Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Best of the Best: Nonfiction

As promised, below are Publishers Weekly's top picks for non-fiction in 2014! For more information or to place a hold, click on the book cover.

Burning Down the House by Nell Bernstein

Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Charles M. Blow

Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story by Rick Bragg

Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard by John Branch

The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation by David Brion Davis

John Wayne: the Life and Legend by Scott Eyman

The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas by Anand Giridharadas

On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City by Alice Goffman

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs

Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble by Marilyn Johnson

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

Tennessee Williams: A Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr

Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee

Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page McBee

Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local-and Helped Save an American Town by Beth Macy

The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg

Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Regan by Rick Perlstein

Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty

The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker

Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights by Katha Pollitt

Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart

Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War by Helen Thorpe

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

Best of the Best: Nonfiction

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