Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: single mothers

From the beloved author of Me Before You and The Girl You Left Behind, comes One Plus One, an endearing love story about two opposites - Jess, a single mom trying to juggle her bullied son and her mathlete daughter and Ed Nicholls, a geeky techology millionaire, whose happens to be one of Jess' cleaning clients. When Jess' daughter enrolls in a math competition with the hope of winning, so she can use the prize money to enroll in a prestigious school, cash-strapped Jess must accept Ed's offer to drive them to the Math Olympiad in his car.

"Moyes (The Girl You Left Behind) has a remarkable gift for creating balanced, deep characters who struggle to find their own way. With humor, and insight, and an amazing ability to see how personal hitting rock bottom can become, she has written an emotional, rich, and satisfying novel. Highly recommended." (Library Journal Reviews)

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For readers who enjoy thrilling suspense mixed with a touch of fantasy and a no-nonsense heroine, The Diviner's Tale is a solid choice. Single mother Cassandra Brooks discovers a hanged body, but by the time the authorities arrive it has disappeared, forcing Cassandra to reopen a closed chapter of her painful past. Bookpage recently did an interview with author Bradford Morrow; find out about

his proudest moment as a writer, the book he's most embarassed not to have read, and the literary character he'd most want to be stranded on an island with. If you enjoyed The Diviner's Tale, you might also want to look at one of Morrow's earlier books, Ariel's Crossing, about another single mom-to-be who seeks out her birth father in the wilds of New Mexico.

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

New Jojo Moyes Releases Tomorrow!

New Book: Diviner's Tale by Bradford Morrow