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Category Archives: Non-fiction

Dead Wake: the Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

22 Monday May 2017

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

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20th century, Germany, Great Britain, military intelligence, naval operations, radio operations, shipping policy, U-boats, World War 1914-1918

It is a story that many of us think we know but may not.  Erik Larson tells a thrilling story, switching between hunter and hunted, while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster whose intimate details and true meaning have long been obscured by history.

“In his gripping new examination of the last days of what was then the fastest cruise ship in the world, Larson brings the past stringingly alive…He draws upon telegrams, war logs, love letters, and survivor depositions to provide the intriguing details, things I didn’t know I wanted to know…Thrilling, dramatic and powerful.”—NPR

“Larson has a gift for transforming historical re-creations into popular recreations, and Dead Wake is no exception…[He] provides first-rate suspense, a remarkable achievement given that we already know how this is going to turn out…The tension, in the reader’s easy chair, is unbearable…”—The Boston Globe

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Some writer! : the story of E. B. White by Melissa Sweet.

01 Monday May 2017

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

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20th century, American authors, authorship, biography, children's author, collage art, E.B.White d1899-1985, Maine farm, New Yorker magazine

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In Some Writer!, the two-time Caldecott Honor winner Melissa Sweet mixes White’s personal letters, photos, and family ephemera with her own exquisite artwork to tell his story, from his birth in 1899 to his death in 1985. This authorized tribute is the first fully illustrated biography of E. B. White and includes an afterword by Martha White, E. B. White’s granddaughter. Pure scrapbook delight for the eyes and heart!

“Whether the name E. B. White is a new discover or a much-loved author, Some Writer! will captivate readers of all ages.”—Christian Science Monitor

“Sweet raises her collage skills to new heights while bringing her love and admiration for fellow Mainer E. B. White to the page for everyone to appreciate. Just as her astounding collages blend materials that might have been found in a barn in Maine, the text carefully blends her words with those of the beloved writer of children’s books… Sweet has written and drawn a fast-moving, thorough, deeply researched, and accessible biography.”—Horn Book, STARRED review

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Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver

02 Thursday Mar 2017

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

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21rst century, American essays

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First line:  “‘In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed. I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be.’ This is a gem of a book that left me breathless with the simplicity of her choice of words combined with the magnitude of her reflection on nature.  I keep asking myself  “how does Mary Oliver do it?”  Emotionally powerful.

“Uniting essays from Oliver’s previous books and elsewhere, this gem of a collection offers a compelling synthesis of the poet’s thoughts on the natural, spiritual and artistic worlds .  . . With each page, the book gains accumulative power. The various threads intertwine and become taut.”
– The New York Times

“There’s hardly a page in my copy of Upstream that isn’t folded down or underlined and scribbled on, so charged is Oliver’s language…I need a moment away from unceasing word drip of debates about the election, about whether Elena Ferrante has the right to privacy, about whether Bob Dylan writes ‘Literature.’ I need a moment, more than a moment, in the steady and profound company of Mary Oliver and I think you might need one too.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air

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Hillbilly Elegy: a Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance

22 Wednesday Feb 2017

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

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Appalachian Region, economic conditions, Kentucky, mountain people, social conditions, social mobility, United States, working class whites

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J.D. Vance grows up very poor in the Ohio rustbelt and after deciding to enlist in the Marine Corps eventually he pursues a law degree at Yale.  It’s a very personal account of the author’s childhood and parts of it felt similar to Jeannette Walls’ “The Glass Castle.” I liked it because while the author conveyed a lot of love and respect for aspects of his culture, he also comments on the contradictions, inconsistencies, and issues.

“[An] understated, engaging debut…An unusually timely and deeply affecting view of a social class whose health and economic problems are making headlines in this election year.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“[Vance’s] description of the culture he grew up in is essential reading for this moment in history.” (David Brooks, New York Times)

“J.D. Vance’s memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy”, offers a starkly honest look at what that shattering of faith feels like for a family who lived through it. You will not read a more important book about America this year.” (The Economist)

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The Corfu trilogy by Gerald Durrell

06 Monday Feb 2017

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

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biography, Corfu Island, Drama, family, Gerald Durrell (1925-1995), Greece, natural history, zoologists

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Three classic tales of childhood on an island paradise – My Family and Other Animals, Birds, Beasts and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods by Gerald Durrell –  inspired the recent PBS Masterpiece series, The Durrells in Corfu.   The youngest of the four children, ten-year-old Gerald, discovered his passion for animals: toads and tortoises, bats and butterflies, scorpions and octopuses. Gerry pursued his obsession on the sun-soaked island of Corfu, befriended local peasants, tolerated visiting dignitaries, and caused hilarity and mayhem in his ever-tolerant family.  Fauna & Family is equally delightful and enchanting.

