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Monthly Archives: April 2016

Disgraced: a play by Ayad Akhtar

25 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Drama

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Islamophobia, Muslims, Pakistani Americans, United States

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A thoughtful and suspenseful play that would be an excellent choice for a discussion group.  It is sure to enter the canon of classic American plays such as “Death of a Salesman”, “Angels in America” and “A Streetcar Named Desire”.

While reading just ninety-six pages, the reader is compelled to consider many of the problems in contemporary society – Islamophobia, race relations, terrorism, immigration and assimilation.  The author forces us to examine our racial and religious beliefs and prejudices which is particularly powerful after the recent terror attacks in Paris and Brussels.

“Compelling… DISGRACED raises and toys with provocative and nuanced ideas.” —Jesse Oxfeld, New York Observer

“A continuously engaging, vitally engaged play about thorny questions of identity and religion in the contemporary world…. In dialogue that bristles with wit and intelligence, Mr. Akhtar…puts contemporary attitudes toward religion under a microscope, revealing how tenuous self-image can be for people born into one way of being who have embraced another…. Everyone has been told that politics and religion are two subjects that should be off limits at social gatherings. But watching Mr. Akhtar’s characters rip into these forbidden topics, there’s no arguing that they make for ear-tickling good theater.” —Charles Isherwood, New York Times

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Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar

20 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Biography, Fiction, Historical Fiction

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20th century, Bloomsbury group, England, intellectual life, London, sisters, women artists, women authors

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Here is an excerpt from Vanessa’s diary – “every moment with Virginia – one feels more alive, not just alive, but living.  I have understood this Virginia equation – there is no rational, logical, or reachable Virginia lurking beneath – eventually Virginia  becomes exhausting”.  One would never want a sister like Virginia Woolf!

“Parmar inhabits the gilded ‘bohemian hinterland’ of Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa, creating a vibrant fictional homage.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

“Parmar does a stellar job conveying Virginia’s complicated, almost incestuous feelings for Vanessa. . . . The author also deftly brings to life the various artists and writers who formed the nascent Bloomsbury group. . . . Parmar’s narrative is riveting and successfully takes on the task of turning larger-than-life figures into real people. . . . [She] weaves their stories together so effortlessly that nothing seems out of place.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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The Likeness by Tana French

11 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Fiction, mystery

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Ireland, murder investigation, mystery, women detectives

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The second in Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series, this book is a very loose sequel to In the Woods, but can easily be read as a stand-alone mystery. Cassie Maddox is a Dublin detective who goes undercover to solve the murder of a woman who looks exactly like her. While set in contemporary times, the book’s style and plot give it the feel of an old-fashioned page-turner.

The Likeness has everything: memorable characters, crisp dialogue, shrewd psychological insight, mounting tension, a palpable sense of place, and wonderfully evocative, painterly prose. In the Woods was an Edgar Award finalist; this one just might go one step further. –Booklist (*starred review*)

“For The Likeness, [French] has brought back detective Cassie Maddox and fashioned a plot that harks back to both Donna Tartt and Wilkie Collins.”–The Washington Post

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Becoming Nicole: the Transformation of an American Family by Amy Ellis Nutt

04 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Biography, Non-fiction

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court case, families, transgender youth, twins

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Amy Ellis Nutt won the Pulitzer Prize in 2011.  In her very capable hands, she puts the reader inside the household of the Maines family and their identical boy twins.  A very mainstream American family must struggle, transform, persevere  in a landmark discrimination case.  A fascinating true story about a courageous girl.

“A transgender girl’s coming-of-age saga, an exploration of the budding science of gender identity, a civil rights time capsule, a tear-jerking legal drama and, perhaps most of all, an education about what can happen when a child doesn’t turn out as his or her parents expected—and they’re forced to either shut their eyes and hearts or see everything differently.”—Time

“[An] exceptional chronicle . . . ‘Stories move the walls that need to be moved,’ Nicole told her father last year. In telling Nicole’s story and those of her brother and parents luminously, and with great compassion and intelligence, that is exactly what Amy Ellis Nutt has done here.”—Sue Halpern, The Washington Post

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