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1 Fiction 0 Pleasure Reading Suggestions for Faculty, Staff, Parents, and Alumnae November 2011 Crile Libray ry

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Fiction and non-fiction books for faculty, staff, alumnae, and friends.

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Page 1: Adult Reading Suggestions

1

Fiction

0

Pleasure Reading

Suggestions for Faculty, Staff,

Parents, and Alumnae

November 2011

One Lyman Circle

Shaker Heights, OH 44122

Crile Libray

ry

Page 2: Adult Reading Suggestions

2

A selection of titles

compiled and edited

By

Mary Ann Hile, Librarian

Crile Library and Ruhlman Resource Center

With gratitude to all my reading friends

who have inspired me through my Laurel years.

Page 3: Adult Reading Suggestions

3

Fiction 4

Non-Fiction 12

Past Favorites 17

Book Club Selections 18

Contents

Page 4: Adult Reading Suggestions

4

FictionFicti

Balfer, Lauren. Fierce Radiance Claire Shipley is a single mother haunted by the

death of her young daughter and by her divorce

years ago. As an ambitious photojournalist in the

days after Pearl Harbor, she finds herself on top

of one of the nation's most important stories. In

the labs of New York City's Rockefeller Institute,

some of the brightest doctors and researchers

are racing to find a cure that will save the lives

of thousands of wounded American soldiers—a

miraculous new drug called penicillin. Little does

Claire suspect how much the story will change

her own life.

* Bohjalian, Chris. Skeletons at the Feast: A

Novel

Inspired by the unpublished diary of a Prussian

woman who fled west through Nazi Germany

ahead of the Russian Army in 1945, the novel

tells the story of Anna who flees with her

mother; a Scottish POW, whom she loves; and a

Jewish escapee from an Auschwitz-bound train,

who becomes the group's protector.

Fiction

Page 5: Adult Reading Suggestions

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* Bradley, Alan. Sweetness at the Bottom of

the Pie

Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce takes a break

from being a science prodigy when she finds a

dead body in the cucumber patch. For Flavia,

this is, by far, the most interesting that has ever

happened!

* Brooks, Geraldine. Year of Wonders: A

Novel of the Plague

As villagers begin to die from the 17th-century

plague carried from London to a small

Derbyshire village, the rest face a choice: do

they flee their village or do they stay? The lord

of the manor and his family pack up and leave.

The rector argues that the villagers should

isolate themselves from neighboring towns and

villages to prevent the contagion from spreading.

The villagers agree and struggle to survive apart

from the outside world. With the rector and his

wife, the narrator, the young widow Anna Frith,

tends to the dying and battles to prevent her

fellow villagers from descending into drink,

violence, and superstition. All is complicated by

the intense, inexpressible feelings she develops

for both the rector and his wife.

Page 6: Adult Reading Suggestions

6

Cole, Julian. The Amateur Historian

Two brothers, PI Rick Rounder and policeman

Sam Rounder, square up across the sibling

divide as they are both drawn into the case of a

missing girl. But the case gets more complicated

as Rick's past catches up with him, and the only

clues that the brothers have relate to a girl who

lived—and died—in poverty one hundred years

ago.

Cunningham, Michael. By Nightfall

With the blossoming of their careers, Peter and

Rebecca Harris have settled into a comfortable

mid-life. Although they have a few problems,

including a wayward daughter, they feel happy.

When Rebecca's much younger brother visits,

however, nothing will be the same again.

* Dean, Debra. Madonnas of Leningrad

Finding it more and more difficult to hold onto

memories in the present, eighty-two-year-old

Marina Buriakov retreats often to the 1940s

when, living in the basement of the Hermitage

Museum with other employees during the

German siege of Leningrad, she created a

memory room in her mind furnished with the

museum's priceless masterpieces.

Page 7: Adult Reading Suggestions

7

* Donoghue, Emma. Room: A Novel

Five-year-old Jack was born in Room and it is his

world. Ma has been held in Room since she was

nineteen, and to her it is a prison. Ma has

created a life for Jack, but she knows it’s not

enough and devises an escape plan. A story told

in the poignant and funny voice of Jack.

Goolrick, Robert. Reliable Wife

In the bitter cold of a Wisconsin winter in 1907,

wealthy businessman Ralph stands on a train

platform waiting for the woman who has

answered his advertisement for "a reliable wife."

But when Catherine steps off the train from

Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman"

Ralph is expecting. She has plans to poison him

and take his money – and he, in turn, has plans

for her.

Ishiguro, Kuzo. Never Let Me Go

Thirty-one-year-old Kathy, along with old friends

from Hailsham, a private school in England, are

forced to face the truth about their childhood

when they all come together again.

