Ashland Books at Noon March 2019 Picks

Author

Notes

Also from Ahna. She says: "a lovely tribute to a beloved mother, a voracious reader, as was the whole family, including the author who is a publisher. The stunning feature of the book is the back and forth discussions between son and mother as she sits and waits for her chemo sessions; as she flies to other countries to continue her huge undertaking of philanthropic commitments. The mom lived much longer than expected with a pancreatic cancer diagnosis and the reading between them covered a huge range of authors/topics. There is an afterward of the books they read and discussed. This was an auspicious read for me as my husband is dying of liver cancer."

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

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“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...

2) Fatal discord: Erasmus, Luther, and the fight for the Western mind

Author

Massing, Michael

Notes

I believe Bill also mentioned this title.

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook

Description

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A deeply textured dual biography and fascinating intellectual history that examines two of the greatest minds of European history-Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther-whose heated rivalry gave rise to two enduring, fundamental, and often colliding traditions of philosophical and religious thought. Erasmus of Rotterdam was the leading figure of the Northern Renaissance. At a time when Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael were revolutionizing Western...

3) Steppenwolf: [a novel]

Author

Hesse, Hermann

Notes

Bill has been on a rereading kick...and this is one of those.

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

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With its blend of Eastern mysticism and Western culture, Hesse's best-known and most autobiographical work is one of literature's most poetic evocations of the soul's journey to liberation

Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes

...

4) The library book

Author

Orlean, Susan

Series

Thorndike Press large print popular and narrative nonfiction

Notes

Rad read this one as well. It's definitely an interesting story of libraries, the LA library, and, most specifically, the arson that impacted the LA Library in the 80s.

Formats:

Book, Audiobook on CD, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Large Print - Hardback

Description

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"On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual false alarm. As one fireman recounted later, "Once that first stack got going, it was 'Goodbye, Charlie." The fire was disastrous: it reached 2000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed...

5) gospel of judas

This entry no longer exists in the catalog

6) Prague Spring: A Novel

Author

Mawer, Simon

Notes

I'm pretty sure this was from Sandra as an example of books she's loved...but my notes have gotten spotty at this point :(

Formats:

eBook, Kindle

Description

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New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Room Simon Mawer returns to Czechoslovakia, this time during the turbulent 1960s, with a suspenseful story that mixes sex, politics, and betrayal.
In the summer of 1968—a year of love and hate, of Prague Spring and Cold War winter—Oxford students James Borthwick and Eleanor Pike set out to hitchhike across Europe, complicating a budding friendship that could be something...

7) An American marriage: a novel

Author

Jones, Tayari

Series

Oprah's Book Club

Notes

Speaking of American Marriage, Pat brought it. She particularly liked the ending.

Formats:

Book, Audiobook on CD, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

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Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft...

8) What in God's name: a novel

Author

Rich, Simon

Notes

Nina's second pick was this one. The series Miracle Workers is based on it..

9) Things fall apart

Author

Achebe, Chinua

Series

African trilogy (Chinua Achebe) volume 1

Notes

Rad read this classic. We were surprised to learn that it was a part of a series set in the same village!

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

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The contemporary African writer's classic novel depicting the destruction of traditional tribal life by the white man

10) The sound of a wild snail eating

Author

Bailey, Elisabeth Tova

Notes

Our new friend Sandra talked about this one. She said it's a really good one for book groups and one she gives as a gift and has reread.

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

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Winner of The Saroyan International Prize for Writing, the John Burroughs Medal, and the National Outdoor Book Award in Natural History Literature "Brilliant." -The New York Review of Books "Exquisite." -The Huffington Post "Magical." -Minneapolis Star Tribune In a work that beautifully demonstrates the rewards of closely observing nature, Elisabeth Tova Bailey shares an inspiring and intimate story of her encounter with a Neohelix...

11) map of salt and stars

This entry no longer exists in the catalog

12) Just kids

Author

Smith, Patti

Notes

OK...this is where your scribe admits that she did a lousy job of keeping track of who read what...my notes have comments, but not always names. And since I'm transcribing late I can't fill in the holes. Boo :( So this is where I say I don't have the name to go with this title...maybe still Nina? It'll go down hill from here on it, just to warn you. This reader loved the representation of the 60s/70s New York scene.

Formats:

Book, Audiobook on CD, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Paperback

Description

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WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation.
Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his highly provocative style toward photography. Bound in innocence and enthusiasm, they traversed the city from Coney

...

13) The travelling cat chronicles

Author

Arikawa, Hiro

Series

Thorndike Press large print core

Notes

Nina loved this one! She mentioned it briefly before talking about...

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle, Large Print

Description

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"A life-affirming anthem to kindness and self-sacrifice, The Travelling Cat Chronicles shows how the smallest things can provide the greatest joy. We take journeys to explore exotic new places and to return to the comforts of home, to visit old acquaintances and to make new friends. But the most important journey is the one that shows us how to follow our hearts... An instant international bestseller, The Travelling Cat Chronicles has charmed readers...

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Ashland Books at Noon March 2019 Picks