Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: song of achilles

Showing posts with label song of achilles. Show all posts

Debut novel wins prestigious Orange Prize

The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller's debut novel, has won the prestigious Orange Prize. (For a list of all this year's nominees, click here). The book retells the legend of Achilles, following Patroclus and Achilles, the golden son of King Peleus, as they lay siege to Troy after Helen of Sparta is kidnapped. This cause tests their friendship and forces them to make the ultimate sacrifice. Interested? Check it out from Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library!

Just announced: 2012 Orange Prize shortlist

The Orange Prize, an annual UK award honoring English-language fiction by female authors, has just announced this year's list of finalists. Three American authors have made the cut: Madeline Miller for The Song of Achilles (a debut novel!), Cynthia Ozick for Foreign Bodies, and Ann Patchett for State of Wonder. The other three finalists are Esi Edugyan's Half Blood Blues, Anne Enright's The Forgotten Waltz, and Georgina Harding's Painter of Silence, which is not yet available in the United States. Check these books out from Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library, and decide for yourself which of the finalists deserves to be the winner!

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