Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: under heaven

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Explore the Orient

A few of you in the library's Summer Reading Club have taken this year's theme of "Novel Destinations" to heart! Take a book suggestion from a fellow community member, and explore the Orient with Yip's Silk Road or Rowland's Perfumed Sleeve and Assassin's Touch. A few other suggestions include How to be an American Housewife, about an American GI who brings home a Japanese bride, or the award-nominated Under Heaven, set in a fantastical world inspired by ancient China.

Locus Award Finalists

The finalists for the 2010 Locus Awards in Fantasy and Science Fiction have been announced (and are available in their entirety here). Winners in each category will be announced at the end of June 2011; while the judges are making up their minds, why not check one out? The nominees from the two main categories are listed below:

Fantasy

Science Fiction

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