* Jordan, Hillary. Mudbound

Set in the Mississippi delta in 1946, the shaky

marriage of a cotton farmer and his city-bred

wife is further tested when the farmer’s father

then his brother and friend move in with them.

Page 8: Adult Reading Suggestions

8

Kay, Guy Gavriel. Under Heaven

Shen Tai, a general serving the Emperor of Kitai

in 8th century China, receives 250 Sardian horses

for his courage, piety and honoring of the dead.

Such an extravagant gift will attract dangerous

jealousy. He needs to find safe passage for

himself and the horses as well as to adjust to a

forever-altered life.

* Kwok, Jean. Girl in Translation

With her mother, Kimberly emigrates from Hong

Kong to Brooklyn squalor and begins a double

life: exceptional student during the day;

Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings.

Disguising the more difficult aspects of her life –

the staggering poverty, the weight of her

family’s future resting on her shoulders, and her

secret love for a Chinese factory boy who shares

none of her talent or ambitions – Kimberly learns

to translate not only her language, but herself,

as she straddles the two worlds.

* Mawer, Simon. Glass Room

Hoping to leave behind the old-world styles and

values that have shaped them, Viktor and Liesel

Landauer settle into a beautiful new home in

1920s Europe and find their marriage strained by

changing loyalties, hidden secrets, and the

dangers of the coming war.

Page 9: Adult Reading Suggestions

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* McClain, Paule. The Paris Wife: A Novel

Hadley Richardson, a quiet twenty-eight-year-old

almost-spinster, meets Ernest Hemingway.

Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the

pair set sail for Paris, where they become the

golden couple in a lively and volatile group that

includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F.

Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Though deeply in

love, the Hemingways are ill-prepared for the

hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age

Paris, which hardly values traditional notions of

family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful

women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to

pour all the richness and intensity of his life into

the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises.

Hadley strives to hold on to her sense of self as

the demands of life with Ernest grow costly. A

heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty.

Oliveria, Mary. My Name is Mary Sutter

Set during the Civil War, Mary is an expert

midwife, but local physicians refuse to formally

train her in medicine. She heads to Washington,

D.C., and gains acceptance as a nurse at the

Union Hotel hospital working in appalling

conditions. This epic is being compared to Cold

Mountain and The Widow of the South.

Page 10: Adult Reading Suggestions

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* Morton, Kate. Forgotten Garden

When a little girl is abandoned on a ship going to

Australia in 1913 and arrives with only her

clothes and a book of fairy tales, she is raised by

the dockmaster and his wife as their own; as a

young woman, she travels to England where,

over time, her own granddaughter eventually

assembles the pieces of her life's puzzle.

* Patchett, Ann. State of Wonder

A researcher at a pharmaceutical company,

Marina Singh journeys into the heart of the

Amazonian delta to check on a field team that

has been silent for two years—a dangerous

assignment that forces Marina to confront the

ghosts of her past.

* Soli, Tatjana. The Lotus Eaters

In the final days of a falling Saigon, three

photographers are brought together: Helen,

whose ambition conflicts with her desire over the

course of the fighting; Linh, the mysterious

Vietnamese man who loves her; and the violent

Sam, who is having an affair with Helen. All

three become transformed by the conflict they

are recording. In this much-heralded debut,

Tatjana Soli creates a searing portrait of three

souls trapped by their passions, contrasting the

wrenching horror of combat and the treachery of

obsession with the redemptive power of love.

Page 11: Adult Reading Suggestions

11

Vreeland, Susan. Clara and Mr. Tiffany

In reading letters written by Clara, some of

which are in a collection at Kent State University,

the author discovered that the person behind the

Tiffany leaded-glass lamp was not Louis Tiffany

but rather his glass studio manager, Clara

Driscoll. This, then, is her story.

Woodrell, Daniel. Winter’s Bone

In the poverty-stricken hills of the Ozarks, Rees

Dolly, 17, struggles daily to care for her two

brothers and an ill mother. When she learns that

her absent father, a meth addict, has put up the

family home as bond, she embarks on a

dangerous search to find him and bring him

home for an upcoming court date. A compelling

testament to how people survive in the worst of

circumstances.

Page 12: Adult Reading Suggestions

12

* Bloom, Jonathan. American Wasteland:

How America Throws Away Nearly

Half of Its Food – and What We Can

Do About It

Bloom interviews experts—from Brian Wansink

to Alice Waters to Nobel Prize-winning

economist Amartya Sen—and digs up not only

why and how we waste; but, more

importantly, he offers suggestions of what we

can do to change our ways.

