Book
suggestions for our January 29, 2017, meeting. We will vote on these
options at our meeting next Sunday, October 23.
Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family
The
inspiring true story of a transgender girl, her identical twin brother,
and an ordinary American family’s extraordinary journey to understand,
nurture, and celebrate the uniqueness in us all, from the Pulitzer
Prize–winning science reporter for The Washington Post
An Amazon Best Book of October 2015: “Why
IS it such a big deal to everyone what somebody has in their pants?”
Excellent question, posed by an unusually astute transgender girl, the
subject of Amy Ellis Nutt’s emotional and illuminating Becoming Nicole.
It’s also a little ironic, since Nicole’s story makes a bit of a deal
of it, but in a much different way than other stories we’ve been hearing
lately, from celebrities like Caitlyn Jenner and television shows like Transparent.
Nicole, her twin brother Jonas, mom Kelly, and dad Wayne, are your
typical middle class American family. They live next door to you--are
shuttling from work, to Cub Scouts, to softball practice…. They’re also
coming to terms with the fact that one of their own has Gender
Dysphoria, a medical condition whereby a person does not identify with
the sex they were assigned at birth. And so Wayne and Kelly Maines
discover that they don’t have two sons at all, but a son and a daughter.
This is a particularly hard pill for Republican, Air Force veteran,
Wayne, to swallow, and his journey from denial to accepting and
championing his daughter, is one of the more powerful and moving side
narratives in a book chock full of them. That is why I really struggled
to write this review, because Becoming Nicole is an
important book that imparts important lessons, and the ones that
resonate most have nothing to do with what’s in anyone’s pants: Be true
to yourself, live an authentic life, exercise compassion. –Erin Kodicek
This is
a touching, sensitive, and caring story of the journey of a young woman
growing up and her remarkable family. While the author reviews the
substantial medical research on transgender people, she never lets the
technical details get in the way of the story of Nicole, her identical
twin brother Jonas, and her supportive parents as they come to terms
with Nicole's gender and the discrimination that they faced.
The
author is careful to depict all parties fairly and shows their good and
not so good points instead of taking the easy way out and painting
cardboard cut-outs of good and evil. While you may feel, as I do, that
some of the school officials and certain others acted callously and
ignorantly, it is important to remember, as the author does, that these
people often acted on deeply held sincere beliefs.
I hope
every school administrator in the country reads this book and takes to
heart Nicole's eloquent story of how she and her classmates had no
problems until adults jumped in with their rigid, pre-conceived notions
and the pain she suffered as a result.
Even
people who have no interest in transgender issues will enjoy the story
of determination and of a close-knit family's love and support for each
other.
Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf - his final book
A Best Book of the Year
The Boston Globe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Denver Post
In the familiar setting of Holt, Colorado, home to all of Kent Haruf's inimitable fiction, Addie Moore pays an unexpected visit to a neighbor, Louis Waters. Her husband died years ago, as did his wife, and in such a small town they naturally have known of each other for decades; in fact, Addie was quite fond of Louis's wife. His daughter lives hours away, her son even farther, and Addie and Louis have long been living alone in empty houses, the nights so terribly lonely, especially with no one to talk with. But maybe that could change? As Addie and Louis come to know each other better--their pleasures and their difficulties--a beautiful story of second chances unfolds, making Our Souls at Night the perfect final installment to this beloved writer's enduring contribution to American literature.
The Boston Globe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Denver Post
In the familiar setting of Holt, Colorado, home to all of Kent Haruf's inimitable fiction, Addie Moore pays an unexpected visit to a neighbor, Louis Waters. Her husband died years ago, as did his wife, and in such a small town they naturally have known of each other for decades; in fact, Addie was quite fond of Louis's wife. His daughter lives hours away, her son even farther, and Addie and Louis have long been living alone in empty houses, the nights so terribly lonely, especially with no one to talk with. But maybe that could change? As Addie and Louis come to know each other better--their pleasures and their difficulties--a beautiful story of second chances unfolds, making Our Souls at Night the perfect final installment to this beloved writer's enduring contribution to American literature.
The Storyteller by Jody Picoult
An astonishing novel about redemption and forgiveness from the “amazingly talented writer” (Huffington Post) and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult.
Some stories live forever . . .
Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship. Despite their differences, they see in each other the hidden scars that others can’t.
Everything changes on the day that Josef confesses a long-buried and shameful secret and asks Sage for an extraordinary favor. If she says yes, she faces not only moral repercussions, but potentially legal ones as well. With the integrity of the closest friend she’s ever had clouded, Sage begins to question the assumptions and expectations she’s made about her life and her family. In this searingly honest novel, Jodi Picoult gracefully explores the lengths to which we will go in order to keep the past from dictating the future.
Some stories live forever . . .
Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship. Despite their differences, they see in each other the hidden scars that others can’t.
Everything changes on the day that Josef confesses a long-buried and shameful secret and asks Sage for an extraordinary favor. If she says yes, she faces not only moral repercussions, but potentially legal ones as well. With the integrity of the closest friend she’s ever had clouded, Sage begins to question the assumptions and expectations she’s made about her life and her family. In this searingly honest novel, Jodi Picoult gracefully explores the lengths to which we will go in order to keep the past from dictating the future.
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
New York Times Bestseller · A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice · Winner of the Alex Award· Winner of the APALA Award for Fiction · NEA Big Read Selection
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY:
NPR · San Francisco Chronicle · Entertainment Weekly · The Huffington Post · Buzzfeed · Amazon · Grantland · Booklist · St. Louis Post Dispatch · Shelf Awareness · Book Riot · School Library Journal · Bustle · Time Out New York · Mashable · Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY:
NPR · San Francisco Chronicle · Entertainment Weekly · The Huffington Post · Buzzfeed · Amazon · Grantland · Booklist · St. Louis Post Dispatch · Shelf Awareness · Book Riot · School Library Journal · Bustle · Time Out New York · Mashable · Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.
When the Moon is Low by Nadia Hashimi
Mahmoud's passion for his wife Fereiba, a
schoolteacher, is greater than any love she's ever known. But their
happy, middle-class world—a life of education, work, and
comfort—implodes when their country is engulfed in war, and the Taliban
rises to power.
Mahmoud, a civil engineer, becomes a target of the
new fundamentalist regime and is murdered. Forced to flee Kabul with
her three children, Fereiba has one hope to survive: she must find a way
to cross Europe and reach her sister's family in England. With forged
papers and help from kind strangers they meet along the way, Fereiba
make a dangerous crossing into Iran under cover of darkness. Exhausted
and brokenhearted but undefeated, Fereiba manages to smuggle them as far
as Greece. But in a busy market square, their fate takes a frightening
turn when her teenage son, Saleem, becomes separated from the rest of
the family.
Faced with an impossible choice, Fereiba pushes on
with her daughter and baby, while Saleem falls into the shadowy
underground network of undocumented Afghans who haunt the streets of
Europe's capitals. Across the continent Fereiba and Saleem struggle to
reunite, and ultimately find a place where they can begin to reconstruct
their lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment