Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: george packer

The National Book Award winners were announced on Wednesday and the winners are.....

Fiction:

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride:

Fleeing her violent master at the side of legendary abolitionist John Brown at the height of the slavery debate in mid-19th-century Kansas Territory, Henry pretends to be a girl to hide his identity throughout the historic raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859.

Non-Fiction:

The Unwinding : An Inner History of the New America by George Packer:

Paints a picture of the last 30 years of life in America by following several citizens, including the son of tobacco farmers in the rural south, a Washington insider who denies his idealism for riches and Silicon Valley billionaire.

A riveting examination of a nation in crisis, from one of the finest political journalists of our generation - a National Book Award Finalist.

Packer, staff writer for the New Yorker, examines the last 30 years of life in America by following several citizens, from a factory worker to an Internet billionaire. In addition, throughout the books are profiles of Newt Gingrich, Colin Powell, Raymond Carver, Sam Walton, Jay-Z, as well as alarming headlines, news bites, song lyrics, and slogans that capture the unsettling feeling that the nation and its people are adrift.

"Packer offers an illuminating, in-depth, sometimes frightening view of the complexities of decline and the enduring hope for recovery." - Booklist Reviews

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

National Book Award 2013 Winners Announced

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America