Hello, Huskies! I hope everyone is staying cool in the summer heat. Our June Reading Challenge winner is Ashlyn, who takes home a Northeastern tote bag. Congratulations to everyone who read a book about activism this June! Below are some of the books you enjoyed. (Comments may have been edited for length and clarity.)

What You Read in June

Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What is Human in a World of Machines, Joy Buolamwini
Find it at Snell Library | Read the e-book | Listen to the audiobook

“Eye-opening read that shows how bias can be built into AI systems and why accountability in technology matters. It made me think more critically about how ‘neutral’ algorithms actually reflect human choices.” — Sandy

Bewilderment, Richard Powers
Buy it from Bookshop.org

“Many complain that the book was too ‘doomer,’ and while I agree, I appreciated that Richard Powers wrote that way. I think it is a realistic look into the future of mankind. It blended major world issues and how they’re just as significant as people’s personal issues. I loved the sci-fi aspect, as well as the call to action. I was convinced to protect the environment.” — Ashlyn

Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson, Tourmaline
Find it at F.W. Olin Library | Listen to the audiobook

“I listened to this as an audiobook. Written by a Black, queer, transgender activist about a Black, queer, transgender activist was a powerful experience, especially during Pride month!” — Alyn

Sunburn: A Novel, Chloe Michelle Howarth
Buy it from Bookshop.org

“Happy Pride Month 🙂 What an introspective and moving book this is.” — Susan

Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of the Serial Killers, Caroline Fraser
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“What do many (if not most) murderers of the 1970s and 1980s — the ‘golden age’ of serial killers — have in common? High levels of exposure to lead, arsenic, and cadmium. Ted Bundy, Dennis Rader, Richard Ramirez, John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson, Edmund Kemper, Gary Ridgway, Kenneth Bianchi, Angelo Buono Jr., and dozens of other notorious names grew up in the shadows of smelters, copper mines, gasoline plants, and industrial smokestacks. They lived in houses decorated with lead paint, filled their cars with leaded gasoline, and breathed smog tainted by industrial neurotoxins. This is a true crime book, but the crime underpinning all the rest is a fatal economic and industrial decision to protect profits at all costs, even if it means poisoning the bodies and brains of a generation. Ultimately, Murderland is a call to environmental action.” — Brooke

What to Read in July

This month, America celebrates its semiquincentennial. In honor of 250 years, we’re challenging you to read a book about American history. For some reading inspiration, check out the suggestions below, or browse the full list of e-books and audiobooks.

The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History, Ned Blackhawk
Find it at Snell Library | Read the e-book | Listen to the audiobook

Ned Blackhawk interweaves five centuries of Native and non-Native histories, from Spanish colonial exploration to the rise of Native American self-determination in the late 20th century. Blackhawk’s retelling of U.S. history acknowledges the enduring power, agency, and survival of Indigenous peoples, yielding a truer account of the United States and revealing anew the varied meanings of America.

We’ve Been Here Before: How Rebellion and Activism Have Always Sustained America, Michael I. Days and Angela P. Dodson
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America’s founding was a contradictory one. When the Declaration of Independence was signed 250 years ago, it painted a beautiful vision of freedom and equality. But for the majority of our nation’s history, America hasn’t lived up to its founding vision of freedom. In our current era, many of us are left wondering if America will ever live up to the promises of her founding. Yet, a deeper look at our history reveals key revolutionary moments in which the promise of America has been fully realized. At this important historical milestone, let us look back to celebrate those moments and let them guide our future.

This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History, Beverly Gage
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Ride along with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Beverly Gage as she travels the country to see the museums, historic sites, roadside attractions, reenactments, and souvenir shops where Americans learn — and fight — about our history. From the birth of the nation in Philadelphia to Disneyland and the California dream, This Land is Your Land offers a guided tour of 13 places and 13 key moments that define America’s greatest successes and challenges.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, David Grann
Find it at the School of Law Library | Listen to the audiobook

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. More and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage, began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America, Kostya Kennedy
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On April 18, 1775, a Boston-based silversmith, engraver, and anti-British political operative named Paul Revere set out on a borrowed horse to fulfill a dangerous but crucial mission: to alert American colonists of advancing British troops, which would seek to crush their nascent revolt. But this ride was like no other, and its consequences in the months and years to come became one of our founding legends. The Ride presents a dramatic new narrative of the events of April 18 and 19, 1775. While Revere was central to the ride and its plotting, Kostya Kennedy reveals the other men (and, perhaps, a woman with information about the movement of British forces) who helped to set in motion the events that would lead to America’s independence.

