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7/18/2021 0 Comments

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

How I Found: Sitting at the bottom of a pile of books lent by a friend, I'm glad I inadvertently saved this one for last. This novel covers the lives of twin girls, both remarkably light-skinned even in a town which prides itself on this trait revealing how even when our skin color doesn't give us away our heritage still holds power over us.
Why You Might Read: As the twins Stella and Desiree become women, their lives divide and reveal how our choices influence our life just as much as our past, though, and we are reminded, "Memory works that way—like seeing forward and backward at the same time." But this novel isn't just about our individual memory, but our collective one and how we must reconcile where we came from with where we are going.
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7/18/2021 0 Comments

Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

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How I Found: As a farm girl, I was enticed by the sky blue cover with golden stalks of wheat, and I wasn't disappointed to discover characters like Elsa and her in-laws who also feel intrinsically tied to the land that raised them. This novel, though, is about moving on, letting go, and recognizing our failures as humans.
Why You Might Read: By focusing on the Great Depression, the dust bowl, and migration, this book is prescient: when the farmers won't acknowledge their role in disturbing the soil, when the migrants are believed to carry diseases and are shunned by their employers, when the workers are too fearful to unionize. This book is a reminder to look to the past in order to learn from those failures---"As we know, there are lessons to be learned from history. Hope to be derived from hardships faced before. We've gone through bad times before and survived, even thrived. History has shown us the strength and durability of the human spirit, In the end, it is our idealism and our courage and our commitment to one another--what we have in common--that will save us."
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7/18/2021 0 Comments

Afterlife by Julia Alvarez

How I Found: Passed on to me by another lover of Alvarez’s books, I carried this one with me for months, then it read it in hours. Surprisingly brief, like life, we read of Antonia’s experience as a widow among a sisterhood that both supports and entangles her as she tries to generate an afterlife for her late husband.
Why You Might Read: Antonia’s immigrant experience isn’t detailed, but she lives among undocumented workers whose fear of being discovered reveals her own assimilation which she analyzes like the novels and poems she taught throughout her career. She uses others words when she has none of her own for the inexplicable, beautiful, and heart-wrenching events that are her life. Ultimately, we are left knowing, “[Life] tells a story. That it has been broken.”
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7/14/2020 0 Comments

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

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How I Found:  Seeking a perspective beyond my limited life experiences, I came across this book that pulled me in with its title and colorful cover.  Little did I know that I would go on a journey through twelve black, British women's lives who became interconnected in striking and unexpected ways.  More importantly, though, was the moment that reality shifted, and I realized how much my perspective differed from these women.  For me, that was when Winsome lists her favorite authors, "Olive Senior from Jamaica, Rosa Guy from Trinidad, Pauly Marshal from Barbados, Jamaica Kincaid from Antigua, and Maryse Condé from Guadalupe; her favorite poetry book is called I is a Long Memoried Woman by a Guyanese lady called Grace Nichols We the Women Whose Praises Go Unsung Whose Voices Go Unheard."  Of these authors, I had only read from one and heard of none of the others.  Winsome then goes on to list several white authors, all of whom I had heard of and read from. 
Why You Might Read:  To see how this book might broaden your perspective and shift your reality.  With twelve characters to follow, it almost certainly will.  Winsome goes on to explain that, "She and the reading group had a big argument, no it wasn't no argument, it was a debate the other day about whether a poem was good because they related to it or whether it was good in and of itself."  As an avid reader, I've come to the understanding that it isn't about whether or not you see yourself in the book, but whose eyes you can learn to see through.  The characters of books are as wild and varied as the humans in the world; without reading we just get the one life, with it we can seek to understand and live as many lives as books we care to open, and this one lead me to author's I look forward to getting acquainted with and twelve new friends I'll never forget. 
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7/8/2020 0 Comments

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

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How I Found: This was part of a three-pack at Costco which my daughter and I can never go past without bringing home new book-friends. Z picked these, and I was intrigued by the award-winners. This one tells a story of a young girl in Vietnam who must escape with her family during the war. After a long boat journey they arrive in Alabama only to be confronted with xenophobia.
Why You Might Read: Much like Out of the Dust, it is written in everyday poetry. It is such a simple read, but it packs a powerful punch for readers both young and old, giving perspective on the immigrant experience and what it means to be a stranger in a strange land with a strange language.
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7/8/2020 0 Comments

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton

How I Found: This one was laying around in the lake cabin, but I was tempted by the two intertwined tales of Havana in 1958 and Miami in 2017. Getting to travel not only between two locales but two time periods added to my understanding of the Cuban Revolution while highlighting the distinction between those who left and those who were left behind. Both Elisa and Marisol find themselves unwittingly wrapped up in romance, but it is weighted in the disparities of those with and without privilege.
Why You Might Read: Surprisingly this book provides a parallel in many ways to the situation in which the US finds itself in 2020. Those who have been lucky enough to be born into the “haves” are forced to look within and recognize their role in holding back the “have-nots.” Like Marisol, we need to recognize, “The line between hero and villain is a precariously fragile one,” and like her we get to decide which side of the line we stand on regardless of the circumstances of our birth.

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7/8/2020 0 Comments

Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy

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How I found: Well, I grew up with Anne, so naturally I could not pass by a chance to hear from an old friend, one I may have overlooked. I’m not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t to feel so deeply connected to a woman I had essentially ignored through all my readings and viewings. Here Marilla was, though, with an unforgettable backstory that answered all the questions I never asked: What was Rachel like as a young girl, Matthew a young man and perhaps, most importantly, what happened between Marilla and John Blithe?
Why You Might Read: To answer these questions, of course! But, also to recognize that what you may have perceived as a cold demeanor only to be melted by an orphan girl’s love was really a patched up heart steeling itself against an overflow of emotion because, “Tears were misunderstood . . . and used inappropriately most often. They were designed as a private response of being. Because sometimes life filled you to the brim and spilled over.” If Anne was a kindred spirit to you, Marilla will be too; don’t let her go overlooked anymore.
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7/8/2020 0 Comments

The Scent Keeper's Daughter by Erica Bauermeister

How I Found: With this one I was intrigued by the title. Scent is one of the most powerful triggers of memory and an often overlooked sense when using imagery. Bauermeister did not disappoint. In fact she inter-laid memory with imagery in such a way that the settings came alive along with the characters.
Why You Might Read: What starts as a fairy tale peels into a reality we wish we could close and return to childhood with the pull of the scents, but as Emmeline grows she realizes, “We all just go along catching glimpses of each other thinking we know everything,” and we learn with her to forgive our loved ones and ourselves even when the choices we have made permeate our very being.
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7/8/2020 0 Comments

Where the Crawdad Sings by Delia Owens

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How I Found: This one was recommended by my mother who is as a mother should be—-constant and strong, come what may, but that is not the mother or any family member Kya had. Left alone she becomes the marsh girl, a fearsome creature subject to ridicule and savagery. Through her we discover the power of nature to nurture.
Why You Might Read: The imagery of the marsh and the character it creates will pull you in and convince you of Kya’s goodness, as steadfast as that of the beauty of nature because, “Most of what she knew, she'd learned from the wild. Nature had nurtured, tutored, and protected her when no one else would.“ Nature became her mother and taught her what she needed to survive, come what may.
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4/17/2020 0 Comments

The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia

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How I Found: I’m not even sure. This one came to me like a baby found under a bridge, an unexpected bit of magic that will forever alter the road forward. This book steadily builds in beauty and suspense; you know that the beauty alone can’t last without some terrible ugliness to offset it. And it does. The hideous nature of human greed reveals itself, but alongside a relentless compassion that keeps you whole.
Why You Might Read: Like Beatriz, you dig in, “. . . not even in her old age would she become anybody’s shadow or be left drifting, at the mercy of other people’s decisions. She would never allow herself to grind to a halt,” despite the pain she, her son, and godson endures. This book is modeled directly after life—all the sweetness and all the pain can be found in the murmur of bees.
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    S.M.(M).L

    I am a reader who was brought to the world of books by being read to as a child, a wonderful librarian, scores of dedicated teachers, and the friends who still talk to me about books.  This page is dedicated to all readers as a way to help you find books for you and yours as they were found by me. Let their pages turn your life into a world of magic, reality, and possibility.  

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