Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Big Titles This Month

Find some hot reads for the end of summer with these big August new releases.

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride is a novel about a boy named Henry who was born a slave in Kansas in 1857. When abolitionist John Brown comes to town and gets in a violent fight with Henry's master, Henry flees with him. Brown, however, believes Henry is a girl since he has disguised himself.

After Her by Joyce Maynard is the story of two sisters whose father is a well known detective who loves women. When he fails to find out who is committing a string of murders, his daughter tries to lure the killer to herself in order to help her father.

The Glass Ocean by Lori Baker is a debut novel that takes place in Victorian England. This is a story of love and art, narrated by a woman about her parents.

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

Big Titles This Month

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