Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence

The American Library Association (ALA) has announced the six books shortlisted for the prestigious Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. For a book to be considered, it must be an adult fiction or non-fiction book, written in the previous year and published in the United States. The winners will be announced in June at the ALA annual conference in Las Vegas. Click here for more information on this award. All six of the shortlisted books are available at the Community Library - congrats to all the finalists!

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction Shortlist

Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: "to the women in the hair-braiding salon, Ifemelu seems to have everything a Nigerian immigrant in America could desire, but the culture shock, hardships, and racism she’s endured have left her feeling like she has “cement in her soul.” Americanah is a courageous novel of independence, integrity, community, and love." - Booklist Reviews

Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat: "in interlocking stories moving back and forth in time, Danticat weaves a beautifully rendered portrait of longing in the small fishing town of Ville Rose in Haiti. Their stories and their lives flow beautifully one into another, all rendered in the luminous prose for which Danticat is known." - Booklist Reviews

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: "in the wake of his nefarious father's abandonment, Theo, a smart, 13-year-old Manhattanite, is extremely close to his vivacious mother—until an act of terrorism catapults him into a dizzying world bereft of gravity, certainty, or love. Tartt writes from Theo's point of view with fierce exactitude and magnetic emotion." - Booklist Reviews

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Shortlist

The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin

On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand Year History by Nicholas A. Basbanes: "combining crisp technical explanations with vivid historical and contemporary profiles, Basbanes unfolds the two-thousand-year story of paper, revealing in the process that paper is nothing less than an embodiment of humanity." - Booklist Reviews

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink: "as the floodwaters rose after Hurricane Katrina, patients, staff, and families who sheltered in New Orleans’ Memorial Hospital faced a crisis far worse than the storm itself. Fink’s breathtaking account of the storm and what happened at Memorial offers a fascinating look at how people behave in times of crisis." - Booklist Reviews

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin: "this masterful study examines the complex relationship between two presidents, Roosevelt and Taft, who played major roles in the Progressive movement of the early twentieth century. Acclaimed historian Goodwin offers a superb re-creation of a period when many politicians, journalists, and citizens of differing political affiliations viewed government as a force for public good." - Booklist Reviews

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

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence - Finalists Announced

No comments:

Post a Comment