Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: canada

Showing posts with label canada. Show all posts

Brutally Honest Memoir: Drunk Mom by Jowita Bydlowska

A bestseller in its native Canada, Drunk Mom is a gripping, brutally honest memoir of motherhood in the shadow of alcoholism. (Publisher's Summary)

Jowita Bydlowska thought she had her drinking under control, but one drink after three years of sobriety sent her spiraling downward into full blown alcoholism. Drunk Mom is Jowita's personal account of how her addiction to alcohol took control of her life, from drinking binges and their subsequent blackouts to the extreme measures she took to hide her drinking to her ultimate fight towards recovery, which included a stint in rehab that did not work because as Bydlowska's writes, "she was not desperate enough to want sobriety." With the help of Alcoholics Anonymous she was able to stop drinking, but fully admits, that addiction is forever.

July Book Discussion

Interested in how the CIA and Hollywood pulled off the most audacious rescue in history?

July's book discussion at the Community Library will feature the book Argo, a dramatic account of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis and how six of the intended American hostages escaped from Iranian militants and were rescued by CIA operative, Antonio Mendez, and his team during a high-risk mission in Tehran conducted in the guise of a movie scouting expedition.

Register for the book discussion being held on July 15th, from 2:00 PM-4:00 PM, by clicking here!

A boy hides out in 'Canada'

In the new novel Canada by Pulitzer-Prize-winning Richard Ford, fifteen-year-old Dell Parsons seeks refuge in the Canadian prairie province of Saskatchewan after his parents are arrested for their impulsive and ill-fated decision to rob a Montana bank. Dell is taken in by Arthur Remlinger who, unbeknownst to Dell, is hiding a dark and violent nature. Fans of historical fiction with strong character development will enjoy this atmospheric tale set in 1956 Canada. Looking for other novels set in post-WWII prairie towns? You may also like A Life of Bright Ideas, set in 1970s Wisconsin.

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