adult reading suggestions
DESCRIPTION
Fiction and non-fiction books for faculty, staff, alumnae, and friends.TRANSCRIPT
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Fiction
0
Pleasure Reading
Suggestions for Faculty, Staff,
Parents, and Alumnae
November 2011
One Lyman Circle
Shaker Heights, OH 44122
Crile Libray
ry
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A selection of titles
compiled and edited
By
Mary Ann Hile, Librarian
Crile Library and Ruhlman Resource Center
With gratitude to all my reading friends
who have inspired me through my Laurel years.
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Fiction 4
Non-Fiction 12
Past Favorites 17
Book Club Selections 18
Contents
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FictionFicti
Balfer, Lauren. Fierce Radiance Claire Shipley is a single mother haunted by the
death of her young daughter and by her divorce
years ago. As an ambitious photojournalist in the
days after Pearl Harbor, she finds herself on top
of one of the nation's most important stories. In
the labs of New York City's Rockefeller Institute,
some of the brightest doctors and researchers
are racing to find a cure that will save the lives
of thousands of wounded American soldiers—a
miraculous new drug called penicillin. Little does
Claire suspect how much the story will change
her own life.
* Bohjalian, Chris. Skeletons at the Feast: A
Novel
Inspired by the unpublished diary of a Prussian
woman who fled west through Nazi Germany
ahead of the Russian Army in 1945, the novel
tells the story of Anna who flees with her
mother; a Scottish POW, whom she loves; and a
Jewish escapee from an Auschwitz-bound train,
who becomes the group's protector.
Fiction
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* Bradley, Alan. Sweetness at the Bottom of
the Pie
Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce takes a break
from being a science prodigy when she finds a
dead body in the cucumber patch. For Flavia,
this is, by far, the most interesting that has ever
happened!
* Brooks, Geraldine. Year of Wonders: A
Novel of the Plague
As villagers begin to die from the 17th-century
plague carried from London to a small
Derbyshire village, the rest face a choice: do
they flee their village or do they stay? The lord
of the manor and his family pack up and leave.
The rector argues that the villagers should
isolate themselves from neighboring towns and
villages to prevent the contagion from spreading.
The villagers agree and struggle to survive apart
from the outside world. With the rector and his
wife, the narrator, the young widow Anna Frith,
tends to the dying and battles to prevent her
fellow villagers from descending into drink,
violence, and superstition. All is complicated by
the intense, inexpressible feelings she develops
for both the rector and his wife.
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Cole, Julian. The Amateur Historian
Two brothers, PI Rick Rounder and policeman
Sam Rounder, square up across the sibling
divide as they are both drawn into the case of a
missing girl. But the case gets more complicated
as Rick's past catches up with him, and the only
clues that the brothers have relate to a girl who
lived—and died—in poverty one hundred years
ago.
Cunningham, Michael. By Nightfall
With the blossoming of their careers, Peter and
Rebecca Harris have settled into a comfortable
mid-life. Although they have a few problems,
including a wayward daughter, they feel happy.
When Rebecca's much younger brother visits,
however, nothing will be the same again.
* Dean, Debra. Madonnas of Leningrad
Finding it more and more difficult to hold onto
memories in the present, eighty-two-year-old
Marina Buriakov retreats often to the 1940s
when, living in the basement of the Hermitage
Museum with other employees during the
German siege of Leningrad, she created a
memory room in her mind furnished with the
museum's priceless masterpieces.
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* Donoghue, Emma. Room: A Novel
Five-year-old Jack was born in Room and it is his
world. Ma has been held in Room since she was
nineteen, and to her it is a prison. Ma has
created a life for Jack, but she knows it’s not
enough and devises an escape plan. A story told
in the poignant and funny voice of Jack.
Goolrick, Robert. Reliable Wife
In the bitter cold of a Wisconsin winter in 1907,
wealthy businessman Ralph stands on a train
platform waiting for the woman who has
answered his advertisement for "a reliable wife."
But when Catherine steps off the train from
Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman"
Ralph is expecting. She has plans to poison him
and take his money – and he, in turn, has plans
for her.
Ishiguro, Kuzo. Never Let Me Go
Thirty-one-year-old Kathy, along with old friends
from Hailsham, a private school in England, are
forced to face the truth about their childhood
when they all come together again.
