Tips and Tricks For Getting Out of a Reading Slump
At the end of 2022, I was in a deep reading slump. I hadn’t read anything in a month, breaking a years-long streak. I felt disappointed, frustrated, and annoyed. I would look at my TBR list and the unread books on my shelf with contempt as I knew they would sit there for months longer. I wanted to be reading again, but somehow it felt impossible. And yet, I did climb out of the reading slump eventually. It was slow and gradual, but at the end of 2023 I have been reading books consistently for the past three months. Here are some tips that helped me. Maybe they can help you too. …
Spoonable Wonders: Cookbooks to Carry You Through the Cold Months
A fig tree beside my building fruits in late August. If both hands are free, and private property isn’t sacred to you, either, you can munch figs while plucking their Matisse-shaped leaves to wrap fish in for dinner later. Fall begins when the fruits shrivel and plop to the sidewalk. This is now. Nature is telegraphing that it’s time for soaking beans, preheating ovens and waking the heavy beast that is the cast iron pot. Staying warm indoors is the goal of autumn cooking. So too, perhaps, is making a meal that requires one table setting: a spoon. For that, you cannot go wrong with the books…
Park Slope Book Lovers Group Wants YOUR Vote!
If you’re a teenager who enjoys reading then the Teens’ Top Ten might be something you’d like to look into. The Teens' Top Ten is a “teen choice" award, where teens choose their favorite books of the previous year. This year twenty-five amazing books have been nominated and now from August 15 to October 15 it’s up to all of us - teens across the country - to vote and narrow those twenty-five books to the best ten. Beginning August 15, teens can vote online here. You can find all titles at Brooklyn Public Library. Visit your local branch or our online catalog to place holds! Are you…
It's Complicated: A Mother's Day Booklist
Today we’re considering literature that spotlights complex and chaotic motherhood through themes of upheaval and diaspora, shame and the supernatural. Being a mother is intense (understatement) and these titles take it seriously, using it as a springboard for creating rich, challenging art. So we don’t skim over books in which motherhood is the least complicating factor characters deal with: try Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street (1984), in which Esperanza’s artistic, kind mother is a protective presence in abrasive surroundings. Or Jan Morris’s Conundrum (1974), in which receiving…
BPL Book Bingo: Reading Across the Ages
Department Spotlight: Government & Community Relations
Over the summer, I hosted some family members who were visiting New York City for the first time. They experienced the typical city sights: towering buildings, crowded trains, garbage-covered sidewalks, and endless options for lunch—but with the August 2022 primary elections just a few weeks away, they also observed an impressive number of campaign posters decorating store windows and campaigners handing out fliers on street corners. While they had anticipated the gigantic buildings and subway rats, they were surprised by the bold strangers asking if they were registered to vote. They were…