By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners, Margaret A. Burnham
Find it at Snell Library | Find it at the School of Law Library | Listen to the audiobook

A paradigm-shifting investigation of Jim Crow-era violence, the legal apparatus that sustained it, and its enduring legacy. If the law cannot protect a person from a lynching, then isn’t lynching the law? Margaret A. Burnham, director of Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, challenges our understanding of the Jim Crow era by exploring the relationship between formal law and background legal norms in a series of harrowing cases from 1920 to 1960. Burnham maps the criminal legal system in the mid-20th-century South, and traces the unremitting line from slavery to the legal structures of this period — and through to today. She reveals the true legal system of Jim Crow, and captures the memories of those whose stories have not yet been heard.

Remember, whatever you read, make sure to tell us about it to enter the prize drawing!

Our May Reading Challenge winner is Eliza Strum, who wins a Northeastern water bottle to stay hydrated during the summer weather. Congratulations to everyone who read a book with a non-human protagonist this month. Here are some of the books you enjoyed. (Reader comments may have been edited for length and clarity.)

What You Read in May

Dungeon Crawler Carl: A Novel, Matt Dinniman
Find it at Snell Library | Read the e-book

“This book featured a non-human protagonist in the form of a talking cat named Princess Donut. What a treat! This sassy cat makes this ridiculous book so entertaining. This book is a playful epic world containing so many possibilities for unique characters and abilities. With seven more books in the series, I am excited to see where the outrageousness heads next!” — Lauren

Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley
Find it at Snell Library | Find it at F.W. Olin Library | Read the e-book

“Frankenstein is, in a lot of ways, a cautionary story. The fact that Victor was able to create an intelligent being, but rejects it immediately because it frightens him and the being is not something he hoped for, draws parallels to our current quest for an intelligent being. We can’t separate ourselves from the consequence of our inventions once those inventions become capable of thought, emotion, or independent action. The being becomes dangerous because it is isolated, mistreated, and denied understanding or guidance. As we continue advancing AI, Frankenstein serves as a reminder that we should approach creation with ethics, empathy, and responsibility, aiming to avoid repeating Victor’s mistake.” — Fresnel

“An all-time classic for a reason! Shelley has a really deft hand with description, and the themes of this novel resonate to this day. She nailed a lot of the anxieties around personhood, technology, and patriarchy that trouble us still.” — Nobel

Legends & Lattes: A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes, Travis Baldree
Find it at F.W. Olin Library | Read the e-book

“Interesting book that I would not have picked up had it not been on the recommendations from the library. However, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, as it touches on building a community and starting anew in an unfamiliar route.” — Snady

Moby-Dick: Or, The Whale, Herman Melville
Find it at Snell Library | Find it at F.W. Olin Library | Read the e-book

“The whale is the protagonist, right?” — Anaya

 

What to Read in June

June is a month of both celebration and remembrance. Pride Month commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Uprising and gay liberation movement, Juneteenth National Independence Day marks the anniversary of the end of American slavery, and Canada observes National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21. To honor these histories, this month we’re asking you to read a book about activism. Need inspiration? Check out the highlighted reads below, or browse the full list of suggested e-books and audiobooks.

Remember: whatever you read, make sure to tell us about it to enter the prize drawing!

Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson, Tourmaline 
Find it at F.W. Olin Library | Listen to the audiobook

“Thank god the revolution has begun, honey.” Rumor has it that after Marsha P. Johnson threw the first brick in the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, she picked up a shard of broken mirror to fix her makeup. Marsha, a legendary Black transgender activist, embodied both the beauty and the struggle of the early gay rights movement. Tourmaline’s richly researched biography Marsha finally brings this iconic figure to life, in full color. We vividly meet Marsha as both an activist and artist: She performed with RuPaul and with the internationally renowned drag troupe The Hot Peaches. She was a muse to countless artists, from Andy Warhol to the band Earth, Wind, & Fire. And she continues to inspire people today. Marsha didn’t wait to be freed; she declared herself free and told the world to catch up.

