New Releases - May Edition

Check out these highly anticipated new releases featuring fiction and nonfiction titles. Click on the title to request a copy or get your name on the waitlist. Don’t forget to watch for more featured releases next month!

FICTION

The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei.  California-based Singaporean writer Wei, a Pushcart Prize nominee, brings to readers a family tale set in working-class Singapore and New Zealand and centered on 27-year-old Genevieve. In her childhood, her grandfather's secret family came to light with the arrival of his newly discovered descendant Arin, who is a year younger than Gen. Gen's parents took Arin in as a daughter, since she was seemingly abandoned by her birth family, and Gen has resented her ever since. Gen narrates a lifetime of strife with Arin, who later becomes a famous actress, and also deals with her mother's breast cancer and her father's emotional infidelity. Wei's multilayered writing sweeps readers up to carry them alongside Gen through her emotional and financial struggles and lifelong conflict with Arin as they both vie for their mother's love and attention. . .   VERDICT This novel should appeal to readers who appreciate relationship-based stories within families; also a good candidate for book clubs.—Shirley Quan.  Copyright 2025 Library Journal.

Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis. A Native American man returns home to heal wounds both literal and metaphorical. Abe Jacobs, the hero of Curtis’ finely tuned debut, is 43 and seriously ill. He’s taken a break from his job as a bookseller in Miami (and from his wife, Alexandria East), to visit family on a Mohawk reservation in upstate New York. . .  while he waits for a formal diagnosis, he skeptically but desperately accepts some folk treatment from a great-uncle. Otherwise, he spends his stay reconnecting with friends and family, attempting to make sense of his various past struggles: a depression that led to a suicide attempt, a difficult open relationship with Alex, and a stalled career as a poet. That last challenge gives the novel a poignant, lyrical lift: An alter ego of Abe’s, Dominick Deer Woods, regularly intrudes on the narrative, sharing excerpts of Abe’s poetry and generally serving as his snarkier, more confident self. . .  Some of those sidebars deal with Native American life, from food to tribal relationships, to the bigotry that informs Abe’s skepticism of traditional medicine, to forced sterilizations, and more. . . An affecting tale of loss and healing that thrives through its seriocomic style. Copyright Kirkus 2025.

Anima Rising by Christopher Moore. Moore (Shakespeare for Squirrels) offers an absurdist and sardonic sequel, of sorts, to Frankenstein. It begins in early-1900s Vienna and is populated with historical figures like Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and a young Hitler. Readers meet painter Klimt when he is out early one morning and finds the body of a young woman who appears to have drowned in the river. He is struck by the unique tint of her skin and is compelled to sketch her. When it seems she's not dead yet, he brings her back to his studio, but the woman, whom he names Judith, cannot remember who she is. Klimt calls upon Freud for assistance, and he eventually calls upon his protégé Jung for help with this unique case. These sessions reveal hidden memories about her creation and bizarre history, which include Victor Frankenstein and a trip to the underworld. VERDICT This is a wild adventure through history, art, and literature for Moore's many fans and those who enjoy historical fiction with a side of fantasy and wry humor. Highly recommended.—Kristen Stewart. Copyright 2025 Library Journal.

NONFICTION

Life and Art by Richard Russo.  Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Russo's (Somebody's Fool) second essay collection focuses on writing and his life. He has written screenplays for a number of his books, including an HBO miniseries for Empire Falls. Reading about his childhood, youth, and early adulthood, growing up in a Rustbelt town in upstate New York as the son of an often-absent father and an ambitious mother, helps readers understand the source of his books' settings, their characters, and his (and their) outlooks on life. Thirteen essays (some of which originally appeared in The Atlantic, Harper's, and the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association) reveal even more of Russo's background and interests—studying for his Ph.D. in literature at the University of Arizona, teaching English at Colby and other colleges, traveling across the country on book tours, screenwriting and adapting his own work. Russo also writes of his interest in Kingsley Amis's novel Lucky Jim, the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (and one of its stars, Paul Newman), and Townes Van Zandt's song "Pancho and Lefty." VERDICT A welcome visit with a major contemporary writer.—Marcia Welsh Copyright 2025 LJExpress.

