November 2024: "Nightbitch" by Rachel Yoder

Kevira picked "Nightbitch" by Rachel Yoder for our November 2024 book. Rachel is married to her second cousin.

ABOUT THE BOOK

In this blazingly smart and voracious debut novel, an artist turned stay-at-home mom becomes convinced she's turning into a dog. • "A must-read for anyone who can’t get enough of the ever-blurring line between the psychological and supernatural that Yellowjackets exemplifies." —Vulture

One day, the mother was a mother, but then one night, she was quite suddenly something else...

An ambitious mother puts her art career on hold to stay at home with her newborn son, but the experience does not match her imagination. Two years later, she steps into the bathroom for a break from her toddler's demands, only to discover a dense patch of hair on the back of her neck. In the mirror, her canines suddenly look sharper than she remembers. Her husband, who travels for work five days a week, casually dismisses her fears from faraway hotel rooms.

As the mother's symptoms intensify, and her temptation to give in to her new dog impulses peak, she struggles to keep her alter-canine-identity secret. Seeking a cure at the library, she discovers the mysterious academic tome which becomes her bible, A Field Guide to Magical Women: A Mythical Ethnography, and meets a group of mommies involved in a multilevel-marketing scheme who may also be more than what they seem.

An outrageously original novel of ideas about art, power, and womanhood wrapped in a satirical fairy tale, Nightbitch will make you want to howl in laughter and recognition. And you should. You should howl as much as you want. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rachel Yoder is the author of Nightbitch, named a best book of the year by Esquire and Vulture, finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award and VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, shortlisted for the McKitterick Prize, and an Indie Next pick. A film adaptation produced by Annapurna, directed by Marielle Heller, and starring Amy Adams will be released in 2024. Nightbitch has been translated into 13 languages.

Rachel is a graduate of the Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program and also holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Arizona. She is a founding editor of draft: the journal of process. Rachel grew up in a Mennonite community in the Appalachian foothills of eastern Ohio and now lives in Iowa City.

 

October 2024: The Fairy Tale Life of Dorothy Gale

 Susan has picked "The Fairy Tale Life of Dorothy Gale" by Virginia Kantra for our October book.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A woman learns to follow her own road in this heartwarming novel inspired by The Wizard of Oz by New York Times bestselling author Virginia Kantra.
 
Dorothy “Dee” Gale is searching for a place to belong. After their globe-trotting mother’s death, Dee and her sister Toni settled with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em in Kansas, where Dee attends graduate school. But when Dee’s relationship with a faculty member, a bestselling novelist, ends in heartbreak and humiliation, she’s caught in a tornado of negative publicity. Unable to face her colleagues—or her former lover—Dee applies to the writing program at Trinity College Dublin.
 
Dee’s journey to Ireland leads her to new companions: seemingly brainless Sam Clery—who dropped out of college and now runs a newsagent’s shop—is charming and hot, in a dissolute, Irish poet kind of way; allegedly heartless Tim Woodman—who stiffly refused to take back his ex-fiancée—seems stuck in his past; and fiercely loyal Reeti Kaur, who longs for the courage to tell her parents she wants to teach underprivileged girls rather than work in the family business.
 
In a year of opportunities and changes, love and loss, Dee is mentored by powerful women in the writing program, challenging her to see herself and her work with new eyes. With her friends, Dee finds the confidence to confront her biggest fears—including her intimidating graduate advisor, who may not be so wicked after all.
 
Faced with a choice with far-reaching consequences, Dee must apply the lessons she’s learned along the way about making a family, finding a home...and recognizing the power that’s been inside her all along.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

New York Times bestselling author Virginia Kantra is the author of more than twenty novels. Her stories have earned numerous awards including two Romance Writers of America's RITA (R) Awards, ten RITA nominations, and two National Readers' Choice Awards. Carolina Dreaming, the fifth book in her Dare Island series, won the 2017 RITA (R) Award for Best Contemporary Romance - Midlength and was named one of BookPage's Top Ten Romance Novels of 2016.

Virginia is married to her college sweetheart, a coffee shop owner who keeps her well supplied with caffeine and material. They make their home in North Carolina, where they raised three (mostly adult) children. She is a firm believer in the strength of family, the importance of storytelling, and the power of love.

Her favorite thing to make for dinner? Reservations.

