F. W. Olin Library, Mills College

Congratulations Mills Class of 2021! . Though this year may be short on group selfies, I hope you feel held and supported by this community today! We're so proud of you and all your many accomplishments! Happy Graduation! . #Graduation2021 #MillsGrad #WeMissYouAlready... . Image description: a black and white photo from 1890 of 5 Millsies in voluminous graduation gowns and mortarboard hats (this was pre-Mills caps!). Two are sitting on the edge of the fountain by the Campanil, and the remaining three stand near them. Some of them are holding open books, but only one of them is reading. Two of her buddies are looking at her in shock (very "you're doing this now?" faces), and the other two aren't paying attention to her at all. See more

That's right. Library materials checked out to you are currently due on September 10, 2021. Graduates, please return your items by May 24, 2021. The bookdrop is open 24/7! . #fwolinlibrary #librarybooks #millscollege . Image caption: On a beige background and framed by straight black lines are the words: "Hey returning students, faculty, and staff: Your items are now due on 9/10/21! Hey graduates: Please return your items by May 24." An illustration of a stack of books is under the text.

You Brought Me the Ocean by Alex Sanchez with art by Julie Maroh, recommended by Lawral . I gotta be honest, I'm not a DC Comics fan; I fall on the Marvel side of the DC-Marvel divide. But I'm a big fan of both Alex Sanchez and Julie Maroh, so I gave this a shot. I expected a queer Aquaman origin story and instead got so much more! (Also I was just wrong. Sorry Aquaman fans if I should have known that from the glowing arms on the cover.) This is absolutely a coming out story,... but it's also a going away to college story and a convincing your parents you're not a little kid anymore story and a please, bff, just like my new boyfriend story. And a whoops I might have superpowers story. All rolled into one. (It should also be a never trust a cute boy who tells you to ignore a flash flood warning because he's a strong swimmer and will protect you story, but it's somehow not so I'm just going to say it. Don't trust that guy.) And it's beautiful! It's all in the low color, muted palettes you'd expect from Maroh (of Blue is the Warmest Color fame), which makes the moments that are bright or magical (magic-magic or first kiss-magic) stand out all the more. An all around satisfying read. . If you want to help us fill our feed with queer books this June, please submit a review or recommendation at http://tinyurl.com/millslibreviews . Image description: The illustrated cover of You Brought Me the Ocean, in mostly blues and greens. Two boys, on Black and one with light skin and turquoise hair, are on the cover from nose to waist. They are facing each other with their mouths close together as if they're about to kiss. The Black boy's hands are palm up in the hands of the other boy. Turquoise marks on his arms are glowing. See more

Welcome to our 2021 Pride "display"!!! . In non-covid times we usually put together an epic pride display at the beginning of June that stays up all summer. This picture is from our last in-person pride display in 2019 (yes I used this exact picture for our insta pride "display" last year. yes I promise to use a new one once we can have displays again). Last year, in lieu of our big display, we posted only reviews and recommendations of queer, Black books for the entire month... of June. So many exciting reviews! And writing that many reviews was hard, y'all. Writing reviews and recommendations is a lot more labor-intensive than pulling together books for a display. So this year we're offering a more relaxed book pride experience. We're still going to be offering some book reviews and recommendations, but over on instagram (http://instagram.com/f.w.olinlibrary/) we're also going to be showing off new queer books as they're added to the collection and highlighting queer books that have been in the collection a while that you might have missed. If you'd like to review or recommend a queer book to the rest of the Mills community, you can do so at http://tinyurl.com/millslibreviews! We would love to add your voices to ours. This year we're expanding our scope to include any books by or about queer folks, with an emphasis on those with BIPOC authors and main characters. Reviews and recommendations can be as short or as long as you want them to be. They just need to be of books by and/or about queer people. . Whether you're venturing out to any outdoor (socially distanced, I hope!) Pride events this year, waiting another year before you're comfortable in a crowd, reveling in your normal Pride at Home traditions, or opting out of pride altogether, we hope that you'll join us as we celebrate the literature and community that queer folks create. . Image description: on top of our card catalog treasure chest is a pride flag made of books: spines that are black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and pink. Above that is a drawing by @makedaisychains of a cat holding a pride flag that says "the first pride was a riot." See more

