12.31.2016

When Breath Becomes Air

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi Published by Random House on Jan. 12, 2016 Genre(s): Nonfiction, Memoir, Medical Format: Audiobook Pages: 230 Goodreads synopsis:  For readers of Atul Gawande, Andrew Solomon, and Anne Lamott, a profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir by a young neurosurgeon faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis who attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living? At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor making a living treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. Just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes...

12.19.2016

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander Published by Arthur A. Levine Books Genre(s): Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction Format: Paperback Pages: 59 Goodreads synopsis:  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Newt Scamander's classic compendium of magical creatures, has delighted generations of wizarding readers. With this beautiful, large-scale new edition illustrated in full color, Muggles too will have the chance to discover where the Runespoor lives, what the Puffskein eats, and why shiny objects should always be kept away from the Niffler. Proceeds from the sale of this book will go to Comic Relief and J.K. Rowling's international charity, Lumos, which will do magic beyond the powers of any wizard. If you feel that this is insufficient...

The Year of Magical Thinking

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion Published by Vintage on Sep. 1, 2015 Genre(s): Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography Format: Paperback/Audiobook Pages: 227 Goodreads synopsis:  From one of America's iconic writers, this is a portrait of a marriage and a life - in good times and bad - that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child. This is a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill. At first they thought it was flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later - the night before New Year's Eve - the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner...

7.19.2016

Me Before You

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes Published by Viking on Dec. 31, 2012 Genre(s): Romance, Fiction, Adult Format: Paperback/Audiobook Pages: 369 Goodreads synopsis:  Louisa Clark is an ordinary young woman living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has never been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair-bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is. Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans...

7.08.2016

American Babe

American Babe: A White Girl Problems Book by Babe Walker Published by Gallery Books on Jun. 28, 2016 Genre(s): Humor, Fiction Format: Paperback Pages: 288 Goodreads synopsis:  Author of the New York Times bestseller White Girl Problems and Psychos, Babe Walker, faces her most daunting challenge yet—suburbia—in the third caustically witty White Girl Problems book. Babe Walker thought she had done it all. After all, she’s survived the highly exclusive social hierarchies of Bel Air, traipsed around Europe in true white-girl fashion, and left her mark on several of the best rehab facilities in the United States. But now Babe is about to enter a terrifying new world: Middle America. After a freak accident that was definitely not Babe’s...

6.20.2016

Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple Published by Little Brown in Aug. 14, 2012 Genre(s): Fiction, Humor, Contemporary, Mystery Format: Hardcover Pages: 330 Goodreads synopsis:  Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom. Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle—and people in general—has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip...

1.23.2016

The Last Anniversary

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty Published by Harper Paperbacks in Jan. 1, 2006 Genre(s): Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary Format: Hardcover Pages: 388 Goodreads synopsis:  Sophie moves onto the island and begins a new life as part of an unconventional family where it seems everyone has a secret. Grace, a beautiful young mother, is feverishly planning a shocking escape from her perfect life. Margie, a frumpy housewife, has made a pact with a stranger, while dreamy Aunt Rose wonders if maybe it's about time she started making her own decisions. As Sophie's life becomes increasingly complicated, she discovers that sometimes you have to stop waiting around -- and come up with your own fairy-tale ending. As she so adroitly did in her smashing debut novel,...

1.16.2016

Between the World and Me

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates Published by Spiegel & Grau in Jun. 2015 Genre(s): Nonfiction, Race, Memoir, Social Issues, Social Justice, Format: Kindle Pages: 152 Goodreads In a series of essays, written as a letter to his son, Coates confronts the notion of race in America and how it has shaped American history, many times at the cost of black bodies and lives. Thoughtfully exploring personal and historical events, from his time at Howard University to the Civil War, the author poignantly asks and attempts to answer difficult questions that plague modern society. In this short memoir, the "Atlantic" writer explains that the tragic examples of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and those killed in South Carolina are the results of a systematically...

1.08.2016

Room by Emma Donoghue

Room by Emma Donoghue Published by Little, Brown and Company on Sep. 13, 2010 Genre(s): Fiction, Contemporary, Adult, Drama, Crime Format: Kindle Pages: 321 Goodreads To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a...
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