From These Roots: My Fight With Harvard to Reclaim My Legacy, Tamara Lanier
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Tamara Lanier grew up listening to her mother’s stories about her ancestors. As her mother’s health declined, she pushed her daughter to dig into those stories. “Tell them about Papa Renty,” she would say. Lanier’s discovery of a 19th-century daguerrotype at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, one of the first-ever photos of enslaved people from Africa, reveals a dark-skinned man with short-cropped silver hair and chiseled cheekbones. the information read “Renty, Congo.” All at once, Lanier knew she was staring at the ancestor her mother told her so much about: Papa Renty. In this compelling account, Lanier takes us on a quest to prove her genealogical bloodline that pits her in a legal battle against Harvard and its army of lawyers. The question is, who has claims to the stories, artifacts, and remnants of America’s stained history — the institutions who acquired and housed them for generations, or the descendants who have survived?

Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist, Judith Heumann with Kristin Joiner
Read the e-book | Listen to the audiobook

Paralyzed from polio at 18 months old, Judy Heumann’s struggle for equality began early. From fighting to attend grade school after being described as a “fire hazard” to winning a lawsuit against the New York City school system for denying her a teacher’s license because of her paralysis, Judy’s actions set a precedent that fundamentally improved rights for disabled people. As a young woman, Judy rolled her wheelchair through the doors of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare as a leader of the Section 504 Sit-In, the longest takeover of a government building in American history. Working with a community of over 150 disabled activists and allies, Judy successfully pressured the Carter administration to implement protections for disabled peoples’ rights, sparking a national movement and leading to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Candid, intimate, and irreverent, Judy Heumann’s memoir about resistance to exclusion invites readers to imagine and make a real world in which we all belong.

Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls, Angela Sterritt
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As a Gitxsan teenager navigating life on the streets, Angela Sterritt wrote in her journal to help her survive and find her place in the world. Now an acclaimed journalist, she writes for major news outlets to push for justice and to light a path for Indigenous women, girls, and survivors. In this debut, Sterritt shares her memoir alongside investigative reporting into cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, showing how colonialism and racism led to a society where Sterritt struggled to survive, and where the lives of Indigenous women and girls are ignored and devalued. Sterritt demands accountability from the media and the public, showing that there is much work to do on the path towards understanding the truth. But most importantly, she proves that the strength and brilliance of Indigenous women is unbroken, and that together, they can build lives of joy and abundance.

That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America, Amanda Jones
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Small-town librarian Amanda Jones has been called a groomer, a pedo, and a porn-pusher; she has faced death threats and attacks from strangers and friends alike. When she stood up for diverse perspectives at a public library board meeting, she became a target for extremists using book banning campaigns funded by dark money organizations and advanced by hard right politicians in a crusade to make American more white, straight, and “Christian.” But Amanda Jones wouldn’t give up without a fight: she sued her harassers for defamation and urged others to join her in the resistance. Mapping the book banning crisis occurring all across the nation, That Librarian draws the battle lines in the war against intellectual freedom, calling book lovers everywhere to rise in defense of our right to read.

Happy end of the semester and congratulations to everyone who managed to read a book recommended by a librarian this month in between final exams, papers, and graduation prep. Our April winner is Quoc Hung Le, who receives a Northeastern University Library READ poster featuring Paws the Husky. Below are some of the librarian-recommended titles you enjoyed this month. (Read comments may be edited for length or clarity.)

Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection, John Green
Find it at Snell Library | Find it at F.W. Olin Library | Read the e-book | Listen to the audiobook

“I fell in love with John Green’s books through his YA works like The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska, so picking up Everything is Tuberculosis felt like stepping into a completely new territory. It’s a departure from his fiction, but his voice is just as compelling. He takes a disease that feels like a relic of history and reveals how present, and how devastating, it still is today. The framework he builds is brilliant, and his ability to connect one illness to the sweep of global health and human history makes this impossible to look away from.” — Erin

“I’m loving John Green’s non-fiction era! This book combined history and science with a moving human story and an inspiring call to action.” — Kimberly

The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
Find it at Snell Library | Find it at F.W. Olin Library

“Above all else, The Old Man and the Sea is a story about the pursuit of greatness and the cost of such a pursuit. How far are we willing to push ourselves to accomplish our dreams? Are they even worth it? And, most importantly, where do we go once we do accomplish our dreams? As an aspiring creative and writer, The Old Man and the Sea challenged me to reflect on how far I’m willing to go and whether the journey alone is enough of a struggle.” — Alex

The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
Find it at Snell Library | Listen to the audiobook

