The
Invention of Wings: A Novel Hardcover by Sue Monk Kidd – 384 pgs., January 2014
In the early 1830s,
Sarah Grimké and her younger sister, Angelina, were the most infamous women in
America. They had rebelled so vocally against their family, society, and their
religion that they were reviled, pursued, and exiled from their home city of
Charleston, South Carolina, under threat of death. Their crime was speaking out
in favor of liberty and equality and for African American slaves and women,
arguments too radically humanist even for the abolitionists of their time.
Their lectures drew crowds of thousands, even (shockingly, then) men, and their
most popular pamphlet directly inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom's
Cabin--published 15 years later. These women took many of the first brutal
backlashes against feminists and abolitionists, but even their names are barely
known now. Sue Monk Kidd became fascinated by these sisters, and the question
of what compelled them to risk certain fury and say with the full force of
their convictions what others had not (or could not). She discovered that in
1803, when Sarah turned 11, her parents gave her the “human present” of
10-year-old Hetty to be her handmaid, and Sarah taught Hetty to read, an act of
rebellion met with punishment so severe that the slave girl died of "an
unspecified disease" shortly after her beating. Kidd knew then that she
had to try to bring Hetty back to life (“I would imagine what might have
been," she tells us), and she starts these girls' stories here, both cast
in roles they despise. She trades chapters between their voices across decades,
imagining the Grimké sisters’ courageous metamorphosis and, perhaps more
vitally, she gives Hetty her own life of struggle and transformation.
The
100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas
Jonasson – 400 pages. September 2012
Desperate
to avoid his 100th birthday party, Allan Karlsson climbs
out the window of his
room
at the nursing home and heads to the nearest bus station, intending
to travel as far as his pocket money will take him. But a
spur-of-the-moment decision to steal a suitcase from a fellow
passenger sends Allan on a strange and unforeseen ourney involving
amount other things, some nasty criminals, a very large pile of cash,
and an elephant named Sonya. It's just another chapter in a life
full of adventures for Allan, how has become entangled in the major
events of the twentieth century, including the Spanish Civil Wr and
the Manhattan Project. As Allan;s colorful and complex history
merges with his present-day escapades, readers will be treated to a
new and charmingly funny version of world history and get to know a
very youthful old man whose global influence knows no age limit. An
international best-seller, this is an engaging tale of one man's life
lived to the fullest.
Ten
years ago, Izzy Stone's mother fatally shot her father while he slept.
Devastated by her mother's apparent insanity, Izzy, now seventeen, refuses to
visit her in prison. But her new foster parents, employees at the local museum,
have enlisted Izzy's help in cataloguing items at a long-shuttered state
asylum. There, amid piles of abandoned belongings, Izzy discovers a stack of
unopened letters, a decades-old journal, and a window into her own past. Clara
Cartwright, eighteen years old in 1929, is caught between her overbearing
parents and her love for an Italian immigrant. Furious when she rejects an
arranged marriage, Clara's father sends her to a genteel home for nervous
invalids. But when his fortune is lost in the stock market crash, he can no
longer afford her care - and Clara is committed to the public asylum. Even as
Izzy deals with the challenges of yet another new beginning, Clara's story
keeps drawing her into the past. If Clara was never really mentally ill, could
something else explain her own mother's violent act? Piecing together Clara's
fate compels Izzy to re-examine her own choices - with shocking and unexpected results.
Not Without Laughter by Langston
Hughes – 224 pgs., April 2008
A shining star of the Harlem Renaissance movement, Langston
Hughes is one of modern literature's most revered African-American authors.
Although best known for his poetry, Hughes produced in Not Without Laughter
a powerful and pioneering classic novel.
This stirring coming-of-age tale unfolds in 1930s rural Kansas. A poignant portrait of African-American family life in the early twentieth century, it follows the story of young Sandy Rogers as he grows from a boy to a man. We meet Sandy's mother, Annjee, who works as a housekeeper for a wealthy white family; his strong-willed grandmother, Hager; Jimboy, Sandy's father, who travels the country looking for work; Aunt Tempy, the social climber; and Aunt Harriet, the blues singer who has turned away from her faith.
A fascinating chronicle of a family's joys and hardships, Not Without Laughter is a vivid exploration of growing up and growing strong in a racially divided society. A rich and important work, it masterfully echoes the black American experience.
This stirring coming-of-age tale unfolds in 1930s rural Kansas. A poignant portrait of African-American family life in the early twentieth century, it follows the story of young Sandy Rogers as he grows from a boy to a man. We meet Sandy's mother, Annjee, who works as a housekeeper for a wealthy white family; his strong-willed grandmother, Hager; Jimboy, Sandy's father, who travels the country looking for work; Aunt Tempy, the social climber; and Aunt Harriet, the blues singer who has turned away from her faith.
A fascinating chronicle of a family's joys and hardships, Not Without Laughter is a vivid exploration of growing up and growing strong in a racially divided society. A rich and important work, it masterfully echoes the black American experience.
The
End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe – 352 pgs., October 2012
“What are you reading?” That’s the question Will Schwalbe asks his mother, Mary Anne, as they sit in the waiting room of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In 2007, Mary Anne returned from a humanitarian trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan suffering from what her doctors believed was a rare type of hepatitis. Months later she was diagnosed with a form of advanced pancreatic cancer, which is almost always fatal, often in six months or less.
This is the inspiring true story of a son and his mother, who start a “book club” that brings them together as her life comes to a close. Over the next two years, Will and Mary Anne carry on conversations that are both wide-ranging and deeply personal, prompted by an eclectic array of books and a shared passion for reading. Their list jumps from classic to popular, from poetry to mysteries, from fantastic to spiritual. The issues they discuss include questions of faith and courage as well as everyday topics such as expressing gratitude and learning to listen. Throughout, they are constantly reminded of the power of books to comfort us, astonish us, teach us, and tell us what we need to do with our lives and in the world. Reading isn’t the opposite of doing; it’s the opposite of dying.
Will and Mary Anne share their hopes and concerns with each other—and rediscover their lives—through their favorite books. When they read, they aren’t a sick person and a well person, but a mother and a son taking a journey together. The result is a profoundly moving tale of loss that is also a joyful, and often humorous, celebration of life: Will’s love letter to his mother, and theirs to the printed page.
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