Category Archives: United States

My Broken Language: a Memoir by Quiara Alegría Hudes

07 Wednesday Jul 2021

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

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Lin-Manual Miranda (creator of Hamilton) wrote the music and lyrics for the musical In the Heights, soon to be released as a movie June, 2021.  This is the fabulous book that inspired Miranda. The author’s energized use of English, Spanglish, Spanish and music colors a rich world journey from the North Philly Heights to Yale.  I loved the whole experience of reading each page of this book.

“Quiara Alegría Hudes is a bona fide storyteller about the people she loves—especially the women in her family who cook, talk, light candles, and conjure the spirits. Enormously empathetic and funny, My Broken Language is rich with unflinching observations that bring us in close, close, without cloaking the details. The language throughout is gorgeous and so moving. I love this book.”—Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana

“Every line of this book is poetry. From North Philly to all of us, Hudes showers us with aché, teaching us what it looks like to find languages of survival in a country with a ‘panoply of invisibilities.’ Hudes paints unforgettable moments on every page for mothers and daughters and all spiritually curious and existential human beings. This story is about Latinas. But it is also about all of us.”—Maria Hinojosa, Emmy Award–winning journalist and author of Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America

“Joyful, righteous, indignant, self-assured, exuberant: These are all words that could describe Quiara Alegría Hudes’s My Broken Language. The celebrated playwright calls her language broken, but in this extraordinary memoir she actually remakes language so that it speaks to her world. . . . Hudes’s first name is an invented endearment, a form of the verb querer, which means “to love.” . . . There may be no better compliment to the author of this marvelous, one-of-a-kind memoir than to say she truly lives up to her name. With My Broken Language, she has invented a language of love and to-the-bone happiness to tell stories only a Perez woman could share.”—BookPage (starred review)

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Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

21 Monday Jun 2021

Posted by in 20th century, Fiction, murder and investigation, United States

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“Boulley, herself an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, writes from a place of love for her community and shares some key teachings from her culture, even mixing languages within the context of the story. She doesn’t shy away from or sugar-coat the very real circumstances that plague reservations across the country, and she tackles these through her biracial hero who gets involved in the criminal investigation into the corruption that led to this pain. An incredible thriller, not to be missed.” ―Booklist, Starred Review

“A suspenseful tale filled with Ojibwe knowledge, hockey, and the politics of status.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“Though Firekeeper’s Daughter contains gripping action sequences and gasp-inducing twists, it’s Daunis’ mission of self-discovery, which begins as a low and steady growl and grows to a fierce, proud roar, that has the most impact… Though it both shocks and thrills, in the end, what leaves you breathless is Firekeeper’s Daughter’s blazing heart.” ―BookPage, Starred Review

“Immersive and enthralling, Firekeeper’s Daughter plunges the reader into a community and a landscape enriched by a profound spiritual tradition. Full of huge characters and spellbinding scenes, it gives a fascinating insight into life on and off the reservation, with Daunis as a tough and resourceful heroine through every vicissitude.” ―Financial Times

**While this book may be classified as Young Adult in some libraries, I surely enjoyed reading it as an adult.

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Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

14 Monday Jun 2021

Posted by in 20th century, detective, Fiction, Humor, murder, murder and investigation, United States

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Juggling motherhood, divorce, a writing career going nowhere, Finlay’s life takes a 360 degree turn while meeting with her agent at Panera.  It’s a wild ride.  Hilarity at its best.  And who can’t use a light, quick, fun-to-read murder mystery right about now?

“Read in a single night, applauding along the way. For anyone who’s ever wished to turn her life around, Finlay Donovan is the master. From failing everything, to succeeding brilliantly, she proves you only need to get mistaken once for a contract killer, to solve all your problems.”
―Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author of When You See Me

“Part comedy of errors, part genuine thriller… Deftly balancing genre conventions with sly, tongue-in-cheek comments on motherhood and femininity, Cosimano crafts a deliciously twisted tale.”
―Booklist

“Funny and smart, twisty and surprising―Finlay Donovan is a character to root for. This suspenseful romp made me laugh but also kept me on the edge of my seat with its many surprises. I can’t wait for the next book!”―Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author of The Last House Guest

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The Doctors Blackwell : How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women-and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura

