Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: schadenfreude

If the Great Recession has you down, try one of these ten books (featured in this article from Flavorwire) and laugh at someone else's economic distress. In Model Home, enjoy the delicious irony of an upper-class investor whose bad move in the real estate market forces him out of his elite gated community and into one of the substandard homes he himself once developed. In The Craiglist Murders, an interior designer takes the Robin Hood concept to the next level & seeks brutal revenge on rich Manhattanites. In both Union Atlantic and This is Where We Live, the characters deal with loss of income and potential home foreclosure. This One Is Mine tells the story of the discontented wife of a rock star, while Insignificant Others (available via interloan from other Suffolk County libraries) is the story of a 50-something gay software engineer's depressing project to create a list of his disappointments. In The Hole We're In, a working-class church-going Texas family struggles to keep it together as the bills mount; by contrast, The Recessionistas (described by some as Gossip Girl for adults) tells the story of a family at the opposite end of the wealth spectrum who is also adversely affected by the Great Recession. The Privileges tells the story of a wealthy couple of newlyweds who are keen to climb the social ladder. And Fight Club, while written in the 1990s, may resonate with readers who are now working longer hours with less pay.

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

Pessimists' Reading List

Top Ten Schadenfreude Picks