Ashland Books @ Noon November 2019 Picks

1) Quichotte: a novel

Author

Rushdie, Salman

Notes

Kristin said she read this during the month as well and remembered why she liked Rushdie's style.

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

Click to view

"Quichotte, an aging traveling salesman obsessed with the "unreal real" of TV, falls in impossible love with a queen of the screen; while obsessively writing her love letters, he wishes an imaginary son, Sancho, into existence. Together they set off across America in Quichotte's trusty Chevy Cruze to find her and convince her of his love. Meanwhile, Quichotte's tragicomic story is being told by the author who created him: Brother, a mediocre spy novelist...

2) The horse, the wheel, and language: how bronze-age riders from the Eurasian steppes shaped the modern world

Author

Anthony, David W

Notes

Bill was mid-way through enjoying this nonfiction title.

Formats:

Book, eBook

Description

Click to view

"Roughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did they manage to spread it around the globe? Until now their identity has remained a tantalizing mystery to linguists, archaeologists, and even Nazis seeking the roots of the Aryan race. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language lifts the veil that has long shrouded...

3) 21 lessons for the 21st century

Author

Harari, Yuval N

Notes

Sandra talked briefly about this one (your intrepid note-taker stopped taking good notes during "speed round")...apologies!

Formats:

Book, Book - Hardback

Description

Click to view

How do computers and robots change the meaning of being human? How do we deal with the epidemic of fake news? Are nations and religions still relevant? What should we teach our children? As technology advances faster than our understanding of it, hacking becomes a tactic of war, and the world feels more polarized than ever, Yuval Harari addresses the challenge of navigating life in the face of constant and disorienting change and raises the important...

4) American spy

Author

Wilkinson, Lauren

Series

Thorndike Press large print African-American

Notes

Pat enjoyed this spy novel set in the US and Burkina Faso in the eighties.

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, Large Print - Hardback

Description

Click to view

“American Spy updates the espionage thriller with blazing originality.”—Entertainment Weekly
“There has never been anything like it.”—Marlon James, GQ
“So much fun . . . Like the best of John le Carré, it’s extremely tough to put down.”—NPR
NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY CHICAGO TRIBUNE AND...

5) Rules for visiting: a novel

Author

Kane, Jessica Francis

Series

Thorndike Press large print women's fiction

Notes

Caroline read this book she described as "charming" and "beautifully written."

Formats:

Book, Large Print - Hardback

Description

Click to view

"At forty, May Attaway is more at home with plants than people. Over the years, she's turned inward, finding pleasure in language, her work as a gardener, and keeping her neighbors at arm's length while keenly observing them. Granted some leave from her job, May is inspired to reconnect with four once-close friends. She knows they will never have a proper reunion, so she goes to each of them one-by-one--choosing to bypass their perfectly cultivated...

6) The Great Society

Author

Schenkkan, Robert

7) All the way

Author

Schenkkan, Robert

Formats:

Book, Book - Paperback

Description

Click to view

"Chronicles the first 11 months of Lyndon Baines Johnson's presidency. The story tells how nation-shifting legislation was accomplished and how the presidency was won in 1964"--Director's note.

8) Night

Author

Wiesel, Elie

Series

Night Trilogy

Formats:

Book, Book - Paperback, eAudiobook

Description

Click to view

The narrative of a boy who lived through Auschwitz and Buchenwald provides a short and terrible indictment of modern humanity.

9) The girl who smiled beads: a story of war and what comes after

Author

Wamariya, Clemantine

Notes

Kristin read this powerful memoir of the experiences of a young girl who survived the Rwandan genocide. While she has had a successful life in America, she makes some really powerful points about the fact that her success shouldn't be seen as a "feel good" story given the number of people who lost their lives and/or suffered terribly as a result of internal racial hatred (set in motion by Belgian colonialism). Serious and powerful, but important! Would be good to read in conjunction with "Night" (linked below).

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

Click to view

"Clemantine Wamariya was six years old when her mother and father began to speak in whispers, when neighbors began to disappear, and when she heard the loud, ugly sounds her brother said were thunder. It was 1994, and in 100 days more than 800,000 people would be murdered in Rwanda and millions more displaced. Clemantine and her fifteen-year-old sister, Claire, ran and spent the next six years wandering through seven African countries searching for...

10) Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine

Author

Honeyman, Gail

Series

Thorndike Press large print basic

Notes

Bonnie said she had passed this by when it was really new and buzzy...but she is grateful she picked it up now. A "wonderful journey."

Formats:

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

Description

Click to view

""Move over, Ove (in Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove)--there's a new curmudgeon to love." --Booklist (starred review). "Eleanor Oliphant is a truly original literary creation: funny, touching, and unpredictable. Her journey out of dark shadows is absolutely gripping."--Jojo Moyes, #1New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You. "Deft, compassionate and deeply moving -- Honeyman's debut will have you rooting for Eleanor with every turning...

11) Less: a novel

Author

Greer, Andrew Sean

Series

Arthur Less novels volume 1

Notes

Claudia read and enjoyed this satire after having it recommended to her by our very own Amy B! It's been out for a while now and no waiting required to check it out.

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

Click to view

A struggling novelist travels the world to avoid an awkward wedding in this hilarious Pulitzer Prize-winning novel full of "arresting lyricism and beauty" (The New York Times Book Review).
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
National Bestseller
A New York Times Notable Book of 2017
A Washington Post Top Ten Book of 2017
A San Francisco Chronicle...

12) Pachinko

Author

Lee, Min Jin

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, Book - Hardback, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

Click to view

"A new tour de force from the bestselling author of Free Food for Millionaires, for readers of The Kite Runner and Cutting for Stone. PACHINKO follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them all. Deserted by her lover, Sunja is saved when a young tubercular minister offers to marry and bring her to Japan....

13) Yogi Berra: eternal Yankee

Author

Barra, Allen

Notes

Bill read an old biography of Yogi Berra he found in a used book store. While it was evident that the book he described wouldn't likely be in the library collection due to its age...members whose curiosity was piqued may find this biography a worthy substitute.

14) The station master's wife: a novel

Author

DeMarinis, S.K

Notes

Beverly read this novel because of its local theme and author.

Formats:

Book, Book - Paperback

Description

Click to view

"1887, Ashland Oregon" - Alice's family story reveals secret passions, the grit of a single mother, and betrayals by men. Set amoung true historical events that span half a century.

15) Brown girl dreaming

Author

Woodson, Jacqueline

Formats:

Book, Book - Paperback, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

Click to view

"Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and...

16) Another Brooklyn: a novel

Author

Woodson, Jacqueline

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook

Description

Click to view

For August, running into a long-ago friend sets in motion resonant memories and transports her to a time and a place she thought she had mislaid: 1970s Brooklyn, where friendship was everything. August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi shared confidences as they ambled their neighborhood streets, a place where the girls believed that they were amazingly beautiful, brilliantly talented, with a future that belonged to them. But beneath the hopeful promise there...

17) Lincoln in the bardo: a novel

Author

Saunders, George

Series

Thorndike Press large print basic

Formats:

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

Description

Click to view

"February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. 'My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,' the president...

18) Red at the bone

Author

Woodson, Jacqueline

Notes

Sandra listened to this new novel by Woodson and enjoyed it enough to wonder what she should read next. Brown Girl Dreaming (middle grade memoir) and Another Brooklyn (adult novel) were both mentioned as strong candidates (linked below). Sandra found the full-cast audio recording well done and likened it to the experience of listening to Lincoln in the Bardo (linked below).

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook, Large Print - Hardback

Description

Click to view

Named one of the Most Anticipated Books of 2019 by LitHub and The Millions.
Called one of the Top 10 Literary Fiction titles of Fall by Publishers Weekly.
An extraordinary new novel about the influence of history on a contemporary family, from the New York Times-bestselling and National Book Award-winning author of Another Brooklyn and Brown Girl Dreaming.
Two families from...

19) The book of gutsy women

Author

Clinton, Hillary Rodham

Notes

Cathy was in the midst of reading this after seeing the Clintons in San Francisco. She said they did a really good job of finding both main stream women AND women more off the beaten path who also qualify as "gutsy."

20) Bel canto: a novel

Author

Patchett, Ann

Notes

There was some side conversation about other books by Patchett...most notably Bel Canto, which most members had read.

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Large Print - Hardback

Description

Click to view

Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award • Winner of the Orange Prize • National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist

"Bel Canto is its own universe. A marvel of a book." —Washington Post Book World

New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett's spellbinding novel about love and opera, and the unifying ways people learn to communicate across cultural barriers in times of crisis

Somewhere

...