Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns-Goodwin (9/2010-PC)
Summary
Many books have been written about Abraham Lincoln, but in Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin zeroes in on the his ability to bring disparate groups and men into his presidency and use their talents to hold the country together. It begins with Lincoln, the country rube winning the Republican nomination for president over favorites William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates. Once elected, Lincoln invited each to join his cabinet, both to hold the Republican party together and to win the support of the various groups backing each of them. Goodwin shows the qualities that brought Lincoln from obscurity, his compassion, honesty, and ability to empathize with others, carried with him into the White House where he applied them to keeping his cabinet, and the Union, together throughout the war. Team of Rivals has received mostly positive reviews with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch review saying, "A gifted writer, Goodwin is persuasive in her analysis of Lincoln's handling of the political, economic, racial, social, military and diplomatic issues he faced."
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (10/2010-MB)
Summary
With a trio of compelling "cold case" mysteries at its core; with its wonderfully sympathetic and complex private detective hero; with its host of instantly endearing, lovably flawed characters; and with its effortlessly beautiful and intelligent prose, Case Histories is Kate Atkinson's breakout book - the most accomplished, most compulsively readable novel yet from a writer of the first rank.
CASE ONE:
Olivia Land, youngest and most beloved of the Land girls, goes missing in the night and is never seen again. Thirty years later, two of her surviving sisters, each achingly lonely in her own way, reunite when their cruel and distant father dies. There, among the clutter of their childhood home, they unearth a shocking clue to Olivia's disappearance.
CASE TWO:
All of Theo's happiness is tied to his devoted daughter Laura. He delights in her wit, her effortless beauty, her selfless love, and in the fact that she's taken a position at his prestigious law firm. But on her first day on the job, a maniac storms into the office and turns Theo's entire world upside down.
CASE THREE
Michelle looks around one day and finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making. A very needy baby and a very demanding husband make her every waking moment a reminder that somewhere, somehow, she made a grave mistake and will spend the rest of her life paying for it-until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.
As Private Detective Jackson Brodie investigates all three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge. Jackson finds himself inextricably caught up in his clients' lives; their grief, their joy, their desire, and their unshakable need for resolution are very much like his own.
Kate Atkinson's celebrated talent makes for a novel that positively sparkles with surprise, comedy, tragedy, and constant, page-turning delight.
from Reading Group Guides
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (11/2010-SF)
Summary
Born in Brooklyn, New York on 19 August 1930, Frank McCourt was the eldest son of Malachy and Angela McCourt. Frank McCourt lived in New York with his parents and four younger siblings: Malachy, born in 1931; twins Oliver and Eugene, born in 1932; and a younger sister, Margaret, who died just a few weeks after birth, in 1935. Following this first tragedy, his family moved back to Ireland, where the twin brothers died within a year of the family's arrival and where Frank's youngest brothers, Michael (b. 1936) and Alphie (b. 1940), were born.
Life in Ireland, specifically life in Limerick City, during the 1930s and 1940s is described in all its grittiness. The family lived in a dilapidated, unpaved lane of houses that regularly flooded and where they shared one outdoor toilet with all their neighbors. Although his father taught the children Irish stories and songs, he was an alcoholic and seldom found work. When he did find work, he spent his pay in the pubs. His family was forced to live on the dole since he could not hold down a paying job for very long due to his alcoholism. The father would often pick up and spend the welfare payment before Angela could get her hands on it. For years the family subsisted on little more than bread and tea. They lived in fear of eternal damnation for not praying or doing devotions as often as prescribed by Roman Catholic Church authorities. Despite all the hardships, many passages of the story are told with wry humor and charm.
Frank's father eventually found a job at a defence plant in Coventry, England, yet he sent money back to his struggling family in Ireland only once. As there were few jobs for women at the time, their mother was forced to ask for help from the Church and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. Sometimes, Frank and his brothers scavenged for lumps of coal or peat turf for fuel or stole bread in order to survive. Angela's mother (a widow) and sister refused to help because they disapproved of her husband, mostly because he was from Northern Ireland.
In the damp, cold climate of Ireland, each child had only one set of ragged clothes, patched shoes, and lacked a coat. Frank developed typhoid and was hospitalized. Later, he got a job helping a neighbor who had leg problems; he delivered coal for the neighbor and as a result developed chronic conjunctivitis. The family was finally evicted after they took a hatchet to the walls of their rented home to burn for heat. The family was forced to move in with a distant relative who treated them very badly and eventually forced a sexual relationship on Frank's mother, Angela. As a teenager, Frank worked at the post office as a telegram delivery boy and later delivered newspapers and magazines for Eason's. He also worked for the local money lender, writing threatening demand letters as a means to save enough to finally realize his dream of returning to the United States. When the money lender died, he found her hidden money, and threw her ledger of debtors into the river. The story ends with Frank's sailing into Poughkeepsie, New York, ready to begin a new life at age nineteen.
from Wikipedia
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (1/2011-PE)
Summary
“In Mongolia, when a dog dies, he is buried high in the hills so people cannot walk on his grave. The dog's master whispers into the dog's ear his wishes that the dog will return as a man in his next life. Then his tail is cut off and put beneath his head, and a piece of meat or fat is placed in his mouth to sustain his soul on its journey; before he is reincarnated, the dog's soul is freed to travel the land, to run across the high desert plains for as long as it would like.
