Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

16 Monday Dec 2019

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Moving, intimate, and beautifully written –  a novel that at once reminds us that the most peaceful and ordinary lives can be utterly upended in unimaginable ways. Travel  beneath today’s news headlines with this couple. Their journey is unforgettable.

“Nuri’s story rings with authenticity, from the vast, impersonal cruelties of war to the tiny kindnesses that help people survive it. . . . A well-crafted structure and a troubled but engaging narrator power this moving story of Syrian refugees.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

 “A haunting and resonant story of Syrian war refugees undertaking a treacherous journey . . . Readers will find this deeply affecting for both its psychological intensity and emotional acuity.”—Publishers Weekly

“Great for book club…Christy Lefteri, who volunteered at a refugee center in Athens, tells a powerful story about the refugee experience, hope, and love.” —Real Simple

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Travel Light, Move fast by Alexandra Fuller

10 Tuesday Dec 2019

Posted by in Biography, memoir, Non-fiction

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This is her 4th memoir about her eccentric English family growing up in Africa.  I recommend all the earlier ones: Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, and Leaving Before the Rains Come.  This one is her good-by to her father.  Try them all.  Gutsy, humorous, not a bit sentimental.

“Travel Light, Move Fast is a sensitive, meticulously wrought portrait of one family’s sometimes-challenging dynamics, set against an unforgiving African backdrop. Fuller’s beautiful prose juxtaposes the grieving process with the lessons she learned from the man whose adventures shaped her.” —BookPage

“[Fuller’s] family remains endlessly fascinating and delightful companions for long-time readers and new ones alike. . . A gorgeously written tribute to a life well lived and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable loss and grief.” —  Booklist, starred review

“[Fuller] sifted through a lifetime of memories in order to pen this celebration of the man whose profound influence helped shape her own worldview. [She]writes gracefully about embracing grief as an indelible part of the human experience. Another elegant memoir from a talented storyteller.” — Kirkus Reviews

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The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

02 Monday Dec 2019

Posted by in fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, History, United States

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Number one New York Times best seller

Oprah’s Book Club Pick

From the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me, a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom.

“The most surprising thing about The Water Dancer may be its unambiguous narrative ambition. This isn’t a typical first novel. . . . The Water Dancer is a jeroboam of a book, a crowd-pleasing exercise in breakneck and often occult storytelling that tonally resembles the work of Stephen King as much as it does the work of Toni Morrison, Colson Whitehead and the touchstone African-American science-fiction writer Octavia Butler. . . . It is flecked with forms of wonder-working that push at the boundaries of what we still seem to be calling magical realism.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“An experience in taking [Toni] Morrison’s ‘chances for liberation’ literally: What if memory had the power to transport enslaved people to freedom?’ . . . The most moving part of The Water Dancer [is] the possibility it offers of an alternate history. . . The book’s most poignant and painful gift is the temporary fantasy that all the people who leaped off slave ships and into the Atlantic were not drowning themselves in terror and anguish, but going home.”—NPR

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The Yellow House: a Memoir by Sarah M. Broom

25 Monday Nov 2019

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

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****Winner of THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION****

A brilliant memoir about place, race, and class, Sarah Broom escaped East New Orleans (often just blank space on early maps) to become a successful journalist yet feels that monstrous pull to return to her home with 11 siblings in the yellow shotgun house that was wiped off the map by Hurricane Katrina.  Meet her vibrant family and breathe in the quirky French Quarter where, as a child, she never knew existed.

“A heartfelt but unflinching recovery project . . . Broom’s lyrical style celebrates her family bonds, but a righteous fury runs throughout the narrative at New Orleans’ injustices, from the foundation on up. A tribute to the multitude of stories one small home can contain, even one bursting with loss.”―Kirkus Reviews

“A great, multigenerational family story . . . Broom is an engaging guide; she has some of David Simon’s effortless reporting style, and her meditations on eroding places recall Jeannette Walls. The house didn’t survive Katrina, but its destruction strengthened Broom’s appreciation of home. Broom’s memoir serves as a touching tribute to family and a unique exploration of the American experience.”―Publishers Weekly

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Trial of Lizzie Borden by Cara Robertson

18 Monday Nov 2019

Posted by in murder and investigation, Non-fiction, United States

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Weston Public Library Non-Fiction Book Club Selection for October 2019

The remarkable new account of an essential piece of American mythology—the trial of Lizzie Borden—based on twenty years of research and recently unearthed evidence.
The Trial of Lizzie Borden tells the true story of one of the most sensational murder trials in American history that took place in Fall River, Massachusetts.

“The definitive account to date of one of America’s most notorious and enduring murder mysteries…a superior, page-turning true crime narrative.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Robertson presents the story with the thoroughness one expects from an attorney…Fans of crime novels will love it.” —Kirkus Review

“A fast-paced, page-turning read.” —Booklist, starred review

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Chance of a Ghost by E.J. Copperman

12 Tuesday Nov 2019

Posted by in Fiction, murder, mystery

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When the ghost of her father vanishes into thin air, Alison Kerby, the owner of a New Jersey shore guesthouse, reluctantly agrees to help an overdramatic spirit named Lawrence find his killer in return for help in locating her late father.

Alison Kerby’s guesthouse is haunted all year round. Surviving the dead of winter, though? That’s a spooky proposition.

Even with a blizzard bearing down on New Jersey, Alison can count on at least two guests—Paul and Maxie, the stubborn ghosts who share her shore town inn. Then there’s her widowed mother, who hasn’t just been seeing ghosts, she’s been secretly dating one: Alison’s father. But when he stands her up three times in a row, something’s wrong. Is he a lost soul…or a missing apparition?

Their only lead is an overdramatic spirit—stage name Lawrence Laurentz—who doesn’t take direction well and won’t talk until they find his killer. Alison will reluctantly play the part of PI, but when the clues take a sinister turn, the writing is on the wall: If Alison can’t keep a level head, this will be her father’s final act—and maybe her own. [Barnes & Noble]

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Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

05 Tuesday Nov 2019

Posted by in Fiction, Humor, romance

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A great read on the lighter side – romantic, humorous, outrageous -unlike anything you’ve read before!  Delightful farcical cases of mistaken identity, disastrous proposals, Muslim-arranged marriages with a touch of Shakespeare and Austen thrown in.  An entertaining read guaranteed!

“Ayesha At Last is the modern Pride & Prejudice retelling I never knew I needed. Warm, witty, romantic, and relatable. Honestly, Darcy who? Khalid is everything.”—Alisha Rai, award-winning author

“There’s an overabundance of Pride and Prejudice retellings, but few are as thoughtful and creative as this stellar debut from an author to watch.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Jalaluddin cleverly illustrates the social pressures facing young Indian-Muslim adults…a highly entertaining tale of family, community, and romance.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

28 Monday Oct 2019

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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)

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Know My Name: a Memoir by Chanel Miller

21 Monday Oct 2019

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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

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The Overstory by Richard Powers

15 Tuesday Oct 2019

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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

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