Good Reads & Views

The Inheritance by Charles Finch
Fiction

Investigator Charles Lennox is surprised to get a plea for help from an old Harrow classmate he hasn’t seen in decades. He’s even more surprised to find that the poor student has turned into one of England’s most illustrious scientists. And that he’s disappeared. He soon tracks down his old friend, but figuring out who is trying to kill him is another story. And as he pursues miscreants through the snow-covered streets of Victorian London—and even through the Houses of Parliament—he begins to uncover a pair of interlocking conspiracies stretching much farther than he had imagined. The latest in a series which started with A Beautiful Blue Death. Good for fans of Anne Perry and Victoria Thompson.

Surviving Survival by Laurence Gonzales
Nonfiction

A survivor is, by definition, one who remains alive or in existence, and for most observers that means "end of story." As Gonzales makes abundantly clear, however, the real struggle to survive is just beginning. This book addresses the enormous and complex journey that survivors of traumatic events face when they begin - as all survivors must - coming to terms with what has happened to them. The world around them is often the same, but they have been forever changed, and the overwhelming challenge that lies before them is how to find a new normal.

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Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance
Nonfiction

J. D. Vance wasn’t trying to write a book explaining the mindset of many people who live in Appalachia -- he was writing a memoir of his own experience moving from a poor childhood in a dysfunctional family to graduating from law school in the Ivy League -- but nevertheless, this story resonates. My husband and I listened to it straight through on a trip to Ohio, and it made us both think about his grandparents from southern Illinois and some of their stories. An eye-opening and compelling story of resilience, recommended on audio.

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The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
YA Fiction

This sobering and gut-wrenching young adult novel deals with difficult issues—racial profiling, police brutality, bigotry, and the Black Lives Matter movement—with unflinching honesty and realism.  Like many sixteen-year-olds, Starr Carter acts one way at home and another at school, but for Starr the struggle to live in two worlds is amplified—she is one of the very few poor African Americans attending her wealthy upper middle class school. Starr maintains a tenuous equilibrium between the two, aided greatly by her strong family, and her good friends at school. That balance is shattered when Starr and her childhood friend Khalil are pulled over by a white police officer, who shoots and kills the unarmed Khalil. The case soon becomes national news, stirring up emotions in Starr’s neighborhood and at school. When protests become violent and some of her white friends express both overt and covert racism, Starr realizes she must either speak up for change, or remain quiet and keep her family safe. Starr’s character is authentic, and her story is told from a true adolescent perspective. Funny, tender, and sad.

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Goodnight June by Sarah Jio
Fiction

June Andersen flies to Seattle from New York City to settle her Aunt Ruby’s estate. She leaves her successful career behind for what she thinks is a short visit but soon discovers that the life she thought she was living wasn’t the life she wanted after all. Shortly after arriving in Seattle she finds old letters in her aunt’s bookstore, Blue Bird Books, that were written between her aunt and her aunt’s friend Margaret Wise Brown. After reading the letters, hidden around the bookstore, she discovers that her aunt may have been helping the famous children’s author come up with the idea for the book Goodnight Moon. Author Sarah Jio writes a gentle heartwarming story that is sure to please book lovers.

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Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger   
Fiction    

It was a hot and muggy summer in 1961. The first year the Minnesota Twins played a baseball game. For 13 year old Frank Drum, a minister's son, and the small town of New Bremen, Minnesota, it was a summer in which a series of tragic deaths haunted the close knit countryside. This story is told 40 years later and reads like a memoir of Frank Drum’s life; a boy who must leave his childhood behind and confront the adult world. The detailed setting and characters make this a book to read for the second time. 

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett 
Fiction

In her latest literary novel, award-winning author Ann Patchett writes a layered, sensitive, character-driven story of a complicated blended family. After Beverly and Bert divorce their spouses, the six children from their first marriages unite against their two sets of parents. Spanning four decades, the novel interweaves the past and present stories of the parents and children, creating and resolving a sense of mystery about the outcome of the characters’ lives. Daughter Franny becomes involved with a famous author who turns her family’s drama into a best-selling novel, which adds an enticing meta-fiction element to this story. A touching, wry, domestic story.  

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The Cheese Trap: How Breaking a Surprising Addiction Will Help You Lose Weight, Gain Energy, and Get Healthy by Neal D. Barnard
Nonfiction

33 pounds of cheese is what the average American consumes each year, though I’m sure some of us consume a lot more. Nothing beats a nice big hunk of oozing brie or a stuffed pizza with extra cheese, mm, mm, good! Unfortunately, this love affair with cheese may be killing us. If you are looking to live healthy and want to eliminate dairy products but have yet to find a way to stand up to the temptations of cheese in its many variations, this book might just be the motivation you need. It makes you think of milk in a way you may have never considered before. Easy to read, with interesting little historical tidbits and recipes to try for your new plant-based, no cheese, healthier you.

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