I learned that from a program on the National Geographic channel, so I believe it is true. Not all dogs return as men, they say; only those who are ready.
I am ready.”
Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver. Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. Using the techniques needed on the race track, one can successfully navigate all of life's ordeals.
On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through: the sacrifices Denny has made to succeed professionally; the unexpected loss of Eve, Denny's wife; the three-year battle over their daughter, Zoë, whose maternal grandparents pulled every string to gain custody. In the end, despite what he sees as his own limitations, Enzo comes through heroically to preserve the Swift family, holding in his heart the dream that Denny will become a racing champion with Zoë at his side.
A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life...as only a dog could tell it.
from GarthStein.com
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick (2/2011-LM)
Summary
Rural Wisconsin, 1909. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, haunted by a terrible past and motivated by greed. Her plan is simple: she will win this man's devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is that Truitt — a passionate man with his own dark secrets —has plans of his own for his new wife. Isolated on a remote estate and imprisoned by relentless snow, the story of Ralph and Catherine unfolds in unimaginable ways. With echoes of Wuthering Heights and Rebecca , Robert Goolrick's intoxicating debut novel delivers a classic tale of suspenseful seduction, set in a world that seems to have gone temporarily off its axis.
from Shelfari.com
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (3/2011-KH)
Summary
#1 New York Times Bestseller
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
VIKING Hardcover 2006 / PENGUIN Paperback 2007
In Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time , Greg Mortenson, and journalist David Oliver Relin, recount the journey that led Mortenson from a failed 1993 attempt to climb Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain, to successfully establish schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. By replacing guns with pencils, rhetoric with reading, Mortenson combines his unique background with his intimate knowledge of the third-world to promote peace with books, not bombs, and successfully bring education and hope to remote communities in central Asia. Three Cups of Tea is at once an unforgettable adventure and the inspiring true story of how one man really is changing the world—one school at a time.
In 1993 Mortenson was descending from his failed attempt to reach the peak of K2. Exhausted and disoriented, he wandered away from his group into the most desolate reaches of northern Pakistan. Alone, without food, water, or shelter he stumbled into an impoverished Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health.
While recovering he observed the village’s 84 children sitting outdoors, scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks. The village was so poor that it could not afford the $1-a-day salary to hire a teacher. When he left the village, he promised that he would return to build them a school. From that rash, heartfelt promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time.
In an early effort to raise money he wrote letters to 580 celebrities, businessmen, and other prominent Americans. His only reply was a $100 check from NBC’s Tom Brokaw. Selling everything he owned, he still only raised $2,400. But his efforts changed when a group of elementary school children in River Falls, Wisconsin, donated $623.40 in pennies, who inspired adults to begin to take action. The 283 foot Braldu Bridge (pictured above) was completed in 1995 and the Korphe School (left) was completed in 1996. Since then, he’s established 78 schools. In pursuit of his goal, Mortenson has survived an armed kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, repeated death threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and children. Yet his success speaks for itself.
from ThreeCupsofTea.com
The Help by Kathryn Stockett (4/2011-LB)
Summary
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.
from KathrynStockett.com
The Late, Lamented Molly Marx by Sally Koslow (5/2011-MER)
Summary
A smart, entertaining, and heartfelt novel about a woman coming to terms with decisions she can never reverse
Molly Marx led an enviable life—until she was found dead along the bank of the Hudson River. A young wife and mother, Molly now finds herself in The Duration, where, with the help of a refreshingly unorthodox guide, she can observe the friends and family she left behind: her plastic surgeon husband who even in mourning can’t control his wandering eye, the handsome colleague she found irresistible, a fiercely competitive twin sister, her controlling mother-in-law, a loyal but confused friend, and—most important—her purest love, a three-year-old daughter. As Molly watches them try to untangle the events leading to her mysterious end, she relives her past and learns the fates of those she cherished most (and least).
Exploring marriage, fidelity, friendship, family, and mortality, The Late, Lamented Molly Marx is a playful yet tender love story about a flawed but charming woman, forced—better late than never—to take responsibility for the choices in her complicated life.
from Sally Koslow.com
