Even Library staff can struggle to keep up with all the bookish news out there. From social media to local papers, books are a hot topic. In this monthly post we are highlighting some regional literary news and connecting you with our library collections so you can keep your finger on the pulse of Pittsburgh. Check out what was trending and topical this past month.

 

News Story: Littsburgh – Three Pittsburgh-Based Publishers Finalists For Prestigious National Award!
Book mentioned: Obligations to the Wounded by Mubanga Kalimamukwento,
“In formally adventurous stories rooted in Zambian literary tradition, Obligations to the Wounded explores the expectations and burdens of womanhood in Zambia and for Zambian women living abroad. The collection converses with global social problems through the depiction of games, social media feuds, letters, and folklore to illustrate how girls and women manage religious expectation, migration, loss of language, death, intimate partner violence, and racial discrimination.”
eFormats: This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Hoopla.

 

News Story: Post Gazette – The Titans of Debt
Book mentioned: Mellon Vs. Churchill: The Untold Story of Treasury Titans at War by Jill Eicher
“The never-before-told story of the epic battle of wills between Andrew Mellon and Winston Churchill, as they debated the repayment of the enormous sums loaned by America to Great Britain during World War I.”
eFormats: This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Hoopla and in eAudio on Hoopla.

 

News Story: City Paper – At Carlow, Madwomen in the Attic program offers a safe space for “visionary” femme writers
Book mentioned: Dragstripping by Jan Beatty
“Dragstripping, Jan Beatty’s seventh collection of poems, takes readers to the literal dragstrip, the metaphorical dragstrip of the body, and the strip club, where the ecstatic is rescripted and where women disappear and reappear in the crosscut of gender.”
eFormats: This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Hoopla.

 

News Story: WESA – Pittsburgh-based Damon Young edits an anthology of Black humor
Book mentioned: That’s How They Get You: An Unruly Anthology of Black American Humor edited by Damon Young
“From the Thurber Prize-winning author of ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you Blacker’ comes a pioneering collection of Black humor from some of the most acclaimed writers and performers at work today . . . With words that roast, ignite, and burn while connecting to and coalescing around a singular thesis, ‘That’s how they get you’ emphasizes how and why Black American humor is uniquely transfixing.”
eFormats: This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and in eAudio on Libby.

 

News Story: Littsburgh – Start Reading In Search of Rain, From Motel Qu to Pittsburgh: A Memoir for Everyone by Seyed Nourashrafeddin
Book mentioned: In Search of Rain, From Motel Qu to Pittsburgh: A Memoir for Everyone by Seyed Nourashrafeddin
Imagine that you are a child who was born in a large family, and during your childhood, a revolution took place in your country and everything undergoes change and transformation, and at the same time, the country is involved in the longest war of the century, and the worry and stress caused by the war has influenced everything so much that the next generation will call the children who spent their childhood in this era as the ‘burnt generation.’”
eFormats: None

 

News Story: WESA – Frick Pittsburgh’s Clayton mansion added to National Register of Historic Places
Book mentioned: The Henry Clay Frick Houses: Architecture, Interiors, Landscapes in the Golden Era by Martha Frick Symington Sanger
“This elegant volume, written by Frick’s great-granddaughter and biographer, features the four major houses purchased, built, and renovated for the steel magnate; each is described in exacting detail, with information about the architects and interior designers, furnishings and art, and decoration. Beautiful archival photographs–interior and exterior, many previously unseen–and architectural drawings document the residences. The late-Victorian Clayton, in Pittsburgh, was Henry Clay Frick’s first home as a married man and the chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company.”
eFormats: None

 

News Story: Trib Live – Plum author details RIDC’s efforts to revitalize Pittsburgh region over 7 decades
Book Mentioned: Rebuilding: Pittsburgh RIDC and the Transformation of the Steel City by Jefferey Fraser
“This book showcases the efforts of the Regional Industrial Development Corporation (RIDC) to renew and improve Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From restoring old mills into industrial parks in Oakland to occupying underused acreage in the suburbs to create rent-controlled spaces; the organization and the people behind it represent the future of America’s economy.”
eFormats: None