We wish we could cheer you on in person in the library #Millsies and you know we would! . All library materials for continuing students, staff, and faculty are renewed to September 10, 2021. Graduating students: Please return your materials by May 24, 2021. The book drop is open 24/7! . #MillsCollege #LibrariesWorkBecauseWeDo... . Image caption: A red heart outline encircles the words: "Good luck with finals Millsies! You. Got. This. @f.w.olinlibrary " There are three white outlined hearts in the top-right corner and also in the lower-left corner. The background is black. See more

The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey, recommended by Corinna . I've been a fan of M. R. Carey since reading The Girl with All the Gifts, but I was unprepared for how much I'd love The Book of Koli and its sequels. This is one of the most humane, thoughtful, and compassionate takes on a post-apocalyptic story that I've ever read. Carey writes of our world, far enough in the future that the residents of what was once England have forgotten the "before-times." Their lives feel medieva...l, almost fantastical, and the few pieces of surviving tech might as well be magic. This is the story of how Koli comes to understand what happened to his world and how his borders begin to expand. This is a quest narrative, but one that feels real and lived: nothing is done for the sake of drama, the story unfolds organically, and the people feel real and complex. Koli is an average, kind, confused teenager, still learning about his world. He's not a badass or a genius, just incredibly human. . I realized while reading this trilogy that I've been conditioned by many books to expect the worst for characters I love: so often, conflict is generated by arbitrary misery to push the plot. Carey absolutely rejects that model of storytelling. The hierarchies of power he explores are conditioned by this future world, not by the constructed oppressions of gender, race, and sexuality that govern our current reality; that said, he doesn't shy away from exploring those forms of oppression where the aftereffects of our world begin to manifest in the future. The trilogy is essentially one long story and now having finished it I want to start it afresh to see how all the threads weave through and rejoin at the end. This is an astonishing, exceptional, and ultimately hopeful series, and among the best books I've read in years. . If you've read anything lately that you think we should highlight here, please submit a review or recommendation at http://tinyurl.com/millslibreviews . Image description: Green ferns curl from the left border of the cover and mingle in the words The Book of Koli. See more

We've reached the end of our month-long recommendations from @millsapisa in celebration of SAMEAPI (South Asian, Middle Eastern, Asian, and Pacific Islander) Heritage Month. . APISA's final book recommendation is Almost American Girl, an illustrated memoir by Robin Ha. @millsapisa says that they "loved how this book showed Robin's experience adjusting as an immigrant to the US, how she interacts with her family, and how she makes new friends." . All recommended books are cu...rrently or soon to be available from @fwolinlibrary. Check out our guide (https://tinyurl.com/millslibaccess) for front door pickup and other delivery options for Mills students, staff, and faculty. . #OlinRecommends #GrowYourTBRPile #LibraryBookLove #NeverNotReading . Image description: The cover illustration shows Robin holding books and standing in front of a classroom of high school students sitting at desks. Robin is looking back at us, and all eyes of the students are looking at her. She is wearing a short-sleeved blue shirt with white trim. Her dark hair is short and she wears glasses. The illustration background is a medium blue color. The text, An Illustrated Memoir, is in black at the top of the cover followed by Robin Ha in pale purple text. The title, Almost American Girl, is in large, white text above the illustration of Robin. See more

Welcome Back, Class of 2020! Whether you're venturing back to campus today to take your graduation pictures or not, we're thinking of you today! Come back and see us again soon! . #ClassOf2020 #MillsGrad #WeStillMissYou . Image description: A black and white picture from the 60s of a blonde Mills student in a graduation robe and Mills cap riding their bike away from the camera.... : @millshellerroom See more

Happy New Book Wednesday! These books are available now. Current students, staff, and faculty who are on campus or able to get to campus safely, you can request these or any other book in the library (but not special collections) via front door pickup. If you're not able to get to campus safely, you can request library materials to be mailed to you via document delivery! For more information about these services, go to tinyurl.com/millslibaccess

Enjoy your summer #millsies and contact us for all of your reference needs! . http://tinyurl.com/millslibchat . #Summer #LibrariesWorkBecauseWeDo... . Image description: Photograph looking down from above at water meeting sand. The words: "F.W. Olin Library's Summer Hours: Monday-Thursday, 1-5pm. Closed May 31 and July 5" are in a white square in the center of the image. See more

Keep checking our feed all month as we feature book recommendations for the Virtual Black Book List. These suggestions come from Mills' Black community! . We are proud to kick off Black History Month with an image and quote from Shirley Chisholm. This image of Chisholm is from an early campaign stop, right here at Mills College in 1972. . Image Description: In the black and white photo, Shirley Chisholm sits working at a desk. She looks to her left and smiles at the photographer. She wears a print skirt and matching jacket with knee-high, lace-up go-go boots. Image courtesy of F.W. Olin Library's Special Collections at Mills College.

