Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: A cozy snowbound mystery in "Superior Dilemma"

With December now upon us, many people in the Tri-Hamlet area are starting to think with dread of snow. For the residents of the fictional Apostle Bay, however, winter is a welcome season that is key to their economy. Every year, the town hosts the Lake Superior Sled Dog Challenge. This year, however, someone is booby-trapping the course, endangering snowmobilers and tourists. Newspaperman Vince Marshall is torn between his desire to get to the bottom of this mystery and his need to provide emotional support for his wife, a high school teacher who is having health problems. Readers of cozy mysteries will enjoy this story, which is the third in a trilogy (preceded by Superior Death and Superior Deception).

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

A cozy snowbound mystery in "Superior Dilemma"

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