* Jordan, Hillary. Mudbound
Set in the Mississippi delta in 1946, the shaky
marriage of a cotton farmer and his city-bred
wife is further tested when the farmer’s father
then his brother and friend move in with them.
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Kay, Guy Gavriel. Under Heaven
Shen Tai, a general serving the Emperor of Kitai
in 8th century China, receives 250 Sardian horses
for his courage, piety and honoring of the dead.
Such an extravagant gift will attract dangerous
jealousy. He needs to find safe passage for
himself and the horses as well as to adjust to a
forever-altered life.
* Kwok, Jean. Girl in Translation
With her mother, Kimberly emigrates from Hong
Kong to Brooklyn squalor and begins a double
life: exceptional student during the day;
Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings.
Disguising the more difficult aspects of her life –
the staggering poverty, the weight of her
family’s future resting on her shoulders, and her
secret love for a Chinese factory boy who shares
none of her talent or ambitions – Kimberly learns
to translate not only her language, but herself,
as she straddles the two worlds.
* Mawer, Simon. Glass Room
Hoping to leave behind the old-world styles and
values that have shaped them, Viktor and Liesel
Landauer settle into a beautiful new home in
1920s Europe and find their marriage strained by
changing loyalties, hidden secrets, and the
dangers of the coming war.
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* McClain, Paule. The Paris Wife: A Novel
Hadley Richardson, a quiet twenty-eight-year-old
almost-spinster, meets Ernest Hemingway.
Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the
pair set sail for Paris, where they become the
golden couple in a lively and volatile group that
includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F.
Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Though deeply in
love, the Hemingways are ill-prepared for the
hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age
Paris, which hardly values traditional notions of
family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful
women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to
pour all the richness and intensity of his life into
the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises.
Hadley strives to hold on to her sense of self as
the demands of life with Ernest grow costly. A
heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty.
Oliveria, Mary. My Name is Mary Sutter
Set during the Civil War, Mary is an expert
midwife, but local physicians refuse to formally
train her in medicine. She heads to Washington,
D.C., and gains acceptance as a nurse at the
Union Hotel hospital working in appalling
conditions. This epic is being compared to Cold
Mountain and The Widow of the South.
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* Morton, Kate. Forgotten Garden
When a little girl is abandoned on a ship going to
Australia in 1913 and arrives with only her
clothes and a book of fairy tales, she is raised by
the dockmaster and his wife as their own; as a
young woman, she travels to England where,
over time, her own granddaughter eventually
assembles the pieces of her life's puzzle.
* Patchett, Ann. State of Wonder
A researcher at a pharmaceutical company,
Marina Singh journeys into the heart of the
Amazonian delta to check on a field team that
has been silent for two years—a dangerous
assignment that forces Marina to confront the
ghosts of her past.
* Soli, Tatjana. The Lotus Eaters
In the final days of a falling Saigon, three
photographers are brought together: Helen,
whose ambition conflicts with her desire over the
course of the fighting; Linh, the mysterious
Vietnamese man who loves her; and the violent
Sam, who is having an affair with Helen. All
three become transformed by the conflict they
are recording. In this much-heralded debut,
Tatjana Soli creates a searing portrait of three
souls trapped by their passions, contrasting the
wrenching horror of combat and the treachery of
obsession with the redemptive power of love.
11
Vreeland, Susan. Clara and Mr. Tiffany
In reading letters written by Clara, some of
which are in a collection at Kent State University,
the author discovered that the person behind the
Tiffany leaded-glass lamp was not Louis Tiffany
but rather his glass studio manager, Clara
Driscoll. This, then, is her story.
Woodrell, Daniel. Winter’s Bone
In the poverty-stricken hills of the Ozarks, Rees
Dolly, 17, struggles daily to care for her two
brothers and an ill mother. When she learns that
her absent father, a meth addict, has put up the
family home as bond, she embarks on a
dangerous search to find him and bring him
home for an upcoming court date. A compelling
testament to how people survive in the worst of
circumstances.
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* Bloom, Jonathan. American Wasteland:
How America Throws Away Nearly
Half of Its Food – and What We Can
Do About It
Bloom interviews experts—from Brian Wansink
to Alice Waters to Nobel Prize-winning
economist Amartya Sen—and digs up not only
why and how we waste; but, more
importantly, he offers suggestions of what we
can do to change our ways.
