MAY 1, 2024

Book Buzz

 A Monthly Collection of Librarian-selected Books by Topic

May I Have This Dance?

Keeping You on Your Toes
(Dance History)

• What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing by Brian Seibert (DB 115801)
• The Hippest Trip in America: Soul Train and the Evolution of Culture and Style by Nelson George (DB 78870)
• A Dancing People: Powwow Culture on the Southern Plains by Clyde Ellis (DB 60381)
• Ballet 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving the Ballet by Robert Greskovic (DB 47554)
• In Strangers' Arms: The Magic of the Tango by Beatriz Dujovne (DB 88735)
• Polka heartland: why the Midwest loves to polka by Richard March (DBC08207)

Swing Into a Story
(Dance Fiction)

• The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine (DB 80844 / BR 20700) – Historical fiction. Set in the 1920s, twelve sisters sneak out of their father’s house at night to dance in nightclubs and speakeasies.
• Waltzing at the Piggly Wiggly by Robert Dalby (DB 62157) – Humorous fiction. To save the local Piggly Wiggly supermarket, a group of elderly ladies enlist a local retired dancing instructor to help with their plan.
• Mambo in Chinatown by Jean Kwok (DB 79648) – Modern fiction. An America-born Chinese woman takes a job at a ballroom dancing studio and must find a way to reconcile her Eastern and Western worlds.
• The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan (DB 76341 / BRG03247) – Historical fiction. In late 1800s Paris, sisters enroll in the Paris Opera dance school while one of them has an affair with painter Edgar Degas.
• The True and Splendid History of the Harristown Sisters by Michelle Lovric (DB 90097) – Historical fiction. Seven sisters from 19th century Ireland pull themselves out of poverty by singing and dancing on European stages.
• The Spectacular by Fiona Davis (DB 115331) – Historical Mystery. In 1950s New York, a young woman joins the Rockettes dance group to escape her predictable future. Meanwhile the “Big Apple Bomber” terrorizes the citizens of New York, and the young woman helps catch the bomber.

So, You Think You Can Dance?
(Dance Biographies)

• Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland (DB 78843)
• Isadora: Portrait of the Artist as a Woman by Fredrika Blair (DB 24229)
• Gene Kelly: the Making of a Creative Legend by Earl J. Hess (DB 106981)
• Tanqueray by Stephanie Johnson (DB 113667)
• Tango Lessons: A Memoir by Meghan Flaherty (DB 92035)
• Radiant: The Dancer, the Scientist, and a Friendship Forged in Light by Liz Heinecke (DBC27481)

These books and more are available on digital cartridge (call the Library at 1-800-992-9012 to order) or for download from the National Library Service's (NLS) online Braille Audio Reading Download (BARD) database: https://nlsbard.loc.gov/

Is there a topic you would like to see featured in a future BTBL Book Buzz? Email your suggestions to the Michigan Braille and Talking Book Library at btbl@michigan.gov.

The Braille and Talking Book Library provides library services for individuals unable to use standard print materials. Learn more at Michigan.gov/BTBL.