The facade of the Peter White Public Library in Marquette is seen. (Journal file photo)

• “Raising Hare: A Memoir” by Chloe Dalton

Dalton pens an unexpected, naturalist memoir, the likes of which may invoke Annie Dillard for some readers. In this case, the protagonist is a political adviser and speechwriter who has committed herself to spending lockdown deep in the English countryside, far from her hectic London life. Dalton finds a newborn hare, and as many do, learns too late that her interference with nature has now made the creature dependent on her for survival. It would be easy for such a tale to turn overly redemptive or sentimental, but instead her humble curiosity delivers a captivating study of our relationship to the natural world.

• “Scorched Earth” by Tiana Clark

Clark’s second full-length poetry collection is a showstopper, for both those who have long loved poetry, and those who are just beginning to be curious about the genre. She describes this book as a final product of “[writing] my way out of…ruins with radical love and unabashed self-acceptance, a way to feel possible against all the impossibility that I experienced …” delivering punchy, honest sentences on topics like divorce, the art world, and institutional and historical pain. While the reading is not exactly light, her wit keeps you returning to the pages.

• “In Gad We Trust: A tell-some” by Josh Gad

Some may know Gad from Broadway, the voice of Olaf in Frozen, or the unhinged CEO of a space tourism company in the sci fi series Avenue 5, in this collection of personal essays we get a glimpse of him as an up and coming performer, family member, and father. When it seems that every actor has a memoir these days, I found these essays equal parts selective, funny, cutting, and poignant.

• “To Save and to Destroy: Writing as An Other” by Viet Thanh Nguyen

This essay collection by the Pulitzer Prize winner novelist, is a deeply personal meditation on what the concept of being an outsider means to literary writing. Those looking for both craft and philosophical lectures to examine will appreciate the questions Nguyen explores: what is a writer’s responsibility in regard to historical, political, and familial? How is solidarity formed between marginalized groups? While intensely thought provoking, Nguyen does strike a difficult balance between personal reflection and literary analysis.

— Ann Richmond Garrett, administrative assistant