Best Reads 2023 at BCIT Library: And a Few More

Published in 2017, recently made into a movie.

"an exhaustively researched and thrilling account of a long-forgotten, 18th-century calamity at sea. This historical narrative isn’t just based on a true story – it really is one, despite extremes of psychology and nature that make the recounted events almost unbelievable." From NPR

"If you’ve ever felt out of place in the hardware store or felt too intimidated to ask for help while lost in an aisle filled with power tools and screws, may I please introduce Mercury Stardust, the Trans Handy Ma’am? Mercury’s book is an extension of her fantastic social media videos. She’s a sparkly mix of pep talk, practical knowledge (replacing a toilet seat!) and whimsy (um, hello, cat-shelf tutorial?!)." From NPR

"Doppelgänger began when Naomi Klein, the liberal activist and blockbuster writer, became regularly mistaken for Naomi Wolf, the liberal feminist author turned conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer. Amid a decade of defending her own reputation against Wolf’s escalating conservatism, Klein tail-spinned into obsession, tracking Wolf’s right-wing media appearances in a quest to understand her “flight from reality.” But this book’s outlook is far broader than Klein’s own doppelgänger trouble; rather, it opens outward onto a roving survey of how doubling organizes our social and political lives. The concept of the doppelgänger, Klein insists, can help us understand our uncanny political moment, where “millions of people have given themselves over to fantasy.” Doppelgänger is a lucid frame on conspiracy movements and digital doubling, and a powerful implication of the double lives we choose to ignore." From Esquire