The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar, recommended by Josh. . Short. Sharp. Visceral. Devi S. Laskar’s debut novel takes place throughout one morninga police raid, a gunshot, and the unraveling of memory, fears, dreams, and insecurities of the narrator, Mother. Laskar writes in sharp, purposeful vignettes that don’t keep you long but weigh you down after reading a sentence or paragraph-long chapter. We traverse the narrator’s life to reach the point of the novel’s ...morning plot, going through trauma, violence, and the fierce moments of survival. . Image description: A bird in flight is the centerpiece of the book cover. It is made of red, pink, purple, yellow, orange, and black geometrical shapes that are also used for the dark and light blue background. The cover text in white reads: Devi S. Laskar, The Atlas of Reds and Blues. The words, A Novel, appear at the bottom of the cover in yellow. See more

The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow, recommended by Lawral. . CAN THEIR LOVE OF BOOKS AND POP MUSIC SAVE THE WORLD?!? The most this-book-was-written-by-a-librarian tagline ever. <3 . Set 2 years into an alien invasion, Ellie has been keeping up morale in her NYC apartment building by secretly loaning banned books (ie, any books) to her neighbors from the collection in her storage unit. M0Rr1S, son of some Very Important Aliens, has secretly fallen in love with earth music and h...as been collecting confiscated ipods, cds, and records. When they find each other out, he has the ability to possibly protect her, and she has the ability to possibly ruin him. But together, maybe they, with the help of everyone's favorite glam-pop band, might be able to save the world. . Image description: the cover of The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow. It features a picture of the NYC skyline at night with the reflection of the buildings in the water in the foreground. The whole thing is teal and purple and magenta tinted in splotches. There are shooting stars or lasers in the clouds. See more

Clap When you Land by Elizabeth Acevedo, recommended by Josh. . Elizabeth Acevedo has done it again! In her staple style of novel-in-verse, @acevedowrites has written a story that unpacks trauma, family, and finding oneself. Two sisters, each not knowing the other, come to find the truth from a shared loss. From there, Acevedo unpacks what the ideas of family are, who we share ourselves with, and how we learn from pain and heal from it. Acevedo writes strong characters that ...do not need to say much for us to get to know them. The truth that blooms from this novel is that there is always someone around us that we can lean on when it seems the world is trying to crush us in. . Image description: The cover illustration shows two women side-by-side from the shoulders up. One woman is taller with darker skin and her hair is in a top knot. The shorter woman has lighter skin and her curly dark hair hangs to her shoulders. Their faces are not completely shown as they are obscured by two black jet-shapes that meet in the middle and split the cover in half vertically. The women's features hint that they may be related. The background of the taller woman shows a fire escape and windows of a pink apartment building. The background for the shorter woman shoes some tropical leaves. The words on the cover read: Author of the National Book Award winner The Poet X, Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land. See more

The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune, recommended by Josh. . If you have ever read fan-fiction, wrote it, or have an account on AO3, then this book is for you! From the first pagea near-identical page structure of an AO3 story with tags, ship partings, ratings, etc.you know author @tjklunebooks is writing a love letter to fandom. Klune takes some of the tropes seen in your average fic story and plays with them in a fun romp of a plot: superheroes and secret identities, unrequit...ed love, enemies turned lovers (?), nerdy main characters, slow burn, idiots in love. It has it all! Did I mention it’s gay? It is. All in all, Klune has written a fun book that certainly helped me get through this quarantine. . Image description: The cover illustration focuses on two men standing together. One points up to the sky while the other man turns his head to look at him. Behind the men is a purple city skyline with swirling cloud shapes in lilac fading up to orange above it. The men stand in a vermillion foreground with their shapes extending above the skyline. They are drawn in vermillion line and colored in a fade from light blue at the head and upper torso to sky blue in the middle, and then to yellow-orange in the lower legs and feet. They are dressed in casual clothing. The text on the cover reads: Some people are extraordinary. Some are just extra. The Extraordinaries TJ Klune. See more