Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Reading with a Southern Accent

One of the best things about reading is the ability to visit anywhere in the world without leaving your home. Take a reading trip to the American South with books from the Reading with a Southern Accent booklist, assembled by librarian Carolyn P. Selected titles include Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, about a newly-orphaned twelve-year-old girl who is whisked away to live with her great-aunt in Savannah, and Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks, in which a newcomer to a small North Carolina town gradually overcomes her troubled past. These and other books from this list are on display downstairs in the Fiction section, across from the Readers' Advisory desk. Check one out!

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

Reading with a Southern Accent

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