Praise for Virginia Kantra:

"Simply put, the Dare Island series is wonderful!" - Kirkus Reviews

"Excellent and emotional." - Publishers Weekly

"Virginia Kantra is back where we want her, writing fantastic contemporary romance." -Rendezvous

"I'm a long time Virginia Kantra fan girl because every time I read one of her books, she reminds me why I read romance." -JoAnn Ross, New York Times bestselling author

"Kantra has to be the only romance author I've read whose characters are as rich as those of Nora Roberts." -The Romance Reader

For excerpts and more, visit her at http://virginiakantra.com.

And on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/VirginiaKantraBooks

September 2024: Boys in the Boat

Julie has selected a perfectly timed book for our September read: Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. She advises requesting it early.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The #1 New York Times–bestselling story about the American Olympic rowing triumph in Nazi Germany—from the author of Facing the Mountain.

For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.

It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.

 

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daniel James Brown grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended Diablo Valley College, the University of California at Berkeley, and UCLA. He taught writing at San Jose State University and Stanford before becoming a technical writer and editor. He now writes narrative nonfiction books full time. His primary interest as a writer is in bringing compelling historical events to life vividly and accurately.

He and his wife live in the country outside of Seattle, Washington, with an assortment of cats, dogs, chickens, and honeybees. When he isn't writing, he is likely to be birding, gardening, fly fishing, reading American history, or chasing bears away from the beehives.

July 2024: "Untamed Shore" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

 Andrea selected "Untamed Shore" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia for our July book.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A coming-of-age story set in Mexico quickly turns dark when a young woman meets three enigmatic tourists.

Baja California, 1979. Viridiana spends her days watching the dead sharks piled beside the seashore, as the fishermen pull their nets. There is nothing else to do, nothing else to watch, under the harsh sun. She’s bored. Terribly bored. Yet her head is filled with dreams of Hollywood films, of romance, of a future beyond the drab town where her only option is to marry and have children.

Three wealthy American tourists arrive for the summer, and Viridiana is magnetized. She immediately becomes entwined in the glamorous foreigners’ lives. They offer excitement, and perhaps an escape from the promise of a humdrum future.

When one of them dies, Viridiana lies to protect her friends. Soon enough, someone’s asking questions, and Viridiana has some of her own about the identity of her new acquaintances. Sharks may be dangerous, but there are worse predators nearby, ready to devour a naïve young woman who is quickly being tangled in a web of deceit.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of the most exciting voices in fiction, and with her first crime novel, UNTAMED SHORE, she crafts a blazing novel of suspense with an eerie seaside setting and a literary edge that proves her a master of the genre.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of Silver Nitrate, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Mexican Gothic, and many other books. She has won the Locus, British Fantasy and World Fantasy awards.

June 2024: The Heat will Kill You First by Jeff Goodell

 Cass has picked "The Heat will Kill you First" by Jeff Goodell for us to read in June. She said, "Lots of great YouTube and media coverage of the author and the book of you need a rabbit hole...."

ABOUT THE BOOK

Most Anticipated by The Washington Post New York Times bestselling journalist's "masterful, bracing" (David Wallace-Wells) investigation exposes "through stellar reporting, artful storytelling and fascinating scientific explanations" (Naomi Klein) an explosive new understanding of heat and the impact that rising temperatures will have on our lives and on our planet. "Entertaining and thoroughly researched," (Al Gore), it will completely change the way you see the world, and despite its urgent themes, is injected with "eternal optimism" (Michael Mann) on how to combat one of the most important issues of our time.

“When heat comes, it’s invisible. It doesn’t bend tree branches or blow hair across your face to let you know it’s arrived…. The sun feels like the barrel of a gun pointed at you.” 

The world is waking up to a new reality: wildfires are now seasonal in California, the Northeast is getting less and less snow each winter, and the ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctica are melting fast. Heat is the first order threat that drives all other impacts of the climate crisis. And as the temperature rises, it is revealing fault lines in our governments, our politics, our economy, and our values. The basic science is not complicated: Stop burning fossil fuels tomorrow, and the global temperature will stop rising tomorrow. Stop burning fossil fuels in 50 years, and the temperature will keep rising for 50 years, making parts of our planet virtually uninhabitable. It’s up to us. The hotter it gets, the deeper and wider our fault lines will open.   

