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Monthly Archives: October 2023

Strip Tees by Kate Flannery

27 Friday Oct 2023

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Biography, History, United States

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This memoir tells the story of the millennial feminist meeting toxic patriarchal culture at American Apparel. Hilariously funny – I was cheering for Kate the whole way! 

“A racy, thoughtful memoir of [Flannery’s] tenure during the rise and fall of the controversial company…Flannery’s conversion from credulous retail recruit to company woman doesn’t trade in hyper-intellectual #MeToo-era analysis or retrospective scolding. Instead, its currency is the prickly panic of realizing your life doesn’t match your principles, spiked with salacious specifics that evoke the highly sexed environment of American Apparel’s cultural and commercial peak.”
―New York Times Book Review

“[A] bold debut memoir…Flannery succeeds in illustrating the fashion industry’s blurred lines in the decade prior to #MeToo, and the tough choices women faced between professional success and personal safety. This is an authentic portrait of the battle to remain true to oneself.―Publishers Weekly

“Begins like a classic Hollywood noir…Strip Tees goes down as easy as a rum and Diet Coke, breezily written and punctuated at its intermission by a few pages of glossy photos…[it’s] as if Flannery were recounting the saga of her ill-fated years at American Apparel directly to you ― not in a suburban basement, but perhaps over frozen rosé outside a hotel bar, where we can smell the pool water and swimsuit Lycra.”―Washington Post

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Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

18 Wednesday Oct 2023

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Fiction, United States

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actors, man-woman relationships, mothers and daughters, northern Michigan, storytelling

While they are all home working on the family’s cherry orchard, a mother tells her daughters the story of an important summer in her past. I always love Ann Patchett’s writing, and her new novel does not disappoint, with interesting characters and beautiful descriptions of Northern Michigan.

“Patchett’s intricate and subtle thematic web…enfolds the nature of storytelling, the evolving dynamics of a family, and the complex interaction between destiny and choice….These braided strands culminate in a denouement at once deeply sad and tenderly life-affirming. Poignant and reflective, cementing Patchett’s stature as one of our finest novelists.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“As this spellbinding and incisive novel unspools, Patchett brings every turn of mind and every setting to glorious, vibrant life, gracefully contrasting the dazzle of the ephemeral with the gravitas of the timeless, perceiving in cherries sweet and tart reflections of love and loss.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Meryl Streep…is ideal for narrating Tom Lake…. Streep delivers with her signature whimsy, her cadence lilting from wide-eyed innocence to winking wisdom, blurring the nostalgia for small-town Americana with dashes of big-city dreams.” — New York Times Book Review

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Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

11 Wednesday Oct 2023

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Fiction

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I read this in one weekend unable to put this down –  a brainy thriller both a page-turner and a meditation on a loving, close Korean American family in crisis. It is fiction with footnotes!  – and each one offers fascinating tangents as entertaining as the main story. Excellent read.

“Brilliant . . . amazing . . . the claim that a book will change your life often seems like exaggeration. Here the potential is real.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Kim uses the parallel investigations of police and family to explore the complex dynamics of interracial marriage, Asian and biracial identity in America, and the nuances of raising a child with special needs. You’ll want to savor every word as Kim plunges the depths of human action and finds love at the center.”—CrimeReads

“Happiness Falls is on the one hand a profound meditation on the meaning of life and the nature of happiness, while on the other hand a riveting mystery replete with suspense.”—Chris Pavone, author of Two Nights in Lisbon

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The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland

04 Wednesday Oct 2023

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in 20th century, Biography, History, Non-fiction

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Auschwitz (Concentration camp)|, biography, Escaped prisoners, Holocaust survivors, Jewish Holocaust, Jews, Nazi concentration camp escapes, Rudolf Vrba, Slovakia, World War 1939-45

National Jewish Book Award – Biography, 2022

Best selling novelist Jonathan Freedland tells the astonishing true story of Rudolf Vrba, the man who broke out of Auschwitz to warn the world of a truth too few were willing to hear.  Should his name be as famous as Anne Frank, Oskar Schindler, and Primo Levi?

 “Concentration camp stories make for painful reading, but British journalist and broadcaster Freedland relates a riveting tale with a fascinating protagonist . . . Freedland delivers a gripping description of Vrba and a companion’s planning, breakout, and grueling walk to Slovakia . . . A powerful story of a true hero who deserves more recognition.” — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“It’s an astonishing account, both of human brutality and resilience, and although it’s non-fiction, it reads like a thriller.” — C.J. Carey, author of Widowland

“A brilliant and heart-wrenching book, with universal and timely lessons about the power of information—and misinformation. Is it possible to stop mass murder by telling the truth?” — Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

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