Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: high school students

In Bellweather Rhapsody, the 1997 Statewide Music Festival (being held at the Bellweather Hotel in New York's Catskill Mountains) goes awry when Jill, a star flutist, goes missing from a hotel room that was the site of a murder-suicide that took place 15 years earlier. Jill's disappearance causes a bridesmaid, Minnie Graves, who witnessed the first crime and happens to be at the hotel on the murder-suicide's 15th anniversary, to relive her trauma while a snowstorm traps everyone on the hotel grounds.

"Part ghost story, part mystery, part coming-of-age tale, and part love sonnet to music, Racculia's second novel (after This Must Be the Place) is dark and delightful, with memorable characters inspired by both literature and pop culture. It will grab readers and keep them with multilayered plotting and writing that ranges from humorous to poetic." (Library Journal 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

Classic Literature

New Horror Tale: Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia