Monthly Archives: October 2019

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

28 Monday Oct 2019

Posted by in Fiction, Historical Fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Can a house/a childhood home dominate the grown-up lives of a brother and sister who grew up with a father and caring staff in a fairy-tale huge house in Pennsylvania? A quiet read, a re-examining of childhood loss and forgiveness, but two indelible characters you won’t forget long after the book is finished.

“Patchett’s splendid novel is a thoughtful, compassionate exploration of obsession and forgiveness, what people acquire, keep, lose or give away, and what they leave behind.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))

“…you won’t want to put down this engrossing, warmhearted book even after you’ve read the last page.” (NPR)

Find this book         large print             audio cd’s            playaway

Know My Name: a Memoir by Chanel Miller

21 Monday Oct 2019

Posted by in Biography, memoir

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

In 2015, Chanel Miller was sexually assaulted by Brock Turner on Stanford’s campus. She was known as “Emily Doe” during the trial, and her victim impact statement was read by millions of people when it was posted online just after Turner’s controversial sentencing. In Know My Name, she reveals her identity and writes about all of the ways her life — and the lives of her loved ones — changed, and the journey to put herself back together. A powerful, beautifully written memoir.

“She has written a memoir that converts the ongoing experience of sexual assault into literature…Beautiful…“─The Atlantic

“Know My Name is a blistering, beautifully written account of a courageous young woman’s struggle to hold a sexual predator accountable. Stand back, folks: This book is going to give a huge blast of momentum to the #MeToo movement.”─Jon Krakauer

“She writes exquisitely of her pain, makes us feel every fragment of it, but also expounds on the kindness that nourished her spirit…Miller matters. Readers will see every victim matters.” ─USA Today

“In a perfect world, Know My Name would be required reading for every police officer, detective, prosecutor, provost and judge who deals with victims of sexual assault.” ─LA Times

Find this book

The Overstory by Richard Powers

15 Tuesday Oct 2019

Posted by in Fiction, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction – “An ingeniously structured narrative that branches and canopies like the trees at the core of the story whose wonder and connectivity echo those of the humans living amongst them.”- citation from the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize
New York Times Bestseller
A New York Times Notable Book and a Washington Post, Time, Oprah Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2018

Overstory is a soul-stirring look into the inner lives of trees and a clarion call to us humans to alter our ways before it is too late. The introduction to the 9 characters is really 9 elegant short stories.  But gather up your strength and make it to the end.  This book will change you.

“This book is beyond special.… It’s a kind of breakthrough in the ways we think about and understand the world around us, at a moment when that is desperately needed.”- Bill McKibben

“The best novel ever written about trees, and really just one of the best novels, period.” ―Ann Patchett

“Monumental… The Overstory accomplishes what few living writers from either camp, art or science, could attempt. Using the tools of the story, he pulls readers heart-first into a perspective so much longer-lived and more subtly developed than the human purview that we gain glimpses of a vast, primordial sensibility, while watching our own kind get whittled down to size.… A gigantic fable of genuine truths.”- Barbara Kingsolver, The New York Times Book Review

Find this book              audio cd’s                  playaway

A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne

07 Monday Oct 2019

Posted by in Fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Here is a book with characters you will love to hate.  A relentlessly immoral man having tasted literary fame once will stop at nothing in his pursuit of success.

“Boyne’s mastery of perspective, last seen in 2017’s The Heart’s Invisible Furies, works beautifully here….Boyne understands that it’s far more interesting and satisfying for a reader to see that narcissist in action than to be told a catchall phrase. Each step Maurice Swift takes skyward reveals a new layer of calumny he’s willing to engage in, and the desperation behind it….so dark it seems almost impossible to enjoy reading A Ladder to the Sky as much as you definitely will enjoy reading it.” —NPR

“Boyne expertly explores notions of originality and authorship through multiple first-person accounts of the despicable Swift. As a result, his latest novel is absorbing, horrifying, and recommended.”– Library Journal (starred review)

Find this book            large print