The Art Spy by Michelle Young.  Young chronicles the vividly atmospheric saga of Rose Valland, a French art historian who risked everything to spy on the Nazis during World War II, as a key Resistance spy in the heart of the Nazis' art-looting headquarters. While Hitler was amassing stolen art for his future Führermuseum, Valland was secretly working to stop him from looting paintings by Picasso, Monet, Cézanne, Gauguin, Braque, Degas, Modigliani, and Toulouse-Lautrec. Based on previously undiscovered historical documents, this extensively detailed portrait of Valland's bravery and strategic intelligence makes for exciting reading. The fascinating book offers insights into the Nazi's art looting operations and Valland's crucial role in preserving France's cultural heritage. The story of Valland's courage and dedication to art and justice is compelling and inspiring. VERDICT This book should have broad appeal, thanks to its previously unsung World War II Resistance spy heroine and the rich details of her exploits, making it ideal for fans of espionage and strong narrative nonfiction that reads like a compelling novel.—Lawrence Mello Copyright 2025 LJExpress.

They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals by Mariah Blake. Investigative journalist Blake tells the story of her investigation into the lives and workings of the people in a small town in upstate New York who had grown suspicious of the local industrial plant after there had been an inordinate amount of health problems and cancer deaths among the small population. This industrial plant employed most townspeople and made food-preserving products, including Teflon. Obtaining her information through personal interviews with the local people and through numerous public documents, Blake discovered that this plant was dumping waste into the local water supply. All the while, the chemical industry at large was aware of the deadly and long-term effects of these "forever chemicals." The company running the plant in New York had gone to extreme lengths to cover it up, including manufacturing false research studies. Ultimately, the chemicals were banned, yet long-term health issues and environmental problems persist. Blake tells this heartbreaking and horrifying story in a manner that should motivate and outrage readers. VERDICT A powerfully written narrative that needs to be shared widely.—Steve Dixon Copyright 2025 LJExpress.

New Releases - April Edition

Check out these highly anticipated new releases featuring fiction and nonfiction titles. Click on the title to request a copy or get your name on the waitlist. Don’t forget to watch for more featured releases next month!

NONFICTION

No New Things by Ashlee Piper. Piper, a sustainability expert and author of Give a Sh*t: Do Good. Live Better. Save the Planet, offers a guide to help readers stop buying new things, based on her experiences doing so for over a year.  Her book is filled with daily action items and exercises.  Copyright 2024 Library Journal.

 

Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools by Mary Annette Pember.  A concise history of Native American boarding schools and their enduring consequences. The daughter of a boarding school survivor, the author explores a highly personal subject while tracing out its broader historical dimensions. . . Elegantly weaving together her mother’s stories, those of other boarding school students, and concise accounts of federal assimilationist policies and common institutional practices, she provides an informed and unsettling perspective on the schools’ individual and collective impact. . . we gain a striking sense of how an ethic of righteous domination shaped institutions meant to accelerate the destruction of indigeneity. Particularly compelling are the accounts of the schools’ coercive religious authority, myriad forms of physical and psychological abuse, and insistent shaming, all of which aimed at, and often succeeded in, destroying the self-esteem of vulnerable children. As we come to understand, routine cruelties coexisted with the self-professed benevolence of the pedagogical bureaucracy. Indigenous resistance is also carefully charted, especially in relation to the “sense of common purpose and pan-Indian identity” that many students managed to establish in the face of crushing assimilative pressures. . . . A gripping, often harrowing account of the personal and communal toll of cultural genocide. Copyright Kirkus 2025 Kirkus/BPI Communications.

 Accidentally on Purpose by Kristen Kish.  In her delightful debut memoir, Top Chef host Kish (It’s All in the Sauce: Bringing Your Uniqueness to the Table, a children’s cookbook) covers her early experiences in the kitchen and the path to her TV breakthrough. Born in 1983 Seoul and adopted by American parents in Michigan, Kish details a mostly ordinary childhood laced with spaghetti with red sauce and Creamsicle sodas. Encouraged by her mother to explore her affinity for cooking as a teenager, Kish paid a visit to Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago. After enrolling in and graduating from the culinary school, Kish moved to Boston, where she worked under chef Barbara Lynch at Stir and dabbled in cocaine and alcohol while finding her footing in the pressure-filled world of fine dining. Her winning run on Top Chef gets a lot of play in the narrative, as do inspiring encounters with the likes of Emeril Lagasse and Padma Lakshmi, whom Kish replaced as host of Top Chef in 2023. Also touching are sections about Kish coming out as gay to her family and friends after her professional success bolstered her confidence. Self-assured yet down-to-earth, Kish’s account will resonate with aspiring chefs and Top Chef fans alike. Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly.

FICTION

Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez.  The latest from Perkins-Valdez (Take My Hand) features a dual narrative that starts with Washington, DC, real estate agent Nikki Lovejoy being summoned to rural North Carolina by her estranged grandmother Rita. Mother Rita needs help managing the family homestead. As the story and relationship between Rita and Niki develop, readers learn about family secrets and history of the Kingdom of the Happy Land. The historical side of the narrative is revealed by Luella, a Lovejoy ancestor known as the queen of Happy Land. Luella is part of a group of formerly enslaved people who migrated to this spot after emancipation to create a settlement for themselves. Through hard work and saving, the community was able to purchase the land, which they called the Kingdom of the Happy Land. In the contemporary storyline, Perkins-Valdez reveals how that land was stolen from the Lovejoys and how Rita fights to retain it for her family. VERDICT This is a lyrical and unique work of historical fiction. The Kingdom is based on a real place about which readers will want to know more after reading Perkins-Valdez's novel. Fans of hidden-history narratives will enjoy her hopeful, empowering tale.—Kristen Stewart.  Copyright 2025 Library Journal.

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett. Following their first twisty case of murder and political corruption (chronicled in The Tainted Cup), Ana and Din are sent to the opposite fringe of the Empire to solve what appears to be a classic locked-room murder mystery. But no case that Special Investigations sends their most special team to is ever that simple. The moment that eccentric senior investigator Ana is on the scene, she knows that the case is about something no one wants to admit; it's all misdirection for a plot decades in the making, involving sleeper agents, ambitious officers, and corruption of both the body and the soul, all in service of a goal no one remembers except the man who has been enslaved to it for his entire life. VERDICT This Holmes and Watson-like investigative duo are compelling to follow, and the truly epic fantasy world where the series is set, with its falling empire, corrupt politics, and magic pharmacopeia engineered from monster blood, takes the familiarity of mystery and creates a truly fantastic fever-dream of a world and a story.—Marlene Harris.  Copyright 2025 Library Journal.

The Book Club for Troublesome Women: a novel by Marie Bostick.  Bostwick's (Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly) latest explores the lives of four housewives in 1963 suburban Virginia. Margaret, Viv, and Bitsy are living the American dream. However, "having it all" leaves them feeling guilty and wondering if there should be more to their lives than just domesticity. Enter Charlotte, their arty, fashionable, and eccentric new neighbor from New York City. These four women start a book club, with The Feminine Mystique as their first title, a controversial and groundbreaking book that inspires each of them to examine their own lives, illustrating why they each feel pressured, unhappy, and unfulfilled. Through their discussions of other books, they form an unbreakable bond and encourage one another not only to acknowledge their fears and dreams but also to seek change to make their longings a reality. VERDICT Bostwick's latest is ideal for fans of historical fiction and those who enjoyed Bonnie Garmus's Lessons in Chemistry, Kristin Hannah's The Women, or Kate Quinn's The Briar Club, which explore the historical roles of women and the challenges they faced within a society structured to define and limit their roles in and out of the home.—Linsey Milillo. Copyright 2025 Library Journal.

