| The September Staff Picks can also be viewed or printed as a PDF Staff Picks September 2014 (950KB) |
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SEPTEMBER FEATURE
 Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year by Tavis Smiley. A meticulous chronicle of the final year of Martin Luther
King's life, whose philosophy of nonviolence was being
challenged by proponents of a more aggressive approach to
social change. Smiley shines a potent light into one of the darkest periods
in American history. ~ Alden GravesSmiley portrays King's struggles with growing criticism from friends, politicians and the more militant group of civil rights activists were profound and weighed heavy on his mind but he never gave up or compromised. Written with deeply rooted compassion, love and respect. ~ Liz Barnum |
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NEW HARDCOVER
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OLD FAVORITE
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 Liar, Temptress,
Soldier, Spy: Four
Women Undercover
in the Civil War by Karen Abbott. An important
side of history we
hardly learn about
brought to life.
Abbott's accounts of four courageous
spies, soldiers and couriers read like
novels and remind us that women,
while scarcely accounted for, played
a significant role in our nation's history.
~ Jess Hanlon |
 The Third Plate:
Field Notes on the
Future of Food by Dan Barber.
Simply, we have lost
the taste for good food
because taste has been
"engineered out" of
soil and sea. Barbour
proposes an ecocentric model. I love this
refreshing, often humorous book for its
eloquence and texture; you retain the
information, good stories and recipes.
~ Maeve Noonan |
 Let's Talk about
Love: Why Other
People Have Such
Bad Taste by Carl
Wilson (pb).
Does hearing "My
Heart Will Go On"
make you wish
you'd gone down
with the Titanic?
Wilson's dissection of Celine Dion's
late 90s schmaltz-a-thon asks why
we love what we love and hate what
we hate. A sometimes hilarious,
sometimes heartbreaking look into
how our tastes define who we are.
~ Charles Bottomley |
 Take This Man by Brando Skyhorse. A beautifully
written memoir,
though you could call
it a survivor's story,
that is often funny,
sweet and sorrowful
but always heart-felt
(reminiscent of The
Glass Castle). Skyhorse's voice is fragile
and soft in the beginning, growing
strong with painful and tender but
clear-eyed honesty. ~ Maeve Noonan |
 Factory Man: How
One Furniture
Maker Battled Offshoring,
Stayed Local
– and Helped Save
an American Town by Beth Macy.
A compelling, well
researched story of
John Bassett III, a third generation
furniture maker, whose love of his
country, business and the people who
worked for him and made him rich
sustained him in his fight to keep his
factories humming on American soil.
~ Liz Barnum |
FAVORITE THINGS
 Leopard Birch
Mug.
These beautiful
mugs are handmade
by a southern Vermont artist.
Insides glazed in a leopard print, outsides
look like white birch trees – they
will bring the feel of nature into your
morning routine. And wait till you see
the other items in her collection! They
are all worth a visit. ~ Monique Proulx |
 How We Learn:
The Surprising
Truth about When,
Where, and Why
It Happens by
Benedict Carey.
Carey's breezy prose
is engaging and conclusions
are indeed
surprising and fascinating. This well
researched book essentially belies all
that we thought we knew about how we
learn and shows how we can apply these
concepts to enhance our everyday lives.
~ Erik Barnum |
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NEW HARDCOVER
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 The Children Act by Ian McEwan. Fiona Maye,
a judge in London's
Family Court, must
rule on a case where
a teenage boy, raised
by devout Jehovah's
Witness parents,
refuses medical treatment, while she
deals with her own marital strife. An
engrossing book about moral integrity,
faith and justice. ~ Louise Jones |
 Station Eleven by Emily St. John
Mandel. Set
before and after a
pandemic. A child
actress witnesses the
onstage death of an
actor. Fast-forward
15 years after the
pandemic and she's part of a traveling
Shakespeare troupe performing
for survivors. A beautifully written
tale. ~ Sarah Knight |
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 Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of
Pilgrimage: A novel by Haruki Murakami. Murakami has an unimaginable gift
for turning the written word into feelings
of melancholic nostalgia and this is the best
thing he's written in years. Every word is
perfectly crafted; Philip Gabriel's translation
is beautiful. There are great authors, and
then there is Haruki Murakami. ~ Chris Linendoll |
 The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton.
