Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Librarian's Picks

Check out our Librarian's Picks display for October! This month's selection includes the following titles, plus many others:

Mrs. Lincoln's Rival by Jennifer Chiaverini

Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini: (Bildungsromans)
Traces the unlikely friendship of a wealthy Afghan youth and a servant's son, in a tale that spans the final days of Afghanistan's monarchy through the atrocities of the present day. (Publisher Summary)

The Tooth of Time by Sue Henry: (Mystery Fiction; a Maxie and Stretch Mystery)

Heading for New Mexico in her mini-Winnebago, Maxie McNabb and her dog, Stretch, find their cross-country odyssey interrupted by the attempted suicide of a local woman despondent over the infidelity of her middle-aged husband. (Publisher Summary)

Mrs. Lincoln's Rival by Jennifer Chiaverini: (Historical Fiction)

A follow-up to Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker traces the rivalry between the daughter of an antebellum presidential cabinet member and the 16th President's wife, the former of whom becomes the bride of governor William Sprague and one of the most highly regarded women of her day. (Publisher Summary)

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

Librarian's Picks

No comments:

Post a Comment