"SUSAN, LINDA, NINA & COKIE" by Lisa Napoli
The four women who came to be trail-blazers for a new way of getting the news, through National Public Radio (NPR), are the heroines of this book. The names of Susan Stamberg, Linda Wertheimer, Nina Totenberg and Cokie Roberts will be familiar to any of you who have tuned in to NPR over the last half-century. If you'd like to know more about each of these women, and the news world that they were instrumental in changing, this book is for you.
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"HIS ONLY WIFE" by Peace Adzo Medie
This delightful Cinderella-theme novel centers on the conflict between modern-day life in two differing cultures in Ghana, Africa. It involves the marriage between a rich man from the city to a beautiful, but poor, girl from a small town. In addition to the culture shock of moving to the city, our heroine also discovers that her husband already has another wife. How she copes, and blossoms, in this environment will keep you reading until the end - or is it just another phase of her life with more to come?
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"THE MOMENT OF TENDERNESS" by Madeleine L'Engle
This is a collection of stories, most of them previously unpublished, by the well-known author Madeleine L'Engle. Most were written early in her life, in the 1940's and 50's, before she became well-known with her novel "A Wrinkle in Time." You will see her blossom as a writer, first with semi-autobiographical pieces of summer camp and other adolescent activities, later with more sophisticated subjects. This is not a book to read in one sitting, but to enjoy one or two stories at a time.
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"INHERITANCE" by Dani Shapiro
What if you suddenly discovered that the father you had loved for years was not your real father? Thanks to our 21st century ability to easily trace life histories through Ancestry.com, this happened to our author. Her book begins with the shocking news, then follows with her attempts to learn more and, eventually, come to terms with secrets put in motion a half-century ago. My feeling, in reading, is that Shapiro has over-dramatized her story. But then, might I have done the same if it had happened to me?
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"THE FOUR WINDS" by Kristin Hannah
Our author, already well-respected for her recent "The Nightingale" and "The Great Alone" plus host of other novels, takes us to the Dust Bowl of the 1930's and makes her characters live. It's not a light and lovely story - it will break your heart - but Hannah has a way of bringing her characters to life and making you care. Don't let the size of the book deter you - it's 450 large pages - because the story she weaves will keep you turning the pages until the very end.
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"VOX" by Christina Dalcher
A science fiction, murder mystery, action thriller all tied together in an engrossing tale of government-gone-wrong. A decree from the U.S. government goes out, titled the Pure Movement, stating that women are allotted only 100 words to speak per day. Then other freedoms for females begin to disappear. Our heroine, top scientist Dr. Jean McClellan, is determined to fight back and what a fight it is! If you like your books to be all sweetness and light, this one is not for you.
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"THE STILLS" by Jess Montgomery
This is Montgomery's third novel in her Kinship series, featuring tales of the history of southern Ohio. In this book, Sheriff Lily Ross takes on the problem of moonshining during the days of Prohibition. Although the plot is fictional, there is enough true history to give us Ohioans reason to feel a real part of an earlier era. So enjoy a good read, with a well-crafted plot, while experiencing some Ohio history. (Bluffton book lovers enjoyed a chat over [Zoom] with the author just a couple of months ago).
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"THIS MOMENT IS YOUR LIFE" by Miriam Gates
Subtitle: A Fun and Easy Guide to Mindfulness, Meditation, and Yoga.
Although this book is focused toward today's tweens and teens, the basic lessons learned are good for any age (I wish there would have been a book like this way back when I was a teen!). Illustrated with contemporary drawings, spiced up with cartoons and illustrations of teens in action, the book is visually interesting and full of all sorts of ideas on how to have a more flexible body, a clearer mind, and a better life.
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MEMORIAL DRIVE" by Natasha Trethewey
Our author, already acclaimed as a U.S. Poet Laureate amid other honorifics, opts for narrative as she opens her heart in this personal memoir of her mother, who was killed by her stepfather when Natasha was in her late teens. Now, more than thirty years later, Trethewey looks back to the trauma as she continues to try to come to terms with how it affected her life, both then and today. She tells her story with a masterful array of words and images that makes this book unforgettable.
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"BLOOD RUNS COAL" by Mark A. Bradley
Subtitle: "The Yablonski murders and the battle for the United Mine Workers of America."
In straightforward terms, this book offers us a chronicle of the murders plus all the arrests and trials that followed - all the way to the miner's top dog, Tony Boyle. You can even find a bit of humor in the grisly details, since the hit-men were bumblers from the start - more like the comical Three Stooges. But there are also 56 pages of footnotes at the end, so you know that a heap of research has gone into this book. It's part of our US history, not to be ignored.
(Now, as a footnote: This is American history from 50 years ago - a time still in the memories of many of us here in the town of Bluffton. Although the coal mining areas of southwestern Pennsylvania aren't that far away, news from that area would have meant little to many Blufftonites at the time. And even though the repercussions may have changed things for some, our little farming community here had other things to think about. But the world changed then, and it's changing now. Perhaps it would be good for us to pay a little more attention.)
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"TEARS WE CANNOT STOP" by Michael Eric Dyson
A professor at Georgetown University, the author of 19 books, and an ordained minister, Michael Eric Dyson speaks out boldly to White America about the racial division that continues to engulf our country. Using personal examples, he divides his writings into sections named for the parts of a church service, i.e., Call to Worship, Scripture Reading, Sermon, Offering, Closing Prayer. The book is a plea for recognition of our past and present injustices, and the call to work toward redemption.
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"THE TRUTHS WE HOLD" by Kamala Harris
I read this book three years ago, when it first came out and Harris was serving as a Senator from California. And now I read it again, when she is our Vice President. Although she narrates her interesting life story, growing up as the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, much of her book contains a deeper message. We learn about her love for this nation, her passions for fairness and justice (especially for the voiceless), and her desire to work toward a better future for us all.
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"COLLECTED NONFICTION, VOLUME 2" by Mark Twain
This volume contains four of Twain's travel writings - "The Innocents Abroad," "Roughing It," "A Tramp Abroad," and "Life on the Mississippi." This is a thick volume and I read only the first of the works. Although Twain's travel - nearly 150 years ago - was by steamship and carriage, he saw the same sights we travel to see today. Notre Dame, the Louvre, Versailles, the Vatican, Coliseum, and much more. And I must say that Mark Twain has a charming way of bringing out smiles and chuckles. So enjoy!
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