17 Monday May 2021

Posted by in Biography, History, United States

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“Nimura shocks and enthralls with her blunt, vivid storytelling. She draws on the writings of Elizabeth and Emily in an intimate way that makes it feel like she knew the sisters personally. Alongside glaring descriptions of culturally ingrained sexism and discrimination, the biography also touches on how our standards of medicine have changed over the decades, showing how even the most scientific of professions are subject to major culture shifts.”― Jennifer Walter, Discover Magazine

“Ms. Nimura’s portrait of the Blackwells’ America blazes with hallucinatory energy. It’s a rough-hewn, gaudy, carnival-barking America, with only the thinnest veneer of gentility overlaying cruelty and a simmering violence. It’s an America yearning for relief from disease, besotted with séances and spiritualism, quack cures and phrenology; a deeply divided America, with bloody fissures between rich and poor, North and South, city and countryside.”― Donna Rifkind, Wall Street Journal

“All doctors and all patients owe a debt to these eccentric, determined, brilliant characters, Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, who found their way across the strange and bloody landscape of nineteenth-century medicine and transformed it forever, all brilliantly conjured in Janice P. Nimura’s wonderful book.”― Perri Klass, author of A Good Time to Be Born

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We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

24 Saturday Apr 2021

Posted by in 20th century, crimes against, Fiction, homicide investigation, murder and investigation, suspense, thriller, United States

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“I LOVED this book. From the riveting plot to the beautiful writing. But mostly what kept me longing to get back to it each day were the characters, especially young Duchess. Fierce, brave, vulnerable, she leaps off the page fully formed. As does Walk. How aptly named. A chief of police on his own inexorable journey. This is a book to be read and reread and an author to be celebrated.”
—Louise Penny, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“It’s an instant classic….Let’s begin at the end. After you’ve turned the final page of Chris Whitaker’s magnificent new novel, you’ll struggle–I struggled, certainly–to describe the experience…it recalls the very best of Tana French and Dennis Lehane. Think of Duchess Day Radley as a twenty-first-century Scout Finch, tough and curious and good. In fact, think of We Begin at the End as a novel at the same time distinctly American and profoundly universal.”
—A.J. Finn, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Woman in the Window

“Two damaged children–one timid and sweet, the other foul-mouthed and furious–will break readers’ hearts in this well-plotted and perfectly-paced novel. If, like me, you love stories that kidnap your intended schedule because you can’t not keep turning the pages, then I wholeheartedly recommend Chris Whitaker’s We Begin at the End.”
—Wally Lamb, New York Times bestselling author of I Know This Much Is True

“This is an epic drama and a profound masterpiece. I’ll be amazed if I read a better novel this year.”
—Daily Mirror (UK)

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Memorial Drive : a Daughter’s Memoir by Natasha Trethewey

16 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by in 20th century, Biography, memoir, United States

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Pulitzer Prize–winner Natasha Trethewey was U.S. Poet Laureate in 2012 and 2013.  While this is a compelling memoir of her immutable love for her mother with whom she traveled down the same road of horrible outcome and of her delicate straddling of the white/black worlds they both shared, it’s her choice of words, her rhythm, her pacing through a “too-short” 211 pages that registers in the reader’s heart and mind. This makes it a superior read.

“Natasha Trethewey has composed a riveting memoir that reads like a detective story about her mother’s murder by a malevolent ex-husband. It reads with all the poise and clarity of Trethewey’s unforgettable poetry—heartrending without a trace of pathos, wise and smart at once, unforgettable. The short section her mother penned as she was trying to escape the marriage moved me to tears. I read the book in one gulp and expect to reread it more than once. A must-read classic.” (Mary Karr, author of The Liars’ Club; Cherry; and Lit)

“Beautifully composed, achingly sad…This profound story of the horrors of domestic abuse and a daughter’s eternal love for her mother will linger long after the book’s last page is turned.” (Publishers Weekly)

“In Memorial Drive, Natasha Trethewey has transformed unimaginable tragedy into a work of sublimity. There’s sorrow and heartbreak, yes, but also a beautiful portrait of a mother and her daughter’s enduring love. Trethewey writes elegantly, trenchantly, intimately as well about the fraught history of the south and what it means live at the intersection of America’s struggle between blackness and whiteness. And what, in our troubled republic, is a subject more evergreen?” (Mitchell S.  Jackson, author of Survival Math)

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The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

02 Monday Nov 2020

Posted by in Fiction, mystery, United States

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“The Vanishing Half is an utterly mesmerizing novel, which gripped me from the first word to the last. It seduces with its literary flair, surprises with its breath-taking plot twists, delights with its psychological insights, and challenges us to consider the corrupting consequences of racism on different communities and individual lives. I absolutely loved this book.” —Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize winning author of Girl, Woman, Other

