Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: christopher marlowe

Shadow of Night, the highly anticipated sequel to Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches, has hit the shelf! The book makes reference to many interesting historical figures involved in the shadowy School of Night including Christopher Marlowe, George Chapman, and Sir Walter Raleigh. If you are hooked on Harkness, you may want to check out these titles:

The Complete Plays by Christopher Marlowe includes both versions of Doctor Faustus, the play Marlowe struggles with during his time with Matthew and Diana.
Chapman's Homer: The Iliad by Homer is the verse translation that made George Chapman famous.
A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke by James Horn will interest readers who were fascinated by the brief references to Sir Walter Raleigh's lost colony.

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

Shadow of Night Reading Companions