Author Archives: Weston Public Library Staff

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

12 Saturday Jan 2019

Posted by in 20th century, Non-fiction

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The Library Book by Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief, on the surface is a whodunnit.  Who set fire to the Los Angeles Public Library on April 28, 1986? Why did he/she do it? What was the outcome? Orlean chronicles the investigation into the fire that reached 2000 degrees and destroyed 400,000 books and damaged 700,000 more.  In addition, the author also tells the broader story of libraries and librarians as well as a fascinating social history of California.

Orlean has written a detective story that is a love letter not just to the Los Angeles Public Library, but to all public libraries and what they represent in a democratic society – a place for free access to information.   Public libraries are a combination of a people’s university, a community hub, and an information base, happily partnered with the Internet rather than in competition with it.  Public libraries are a government entity that is nonjudgmental, inclusive and fundamentally kind.

A dazzling love letter to a beloved institution—and an investigation into one of its greatest mysteries—from the bestselling author hailed as a “national treasure” by TheWashington Post.

 A WASHINGTON POST TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR * A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018

“A constant pleasure to read…Everybody who loves books should check out The Library Book.” —The Washington Post

“CAPTIVATING…DELIGHTFUL.” —Christian Science Monitor * “EXQUISITELY WRITTEN, CONSISTENTLY ENTERTAINING.” —The New York Times * “MESMERIZING…RIVETING.” —Booklist (starred review)

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Small Fry: a Memoir by Lisa Brennan-Jobs

04 Friday Jan 2019

Posted by in 20th century, Biography, memoir, Non-fiction, United States

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A tender coming of age story about a young girl trying to reconcile two very different lifestyles between her mother and father….. who just happens to be Steve Jobs.   This is not a celebrity biography.  She is true to her young voice throughout plus you will fall in love with her snapshots of 1970’s-80’s northern California.

“Entrancing… Brennan-Jobs is a deeply gifted writer… Her inner landscape is depicted in such exquisitely granular detail that it feels as if no one else could have possibly written it. Indeed, it has that defining aspect of a literary work: the stamp of a singular sensibility… Beautiful, literary, and devastating.”―New York Times Book Review

“Brennan-Jobs skillfully relays her past without judgement… staying true to her younger self. It is a testament to her fine writing and journalistic approach that her memoir never turns maudlin or gossipy. Rather than a celebrity biography, this is Brennan-Jobs’s authentic story of growing up in two very different environments, neither of which felt quite like home.”―Booklist (starred review)

“Brennan-Jobs’s narrative is tinged with awe, yearning, and disappointment… Bringing the reader into the heart of the child who admired Jobs’s genius, craved his love, and feared his unpredictability.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre

28 Friday Dec 2018

Posted by in Biography

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A nonfiction spy book that’s as gripping as fiction. Kim Philby was an English intelligence officer in the 1940s and 50s who was secretly working for the Soviet Union, as part of the “Cambridge Five” spy ring. This book is a great mix of history, action, and espionage.

“Macintyre has produced more than just a spy story. He has written a narrative about that most complex of topics, friendship…When devouring this thriller, I had to keep reminding myself it was not a novel. It reads like a story by Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, or John Le Carré, leavened with a dollop of P.G. Wodehouse…[Macintyre] takes a fresh look at the grandest espionage drama of our era.”—Walter Isaacson, New York Times Book Review

“Macintyre does here what he does best — tell a heck of a good story. A Spy Among Friends is hands down the most entertaining book I’ve reviewed this year.” —Boston Globe

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Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

22 Saturday Dec 2018

Posted by in Fiction, Humor

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Frances is studying at Trinity College in Dublin when she and her friend meet an interesting older couple. I loved this author’s witty, somewhat detached style and the complicated relationships she explores in this novel.

“Sharp, funny, thought-provoking . . . a really great portrait of two young women as they’re figuring out how to be adults.”– Celeste Ng, “Late Night with Seth Meyers Podcast” 

“In this searing, insightful debut, Rooney offers an unapologetic perspective on the vagaries of relationships… a treatise on married life, the impact of infidelity, the ramifications of one’s actions, and how the person one chooses to be with can impact one’s individuality. Throughout, Rooney’s descriptive eye lends beauty and veracity to this complex and vivid story.”– Publishers Weekly (starred)

“Readers who enjoyed Belinda McKeon’s Tender and Caitriona Lally’s Eggshells will enjoy this exceptional debut.”– Library Journal (starred)

“A smart, sexy, realistic portrayal of a woman finding herself.”– Booklist (starred)

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A Shepherd’s Life: Modern Dispatches from a Ancient Landscape by James Rebanks

17 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by in Biography, Non-fiction

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While you are waiting to obtain a copy of Educated: a Memoir by Sara Westover ( the holds list is still in the 800’s), you might want to try this book.  Mr. Rebanks, the latest in a long family line of Herdwick sheep farmers, has become an international phenomenon with his evocative prose and blunt observations on the rugged lives and culture of his native English Lake District (Wellesley Books).  He rejects everything about school as a boy but ends up at Oxford.  While most memoirs are about people trying to leave a place, James is determined to remain on the land of his ancestors.