“A lot of frolic, fun, and charming ribaldry, as well as the warm feeling of having been transported to a lovely spot where worry is unknown and anything is believable.”-The New York Times 

“A delightful book full of simple, well-known things: cicadas in the olive groves, lamp fishing at night, the complexities of fish and animals, but, above all, childhood molded by these things and intimately recalled in middle age.”  –The New York Times Book Review

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Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild

12 Monday Dec 2016

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Non-fiction

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21rst century, conservatism history, liberalism history, political psychology, United States

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Hochschild is a sociologist and liberal professor from Berkeley, California, who was trying to understand conservatives in the South for the purposes of finding common ground. She searches for the “deep story” of what drives them. It’s a fascinating account of her interviews with residents in Louisiana and their feelings and views about what is happening in modern society and politics.

2016 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST FOR NONFICTION

“Strangers In Their Own Land is by far the best book by an outsider to the Tea Party I have ever encountered.—Forbes

 “Satisfying…[Hochschild’s] analysis is overdue at a time when questions of policy and legislation and even fact have all but vanished from the public discourse.”—Nathaniel Rich, The New York Review of Books

“Arlie Hochschild journeys into a far different world than her liberal academic enclave of Berkeley, into the heartland of the nation’s political right, in order to understand how the conservative white working class sees America. With compassion and empathy, she discovers the narrative that gives meaning and expression to their lives–and which explains their political convictions, along with much else. Anyone who wants to understand modern America should read this captivating book.”—Robert B. Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley

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Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

06 Monday Jun 2016

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

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anecdotes, biology, geobiology, Hawaii, laboratories, life journey, Minnesota, North Pole, paleobiology, plant culture, research, U.S.

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I was riveted by Hope Jahren’s interview on NPR and startled by the sincere gratitude of those women in science fields who called to thank her for writing this book.  Hope is a fighter.  She is passionate about the plant world.  She has fought tooth and nail to practice “her science” and not let academia dictate, squelch, or underfund her path……and she writes in beautiful prose…and she includes some hysterically funny experiences.  Hope is best at teaching, nurturing. Open these pages and walk into nature with an inspirational guide.

“Lab Girl surprised, delighted, and moved me. I was drawn in from the start by the clarity and beauty of Jahren’s prose, whether she was examining the inner world of a seed, the ecosystem around the trunk of a tree, or recounting her own inspiring journey. With Lab Girl, Jahren joins those talented scientists who are able to reveal to us the miracle of this world in which we live.” —Abraham Verghese

“Some people are great writers, while other people live lives of adventure and importance. Almost no one does both. Hope Jahren does both. She makes me wish I’d been a scientist.” —Ann Patchett

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How to Cook a Moose: A Culinary Memoir by Kate Christensen

23 Monday May 2016

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

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cooking, Kate Christensen, New England, recipes, slow food movement

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In this engaging memoir, the author and her boyfriend move from New York City to New England, where they spend time in New Hampshire before making a home in Portland, Maine. The book includes plenty of recipes, interesting facts about New England, and the author’s own love story.

“[An] exuberant, unabashedly gourmand-esque follow-up to Blue Plate Special…Christensen is eating well, in love, and radiating the ‘quiet internal daily joy of living in a culture based on authenticity and integrity.'”—Kirkus Reviews

I like that Ms. Christensen shows us, as M.F.K. Fisher did, the pleasures of a world of food where the scrupulous weighing out of precise calories, vitamins and other nutritional units doesn t exist, because to labor over it is to exist without spirit…Her book gets us thinking about what we are really hungry for and whether the rules of eating have begun to outweigh its pleasures. —Wall Street Journal

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An Invitation to Poetry: a New Favorite Poem Project Anthology edited by Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz

02 Monday May 2016

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Non-fiction

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American poetry, English poetry, Favortie Poem Project, translations into English

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When Robert Pinsky was Poet Laureate of the United States, he set out to discover Americans’ favorite poems by inviting us to write to him.  Thousands responded.  Some of the best are captured here and as an added bonus a dvd is included with 27 segments as seen on PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.  One can hear ordinary people of all ages, from all walks of life – a construction worker, a Supreme Court justice, a glass blower, a marine – commenting on his or her connection to the poem.  Give yourself a treat!

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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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