It’s showtime! Whether you’re ready for a Barbie party or looking forward to digging into Oppenheimer (or celebrating #Barbieheimer with both), add to the fun with some books and movies from the library!
All descriptions from the publisher or our catalog.
Come On, Barbie
Breathless by Jennifer Niven: With graduation on the horizon, budding writer Claudine Henry is focused on three things: college in the fall, become a famous author, and the ever-elusive possibility of sex. Then her dad drops a bombshell: he and Claude’s mom are splitting up. Claude’s mom whisks them both away to a remote, mosquito-infested island off the coast of Georgia, where the two of them can start the painful process of mending their broken hearts.
Does My Body Offend You? by Mayra Cuevas and Marie Marquardt: Neither Malena nor Ruby expected to be leaders of their high school’s dress code rebellion. Meanwhile, the girls have to face their own insecurities and biases, as well as the ups and downs of their newfound friendship.
Happy Place by Emily Henry: Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college-they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now-for reasons they’re still not discussing-they don’t. They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends. Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week…in front of those who know you best?
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus: Set in 1960s California, this blockbuster debut is the hilarious, idiosyncratic and uplifting story of a female scientist whose career is constantly derailed by the idea that a woman’s place is in the home, only to find herself starring as the host of America’s most beloved TV cooking show.
Magical Girl’s Guide to Life: Find Your Inner Power, Fight Everyday Evil & Save the Day With Self-Care by Jacque Aye: Inspired by the wand-wielding, crime-fighting magical girls in your favorite animes and mangas, The Magical Girl’s Guide to Life teaches you how your self-care journey starts by uncovering the magical girl within. With fun exercises, journal prompts, and personality tests, you’ll quickly learn everything you need to know about your magical girl self, including your magical girl name, what type of power you possess, and what cute companion will perfectly complement your magical girl journey.
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid: Set against the backdrop of the Malibu surf culture of the 1980s, this novel follows the daughter of a famous singer who, once she finds fame, must grapple with the fact that her father abandoned her and her siblings when they were young.
What Girls Need: How To Raise Bold, Courageous, and Resilient Women by Marisa Porges: The traditional means of commanding a room have often been dubbed “unfeminine” and women of previous generations were pressured to behave like a man in order to win the day. But the ways we define leadership are changing, and the women now stepping into leadership roles are mapping new paths to inhabiting traits such as grit, resilience, audacity, and self-confidence.
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by Gail Collins: Chronicles the revolution of women’s civil rights throughout the past half century, drawing on oral history and research in a variety of disciplines while celebrating Hillary Clinton’s recent presidential campaign.
You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, and Other Mixed Messages by Carina Chocano: Moving from Bugs Bunny to Playboy Bunnies, Flashdance to Frozen, the progressive ’70s through the backlash ’80s, the glib ’90s, and the pornified aughts–and at stops in between–she explains how growing up in the shadow of “the girl” taught her to think about herself and the world and what it means to raise a daughter in the face of these contorted reflections.
I Am Become Death…
An Affair Of Spies by Ronald H. Balson: An Affair of Spies tells of a spy mission to rescue a defector from Germany and prevent the Nazis from creating an atomic bomb.
Atomic Love by Jennie Fields: Rosalind Porter has always defied expectations–in her work as a physicist on the Manhattan Project and in her passionate love affair with colleague Thomas Weaver. Five years after the end of both, her guilt over the bomb and her heartbreak over Weaver are intertwined. She desperately misses her work in the lab, yet has almost resigned herself to a more conventional life. Then Weaver gets back in touch–and so does the FBI.
The Berlin Project by Gregory Benford: Karl Cohen, a chemist and mathematician who is part of The Manhattan Project, has discovered an alternate solution for creating the uranium isotope needed to cause a chain reaction: U-235. After convincing General Groves of his new method, Cohen and his team of scientists work at Oak Ridge preparing to have a nuclear bomb ready to drop by the summer of 1944 in an effort to stop the war on the western front. What ensues is an altered account of World War II in this taut thriller.
Forces of Nature: The Women Who Changed Science by Anna Reser and Leila McNeill: As natural philosophers, physicists, anatomists, and botanists, [women] were central to the great intellectual flourishing of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. More recently women have been crucially involved in the Manhattan Project, pioneering space missions and much more. Despite their record of illustrious achievements, even today very few women win Nobel Prizes in science.
The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age by David N. Schwartz: A portrait of physicist and innovator Enrico Fermi assesses his pivotal role in achieving a nuclear chain reaction and shares insights into his complex personality, family ties, and relationships with the Italian Fascist Party and the Manhattan Project.
The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer documentary: J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life and legacy are inextricably linked to America’s most famous top-secret initiative – the Manhattan Project. This biography presents a complex and revealing portrait of one of America’s most influential scientists.