Owl Be Here for You: The History of the Owl Statues at Worcester Public Library

We often hear children and their families excitedly pointing out the two large owl statues that are mounted above the staircases between the first and second floors of the Main Library. I personally delight in explaining to them that the owls actually have names, "Whooo" and Whoom," and that they were named such in a naming contest. But what's the story behind the owls? Read on to learn more!

Worcester Public Library (then known as the Worcester Free Public Library) used to be located on the southside of Elm Street from 1861 until it moved to its present location at 3 Salem Square in 1964. Even in the 19th century, there was talk of moving the library. By the late 1880s, the library had outgrown its original Elm Street building at 18 Elm Street and the library directors looked at either moving to a new building or expanding. They eventually settled on building an addition to the existing structure by having the city purchase the adjacent Dr. J.O. Marble property in 1888. The cornerstone for the addition was laid November 27, 1889 and the addition was completed in 1891.  

The plans by well-known Worcester architect Stephen C. Earle were primarily carried out by the contractors Cutting & Bishop. There was also an additional artistic component: two sculpted horned owls that would be added to either side of the new addition's entrance! According to the Worcester Evening Gazette, the sculptor of the two stone owls was a 33-year-old sculptor from Boston named Terrence Dunn.

Two Owls. Worcester Evening Gazette, September 13, 1890

The December 24, 1890 issue of the Worcester Telegram was a bit critical in its discussion of the owls at the entrance: "The only uninviting feature about the whole building is the glum look on the two stone owls that perch on either side of the arch at the main entrance on Elm street [sic]. And yet the owls look so learned that the critic in gazing at them wants to go beyond and see what is within." 

Free Public Library, Worcester, Mass., circa 1905-1915, Detroit Publishing Co.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress. - note the owls over the left-side building's arch

And so the owls stayed on their perches outside the Elm Street entrance, silently observing all who entered the hallowed halls of the Worcester Free Public Library, until once again, the library outgrew its space. The city and library board decided to build a brand new library that would be located at 3 Salem Square opposite City Hall (see one of our previous blog posts for information about the 1962 laying of the cornerstone for the new building). 

How Wise is the Elm Street Library Owl? Worcester Evening Gazette, March 25, 1950

Look Up! Sunday Telegram, July 5, 1959

In 1963, the Worcester Telegram reported that then-library director Thurston Taylor and City Manager Frances J. McGrath had discussed the upcoming demolition of the Elm Street library building. Taylor advocated for preserving the library owls, as well as the stone arch above the entrance. McGrath also recommended saving the bas-reliefs of Cicero, Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin, and Thucydides that adorned the exterior of the library addition towards the top of the building. Unfortunately, McGrath ultimately concluded with the library directors that they weren't able to find a new home for the bas-reliefs and stone arch at the new building and furthermore, preservation of these items was too costly for the city. Fortunately, the city agreed to salvage the two owls at the cost of $50 (roughly $515 adjusted for inflation) (Worcester Telegram, October 7, 1963). The library ultimately mounted the owls on the walls of the Social Science department of the new library building. The new building at Salem Square was officially dedicated on May 22, 1964 and the library opened to the public the following Monday. The Elm Street library was subsequently torn down and the site later became the Pearl-Elm Parking Garage.

Worcester Sunday Telegram, May 23, 1965

Fast forward to September 1980. For years, the owls had been unofficially named "Hoot" and "Toot," according to an article in the September 11, 1980 issue of the Worcester Telegram. The Friends of Worcester Public Library decided to name the owls with a "Great Give a Hoot Contest," which would be open to all Worcester-area residents. According to the article, there would be winners in three age brackets (ages 6-12, 12-18, and over 18) and an overall grand prize winner, with the winning entries being selected on Halloween. The contest would be judged by four judges and one honorary judge, retired head librarian Thurston Taylor. 

