Ashland Books @ Noon September 2019 Picks

Author

Notes

Emailed in from Ahna: One of the many, many poetry books by a former US Poet Laureate. Gorgeous. But like all poetry, is meant to be read out loud. More on this one later.

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

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The former US poet laureate delivers a book "filled with raw sexual disclosures, rowdy anger and a self-blasting mockery" (The New York Times).
Donald Hall's fourteenth collection opens with an epigraph from the Urdu poet Faiz: "The true subject of poetry is the loss of the beloved." In that poetic tradition, as in The Painted Bed, the beloved might be a person or something else—life itself, or the disappearing countryside....

2) Autumn light: season of fire and farewells

Author

Iyer, Pico

Notes

Emailed in from Ahna: Another wonderful read by one of my very favorites. He has matured and lives permanently in Japan (between his travels as a journalist) with his Japanese wife of 26 years. The adjustment has been and still is taking place for this Indian man in this very comforting, but ver foreign landscape: the people, the mores, the connection with neighbors, neighborhoods, weekly table tennis partners, tight living spaces, ubiquitous shrines and prayerful rituals..... My very first read by this author The Lady and the Monk ws a winner.

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"From one of our most astute observers of human nature, a far-reaching exploration of Japanese history and culture and a moving meditation on impermanence, mortality, and grief. For years, Pico Iyer has split his time between California and Nara, Japan, where he and his Japanese wife Hiroko have a small home. But when his father-in-law dies suddenly, calling him back to Japan earlier than expected, Iyer begins to grapple with the question we all have...

3) Sapiens: a brief history of humankind

Author

Harari, Yuval N

Notes

Bill shared this title with us as well...sadly my notetaking deteriorated at this point and I didn't capture his thoughts...but I remember them being positive!

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, Audiobook MP3 CD, Book - Hardback

Description

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"From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity's creation and evolution--a #1 international bestseller--that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be "human." One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one--homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us? Most...

4) Growing up

Author

Baker, Russell

Notes

Claudia loved this funny, self-deprecating memoir.

Formats:

Book - Hardback, eBook

Description

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Ranging from the backwoods of Virginia to a New Jersey commuter town to the city of Baltimore, this remarkable memoir recounts Russell Baker's experience of growing up in pre–World War II America, before he went on to a celebrated career in journalism. With poignant, humorous tales of powerful love, awkward sex, and courage in the face of adversity, Baker reveals how he helped his mother and family through the Great Depression by delivering papers...

5) Life after life: a novel

Author

Atkinson, Kate

Series

Todd Family

Formats:

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

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"What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards...

6) Give people money: how a universal basic income would end poverty, revolutionize work, and remake the world

Author

Lowrey, Annie

Notes

Emailed in from Ahna: Sounds horrifying? Sounds promising? But will we all wind up spending it on booze or drugs or ??? This UBI program has been in place successfully in other countries. The author poses that the greedy mentality of capitalism (with a $7.25 minimum U.S. wage has put many families in/below poverty living. The book has a great biblio. and reads like a textbook/novel. A real eye-opener for me.

Description

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Imagine if every month the government deposited $1,000 into your bank account, with nothing expected in return. It sounds crazy. But it has become one of the most influential and hotly debated policy ideas of our time. Futurists, radicals, libertarians, socialists, union representatives, feminists, conservatives, Bernie supporters, development economists, child-care workers, welfare recipients, and politicians from India to Finland to Canada to Mexico--all...

7) I am, I am, I am: seventeen brushes with death

Author

O'Farrell, Maggie

Notes

Saundra enjoyed this structurally uniquely structured memoir.

Formats:

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

Description

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An extraordinarily intimate memoir of the near death experiences that have made Maggie O'Farrell the woman and the writer she is today. A childhood illness she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. A terrifying encounter on a remote path. A mismanaged labour in an understaffed hospital. This is a memoir with a difference: seventeen encounters with Maggie at different ages, in different locations,...

8) Robin

Author

Itzkoff, Dave

Notes

Bonnie thought this biography was great on audio. She said that the reader captured Mr. Williams voice incredibly well.

