Book Sketches

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Tue, 03/17/2020 - 12:43pm -- JGranatino

Lydia Perez and her young son, Luca, are at a family cookout when gunfire erupts. Her husband is a reporter targeted for his work exposing members of a powerful Mexican cartel and while she and Luca hide in the shower, all other family members are murdered. After the massacre, Lydia realizes she is not safe and the two head “norte”, hoping to hide and start a new life in the United States.

The Clutter Remedy: a guide to getting organized for those who love their stuff

Thu, 02/27/2020 - 9:47am -- JGranatino

Marie Kondo’s popular books The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and Spark Joy offer radical remedies to eliminating unnecessary possessions and simplifying our living spaces. Marla Stone takes a more measured approach. She suggests our inner states are reflected in our surroundings and emphasizes greater introspection to discover why our homes seem cluttered and disorganized.

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

Mon, 12/30/2019 - 4:44pm -- JGranatino

In a dazzling debut, Frances Cha introduces us to five twenty-something Korean women who, each battling their own challenges (reaching for unattainable beauty standards, dealing with the expectations of men, carving out careers and paths in life) learn that they are stronger together when facing the glittering yet cutthroat world of modern Seoul. 

Ara is a mute hair stylist obsessed with a K-pop boy-band member.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Wed, 12/11/2019 - 10:30am -- JGranatino

This book begins with a magazine writer named Monique who is handed the story of a lifetime. She is asked to interview the extremely private and infamous aging Hollywood movie star Evelyn Hugo regarding her decision to sell off many of her dresses for charity. Evelyn asks for Monique specifically, much to the chagrin of every other columnist in New York.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Mon, 11/04/2019 - 1:47pm -- JGranatino

In a stunning debut, Alix Harrow takes you on a journey through books within books, worlds within worlds, and mysteries within mysteries. Your heroine is January Scaller, the seventeen year old ward of Mr. Locke, a member of the exclusive New England Archaeological Society, who employs January’s father to acquire objects of interest around the world.

Welcoming the Unwelcome: wholehearted living in a brokenhearted world by Pema Chodron

Thu, 10/31/2019 - 10:08am -- JGranatino

In her latest book, Pema Chodron, an American Buddhist nun and pupil of the late Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche, offers strategies for facing unanticipated and disconcerting events of life with equanimity, compassion, and wisdom. Chodron is best known for her simple and no-nonsense approach, offering a living spirituality for encountering the everyday challenges of life.

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Mon, 10/28/2019 - 2:54pm -- JGranatino

In this novel, Moyes delivers a fictionalized version of a little known initiative in American history: the WPA’s Pack Horse Library Project. From 1934-1943, “book ladies” traveled on horseback and mules, promoting literacy by teaching reading and lending books, magazines, and scrapbooks to residents of the remote and almost inaccessible regions of Kentucky’s coal country.

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

Tue, 10/15/2019 - 2:10pm -- JGranatino

Fans of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments may enjoy this dark tale of an unnamed dystopian island where familiar natural and man-made objects randomly disappear – and subsequently also disappear from the collective memory. Those who retain memories of disappeared items are in grave danger, potentially attracting the attention of frightening authoritarian enforcers called the Memory Police, and so many of them go into hiding.

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