Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion

Thanks to books like Fast Food Nation and authors like Michael Pollen, people have become more aware of what fast food is and what it does to both individuals and society. But have you ever stopped to think about the impact of fast fashion?

Elizabeth Cline sets out to research how the low cost (and at times quality) of fashion impacts people, the environment and even the economy. The life cycle of clothes has decreased as consumers started demanding cheaper prices and more options. Americans now buy over one new clothing item a week, spending less than we did in previous decades while owning more. This has caused a huge excess of used clothing that is slowly becoming harder to get rid of on the second hand market.

Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion is for anyone who has ever looked at a stuffed closet and thought "I have nothing to wear".

The Headmaster's Wager by Vincent Lam

As a young man Chen Pie Sou (later Pecival Chen) fled his home in China to escape the Japanese invasion. He eventually arrived in Vietnam where he used his Western style education to start an English language school. In the 1960’s, as the United States became more involved in the affairs of Vietnam, Chen’s school attracted many students and Chen became a wealthy man. Secure in the knowledge that bribery could solve any problem, Chen ignored politics and the increasingly intrusive war, until his son was arrested for making a futile political protest. Chen borrowed heavily for the steep bribes demanded for his release. Fearful for his son’s safety and ignorant of the politics of his homeland, Chen sent him to China in the middle of Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution. He managed to recoup his wealth with high-stakes gambling and continued to enjoy the pleasures afforded to the rich and powerful in Vietnam.  Not until the war is lost and the Americans leave Vietnam does Chen realize the folly and danger of his willful ignorance. By then it is too late to help his son in China and he and his second family cannot escape Vietnam. The danger to them is so great, he is forced to risk his younger son’s future in a dangerous scheme, his biggest gamble ever.  Check out this suspenseful read @the library!

Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

"Luke, I am your father."

Darth Vader's got his hands full keeping the Rebel Alliance quashed for the Emperor - but it turns out he's also got his hands full with a 4-year-old Luke Skywalker.  This short, laugh-out-loud hilarious series of graphic vignettes revels in all the joys and frustrations of fatherhood with a precocious son who is strong in the Force.  My favorite?  Poor Vader's frustration with Luke's looooooove of the band The Ewoks.  Imagine 'Jub Jub' on repeat.  For four hours.  Makes Yo Gabba Gabba look pretty good!

If you're looking for a laugh and have ever hung out with a 4-year-old, whether it was your own kid or someone else's, you've got to take 5 minutes and crack up over Darth Vader and Son!

Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory by Mickey Rapkin

Great movies come from great books, and Pitch Perfect (now in theaters) is no different. Way back in 2008 a book called Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory by Mickey Rapkin gave us an inside look at the world of college a cappella groups. The current movie takes these stories and creates a fictional word based off of the adventures of three very different groups.

Divisi, from the University of Oregon, were denied a national championship, and want to win what was theirs in spite of turning over most of their members. The Beelzebubs of Tufts university are feeling the burden of a rich history, and have to top their last album, Code Red which was called "game changing". Finally it showcases the Hullabahoos of University of Virginia who are more like fun loving frat boys who want to be more successful. Each group's story is told in alternating chapters, along with facts and history of collegiate A Cappella.

Whether you already saw the movie, or just are looking for a good book that highlights an interesting subculture, Pitch Perfect will have you looking up YouTube clips of past shows, and singing. 

Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures by Emma Straub

In the late 1930’s, seventeen year old Elsa Emerson leaves her Door County home, headed for Hollywood intent on a movie career. Within ten years she has become Laura Lamont, a glamorous star with an Academy Award.  Married to a powerful movie producer, mother of three, best friends with a wacky red-headed television star, Laura seems to have it all. But this success has come with a price. She is unable to escape the nagging guilt that her fame and good fortune should really belong to a talented older sister who died when Elsa was a child. Her father’s death and mother’s disapproval give her second thoughts about the wisdom of leaving Door County. Her husband’s death leaves her unmoored and drives her career into a tailspin. Faced with dire health, family and money problems, she rallies, simplifies her life style, swallows her pride and takes any work she is able to get. From that point on, her story becomes one of triumph over adversity.

Emma Straub has said that Laura Lamont is based on actress Jennifer Jones. Readers who are familiar with movie and television stars of the black and white era will enjoy identifying the other stars characterized in Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures.

Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close

Isabella isn't sure what she wants to do with her post college life, so she ends up moving to New York to live with her friend Mary who is in law school. As their friends start to get married, settle into full time jobs and have kids the two of them battle with their own ideals and face unsure futures that once seemed crystal clear.

Girls in White Dresses is more like a collection of short stories involving the same characters, than a traditional novel. Readers who have been in more than one wedding in a summer, or who have been asked "when are you going to settle down" will enjoy the lives of these girls as they transition from college life to adulthood.

Woodsburner by John Pipkin

In 1844 Henry David Thoreau started a forest fire near Concord, Massachusetts, that destroyed 300 acres of woods and nearly destroyed the town. This book is about Thoreau, but also about other residents of the area, including a woman who has fled the famine in Ireland, an immigrant farmhand from Norway, a radical preacher, and a traveling salesman, in Concord just for the day. The author uses each character to illustrate life in 1840s Massachusetts in Woodsburner.