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Books for Summer 2014From The End of Your Life Book Club
Discussions will be July 8 and August 12 at 1:30 pm. Choose a book to share with the rest of the group or just read some for fun. Register for the discussion at the Reference. |
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Crossing to safety
by Wallace Stegner
Two young couples, Sid and Charity and Larry and Sally, from different backgrounds--East and West, rich and poor--befriend each other in 1937 Madison, Wisconsin, in an evocative and insightful portrait of family and friendship. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.
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Appointment in Samarra : a novel
by John O'Hara
At the center of the social elite in 1930s Gibbsville are Julian and Caroline English until Julian makes a fateful decision to break with polite society and embarks on a rapid spiral toward self-destruction, in a new edition of the classic novel about the price one man was forced to pay for rejecting a life of moderation. Reprint. 12,500 first printing.
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On Chesil Beach
by Ian McEwan
Recently married, a young couple--Florence, a talented musician and shy daughter of an aloof Oxford academic and a successful businessman, and Edward an earnest history student with little experience of women--looks forward to the future, but cannot help but worry about their upcoming wedding night. By the author of Atonement. 200,000 first printing. Read by Anne.
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Man gone down
by Michael Thomas
Approaching his thirty-fifth birthday estranged from his white Boston Brahmin wife and three children, an impoverished African-American construction worker evaluates his inner-city Boston childhood, the abuses he suffered at the hands of his parents, and the disparity between the promise of his intellectual potential and his real-world achievements. Original.
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The lizard cage
by Karen Connelly
Imprisoned in solitary confinement to serve out a twenty-year sentence after being arrested by the Burmese secret police, Teza, an activist who used his music to protest the repressive dictatorship, is unaware that his life has a profound influence on those around him, from his authoritarian jailers to a young orphan who has grown up inside the jail. 30,000 first printing.
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People of the book : a novel
by Geraldine Brooks
Offered a coveted job to analyze and conserve a priceless Sarajevo Haggadah, Australian rare-book expert Hanna Heath discovers a series of tiny artifacts in the volume's ancient binding that reveal its historically significant origins. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March. Read by Kathleen H.
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Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson
As the Reverend John Ames approaches the hour of his own death, he writes a letter to his son chronicling three previous generations of his family, a story that stretches back to the Civil War and reveals uncomfortable secrets about the family of preachers. 75,000 first printing.
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The coldest winter : America and the Korean War
by David Halberstam
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist explores the lesser-known elements of heroism and pathos that marked the Korean War, in a narrative successor to The Best and the Brightest that evaluates political decisions and miscalculations on both sides of the conflict. Read by Anita.
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A thousand splendid suns
by Khaled Hosseini
Two women born a generation apart witness the destruction of their home and family in war-torn Kabul, losses incurred over the course of thirty years that test the limits of their strength and courage. By the author of The Kite Runner. 600,000 first printing.
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The etiquette of illness : what to say when you can't find the words
by Susan P. Halpern
A compassionate guide on how to negotiate the complexities of illness combines anecdotes and insights with practical advice on how to respond to a friend, colleague, or family member suffering from a serious or chronic illness, covering such topics as doctor-patient communications, end-of-life issues, and more. Read by Maggie and Debbie.
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Felicia's journey
by William Trevor
Young and pregnant, Felicia leaves her Irish hometown to search for her boyfriend in the English Midlands, only to fall in with the obese, fiftyish Mr. Hilditch, in a tale of psychological suspense
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Kokoro : a novel
by Sōseki Natsume
Haunted by tragic secrets, Sensei slowly opens up to his young disciple, confessing indiscretions from his own student days that have left him reeling with guilt
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Murder in the cathedral
by T. S. Eliot
A play in verse form dramatizes the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket by four knights of Henry II's court
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The year of magical thinking
by Joan Didion
An autobiographical portrait of marriage and motherhood by the acclaimed author details the critical illness of her daughter, Quintana Roo, followed by the fatal coronary of her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and her daughter's second bout with a life-threatening ailment, and her struggle to come to terms with life and death, illness, sanity, personal upheaval, and grief. 60,000 first printing.
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The reluctant fundamentalist
by Mohsin Hamid
A young Muslim American, Changez is living the American dream, with an education at an Ivy League college, high-paying job, and romance with Erica, a member of the elite New York social circles, until the events of September 11th turn his life upside down and force him to confront his personal allegiances. By the author of Moth Smoke. Read by Linda.
