Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Cold Reads for Hot Summer Days

When the weather gets too hot, be transported to cooler climates with these cool reads!

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey: A childless couple working on a farm in the brutal landscape of 1920s Alaska find a little girl living in the woods, with a red fox as a companion, and take the strange, almost supernatural child in as their own.

Let the Right One In by John Lindqvist: In the aftermath of a bizarre murder of a 12 year old boy in a cold dark Swedish town, Oskar theorizes the killing was a revenge and wonders about the nighttime activities of the mysterious girl next door.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin: Follows the adventures of a human ambassador sent to the planet Winter on a mission to make peace between warring factions by finds himself being challenged by the strange citizens he meets and his own prejudices.

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

Cold Reads for Hot Summer Days

No comments:

Post a Comment