The Friends of the Worcester Public Library received over 280 entries but the grand prize winner was Patrick B. Holland, a 14-year-old boy from Worcester, with his entry, "Whooo" and "Whooom." The other winners were "Winkie" and "Blinkie" from 10-year-old Holly Burns and "Wisdom" and "Common Sense" by 24-year-old Joseph Trent. Each winner received a $20 gift certificate for books and Patrick Holland also received a framed print of an Albrecht Dürer drawing of an owl.

He Gave a Hoot - And Won. Worcester Evening Gazette, November 8, 1980*

Now you know the story of Whooo and Whooom (we do not know which one is which) so say hi to them the next time you stop by the Main Library!

For more information about another work of art in the Main Library, check out our blog post about the 3 large WPA murals above the 2nd floor!

*Note: the articles from 1980 claimed that the statues were cast metal but all previous articles indicated that the statues were made of stone.

Sources:

Done in First-Class Shape. (1890, December 24). Worcester Daily Telegram. p. 4.

Fletcher Street Teen Wins 'Great Give a Hoot Contest.' (1980, November 6). Worcester Telegram. p. 37.

He Gave a Hoot -- And Won. (1980, November 8). Worcester Evening Gazette. p. 7.

Green, F. He Wanted Everyone to Read Read Read. (1965, May 23). Worcester Sunday Telegram. Feature Parade Section, p. 6.

Library Demolition. (1963, October 7). Worcester Evening Gazette. p. 9.

Owl Figures, Door Arch to be Saved. (1963, May 28) Worcester Evening Gazette. p.27.

Public Library Addition. (1889, November 28). Worcester Telegram. p. 2.

Two Owls. (1890, September 13). Worcester Evening Gazette. p. 4.

You Can Get Wise with the Owls? (1980, September 11). Worcester Telegram. p. 9.

New Releases - March Edition

Check out these highly anticipated new releases featuring fiction and nonfiction titles. Click on the title to request a copy or get your name on the waitlist. Don’t forget to watch for more featured releases next month!

FICTION

Rooms for Vanishing by Stuart Nadler.  Nadler (Wise Men) follows a Viennese Jewish family shattered by the Holocaust across four alternate timelines in his dazzling latest. In each of the four narrative threads, a different member of the Alterman family is the sole survivor. The first, set in 1979 London, focuses on Sonja, rescued from the war at age five by the Kindertransport train. She’s married to Franz, a famous orchestra conductor, with whom she lost a young daughter to a terminal illness. Franz disappears after becoming convinced the girl is still alive. Nadler then turns to Sonja’s mother, Fania, who survived a displaced persons camp somewhere in Europe and now works as a masseuse in 1966 Montreal. In the third timeline, Fania’s younger son, Moses, an infant when the family was rounded up by the Nazis, narrowly escapes being killed during an anti-communist protest in 1960s’ Prague. While Moses awaits the birth of his grandchild in 2000 New York City, the ghost of a friend begs him to return to Prague. The final iteration centers on Fania’s husband, Arnold, who lives in Vienna in 2016. He receives a message from a woman claiming to be Sonja after she tracks him down via the DNA test he shared on an ancestry site. Throughout, Nadler beautifully conveys the ways in which his characters’ sense of reality is distorted by their trauma. This is a wonder. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly.

The River Has Roots by Amal
El-Mohtar. The Hawthorn family has tended the magical willows on their land for generations, providing songs of thanks in exchange for the trees' power. The residents of the town of Thistleford, sitting near the edge of Faerie, know that sisters Esther and Ysabel Hawthorn continue to provide according to the ancient agreement, and the two sisters are as much tied to each other as they are to their enchanted trees. However, love and life can still bring the possibility of taking one, or both, away from each other. When Esther rejects a suitor in favor of her lover from Faerie, the devastating results may not only separate the sisters but end their lives as well. El-Mohtar's poetic prose brings the magic of language and song to life, with a river that is filled with grammar and two women who use songs to show the world their truths. VERDICT El-Mohtar's solo debut (after cowriting This Is How You Lose the Time War with Max Gladstone) is a heart-wrenching fairy tale about the bonds of love and family. It's a murder ballad in book form that will linger long after the final page is turned.—Kristi Chadwick.  Copyright 2025 Library Journal.

