Oprah Announces New Book Club Selection

Oprah has announced her fourth selection for her book club - Ruby by Cynthia Bond!

The epic, unforgettable story of a man determined to protect the woman he loves from the town desperate to destroy her—this beautiful and devastating debut heralds the arrival of a major new voice in fiction.

Ephram Jennings has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby, “the kind of pretty it hurt to look at,” has suffered beyond imagining, so as soon as she can, she flees suffocating Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York. (Publisher Summary)

Ruby received a starred review from Booklist Reviews: "in her first novel, Bond immerses readers in a fully realized world, one scarred by virulent racism and perverted rituals but also redeemed by love. Graphic in its descriptions of sexual violence and suffering, this powerful, explosive novel is, at times, difficult to read, presenting a stark, unflinching portrait of dark deeds and dark psyches.

Click here to learn more about Oprah's Book Club 2.0!

Isabel Allende Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom

Chilean born author Isabel Allende is one of 19 people named by President Barack Obama to receive the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is presented to "individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors" as stated in the White House Press Release (read full article here.)

This year's recipients will be celebrated at the White House today, November 24th. (To read more about the award and this year's recipients, click here)

Read more about Isabel Allende in her autobiographies:

My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile (2003): The author explores the landscapes and people of her native country; recounts the 1973 assassination of her uncle, which caused her to go into exile; and shares her experiences as an immigrant in post-September 11 America.

The Sum of Our Days (2008): A narrative memoir of the author's life in the wake of her daughter's tragic death describes the idiosyncratic network of friends she has gathered around herself and the realizations she has formed about such topics as love, parenthood, and addiction.

Novels by Ms. Allende available at the library include:

Daughter of Fortune (Fiction, 1999): Raised in the British colony of Valparaiso, Chile, after being abandoned as a baby, a pregnant Eliza follows her lover to California at the height of the Gold Rush and finds adventure and adversity on her road to independence and love. (An Oprah's Book Club Selection.)

Portrait in Sepia (Historical Fiction, 2001): Lacking all memory of the first five years of her life because of a brutal trauma, Aurora del Valle is raised by her regal grandmother Paulina and eventually seeks to confront the mystery of her past.

Zorro (Historical Fiction, 2005): Diego de la Vega, the son of an aristocratic Spanish landowner and a Shoshone mother, returns to California from school in Spain to reclaim the hacienda on which he was raised and to seek justice for the weak and helpless.

Island Beneath the Sea (Historical Fiction, 2010): In a novel where the setting moves from the sugar plantations of Saint-Domingue to the lavish parlors of New Orleans at the turn of the 19th century, an African slave and concubine is determined to claim her own destiny against impossible odds.

Maya's Notebook (Coming-of-age Fiction, 2013): Maya, a teenage girl neglected by her parents, falls into a life of drugs and crime, and must escape before it's too late.

Ripper (Mystery, 2014): A fast-paced mystery involving a brilliant teenage sleuth who must unmask a serial killer in San Francisco through Ripper, the online mystery game she plays with her beloved grandfather and friends around the world.

June's Book Discussion Announced

House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus is the June Book Discussion selection!

Is the American dream open to everyone? Massoud Amir Behrani, a former colonel in the Iranian military under the Shah, yearns to find his place in America. He buys a house at an auction – a house that he discovers comes with a recovering alcoholic and addict who says the house is hers. Who will win the battle?

All are welcome to attend the book discussion on Tuesday, June 17 at 2pm. To register click here (or click on the the book discussion box at the top of this blog.)

Copies of House of Sand and Fog are available at the Circulation Desk. Stop by today to pick one up.