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The price of salt
by Claire Morgan
Trapped in a boring, dead-end day job in a department store, stage designer Therese Belivet finds her life forever changed when she encounters--and falls in love with--Carol Aird, an alluring suburban housewife in the midst of a divorce, as they set out on a cross-country odyssey, pursued by a private investigator who forces Carol into choosing between her daughter and her lover. Soon to be a movie.
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The painted veil
by W. Somerset Maugham
Kitty Fane's affair with Assistant Colonial Secretary Townsend, a married man, is interrupted when she is taken from Hong Kong by her vengeful bacteriologist husband to accompany him to his new post amid a raging cholera epidemic. Reprint. 12,500 first printing.
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Continental drift
by Russell Banks
After his ill-fated pursuit of the American dream, Bob Dubois finds employment on a fishing boat off the Florida Keys where he becomes involved in a plot to smuggle two Haitians into Florida
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The last lecture
by Randy Pausch
The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family
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The uncommon reader : A Novella
by Alan Bennett
Obliged to borrow a book when her corgis stray into a mobile library, the Queen discovers a passion for reading, setting the palace upon its head and causing the royal head of Great Britain to question her role in the monarchy
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The elegance of the hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery
The lives of fifty-four-year-old concierge Rene Michel and extremely bright, suicidal twelve-year-old Paloma Josse are transformed by the arrival of a new tenant, Kakuro Ozu
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Too much happiness : stories
by Alice Munro
Nine new short works by the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Love of a Good Woman include the stories of a grieving mother who is aided by a surprising source, a woman's response to a humiliating seduction and a 19th-century Russian émigré's winter journey to the Riviera.
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Feasting the heart : fifty-two commentaries for the air
by Reynolds Price
A probing collection of personal essays by the author, biblical scholar, and National Public Radio commentator covers a wide range of interesting, controversial topics, including family, racial tolerance, and religion. 50,000 first printing.
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Big machine : a novel
by Victor D. LaValle
Scraping out an existence as a New York bus porter, recovering addict and suicide cult survivor Ricky Rice is inducted into a band of paranormal investigators who share his experience of having heard disembodied voices that may have a divine source.
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My father's tears and other stories
by John Updike
A collection of short fiction from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author includes tales set in his native Pennsylvania, the New England suburbs, and foreign countries, all depicting different facets of the American experience from the Depression through the aftermath of 9/11. Read by Debbie.
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Brooklyn : a novel
by Colm Tóibín
Forced to leave behind her family in Ireland to accept a job in 1950s America, bookkeeper Eilis Lacey unexpectedly falls in love with an Italian man with a big family, who she fears losing when tragic news arrives from home. By the author of The Master. Reprint.
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The girl with the dragon tattoo
by Stieg Larsson
Forty years after the disappearance of Harriet Vanger from the secluded island owned and inhabited by her powerful family, her uncle, convinced that she had been murdered by someone from her own deeply dysfunctional clan, hires journalist Mikael Blomqvist and Lisbeth Salander, an unconventional young hacker, to investigate. Simultaneous.
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The bite of the mango
by Mariatu Kamara
In this powerful and heartbreaking true story, the author, who lived in a small rural village in Sierra Leone, recounts how tasting the sweet nectar of a mango gave her the will to live after surviving a brutal attack by heavily armed rebel soldiers and living in a refugee camp. Simultaneous.
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Suite française
by Irène Némirovsky
Published more than sixty years following the author's death at Auschwitz, a remarkable story of life under the Nazi occupation includes two parts--"A Storm in June, " set amid the chaotic 1940 exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion, and "Dolce," set in a German-occupied provincial village rife with jealousy, resentment, resistance, and collaboration. 75,000 first printing.
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Girls like us : Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--and the journey of a generation
by Sheila Weller
A colorful and intimate portrait of three of the twentieth century's most important musical artists offers a female perspective on coming of age during the 1960s as viewed through the lives and careers of Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon, capturing the three women's diverse backgrounds, their individual personalities, and their seminal contribution to modern music. 125,000 first printing.
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Olive Kitteridge
by Elizabeth Strout
The larger-than-life world of Olive Kitteridge, a retired school teacher and unofficial town crier in a small coastal town in Maine, is revealed in a series of luminous stories that explore her diverse roles in many lives, including a lounge singer haunted by a past love, a young man grieving over his lost mother, her stoic husband, and her own resentful son. Reprint.
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In other rooms, other wonders
by Daniyal Mueenuddin
A volume of linked stories describes the intertwined lives of landowners and their retainers on the Gurmani family farm in Pakistan, in a collection that explores such themes as culture, class power, and desire
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