The Heat Will Kill You First is about the extreme ways in which our planet is already changing. It is about why spring is coming a few weeks earlier and fall is coming a few weeks later and the impact that will have on everything from our food supply to disease outbreaks. It is about what will happen to our lives and our communities when typical summer days in Chicago or Boston go from 90° F to 110°F. A heatwave, Goodell explains, is a predatory event—one that culls out the most vulnerable people.  But that is changing. As heatwaves become more intense and more common, they will become more democratic.  

As an award-winning journalist who has been at the forefront of environmental journalism for decades, Goodell’s new book may be his most provocative yet, explaining how extreme heat will dramatically change the world as we know it.  Masterfully reported, mixing the latest scientific insight with on-the-ground storytelling, Jeff Goodell tackles the big questions and uncovers how extreme heat is a force beyond anything we have reckoned with before.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Goodell’s most recent book, The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World, was a New York Times Critics Top Book of 2017. He is the author of five previous books, including Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future, and a Contributing Editor at Rolling Stone, where he has covered climate change for more than a decade. As a commentator on energy and climate issues, he has appeared on NPR, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News and The Oprah Winfrey Show. He is a Senior Fellow at Atlantic Council and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow.

April 2024: NEW BOOK - 'The Buried Giant' by Kazuo Ishiguro

Amy has picked a new book for April, "The Buried Giant" by Kazuo Ishiguro. People were still waiting for the library copies of her first pick. She said, "I'm choosing this book because its a reference text for a more academic,  theological book that I want to read called Forgiveness: An Alternative Account by Matthew Ichihashi Potts. In his book,  Potts uses 4 novels as a framework for thinking about forgiveness.  This is one of them.  I haven't read Potts book yet because I want to read the framework novels first.  Potts is the co-host of the podcast,  Harry Potter and the Sacred Text,  which I listen to religiously! Crossing my fingers that it's a good book! "

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Buried Giant is a fantasy novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British writer Kazuo Ishiguro, published in March 2015.

An extraordinary new novel from the author of Never Let Me Go and the Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day.

"You've long set your heart against it, Axl, I know. But it's time now to think on it anew. There's a journey we must go on, and no more delay..."

The Buried Giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen in years.

Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel in nearly a decade is about lost memories, love, revenge, and war.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Life

Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan. When he was five, the family moved to Guildford in Surrey, England, where his father, an oceanographer, had been invited to work at a research institute. In his youth Kazuo Ishiguro first wanted to become a musician, but he studied English and philosophy at the University of Kent and then creative writing at the University of East Anglia, where he earned a master’s degree in 1980. Since then he has worked as a writer. Kazuo Ishiguro is married and has a daughter.

Work

Memory, time and lifelong deception are central themes in Kazuo Ishiguro’s works. Growing up in a Japanese family in Great Britain has colored his thinking and perspectives. His first two novels are set in Japan. His most celebrated work, The Remains of the Day, published in 1989, is about an English butler and his feelings for a housekeeper at the time around World War II. In later works Ishiguro approached genres such as fantasy and science fiction. His language is characterized by restraint, even when dramatic events are portrayed.

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2017/ishiguro/facts/

March: Enchantments of the Mississippi by Thomas Becknell

 I'm picking "Enchantments of the Mississippi River" by Thomas Becknell for my March pick. I've been wanting to sit by the river and read it - and spring seems like a great time to do that. There are copies at the library. The author is a former professor of mine at Bethel and led by England Term semester my last year of college.

ABOUT THE BOOK

In a time of desolation, Thomas Becknell is drawn to the Mississippi River, then caught by its powers of enchantment. He sets out to learn about the river’s great allure, to be near it and to ponder what it might show him. 
          Enchantments of the Mississippi takes you on a contemplative journey of time and place. It does not follow a linear path from source to sea. Rather, its chapters are shaped by topography and memory. Its sequence is the mystery of the river’s unfolding. It tells a story of falling in love with the currents of time, the beauty of life, and the consolation of spirit. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas Becknell grew up on the plains and prairies of Wyoming and Nebraska. He received his PhD from the University of Iowa and taught literature and writing in Saint Paul, Minnesota, for thirty-five years. His early love of stories, creeks, and streams led to a later fascination with the Mississippi River, and to the writing of this book.

https://www.thomasbecknell.com/the-memior

Here's a link to the story the Messenger ran on the book: https://www.longfellownokomismessenger.com/stories/enchanted-by-the-mississippi,22121?