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook

Description

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This program includes a prologue and epilogue read by the author.
From New York Times culture reporter Dave Itzkoff, comes the definitive audiobook biography of Robin Williams – a compelling portrait of one of America's most beloved and misunderstood entertainers.
From his rapid-fire stand-up comedy riffs to his breakout role in Mork & Mindy and his Academy Award-winning performance in Good Will

...

9) Pachinko

Author

Lee, Min Jin

Notes

Kristin loved the layers and metaphors in this lovely multi-generational tale of Koreans living in Japan throughout the twentieth century.

Formats:

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

Description

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"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....

10) On writing: a memoir of the craft

Author

King, Stephen

Notes

Carolyn is super busy writing right now and is not reading as much as she does usually, but is enjoying this writing memoir by King!

Formats:

Book, Book - Paperback, eAudiobook

Description

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Twentieth Anniversary Edition with Contributions from Joe Hill and Owen King
ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S TOP 100 NONFICTION BOOKS OF ALL TIME

Immensely helpful and illuminating to any aspiring writer, this special edition of Stephen King's critically lauded, million-copy bestseller shares the experiences, habits, and convictions that have shaped him and his work.

"Long live the King" hailed Entertainment Weekly...

11) The nightingale

Author

Hannah, Kristin

Formats:

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

Description

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A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK

A #1 New York Times bestseller, Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year, and soon to be a major motion picture, this unforgettable novel of love and strength in the face of war has enthralled a generation.
With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen:

...

12) Force of circumstance: the autobiography of Simone de Beauvoir

Author

Beauvoir, Simone de

13) Code name Verity

Author

Wein, Elizabeth

Series

Code name Verity volume 1

Formats:

Book, Book - Paperback, eBook, Kindle

Description

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In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must to survive while keeping secret all that she can.

14) Madame Fourcade's secret war: the daring young woman who led France's largest spy network against Hitler

Author

Olson, Lynne

Notes

Saundra really enjoyed this true account of a woman in a leadership role in the French resistance. It created a list of ideas of readalikes from others in the room, which are linked below.

Formats:

Book - Hardback, eAudiobook

Description

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The little-known true story of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the woman who headed the largest spy network in occupied France during World War II, from the bestselling author of Citizens of London and Last Hope Island
“Brava to Lynne Olson for a biography that should challenge any outdated assumptions about who deserves to be called a hero.”—The Washington Post
NAMED...

15) Jeff in Venice, death in Varanasi

Author

Dyer, Geoff

Notes

Bonnie loved the settings and beautiful writing of this book.

Formats:

Book - Paperback, eBook, Kindle

Description

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A New York Times Notable Book
A Best Book of the Year: The Economist, The New Yorker, San Francisco Chronicle, Slate.com, and Time

In Venice, at the Biennale, a jaded, bellini-swigging journalist named Jeff Atman meets a beautiful woman and they embark on a passionate affair.
In Varanasi, an unnamed journalist (who may or may not be Jeff) joins thousands of pilgrims on the banks of the holy Ganges....

16) Cadillac desert: the American West and its disappearing water

Author

Reisner, Marc

Notes

Kristin mentioned that there were elements of The Library Book that reminded her of this oldie-but-goodie.

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

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The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruptions and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster. In Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests

...

17) The library book

Author

Orlean, Susan

Series

Thorndike Press large print popular and narrative nonfiction

Notes

Claudia loved this one...which we've discussed before. A must read for library lovers!

Formats:

Book, Audiobook 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...

18) Gods of the upper air: how a circle of renegade anthropologists reinvented race, sex, and gender in the twentieth century

Author

King, Charles

Notes

This title is right in Nina's anthropological wheelhouse...so she was a fan. Suspect some of the rest of us may find this interesting as well!

19) Daisy Jones & the Six: a novel

Author

Reid, Taylor Jenkins

Notes

Kristin kicked things off with this tale of a fictional iconic 70s rock band. Super fun and FANTASTIC on audio. (I linked to the book because I always link to the book...but I assure you, it's available in and amazing on audio. You should be able to get there by clicking on the title and changing format from there.)

Formats:

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

Description

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"Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go-Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it's the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she's twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Another band getting noticed is The Six, led by the brooding Billy Dunne....