Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: National Book Award Winners

Congratulations to Louise Erdich and Katherine Boo, winners of The National Book Award. Erdich was awarded the prize for fiction for her novel, The Round House, a coming of age story about an Indian teen who wants to avenge a savage attack on his mother on a North Dakota reservation. Boo was awarded the prize for nonfiction for Behind the Beautiful Forevers, which chronicles three years in the life of a family in a Mumbai slum. Both books are available at your Community Library. See why these great books were awarded the nation's top book award!

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

National Book Award Winners

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