasy, Bardugo juxtaposes biting criticism of the abuses perpetrated by the elite and privileged with a deep love for her alma mater, Yale University.” — Bianca

Malibu Rising, Taylor Jenkins Reid
Read the e-book
“Disappointing after some of her other books. One of the themes is supposed to be about a young woman breaking the cycle of taking back unfaithful men, which she eventually does but it took ~10 hours of illustrating the men’s extremely sexist, entitled, neglectful behaviors to get there. She tried to do too much in too little time and space.” — Jodi

Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult, Maria Bamford
“It’s hard to believe a book that is honest about mental health issues could also be so funny, but Maria Bamford is a unique talent.” — Melissa

Maame, Jessica George
Find it at Snell | Listen to the audiobook
“Wonderfully written and deeply moving!” — Michal

And What to Read Next Month

September’s theme highlights authors local to Northeastern’s Boston campus: “A debut book by a Massachusetts author.” Here are some suggested reads!

Cover of Madness


Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum, Antonia Hylton
Listen to the audiobook
Award-winning journalist, Bostonian, and Harvard alum Antonia Hylton offers an intimate, heartbreaking history of Crownsville Hospital, a segregated asylum in Maryland that operated for nearly a century.

Cover of Everything I Never Told You


Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng
Find it at Snell | Find it at F. W. Olin | Listen to the audiobook | Read the e-book
Celeste Ng’s debut novel tells the story of the Lees, the only Chinese American family living in their rural Ohio town in the 1970s. When the body of daughter Lydia is found in a local lake, the family must confront the many secrets they’ve been keeping.

Cover of The Midcoast


The Midcoast, Adam White
Listen to the audiobook
Andrew has returned to his tiny hometown in Maine where two of his former high school classmates are now a wealthy local power couple. But when Andrew discovers incriminating photographs in the couple’s home, he’s suddenly forced to reconcile his memories of their teenage years with the mounting evidence of his friends’ misdeeds.

Cover of The Dante Club


The Dante Club, Matthew Pearl
Find it at Snell | Find it at F. W. Olin | Listen to the audiobook
The Dante Club is an exclusive literary cabal in 19th century Boston, and its members are collaborating on the first American translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Suddenly, a serial killer strikes the city, modeling his crimes after Dante’s Inferno. Now the Dante Club must find and stop the killer before he can strike again.

Cover of Caucasia


Caucasia, Danzy Senna
Find it at Snell | Find it at F. W. Olin | Read the e-book
Mixed-race sisters Birdie and Cole are separated when their parents’ marriage ends. Light-skinned Birdie, often mistaken for white, remains with their white mother; dark-skinned Cole leaves with their Black father. But Birdie never stops missing her beloved sister, and embarks on a determined journey to recover the love and identity that was taken from her.

Need more reading recommendations? Check out our suggested e-books and audiobooks for September! If you’re in Boston, you can stop by the Snell Library lobby in person on September 17 and 18 for Reading Challenge stickers, bookmarks, and books to check out, and friendly librarians who love talking about books!

Boost Your Research This Summer

A student studies in a nook in Snell Library
BOSTON, MA. – Master student Zarina Dawlat, studies for an accounting exam in Snell Library on Aug. 19, 2024. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Are you excited for classes to begin this fall? Can’t wait to get started? We’ve got you covered! Beat the heat this summer inside at your computer. Set yourself up for fall academic success with information on:

If you’re an incoming student, you’ll need to wait for a Northeastern login to access library databases and the Digital Repository Service.

Additionally, you can view recorded talks on:

  • Introductory Computational Text
  • Python for Absolute Beginners
  • Getting Started with Archives and Special Collections.

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

Can you believe July is already over? There’s just one month left until fall classes begin!

The end of July means it’s time to announce the month’s Reading Challenge winner. Congratulations to Dina Meky, who won a digital gift card to Papercuts Bookshop! Papercuts is a women-owned independent bookstore located in Boston. Happy reading, Dina!

And congratulations to everyone who read a book and told us about it this month. There are still five months left until the end of the 2024 challenge, so keep reading and keep sharing! For more chances to win, submit your reading to the Massachusetts Center for the Book, too!

What You Read This Month

Collage of book covers

Readers went worldwide in July with the theme of “a book written by an author born outside of the United States.” Here are some of the international reads you enjoyed this month!

The Familiar, Leigh Bardugo (born in Jerusalem, Israel)
Listen to the audiobook
“Bardugo brings life to the dark, rich atmosphere of 17th century Spain, weaving in magical melodies sweet as orange blossoms and dark as onyx. I’ve never encountered a historical fantasy quite like this one.” — Bianca

Weyward, Emilia Hart (born in Sydney, Australia)
Listen to the audiobook
“I love a book with a strong female lead and this book had 3! Although the plot was dark at times, I appreciated the underlying theme of women’s empowerment and really loved the depictions of animals and nature. In short, this book was magical!” — Kelly

We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story, Simu Liu (born in Harbin, China)
Find it at Snell
“As a foreign student and Asian, I found the book relatable and extremely funny. He was not afraid to talk openly about his family. It was a nice read for the summer!” — Shogan

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love, Lex Croucher (born in Surrey, England)
Find it at Snell | Listen to the audiobook
“I think it had a lot of potential (I love a good medieval age type of book—no matter how inaccurate it is) but didn’t really deliver on the relationships between the two pairings […] All in all I can’t be too upset, as it definitely reads toward a YA audience. I think I would’ve loved this more in high school but I think the writing just didn’t deliver!” — Jaime

And What to Read Next Month

August’s challenge is an interesting one: “read a book with a title that begins with the first letter of your birthday month.” Here are some suggestions for each month on the calendar:

Cover of Annie Bot

APRIL & AUGUST

Annie Bot, Sierra Greer
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Annie loves cooking and cleaning for her boyfriend Doug, and always wants exactly the same things he wants. She’s the ideal girlfriend, and she’s also a robot. Doug wants Annie to be more human, so Annie does her best to learn. But if becoming human might mean losing Doug forever, Annie has to decide: what does she really want?

Cover of Drunkish

DECEMBER

Drunk-ish: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving Alcohol, Stefanie Wilder-Taylor
Listen to the audiobook
Stefanie Wilder-Taylor has always enjoyed alcohol…maybe a little too much. After a disastrous night, she decides that it doesn’t matter whether she’s a “real alcoholic”; she’s going to get sober if it kills her. Drunk-ish is Wilder-Taylor’s memoir of a life lived through cocktails, shots, and glasses of wine, as well as a candid, hilarious look at the pain and pleasure of saying goodbye to getting drunk-ish.

Cover of Fire Exit

FEBRUARY

Fire Exit, Morgan Talty
Listen to the audiobook
For twenty years, Charles has watched Roger and Mary raise their daughter Elizabeth on the Penobscot Reservation in Maine. But Elizabeth is actually his daughter, a secret that has kept Charles separate from his community. Now Elizabeth is missing and Charles is desperate to find her and to share her truth.

Cover of Jonathan Abernathy

JANUARY, JUNE, & JULY

Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind, Molly McGhee
Listen to the audiobook
Jonathan Abernathy is in debt and unemployed. Then he’s offered an unusual government job: entering people’s dreams and cleansing them of objectionable material. But every too-good-to-be-true opportunity has a cost, and soon Jonathan is struggling to tell dreams from reality and good from evil.

Cover of Margo's Got Money Troubles

MARCH & MAY

Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Rufi Thorpe
Read the e-book
Twenty years old and suddenly a single mother, Margo needs money. In a truly 2020s move, she decides her best option is OnlyFans—and thanks to the wisdom of her estranged ex-pro wrestler father, she’s great at it. But is viral success worth the price of admission?

Cover of Number Go Up

NOVEMBER

Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall, Zeke Faux
Listen to the audiobook
Investigative reporter Zeke Faux was fascinated when cryptocurrency went mainstream in 2021, and he also wondered what he was missing. Why were intelligent people suddenly risking their life savings for a seemingly pointless investment based on internet memes? Why were celebrities suddenly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on bad digital art? Why were businesses and even countries suddenly willing to disregard basic economic principles in favor of what seemed like an obvious scam? Why were so many people willing to put all their faith in shady crypto bros and bad investors? Number Go Up is Faux’s investigation into the wild hype and grim reality of cryptocurrency, and it will take you places you never expected.

Cover of On Rotation

OCTOBER

On Rotation, Shirlene Obuobi
Listen to the audiobook
Angela is on track to become a successful doctor married to a successful professional man, thereby making her immigrant family’s dreams come true. Then: she flunks an important exam and her boyfriend breaks up with her, and suddenly her family and friends are nowhere to be found. Now Angie’s questioning the dream she was raised on, and wondering where her own dreams fit into the plan.

Cover of Swift River

SEPTEMBER

Swift River, Essie Chambers
Listen to the audiobook
Diamond Newberry is the only Black person in a white town. In the summer of 1987, Diamond’s mother is trying to have her missing father declared legally dead, hoping that the life insurance money will get them back on their feet. Then Diamond unexpectedly discovers a whole side of her father, and his family, that were lost to her before. Finally, she might have a place where she fits in, but how will that change the world she’s always known?

Need more reading recommendations? Check out our suggested e-books and audiobooks for August! If you’re in Boston, you can stop by the Snell Library lobby in person on August 13 and 14 for Reading Challenge stickers, bookmarks, and books to check out, and friendly librarians who love talking about books!

Book Recommendations for Disability Pride Month

In honor of Disability Pride Month, members of the Northeastern University Library staff would like to share some book titles from our collection that explore and celebrate disabled experiences.

Collage of Book Cover

Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body, Rebekah Taussig
Read the e-book

Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist, Judith Heumann (narrated by Kristen Joiner)
Listen to the audiobook

The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Read the e-book

Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life, Alice Wong (narrated by Nancy Wu)
Listen to the audiobook

The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight, Andrew Leland
Listen to the audiobook

I Live a Life Like Yours: A Memoir, Jan Grue (narrated by Graham Halstead)
Listen to the audiobook
Note: Health Sciences Librarian Lauri Fennell read this book and shared her thoughts.

