On Education in America

Education in the United States has captured the American public's interest, as shown by the recent release of the book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. Today on NPR's Diane Rehm Show, the author Diane Ravich shares her thoughts on this timely topic. For a more on education in America, you can also try the book Schoolhouse of Cards or the new critically-acclaimed documentary Waiting for Superman.

New discussion-worthy picks for book clubs

Are you starting a book club, or just interested in reading some discussion-worthy new books? If so, you may want to check out this list of 5 new books assembled by NPR. These picks will really inspire thought-provoking discussions (or maybe even some heated debate) within your circle.

Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey

A tale loosely inspired by the life of Alexis de Tocqueville is set in the early 19th century and follows an unlikely friendship between a French Revolution survivor and an itinerant English engraver's son.

Wench: A Novel by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Slave mistresses Lizzie, Reenie and Sweet travel to a resort in Ohio each year with their white masters, until Mawu shows up and encourages the three others to escape, forcing them to choose between freedom and leaving their friends and families--and the emotional and psychological ties that bind them to their masters.

Faithful Place by Tara French

Detective Frank Mackey finds himself straight back in the dark tangle of relationships he left behind twenty-two years ago when the suitcase belonging to his first love, Rosie Daly, shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place. The hotly anticipated third novel of the Dublin murder squad.

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

An "imperfect" crew of reporters and editors working for an international English language newspaper in Rome stumble toward an uncertain future as the era of print news gives way to the Internet age.

Sunset Park by Paul Auster

A group of troubled individuals is brought together by an enigmatic man in the wake of the 2008 economic collapse, including a fugitive who photographs the abandoned objects of evicted families, a celebrated actress preparing for a Broadway return, and a publisher struggling to save his marriage.

An Ocean of Stories

This morning, NPR reviewed the newly-published biography telling the story of an usually capricious, sometimes dangerous, but always beautiful entity: the Atlantic Ocean. In his new book Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories, bestselling author Simon Winchester blends history and anecdote, geography and reminiscence, and science and exposition to relate the saga of the Atlantic Ocean. Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Library's copy of this book has just arrived on the shelf in the New Books section: be the first to check it out!

And if this book sparks your interest, you might also want to try the nonfictional work Deep Atlantic: Life, Death, and Exploration in the Abyss, or Buried at Sea, the fast-paced fictional account of a young man whose enigmatic employer leads him into a dangerous chase across the length and breadth of the mighty Atlantic Ocean.