Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Shake, Rattle & Read: 1950s in Fiction

It's that time of year again; sign up for the Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library's adult winter reading club! For each book you read & review, you get a chance to win one of 8 different prize baskets, including a crockpot, yoga supplies, chocolate, tea, and a bingo set. Not sure what to read? Try "shake, rattle, and read"-ing one of these new books set in and inspired by the 1950s:

Agaat by Marlene Van Niekerk

Life for white farmers in 1950s South Africa was full of promise — young and newly married, Milla raised a son and created her own farm out of a swathe of Cape mountainside. Forty years later her family has fallen apart, the country she knew is on the brink of huge change.

Elegy for April by Benjamin Black

Junior doctor April Latimer is something of a scandal in the conservative and highly patriarchal society of 1950s Dublin. When she disappears, her friend Phoebe suspects the worst and resolves to investigate.

Do you have a favorite book set in or inspired by the 1950s? Share your suggestion by commenting!

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

2 comments:

AnonymousJanuary 20, 2011 at 12:25 PM
"On the Road" by Jack Kerouac.
AnonymousJanuary 24, 2011 at 8:24 PM
"The Best of Everything" by Rona Jaffe. It was written in the 50s, but the characters and their problems seem surprisingly modern and relatable. Change a few of the period details and one could almost believe it's a contemporary tale.