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

Paws holding a book with the word READ

Congratulations to Michal Biletzki, winner of the June Reading Challenge! Michal has won a fabulous Northeastern University Library READ poster, starring Northeastern’s own Paws the Husky enjoying some of his favorite books.

Want a chance to win a poster or any of the great monthly prizes we’re giving away all year? Make sure to tell us what you read each month! For more chances to win, submit your reading to the Massachusetts Center for the Book, too.

Summer is traditionally the season of blockbuster films, which perfectly fit June’s theme of “a book that inspired a movie or television series.” Here are some of the book-to-screen adaptations you enjoyed in June:

What You Read This Month

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
Find it at Snell | Find it at F. W. Olin | Read the e-book
“After watching a handful of period dramas, I decided to read a couple of Jane Austen books and tackled understanding old English. I really enjoyed reading Sense and Sensibility. I’ve watched the 1995 version before reading the book and imagined the characters as the actors in my head. Overall, it was interesting learning about England in the 1790s and how life was just simple (but somehow filled with drama!).” — Sumaya

“I was raised on the 1995 movie adaptation but I had never read the original book. I was surprised by how different it was!” — Emma

It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover
Read the e-book | Listen to the audiobook
“This book had me hooked in every part and made me imagine all of the characters so vividly. The book also took me through a variety of emotions and I did truly feel the happiness and sadness the characters were experiencing. I’ve always loved Colleen Hoover’s writing style and how easy it is to read and follow and I’m super excited to see the upcoming film based on this book.” — Riya

The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu
Find it at Snell | Find it at F. W. Olin | Listen to the audiobook
“The best sci-fi rabbit hole I’ve ever been taken down.” — Henry

Annihilation, Jeff Vandermeer
Find it at Snell
“If you like science fiction, climate horror, and text as a monster, read this one!” — Galen

Daisy Jones & the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid
Find it at F. W. Olin | Listen to the audiobook
“I watched the show first and read the book since I wanted more character lore. I always like comparing the book vs. the show/movie. I really enjoyed both and loved seeing the documentary style in action. It’s a fun exercise to compare what limitations and special functions both mediums have and utilize.” — Violet

All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr
Find it at Snell | Find it at F. W. Olin
“This novel was at once heartbreaking and inspiring. It shows the power of curiosity and learning to transport us even in the darkest times.” — Bianca

And What to Read Next Month

July’s theme challenges readers to look beyond America’s borders for their next read: “a book written by an author born outside of the United States.” Whether it’s a memoir, romance, or fantasy, there’s a wealth of literature to explore! Here are some librarian-approved recommendations:

Cover of Beyond the Wand

Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard, Tom Felton
Listen to the audiobook
English actor Tom Felton is best known for his film portrayal of bleach-blond Harry Potter villain Draco Malfoy. In his new memoir, Felton shares stories from a childhood spent on the set of Hogwarts, including the bonds he created with his co-stars, the benefits and pitfalls of fame, and the difficulties of trying to live a normal life while riding the wave of a pop culture juggernaut.

Cover of Knife

Knife: Meditations on an Attempted Murder, Salman Rushdie
Listen to the audiobook
In 1988, Indian-born author Salman Rushdie published his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (find it at Snell and F. W. Olin). Based on the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the book drew ire from conservative Muslims who viewed it as sacrilegious. In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini, then the Supreme Leader of Iran, ordered the deaths of Rushdie and his publishers. In 2022, Rushdie was preparing a lecture when he was rushed by an attacker, who stabbed him numerous times before being restrained. Rushdie survived the brutal attack, but lost sight in his right eye and the use of his left hand. Knife is his memoir of the assassination attempt and its aftermath.

Cover of Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Read the e-book
Originally written as a play, then adapted into a novel, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s charming narrative about a time-traveling café in Tokyo has won international acclaim. Before the Coffee Gets Cold is an exploration of time, memory, and possibility, and is the first in a series that current spans four books.

Cover of Identitti

Identitti, Mithu Sanyal, translated by Alta L. Price
Read the e-book
Student Nivedita idolizes her professor Saraswati, a genius and celebrity in the field of postcolonial studies. Then, just hours after Nivedita gives a gushing radio interview about Saraswati, it’s revealed that her professor’s name is actually Sarah, and she’s not Indian, as she had previously claimed—she’s white. (Shades of Rachel Dolezal!) Suddenly, Nivedita is questioning everything, including her work, her activism, and the meaning of identity.

Need more reading recommendations? Check out our suggested e-books and audiobooks for July! If you’re in Boston, you can stop by the Snell Library lobby in person on July 16 and 17 from1 – 3 p.m. for Reading Challenge stickers, bookmarks, and books to check out, and friendly librarians who love talking about books!

And when you finish your next book, make sure to tell us about it for a chance to win the July prize drawing! (For more chances to win, make sure you submit your reading to the Massachusetts Center for the Book, as well as the Northeastern University Library.)