Rules of Civility: A Novel by Amor Towles Fiction suggested by Shirley From Amazon — on the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey […]
Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian Fiction suggested by Terry Historical Fiction, based on author’s grandparents’ or great-grandparents’ history in Turkey, Armenia and the US. This is a more pleasant and straight-forward as well as entertaining look at the WWI Turk-Armenian genocide than the Orhan’s Inheritance which we read. I gave it a 4/5 on my […]
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay Fiction from Annie France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode. (Heavy)
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe Non-Fiction suggested by Maren The IRA abduction and murder of a suspected informer, a widowed mother of ten, begins this modern history of The Troubles, three decades of increasing violence in Northern Ireland. The story of a society wracked […]
Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of Love by David Talbot Non-fiction suggested by Toni Cultural history of San Francisco 1967 – 1982, a labor-of-love illumination of a city’s soul, the clash of outsiders from hippies to activists, against the authorities representing the old, mainly Catholic, establishment. The uniqueness of […]
Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement by David Brooks Non-fiction from Verna How attitudes are formed. The story of how success happens, told through the lives of one composite American couple, Harold and Erica
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman Non-fiction suggested by Sharon From Goodreads: Lia Lee was born in 1981 to a family of recent Hmong immigrants, and soon developed symptoms of epilepsy. By 1988 she was living at home […]
State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton & Louise Penny Fiction suggested by Joyce An international thriller: a young Foreign Service Officer, a journalist, an untested Secretary of State, an out of touch US government vs carefully constructed threat. from Amazon – After a tumultuous period in American politics, a new administration has just been sworn […]
Stiff: Curious Lives of Cadavers by Mary Roach Non-fiction from Verna Dead bodies, donated body
The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever Fiction suggested by Barbara The Stories of John Cheever is a 1978 short story collection by American author John Cheever. It contains some of his most famous stories, including “The Enormous Radio,” “Goodbye, My Brother,” “The Country Husband,” “The Five-Forty-Eight,” and “The Swimmer.” Barbara recommends that we […]