Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: snowed in

Check out the December book display downstairs in the Fiction section at your Community Library! Featured books fit a "snowed in" theme, and are perfect for curling up with on a long winter's night. Titles on display include a range of snowbound stories, from classics like Call of the Wild, in which a dog explores Alaska's Klondike gold fields, to Kiss of Snow, a sizzling paranormal romance between a mortal woman and a member of the SnowDancer werewolf pack. For a wintery mystery, try Snow Angels, in which a racially charged murder around Christmas in Finland takes a toll on Inspector Vaara's marriage. Although the weather in the Shirley area has been surprisingly mild so far, these snowy reads will have you reaching for the hot chocolate.

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

Snowed in with a good book