 “[Bennett’s] second [book], The Vanishing Half, more than lives up to her early promise.. . . more expansive yet also deeper, a multi-generational family saga that tackles prickly issues of racial identity and bigotry and conveys the corrosive effects of secrets and dissembling. It’s also a great read that will transport you out of your current circumstances, whatever they are… Like The Mothers, this novel keeps you turning pages not just to find out what happens.” —NPR

“Bennett pulls it off brilliantly… Few novels manage to remain interesting from start to finish, even — maybe especially — the brilliant ones. But… Bennett locks readers in and never lets them go… Stunning…She leaves any weighty parallels — between, for example, racial and gender determinism — to the reader. Her restraint is the novel’s great strength, and it’s tougher than it looks… The Vanishing Half speaks ultimately of a universal vanishing. It concerns the half of everyone that disappears once we leave home — love or hate the place, love or hate ourselves.” —Los Angeles Times

 “Bennett’s tone and style recalls James Baldwin and Jacqueline Woodson, but it’s especially reminiscent of Toni Morrison’s 1970 debut novel, The Bluest Eye.” —Kiley Reid, Wall Street Journal

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What You Wish For by Katherine Center

18 Friday Sep 2020

Posted by in 20th century, Fiction, romance, United States

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Samantha was in love with her coworker Duncan when they worked together at the same school. Years later, with Samantha now working as a school librarian in Texas, the two are reunited, but Duncan is no longer the happy, carefree teacher he used to be. This love story is sad but also uplifting, and in these times I appreciated the message that one character shares with another: spread joy whenever you can.

The story’s message, that people should choose joy even (and especially) in difficult and painful times, seems tailor-made for this moment. A timely, uplifting read about finding joy in the midst of tragedy, filled with quirky characters and comforting warmth.–Kirkus (starred review)

“What You Wish For is a bona fide explosion of happiness packaged in book form. A compassionate story of grief and resilience, What You Wish For is also a vital reminder that joy is not just something that happens to us but also something we have the power to choose… Center has created for her readers a quirky confection that celebrates life in all its imperfect glory and delivers a much-needed dose of optimism.” — Bookpage

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Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

10 Monday Aug 2020

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

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER –  If you never read it, do it now.  It is as relevant now as it was then, a must read and see the movie too starring Oprah Winfrey.  Book club selection at the Weston Public Library January 2020.

Just a few of the many accolades this 2010 book received:

Discover magazine 2010 Must-Read
Entertainment Weekly #1 Nonfiction Book of the Year
National Public Radio Best of the Bestsellers
Bloomberg Top Nonfiction
Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
Library Journal Top Ten Book of the Year
Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
Booklist Top of the List—Best Nonfiction Book
New York Times/Science Bestseller list

“Science writing is often just about ‘the facts.’ Skloot’s book, her first, is far deeper, braver, and more wonderful.” —New York Times Book Review

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a remarkable feat of investigative journalism and a moving work of narrative nonfiction that reads with the vividness and urgency of fiction. It also raises sometimes uncomfortable questions with no clear-cut answers about whether people should be remunerated for their physical, genetic contributions to research and about the role of profit in science.”
—National Public Radio

“Skloot explores human consequences of the intersection of science and business, rescuing one of modern medicine’s inadvertent pioneers from an unmarked grave.” —US News & World Report

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Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan

27 Monday Jul 2020

Posted by in 20th century, Fiction, United States

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Elisabeth is a new mother who has just moved with her husband to a college town in upstate New York. There, she hires a new babysitter named Sam, a college student who struggles to fit in with her wealthier peers. The two women share a close bond, but their different situations and backgrounds occasionally cause tension. This thoughtful, well written novel explores motherhood, class, and friendship.

 “Sullivan’s intimate, incisive latest explores the evolving friendship between a new mother and her babysitter… Readers will be captivated by Sullivan’s authentic portrait of modern motherhood.”—Publishers Weekly

“Sullivan… writes with empathy for her characters even as she reveals their flaws and shortcomings. And while the story she tells focuses primarily on two women from different backgrounds and at different stages of life, it also illuminates broader issues about money, privilege, and class; marriage, family, and friendship; and the dueling demands of career and domesticity with which many women struggle. This perceptive novel about a complex friendship between two women resonates as broadly as it does deeply.”—Kirkus, starred review

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