“Captivating… A book about continuity and roots and a sense of belonging in an age that’s increasingly about mobility and self-invention. Hugely compelling” ―Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“A gorgeous book, unsentimental but exultant, vivid and profound, and a fierce defense of small-scale farming against the twin threats of agribusiness and tourism.” ―National Geographic

“May well do for sheep what Helen Macdonald did for hawks.” ―The Guardian (UK)

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Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke

10 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by in Fiction, murder, mystery

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In a rural East Texas town of fewer than 200 people, the body of an African American lawyer from Chicago is found in a bayou, followed several days later by that of a local white woman. What’s going on? African American Texas Ranger Darren Mathews hopes to find out, which means talking to relatives of the deceased, including the woman’s white supremacist husband — and Mathews soon discovers things are more complex than they seem. With fully realized characters and a timely look at race relations in the U.S., this book by award-winning novelist Attica Locke (who’s also written and produced for TV’s Empire) is the 1st in her Highway 59 series.

Winner of the 2017 Edgar Award

Locke is a gifted author, and her intriguing and compelling crime novel will keep readers engrossed.—Starred Review, Library Journal

“A quick course in plotting and nimble characterizations rooted in a vividly evoked setting”―Nicole Lamy, New York Times Book Review

“In Bluebird, Bluebird Attica Locke had both mastered the thriller and exceeded it. Ranger Darren Mathews is tough, honor-bound, and profoundly alive in corrupt world. I loved everything about this book.”―Ann Patchett

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The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

30 Friday Nov 2018

Posted by in Fiction

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Just released – June 2018!  I can’t wait to tell my mother.  She and I had debated for hours about the meaning of the ending of Umrigar’s first book –  The Space Between Us  –  the story of the deep friendship between two women of very different stations in India.  Written as beautifully as her first book, this new friendship and journey of two women both born without privilege pushes the very boundaries on earth.  No need to read in order – both are powerhouse novels!

“The women at the heart of this novel inhabit the harsh world of the urban Indian poor, and struggle separately and together for dignity and survival. Thrity Umrigar has written a moving human tale that vividly brings to life both the women and the city of Mumbai.”  (Salman Rushdie)

“[The Secrets Between Us] provides an almost “Siddhartha”-esque experience of sharing a character’s spiritual journey, as the plot takes Bhima and Parvati to places where they must question their preconceptions, search their souls and ultimately change.” (Newsday)

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Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

19 Monday Nov 2018

Posted by in Fiction

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Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D’Urbevilles, and meeting her “cousin” Alec proves to be her downfall. When Angel Clare offers her love and salvation, she must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future.

By the time Tess of the d’Urbervilles was published in 1891, Thomas Hardy was well established as a popular novelist with 12 novels and a book of short stories to his credit. This book is considered by many to be his finest work, yet it was his first to be met with critical outrage, due largely to the controversial subject matter. In fact, when his next book, Jude the Obscure, was also assailed as inflammatory, Hardy became so disillusioned that he retired from novel writing, and spent the last 30 years of his life writing poetry.

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American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse

13 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by in Non-fiction

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This is a fascinating true story that I had never heard of, even though it only happened a few years ago. A series of over 80 fires spread through Accomack County, Virginia, committed by two arsonists. This book tells their story, as well as the story of how the community and its firefighters dealt with these events.

Washington Post reporter Hesse leads readers on an extended tour of a bizarre five-month crime spree in rural Accomack County, Va.: a series of over 80 arsons, of predominantly abandoned buildings, committed by a local couple. . . . A page-turning story of love gone off the rails. — Publishers Weekly

Hesse enters the compelling narrative with restraint in probing, essayistic analyses. She tells the story of the fires and of the Eastern Shore and the people she got to know there with an earned familiarity that, at the same time, speaks of the unknowability of a vast, rapidly changing nation. — Annie Bostrom (Booklist, starred review)

A captivating narrative about arson, persistent law enforcers, an unlikely romantic relationship, and a courtroom drama. . . . Throughout, the author offers a nuanced portrait of a way of life unknown to most who have never resided on or visited the Eastern Shore. A true-crime saga that works in every respect. — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

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Love and Ruin by Paula McLain

05 Monday Nov 2018

Posted by in Biographical fiction, Historical Fiction

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What woman could hold her own and be married to Ernest Hemingway?  Meet Hemingway’s third wife, Martha Gelhorn, who did become one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century.  I have read both The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun, but McLain’s novel portraying this stormy, passionate marriage is by far the best of the three.

“Wonderfully evocative . . . This is historical fiction at its best, and today’s female readers will be encouraged by Martha, who refuses to be silenced or limited in a time that was harshly repressive for women.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Propulsive . . . highly engaging . . . McLain does an excellent job portraying a woman with dreams who isn’t afraid to make them real, showing [Gellhorn’s] bravery in what was very much a man’s world. Her work around the world . . . is presented in meticulous, hair-raising passages. . . . The book is fueled by her questing spirit, which asks, Why must a woman decide between being a war correspondent and a wife in her husband’s bed?”—The New York Times Book Review

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