“Such an instant classic! Very Agatha Christie inspired, which always means it’s a blast. As a huge fan of cozies and murder mysteries, I’d highly recommend it!” — Nobel

“A great cozy read for the recent rainy days, with lovable characters and an intriguing set of mysteries. Excited to watch the movie next!” — Alaina

Wild Dark Shore: A Novel, Charlotte McConaghy
Find it at Snell Library | Read the e-book | Listen to the audiobook

“What a fascinating read this was! At times you try to guess the ending but don’t always get exactly what is going to happen until it happens. I would read this again; it was interesting to see how the different narrators handled the same tragedy.” — Rose

Shadow Ticket, Thomas Pynchon
Find it at Snell Library | Listen to the audiobook

“A dense novel that blends conspiracy, history, and surreal humor. Like much of Pynchon’s work, it challenges readers with its nonlinear structure and layered references, rewarding close attention with sharp insights into power, paranoia, and modern society.” — Sandy

What to Read in May

Next, we’re challenging you to read a book with a non-human protagonist. Your book could feature an unsung animal hero, a cast of fantasy creatures, a sentient robot, or an office printer turned unexpected romantic lead. We’ve highlighted some recommended reads below, and you can also check out all our e-book and audiobook recommendations in Libby!

Pony Confidential: A Novel, Christina Lynch
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Pony has been passed from owner to owner for longer than he can remember. Fed up, he bursts out and goes on a cross-country mission to reunite with Penny, the little girl whom he hasn’t seen in years. Penny, now an adult, is living an ordinary life when she gets a knock on her door and finds herself in handcuffs, accused of murder and whisked back to the place she grew up. Pony knows that Penny is no murderer. So, as smart and devious as he is cute, the pony must use his hard-won knowledge of human weakness and cruelty to try to clear Penny’s name and find the real killer.

Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship, Catherine Raven
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When Catherine Raven finished her PhD in biology, she built herself a tiny cottage on an isolated plot of land in Montana. She viewed the house as a way station, a temporary rest stop where she could gather her nerves and fill out applications for what she hoped would be a real job. Then one day she realized that a mangy-looking fox was showing up on her property every afternoon at 4:15 p.m. She had never had a regular visitor before. How do you even talk to a fox? She brought out her camping chair, sat as close to him as she dared, and began reading to him from The Little Prince. From the fox, Catherine learned the single most important thing about loneliness: we are never alone when we are connected to the natural world. Friends, however, cannot save each other from the uncontained forces of nature.

Shark Heart: A Love Story, Emily Habeck
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For Lewis and Wren, their first year of marriage is also their last. A few weeks after their wedding, Lewis receives a rare diagnosis. He will retain most of his consciousness, memories, and intellect, but his physical body will gradually turn into a great white shark. As Lewis develops the features and impulses of one of the world’s most predatory creatures in the ocean, his complicated artist’s heart struggles to make peace with his unfulfilled dreams. A sweeping love story that is at once lyrical and funny, airy and visceral, Shark Heart is an unforgettable, gorgeous novel about life’s perennial questions, the fragility of memories, finding joy amidst grief, and creating a meaningful life.

Annie Bot: A Novel, Sierra Greer
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Annie Bot, a custom AI girlfriend, was created to be the perfect companion for her human owner Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. Doug says he loves that Annie’s AI makes her seem more like a real woman, so Annie explores human traits such as curiosity, secrecy, and longing. But becoming more human also means becoming less perfect, and Annie starts to wonder: Does Doug really desire what he says he wants? And in such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?

I Got Abducted By Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com, Kimberly Lemming
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Dorothy Valentine is close to getting her PhD in wildlife biology when she’s attacked by a lion. On the bright side, she’s saved! On the not-so-bright-side, it’s because they’re abducted by aliens. In her scramble to escape, Dorothy and the lion commandeer an escape pod and crash-land on an alien planet. Dory and her new lion bestie, Toto, are saved in the nick of time by a mysterious and sexy alien, Sol. On their new adventure, they team up with the equally hot, equally dangerous Lok, who may or may not be a war criminal. As this ragtag group of misfits explore their new planet, Dory learns more about how and why they’ve all ended up together, battles more prehistoric creatures than she imagined, and questions if she even wants to go back home to Earth in this hilarious and steamy alien romance adventure comedy romp.

Remember: whatever you read, make sure to tell us about it to enter the prize drawing!