Bryson, Bill. At Home: A Short History of

Private Life

Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian

parsonage in a part of England where nothing

of any great historical significance has

happened. He journeyed about his house to

“write a history of the world without leaving

home.” The bathroom provides the occasion

for a history of hygiene; the bedroom, sex,

death, and sleep; the kitchen, nutrition and

the spice trade; and so on. Whatever happens

in the world, he demonstrates, ends up in our

house.

Non-Fiction

Page 13: Adult Reading Suggestions

13

* Carr, Nicholas. The Shallows: What the

Internet is Doing to Our Brains

Drawing on neuroscience and computer

science, Carr argues that digital technology is

reversing the 'deepening of thought' that the

printed word launched. He offers a plea for

balancing our human and computer

interactions.

* Larson, Erik. In the Garden of Beasts :

Love, Terror, and an American Family

in Hitler's Berlin

The author documents efforts of William E.

Dodd, the American ambassador to Hitler's

Germany, to acclimate to life in an increasingly

violent city where he is forced to associate

with the Nazis while his daughter pursues a

relationship with Gestapo chief Rudolf Diels.

* Moore, Wes. The Other Wes Moore

Two kids named Wes Moore were born blocks

apart within a year of each other. Both grew

up fatherless in similar Baltimore

neighborhoods and had difficult childhoods;

both hung out on street corners with their

crews; both ran into trouble with the police.

How, then, did one grow up to be a Rhodes

Scholar, decorated veteran, White House

Fellow, and business leader, while the other

ended up a convicted murderer serving a life

sentence?

Page 14: Adult Reading Suggestions

14

* Norris, Michele. Grace of Silence: A

Memoir

Michele Norris tells the story of her

experiences after setting out to discover what

she calls the "hidden conversation on race"

taking place in the U.S. since the election of

Barack Obama as president. This quest

became intensely personal when she

uncovered facts about her own family's history

of encounters with racism.

* Saberi, Roxana. Between Two Worlds:

My Life and Captivity in Iran

Saberi, a journalist working in Iran, was

dragged from her home, arrested, and charged

with espionage. In this inspirational story, she

writes of her imprisonment, her trial, her

ultimate release, and the faith that helped her

through her captivity.

* Shenk, David. The Genius in all of Us :

Why Everything You've Been Told

about Genetics, Talent, and IQ is

Wrong

The author debunks the long-standing notion

of genetic "giftedness" and presents dazzling

new scientific research showing how greatness

is in the reach of every individual.

Page 15: Adult Reading Suggestions

15

* Simmons, Rachel. The Curse of the Good

Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with

Courage and Confidence

Drawing on exercises Simmons uses in her

work with girls, this book provides a catalog of

practical strategies to foster girls’

assertiveness, resilience, and integrity. At the

core is Simmons’s belief that the most critical

freedom we can win for our daughters is the

liberty to listen to their inner voices and act on

them.

* Watts, Jonathan. When a Billion Chinese

Jump: How China Will Save the World

– or Destroy It

Watts chronicles the environmental impact of

economic growth with a series of gripping

stories from the country on the front line of

global development. He talks to nomads and

philosophers, entrepreneurs and scientists,

rural farmers and urban consumers, examining

how individuals are trying to adapt to one of

the most spectacular bursts of change in

human history. He then poses a question that

will affect all of our lives: Can China find a new

way forward or is this giant nation doomed to

magnify the mistakes that have already taken

humanity to the brink of disaster?

Page 16: Adult Reading Suggestions

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* Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other

Suns: The Epic Story of America’s

Great Migration

In this beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer

Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson

chronicles one of the great untold stories of

American history: the decades-long migration

of black citizens who fled the South for

northern and western cities, in search of a

better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of

almost six million people changed the face of

America.

Page 17: Adult Reading Suggestions

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f Past Years

* Barbery, Muriel. The Elegance of the

Hedgehog

* Blake, Sarah. The Postmistress

* De Bernieres, Louis. Corelli’s Mandolin

* Eliot, George. Middlemarch

* Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

* McClain, Paula. The Paris Wife

* Nemirovsky, Irene. Suite Francaise

* Patchett, Ann. Bel Canto

* Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

* Stockett, Kathryn. The Help

* Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina

* Verghese, Paul. Cutting for Stone

* Wroblewski, David. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Favorites from the Past

Page 18: Adult Reading Suggestions

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Laurel School Book Club Selections

2010—2011

* Brooks, Geraldine. Caleb’s Crossing

* Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games

* Donoghue, Emma. Room: A Novel

* McCann, Colum. Let the Great World Spin

* McClain, Paula. The Paris Wife

* Norris, Michele. The Grace of Silence

* Skloot, Rebecca. Immortal Life of Henrietta

Lacks

* Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina