7/4/2018 0 Comments Longbourn by Jo Baker
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How I Found: My best friend sent me this for my birthday with a note saying, "I've wanted to read this and so I thought you could too, and it would be like our own little book club." This is definitely a two-person book club book, a best-friend book club book. Incredibly personal and heart-wrenching, Alexie bares his soul, his grief for both his mother and his culture in a patchwork of prose and poetry that might reveal how the perpetrated can become the perpetrator. Having grown up in the farm towns near the reservation he lived in and high school he went to made the words that much more poignant and powerful for me. Why You Might Read: A memoir for and of his mother, Alexie reveals that complex relationship of mother and child. Each needing the other but also needing to grow with and from one another. He revels in the gifts she left him, " . . . a trust fund/Of words, words, and words/That exist in me/Like dinosaurs live in birds" while simultaneously mourning what she could not provide and taking with her Spokane words and thoughts that will never be spoken or thought again. Extremely private, this book should be read by those seeking perspective with eyes wide open and reserved for quiet and contemplative conversation suited only for those with whom you can talk with souls laid bare. For more Native American perspective see "Missing More Than a Word" from Tanaya Winder in the June Issue of Poetry Magazine. Tell Me: Have you read this book? What did you think?
5/20/2018 0 Comments Less by Andrew Sean Greer
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5/8/2018 0 Comments My Antonia by Willa Cather
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How I Found: This is a reread. This is one I wish I had a record of my first reaction to reading twenty years ago. I imagine myself a teenaged-girl shocked by the reality presented, now a thirty-something stunned not by the reality of the book but of our own. Although this is still a future as yet unrealized, what creates the reality isn't too far-fetched from our own. Offred speaks of her compatriots of her past, explaining, "We were revisionists. What we revised was ourselves," and we do: change and change and change but never reflect. Why You Might Read: If you're looking for a reality check, "Hey, at least we're not there, yet," this is one that presents frightening possibilities that may help us look in the mirror and not shout for change, but for a look at what has been created and how we might each be complicit as our narrator admits. The answer to this tale isn't in Offred's retelling, though, but the Historical Notes that reveal what we leave as record is all that's left, and if it doesn't exist in tangle form, it's as good as a forgotten memory about a book once read. Tell Me: Have you read this book? What did you think?
12/31/2017 0 Comments Here We Are by Oliver JeffersHow I Found: Oliver Jeffers is rad. If he has a new book, it must be mine. With an artistic style all his own matched with stories both witty (This Moose Belongs to Me) and heart-wrenching (The Heart in the Bottle), he has the power to both entertain and engage the reader in a thought-provoking journey. Here We Are is no exception as the narrator explains both where we are in space and what it means to live, and be humane, on Earth. Why You Might Read: Whether it's to your children, or not, this book puts our Earthly existence in perspective. Jeffers takes the feeling of looking into the infinity of space and puts it between your hands--a mighty responsibility, but one the narrator seems to trust each of us with. If only we'd trust each other just as much, that too would be rad. Tell Me: Have you read this book? What did you think?
How I Found: I have always been drawn to art and artist's inspiration. My poetry is often inspired by artwork, so when I came across A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline who in turn was inspired by Andrew Wyeth's painting Christina's World, I was immediately pulled into the work. A novel that reveals who Christina and the artist are with fragmentation and flashback builds the world of a farm girl crippled in childhood who longs for all of the experiences the world has to offer but finds most of them come right to her doorstep. Why You Might Read: Kline paints with the vivid strokes of her words reminiscent of both Emily Dickinson and Willa Cather who also comment on rural isolation and play a role in Christina's growth. Christina becomes a woman in fits and starts and finally realizes, "The older I get, the more I believe that the greatest kindness is acceptance" which she finally finds when Andy finishes his greatest work--an inspiring comment on what we all seek to find and, hopefully, in turn, seek to give. Tell Me: Have you read this book? What did you think?
11/25/2017 0 Comments To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
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11/13/2017 0 Comments Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
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11/8/2017 0 Comments There by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick
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S.M.(M).LI 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. Archives
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