Daughters of the Bamboo Grove : From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins by Barbara Demick (2025)

26 Friday Dec 2025

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in case studies, History, Non-fiction

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adopted children, China, family reunification, intercountry adoption, social conditions, twins, United States

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • The heartrending story of twin sisters torn apart by China’s one-child policy and the rise of international adoption—from the author of the National Book Award finalist Nothing to Envy (Amazon)

“Demick relays this nightmarish tale in elegant, empathetic prose. It’s a tour de force.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“This appalling exposé . . . tells [vulnerable families’] stories with amazing levels of detail, nuance, empathy, and grace.”—Booklist, starred review

“Evocative . . . Demick, a longtime foreign correspondent, tells this story with insight and sensitivity . . . a moving story of fortitude and emotional growth.”—BookPage, starred review

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An Unfinished Love Story : a Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin

08 Wednesday May 2024

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Biography, History, memoir, Non-fiction, United States

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1960-1980, autobiographies, Doris Kearns Goodwin, economic conditions, nineteen sixties, politics and government, Richard N. Goodwin, social conditions, Speechwriters, United States

In their last years together, Doris and Dick Goodwin tackle the 300 plus boxes of historical documents, pictures, and memorabilia collected over the years only to discover they had an “unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s, illuminating public and private moments of a decade when individuals were powered by the conviction they could make a difference”. If you lived during the sixties, you will find this to be a riveting, enlightening and tender read.

“A touching invitation to eavesdrop on a long marriage between two people who had an unusual level of access to presidential policy and personality.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Just as An Unfinished Love Story is a testament to the Kearns Goodwin marriage, so is it a love story of the United States and its democratic government. The many speeches written by Goodwin, the writings of Kearns Goodwin and both their reflections demonstrate that words do indeed matter.”—The Columbus Dispatch

“An intimate political history….about the love of historical research, in this case demonstrated by a joint examination of 300 boxes of documents, drafts, and the personal flotsam accumulated over the course of a marriage played out in the arena of American politics. And about the love of America, its past and future, its struggles and promise”—The Boston Globe

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Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? : a Memoir by Séamas O’Reilly

19 Friday Aug 2022

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in 20th century, Biography, memoir

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authors, autobiography, biography, childhood and youth, families, Journalists, Northern Ireland, relationships, Seamas O'Reilly, social conditions

This memoir is narrated by Séamas O’Reilly, who was five when his mother died and left behind a husband and eleven children. While this tragic event is the focus of the book, it is also a really funny, uplifting story about how the siblings and their dad carried on, living in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

“I laughed out loud reading Did Ye Hear Mammy Died, especially at the bits that recalled for me the way my own family laughs to keep from crying…It’s rare to read about good fathers in memoirs, and O’Reilly’s portrait…is hilarious and moving….It is this thread of refusal to be pitied, to have what happened to his family reduced to ‘a tawdry bit of sentimental fluff for people to tut along to and say how sad,’ that makes Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? so rousing. That it is also deadly funny is an extra treat.”―NPR

“Northern Ireland in the time of the Troubles is often cast into a narrative that doesn’t allow room for joy or delight…O’Reilly’s recollection is a splendid paradox, both cheery and heartbreaking.”―Booklist, Starred

“In this joyous, wildly unconventional memoir, Séamas O’Reilly tells the story of losing his mother as a child and growing up with ten siblings in Northern Ireland during the final years of the Troubles as a raucous comedy, a grand caper that is absolutely bursting with life.”―Patrick Radden Keefe, NYT bestselling author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain

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Black Walden: Slavery and Its Aftermath in Concord, Massachusetts by Elise Lemire

25 Monday Apr 2022

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Non-fiction, United States

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18th century, Concord, enslaved persons, Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862, history, Mass., slavery, social conditions, Walden Pond

Since we live next door to Lincoln, Massachusetts let author Lemire forever change your thoughts about the green space of Walden Pond. In the 1700’s there was a community of enslaved individuals newly exposed to “freedom” whose stories need to be lifted up and shared.

Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, is most famous as the place where Henry David Thoreau went to ‘live deliberately’ and subsist on the land. Lemire . . . sets about to resurrect the memory of not only the freedmen and -women who dwelled there but also the history of slavery in Concord. . . . Ultimately, Lemire conveys the idea that before Walden Pond was a ‘green space, ‘ it was, in fact, a ‘black space.’–Library Journal

Lemire has genuinely enriched our understanding not only of the history of Concord but also of the country for which that fabled town still so often stands.–New England Quarterly

Thanks to Lemire’s ingenious research, such valiant figures as Brister Freeman and Cato Ingraham can claim their just place alongside the more famous Minutemen in the town that fired the ‘shot heard ’round the world.’–Robert Gross, author of The Minutemen and Their World

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Honor by Thrity Umrigar

29 Tuesday Mar 2022

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in 20th century, Fiction

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East Indian American women., honor, India, interfaith marriage, religious aspects, social conditions, women, women journalists

I love this writer’s books about India in all its complexity. My mother and I must have argued over the meaning of the ending in the The Space Between Us for months. In Honor the lives of two very different women come together after an unspeakable act of violence. I would add this warning: the subject matter is not for sensitive readers.

In the way A Thousand Splendid Suns told of Afghanistan’s women, Thrity Umrigar tells a story of India with the intimacy of one who knows the many facets of a land both modern and ancient, awash in contradictions, permeated by a smoldering mix of ageless traditions and new ideas, beauty and brutality, hope and despair, certainty and mystery. A place where love can sometimes involve the peril of defying convention . . . and ultimately risking everything for what matters most.–Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours

With insight and compassion, Thrity Umrigar writes masterfully about the complexities of hatred and love, estrangement and belonging, oppression and privilege, about holding on and letting go. A powerful, important, unforgettable book.–Cheryl Strayed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wild

Honor is a novel of profound depths–cultural, personal, romantic, spiritual. It’s also a story of tremendous grace, both in the understanding it shows its characters and in the ways they navigate a brutal but stunning life.–Rebecca Makkai, Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Great Believers

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Sure, I’ll Be Your Black Friend: Notes from the Other Side of the Fist Bump by Ben Phillippe

29 Monday Nov 2021

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in 20th century, anecdotes, Biography, Non-fiction, United States

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African American authors, African American men, American wit and humor, essays, humor, race relations, racism, social conditions, United States

I loved Phillippe’s memoir and description of growing up in Canada and eventually moving the to US. Biting humor and moving.

“Flat-out funny…This is a great next-book for fans of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, but if a reader hasn’t turned to either of those yet, Philippe’s disarming, illuminating, and hilarious chronicle is a great place to start.” — Booklist

“I still mute Ben’s texts, but I inhaled his hilarious book, which is so full of razor-sharp wit and punches to the gut that it almost made me sick. In a good way!” — Samantha Irby, New York Times bestselling author of Wow, No Thank You

“Philippe has created a funny, and at times harrowing, memoir of his experience as a Black man. Fans of similar memoirs, such as Damon Young’s What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker, will enjoy the irreverence and recognize themselves in these pages.” — Library Journal

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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

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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