February 2024: 'Endgame: The Calling' by James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton

 Kass's first book pick will be: I am opting for James Frey's "Endgame: The Calling" for February. I've always wanted to talk with someone else who has read this book/this trilogy and NOW I CAN! There aren't many hard copies at the Hennepin libraries, but there are 13 ebooks.

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

The New York Times bestseller and international multimedia phenomenon!

In each generation, for thousands of years, twelve Players have been ready. But they never thought Endgame would happen. Until now.

Omaha, Nebraska. Sarah Alopay stands at her graduation ceremony—class valedictorian, star athlete, a full life on the horizon. But when a meteor strikes the school, she survives. Because she is the Cahokian Player. Endgame has begun.

Juliaca, Peru. At the same moment, thousands of miles away, another meteor strikes. But Jago Tlaloc is safe. He has a secret, and his secret makes him brave. Strong. Certain. He is the Olmec Player. He's ready. Ready for Endgame.

Across the globe, twelve meteors slam into Earth. Cities burn. But Sarah and Jago and the ten others Players know the truth. The meteors carry a message. The Players have been summoned to The Calling. And now they must fight one another in order to survive. All but one will fail. But that one will save the world. This is Endgame.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Nils Johnson-Shelton is the coauthor of the international bestseller No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels. He is also the author of the Full Fathom Five series for tweens Otherworld Chronicles.

James Frey is originally from Cleveland, Ohio. His books A Million Little Pieces, My Friend Leonard, Bright Shiny Morning and The Final Testament of the Holy Bible have all been bestsellers around the world. He is married and lives in New York.

January 2024: 'When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals' by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

 Kevira has picked 'When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals' by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson as our first book of 2024.

ABOUT THE BOOK

This national bestseller exploring the complex emotional lives of animals was hailed as "a masterpiece" by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas and as "marvelous" by Jane Goodall.

The popularity of When Elephants Weep has swept the nation, as author Jeffrey Masson appeared on Dateline NBC, Good Morning America, and was profiled in People for his ground-breaking and fascinating study. Not since Darwin's The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals has a book so thoroughly and effectively explored the full range of emotions that exist throughout the animal kingdom.

From dancing squirrels to bashful gorillas to spiteful killer whales, Masson and coauthor Susan McCarthy bring forth fascinating anecdotes and illuminating insights that offer powerful proof of the existence of animal emotion. Chapters on love, joy, anger, fear, shame, compassion, and loneliness are framed by a provocative re-evaluation of how we treat animals, from hunting and eating them to scientific experimentation. Forming a complete and compelling picture of the inner lives of animals, When Elephants Weep assures that we will never look at animals in the same way again.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Masson has had at least four lives: first as a boy raised to become a "spiritual leader" (see his denunciation of such a life in My Father's Guru). While in the middle of his disillusion, he became a professor of Sanskrit at the University of Toronto. At the same time he trained to become a Freudian analyst. Upon graduation he became Projects Director of the Freud Archives, and was scheduled to move into Freud's house in London when fate intervened: Masson found documents which seemed to show that Freud was right in believing that many women had been sexually abused as children, and that he was wrong to give up this belief, perhaps impelled by societal displeasure at his discoveries. Saying this publicly turned Masson into a psychoanalytic pariah, and he gave up both his professorship and his analytic career to delve into the far more fascinating world of animal emotions. Two of his books, WHEN ELEPHANTS WEEP and DOGS NEVER LIE ABOUT LOVE, were New York Times best-sellers. He became vegetarian as a result of his research, and later, when he looked into the feelings of farm animals, he became even stricter, and no longer eats or uses any animal product (vegan). Harpercollins published his book: THE DOG WHO COULDN'T STOP LOVING: HOW DOGS HAVE CAPTURED OUR HEARTS FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS. He subsequently published a book about becoming vegan: THE FACE ON YOUR PLATE: THE TRUTH ABOUT FOOD. His book BEASTS: WHAT ANIMALS CAN TEACH US ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF GOOD AND EVIL is about the us/them divide. He lived on a beach in New Zealand with his two sons, Ilan and Manu, and his German wife, Leila, a pediatrician who works with children on the autistic spectrum (using the bio-medical approach), Benjy, a golden lab, and three cats for 14 years. They moved to Europe (Malaga and Berlin) and are now living in Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. They often travel to the States to see their grandchild, and Europe to see Leila's family. Jeff has just signed a contract with St. Martin's to write about the death of dogs (and other animals we consider family).