Red Dog Farm by Nathaniel Ian Miller.  Miller (The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven) serves up a rich coming-of-age tale about the son of a farmer exploring his roots. In spring 2012, Orri cuts short his first year at university and comes home from Reykjavik to help his father, Pabbi, on the family farm in Bifröst, a settlement north of the city. According to Orri’s Mamma, a professor at the local university, Pabbi has been depressed, and Orri keeps an eye on him as they tend to the cattle and make hay. Orri also reconnects with his childhood classmate Rúna, who’s now a farmer. As Orri learns more about farming, he delays his return to Reykjavik, wondering if higher education is the right fit for him. Meanwhile, he sparks an online romance with Mihan, a student enrolled at a university a few hours away, and eventually visits her there. The novel reaches a crisis point as Pabbi talks of selling the farm and Mamma begins spending nights away from home, prompting Orri to worry that his parents are keeping secrets from him. . . . Miller’s earthy realism effectively conveys the toll farming takes, especially on Pabbi. The result is a charming novel of desire and identity in a small community. Agent: Esmond Harmsworth, Aevitas Creative Management. Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly.

NONFICTION

 Mesopotamian Riddle by Joshua Hammer.  Journalist Hammer follows up The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu with another dazzling archival adventure.  By the 1850s, several scholars claimed to have decoded cuneiform, an ancient Mesopotamian script that had first been discovered several decades earlier.  But, as Hammer explains, the public was skeptical, considering all the claims "decipherment" to be "hoaxes."  William Henry Fox Talbot, a wealthy inventor (known as the "father of photography" alongside Louis Daguerre), had produced his own decipherment and, eager to prove to judgmental friends that his new pursuit wasn't "quackery," proposed an experiment:  four different scholars who claimed to have decoded cuneiform would turn in their translations of the same text to the Royal Asiatic Society; if the translations matched, it would prove decipherment was possible.  Hammer delves into the backstories of the scholars who participated alongside Talbot, detailing how each came to their all-consuming passion for decoding cuneiform . . . Novelistic and immersive, this historical saga astounds.  Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly. 

Rebel Queen by Susan Polgar and Yasser Seirawan. The allure of chess. Hungarian-born chess grandmaster Polgar, winner of the world’s six most prestigious chess crowns, recounts a triumphant career that began when she was 3. Excited by a chess set she discovered in a beat-up cabinet, she was eager to learn how to play with the enticing new toys. Her father incorporated chess into her homeschooling, teaching her moves for one piece at a time, gradually building up to openings and strategies. Clearly a prodigy, Polgar entered her first tournament when she was 4½, winning against older girls. In 1979, at age 10, she became the youngest person to earn official rating through the International Chess Federation. Although Hungary repeatedly refused to grant her a passport to leave the communist Eastern Bloc, publicity about her prowess soon led the government to relent. Competing internationally, she rapidly ascended in stature. In 1983, she ranked among the top 10 female players in the world. . . Throughout her career, Polgar rose above considerable challenges: from those who believed that women shouldn’t compete against men; from political threats to her and her family; from bitter animosity from a woman champion; and from virulent antisemitism at home and abroad. The game sustained her. A champion’s engaging memoir. Copyright Kirkus 2025 Kirkus/BPI Communications.

Cellar Rat: My Life in the Restaurant Underbelly by Hannah Selinger.  Working in fancy restaurants starts as a heady rush but devolves into a dehumanizing grind, in this overwrought debut memoir from James Beard Award winner Selinger. The food writer recaps her post-college decade in the industry in the early 2000s, charting her path from waitressing at casual Massachusetts eateries to sommelier gigs at Manhattan fine-dining establishments including BLT Prime and Jean-Georges. She rhapsodizes about the “electric” atmosphere of upscale dining rooms, with their convivial glow, celebrity sightings (Gwyneth Paltrow “tipped ten percent, the icy little troll”), and employee camaraderie, and describes in richly evocative prose how she came to appreciate gourmet cuisine (“I could explain the softness of the meat, how lean it was, how it came from a less worked muscle of the cow”). Along the way, Selinger also catalogs the downsides: long shifts on erratic schedules, an after-hours drinking culture that got her a DUI conviction, and unpredictable, angry bosses. . .  This provides a vivid glimpse behind the scenes of America’s most glamorous dining rooms, but falls short as a polemic. Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly.