An outstanding debut novel set in 17thcentury
Amsterdam. When Nella marries
into a wealthy, dysfunctional family, her
wedding gift from her husband is a miniature
model of their household - people, pets and
all. A riveting read full of secrets, taboos
and intrigue. ~ Becky Doherty |
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 The Narrow Road to the Deep North by
Richard Flanagan. This harrowing
story of POWs working on Japan's notorious
Burma Death Road railway is an epic made
up of a thousand intimate moments. At the
depth of history's darkest episode, Flanagan
has found a fascinating, complex hero. One
of the most powerful novels I've read this
year. Breathtaking. ~ Charles Bottomley |
 Lisette's List by Susan Vreeland. Vreeland
again delights with a warm, emotional novel
full of color and appreciation for life, set
in Provence during WWII. Lisette and her
husband must care for his aged grandfather
who acquired the work of Cezanne, Pissarro
and even Picasso before they became famous.
~ Karen Frank |
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 We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas. The full impact of this remarkable
story of Eileen's family that runs from 1940s
Queens to the present doesn't hit until
the last few pages. The elusive American
Dream is partially realized along with all
the twists and turns of choices and events
not taken. ~ Karen Frank |
 The Home Place by Carrie La Seur.
Alma Terrebonne returns home to Montana
after her sister's mysterious death, only to
be pulled back into a family replete with
secrets and divided loyalties, while she
draws strength from the natural world and a
generational sense of survival. ~ Amy Palmer |
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 The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell.
A quintessential Mitchell novel, following
Holly Sykes's life from age 15 into her 60s.
A brilliant metaphysical epic tale, which
engages the reader from the first page to
the end. If you liked Cloud Atlas you will
love Mitchell's latest. Highly recommended.
~ Sarah Knight |
 Flings: Stories by Justin Taylor. "I
think it's the fault of movies that we imagine
ourselves as the stars..." A wonderful look at
the messy lives of adults sliding from their
mid-20s into their 30s and beyond. Friends
become strangers, love gets complicated
and wild nights have increasingly bad
consequences. ~ Chris Linendoll |
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 Half a King by Joe Abercrombie.
This first book in a new series is a tightly
woven saga that has everything we love
about Abercrombie's books: betrayal, good,
evil, adventure and, best of all, revenge.
~ Sarah Donner |
 Fives and Twenty-Fives by Michael Pitre. This extraordinary first novel shows
how fiction can reveal reality as authentically
as any non-fiction. A Marine lieutenant, a
medic and their Iraqi interpreter recall the
terror and chaos of their lives during the
war, and their confusion and uncertainty
afterwards. An amazing achievement.
~ Stan Hynds |
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 I Am China by Xiaolu
Guo. An ingenious exploration
of modern China through the translated
love letters of an exiled political dissident
and the woman he loves. Guo creates a
literary landscape where love and language
are inextricably bound to one another
over decades of upheaval and change.
~ Cheryl Cornwell |
 10:04: A Novel by Ben Lerner. By
the second page I knew I was going to love
this book. By the third page I was certain I
would never forget it. A subtly woven tale
of time, storytelling and the personae we
create in life and on the page. Beautiful and
brilliant. ~ Charles Bottomley |
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NEW PAPERBACK
 Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut.
After a silence of 14 years, E.M. Forster
published A Passage to India - a novel
unlike anything he had written before and
an abiding masterpiece. This fascinating
novel is the story of how it came to be,
an elegant, sensitive tale of sublimated
passion and the liberating strangeness of
new frontiers. ~ Charles Bottomley |
 For book group schedules, check our website: www.northshire.com/event-list. To join Saratoga Springs groups contact Jess at JHanlon@northshire.com To join Manchester groups contact Erik at EBarnum@northshire.com |
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