Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Book to movie alert : Revisit the 2008 election with 'Game Change'

In a presidential election year, politics is on everyone's minds. John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime is a nonfictional work published in 2010 that examines the 2008 presidential election. Capitalizing on 2012's election season energy, HBO is has turned this book into a movie premiering on March 10, with a recently released trailer available here. Read the book first - like many other great titles, it's available at to cardholders at Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library.

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

Book to movie alert : Revisit the 2008 election with 'Game Change'

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