Learning Express Library

Learning Express Library is a popular go to resource for students, adults and professionals who seek to achieve their educational and occupational goals. The database comes equipped with a wide variety of practice tests, skill builders, tutorials and ebooks. Organized into targeted learning centers, it offers a complete selection of interactive tutorials, practice tests and ebooks essential to improve academic skills, earn a high school equivalency, prepare for college, join the military, obtain professional certification, find a job, change careers, become a U.S. citizen and much more.

The eight learning centers are:

Career Preparation: Prepare for military, real estate, nursing, law enforcement, civil service, teaching, commercial driver’s license and trade exams

High School Equivalency Center: Prepare for the GED in English and Spanish, HiSET etc.

College Admissions Test Preparations: ACT, SAT, AP, PSAT, TOEFL

Grades 4-8 Educator Resources: Skill building lessons and practice for guiding elementary and middle school learners

High School Students: Math, English, Science, Social Studies, Technology, logic and reasoning skills improvement for classroom and homework improvement

College Students: CLEP, college placement and graduate school admissions exams; math, science, grammar and reading skills review

Adult Core Skills: Citizenship exam resources; build on your math, reading, grammar and speaking skills

Recursos Para Hispanohablantes: Learning, career and citizenship tools in Spanish

Watch this tutorial for a quick overview:

All you need is a valid Worcester Public Library card to access the resource from our website. Click here, select Learning Express Library from the alphabetical list, and create your own account. Registration requires a valid email address and a password. This will guarantee your work in progress and score reports can be saved. You will also be able to revisit any practice tests, so you can refer back to them later.

New Releases - February Edition

Check out these highly anticipated new releases featuring fiction and nonfiction titles. Click on the title to request a copy or get your name on the waitlist. Don’t forget to watch for more featured releases next month!

NONFICTION

Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations by Alton Brown.  Food Network host Brown (Good Eats: The Final Years) details his culinary career in this appealing memoir in essays, which takes readers from the author’s early life in North Hollywood, Calif., through his stints at Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen. As a child with a penchant for “unorthodox flavors,” Brown developed an early fascination with food science, and attended culinary school in New England before finding work at a bakery. While in school, he dreamed up the concept for his first show, Good Eats, which put a cheeky spin on food science, and recounts the bumpy road to getting it produced on the Food Network. Elsewhere, Brown reveals what he hates to cook (hard shell blue crab); examines famous scenes of cooking and eating in Hollywood blockbusters including The Godfather and Apocalypse Now; and shares some of his favorite regional dishes, like Nebraska’s unlikely combination of chili and cinnamon rolls. The author’s dry wit (“I’ll never go back because I don’t want to see the inevitable change that forty years have wrought,” he writes of a magical trip to an Italian village. “Looking in the mirror is bad enough”) makes this irresistible for home cooks and foodies alike. It’s another delicious treat from Brown. Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.

Fearless and Free: A Memoir by Josephine Baker, Anam Zafar, Sophie Lewis & Ijeoma Oluo.  Published in the U.S. for the first time, this memoir captures the experience of talking to Baker (1906–75) more than the experience of being her, leaving her mystery intact. Released in France in 1949, it comprises Baker's side of her dialogue with journalist Marcel Sauvage, who began interviewing her in 1926. Some interviews were initially translated into French and are now retranslated to English, so there are several layers of interpretation between Baker and the page. However, the memoir captures how Baker thinks and feels (her empathy for suffering people comes up often) and her philosophies of life and performance (she says she never rehearses because she's not a machine and finds randomness beautiful). It only lightly covers some experiences that readers would surely like to hear about (such as how Baker came to perform in Manhattan's Plantation Club) but covers others, such as her travels through Europe, in detail. Baker also speaks vividly about working in French intelligence during World War II and being used as a political symbol. VERDICT This dialogue with Baker revels in her poetic and often humorous way of speaking. Pair with Chris Chase and Jean-Claude Baker's authoritative biography Josephine Baker: The Hungry Heart.—Sarah Wolberg Copyright 2025 Library Journal.

American Poison: A Deadly Invention and the Woman Who Battled for Environmental Justice by Daniel Stone.  Science writer Stone (Sinkable) offers an enthralling biography of Alice Hamilton (1869–1970), who led a prescient but failed battle to ban leaded gasoline in the 1920s. A medical doctor interested in pathology, by her early 30s Hamilton had “singlehandedly” created the field of industrial medicine, the study of the impacts of chemicals and other environmental factors on industrial workers. As the first woman offered an appointment at Harvard, she began documenting cases of dementia, palsy, and early death in workers—and found they were all connected to lead exposure. This put her on a collision course with engineer Thomas Midgly Jr., inventor of leaded gasoline, a cheaper and more efficient fuel that was quickly adopted by the burgeoning automobile industry. Hamilton led the crusade against leaded gas, offering studies that proved “lead was harmful in almost any context... to every bodily organ.” The U.S. surgeon general called a 1925 summit to investigate the matter; Stone paints the proceedings as a masterpiece of manipulation by Midgly’s Ethyl Corporation, which lied and obfuscated its way to victory. (Leaded gasoline wasn’t fully banned until 1996.) Stone’s depiction of Hamilton is a captivating portrait of a privileged daughter of wealth whose eyes are slowly opened to capitalism’s exploitation of the poor (“I had begun to realize how narrow had been my education, how sheltered my life. I wanted to go into that underworld and see for myself,” she later wrote). Readers will be riveted. Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly.

FICTION

Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray.  In 1919, high school teacher Jessie Redmon Fauset's passion for writing captures the attention of W.E.B. Du Bois and secures her a trailblazing job as the first Black woman literary editor at The Crisis, the NAACP magazine founded by Du Bois. An excited Jessie moves from Washington, DC, to New York City to start the job, but she's hiding a secret: Du Bois, Jessie's new boss, has also been her long-distance lover for years. Now that they're both in Harlem, it will be harder for Jessie and the married Du Bois to keep their affections hidden from everyone. As years pass, Jessie becomes a more and more integral part of The Crisis, especially in cultivating new young writing talents such as a 17-year-old Langston Hughes and a 16-year-old Countee Cullen. But when she finds herself clashing, both professionally and personally, with Du Bois, Jessie is faced with an agonizing choice between her loves.  Copyright 2024 Library Journal.

Moonlight Healers by Elizabeth Becker.  Becker debuts with a work of historical fiction and magical realism. The Winston women have long been able to bring people back to life. This is news to Louise Winston, who accidentally brings back her best friend when he dies in an accident. Desperate to know what happened, she turns to her grandmother and, through a tattered family diary, learns her family's history and begins to navigate her own legacy.  Copyright 2024 Library Journal.

 Loca by Alejandro Heredia.  Heredia's debut novel looks into the lives of two friends, Sal and Charo, who are from the Dominican Republic but find themselves in New York in the late 1990s. Strong narratives present readers with a taste of what life was like for these friends growing up under challenging conditions in which one had to be tough and have street smarts to survive; life in New York is not any easier for either of them. Charo is a 25-year-old mother who works in a supermarket and is in a controlling relationship. Sal teaches science to kids and is in a relationship with his boyfriend, Vance. . . VERDICT With themes of relationships, love, and family, this tale will resonate with readers who have faced hardships and who have had to search for and embrace their identity. A welcome addition to collections.—Shirley Quan.  Copyright 2025 Library Journal.