Bryson, Bill. At Home: A Short History of
Private Life
Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian
parsonage in a part of England where nothing
of any great historical significance has
happened. He journeyed about his house to
“write a history of the world without leaving
home.” The bathroom provides the occasion
for a history of hygiene; the bedroom, sex,
death, and sleep; the kitchen, nutrition and
the spice trade; and so on. Whatever happens
in the world, he demonstrates, ends up in our
house.
Non-Fiction
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* Carr, Nicholas. The Shallows: What the
Internet is Doing to Our Brains
Drawing on neuroscience and computer
science, Carr argues that digital technology is
reversing the 'deepening of thought' that the
printed word launched. He offers a plea for
balancing our human and computer
interactions.
* Larson, Erik. In the Garden of Beasts :
Love, Terror, and an American Family
in Hitler's Berlin
The author documents efforts of William E.
Dodd, the American ambassador to Hitler's
Germany, to acclimate to life in an increasingly
violent city where he is forced to associate
with the Nazis while his daughter pursues a
relationship with Gestapo chief Rudolf Diels.
* Moore, Wes. The Other Wes Moore
Two kids named Wes Moore were born blocks
apart within a year of each other. Both grew
up fatherless in similar Baltimore
neighborhoods and had difficult childhoods;
both hung out on street corners with their
crews; both ran into trouble with the police.
How, then, did one grow up to be a Rhodes
Scholar, decorated veteran, White House
Fellow, and business leader, while the other
ended up a convicted murderer serving a life
sentence?
14
* Norris, Michele. Grace of Silence: A
Memoir
Michele Norris tells the story of her
experiences after setting out to discover what
she calls the "hidden conversation on race"
taking place in the U.S. since the election of
Barack Obama as president. This quest
became intensely personal when she
uncovered facts about her own family's history
of encounters with racism.
* Saberi, Roxana. Between Two Worlds:
My Life and Captivity in Iran
Saberi, a journalist working in Iran, was
dragged from her home, arrested, and charged
with espionage. In this inspirational story, she
writes of her imprisonment, her trial, her
ultimate release, and the faith that helped her
through her captivity.
* Shenk, David. The Genius in all of Us :
Why Everything You've Been Told
about Genetics, Talent, and IQ is
Wrong
The author debunks the long-standing notion
of genetic "giftedness" and presents dazzling
new scientific research showing how greatness
is in the reach of every individual.
15
* Simmons, Rachel. The Curse of the Good
Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with
Courage and Confidence
Drawing on exercises Simmons uses in her
work with girls, this book provides a catalog of
practical strategies to foster girls’
assertiveness, resilience, and integrity. At the
core is Simmons’s belief that the most critical
freedom we can win for our daughters is the
liberty to listen to their inner voices and act on
them.
* Watts, Jonathan. When a Billion Chinese
Jump: How China Will Save the World
– or Destroy It
Watts chronicles the environmental impact of
economic growth with a series of gripping
stories from the country on the front line of
global development. He talks to nomads and
philosophers, entrepreneurs and scientists,
rural farmers and urban consumers, examining
how individuals are trying to adapt to one of
the most spectacular bursts of change in
human history. He then poses a question that
will affect all of our lives: Can China find a new
way forward or is this giant nation doomed to
magnify the mistakes that have already taken
humanity to the brink of disaster?
16
* Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other
Suns: The Epic Story of America’s
Great Migration
In this beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer
Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson
chronicles one of the great untold stories of
American history: the decades-long migration
of black citizens who fled the South for
northern and western cities, in search of a
better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of
almost six million people changed the face of
America.
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f Past Years
* Barbery, Muriel. The Elegance of the
Hedgehog
* Blake, Sarah. The Postmistress
* De Bernieres, Louis. Corelli’s Mandolin
* Eliot, George. Middlemarch
* Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
* McClain, Paula. The Paris Wife
* Nemirovsky, Irene. Suite Francaise
* Patchett, Ann. Bel Canto
* Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
* Stockett, Kathryn. The Help
* Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina
* Verghese, Paul. Cutting for Stone
* Wroblewski, David. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
Favorites from the Past
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Laurel School Book Club Selections
2010—2011
* Brooks, Geraldine. Caleb’s Crossing
* Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games
* Donoghue, Emma. Room: A Novel
* McCann, Colum. Let the Great World Spin
* McClain, Paula. The Paris Wife
* Norris, Michele. The Grace of Silence
* Skloot, Rebecca. Immortal Life of Henrietta
Lacks
* Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina