Fall and Winter Patron Picks 

This past fall, we chose Legends of Little Canada as out Lowell Reads book. It was a hit and landed in the Awesome Box twice.  We’re so glad people enjoyed the book. 

Please don’t hesitate to leave a book in the Awesome Box or write a review. We appreciate your feedback on the books the library offers.  You can share your favorites by placing them in the Awesome Box at the ground floor checkout desk. You can also write a review on a “What Did You Think” form at one of the service desks or complete the online Patron Review Form.  It does not need to be long. Don’t forget about the items you have downloaded or streamed on Overdrive or Hoopla. Even if we can’t display a physical copy, we can include your review.  

If you would like to reserve a book, place a request in the online catalog, fill out a request form, or call the reference desk at 978-674-4121.  

Click on an item for more information. 

Patron Reviews 

By Lisa C. 

Legends of Little Canada by Charlie Gargiulo, 2023 

It’s a must read for locals. It has a lot of history of the City of Lowell. 

George Washington Carver by Tonya Bolden, 2008  

This book was published in 2008 but looks like it was published earlier because it is profusely illustrated with fascinating reproductions of contemporary photographs. One of the extraordinary things about Carver’s life was that he was born during the American Civil War and lived to be old enough to meet Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At the Tuskegee Institute, we see some very dapper young gentleman in a cutaway coat studying a cow skeleton, and then Carver as a much older man in more casual check trousers and a looser and less formal jacket. Carver is much like Nikola Tesla with his mustache and his intense passion about his chosen field of study, but less glamorous to posterity because electricity is more exciting to moderns than botany. In the best late Victorian tradition, he was also an outstanding painter of his beloved plants; there are similarities here with, e.g., the life of Beatrix Potter, who made her start as a technical illustrator. 

The Universe in You: A Microscopic Journey by Jason Chin, 2022 

A children’s book in the “Powers of Ten” genre, working in the sub-human size scale, starting with a small bird and carrying on all the way to quarks and gluons, then working its way back up again. Jason Chin’s illustrations are excellent, and he is nothing if not meticulous. Enjoyable for children and adults. 

Marathon: How One Battle Changed Western Civilization by Richard A. Billows, 2010 

Explains significant events preceding the battle of Marathon and elaborates on the immediate consequences of the Athenian victory. Describes how the wars in Ionia eventually reached Greece, Athens’s unique swerve toward democracy, and how the still very young Athenian democracy proved that it could defend itself from the expeditionary force of the powerful Persian empire. Speculates on the consequences if the Athenians had lost, to Greece and consequently, to Western civilization. Discusses the historical significance of the battle to those who fought and to their immediate descendants, to Athens in later times, and to Greece. Points out that the importance of the ancient Greek culture to Western civilization was not, itself, a necessary thing, but arose from the turning of Western thought to the ancient Greeks during the Renaissance and thereafter. Intelligent and clear, not excessively pedantic, and rather vivid in parts. 

Brave New Ballot: The Battle to Safeguard Democracy in the Age of Electronic Voting by Aviel D. Rubin, 2006 

This book is a narrative of 18 months in the life of a computer science professor who became embroiled, rather willingly, in the political struggles around electronic voting before the 2004 US presidential election.  

The book is written in the anecdotal style, which tries to slip the useful technical detail in with a narrative, like hiding the vegetables under the pepperoni. It’s a very popular style, but the author testified at so many hearings, and went to so many gatherings of one sort or another, that the many characters in his narrative are just about indistinguishable. 

 The book is still valuable in a few ways. It works as an historical narrative reasonably well. It allows one to see that things can change pretty rapidly, if effort is made. In 2000, Florida’s election management became a byword for incompetence, but that’s been reformed since, and Florida elections could now be a model for other states. The book shows the partisan nature of every issue, even if that issue should be non-partisan.  

This book is the rare book in which an actual, i.e., not fake, expert addresses the problem of securing elections in a non-partisan and public-facing manner. There are not many other books of this nature, so we might as well be grateful for its existence, despite its flaws.